10 Great Characters Ruined By Terrible Sequels

Comedy franchises often run into trouble when the characters they rely on mining laughs out of need to up their own inherent absurdity every time they appear in a new outing. Even characters whose surroundings are as surreal as they are struggle with this—look at the less loved later outings of Ron Burgundy, Derek Zoolander, and Austin Powers for proof of silly comedy’s strict adherence with the law of diminishing returns.

For Todd Philip’s blockbuster franchise The Hangover, meanwhile, the trouble runs even deeper, as the comedy comes from the larger-than-life Alan inhabiting a relatively realistic world wherein his antics are met with confusion and shock.

Whilst the first film was able to deploy Alan for huge laughs throughout its slender runtime, the sequel struggled to make it believable that the Wolf Pack would ever reunite with him for another crazy adventure. The third instalment in the franchise, however, saw the film’s writer derail the character himself, with Alan becoming a psychotically troubled figure who thinks nothing of accidentally decapitating a giraffe and causing a freeway pile up.

Bigger action rarely equates to bigger laughs when it comes to comedy, and the threequel failed Alan for much the same reason it failed to impress fans and critics—the absurdity was too incredulous and the stakes seemed non-existent as a result.