7. Gus Gorman (Superman III)
Another comic relief character - and a highly out of place one at that - is Superman 3's Gus Gorman. Played by the late comedian Richard Pryor, Gorman was a computer hacker who was down on his luck, until he became employed by the movie's lame Lex Luthor analogue villain, Ross Webster. Gorman was unimpressed with his first paycheck, prompting him to use his skills to hack the company accounts to make himself very rich - in turn prompting the owner to offer him a choice; go to jail or help him illegally take over the world's economy, starting with the world's coffee industry (which was a stupid plot for a Superman plot in itself, incidentally). His inclusion was almost an insult to what had been, up until this movie, a good, solid film franchise. It took it in a completely new direction - one which caused a decline and one that it would never recover from. His constant jesting trashed everything that Superman was about for the sake of cheap laughs and both he and the film were widely criticised as a result. A very, very annoying and highly out of place character.