One of the things that struck me watching "Chuckles" is that many of the characters on the surface seem quite dumb. But they're each dumb in a very specific way. Ted is a narcissistic blowhard. He doesn't read cues
or say the right thing because the only thing he's really aware of is
himself. Sometimes that presents as mean; sometimes--as when he's delivering the on-air eulogy, it's just plain clueless.
Sue Ann skews pretty close to that, but there's a meaner edge. She's clueless because she just doesn't care about you, and wants you to know it. (Again, the similarities between her and many of Jane Krakowski's characters is really striking.)
Meanwhile Georgette has not a mean or selfish bone in her. She just has no sense of a broader social context in anything she says. Mary asks, what brings her here? And her response is "Ted. He's parking the car." Buh-dump-bump!
Her cluelessness reads as ditzy dumb, but actually she's quite brilliant in her own way. In "Chuckles" she's given what are the great lines of the whole piece: "It's so sad. Funerals always come too late." It's like a Yogi Berra line, right? But when she's asked to explain, her comments about death and life are quite poignant.
It's a great writing insight there--lots of sitcoms have multiple characters that seem off, dumb or foolish. Joey and Phoebe. Daryl and his other brother Daryl and his other brother Daryl. Kramer and George. But you want them each to be off in their own very specific way. It makes your story richer and gives you more points of view to play with.
