Ranking the characters on Brooklyn 99

I haven't watched anything but Brooklyn 99 in about a week now. I feel like I could be missing out on something great out there but what can i say? I find this to be the perfect show. It's funny in a way that other shows can't touch, it's got no laugh track, and it does that fun thing where it goes back and forth in time with quick flashbacks. Also, the fact that each episode is only 22 minutes long means that you don't have to invest much time into watching an episode even though normally, I end up watching 2 or 3 in a row every time I sit down.

I'm going to rank the main characters by order of how much I like them and how funny I find them to be. For the sake of keeping this list reasonably short I am only going to focus on who I consider the true "main characters" to be in Jake Peralta, Amy Santiago, Rosa Diaz, Charles Doyle, Gina Linetti, and Captain Raymond Holt. Sorry Hitchcock and Scully but you are not really main characters and almost none of the storylines focus solely on you and therefore you are not main characters in my mind.

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I'm ranking this by least favorite to favorite and it was tough to do this because I really do feel that every character is absolutely amazing and many of the characters' likeability is actually dependent upon another, less-funny character.

So here we go

Amy Santiago

I find Amy to be the least funny out of all the main characters.

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While I do like Amy a great deal it is very rare that her character is actually what is funny but rather the way that the other characters poke fun at her serious ways is what is funny. She is necessary though because her straight-laced hall-monitor personality is the reason why other characters on the show are able to shine in their silliness and how they don't take their jobs nearly as seriously as Santiago.

Charles Boyle

This is where the list got difficult for me because I love Charles and think he is brilliantly played by Joe Lo Truglio

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Charles' character is completely obsessed with Jake and therefore a lot of his comedy is totally dependent on their interactions. I do not dislike Charles at all and he is the source of a lot of laughs. However, he provides the "cringe" that is necessary for the show and that is one of my least favorite types of humor. Therefore he ends up near the bottom of the list. It's still a list of some of the best characters to ever be in a sitcom though.

Terry Jeffords

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Terry Jeffords is a very necessary aspect of the 99. He is huge, he is a family man, and he is always conflicted about whether or not he wants to be the serious sergeant or if he wants to participate in the antics of the more light-hearted members of the squad. His extreme strength and constant need for yogurt are recurring jokes and I appreciate him a lot. There are some times that the angle they were using with him doesn't really entertain me though and that is why he is mid-level IMO.

Gina Linetti

The only non cop on the list, Linetti only made it this low on the list because the ones above her are simply better and more crucial to the humor of the show.

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Gina cares less about her job because she isn't actually a cop. Her nonchalant attitude towards her duties are part of what makes her funny and her lack of desire to move up the corporate ladder means that she doesn't kiss anyone's ass at all ever. She stands up to everyone and will make fun of everyone. This makes her quips something to remember, for sure, but she just can't crack the top 3 because the top 3 are so amazing.

Jake Peralta

What? Jake isn't number 1? Well I am sure he is on a lot of people's lists but not on mine. He is quite obviously the main character of the entire show if there was going to be one and since Andy Samberg is a producer this is likely why it stayed that way.

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Jake is a man child just like the person who plays him is. Andy Samberg is one of my favorite comedians of all time but I think the reason why he is 3rd on my list is because of the fact that they focus on his character so heavily, not in spite of it. While most of what Jake does is hilarious I find his character arc of "screwing something up, having an epiphany, then fixing it" is a plot element that they overuse with him. I mean, this happens in at least half of the episodes so it gets kind of old.

Rosa Diaz

I love Rosa nearly as much as Doug Judy does and there is a special reason why that is the case.

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Rosa represses all emotion and is easily annoyed by all of her coworkers, especially Charles who she bullies constantly. She is rather emotionless and when they try to prepare her for normal human interaction by teaching how to do normal things like smile, this is guaranteed laughs. She hates children, puppies, and everything else that most people just enjoy by default. She is quick to anger and has to be constantly controlled by her peers. This combination of repressing of all emotion is what makes her character so great, and why she ended up getting silver on my list. The best is next though!

Captain Raymond Holt

The funniest person on the entire show in my mind is the boss and he is masterfully played by an unlikely person to end up on this show at all in Andre Braugher. Andre is a man that previous to 99 played primarily serious drama roles and he is very good at it. If you need proof of this go back and look at his performance in a movie named Glory from the 90's.

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Holt is for the most part a no nonsense dude as well who doesn't use emotions in the same capacity that normal person would. He is very robotic in his mannerisms as well as they way that he talks. He is the polar opposite of Jake, Charles, and Gina and they bounce things off of one another in a way that can only be funny if one of them doesn't get it. Holt is extremely refined and appreciates things in life like plain toast and classical music. The others in the 99 are not like this.

He is a bit of an outsider in the gang but as their leader he is looked up to as a mentor by most and even as somewhat of a father figure by Jake. Of all the lines that I feel like I should pause and write it down that happen in the show, most of them come from Holt.

His ongoing feud with "Wunch" is one of the funniest aspects of the entire show and they bring her back into the mix just frequently enough that it doesn't get stale. He also lets loose every now and then (or tries) and it is hilarious to see him try to blend in with his underlings who while they do admire him, don't really understand how someone can be that boring and unaware of and uncaring about pop culture.

So that's my list of worst to best or I suppose I should say "great to greatest" of the characters on Brooklyn 99. If you have never seen this show I actually envy you because you have 9 seasons of excellence ahead of you. I'm currently rewatching all of the episodes and am in season 3 at the moment. Even though I have seen all of them before and some of them many times, it doesn't stop being funny to me.

Do you agree with my list? Do you have your own order to put them in? If so, I'd love to hear about it in the comments!