This is Chaos Magic, Wanda
the line read of the century, but applied to a person(fictitious)
She’s throwing punches. Delivering one liners to herself and the shrewd listener. She’s a puzzle, sometimes a problem, never predictable, and rarely does much to further “the plot” in a traditional sense.
She’s Chaos Magic, Wanda! And for the last few years she’s been the je ne sais quoi that elevates a show from a moment in the endless stream to the main event (usually one that leads to my following some version of a @nocontext[insert media title] account on Twitter).
What does it mean that this trope has begun to appear more and more in the media I consume? Most likely, that I am entrenched in a pocket of entertainment from which I have little desire to escape.
Media diet aside, I have a working theory that the chaotic side characters I so adore are a kind of a byproduct of what used to be the gay or Black best friend: that character loaded with just the right phrase to cut dramatic tension or tickets to an incredible plot-pushing event. To be clear, the Black or gay two dimensional best friend is not only tired, but the kind of half-ass representation that modern audiences do not get behind. The chaotic character I’m referring to is different because they often exist for the show’s world more than the arc of our lead.
A workplace comedy built-out with perfect employees is boring, and a friend group without a wildcard isn’t complete. These often wacky characters build out a series’ narrative world, and (in some cases) exhibit growth through relatively minor changes in the reality of our main cast. Instead of existing to push the plot or our protagonists forward, they chill within the chaos…sometimes even creating it themselves.
Unfortunatley this essay has been sitting in my drafts for about two months now and since then I’ve lost potential ownership of the theory. I got scooped :( sad…(is that what scooped means?). I do have a twitter thread about this ‘type’ from last year, but I was the only person who ever interacted with it, which quickly got depressing.
My scooper? Mia Mercado, via The Cut, author of an article identifying the TikTok phenomena “Side-Character Summer.” Under an image of Meg Stalter’s Kayla from the HBO series Hacks, Mercado confesses of herself lately, “I do not long to be the hero, made to save the day and show personal growth.”. She cites the following TikTok as her inspiration (via @lolaokoala).
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“The vibe is ‘beloved side character with great outfits and funny one-liners.”
Side-Character Summer seems a product of two years of internet culture’s obsession with the idea of main-character energy. Guess what? Not everyone was programmed for a seven step twice-daily skin care routine, hot-girl walks, and consistent therapy. Endless personal growth is exhausting and honestly not in the cards for some of us (me) right now.
Enter ~chaos magic~
Mercado goes on to list some of TV’s most lovable C-plot characters with Side-Character energy (read the article, or think of Cousin Greg in Season 1 of Succession-types). Lucky for you, she didn’t even get to the best ones! Her piece focusses more on common side character behavior and how to incorporate it into your life, NOT the beloved characters themselves! So, rather than originating the theory, I shall work to expand Side-Character Theory canon with the best of the best:
While any show can have legendary side characters—think Dennis Duffy (30 Rock), Lucille “Two” Austero (Arrested Development), or Andrew Meyer (Veep)—it takes something special for a side character to become a spectacle of their own. I call it chaos magic; however, in an effort to distill that into something more concrete, I compiled the standouts of the trope, their defining traits, and highlights as an effed up liberal arts version of collecting raw data.
Kayla (Meg Stalter): Hacks
I’ll begin with the assistant that has entertainment media and your great aunt guffawing: Kayla, the girl who says it like it isn’t (a la HBO Max’s Hacks). Celebrated as one of the show’s breakout stars, Meg Stalter plays an incompetent assistant against Paul W. Downs’ Jimmy, Deborah Vance’s ambitious comedy agent. Kayla and Jimmy are both agency-nepotism babies: the former using her position to make “travel money”, while the latter is bent on proving he’s more than a former partner’s son. For two seasons now, Kayla’s charming but markedly crude incompetence has kept her boss (Jimmy) both on his toes and in anger management classes.
Her laughable ignorance towards post-MeToo corporate culture is underscored by any and all attempts to adjust her behavior. Suggest she change, and risk her righteous escalation. She interacts with everyone as a peer, because, by the laws of her world, everyone is.1 It’s almost like her only exposure to a corporate environment was The Office and Kayla fancies herself Jim—the lovable office trickster—to Jimmy’s Pam.
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Where a lesser show might JUST let her be a kooky assistant, in Hacks, every decision Kayla makes is informed by her privilege. Martin Short gets to the heart of it:
Her chaotic element seems like the intersection of arrogance and a desire to prove herself to Jimmy (and only Jimmy, because…like…she doesn’t feel the need to prove herself to anyone else). What we’re left with is a character whose one tether to appropriate/professional behavior is her platonic (sometimes erotic) devotion to her direct boss. Kayla is a wildcard, not so much chaotic as she simply exists in her own reality.2
Best Line Read:
Best Look
Lingerie set. period. Sorry if it’s like not feminist or whatever. Honorable Mention: Any office-look with a side pony/scrunchie combo. F u Carrie Bradshaw there’s a new bad bitch on the the block
Highlight Reel
PS: back in my day there already would have been upwards of 20 YouTube stan compilations…girlies, get 2 work!!
Ruthie (Patti Harrison): Shrill
Our previous chaos queen and Patti Harrison both hail from the alt-comedy/improv world. What’s more? They’re both part of the Las Culturistas Extended Universe. Harrison brings it in every role, but in Shrill she serves unmatched cunt. (pardon my French, prudes) Like Stalter’s Kayla, Harrison’s Ruthie is an assistant, this time to the editor (John Cameron Mitchell as Gabe Parrish) at the paper where Annie (Aidy Bryant) works. Ruthie shares Kayla’s ruthless behavior, crude workplace vernacular, and is related (in a way?) to the boss. However, she doesn’t appear to have been born into money (Ruthie is canonically 24 and a veteran—??) meaning her behavior isn’t so much born of privilege as it is her way of being radically authentic(excuse the cringe) and surviving the world. As Patti Harrison put it in an interview with Vanity Affair after season two premiered, “I think [Ruthie has] kind of got the brain of a wasp. Not like, white Anglo-Saxon. I’m talking about an actual insect, a wasp. I don’t think she thinks too far ahead.”. (Buzz, buzz! -Yellowjackets🐝🐝🐻👻🆘👑)
See?! She’s not radically authentic in a self-actualizing way…she’s just true to the wasp in her head.
Ruthie, who came out as trans in season 2, lives with her Baby Boomer boss and his Millennial husband as their “beautiful teen daughter with huge rockin’ tits”. When a senior coworker questions and begins to pity her chosen-family housing situation, Ruthie shuts down his assumptive pity, reminding him that actually her world—interior and exterior—is not any of his business…and that might just be the crux of her chaos magic: Ruthie as a side character only exists through our viewing experience—for her, watching the world from behind her cluttered desk (cluttered, it should be noted, with other people’s family photos) everybody else is just lucky to experience The Ruthie Show up close and personal. Tagline: She dresses to kill, takes no shit, and knows that anybody who can’t ‘deal’ with her personality, isn’t worth her respect.
The role was created for Patti. However, it isn’t hard to imagine—in another world—a trans assistant character being horrifically underwritten. Instead, the Shrill writers* collaborated with Harrison creating a character so lived in that it feels almost sacrilegious categorizing Ruthie as a side character.
*Shrill writer, Sudi Green (another core member of the Las Culturistas Extended Universe) is a huge comedic and professional inspiration to me. On top of creating/writing/performing some of my favorite bits/sketches/shows, her work is incredibly compassionate. You can see it in Shrill and in the current season of Showtime’s I Love That For You…if you’re interested, WAHAM (Shrill, S2: E6) is a tip top sparkle extravaganza example of her brand of comedy (that I love). I’m exhausted by the (tired) impulse to “go there” and the race to the bottom to be the most controversial. It’s hack, and not the HBO show. Sudi Green is the real queen of comedy and it’s time everyone bent the fucking knee. P.S. I have a sneaking suspicion she is behind a lot of Shrill’s chaos magic.
Best Line Read: “Just know that if you try and replace me as Gabe’s best girl, I’m gunna go to your desk and find something that means a lot to you and I’m gunna bludgeon you to death with it.”
Honorable Mention: 🎼The day I was born my mother felt a pain like the devil was trying to run a train in her genitalia-aina. They tore my mom from end to end to end. I tore my mom from receive to end. 🎼
**points** “K-HOLE.”
Best Look
Highlight Reel
BB (Sophia Rose Wilson): Euphoria
OOhhhhh Vape girl. My biggest delight, my sorriest disappointment. (But Isabel, you tweeted how many scenes she was in after every episode of Euphoria??!! How could she be your sorriest disappointment…especially considering all that self-promo for your **cringes** blog??) Welp. Sophia Rose Wilson DID—in fact—disappoint me more than I disappointed myself for doing self-promo.
Unfortunately, during research for this essay/listicle**ew! who am i?? 2015 buzzfeed?!!** I learned that SRW is supes conservative, V Trumpy, and has used/uses the n-word all over social media. I hope in the time since her posts began resurfacing she took time to consider the implications of past and present conservative legislation on herself and fellow members of the Euphoria cast (I mean! just wait for BB’s best line!…not as funny in a post Roe world, is it?!). This is to say, although I believe the previous actresses and their characters are intimately connected, the following BB analysis is completely divorced of the actress portraying her.
BB. What do we know about her? Hardly anything. She vapes, she’s a major link in the Maddy-Cassie-Kat chain of gossip, and according to her BLR (Best Line Read), was once pregnant. In the dynamic landscape of high school sphere’s of influence, BB, by virtue of her proximity to power (her friends), is fairly privileged. She is important enough to be invited to major friend group events and is part of the outward facing “squad;” however, she is the only friend whose connection to the group does not seem to span beyond the superficial (at least given what we are shown as an audience). That, given the volatile and often public nature of the group’s other drama, might be the gist of her chaos: being around for the tea but not implicated in the mess. Maddy’s fierce loyalty likely means BB’s position in her sphere is guaranteed, but with no personal stakes—no clear goals or ambition—it’s virtually impossible to anticipate what she’ll say next (it is, however, pretty easy to guess that she will be vaping).
With nothing on the line except a good time, BB is the most simple chaos-magic-girlina. I mean…if she takes her own advice, she walks into every room “like [her] pussy costs A MILlion dollars” and simply doesn’t care enough to filter what she says.
Best Line Read: “Remember when I got pregnant?”
Honorable Mention(s): “Wworldstarrr!” **hits vape*
“Beat her fuckin ass Maddi. She fuckin deserves that shit. She fucked your boyfriend!!”
Best Look:
Highlight Reel:
Or, every BB scene from Season 1, if you so please.
Jo (Jessie Ennis): Mythic Quest
If you’re like me, you immediately recognize Jessie Ennis from her brief but memorable role as a scapegoated “Expend-a-Belle” from the Meyer Administration’s East Wing (VEEP S4:E1-3). Foreshadowing her roles to come, Ennis goes rogue while testifying before Congress, exposing the VP’s circle to further investigation and scandal. In Rob McElhenney’s Mythic Quest, she plays an ambitious assistant, set on understanding power and conquering anything in her way.
Ruthless ambition and proximity to power are Jo’s defining traits between seasons one and two. The most concrete proof, in fact, of any character growth is that as she tries to understand the MQ work place dynamic, she climbs the corporate ladder from David to Ian, and ultimately entrenches herself beside the real power broker, Brad (Danny Pudi). Does she learn a lesson or two? Yes. Is that character development? Not really. She mostly learns that she has more to learn before launching her campaign for world domination.
In a sense, Jo’s chaos magic is similar to Kayla’s: they only care about approval from one person (their direct superior) and have such privilege—although Jo’s is artificial rather than born of nepotism and wealth—they cannot perceive why they should have to show respect to anyone else. However, thanks to their specific circumstances, Kayla’s privilege is paired evenly with ignorance while Jo often showcases ambition that rivals even her own ego.
Best Line Read: David: “and Jo, you’re a……”
Jo: “Wholesome, midwestern, conservative.”
Best Look:
Highlight Reel
Gigi (Billie Lourd): Booksmart
Look at you, staring at your screen like a frkn idiot…thinking chaos magic-side characters couldn’t exist on the silver screen. Wrong! You’re dumb and also a prude. Gigi (Booksmart 2019) IS chaos magic and leaves a slimy glittery trail of it wherever she goes.
Gigi is fabulously wealthy. She is set to go to Harvard even though it was her fifth choice (I assume her other four choices were moon, ocean floor, become a cyborg, and muse). She is “in the know” but not constrained by the social dynamics of “the loop”…since she belongs nowhere she belongs everywhere.
Although Gigi has every manor of privilege, we see, in the case of her brother Jared, nurture, a Gigi does not inevitably create. What then, makes Gigi’s chaos so irresistible? BlackGirlNerds calls her an “aura-reading wizard” with a “deeply kind soul”. Booksmart screenwriter, Katie Silberman called her the fictional high school’s “magical party coyote” (via IndieWire). Gigi is undeniably fun; but, is she just a fun-girl? Her essence seems to stem more from a fundamental hunger for life than the often performative fun that shrouds traditional ceremonial high school misbehavior. Where her brother craves inclusion in the show, Gigi wants what lies beyond the curtain.
We get one exceptionally honest Gigi character statement from her dear brother Jared:
No one in this entire school knows me at all, except Gigi…She’s a sad person, you know. And ya, she might be a little nuts but she’s the most loyal person I’ve ever met. I mean, she once tried to shiv our mailman because she thought he laughed at me.
This peek behind the Gigi facade feels unfair as it comes from someone intimately rather than casually associated with her. But, I think it comes down to this: In a world where just about everything is possible (for her), Gigi refuses to miss a thing.
Best Line Read: “I lost my virginity in what I thought was a park, but it turned out to be a graveyard and now the ghost spirits live inside my eggs waiting to be reborn.”
Honorable Mention(s): “Light EM UP, LUANNE!”
Best Look
Tassel sunglasses AND an incredible 👀look👀 ?!?
Highlight Reel
Tati Fuentes (Ana Fabrega): Los Espookys
Los Espookys’ Tati is a treasure, possibly a rip in the space-time continuum, and like me, not cut out for corporate life. If you are unfamiliar with show, and I say this with every atom of my being: Eat. Rocks. What? Little baby can’t read subtitles*sarcastic*?! Grow up, flop.
Los Espookys is a Spanish-English comedy created by Fred Armisen, Julio Torres, and Ana Fabrega (Tati). It follows a group of friends in a fictional Latin American country who turn their passion (spooks, horror, magic, the paranormal) into a business.
Confused? … Sayyyyyy your coastal town thrived on the tourism brought in by a local owl that wears a wig. One day the wig comes off. What are you going to do? Let your precious little town starve to death? No! You call in Los Espookys and ask them to orchestrate monthly ancient sea monster sightings (sea monster puppeted by Tati) to boost tourism. What if you are a priest and a younger/better looking priest joins your parish and everyone starts to like him more? Duh. You call Los Espookys and have them orchestrate a demonic possession (Tati as the victim) so you can exorcise the poor orphan and remind everyone who’s boss.
I cannot suggest this show highly enough—plz watch it—because it is really hard to describe our girl, Tati. Basically she wears capris, a newsboy cap, and a tiny little purse. If that doesn’t paint you a clear picture of her aura, here are some of her other jobs: a fan (she spins a fan, acting as the motor), a second-hand keeper (she turns the second hand on the town square clock), breaks in people’s shoes, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (with the voice of Fred Flintstone), and pyramid scheme enthusiast/victim.
Tati is Amelia Bedelia meets a sea witch meets…the little animal friend they give to all the new Disney princesses (and Buzz Lightyear’s cat?)??…She makes decisions for the short term, is a romantic, and has no internal tethers to reality (her sister works to keep her grounded). However immature or flighty she may seem, it is more than likely, that inside Tati, hide all the secrets of the universe. Think Gigi if she wasn’t born rich…or maybe a low-ranking god of the ancient world—just kinda doing their thing until they inevitably encounter someone else, reacting unbound by general rules of human interaction.
Her friends (mostly her sister) are very clever and tend to bail her out when she gets herself into precarious situations. When left to her own devices, Tati understands how to perform various social roles, but seems so richly concentrated on her interior life that her interpersonal behaviors are always cartoonishly performative…be it jobs, relationships, or even how she dresses.
Best Look: I bet you thought I was going to say the J-Lo dress. I’m not. It’s not her J-KO (Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis) look either. It’s not even her little newsboy cap.
Tati’s best look is luckily paired with her best line read.
Best Line Read: “For most people time goes like this…” **motions in a straight line** “But for me it goes like this…” **motions in a circle** “I experience the past, present, and future at the same time. That’s why I act this way. I have a lot of noise in my head.”
Honorable Mention: “No, no offices please. I’m not made for a nine-to-five.”
Andrés: “Tati, ¿y porqué tienes ese acento?// Tati, why do you have that accent?
Tati: “Pasé dos semanas en Minnesota aprendiendo inglés y regresé así.”// I spent two weeks in Minnesota learning English and I came back like this.
Úrsula: “Tampoco aprendió a hablar inglés.”// She didn’t learn English either.
Highlight Reel
Seriously- the tech savvy girls need to Get. On. It. with. the. FANCAMS!!
The end for now ! More soon
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This is amazing and I love it.