Schitt's Creek: The 5 Most Annoying Things Johnny Ever Did (& 5 Sweetest)
Eugene Levy is one of those people who has really perfected the type of character that he plays. Almost without exception, he plays older men who are awkward and flummoxed by the world in which they live, and Johnny Rose of Schitt’s Creek is that role played to its platonic ideal. Johnny is a genuinely good and likable guy, and he clearly loves his family and, eventually, his protege Stevie.
However, while he does quite a few sweet things during the course of the show, he also does quite a few things that are, to put it bluntly, annoying.
10 Annoying: Assumes Ted’s Mom Is Into Him
For most of the show, it’s pretty clear that Johnny and Moira are inseparable. Despite the fact that they’ve been together for quite a long time, there’s still a lot of physical and emotional passion between the two of them. At one point, however, Johnny does end up assuming that Ted’s mom is into him romantically, when in fact she isn’t. It’s a silly moment, to be sure, and played for laughs, but it’s also rather annoying of Johnny to be so presumptuous.
9 Sweetest: Yearns For Christmas As A Family
Though he loves his family dearly, it’s clear that there have been times when they’ve disappointed him. In one particularly moving episode, for example, he reveals that all he really wanted for the holidays was for his entire family to be together. It’s a remarkably sweet moment, and it goes a great way to reveal the extent to which Johnny, for all of his ambition and his former wealth, really did value his family more than anything else that he had in his life.
8 Annoying: Thinks He’s Smarter Than Everyone
It takes a pretty special person to be able to build a video store into a corporate empire, but that’s exactly what Johnny does. There’s no doubt, then, that he’s a very smart person. Unfortunately, he also has a very bad habit of indulging in a bit of arrogance now and then, and he tends to act as if he’s smarter than everyone else, including his family. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it does make him a bit annoying now and then.
7 Sweetest: Mentors Stevie
As the series goes on, Stevie and Johnny begin to establish a rather extraordinary rapport. Few could have seen this coming at the beginning, but it turns out that they are actually quite alike in some ways, and Johnny does a lot to encourage Stevie. In fact, it’s his mentorship of her that’s one of the most endearing and sweetest things about him, and it’s quite nice to see the ways in which he clearly and genuinely wants her to succeed as one of his business partners.
6 Annoying: Constantly Interfering In His Kid’s Attempts At Anything
Johnny, while a very nice guy, is also sort of a busybody. Time and again, he feels like he absolutely must interfere in what his children are doing, even when it becomes increasingly obvious that they are more than capable of leading their own lives and doing things on their terms.
It’s an understandable impulse in a father, and also given their history, but it gets to the point where the viewer sort of wishes that he’d just give them a break and let them live their lives on their own terms.
5 Sweetest: Defending Roland, Jocelyn, And The Town To His Old Friends
It’s no secret that the relationship between Johnny and Roland has been, at times, quite difficult. After all, they’re different in almost every way, and Johnny has some good reasons to look down on the boorish and uncouth Roland. When the chips are down, however, he ends up coming to the defense of both Roland and Jocelyn when his old friends speak dismissively of them. It’s a great moment, and it’s a testament to Johnny’s fundamental strength of character, as well as showing how Schitt's Creek is, after all, a pretty great place to live.
4 Annoying: Out Patrick To His Parents (Even If It Was An Accident)
In keeping with his tendency to meddle in his kids’ lives, Johnny ends up inadvertently outing Patrick to his parents. Now to be fair to Johnny, this was an accident, but it’s one of those moments where the viewer just sort of wants to shake him and tell him to shut up and not make things worse (even as they can't help but laugh at him). Given that it’s Johnny, however, it was probably inevitable that something like this was going to happen, and at least things turned out for the best anyway.
3 Sweetest: Supports Moira When She Decides To Go Back To Acting
It’s hard to imagine a couple more unlike one another than Johnny and Moira, but somehow they manage to make things work between them. In fact, it seems that part of what makes their relationship work is that Johnny is unfailingly supportive of Moira, particularly when, later in the show, she decides to return full-time to acting.
Given that he was looking forward to them building a peaceful life together, his support of her career choices is all the more remarkable.
2 Annoying: His Refusal To Accept That He Can’t Internet Or Use Computers
Oh, Johnny. For some strange reason, he really can’t seem to wrap his head around, or accept, the idea that he has literally no idea what to do with technology. Time and again, this causes no small amount of trouble. It really makes one wonder why he just can’t accept this fact about himself and either try to correct it or just let his children or Stevie take the reins, since it’s clear they know more than he does.
1 Sweetest: Accepts David’s Sexuality
One of the most quietly radical things about this series is how open and accepting it is of various aspects of human sexuality, particularly when it comes to David. What’s more, Johnny makes it clear again and again that, while he may not always understand David’s sexuality, he’s always going to stand by and support him (one of the many times the show tackled something serious). Johnny is the platonic ideal of a dad, and it’s what makes him such a sweet and lovable character.