Stupidity is a staple of television, as it is a staple of all art – after all, the tendency of human beings to suffer moments of intellectual malfunction is at the same time relatable, amusing and a great way to set stories in motion. But the classic comedy idiot has gone out of fashion in modern TV. There was a time when no TV comedy was complete without one character who wasn’t just prone to stupidity, but who was defined practically entirely by their feeble brain’s inability to process the world around it. These idiots were wildly entertaining, and frequently the most loveable and popular characters on their shows. Nowadays, it’s vanishingly rare to see a true all-round moron lighting up the screen, and you can’t help but feel we’ve lost a little of our culture in the evolution. So in the interests of nostalgia and the remembrance of a golden age of televised stupidity, here are TV history’s seven greatest idiots.

Baldrick in Blackadder (Foxtel, Britbox)

In the first season of Blackadder, Baldrick (played by Tony Robinson), the servant of the weaselly Prince Edmund, was no fool – indeed he was probably the smartest character on the show, way quicker on the uptake than his master. But when the show was retooled to make Blackadder a sarcastic mastermind, Baldrick was fashioned anew, and as generations of Blackadder sunk lower in the social ranks, generations of Baldricks became ever more imbecilic. From Elizabethan Baldrick’s scheme to disguise a mad bull as a chicken to win a cockfight, to Regency Baldrick’s belief that his first name might have been “Sod Off”, to World War One Baldrick’s inspirational poem “The German Guns” (“Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom”), this much-put-upon dogsbody travelled throughout history, each cunning plan dafter than the last, establishing the gold standard for stupidity.

Rose Niland in The Golden Girls (Disney+, Stan)

Betty White was originally meant to play the man-eater Blanche, but was more interested in essaying the part of the adorably dim-witted Minnesotan farm girl Rose. In doing so, she created a character for the ages. Rose was kindhearted and sweet, but so dumb she drove her housemates to distraction. With an inability to grasp any situation that arose, and a habit of telling agonisingly long-winded and baffling tales of her youth in the world Idiot capital, St Olaf (a particular highlight: the mystery of Grunella Ulf, Sven Bjornsen and Ingmar von Bergen, “St Olaf’s meanest ventriloquist”), Rose’s greatest attribute was her iron-plated self-esteem: no matter how many times her friends gave scathingly honest appraisals of her intelligence, she’d keep voicing her uniquely brainless perspective. The combination of Rose’s cluelessness and the acid tongue of Bea Arthur’s Dorothy was the show’s core strength.

Woody Boyd in Cheers (Foxtel Now, purchase on AppleTV)

It’s strange to think that acclaimed and versatile movie star Woody Harrelson got his start playing a sweet-natured Indiana halfwit on Cheers. Woody replaced the character of Coach, a prize idiot himself, after Nicholas Colasanto, who played Coach, died, and quickly established himself in the upper echelons of the pantheon of TV fools. Like Rose, Woody was a small-town farm kid transplanted to the big city, and a certain naivete in the ways of the world would be expected. But Woody’s failure to comprehend anything going on around him went way beyond naivete: as the rest of the staff and barflies traded quickfire comic barbs across the tavern floor, the hapless young bartender stood confused and bewildered, never really knowing what was going on, but always glad to be a part of it.