User blog:AustinDR/Character Retrospect: Clyde McBride

Okay, so with my "retrospect" series, I have covered all of the eldest sisters, and Lola (not because I was being held against my will), so that leaves me with four of the youngest sisters left. I may or may not decide to do a retrospect on Lincoln as I had already given some thoughts on him already, so that leads me to a slight bump. Given that I've discussed nearly all of the Loud kids, I might start expanding to other characters, be they recurring or whatnot. So, to begin things, I decided to discuss Clyde.

Now, for the most part I am mixed on Clyde. On the one hand, he is a good friend to Lincoln, they share nearly all of the same interests, he's loyal when need be, etc. So on that end, I do find him likable. However, my main gripe with Clyde is the fact he is a flat character. Admittedly, several of the characters are one-note, but Clyde's only character trait is the fact that he has a massive crush on Lori. I can definitively say that I am sick and tired of the running gag that happens every time he's in Lori's presence. The running gag was funny at first - I wasn't expecting blood to gush from Clyde's nose; that legitimately caught me off guard - however, after the thousandth time of Clyde passing out, the joke got old pretty fast. It wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't heavily focused on. Unfortunately, it is, and there is hardly any variation to it either. Clyde's worst episode for me was "Save the Date" where he deliberately tries to sabotage the double date even though he knew that Lincoln's life was literally on the line. Really, Clyde treating Bobby like garbage throughout the episode merely because he's Lori's boyfriend left a bad taste in my mouth. Or then there's "A Fair to Remember." While he doesn't do anything remotely bad in that episode, him being unconscious contributed nothing to the plot. Granted, it was humorous, but I felt that Clyde was wasted in this episode. Just please, writers: please kill the running gag already.

So, with that being said, how do I think that Clyde could be improved? For one, kill the running gag. Second, how about giving Clyde a new love interest to take his mind off of Lori? As I've said, I personally ship Clyde and Haiku. In  "Dance, Dance Resolution," they seemed to hit it off pretty well with each other. For one, they both had unattainable love interests. I just felt that they some chemistry with each other that I actually wanted Haiku to appear in more episodes simply to hang out with Clyde. Granted given how this show is, she may as well not come back. Or how about having Lynn starting to date Clyde? For me, I don't really see how this pairing could work given that one is a nerd, the other a tomboy, but I guess it roughly goes under "opposites attract." Besides, they're roughly about the same age. Well, not necessarily, but that's beside the point.

Additionally, maybe the writers could expand Clyde's personality more to make him stand out more, but that's just a silly opinion of mine. Overall, Clyde is a character that I don't completely love for various reasons, but I can't say that I would want him taken out of the show. For what it's worth, he is a true friend to Linc (even though he tends to get distracted by Lori).