Chad Amani

Chad Amani is the main protagonist of the 2021 TBS series Chad.

Why He Fails At Being A Chad

 * 1) Let's get the elephant out of the room: Nasim Pedrad is SEVERELY miscasted as Chad. Yes, a 39 year old actress plays the role of a 14 year old boy that's a freshman in high school.
 * 2) It is clear that Chad was only created as an excuse to pander to the "Chad" slang. As such, he comes off as incredibly stereotypical as a character. Not to mention, in a way his portrayal can be offensive to people named "Chad".
 * 3) Chad is supposedly written to be an "unpopular kid at school" type of character, similar to characters like Greg Heffley from Diary of Wimpy Kid, Eddy from Ed, Edd, n Eddy, and Nikki Maxwell from Dork Diaries. However, because of poor writing and obnoxious characterization, he comes off as incredibly unsympathetic.
 * 4) * If anything, many of Chad's actions make the audience root against him instead!
 * 5) He is an incredibly whiny brat. His constant tantrums will get on your nerves very quickly.
 * 6) Despite being an unpopular kid in high school, Chad consistently lies to the other kids at school in an attempt to make people think that's he edgy and cool. Such examples include when he tells the other students in the hallway that he "had sex" last summer in the "Pilot" episode.
 * 7) He is a complete jerk to his best friend Peter. Often times he treats Peter like he's the unpopular loser at school (making Peter a butt-monkey), when in reality, it's the reverse opposite.
 * 8) * What also doesn't help is that Chad is insufferably hateful towards Peter's love interest, Denise. He only hates Denise because she's running for class president and believes she is "taking advantage of him", when in reality it's just Chad delusionally exaggerating Denise's character. Heck, when Peter and Denise eventually become a couple and start kissing, Chad outright breaks into Peter's house and runs away throwing a hissy fit afterwards!
 * 9) His relationships with other people at school aren't much better either. He consistently tries to get the attention of Reid, Joey, Liam and Caleb (four popular boys at school) and acts as if he's more edgy and cool than them. Not to mention, the four boys (ESPECIALLY Reid) are also treated like butt-monkeys around Chad for how they have to constantly put up with Chad's whiny and edgy antics.
 * 10) * Heck, in two episodes, Reid has something personal destroyed or ruined because of Chad's behavior.
 * 11) * On top of that, he cannot take criticism when he's called out by his friends. Often times, when friends like Peter call him out for his questionable actions, he always resorts to outbursts such as "You're just jealous!" (an ironic line given that Chad is the one jealous more often than not).
 * 12) He also doesn't seem to have a sense of compassion or sympathy either. During the "Lakehouse" episode, when Peter tragically hears the news that his grandfather died of a heart attack, Chad instead tries to change the subject when Reid and his friends comfort him for his loss.
 * 13) * One could make the argument that being socially awkward, Chad doesn't know how to act in a socially appropriate manner. However, that does not excuse Chad's apathetic and dismissive behavior towards Peter's loss.
 * 14) He has committed a number of crimes, such as breaking into Reid’s car in “Sword” as well as breaking into the school and vandalizing his locker in “Finale”. And when he gets caught, the audience is expected to see him as misunderstood despite him being the one putting this on himself.
 * 15) While somewhat funny (see RQ #2), his "sloppy salmon" gag with his friends is cringy, for how Chad pats his friends in the lower body and sometimes the private-part areas.
 * 16) Chad is also incredibly disrespectful to his family, treating them almost as insufferably as his friends. He is especially insufferable to his sister Niki, doing things like calling her "a whore" and throwing stuff at her just because she calls him out on his whiny and jealous behavior.
 * 17) * If anything, so many of Chad's actions make the audience sympathesize with Niki (who is supposed to be the "cynical sibling" of the sitcom) instead; the reverse opposite of what the writers are intending on doing! And what's more ironic, Chad is the older brother of Niki, yet he acts significantly more immature than she does.
 * 18) He is also incredibly petty and spoiled as well, such as when he receives a new pair of shoes from his mom, he acts ungrateful because they aren't the newest LeBron James shoes.
 * 19) Speaking of which, he is constantly obsessed with the newest trends going on, which once again only adds to Chad's unhealthy pursuit of being cool and hip.
 * 20) * Him yelling trendy phrases and words such as "420 everyday hook it up!" gets annoying fast, especially when he's using it in such a forced and unfunny context.
 * 21) He is also shown to be racist as well. In the same scene where he whines about not getting the newest LeBron shoes, he rudely asks his mother “are you raising a young boy or a young Filipino male nurse?!” simply because he didn’t get what he wanted. Not to mention, he later yells "Mom! This is not the Middle East! Things are complicated here in America!" showing he also disrespects his own ethnicity.
 * 22) He was arguably at his worst in the season 1 finale, "Finale". Here, Chad outright breaks into the school by trashing his locker to make it seem like a school cheerleader "punked" it out of popularity and love interest. However, things ironically turn against Chad's favor when the school believes someone committed a hate crime on Chad. When people start feeling sympathetic for Chad being a "hate crime victim" (due to Chad's ethnicity as a Muslim), he takes advantage of playing the victim card and uses this just to be popular in school.
 * 23) The cherry on top is, Chad becomes student president simply because he was the victim of a supposed hate crime, which is unrealistic and nonsensical since he was never running for president in the first place. Not to mention, this also makes Chad come across as a karma houdini.
 * 24) * Speaking of unrealistic, Denise (who was running for president) somehow becomes vice president with Chad. And speaking of which, Denise is supposed to be a "mean popular girl" character, as she wants to expose Chad after hearing from Peter that his hate crime was false. But given how she wants to do this out of moral righteousness and logical questioning, as well as how insufferably lewd and hatable Chad is, it makes the audience root for her (you know, the supposed "antagonist" of the series?) instead!
 * 25) In the first season his character development was insufferable as in every episode of the first season his character noticeably reverts back to how he was at the beginning of the previous episode.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Despite being poorly written, one could sympathesize with him to an extent. It is admittedly sad to see him get rejected by his friends.
 * 2) He has some admittedly funny quotes such as "Sloppy Salmon!".
 * 3) There are a couple of times in the series where he gets his comeuppances for his actions, but that still doesn't remove him from the Karma Houdini party.
 * 4) *Such as when Ried demanded that he would leave the Lakehouse after acting disrespectful towards Peter.
 * 5) *And when he was tackled by the school principal after breaking into Ried's car.
 * 6) There are times where he is or at least tries to help out his family, such as when he offered to babysit his sister in one episode.
 * 7) Aside from his bad qualities, he is one of the few characters in the show who's consistency is good, due to how unlike the other characters his personality isn't bland.