Match the Character to the Profession Quiz

Answer: Comedian

Jerry Seinfeld (playing himself) is one of the four main characters in the long running popular series "Seinfeld" which ran from 1989 to 1998. The story line revolves around Jerry and his group of picky, peculiar, hilarious friends (with Jerry the pickiest of them all) and all the impossible situations in which they become entangled. Jerry is a successful comedian throughout the series who doesn't seem to be very funny at all really.

The situations he becomes involved in, however, are very much so.

The time he is tricked into wearing a terribly frilly shirt for a television interview, for example, and the time he believes his dentist and nurse have had their wicked way with him after he is put to sleep for dental work to be carried out. Then there is the very funny episode where Jerry, while visiting his parents at their retirement village in Florida, admires a pen that can write upside down, owned by one of their neighbours, is given it as a gift, and all the trouble that follows on from that. "Stellaaaa!"

Answer: Paleontologist

The sitcom "Friends" lasted for ten seasons, from 1994 until 2004. It's built around six long term friends meeting regularly in one of two settings, and each of their very funny story lines that interweave throughout the series. Ross Geller (played by David Schwimmer), the character who makes me laugh the most, is a nerdy palaeontologist who accidentally gets married several times, before finally ending up with a girl he has loved right throughout the series - with assorted stops along the way. He's killingly funny. Three of the episodes centred around Ross that make me laugh the most are (1) the time he uses a teeth whitener to impress a girl, but when he turns out the light, his teeth glow in the dark and (2) the time he gets stuck carrying a sofa up several flights of stairs and has to end up cutting it in half ("Pivot!!!"), but then tries to get a refund from the store and (3) the time he wears leather pants to impress a girl, but when he begins to perspire, they shrink.

He manages to get them off to go to the bathroom, but then can't get them back on.

Answer: Aerospace engineer

Initially I disliked the character of Howard Wolowitz (played by Simon Helberg) because of the sleazy type lines he is always given when trying to sleep with women, but over time grew to like him the most of all the characters on "The Big Bang Theory".

They're all fantastic though. This show premiered in 2007 and the final season started shooting late September 2018. Howard's character grows and expands more and more throughout the show, but in looks, he still remains the same scrawny little fellow with a woeful haircut that he is in his first appearance.

He marries and becomes a father to two children, loves his wife (Bernadette) dearly, but is terrified of incurring her displeasure, manages a trip to space at one stage, loses his mother, constantly butts heads with Sheldon, and just generally makes you laugh, but at the same time making you feel almost protective of him at times. Three of his funniest scenes are (1) the time he invented a robotic hand - but uses it for a naughty reason - until it gets stuck and he has to be taken to hospital while still attached to it and (2) while in training to become an astronaut, he becomes so hungry that he eats a butterfly and (3) while up in space, he misses gravity so much that he begs Bernadette, via video streaming, to let him see her drop a pen, and then gasps with pleasure when she does.

Answer: Sportswriter

"Everybody Loves Raymond" ran from 1995 until 2005, and is yet another show I love. Ray Barone (played by Ray Romano) heads a sterling cast of very professional actors as the storylines unfold around him. Ray is a sportswriter at a big newspaper, popular and loved by almost everyone except his far more handsome, but bit of a loser in life, older brother, Robert.

He has a wonderfully doting mother who is always interfering in his marriage, a somewhat unappealing father who calls it like he sees it, three children, and a wife who loves him but is all too aware of his many shortcomings.

This creates constant arguments between the pair, always resolved to our satisfaction, but extremely funny until that happens. There was the time that Ray and Debra physically fight over bathroom rights (my favourite episode); the time he struggles with her to remove a splinter to prove his masculinity and protectiveness - even though the sight of blood makes him feel faint; the time they fight over a golf game; the time he leaves her behind when she takes too long to get dressed (oh boy); and the flashback episodes covering their courtship and wedding. All hilarious, all eminently watchable, and all to be remembered long after the series ceased production.

Answer: Advertising executive

Darrin Stephens (played initially by Dick York and later by Dick Sergent) marries the beautiful Samantha in the series "Bewitched" (1964-1972) only to find out that she is a witch, complete with a whole pile of witches and warlocks in her extended family.

He manages to stay - almost - sane throughout the series, no matter how many spells are placed on him by them all. That's the basic storyline. Add in the lovely Samantha who only wants to be a normal housewife, but who has to frequently use her powers to save Darrin; a nosey neighbour, Gladys, constantly on the verge of a breakdown as she witnesses the weird goings on in the Stephens' home; Darrin's profit chasing boss and friend, Larry Tate; Darrin's sharp-tongued, sometimes vindictive mother-in-law, Endora; Samantha's troublemaking look alive cousin, Serena; an absent-minded elderly Aunt Clara who frequently botches her spells when trying to be helpful; and the family warlock medico, Dr Bombay - and you have one heck of a series, with EVERY episode a particular favourite.

Answer: Hotel owner

Basil Fawlty (played by the ever entertaining John Cleese) is a snobby, perpetually stressed out, social climbing owner of a residential hotel in Torquay, England, in partnership with his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales). They are assisted in the running of the establishment (to which Basil only wants to attract upper class customers) by the maid Polly (Connie Booth) and a completely hopeless Spanish waiter from Barcelona, Manuel (Andrew Sachs). Permanent residents at the hotel are an assorted group of doddery senior citizens. And things go permanently and utterly wrong for Basil at every turn.

One of the funniest episodes of "Fawlty Towers", named the greatest ever British TV sitcom in 2019 by a panel of experts in the field of comedy, takes place when an overnight guest dies at hotel, and Basil thinks it's because the kippers, that were out of date, killed him, but a visiting doctor assures Basil otherwise. However, because he doesn't want the others guests to see the body until it can be taken away, Basil, aided by Polly and Manuel, then tries to hide it - but one of the elderly residents (Miss Tibbs) finds it, screeches on top note, and faints. They then have to shift her, as well as the body, and hide both in the same cupboard of another guest room - only to have Miss Tibbs come around and start moaning piteously when the guests return to their room. And on it goes. It's very, VERY funny.

Answer: Music teacher and football coach

"Modern Family", which premiered in 2009, is one of the best sitcoms ever made - if not THE best. The story centres on the family of Jay Pritchett; his daughter Claire and nerdy-ish son-in-law, Phil; their three children (Haley, Alex and Luke) all with major storylines; his second wife, the gorgeous and very funny Colombian, Gloria; her lovable son, Manny, from a previous marriage; their baby son, Joe; Jay's much loved French bulldog, Stella; Jay's eldest son, Mitch; his partner, the EXTREMELY funny Cameron; and their adopted Vietnamese daughter, Lily. This is a show I watch every day, always sighing with regret when an episode is over and actually wishing I could be part of that large, loving, mixed-up family.

And every single thing that Cam does makes me laugh. Played by Eric Stonestreet, Cam is a tubby, very flamboyant, way out there, in touch with his artistic and feminist side, football coaching contrast to Mitch's very repressed and conservative lawyer character ("Hands, Cam, hands!" Mitch calls at one stage to Cameron who is running, squealing and flapping his hands in distress because he threw a ball that almost gave a passer-by concussion). Cameron is always easily offended as well and having his feelings hurt, but this only serves to make his character funnier. I love this show, and I love that character.

Answer: Book publisher

"The Worst Week of My Life" is one of three British series made and broadcast between 2004 and 2006. I laughed so much watching the first of these that I almost choked. It stars Ben Miller as book publishing executive, Howard Steel, a screamingly funny master of if-anything-will-go-wrong-he'll-be-responsible man longing to impress his future in-laws but completely failing every single time. Those in-laws include the immensely talented Allison Steadman who plays Angela Cook. Howard is like a very updated version of Michael Crawford's "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em," but a thousand times funnier because of the show's setting in a modern, middle to upper crust section of British society.

Some highlights of the first series include Howard accidentally shovelling his future mother-in-law's dog into the cement mixer and killing it; his constant disastrous attempts to impress his very unimpressed high court judge, father-in-law to be (Dick Cook, played by Geoffrey Whitehead); the misunderstandings he creates with Dick's brother, ex-army officer, Fraser Cook (played by Ronald Pickup) who is trying to suppress his homosexual yearnings for his travelling companion, Gerard; Howard sliding down the bannister while playfully chasing his fiancée (Mel Cook, played by Sarah Alexander) and landing smack bang on top of Mel's elderly grandmother, putting her in hospital on a life-support machine. If something is going to go wrong, and Howard is anywhere about, you can bet your upper class britches that it will.

Answer: Supermarket chain owner

The "To the Manor Born" (1979-1981) series is an oldie but a goodie show set in the upper echelons of British society. It tells the ongoing story of the young, recently widowed, extremely upper class Audrey Forbes-Hamilton (played by Penelope Keith) losing her cherished home, Grantleigh Manor, where her family has lived for centuries, to - shock, gasp, horror, a mere nouveau riche owner of supermarkets, Richard DeVere, whose people come from Czechoslovakia! And, to add insult to injury, his real name isn't the noble sounding DeVere at all, but Bedrich Polouvicek! Richard (played by Peter Bowles), however, is not just any old newly rich fellow from the bottom rung on the social scale, but a cultivated, elegant and extremely charming gentleman. Audrey only has enough money left, after paying all dues on the estate, to purchase and move into its nearby Lodge, where she can keep an eye on the manor from a handy distance. And the sparks absolutely fly between her and Richard in a delightful, easy to watch over and over again battle of wills, flavoured with essence of attraction, between the two.

Each episode is a winner, but one of my favourites takes place with Richard trying to learn how to ski by being winched up and down a hill by Old Ned on a tractor - and breaking his leg in the process.

Answer: Bank manager

"Dad's Army", another popular British sitcom, ran from 1968 until 1977. Its storyline is based around a motely crew of volunteer Home Guards, most of whom are completely unfit for the regular army, but prepared to defend Old Mother England against any invasion that may take place from the Germans during World War II. The comedy in this show - and of course everything always goes wrong in every episode - operates on several levels, from the Cockney, to the mildly suggestive, to the higher up members of society, hence its long time appeal over the years.

The star of this funny show, which still shows up now and then on television, is undoubtedly Captain Mainwaring (played by Arthur Lowe). A local bank manager in his everyday life, Mainwaring is a short, somewhat chubby, pompous, but very brave and patriotic Captain in the Home Guard on other occasions. These include hopeless drills, disastrous exercises, hilarious mix-ups at every turn, but still he soldiers on, barking out orders in his toffee nosed accent, always flustered and put out, but trying to maintain a semblance of dignity, and with his eyeglasses constantly misting over. "You STUPID boy!" is Captain Mainwaring's constant phrase, applied to the youngest member of the platoon, and he delivers it with perfect comedic timing on every occasion. I can't name any single episode I like the best in this old show - because I truly loved them all.