Marvel Studios likes to explore different genre frameworks with each of its superhero projects. The MCU’s latest streaming series, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, is a legal procedural sitcom wrapped in a comic book actioner. In between Hulking out and fighting supervillains, Jen Walters passionately fights cases in court. She-Hulk has one of the funniest lawyers on TV, but it’s not the first show to find the humor in practising the law. From the hilarious incompetence of The Simpsons’ Lionel Hutz and Arrested Development’s Barry Zuckerkorn to the satirical schtick of Seinfeld’s Jackie Chiles and Breaking Bad’s Saul Goodman, there are many other laughable lawyers on TV.
Jen Walters (She-Hulk: Attorney At Law)
Jen Walters is the opposite of every other superhero, because she didn’t need to wait until she acquired superpowers to do good and help people. In fact, when she did acquire powers, she saw them as a detriment to what she really does best. Instead of battling supervillains on the crime-ridden streets, Jen would rather fight evil and defend innocent civilians in the confines of a court of law.
Tatiana Maslany has been carrying the She-Hulk series with a terrific performance that combines passionate lawyering with everywoman relatability. Jen shares a unique relationship with the audience because one of her superpowers is her ability to break the fourth wall and speak to the viewer directly.
Barry Zuckerkorn (Arrested Development)
Described as “the worst f***ing attorney,” Barry Zuckerkorn represents George Bluth and his family against treason charges in Arrested Development. In the pilot episode, George names his wife Lucille as his replacement as the CEO of the Bluth Company just before the SEC raids his offices, because Barry told him that “they cannot arrest a husband and wife for the same crime.”
Brought to life by Henry Winkler, Barry is more interested in his depraved love life than his professional duties. He brags about going on a date with a woman who works two jobs (a prostitute who turned out to be an undercover cop), while he admits to the judge in the midst of a trial that he hasn’t read the prosecution’s plea deal because “it’s very long, Your Honor.”
Lionel Hutz (The Simpsons)
There are two well-known attorneys in Springfield: the Blue-Haired Lawyer, who is paid extortionate rates to get unscrupulous villains like Mr. Burns and Fat Tony cleared of their criminal charges even when it’s obvious that they’re guilty, and Lionel Hutz, a shady ambulance chaser who is just as unethical as the Blue-Haired Lawyer without any of the professional competence. His ad reads, “Works on contingency. No money down.” But according to Hutz, this is a misprint. He corrects it with the missing punctuation: “Works on contingency? No, money down!”
For a lawyer demanding money down, Hutz doesn’t know even the simplest legal terminology; he calls a mistrial “a bad court thingy” and calls a lawyer – his own job title – a “law-talking guy.” He prepares for upcoming trials by watching Matlock with the sound off in a bar. He sued the makers of The Neverending Story for fraudulent advertising because the movie did, in fact, end. The character was retired after voice actor Phil Hartman’s untimely passing in 1998, so his last appearance is in the season 9 episode “Realty Bites.”
Jackie Chiles (Seinfeld)
When Seinfeld did a storyline based on the highly publicized Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants case with Kramer suing a coffee chain for scolding him with a latte that was too hot, he hired hotshot attorney Jackie Chiles to represent him. Played hysterically by Phil Morris, the motormouth lawyer is a satirical caricature of Johnnie Cochran, who defended O.J. Simpson in another highly publicized court case in the 1990s.
Jackie is famed as one of the best attorneys in New York (at least in Seinfeld’s bizarro incarnation of New York), but he can’t seem to win a single case involving his most eccentric client. When Kramer settles his suit against a huge tobacco corporation in exchange for a billboard modeling gig, Jackie declares, “This is the most public yet of my many humiliations.”
Saul Goodman (Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul)
With a name playing on the phrase “S’all good, man,” slippery lawyer Saul Goodman was initially introduced as a zany comic relief character in Breaking Bad. Saul is one of the only people who aren’t afraid to talk straight to the infamous Heisenberg. When he starts working with Walt and Jesse, Saul bluntly tells them, “You two suck at peddling meth.” When he meets Walt’s estranged wife, Saul jokes, “Clearly, his taste in women is the same as his taste in lawyers: only the very best... with just the right amount of dirty.”
Saul eventually got expanded into arguably an even more complex and multifaceted character than Walter White in his own spin-off series. In Better Call Saul, the Saul persona turned out to be the mask that Jimmy McGill put on to cover up the emotional pain of losing his brother to suicide, witnessing a horrific murder, and being left by his wife. Bob Odenkirk’s phenomenal, layered performance in Better Call Saul has retroactively added a tragic bent to his snappy one-liners from Breaking Bad.