The loneliest movie characters are recognizable right away on screen. Male characters will talk to themselves in a mirror or work the night shift or drive a taxi. They may be pursued by shadowy figures and don’t know why. Or the life they thought they had turns out to be fake. Lonely movie characters are often stranded in a foreign place, in outer space or on an island.

But one of the biggest clues of whether a character is lonely or not is an inside joke, at least from the perspective of the audience. Funny people playing lonely characters. 

Major Sources Cited For This Episode: 

My Autobiography by Charlie Chaplin 
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Cast Away at 20 Interview with William Broyles
What Lies Beneath: The Films of Robert Zemeckis MoMA Retrospective