Hyacinth Bucket
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Hyacinth Bucket is the main character in the successful BBC sitcom, Keeping Up Appearances (1990 to 1995) played with great relish by Patricia Routledge.
Hyacinth is a person whose main characteristics include outstanding snobbery and the idea of herself being better than others (particularly, her neighbours), as well as the irritating tendency to look down on others. Hyacinth behaves in the way she imagines aristocracy to behave, usually to a comical effect, especially given her social status, which is in fact average. Her main criterion in judging people, and the what seems to impress her most is wealth (and the subsequent social position). To a lesser extent, 'celebrity status' also influences her readily. Hyacinth also shows herself off as being incomparably better than most people, including much of her own family, of whom she is often ashamed.
Hyacinth is almost pathologically dedicated to improving her social status, and both ingratiating herself (frequently in a completely shameless manner) with those she considers her social equals / betters, such as the local vicar and local notables, whilst looking down her nose on those she considers inferior, such as her rather rough family. The joke, however, is all too frequently on her, as her efforts to improve her social status are nearly always scuttled by her immense self-superiority and the increasingly absurd lengths she will go to improve her social standing -- and in any case, she is regarded by both high and low as an extremely irritating presence.
Hyacinth always tries to outdo her neigbors especially Barker-Finches living at #23 Bloosom Avenue. She is always unpleasant when some other neighbor has something better than her. When Hyacinth heards about something unpleasant about some neighbor, she either try to outdo the neighbor in most cases, or she tries to the impression that she is better than the neighbor.
A running joke in the series is her insistence that her last name be pronounced like 'bouquet'. One example of her being referred to as Bucket instead of her 'pronounced' last name in front of her face, prompting her to slam the door afterwards, was when the representative from the alarm company came to her house to install her new alarm system. After Richard corrected him -- then before closing the door, told him to "Try again" -- the representative finally used the 'corrected' greeting, resulting in Hyacinth returing to her cheerful self. This gag is amplified by Hyacinth's sisters, all of whom are also named after flowers—- Violet, Rose and Daisy. What does not help with her ideal pronunciation is that almost everyone, regardless of their social stature, continually call her "Mrs Bucket", or behind her back, "The Bucket woman". Even Richard pronounces the name as "Bucket".
Another gag in the series is that her phone number is constantly being confused with the local Chinese takeaway (as it is one digit away). She has become peeved to the point that she's enlisted the help of the Chinese ambassador, but to no avail.
Sheridan
One of the most famous gags is Hyacinth receiving phone calls from her son Sheridan, who is away at university with his roommate Tarquin. It is implied by the subject matter of these phone calls that Sheridan is homosexual, but Hyacinth just sees him as "mummy's boy". Although Sheridan is never seen on camera, she dotes on him in the form of compliments, such as "How very thoughtful of you to ring mummy, dear." But Sheridan is mainly phoning to ask for money, as Hyacinth's husband Richard realises — "What does he want?" Richard has an idea that Sheridan is gay, but does not tell Hyacinth because, in all likelihood, she wouldn't listen to a word he was saying anyway.