Glee: 10 Things About Sue Sylvester That Have Aged Poorly

Sue Sylvester was the primary antagonist in Glee. Played to perfection by the multi-talented Jane Lynch – Lynch won a plethora of awards for her performance, including an Emmy — Sue was the coach of the Cheerios, McKinley High’s cheerleading team, and an outright menace.

Most of the show’s humor focused on Sue’s controversial views and shocking behavior. She often hazed students, belittled co-workers, and delivered scathing insults to anyone who crossed her path. And while she remained funny until the end, most of her attitudes seem even more problematic when looking back at them today, showcasing how awful Sue actually was.

Sue’s Rendition Of Super Bass

Glee had its fair share of nonsensical musical numbers, but Sue’s rendition of Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” is in a league of its own. Performed in the season four episode “Feud,” the performance showcases everything that’s wrong with the show and then some. To make matters worse, the song is part of a mashup with Mariah Carey’s “I Still Believe.”

Lynch is a talented vocalist, and to be fair, she does her utter best with the material, committing to the ridiculousness of it all. However, there’s no logical reason to justify the performance, plain and simple. Sue has several memorable numbers on the show, but this one is embarrassing beyond description.

Sue’s Initial Treatment Of Coach Beiste

Season two begins with Sue and Mr. Schuester forming a feeble friendship. They join forces to face a new enemy, football captain Sheldon Beiste. They pull petty pranks on him in an attempt to get him fired, but Sue crosses the line when she coerces Brittany into lying about being inappropriately touched by Beiste.

Brittany is too ditzy to pull the lie off, and Beiste gets to keep his job. However, the fact that Sue even dares to try something so horrifying was wrong then and remains wrong now. Worst of all is that the show treats it as a joke. This is just Sue pulling yet another one of her “classic” pranks.

Sue’s Treatment Of Principal Figgins

While Sue saved her worst for Schuester, her treatment of Principal Figgins was also terrible. She constantly made rude and sometimes outright racist remarks about him and treated him as a joke. At one point in the show, Sue blackmails him with a video of an embarrassing commercial he once did. She also gets him drunk and pretends to sleep with him, threatening to show the pictures to his wife if he doesn’t hire her back. In season five, Sue gets Figgins’ job and demotes him to school janitor.

Figgins was an admittedly useless principal, but he wasn’t a bad person and didn’t deserve such treatment. Once again, the show makes a joke out of his suffering, all in service of making Sue seem “funny.”

Sue Throwing The Coach Of Aural Intensity From The Stairs

Sue is arguably the least likable character on Glee and with good reason. She devoted all her time to destroy a group of teenagers singing show tunes for no good reason other than hating show tunes. Sue enters deranged territory several times throughout the show’s run, like the time she throws the coach of rival Glee club, Aural Intensity, from the stairs so she can get his job.

The lengths to which Sue was willing to go were so extreme that audiences couldn’t help but laugh. However, Sue was very clearly a bully, and something about seeing her throwing an unassuming man off the stairs is plain disturbing.

Sue’s Obsession With Klaine

Glee got worse and worse as it went on, and by season six, it was but a shadow of what it once was. Its plots were outright ridiculous, and the show was clearly struggling to wrap things up. Because they decided to separate Kurt and Blaine (again), they needed a semi-plausible reason t get them back together. Enter Sue and her apparently years-long obsession with being the flower girl at Kurt and Blaine’s “fabulous gay wedding.”

She, of course, hatches an absurd and elaborate plan to lock them in an elevator together, complete with a Jigsaw-like puppet of herself. She even forces them to make out while the Sue-puppet watches. Not only is the storyline completely nonsensical, but it’s also creepy and not funny at all. If anything, it’s an insult to everyone involved, especially Sue, who at one point was one of the best-written comedic villains on television.

Sue’s Relationship With Mr. Schuester

The rivalry between Sue and Schuester is one of the pillars upon which Glee stands. In the beginning, he’s an apparent good guy who genuinely cares for his students, while she is an over-the-top villain hellbent on bringing him down. Things get more complicated as the show goes on. He becomes a creep, but she stays awful, so there’s no one to attract the audience’s sympathy.

To be fair, Sue is the best character in the pair, but the bar is so low that it isn’t even a win. However, what’s most reprehensible is that they bring the students into their petty fights. For two people who take such pride in supposedly being great teachers, their behaviors couldn’t be worse. Glee‘s portrayal of high school has aged like milk, and it’s thanks in large part to how horrible Sue and Will were.

Sue’s Politically Incorrect Views

The show makes a joke out of Sue’s aggressively conservative views. She constantly name-drops infamous political figures like Sara Palin and makes absurd remarks about her connection with them. Sue is also famously intolerant of others’ beliefs and lifestyles. In one episode, she chops off a male student’s ponytail, telling him he “no longer (confuses her) with (his) she-male look.”

Sue also refers to the homeless as “urban campers” and makes off-color remarks about her students’ ethnicity and sexual orientation. She famously refers to Kurt as “lady,” calls Mercedes “Aretha,” refers to Santana as “Jugs the Clown” or “sandbags,” calls Tina and Mike “Asian” and “other Asian” respectively, and addresses Matt as “Shaft.”

Sue’s Behavior Towards Her Students

Speaking of Sue’s treatment of her students, it might be the single worst aspect in Glee. Sue often goes in notorious rage fits in which she shoves students against lockers or chases them down the halls. One time, she even slaps one of them. In season six, after she becomes principal, she patrols the hallways with hounds, which she then sets loose to further torture the students.

Worst of all is Sue’s treatment of her overweight pupils. She encourages her Cheerios to drink “the Sue Sylvester master cleanse,” a mix of water, lemon, maple syrup, Cayenne pepper (to irritate the bowls), and Ipecac. In season six, she makes the overweight students wear pig noses and locks them in a place she refers to as “the pig pen.” Sue did many questionable things in the show, but this might be the worst.

Sue’s Cheerio’s Leadership

On top of the extreme diets and constant body-shaming, Sue was an objectively terrible coach for the Cheerios. In fact, Sue’s first ever words on Glee are a condemnation of the squad, telling them she’s had it much worse than them.

Sue also makes her Cheerios imitate her toxic behaviors. Santana, Quinn, and Becky all behave terribly because Sue allows them to and even celebrates their bullying. At times, Sue even makes her Cheerios physically attack each other.

Sue Becoming Vice-President Of The USA

In an utterly bonkers turn of events, Glee ends with Sue becoming vice president of the United States. She also declares her desire to run for president in 2024, and the show even hints that she has a strong chance of winning the election.

Objectively speaking, Sue would make the worst possible president ever. The show spent six years showing how selfish and cruel she was, so to end the show with her in the ultimate position of power is divisive at best and reprehensible at worst. Fans of Glee ignore many of the show’s most problematic aspects, but even hardcore Gleeks must cringe at the idea of having Sue as their president.

About The Author

David Caballero
(802 Articles Published)

David is a twenty-eight-year-old Mexican writer and reader. Having studied Marketing in school, he spent three years working a nine-to-five desk job before deciding to pursue a writing career. He now works as a Senior Writer in ScreenRant and does some more freelancing job, talking about the entertainment business he so loves. Currently, he’s also writing his second novel while actively working to get his first one published.

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