History Characters / ShamelessUSGallaghers

* AmbiguousDisorder: Between his quietness and not being particularly bright (his IQ is ''71''), some in-universe have speculated that he's got something going on.

* LawOfInverseFertility: His sperm samples impregnate are able to make a woman become pregnant with six children, later she gives birth to his twins. He also may have impregnated a girl from one unprotected encounter.

* NoBisexuals: After having multiple boyfriends, Debbie ultimately comes to the realization that she is a lesbian and begins dating Alex in Season 8.

* {{Expy}}: Had more than a few shades of [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory Sid]] in his early characterization (such as melting his toys in the microwave and playing around with explosives).

* KnifeNut: Tends to have a variety of shivs and other weapons hidden in various spots around his house.

* ButtMonkey: Especially in Seasons 5 and 6, which are not kind to poor Chuckie at all. He gets manipulated by Carl into being a drug mule, arrested and sentenced to a year in juvie without ever fully comprehending what had happened, has a swastika tattooed on his forehead by his own mother, becomes a Neo-Nazi in juvie without fully understanding what that means either, [[spoiler:and by the time he is released, his mother is in jail for attempted murder and the rest of the Gallaghers have little to no interest in taking care of him, which results in him briefly living on the streets during a Chicago winter! Then he gets attacked by a cougar.]] To his credit, he's still just as cheerful and carefree as he has always been.

* TheCharmer: A subversion of one, while he is superficially charismatic, he's such a wastrel that everybody's patience for him has long since evaporated. Though when he really needs something, he can turn it on and get people to help him out.

** Starts to slip after hitting puberty and becoming obsessed with losing her virginity, leading her to act like a petty JerkAss over her first love, Matty. This culminates in a complete aversion at the end of Season 5 [[spoiler: when she intentionally gets pregnant despite being very young.]]

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: [[AcceptableTargets As with many cases of this trope on the show....]] it's mostly played for laughs when Debbie [[spoiler:loses her virginity to an older boy she likes by sleeping with him while he is basically passed-out drunk - or, as he puts it the morning after, "statutory rapes herself". When she confides in Fiona and Lip about it later, both are more bemused by the story than anything, although some of Debbie's bitchy friends do seem genuinely outraged by what happened (albeit probably because they were looking for a reason to mock Debbie, more than anything else.)]]

* BreakTheCutie: In Season 4. Well, to be realistic, the show's been breaking Fiona since day one (remember that scene where she congratulates herself for a good day's work before breaking to tears?), but in Season 4 it's taken UpToEleven.

* CharacterDerailment: Oh god, Debbie used to be sweet girl who is smart, kind, trying to support her family and tries to get love and attention for Frank for the last three seasons, but until in Season four she TookALevelInJerkass when she hits puberty and starts hanging out with Holly and Ellie.

* While her heart is in the right place, she tends to blame herself for her siblings' problems that she has nothing to do with. Debbie at one point even asks her, "Why does everything need to be about you?".
* Having to raise her siblings and make all the decisions for the family from a very young age almost inevitably results in an adult Fiona who believes she is at the center of every issue in her family, that every choice she makes is the right one, and that every decision her siblings make requires either her approval or involvement. As Debbie and her brothers get older, this starts to grate with them more.

* ItsAllAboutMe: While her heart is in the right place, she tends to blame herself for her siblings' problems that she has nothing to do with. Debbie at one point even asks her, "Why does everything need to be about you?".

* HeroWorshipper: She really idolizes her father and hopes for him to come back to normal. [[spoiler: Until Season 3's "The American Dream" where he carelessly wrecks a homework project she'd been working hard on]]. She is still more forgiving towards Frank than her other siblings are, particularly during Season 6 when he's the only family member who supports her decision to [[spoiler:keep her pregnancy]]... but then it all gets wrecked again by the time Season 7 rolls around, especially when [[spoiler:Frank attacks her while trying to find where she stashed Monica's meth.]]

* LoveMakesYouStupid: So blindsided by her feelings and influenced by her equally young and sexually active friends that she fails to see or understand why Matty (who is 20) would turn down a sexual relationship with a girl who is barely 13. Like most teenagers with their first crush, she also TookALevelInDumbass and loses a lot of what made her WiseBeyondHerYears.

** Season 7. Fiona is completely unaffected by her friend Margo's death, thinks only of herself, refuses to have a funeral for Margo ''and'' risks homelessness for all the Gallaghers by putting the house up as collateral.

* CommitmentIssues: Mandy and Karen ([[CharacterizationMarchesOn at least for Season for Karen]]) want to be in a committed relationship with Lip, he doesn't and is openly disturbed by Mandy semi-moving in and doing his laundry.

* CommitmentIssues: Mandy and Karen ([[CharacterizationMarchesOn|at least for Season for Karen]]) want to be in a committed relationship with Lip, he doesn't and is openly disturbed by Mandy semi-moving in and doing his laundry.

* DumbMuscle: Carl is stupid, and it's not even a case of BrilliantButLazy as he even has trouble with stuff he's interested in (knowing the math behind selling drugs). Despite these difficulties, he does have a sort of low cunning that he can apply in immediate plans of violence and thievery.

* AddledAddict: By the last season, Frank's drinking has caught up to him and he is suffering from alcoholic dementia, causing him to lose his memory and get lost. This is unexpectedly hard to watch, because Frank has spent the whole series getting in scrapes and seemingly cheating death. By the last season, he's a sad old man who shits himself and cries.

* MadeOfIron: Has overdosed multiple times, is a frequent guest and legend at the hospital, was given Last Rites ''three times'', spends most of Season 4 dying, and is still kicking.

** Ian and Mickey

* TheAlcoholic: Doubles as an AlcoholicParent. Any money Frank can get his hands on inevitably go towards alcohol or other substances, and spends most of his time either drunk, hungover or both. Even learning in Season 3 that his alcoholism is literally killing him doesn't stop him, and it takes being physically unable to ingest any alcohol (because he coughs up blood when he does!) to force him off it. He swaps alcohol for vast quantities of pot, Oxycontin, heroin and crack. Once he [[spoiler: gets a new liver at the end of Season 4, he begins drinking again, although his aforementioned drug use seems to have helped him to succeed in significantly cutting down on his booze intake for the long-term.]] His boozing is so extreme that [[spoiler:when he's cremated, his body is so soaked in alcohol that he ''blows up the oven''.]]

* DrugsAreBad: Thank to his "extensive experience," he is barely functional. And he becomes even worse when he's drunk, or wanting to get high.

** One of his biggest moment comes at the penultimate episode of season three where he takes responsibility for a heist he and Carl carried out, saving Carl from going to juvie. This shocks Lip so much that he comments "Hell just froze over."

** In Season 11 after sending Frannie to the wrong school he takes her with him on a day of the life. The two bond, and Frannie follows his advice, while Frank decides to get her name tattooed onto him.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: It's frequently implied that Frank was much smarter, kinder and sane back when he was a little kid, with drugs, a horrible childhood and his own repressed vices being what killed that part of him.