Every Member Of The Addams Family Ranked From Normal To Creepiest

"Normal" and "creepy" are relative terms, especially when discussing the mysterious, spooky, and altogether ooky Addams Family. First introduced in the pages of The New Yorker in 1938, Charles Addams' series of macabre and hilarious single-panel cartoons became the foundation for one of America's most popular — and most enduring — fictional families. Television shows and movies, both live-action and animated, have featured the family's morbid antics since 1964, with a new Netflix series debuting later this year.

If there's anything the Addams Family teaches us, it's that "normal" is in the eye of the beholder and that looks can be deceiving. At the same time, part of the fun of the Addams Family is that they allow us to get in touch with our own darkness, our own weirdness, and celebrate the creepier side of life. While there are many extended family members in the Addams clan, this list will stick to the major players, ranking them in order from most normal to creepiest.

Though his small stature and hirsute appearance are unconventional, Itt is a friendly and personable member of the Addams Family. That makes him far more "normal" than some of his relatives. He's frequently described as a ladies' man, catching the eye of Morticia's sister, Ophelia, in the '60s sitcom and Margaret Alford (Dana Ivey), the unhappy wife of Gomez's lawyer, in the 1991 live-action film. 

While Itt's bubbly chatter is unintelligible to the audience, he is clearly understood by both family members and open-minded outsiders alike, proving that the biggest barrier to communication is the refusal to try. Though Itt's hobbies and modes of transportation may seem odd at times (he hides out in the Addamses' chimney and drives a tiny car) they're perfectly appropriate for a person of his size. Itt keeps his long tresses deep-conditioned and can rock a bowler hat with the best of them. There's nothing creepy here!

Pugsley is often seen engaging in more "normal" activities than the rest of the family (becoming interested in joining the Boy Scouts, playing with puppies — the usual things that seem natural to many outsiders but horrify his parents). When he's not showing an interest in normal activities, he usually goes along with the family's sinister plans unwittingly like playing games in which Wednesday repeatedly tries to kill him, all with a guileless smile on his face, making him more of a good-natured accomplice than a full-fledged creep. 

The creepiest thing about Pugsley may not even be canon. Pubert, his younger brother who only appears in 1993's "Addams Family Values," disappeared from the franchise just as quickly as he arrived. Wednesday tells a visitor in the 1998 sitcom reboot that "there were three of us, but Pugsley ate the little one." While fratricide and cannibalism are undoubtedly creepy, they don't tip the scales enough with this family to earn Pugsley a higher spot on the list.

Just like Grandmama, Granny Frump (Morticia's mother) is a witch who usually stays on the sidelines. She seems to have more talent for witchcraft than Grandmama, though, and that power makes her far creepier. She's another Schrödinger's Addams: Morticia communicates with her in the spirit world in the 2019 animated film, but Granny Frump (or Mama, as Morticia calls her) is the living grandmother to Pugsley and Wednesday in the Barry Sonnenfeld films. 

In 1991's "The Addams Family," Granny Frump tries to catch a cat or a dog for dinner, and she frequently serves unidentifiable meals that move around on the family's plates. In the sequel, "Addams Family Values," she hands a skull to Fester's new wife, the seemingly sweet but sinister Debbie (Joan Cusack), and places a curse on her. Granny Frump knows plenty of baleful magic and isn't afraid to use it, making her one of the creepier Addamses.

Though Pubert's birth is announced at the end of 1991's "The Addams Family" when Morticia shows Gomez a knit baby garment with space for a few too many limbs, viewers don't meet the youngest Addams until the 1993 sequel. Pubert is the spitting image of Gomez, with his slicked-back black hair and pencil-thin mustache, which is disconcerting enough for a baby. Add in his talent for producing flaming arrows out of nowhere and you've got yourself a pretty darn creepy baby. 

Pubert's true creepiness doesn't come through until he becomes ill. Distressed by family upheaval, he turns "normal." Pubert gains a cherubic, mustache-free face and golden curls, and he develops a taste for Dr. Seuss and cheery nursery decor rather than the dark and sinister room he had before he fell ill. The contrast between the "normal" Pubert and the rest of the family is highly unsettling as is his preternatural ability for avoiding death at the hands of his jealous siblings. Though Pubert may have met an untimely demise in Pugsley's stomach, he was already one of the least predictable and creepiest Addamses as an infant. Imagine what he would have been like as an adult!

Fester has some of the strangest collections in the family (he always has a weapon handy), and his unexplained ability to conduct electricity makes you wonder what else he can do. Fester's ambiguity lands him very high on the creepy ranking. He started on the original sitcom as Morticia's uncle, but since then he's been depicted as Gomez's brother. In the 1991 film, he eyes a centerfold that, according to Gomez, turns out to be their mother. Fester's shifting (and troubling) lineage makes him one of the most mysterious members of the Addams Family, which is saying a lot for a family with so many secrets. 

That mystery only increases when you take into account the fact that he got lost in the Bermuda Triangle for years, setting the events of the 1991 film into motion. Though the Addams Family repeatedly proves that appearances can be deceiving, Fester undeniably has one of the most demented looks in the family, with his sunken yet impossibly wide eyes and his unsettling grin. His expression seems to hide nothing and everything all at once, making him even more enigmatic and much, much creepier.

A disembodied hand skittering around of its own volition? Thing is definitely one of the creepiest people (?) on this list. He is a servant and honorary Addams like Lurch, and though he does share many of Lurch's finer qualities, like loyalty and a clear devotion to the family, it's impossible to look past Thing's creepy appearance. The horror genre explores the unknown to creep people out, and Thing is nothing but unknowns. Though Charles Addams' original cartoons conceived of Thing as having a body that was too horrible to be seen, later incarnations turned Thing into a disembodied hand (or hand and forearm, as seen in the original sitcom). Thing emerged out of small boxes scattered throughout the Addamses' home to do things like fetch the mail, ring the dinner bell, or play the castanets so that Morticia and Gomez could dance. 

So many questions arise. What exactly is Thing? How did his mother and father (shown in the original sitcom as a pair of hands embracing in a wedding photo) conceive Thing? Where did he learn to drive? Whatever the answers are, one fact remains: a disembodied hand running around like a spider and appearing where you least expect it is very, very creepy.