So we might as well move on to more derogatory terms - and, speaking of hapless goalkeeping, the case of Franck Grandel.
"Camille," Gino's prim and proper, white-faced Cumeezi colleague is sweeping the courtroom, "Mr. Eggs" is climbing over the courtroom pews like Benigni at the "Life Is Beautiful" Oscars, and Ric Reaper is pleading hapless Gino's case to Hizzoner.
With the exception of Jurian Hughes, whose Janet seems genuinely to emanate from within, the cast is game but overmatched (and in a couple of cases hapless); most of the players spend more effort straining with the regional patois than making their characters engage with one another.
He gained nationwide fame shortly before the court case, playing hapless government minister Hugh Abbott in The Thick of It, a BBC satire on politics and spin, and winning last year's Bafta for best comedy performer.
In some cases, these hapless workers are the victims of fly-by-night operations.
In those cases, the hapless users saw on their screens error messages recommending that they upgrade their browsers, preferably to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
This sounds eerily similar to the recent case of a hapless father who found that his daughter was pregnant from a coupon that Target, a retailer, sent to their house.
I can think of only one such plot – the curious case of a hapless, failed used car salesman who sought to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador the US – where Iran or Iranians were in any way involved.
Like the stately homes in Odessa, this one has its Balzacian history of fortunes made by successful, self-made men and, in some cases, squandered by hapless older sons.
Take the hapless Jimmy Carter administration for example.
