I find Mr, Betteredge to be a confounding character. On one hand he is a kind of buffoonish everyman, who, by way of idiomatic expressions--both, often, sexist, and xenophobic--seems capable of explaining away any complications in the world around him (except perhaps, for Rachel, and Rosanna). On the other hand, however, he is overwhelmingly sardonic, showing a highly developed sense of sarcasm and irony, which sharply contrasts, his hokey, populist, kind of wisdom.