I can like characters like House (and like Wolfwood and Ando too) because they're not real *and* because it's pretty obvious that the being a total asshole, while it may be part of their "charm" in some ways, it's not what makes them interesting. What makes them interesting is the "why" of their being assholes, and all of the other parts of their personality aside from that, and how they live with themselves.

Why does House treat everyone else like dirt? Since he was treated like dirt as a kid and he's in horrible pain and likely has a mental illness, it's pretty understandable he'd react in some way. Why does Ando call Nikki a bitch for not performing for him? He's lived his entire life in a cultural milieu where women are devalued and where this kind of behavior toward, especially, a gaijin woman is seen as absolutely OK, and as the series goes on, IMO the subtext makes it pretty clear he has issues with relationships with women due to either his cultural mores or his sexual preference, since he seems to be a lot more in love with Hiro than with any of the women he's seen.