History ButtMonkey / LiveActionTV

*** Speaking of Den-O, the titular Rider puts the other two to shame as he is more of TheChewToy.

* Miles O'Brien from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' was the character of choice when the writers needed to put somebody through hell for an episode. This led to the "O'Brien Must Suffer" in-joke among the writers, who intentionally tried to inflict something truly awful on him at least once per season. If an alien attacks one crew member, it's almost always either O'Brien or Worf (although the latter is for [[TheWorfEffect a different reason]]).
** In one particularly impressive run, season 2 has three episodes in a row that make O'Brien miserable:

** [[SmugSnake Weyoun]] is a bit of one in the later seasons, since every character hates him so much. He's particularly known for [[TheyKilledKennyAgain being repeatedly killed and re-cloned]] -- until [[spoiler:Damar's forces destroy his cloning facility and then Garak [[KilledOffForReal kills him for the last time]]]].
* On the original ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'', Chekov did more screaming-in-pain than the rest of the crew combined. He even got a [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] scene in the episode "Mirror, Mirror". This was explained as a convenient way to show there was mortal peril. Apparently, Kirk, Spock and [=McCoy=] all being older, dignified men would have made it improper for them to scream, but Chekov is in his early twenties and still very boyish, so it's all right for him. Doesn't make it any easier on the poor guy, though. In a nice inversion, he's the only one who ''doesn't'' get hit with the aging disease in "The Deadly Years". He still ends up getting subjected to a thousand and one medical checks, though.

** Sometimes Scotty, whenever he was left in charge of the ''Enterprise''. He more than made up for it on several occasions, usually managing to outsmart the villain of the week.
* Geordi from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' who gets pwned nearly as much as Worf (suffering from TheWorfEffect). He's even hopeless with women. One particularly cruel episode, "Skin Of Evil", had an alien taunt his blindness by moving his visor around, just because. The series seems to never let us go on the fact that he's blind (until the movies, well actually he gets taunted again in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'', which may or may not have led him to go get cybernetic replacements by ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''.). In "Interface", his mom disappears as some plot of the week. Worst yet is that nobody gives a damn about his mom afterwards. And to add insult to injury, in Voyager's "Timeless" he tries to stop ''Harry Kim'' and fails. Ouch. In "The Mind's Eye", he's heading on his merry way to Risa for some rest, relaxation and poontang. He gets kidnapped by Romulans and brainwashed into being a ManchurianAgent. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwKl33uFQ2E here]] for further proof of his incredibly poor luck.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qypY48xDjX4 This compilation]] of Geordi getting hurt is 10 minutes long. [[https://youtu.be/T8PqC7i0mEI This compilation]] [[TheWorfEffect of Worf getting hurt]] (throughout the entire franchise!) is only 6 minutes long. Think about that...
** Next to Worf and Geordi, Deanna Troi filled this role many times. She was always being possessed by aliens, abused by aliens in crashed shuttles, abducted by aliens for political gambits, being nearly forced to marry an alien, having her psychic powers robbed by aliens, suffering nightmares at the hands of aliens, forced to listen to a virtual music box in her head for days by an alien, being impregnated by an alien without her consent, the list goes on. Her only real use on the show was to counsel the [[RedShirt random crew member of the week]] and to tell Picard when she sensed weird things happening while on the bridge– apart from being this show's MsFanservice, that is.
** And when Troi actually said something useful, she was often ignored. In the second season episode, "Samaritan Snare," Geordi is beamed over to a disabled ship to help the apparently dim-witted aliens out. Troi walks onto the bridge, see Geordi on the ship through the viewscreen and tells Riker Geordi is in danger and needs to be beamed back immediately. Riker ignores her warning because those aliens are just so stupid and what harm can they do? Well, let's just say the main plot of the show is Riker's efforts to get Geordi back, which could have been avoided if he'd listened to the empath!
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
** Fans were fond of observing that Ensign Harry Kim was killed and brought back to life with something approaching regularity (one unauthorized ''Star Trek: Voyager'' episode guide book even compared him to [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Kenny McCormick]]). Seems even being a major character [[MauveShirt isn't enough]] for an [[RedShirt Ensign]] to survive. And even when death was not in the cards for him, Harry has also been tormented by a MonsterClown, stabbed and nearly eaten alive from the inside by Species 8472, sent to a violent space colony prison, and manages to catch an alien STD. Speaking of which, there's his [[FatalAttractor terrible luck with women]]. And for all the varieties of hell he's put through over the course of seven years, the poor dude ''never gets a promotion'' above Ensign!
** Subverted in the episode "Timeless", where everyone BUT Harry Kim (and Chakotay) dies. Until the end of the episode, when, of course, they both die.
** In universe, one of the show's longest running gags among the crew, is Neelix's supposedly terrible cooking. Among the audience, his reputation was summed up by a game reviewer for ''Elite Force'', saying that one of the best things about the game was the fact that, "you can shoot Neelix."
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': Most of the captains of ''Star Trek'' have their moments of buttmonkery, but ol Jonathan Archer is one of the worst of the lot. All he wants to do is peacefully explore the galaxy making friends of the many species across the galaxy in the ship his father built, but he continuously ends up putting himself and his ship in ludicrously dangerous situations both by chance and due to his ChronicHeroSyndrome, gets captured constantly, nearly gets killed or sentenced to death countless times, and if the plot requires somebody to get badly injured and/or beaten up by the VillainOfTheWeek that episode, it's him, especially during the first season.
** Almost as frequently, it's Malcolm Reed who is the designated victim, although he's more an accident prone victim of circumstances than a constant villain target. He seems like a {{Redshirt}} with PlotArmour, forever doomed to be injured or trapped in order to provide dramatic tension. This may also be a symptom of TheWorfEffect, given that he is the ship's tactical officer and thus the one who should be most capable at looking out for his own well-being.

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': Save for Peg, the whole Bundy family counts. They're all starving because Peg spends all of Al's income (their ''only'' income) on herself such as new clothes and fast food.

* ''The Tony Randall Show'' had [[UnfortunateNames Mario Lanza]] (Zane Lasky). The RunningGag with the character was that Randall's character constantly insulted, belittled and hated him for no clear reason.

-->'''Chekov:''' Blood sample, Chekov! Marrow sample, Chekov! Skin sample, Chekov! If – if I live long enough, I'm going to run out of samples!\\

** [[SmugSnake Weyoun]] is a bit of one in the later seasons, since every character hates him so much.

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' has Fitz. In addition to the RunningGag that has him getting knocked out all the time, he's almost always the one who's held hostage, trapped (unarmed) in the middle of a siege, inadvertently helping out the VillainOfTheWeek, or some combination of all the above. Added to that is the fact that seemingly nearly every guy they meet feels compelled to hit on his LoveInterest (who is herself ObliviousToLove, while he simply CannotSpitItOut). Whether all this is played for laughs or drama generally depends on the overall tone of the episode.
** In the DarkerAndEdgier second season this is taken UpToEleven and exclusively played for drama with [[spoiler:his brain damage leaving him TongueTied.]]
** Finally averted in Season 3, by which point Fitz has [[TookALevelInBadass taken a level in badass]], is more forward in his relationship with Simmons, and is overall a tougher character.

** The Doctor, particularly Eleven, really is "everybody's butt monkey", even his own. [[spoiler:See: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice "Amy's Choice"]], in which the Doctor, as the Dream Lord, makes fun of himself for his "tawdry quirks" ([[GranolaGirl vegetarianism]], [[RummageSaleReject stupid costumes]], dragging around a [[TeamPet cutesy]] [[SmallAnnoyingCreature space]] [[RobotBuddy dog]], etc.), and the Doctor admits, indirectly, that [[HeroicSelfDeprecation nobody hates him as much as himself]].]] Amy, via BaitAndSwitchComparison, says he "could almost be mistaken for a real person". River keeps shooting his hats. Going back a little, Donna kept calling him "Martian boy". And the WorfEffect has its way with him about OnceAnEpisode, and he has (recently?) developed a habit of [[TheyKilledKenny getting killed]] [[DeathIsCheap off constantly]] even ''between'' [[TheNthDoctor regenerations]].

** Xander [[TropeNamer introduced the term,]] with his line "I'm sick of being everybody's butt monkey." in the {{Dracula}} episode. The term first appeared on TV in ''[[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer BtVS]]'', [[OlderThanTheyThink but was heard "on the street" well before that]].

* The Singaporean talkshow ''It's A Small World'', about foreigners working in Singapore and learning Mandarin, has designated Hongkonger Douglas Kung as this from the get-go. It's worth noting at this point that Douglas is ''a director and martial arts coordinator'', credited with directing ''Shaolin vs Evil Dead'', now working with the very TV station that made this show. He's probably the most GenreSavvy of the lot, his Mandarin is little more than his Cantonese being hammered into shape, and he's very much a ManChild who's prioritised having a ball over anything else. It does bite him epically in the ass one time, when he has to taste ''wasabi'' as a forfeit, and does it ''while holding his nose''. Try that sometime.

* ''Series/{{TheFreshBeatBand}}'': [[PluckyComicRelief Twist]], full stop.

** Saul Goodman is one in his spin-off show ''Series/BetterCallSaul''. Saul, then going by his real name Jimmy [=McGill=], has his Butt Monkey status courtesy of his older brother Chuck sabotaging his legal career so that he can't work for the mega-corporation HHM (Hamlin, Hamlin & [=McGill=]) that has dominated the law market of Albuquerque, reducing Jimmy to a very poor lifestyle; having to drive an outdated, near-broken down 1998 Suzuki Esteem and sleep in a boiler room of a nail salon. The show centers on Jimmy descending (or relapsing) into a life of crime pulling off notorious scams, rip-offs and blackmails to get money.

** Al is the biggest one on the show. To list all the atrocious events that have happened to him would require its own ''website''.

* Deandra, or Sweet Dee, on ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' is the Butt Monkey for her entire group of friends. They crash her car, ignore her and generally crap all over her. In a special where the gang invents an alternate story about how their ancestors cracked the liberty bell, they call Sweet Dee their Witch Slave and force her to wait on them, threatening her with calling her out on being a witch if she doesn't comply.