History DudeWheresMyRespect / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In the episode "The Pizza," Larry Needlemeyer gets hit with this ''hard''; he [[NewJobAsThePlotDemands holds down countless jobs]] and works ''very'' hard at all of them, to the extent that [[BarrierMaiden his continued employment is required to keep Elmore's economy and society from spontaneously collapsing]]... and despite it all, ''everyone'' in Elmore, particularly the Wattersons, are nothing but {{Ungrateful Bastard}}s to him, to the extent that they barely acknowledge him as a person.
* On on ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', this happens to poor Chicken Boo ''[[OnceAnEpisode all the time]]''. He's held numerous jobs, and ''always'' does ''excellently'' at them. But sooner or later his disguise fails, and someone realizes he's a big chicken -- and [[FantasticRacism nobody likes chickens]], (well, except SantaClaus) leading to him being fired or worse. (Probably why he disguises himself in the first place.)

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Zig-Zagged with [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderAvatarAang Aang]]. On one side, a lot of people just think he's a naive kid and often throw criticism towards him for neglecting his duties, accidentally or not. On the ''other'' side, being the Avatar is still a respected position and even the most important people in the country will speak with him. The Fire Nation also have a great respect for him... so they send their best soldiers to kill him.

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow''. Sure, Mordecai and Rigby are the embodiment of NiceJobBreakingItHero, but they still clean up their own messes, save the park, and on some occasions, Benson's life. He usually repays them by threatening to fire them if they don't get back to work. This is because Benson suffers this to a larger extent from his boss, Pops' dad and the owner of the park.
* This and UngratefulBastard comes up frequently in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated.'' The people of Crystal Cove berate the gang in unmasking monsters, because they believe the monsters make good tourist attractions, even if the monsters endanger their lives.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', the [[Characters/TheSimpsonsTheSimpsonFamily core family]] was at least tangentially responsible for every major event in Springfield, and while other characters might remember them for some specific thing in a previous episode, that's all that they're known for. They might even be remembered in another episode by the same character for something completely different. That being said, they are the cause of just as many problems as they are of good deeds, if not more, so the townsfolk may be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by not giving them the time of day. Always PlayedForLaughs, there are some specific cases where one character calls out another for not remembering a Simpsons family member:
** The second time [[Characters/TheSimpsonsBartSimpson Bart Simpson]] meets up with Krusty the Clown, Krusty dismisses Bart as a nobody and brushes him off until Bart has to remind him that he saved Krusty from an attempted murder by Sideshow Bob. Even then, Krusty only reluctantly agrees to listen to Bart. This had become a RunningGag, that Krusty never remembers Bart, and a character trait of his, that Krusty doesn't remember or care who helps him.
** There was one instance where Mr. Burns asks Smithers about [[Characters/TheSimpsonsHomerSimpson Homer Simpson's]] identity, and Smithers points out that everything important that has happened to Mr. Burns in the last several years was tied to Homer in some way. This does not change Mr. Burns's outlook on Homer in the slightest, though it does disappoint Smithers slightly. Smithers seems to be an aversion though: He is genuinely aware of what Homer has done and remembers it, trusting Homer enough to substitute as Mr. Burns's assistant in "Homer the Smithers" when Smithers goes on vacation.

** [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerCatra Catra's]] reaction after learning that Shadow Weaver stole the credits of Catra's plan to sequestrate Glimmer and Bow during Princess Prom. To add insult to injury, when Adora offers herself in exchange of Glimmer, Shadow Weaver cruelly expells Catra from her quarters, saying she doesn't need her anymore. [[spoiler: In retaliation, Catra gives back Adora's sword.]]
** The main reason why [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerEntrapta Entrapta]] joins the Horde. She does her very best to help saving Glimmer and Bow, but all the princess do is complaining she doesn't stay put, or put her on a leash (while nobody complains when Sea Hawk wanders around). As the cherry on top, after Entrapta is accidentaly left behind (unaware her "friends" thought she was dead), Catra makes her believe they abandoned her on purpose.
** Sea Hawk and Scorpia have this during "White Out", in Season 2. Despite being in opposite sides, they bond over temporarily because both feel unappreciated and just tolerated because they are useful. They come to conclusion they don't need others' opinions to validate themselves.
* ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'': No matter how often Sonic saves them from Eggman, the inhabitants of Bygone Island always seem prepared to believe the worst in him and turn on him at the drop of a hat over anything, no matter how large or small. In "Just a Guy," it reaches a point where Sonic goes off on a rant over it and goes into a TenMinuteRetirement to teach them a lesson:
-->'''Sonic''': You know what I think is "compassionate?" Saving the village from Eggman! Like, every week! But do I get any props for that? No! Everyone just goes around gasping at me whenever I call a guy a "guy," or people "people!"
* "[[Recap/SouthParkS6E9FreeHat Free Hat]]" from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' had Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Tweek being invited to a ceremony. They believed it was for their cause to prevent {{George Lucas Altered Version}}s of movies (having survived the premiere of a version of ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' with unnecessary changes), but it turns out they were being thanked for their other, less important cause of pardoning a proven child murderer (which they had reluctantly adopted to keep members of their club around). The boys leave with the mindset that what doesn't matter now would matter later.

* A recurring theme in ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'', which was billed as a show about one of the "least important ships in Starfleet". Captain Freeman has a chip on her shoulder about ''California''-class ships like the ''Cerritos'' being ignored and used for unglamorous busywork, so she's eager to raise their profile and takes it really personally whenever her ship is taken off a "prestigious" duty for a different one. This can lead to conflict with her crew (especially her daughter Mariner) because they're a bunch of {{Bunny Ears Lawyer}}s... as is she, without knowing it. This reaches a breaking point in the third season when she goes to extreme lengths to make the ship look good in front of a reporter and ends up [[spoiler:ejecting Mariner from the ship in a fury after the reporter brings up a bunch of embarrassing stories of the ship's misadventures--only to see in the final piece that it was everyone ''but'' Mariner who spilled the beans, by which time she's resigned from Starfleet, and Freeman's abysmal handling of the reporter's presence has made her look like a "cruel taskmaster"]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':
** Deconstructed in "The Beast Within", where it's clearly shown during the fight against Adonis that Beast Boy has deep anger issues because of the lack of appreciation from the other Titans, and during the fight all of his repressed anger goes out and he totally [[CurbStompBattle curb stomps]] Adonis, much to the shock of the other Titans.

** Zig-Zagged with Aang. On one side, a lot of people just think he's a naive kid and often throw criticism towards him for neglecting his duties, accidentally or not. On the ''other'' side, being the Avatar is still a respected position and even the most important people in the country will speak with him. The Fire Nation also have a great respect for him... so they send their best soldiers to kill him.
** This gets somewhat egregious in the followup comic, ''[[Comicbook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise The Promise]]''. Sokka and Toph are trying to calm a crowd of angry Earth Kingdom villagers who want the Fire Nation out. So what happens when Sokka speaks up for them to chill out? He gets nailed in the head with a rock and called a "Water Tribe savage". And to think, one year ago he was instrumental in keeping the entire Earth Kingdom from being incinerated, taking out an entire dirigible ''fleet''.
** In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', this is a ''constant'' problem for Korra, whom none of the authority figures of the world respect for being the Avatar. This is initially due to her habit of bad first impressions, where she tended to do more harm than good, combined with being secluded from the world for her entire adolescence and the world's changing views on politics and opinion of needing an Avatar. Despite her best efforts however, most leaders continue to outright look down on Korra, dismiss her requests for aid, and sometimes outright work against her throughout the course of the series. Even during the final season, if Korra can't immediately solve a problem, she'll be ignored. This is most egregious in the episode "Beyond the Wilds" where a conference of world leaders included [[UpperClassTwit Prince Wu]] who was invited although he had literally nothing at all to contribute aside from his claim to the throne, but they left out Korra, the Avatar and the Keeper of Balance. Even her mentor Tenzin [[InnocentlyInsensitive accidentally treats]] her rather poorly. Apparently, Prince Wu was the only one who actually thought Korra should have been invited.

* Donald Duck in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017''. He raised the triplets for ten years entirely on his own, and they still think Uncle Scrooge (who didn't pay them a visit or give them birthday presents) and Uncle Gladstone (who is "the worst") are cooler than him (although the kids do eventually realize that Gladstone isn't a good person). It's only when the triplets are angry at Scrooge and passive agressively complimenting Donald as a contrast to Scrooge that they seem to realize just how much he's been there for them.

** Harley wants to be respected and feared as a proper villain after striking out on her own which is constantly being undermined by people still dismissing her as merely Joker's ex-girlfriend. Despite the fact that she freed the Justice League from their imprisonment and was the one who *actually* stopped [[spoiler:Dr. Psycho and his parademon army]], she is not shown any appreciation by the city of Gotham. The Justice League are awarded for saving the day, when it was actually Harley. Likewise, Wonder Woman shows no gratitude toward her for saving Themyscira.

** Ron gets no respect from his peers or enemies, despite his key role in regularly going to SaveTheWorld with Kim. That being said, even she doesn't get much slack from people on the home front for all the times she's saved them all from certain doom.

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': Cat Noir, Ladybug's partner, is routinely subject of that by villains, some civilians and by Ladybug herself.

** Even outside of hero work, by the end of the series, members of the main cast gain great success in fashion, military and stunt work, teaching, etc. Still no outside of Ponyville seems to recognize them most of the time, while their hometown only ever holds them in high esteem within the context of their far more mundane day jobs, as they quickly came to see the occasional dangers that the group saves the town from as {{Unusually Uninteresting Sight}}s. Even Twilight, protégé to the country's ruler and who was apart of the royal family through her brother before gaining a princess title in her own right, usually only gets her royal status noted when the plot explicitly requires it.
** ZigZagged with Spike. The character is a ButtMonkey who tends to do a lot of menial labor for his friends without any hesitation and often little thanks, and is subsequently overlooked by everyone else in Equestria. In the Crystal Empire however, he's a LivingLegend with the title of "[[TheMagnificent The Great and Honorable Spike]] [[TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard the Brave and Glorious]]", due to playing a key role in saving the region in a Season 3 episode, and is always praised by the masses as soon as he steps foot in its capital city.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', the core family was at least tangentially responsible for every major event in Springfield, and while other characters might remember them for some specific thing in a previous episode, that's all that they're known for. They might even be remembered in another episode by the same character for something completely different. That being said, they are the cause of just as many problems as they are of good deeds, if not more, so the townsfolk may be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by not giving them the time of day. Always PlayedForLaughs, there are some specific cases where one character calls out another for not remembering a Simpsons family member:
** The second time Bart meets up with Krusty the Clown, Krusty dismisses Bart as a nobody and brushes him off until Bart has to remind him that he saved Krusty from an attempted murder by Sideshow Bob. Even then, Krusty only reluctantly agrees to listen to Bart. This had become a RunningGag, that Krusty never remembers Bart, and a character trait of his, that Krusty doesn't remember or care who helps him.
** There was one instance where Mr. Burns asks Smithers about Homer Simpson's identity, and Smithers points out that everything important that has happened to Mr. Burns in the last several years was tied to Homer in some way. This does not change Mr. Burns's outlook on Homer in the slightest, though it does disappoint Smithers slightly. Smithers seems to be an aversion though: He is genuinely aware of what Homer has done and remembers it, trusting Homer enough to substitute as Mr. Burns's assistant in "Homer the Smithers" when Smithers goes on vacation.

** Catra’s reaction after learning that Shadow Weaver stole the credits of Catra’s plan to sequestrate Glimmer and Bow during Princess Prom. To add insult to injury, when Adora offers herself in exchange of Glimmer, Shadow Weaver cruelly expells Catra from her quarters, saying she doesn’t need her anymore. [[spoiler: In retaliation, Catra gives back Adora’s sword.]]
** The main reason why Entrapta joins the Horde. She does her very best to help saving Glimmer and Bow, but all the princess do is complaining she doesn’t stay put, or put her on a leash (while nobody complains when Sea Hawk wanders around). As the cherry on top, after Entrapta is accidentaly left behind (unaware her “friends” thought she was dead), Catra makes her believe they abandoned her on purpose.

* ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'': No matter how often Sonic saves them from Eggman, the inhabitants of Bygone Island always seem prepared to believe the worst in him and turn on him at the drop of a hat over anything, no matter how large or small. In "Just a Guy," it reaches a point where Sonic goes off on a rant over it and goes into a TenMinuteRetirement:

* Played absolutely straight in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''. The girls had a full week of baddie stompin', city savin', and other matters that involved super heroines. However, the citizens get more and more demanding, each task more menial than the next, until the girls took no more and went on strike. Said tasks included carrying groceries, opening jars of pickles, and ''cleaning cat litter.'' Ironically, a monster attacked at that moment of the strike. The girls had to coach the town in defending themselves...and was responsible for pre-party cleanup afterwards.

* A recurring theme in ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'', which was billed as a show about one of the "least important ships in Starfleet". Captain Freeman has a chip on her shoulder about ''California''-class ships like the ''Cerritos'' being ignored and used for unglamorous busywork, so she's eager to raise their profile and takes it really personally whenever her ship is taken off a "prestigious" duty for a different one. This can lead to conflict with her crew (especially her daughter Mariner) because they're a bunch of {{Bunny Ears Lawyer}}s... as is she, without knowing it. This reaches a breaking point in the third season when she goes to extreme lengths to make the ship look good in front of a reporter and ends up [[spoiler:ejecting Mariner from the ship in a fury after the reporter brings up a bunch of embarrassing stories of the ship's misadventures--only to see in the final piece that it was everyone ''but'' Mariner who spilled the beans]].

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes: ''WesternAnimation/DripalongDaffy'' has Daffy as a would-be western hero who does have the cajones to challenge the hulking brute Nasty Canasta to a duel. It's Comedy Relief (Porky) and his toy soldier that brings the beast down, so as the townsfolk laud him:

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes: "Dripalong Daffy'' has Daffy as a would-be western hero who does have the cajones to challenge the hulking brute Nasty Canasta to a duel. It's Comedy Relief (Porky) and his toy soldier that brings the beast down, so as the townsfolk laud him:

** Jim Gordon has this trope a lot worse than Harley. He's a genuine and honest cop, he's sacrificed everything from his ability to be there for his family to his own sanity to keep Gotham safe, and he's the only true ally Batman has in the city. What does he get for it? Nothing. Batman is kind of dismissive of him, most of the cops don't have much respect for him, and even when he gets off his butt and singlehandedly takes down ''Two-Face'', [[spoiler:the city gives keys to the League (who got imprisoned for most of the event) and people who ''weren't even there to being with.'' It gets worse in Season 3 when the rest of the citizens blame Gordon for not stopping the numerous problems they have when he's waisting time trying to nab Harley and Ivy.]]

** His rebooted counterpart in ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'' seems to have this a little better, but perhaps not by much. His primary motivation here is mostly to serve as an inspiration for others, much in the same way the [[ShowWithinAShow the original Darkwing Duck series]] was for him, but he doesn't get off to the smoothest starts. When he takes up the identity full time, he's barely given notice when he helps to save the Earth from invading forces from the Moon (well, aside from Launchpad), and even this ends up exploited when Scrooge switches costumes with him to try and foil General Lunaris. And when he gets his own lair in Saint Canard? No crime whatsoever, thanks to Mayor Zan Owlson's efficient leadership. He's only given respect when he stops Gosalyn from breaking in to Taurus Bulba's lab, even getting the key to the city. Yet, he manages to save the city in the end, and who gets all the credit? [[SitcomArchNemesis Gizmoduck]].

* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'': Harley wants to be respected and feared as a proper villain after striking out on her own which is constantly being undermined by people still dismissing her as merely Joker's ex-girlfriend. Despite the fact that she freed the Justice League from their imprisonment and was the one who *actually* stopped [[spoiler:Dr. Psycho and his parademon army]], she is not shown any appreciation by the city of Gotham. The Justice League are awarded for saving the day, when it was actually Harley. Likewise, Wonder Woman shows no gratitude toward her for saving Themyscira.

* In the animated version of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda'', Link suffers from this in a different way than described in the video game section. In the cartoon, it's ''[[WellExcuseMePrincess Zelda herself]]'' who refuses to accord Link any respect. She's often [[{{Tsundere}} nasty to him]]; she [[TheUnfavorite compares him unfavorably]] to another wandering hero; she almost [[UngratefulBastard never thanks him for his protection]]; and when things are quiet in the kingdom, she forces him to earn his keep by [[BattleButler doing chores and maintenance around the castle]]. To add insult to injury, her father the King genuinely likes Link, but [[AbsentMindedProfessor can't seem to remember his name]].

* Donald Duck in ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017''. He raised the triplets for ten years entirely on his own, and they still think Uncle Scrooge (who didn't pay them a visit or give them birthday presents) and Uncle Gladstone (who is "the worst") are cooler than him (although the kids do eventually realize that Gladstone isn't a good person). It's only when the triplets are angry at Scrooge and passive agressively complimenting Donald as a contrast to Scrooge that they seem to realize just how much he's been there for them.