History Jerkass / LiveActionTv

** Tywin Lannister. It is revealed in "Baelor" that Tyrion once made the mistake of falling in love with and marrying a whore his brother had secretly hired to sleep with him. So when Tywin found out, he ordered his entire garrison to rape her (each soldier paying, of course) and forced Tyrion to watch from beginning to end and then be the final participant — then pay her more because a Lannister is worth more. In the books, Jaime eventually confessed in ''A Storm of Swords'', the Season 4 counterpart, that she wasn't actually a whore, she was a genuinely good poor girl who loved Tyrion and Tywin destroyed the only genuine love and happiness he ever had.
** Cersei is unfriendly or hostile by default, petty, vindictive, and an overall unpleasant person to be around. It goes without saying that she HatesSmallTalk.

*** The Fourth Doctor is generally one of the nicer ones but he loves tormenting people for fun (occasionally going very much too far), and generally has a "difficult" personality, prone to [[MoodSwinger sudden]] intensely dark moods and periods of brooding interspersed with [[AttentionWhore attention-seeking]] and selfish unreliability. On his good days he's lovely to be around, fun and magnanimous and interesting and wise and hopelessly [[{{Adorkable}} adorable]] — on his bad days, he's virtually impossible to talk to and no sensible person would consent to being in the same building as him.

** On top of being a complete psychopath, Ramsay Bolton is also just a dick even in regular conversation.

* ''Series/Friends'':

** Dean approaches this too, most notably in "Point of No Return," when he coldly tells Bobby "YoureNotMyFather," tells his brother that Sam's so "angry and self-righteous" that he'll eventually give in to Lucifer, and decides to give in to the angels' plan for him even though that will invalidate everything Castiel has done against Heaven's orders for Dean and destroy most of the world. Throughout the series, Dean has repeatedly called his brother a "freak" and a "monster," even though he knows that's Sam's biggest fear.

** Crais, at least while he was the BigBad, who dropped everything to go on a chase against Crichton for killing his brother, something that was blatantly an accident. He spent much of his time either snapping his men, screaming at them, berating them, declaring them “irreversibly contaminated” (read: exiling them), getting them killed pursuing Crichton, and on occasion killing them himself. It gets to the point that his own crew hates him and they happily send him up the river when Scorpius discovers proof of the “killing his own crew” thing, which leads to him being punished with MindRape. This actually manages to make him ''nicer'', since it made him realize his own failures and promptly pull a HeelFaceTurn, or at least something approximating it.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': Rygel is greedy, selfish and vindictive. He does have his more noble moments, especially later in the series, so he's really on the border between JerkWithAHeartOfGold and Jerkass, but he can be a complete prick at times. Ka D'Argo is if anything worse. Quick to anger, and for the first two seasons does absolutely nothing but make their situation worse whilst belittling everyone else. His inability to control his temper and incredible speed to jump to conclusions despite reality is amazing and he never learns from his mistakes. Someone brings news your son is being sold as a slave, strangle them!
* ''Series/FawltyTowers'': Basil Fawlty is mean, snide and abusive to everyone from his wife to his employees to the guests at the hotel he owns. Many of his victims are just as obnoxious as he is, but it's impossible not to feel for poor Manuel, the naive Spanish waiter who takes the most abuse of all.

%%* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': Jayne Cobb is another example.

** First Doctor companion Steven Taylor starts out as a bit of one in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E9TheTimeMeddler The Time Meddler]]" due to his hot temper and [[NoSocialSkills his social skills being severely damaged]] by a [[PeopleZoo long period of imprisonment and isolation]]. He tends to [[MaliciousMisnaming semi-maliciously forget the Doctor hates being called 'Doc']], pick fights with people in normal conversation, and physically attacks a passer-by to get information off them instead of just asking like a reasonable person (which Vicki calls him out on).

** Really, ALL of the main characters qualify except Stuart. Leonard, Penny, Howard, Raj, Amy and Bernadette have shown multiple times that they're no better than Sheldon and take glee in humiliating him, insulting him and each other to their faces, doing things for no other reason [[ItAmusedMe than to tick Sheldon off]], and generally behaving like whiny jerks.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Avon in is a combination of this and ''DeadpanSnarker''. Also Del Tarrant and almost everyone else on the whole show.

* ''{{Series/Euphoria}}'': Nate is an abhorrent person who mentally and physically abuses his girlfriend, terrorizes Jules when they first meet, beats up a man for sleeping with Maddie and blackmails Jules in the cruelest manner possible to secure his family's security. While not above flashes of humanity, he's a ridiculously nasty and cruel person for most of his screentime.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'':
** Sheldon is probably the most unusual case for this trope. While he is very intelligent, he has been known to be a real nuisance to his friends, by trying to take all charge for Leonard's app idea, trying to sabotage them after they kick him out, staying at Raj and Howard's houses and keeping them up, never accepting gifts from others, kicking Raj out of his apartment due to regulations, and so on. He also forces the others to obey his ridiculously rigid schedules to the point of trying to control them and belittles his friends (especially Howard for daring to be an engineer).
** The entire main cast, honestly (aside from Stuart). Leonard, Howard, Raj and Penny in particular are whiny, insufferable egotists who act just as awful to Sheldon and each other as he does to them and take glee in humiliating him.

* ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'':
** Virtually everyone: Charlie, Judith, Jake, Berta ([[JerkWithaHeartofGold to an extent]]), Evelyn, several of Charlie's girlfriends and flings (including Rose) and even Alan.
*** To be fair to the characters, this is the result of {{Flanderization}}. In the earlier years the characters were kind of likeable, except Judith, who was always a complete bitch, though she did manage to become even worse in the later seasons.

* ''Series/OneHundredDeedsForEddieMcdowd'': Eddie [=McDowd=] is the ''epitome'' of TheBully, not to mention that [[TheFaceless his face is not shown to the viewers]]. He arrives to school stealing a student's sandwich for breakfast, probably bullies a teacher for money, pushing a student to a trash can, and bullies another student for milk. When Justin Taylor came to the school, he is spilled milk on him by ''accident''. Eddie starts to retaliate by putting paint on him and hanging him on a flagpole. Later on, he skips classes just to "exercise" by tossing rocks into windows. Noticing a dog, Eddie starts throwing rocks on the car that it's hiding [[MoralEventHorizon until it explodes]]. The Drifter shows up and knows ''everything about Eddie'' of how he took people's lunch money, the bikes he stole, the kids he terrorized, and his heart-shaped birthmark. The Drifter, to a lesser extent, as he may be a WellIntentionedExtremist, but he acts like an a-hole about Eddie doing good deeds.

* Vic from ''Series/BlackJesus'' is an asshole through and through.

* ''Series/DearJohn'': Kirk.

** The Doctor frequently exhibits fickle, merciless, almost psychopathic behaviour, but as he is a [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien godlike being, i.e. a Time Lord]], some degree of inhumanity is to be expected. A lot of the Doctor's jerkiness is not so much cruelty so much as it is his totally overlooking people's feelings - usually he genuinely doesn't know when he's being a jerk (like when the Tenth Doctor has to stop and ask if he's being rude in his first episode). The people and creatures whom he does act particularly hostile to usually [[OmnicidalManiac have it coming]] or have no one to blame but themselves.

*** The Third Doctor had quite a lot to be in a mood about - his exile to Earth and being put by the Time Lords into a new body he didn't want - but it's difficult to use that to justify his outright condescension to all of his coworkers, especially bellowing at Jo for being a 'stupid girl' or his occasional sexism towards Sarah Jane.
*** The Fourth Doctor is generally one of the nicer ones but he loves tormenting people for fun (occasionally going very much too far), and generally has a 'difficult' personality, prone to [[MoodSwinger sudden]] intensely dark moods and periods of brooding interspersed with [[AttentionWhore attention-seeking]] and selfish unreliability. On his good days he's lovely to be around, fun and magnanimous and interesting and wise and hopelessly [[{{Adorkable}} adorable]] - on his bad days, he's virtually impossible to talk to and no sensible person would consent to being in the same building as him.

** Jeremy Baines and most of his fellow bullies in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature Human Nature]]". Being [[AssholeVictim possessed by an insane alien]] doesn't help much.

* ''Series/{{Father Ted}}'': Several characters. There's Father Jack, Bishop Brennan, Father Dick Byrne, Father Stack, and Father Ted himself to a lesser extent. While Ted is the most sympathetic character in some respects, in others, he's actually worse than the others, having stolen funds from [[NoodleIncident "that Lourdes thing."]]
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': Jayne Cobb is another example.

** For season 10 there's Clemenza, Kimmie, Robyn, Royce, and Tiffany.

* ''Series/ICarly'': Nevel. Sam a lot of the time, Carly and Freddie not so much.

* ''Series/KingdomHospital'': Dr. Stegman.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'': Sonya Paxton. And pretty much every single defense attorney on the show.

* ''Series/LostInSpace'': Dr. Smith, played with scene-stealing gusto by veteran actor Jonathan Harris, virtually took over the series. Standing out that much in a series not intended to be all that serious was a remarkable achievement.

* ''Series/TheNewLeaveItToBeaver'': In this 1980s revival, Eddie's kids are {{Jerkass}}es too, Freddie and Eddie Jr. aka "Bomber".
* ''Series/NewsRadio'': Bill [=McNeal=]. He almost always gets away with it, and most of the other main characters let him walk all over them (especially Dave, his boss).

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': King George is the most blatant and agreed-upon example.

** Del Boy during the 1986 Christmas special "A Royal Flush". Boycie is this more generally, though obviously it's played for comedic value.

** Mickey Pearce to a lesser extent.
** Slatter.

* ''Pitchmen'': Billy Mays takes this to the level of sociopathy.
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': Has had its share of Jerkasses Bulk and Skull during Season 1 being the most notable.

* ''Series/RescueMe'': Pretty much the entire Gavin family.

* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'': Jesse Flores. Resistance fighter from the future who came back pretty much solely to wreck John Connor's life. With a seemingly counter-productive desire to destroy the only thing protecting the savior of the human race, she brought a sidekick {{Scrappy}} of her own to seduce John Connor, and then promptly disposed of said girlfriend as part of her scheme. What's potentially even more disappointing than Fox's cancellation of the show is that we never got to find out if Derek really killed her or not.

** Jordan, ex-wife of Dr. Cox, also deserves to be listed here.
* ''Series/TheSecretCircle'': Nick at first, also Callum. Jake as well. Although, like Nick, he changes and evolves as a person.

* ''Series/SixFeetUnder'': All the characters have their moments, but Brenda is probably the biggest offender of them all. Parker could also be seen as this to some extent.

* ''Series/{{Skins}}'': Cook.

** The artificial intelligence version of Jor-El.
* ''Series/WorldsDumbest'': Frank Stallone.

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'':
** Dr. Rodney [=McKay=] (David Hewlett) starts out as this. Constantly complaining, constantly obnoxious, egotistical, and cowardly. As [[CharacterDevelopment his character matures]] he is shown to have redeeming characteristics though, developing into a JerkWithAHeartOfGold. He also still manages to [[TheSmartGuy come up with the plan]] almost every time regardless of his Jerkassitude, usually saving many lives in the process.
** More completely straight examples from ''Stargate Atlantis'' would be [[SergeantRock Sergeant Bates]] and [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong Dr. Kavanagh]], although they're clearly {{Designated Villain}}s as [[StrawmanHasAPoint they do have legitimate points]], but because these are directed against the main characters they're portrayed as petty jerks (Bates, unlike Kavanagh, turns out to be, although not entirely, right and the leads apologize). Bates continues to improve over the course of the series. Kavanagh remains a dick.
** The living Ancients that showed up in "The Return". "Thanks for protecting our city, now get the fuck out so we can wallow in our misery." Not verbatim, obviously, but this is essentially what they wanted. They blamed the Atlantis team for everything that was happening with the Wraith (Woolsey at least has the good sense to call their commander on this and she shuts up real fast), threw the Athosians off the planet (they weren't even living in the city, the Ancients apparently felt they needed the ''entire planet'' - they only repopulated Atlantis mind you - to themselves), and only allowed O'Neill and Woolsey to stay as guests. Frankly, it's hard to sympathize when they all die in the next episode.
* ''Series/StargateUniverse'': Ups the ante on Atlantis by having an entire cast composed of extreme jerkasses, with only one or two exceptions. But then it is pretty much [[JustForFun/XMeetsY Battlestargate]] [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 Galactiverse]] (with the worst qualities of both). They do get better though, when Rush and Young come to an agreement and when Rush [[spoiler: sits in the Ancient chair and sees his wife die again.]] They all have moments, but in general the characters, except for Telford, have escaped from this trope. Telford may be stepping away from {{Jerkass}} territory, now that [[spoiler: he's no longer under the brainwashing influence of the Lucian Alliance]].

* ''Series/{{Taxi}}'': Louie De Palma.

* ''Series/TheThickOfIt'': Malcolm Tucker, [[SirSwearsALot obviously]]. However, everyone else have their moments, because tDhey were in no way better than him.

* ''Series/TracyBeakerReturns'':
** Gives us the major 3. [[TheCynic Johnny]]. Lily. [[ManipulativeBastard Elektra]].

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': Both Merle and, at first, Daryl Dixon in this Creator/{{AMC}} show.

* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': Mostly Alex, but everyone in the Russo family can slip into this occasionally.

** The spoiled and traumatized-by-going broke Rose family are all snooty jerks when the series begins. Very quickly, however, it is clear that Johnny is a hard-worker and ''TheDeterminator'' who intends to rescue his family, and Alexis might be a ditz, but she's cheerful, optimistic and not-nearly the snob she appears to be. Gradually, Moira and David firmly land in the JerkWithAHeartOfGold category.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Sheldon is probably the most unusual case for this trope. While he is very intelligent, he has been known to be a real nuisance to his friends, by trying to take all charge for Leonard's app idea, trying to sabotage them after they kick him out, staying at Raj and Howard's houses and keeping them up, never accepting gifts from others, kicking Raj out of his apartment due to regulations, and so on. He also forces the others to obey his ridiculously rigid schedules to the point of trying to control them and belittles his friends (especially Howard for daring to be an engineer).

* ''Series/LifeOnMars2006'': Ray Carling. At times, he exists purely to make Gene Hunt appear likeable in comparison. This applies both Dean Andrew's portrayal on the BBC version and Michael Imperioli's portrayal in the [[Series/LifeOnMars2008 U.S. version]]. He was softened in ''Series/AshesToAshes''. He was portrayed as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and dangerously closed to JerkassWoobie. It's hard to tell if that's CharacterDevelopment or BadassDecay.

* ''Series/TheOfficeUK'': Chris Finch. But his jerk-assedness sets up a CrowningMomentOfAwesome for [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist David Brent]] in the final episode, when Brent finally tells "best friend" Finch [[PrecisionFStrike what he can do.]] WordOfGod has it that he was created so that Brent wouldn't seem like quite so much of a tosser in comparison. The American version of Chris Finch is Todd Packer. They're both obnoxious, over-sexualized, condescending sales reps.

* ''Series/{{Soap}}'': The ventriloquist Chuck seemed like a sweet mild-mannered guy, but his dummy alter-ego Bob was a massive flaming jerkass to everyone in sight. To the point where Benson achieved a CrowningMomentOfAwesome by throwing Bob out the window. Hilariously, Bob's victims almost always took out their rage on ''Bob,'' the dummy, and left Chuck alone. (And it's a testament to Jay Johnson's ventriloquism talents that you could find yourself totally ''going along with that'' until FridgeLogic kicked in.) Elaine was also a supreme Jerkass, which led to another CrowningMomentOfAwesome when Mary threw a pie in her face at dinner. Then Elaine opened up to Danny about her dysfunctional upbringing and started to turn things around [[spoiler: -- only to wind up getting killed]].