History Main / FutureLoser

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': "Future Tense" puts Grim in panic mode as he mistakes a fortune teller's fright over reading his skeletal hand as a reading of his impending doom. In the otherworld, he consults Nostradamus, whose archaic prophecy is translated as Grim in the future still being subservient to Billy and Mandy.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': "Future Tense" puts Grim in panic mode as he mistakes a fortune teller's fright over reading his skeletal hand as a reading of his imprnding doom. In the otherworld, he consults Nostradamus, whose archaic prophecy is translated as Grim in the future still being subservient to Billy and Mandy.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': "Future Tense" puts Grim in panic mode as he mistakes a fortune teller's fright over reading his skeletal hand as a reading of his imprnding doom. In the otherworld, he consults Nostradamus, whose archaic prophecy is translated as Grim in the future still being subservient to Bill and Mandy.

** Biff is still hiding some deep resentment for George and his family, though, because his elderly future self in ''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII Part II]]'' steals the [=DeLorean=] and [[BadFuture changes history]] much to George's detriment. Though, by WordOfGod, not as much as he would have thought. The Future Loser Biff is still shown to be a much better person than the Rich Bad Future Biff, who is cruel, corrupt, vindictive, a murderer, [[spoiler: and strongly implied to be ''dead'' after [[LaserguidedKarma Bad Future Lorraine finds out he murdered her love.]]]]

** Biff is still hiding some deep resentment for George and his family, though, because his elderly future self in ''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII Part II]]'' steals the [=DeLorean=] and [[BadFuture changes history]] much to George's detriment. Though, by WordOfGod, not as much as he would have thought. The Future Loser Biff is still shown to be a much better person than the Rich Bad Future Biff, who is cruel, corrupt, vindictive, a murderer, [[spoiler: [[LaserguidedKarma and strongly implied to be dead after Bad Future Lorraine finds out he murdered her love.]]]]

** Biff is still hiding some deep resentment for George and his family, though, because his elderly future self in ''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII Part II]]'' steals the [=DeLorean=] and [[BadFuture changes history]] much to George's detriment. Though, by WordOfGod, not as much as he would have thought. The Future Loser Biff is still shown to be a much better person than the Rich Bad Future Biff, who is cruel, corrupt, vindictive, and a murderer.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':

* {{WebVideo/Dimension20}} ''Fantasy High'': Fabian's nightmare in Leviathan is him in the future becoming a loser who never managed to make a name for himself outside of his father's shadow, with a demeanor markedly similar to [[Woobie Gilear]], his mom's incredibly pathetic boyfriend (and his friend Fig's step-dad).

* Brad Wilson from ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' is a JerkJock who bullied Clark in high school and rivaled him for Lana Lang's affections. By ''Film/SupermanIII'', he's now a [[TheAlcoholic pathetic drunk]] working a security job (which he's terrible at) who tries, and fails, to rekindle a relationship with Lana. Instead, she leaves for Metropolis after Clark gets her a job at the Daily Planet. He also tries to get physical with Clark a couple of times through the film because he does not likes Kent coming back to town… [[MuggingTheMonster yeah, good luck with that]].

* ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'' has this in a kind of ImagineSpot, where kid Emp meets her future superheroine self.

* In ''ComicBook/PaperGirls'', when the future version of [[spoiler:Erin]] meets her younger self, she worries she'll be seen as this, due to being overweight, single, and stuck at the same job for nearly 30 years. Her past self, however, doesn't care about her weight, enjoys her new job, and [[GirlsHaveCooties thinks boys are gross anyway]]. [[spoiler:Conversely, Erin's clone from the far future isn't pleased with the older Erin's figure.]]

* Extremely sad version in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''. Simon Petrikov was a certified badass when he was human, but centuries of being mentally warped by an ArtifactOfDoom have left him a pathetic, crazy old man who barely even knows how to function anymore. It's pretty obviously meant to parallel the effects of dementia. Which makes for a pair of relatively [[TearJerker heart breaking]] episodes where its revealed (and then flashed back to) how he basically had an adopted daughter, [[spoiler: Marceline]], but doesn't remember their time together because he sacrificed his sanity bit by bit using the ArtifactOfDoom to keep her safe.

** Stan himself is kind of a weird inversion. Stan was a complete loser in high school, but in college he reinvented himself as an athlete and acoustic musician (he also lost his hair thanks to an experimental acne treatment but he covered it with a wig). As an adult he has a nice home, a beautiful wife, a cool job as a CIA agent and, although he's shown to be a little flabby with his shirt off, is in great shape and a certified badass. Apart from conflicts with his hippy daughter and nerd son, annoying alien friend and talking East German fish, he basically has the perfect life. However, he is still seriously hung up on his high school years. At a high school reunion for a school he never even attended, he ditches Francine for the former homecoming queen (now an overweight, depressed alcoholic), expecting to be treated like a cool stud, only for the alumni to mock him for thinking that it would still matter twenty years later.

* A non-jock example: Stewie, in the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story", is 35 years old and still a virgin, lives in a dirty run-down apartment, and actually ''cried'' after having sex for the first time with his "girlfriend". His future loser self became that way because his near-death experience in the present caused him to be adverse to taking risks in life, basically making him afraid of doing anything that could be risky no matter how small. Stewie resolves to get over the problem by going back in time and preventing the near-death experience so that he won't become the loser he witnessed.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Every future episode has Bart (who is a popular class clown and skater boy archetype in the present) as an aimless but upbeat Future Loser. In "Lisa's Wedding" (which looks furthest into the future[[note]]August 1, 2010...[[FailedFutureForecast wait a minute!!]][[/note]]), Bart works as a wrecking ball operator and also in a car junkyard, is divorced two times, and hits Moe's tavern and strip clubs. Though he also plans to go to law school later, which honestly sounds delusional. This could have also been a ContinuityNod to the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" which ended with a FlashForward that revealed that Bart will eventually become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Another future episode had Lisa as the President of USA, so she could have appointed Bart... According to an episode, the Simpsons are plagued with a "Simpson's Gene" that doom the men of the family to become pathetic losers in the future (though it doesn't stop the show from depicting Bart as crafty). In the episode "Holidays Of Future Passed", Bart lives in a slum, is barely able to hold down a minimum wage job, and following a bitter divorce his sons heavily imply that they would rather spend Christmas with their mom and new stepfather than him.

** The Post-COVID special shows Stan as a 50-year old alcoholic loner whose wife is a sentient Amazon Alexa that he's constantly having fights with. This is in contrast with the other kids who have all grown up to be largely functional adults.
** In "Return of Covid", [[FatBastard Eric Cartman]] has become one in the revised timeline as he ends up a homeless alcoholic bum who shouts obscenities at people. Even Stan and Kyle feel bad for him, but ([[TheDogBitesBack understandably]]) not Butters.

* Brad Wilson from ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' is a JerkJock who bullied Clark in high school and rivaled him for Lana Lang's affections. By ''Film/SupermanIII'', he's now a [[TheAlcoholic pathetic drunk]] working a security job (which he's terrible at) who tries, and fails, to rekindle a relationship with Lana. Instead, she leaves for Metropolis after Clark gets her a job at the Daily Planet.

* In Creator/RayBradbury 's story ''The Utterly Perfect Murder'', Douglas, a successful concert pianist, decides to seek out and kill Ralph, a school bully who had tormented him nearly half a century earlier. Douglas discovers that Ralph is now a pitiful, frail, and lonely old man living in near-poverty, and decides that the best revenge is to let Ralph continue with the rest of his miserable life.

** The very first episode of the series, not counting the pilot shorts, portrayed Timmy himself as this when he wished to become a grown-up. Not only does he become bald, fat and middle-aged rather than the cool, muscular adult he imagined growing up into, every attempt at living his idealized adult life backfires, to the point where he ends up in jail. Though as ''WesternAnimation/ChannelChasers'' revealed, in his actual adulthood, Timmy actually resembles his ideal self quite a bit, not to mention he is now HappilyMarried with two kids, so it's possible his FutureLoser self was a result of not growing up naturally, since he still had the mind of a child and never matured properly.

* JerkJock Brick Flagg from ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' really let himself go during the time-traveling movie ''[[TheMovie A Sitch in Time]]''. But that future [[MemeticMutation got]] [[ResetButton reset'd]] away. For the record, he wasn't exactly a jerk, just a little more [[DumbJock foolhardy]] than even Ron Stoppable. A PostScriptSeason episode proves that after going to college (after trying for seven years), his future apparently might be looking good.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'': Towards the end of the episode "The Price of Love", popular kids [[GirlPosse Brit, Tiff, Pteresa]], and [[JerkJock Sebastian]] are seen walking past Sheldon's house. Pteresa exclaims that [[TemptingFate popular people always win in the end]]. Cut to twenty years later, where Pteresa, her future son with Sebastian, Brit, and Tiff are going to bail Sebastian out of jail (again). Pteresa, Brit, and Tiff are now ugly, with Pteresa wearing oversized glasses and curlers, Brit being obese, and Tiff missing half her hair. The Crust Cousins tell Pteresa that she should have married [[WhosLaughingNow Sheldon,]] [[RidiculouslySuccessfulFutureSelf who is apparently now a billionaire.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' episode "How Long Is Forever?", Starfire is sent into a future timeline, so she ceases to exist for 20 years. Cyborg is broken down and forced to stay connected to the Titan Tower's power grid, Raven is institutionalized, Beast Boy is a balding, paunchy circus attraction, and Robin has become Nightwing, and now works alone. Though with his all-black suit, gruffer voice, and long hair, Robin's unquestionably a FutureBadass.

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': When a jock who is usually pretty mellow picks up a geeky kid and says he's gonna go give him a swirly in response to some of his peers goading Tim points out that the nerd is the type of person the jock in question is likely to work for in the future and the jock takes that as an excuse not to go through with it.

** On ''Earth X'', Peter is an overweight, middle-aged loser who's become stiflingly overprotective towards his daughter after MJ's death, but at least here he's not alone; both Wolverine and Jean Grey are just as washed-up and pathetic as he is.

** In the [[Film/BackToTheFuture first movie]], Biff in has gone from George [=McFly=]'s bullying supervisor to waxing George's car, after Marty goes back in time and teaches his dad to stand up to Biff. It sort of works out for everyone, since Biff now has a little humility ''and'' runs his own detailing business. Of course he isn't fantastically rich, but at least he doesn't own the world.

* Vinnie (Creator/NickNolte's character) in ''Film/{{Simpatico}}'' is a cocky ConMan with a hot girlfriend in his youth. Twenty or so years later, he's a pathetic drunk living in a dirty hovel and obsessing over videotapes of his glory years, or else stumbling around town telling BlatantLies about being a private investigator in doomed attempts to get the locals to take him seriously.

** Had the dream version happen to Slater (not a jerk, but definitely a jock), seeing himself as a beer-bellied drunk in a class reunion, forcing him to rethink his life and his "comfort zone" as a jock. It gets downplayed in the [[Series/SavedByTheBell2020 sequel series]] where despite maintaining his physique and being Bayside's football coach, he lives in his car, while all of his other friends have gone on to do bigger and better things, including his ex-girlfriend, Jessie, who's now the school's guidance counselor.

* Biff in ''Theatre/DeathOfASalesman'' as well. He was a football player, "built like Adonis", and his father believed Biff would be a successful salesman because he was well liked, while his bookish neighbor Bernard would not be successful because he wasn't as gorgeous or popular. Instead, Bernard ended up a successful lawyer, and Biff became a farm hand out west who made next to no money. Unlike his father, Biff is sufficiently self-aware to belatedly recognize that he's on a path to nowhere.

** Willy is a non-school example. In the beginning he treated Charlie and Bernard with disdain but in the end they ended up highly successful and Willy ended up broke and his sons as failures.

[[IronicInversion Irony says otherwise.]]