History Main / JerkassBall

** Cricket is at his worst again in "Animation Abomination", in which he insists that his version of the finale of ''Kingdom of Lore'' (the show's lead character turns evil and everything explodes) be done as he wants, not mattering if it makes no sense for the series.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E18SeparateVocations Separate Vocations]]", Lisa suffers the dual whammy of having a vocation aptitude test result of 'housewife' and being told she'll never be a great saxophonist because her fingers are too stubby. She turns into a Bad Girl, smoking in class, backtalking her teacher, and finally coming up with a plot to steal all the Teacher's Edition textbooks to [[ForTheEvuls sow chaos]]. Inversely, the same episode has Bart becoming a good kid after getting the result of 'police officer' on the same vocational aptitude test. Which he has to forsake to bring his sister back and induce the Status Quo.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E18SeperateVocations Separate Vocations]]", Lisa suffers the dual whammy of having a vocation aptitude test result of 'housewife' and being told she'll never be a great saxophonist because her fingers are too stubby. She turns into a Bad Girl, smoking in class, backtalking her teacher, and finally coming up with a plot to steal all the Teacher's Edition textbooks to [[ForTheEvuls sow chaos]]. Inversely, the same episode has Bart becoming a good kid after getting the result of 'police officer' on the same vocational aptitude test. Which he has to forsake to bring his sister back and induce the Status Quo.

** In "The Boys of Bummer", everyone in Springfield other than the Simpsons holds the ball when they torment Bart just for missing a game-winning catch in a baseball game, even going so far as to goad him into committing suicide.
** In the episode "Separate Vocations" Lisa suffers the dual whammy of having a vocation aptitude test result of 'housewife' and being told she'll never be a great saxophonist because her fingers are too stubby. She turns into a Bad Girl, smoking in class, backtalking her teacher, and finally coming up with a plot to steal all the Teacher's Edition textbooks to [[ForTheEvuls sow chaos]]. Inversely, the same episode has Bart becoming a good kid after getting the result of 'police officer' on the same vocational aptitude test. Which he has to forsake to bring his sister back and induce the Status Quo.
** One of the most infamous examples is "On a Clear Day, I Can't See My Sister". Bart plays a few pranks on Lisa during a field trip, which results in her getting a restraining order against him, then proceeding to abuse him with it (which is actually illegal). It gets to the point that she coldly forces Bart to live outside to be RaisedByWolves, then refuses to let him back in even when Marge asks her to get rid of the order. [[KarmaHoudini She gets away with all of it, too]].

** In ''[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS5E18WhatEverHappenedToSpongeBob Whatever Happened To SpongeBob?]]'', [=SpongeBob=]'s friends all become jerks to him, yelling at him and calling him "idiot boy" whenever the sponge comes in an accidentally messes something up for them (of course, since one of them is [[CrankyNeighbor Squidward we're talking about here]], that's not much of a surprise). They at least realize their mistake when they find the letter he wrote after he runs away as a result of their abuse.
** In ''[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS5E18WhatEverHappenedToSpongeBob A Pal For Gary]]'', [=SpongeBob=] holds both ''this'' and an IdiotBall. When he brings home Puffy Fluffy, he scolds Gary for being mean to the new pet, despite that pet being a monster that hates other pets, which [=SpongeBob=] completely ignores when he decides to bring it home. He's even an UngratefulBastard to Gary, scolding him despite saving his neck from the monster.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'', much akin to ''Friendship Is Magic'', utilizes this often for [[AnAesop Aesop]] value. This is especially prominent in later episodes, where even formally wise and kind engines like Edward can suddenly gain bouts of AcquiredSituationalNarcissism or FantasticRacism.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'':
** April is prone to doing this from time to time as well despite being the calm and sensible TeamMom of the group. Here are a few examples for proof:
*** [[spoiler:When her father got mutated as a bat, April explodes in anger and cuts all ties with the Turtle and acts spiteful towards them, especially Donnie. In "Mutagen Unleashed", she blames them on Mutagen Man's attack on her, and in "Target: April O'Neil", she angrily [[RejectedApology refuses to accept Donnie's apology]] and ends up pushing him away. She does take a second to listen to his advice that some things can't be controlled. When she learns Casey lost his friend on an incident, this served as an eye-openner on [[JerkassRealization her make her realize she is doing]] [[WasTooHardOnHim things wrong]] and decided to call the Turtles for help when she was attacked by Karai. After she was saved, she finally reverts to her normal personality, as she apologizes to them for the way she acted and decides to renounce to her grudge-holding ways.]]

** In ''[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS5E18WhatEverHappenedToSpongeBob Whatever Happened To SpongeBob?]]'', [=SpongeBob=]'s friends all become jerks to him, yelling at him and calling him "idiot boy" whenever the sponge comes in an accidently messes something up for them (of course, since one of them is [[CrankyNeighbor Squidward we're talking about here]], that's not much of a surprise). They at least realize their mistake when they find the letter he wrote after he runs away as a result of their abuse.

** In ''[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS5E18WhatEverHappenedToSpongeBob Whatever Happened To SpongeBob?]]'', [=SpongeBob=]'s friends all become jerks to him, yelling at him and calling him "idiot boy" whenever the sponge comes in an accidently messes something up for them. They at least realize their mistake when they find the letter he wrote after he runs away as a result of their abuse.

** Cricket is hit with this hard in the ChristmasEpisode. The only reason he wants to be on the nice list is to get a present from Santa, which contrasts with the way Tilly sees Christmas as: being kind to others. He ends up thinking Santa will never give him presents because he's naughty, and resorts to being just that. He goes so far he almost ruins the holiday for everyone, especially Tilly who is blamed for a tree crash, who punishes him for what he done. Having mixed feelings, Cricket realizes he has no one to blame but himself, and everything that happened was all his fault.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "The Boys of Bummer", everyone in Springfield other than the Simpsons holds the ball when they torment Bart just for missing a game-winning catch in a baseball game, even going so far as to goad him into committing suicide.

*** [[spoiler:When her father got mutated as a bat, April explodes in anger and cuts all ties with the Turtle and acts spiteful towards them, especially Donnie. In "Mutagen Unleashed", she blames them on Mutagen Man's attack on her, and in "Target: April O'Neil", she angrily [[RejectedApology refuses to accept Donnie's apology]] and ends up pushing him away. She does take a second to listen to his advice that some things can't be controlled. When she learns Casey lost his friend on an incident, this served as an eye-openner on [[JerkassRealization
her make her realize she is doing]] [[WasTooHardOnHim things wrong]] and decided to call the Turtles for help when she was attacked by Karai. After she was saved, she finally reverts to her normal personality, as she apologizes to them for the way she acted and decides to renounce to her grudge-holding ways.]]

** Cricket is hit with this hard in the ChristmasEpisode. The only reason he wants to be on the nice list is to get a present from Santa, which contrasts with the way Tilly sees Christmas as: being kind to others. He ends up crossing a MoralEventHorizon when he thinks Santa will never give him presents because he's naughty, and resorts to being just that. He goes so far he almost ruins the holiday for everyone, especially Tilly who is blamed for a tree crash, who punishes him for what he done. Having mixed feelings, Cricket realizes he has no one to blame but himself, and everything that happened was all his fault.

* This happens on ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' on a regular basis due to the [[AnAesop Aesop]]-centric formula of the show. Some particularly glaring examples are:
** In [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E3TheTicketMaster "The Ticket Master"]], when Twilight receives a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala, [[EveryoneChasingYou everypony starts to chase her for it]] [[TrueCompanions including her friends-]] yes, even [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Fluttershy]]. As a reminder, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness this was the first episode after the pilot]].

** In [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E15TheSuperSpeedyCiderSqueezy6000 "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000"]], [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Ponyville's insensitivity and impatience almost costs the Apple family their livelihood]]. In all fairness, the Apple family were also being inconsiderate to their customers, what with making them stand in line all day only to sell out early and leave the ponies in the back empty handed (er, hooved). Would it have killed them to raise the price? Or set up a pre-order system? Or at least limit the amount of cider per customer per day so Pinkie Pie couldn't walk off with a whole load while the others go thirsty?

** Held by Pinkie Pie in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E14FilliVanilli "Filli Vanilli]]," where she is ''really'' InnocentlyInsensitive about Fluttershy's severe stage fright. She is called out on this by the rest of the cast though. What makes this more noticeable is that an early episode showed her pranking all of her friends ''except'' for Fluttershy, because she was aware that Fluttershy might be too sensitive to handle it, a level of consideration she rarely ever shows again. Also her behavior in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E4LunaEclipsed "Luna Eclipsed"]] did NOT help make Princess Luna feel comfortable around her subjects in Ponyville, only managing to make ponies more afraid of the now reformed Princess, though she tries to justify her behavior by claiming she was only pretending to be scared in order to get into the Nightmare Night[[note]][[YouMeanXmas this show's version of Halloween]] [[/note]] spirit.

** Rainbow Dash holds it occasionally. Some notable examples are a lot of early S1 and S2 episodes where she is very abrasive to her friends, and doesn't seem to care about anyone but herself. One glaring example of this is in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E8TheMysteriousMareDoWell "The Mysterious Mare Do Well"]], though the rest of the Mane Cast's behavior in that episode when trying to get RD to learn a lesson in humility could also count as a accidental JerkassBall moment for them, as well. This is to show she's flawed, and she ''does'' have plenty of moments where she is nothing short of nice. It's possible she just pretends to be abrasive.
** The Wonderbolts in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E10RainbowFalls "Rainbow Falls"]]. Hoo boy... Not only do they not visit their teammate in the hospital, but they outright replace him with Rainbow Dash. [[NeverLiveItDown This has led to much backlash against Spitfire.]]
** Applejack in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E9HonestApple "Honest Apple"]], where she's tasked with critiquing the practicality of some fashion designs and ends up offending everyone who made them by not tactfully filtering her opinions. This has been regarded an out-of-character episode for the normally reserved and humble Applejack, who usually isn't so gung-ho with abrasive and harsh criticism. In fact, this seems more like something Rainbow Dash would do than Applejack!
** A common complaint with [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E14FameAndMisfortune "Fame and Misfortune"]] is that ''most of Equestria'' gets hit with the ball, with even episode writer M.A. Larson [[CreatorBacklash utterly despising]] how [[ExecutiveMeddling the Hasbro executives]], the ones who came up with the episode's premise, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKYuQW403_M forced him to write beloved characters as completely unsympathetic jerks]]. As soon as the Friendship Journal is published for the public to read, kids become over-obsessive about Rainbow Dash while brushing off Twilight Sparkle entirely, and older ponies laugh at everything Pinkie Pie says even though it's not funny, try to insert themselves into Applejack's family life, harass Fluttershy for [[AesopAmnesia learning the same lessons over and over again]], and boycott Rarity's business because [[DisproportionateRetribution they didn't like her lessons]]. It reaches its head when mobs of ponies surround Twilight's castle and act like they're fictional characters ''in-universe'', with one saying Twilight's "character" would be more interesting if she'd stayed in Canterlot. The kicker is that, unlike the prior examples, [[KarmaHoudini they don't learn their lesson and continue to engage in petty squabbles with each other up until the very end of the episode]], with the only exceptions being the newly-introduced Toola Roola and Coconut Cream. This quote from the episode puts it best:
--->'''Pinkie Pie:''' YOU'VE KNOWN ME FOR YEARS!

** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E15TwoFourSixGreaaat 2, 4, 6, Greaaat]]" has Rainbow Dash passionately embrace the Jerkass Ball when she callously neglects her duties as cheer squad coach, and openly disparages cheerleading in front of the squad (some of whom probably have Rainbow as a teacher, no less). Even when Yona and Ocellus run away crying, she fails to see anything wrong with her behavior until Smolder calls her out.

** In ''[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS5E18WhatEverHappenedToSpongeBob Whatever Happened To SpongeBob?]]'', SpongeBob's friends all become jerks to him, yelling at him and calling him "idiot boy" whenever the sponge comes in an accidently messes something up for them. They at least realize their mistake when they find the letter he wrote after he runs away as a result of their abuse.
** In ''[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS5E18WhatEverHappenedToSpongeBob A Pal For Gary]]'', SpongeBob holds both ''this'' and an IdiotBall. When he brings home Puffy Fluffy, he scolds Gary for being mean to the new pet, despite that pet being a monster that hates other pets, which SpongeBob completely ignores when he decides to bring it home. He's even an UngratefulBastard to Gary, scolding him despite saving his neck from the monster.

** Similarly to Lois and Brian on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Patrick and Mr. Krabs eventually became full-blown {{Jerkass}}es by default as a result of the writers abusing this trope.
** ''Everyone'' who teased [=SpongeBob=] for being scared of Halloween in "Scaredy Pants".

* In the ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' 2014 reboot episode "Noby the Robot", Noby firmly grasps the ball as he shirks all responsibilities by making miniature robot versions of his friends and bossing them around. Of course, this ends badly for him and his mom [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment denies supper until he pulls all of the weeds himself like she asked]].

* The [=DiC=] dub of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' is known for giving nice characters such as [[GentleGiant Makoto]], [[GenkiGirl Minako]] and even ''[[ShrinkingViolet Ami]]'' moments of being rather unfair to Usagi, making her the butt of the jokes or disrespecting her. While not out-of-character for [[GoodIsNotNice Rei]] to be doing this, it's definitely surprising to see them pulling this off. This is mostly averted in the Viz dub, though.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'': Ethan Bennett's Clayface is generally treated as a sympathetic AntiVillain throughout the series to the tragic circumstances behind his transformation and his prior friendship with Bruce. The season two HalloweenEpisode "Grundy's Night" however sees Clayface go full-on villain with him taking advantage of the titular legend to rob mansions while taking the form of Solomon Grundy.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'': Ethan Bennett's Clayface is generally treated as a sympathetic AntiVillain throughout the series to the tragic circumstances behind his transformation and his prior friendship with Bruce. The season two HalloweenEpiosde "Grundy's Night" however sees Clayface go full-on villain with him taking advantage of the titular legend to rob mansions while taking the form of Solomon Grundy.

* The [=DiC=] dub of ''WesternAnimation/SailorMoon'' is known for giving nice characters such as [[GentleGiant Makoto]], [[GenkiGirl Minako]] and even ''[[ShrinkingViolet Ami]]'' moments of being rather unfair to Usagi, making her the butt of the jokes or disrespecting her. While not out-of-character for [[GoodIsNotNice Rei]] to be doing this, it's definitely surprising to see them pulling this off. This is mostly averted in the Viz dub, though.