History Main / NaughtyIsGood

Well-behaved children are often antagonists to the main character if he or she is a child, and these "good" kids can be portrayed as being anything from just [[GoodIsBoring absolute bores]], to evil incarnate. The reason for this might be because the well behaved children in the stories are often viewed as being suck-ups to the evil adults, who only want to take away all the fun stuff for little kids. These kids also tend to be 'tattle tales' if they're real sticklers for the rules.

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* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''. Calvin is a little hellion a lot of the time, but the strip just wouldn't have been nearly as good if he were well-behaved. This is proven when Calvin makes a good duplicate of himself. The Good Calvin is interesting only in contrast to the {{Jerkass}} Calvin.

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--> ''[[Theatre/{{Matilda}} Matilda; The Musical]]'', "Naughty"

-> ''But nobody else is gonna put it right for me,''

-> ''sometimes you have to be a little bit '''naughty'''!''
--> '''"Naughty"''', from ''[[Theatre/{{Matilda}} Matilda; The Musical]]''

%%* Ruby of ''Franchise/{{Jewelpet}}''.

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%%* ''TheBeano'' features [[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUK Dennis The Menace]], Minnie The Minx and The Bash Street Kids.

%%** Villainous "good kids" include Dennis's neighbour Walter and Bash Street school swot Cuthbert Cringeworthy.

* ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'': The perfectly well-behaved Delightful Children From Down the Lane are creepy, sadistic villains; the heroes are rebellious, mischievous, and disobedient, but fight for the rights of kids everywhere. Interestingly, all the Kids Next Door appear to be pretty good sons/daughters if not 'good' kids. They all stop in their tracks when their parents tell them to. (And their parents are very GoodParents for the most part.)

* In the kids' book ''Conrad'' , an old woman gets a giant can that turns out to contain a mostly-dehydrated boy, straight from a factory that creates boys for families who want perfect children. After she gets to know the kid, the factory guys realize they sent him to the wrong house, and come to try to get him back. The old lady and her allies manage to get rid of them by ''training Conrad to be naughty''. Specifically, they teach him to write on walls, slide down banisters, call adults names, and all the myriad things he was specifically designed ''not'' to do (they even have to punish him for doing the right thing, for a while). In other words, he was misbehaving because it was the only way to behave his mother-figure.

-> ''[[ScrewDestiny Nobody but me is gonna change my story]],''

* The ''Tracy Beaker'' series by JacquelineWilson.

* ''TheHickoryLimb'' has a version of this that, today, comes off as incredibly mild: the main character, a little girl, decides to go swimming in the same pond as some boys. Though she gets in trouble for it, we're ultimately meant to sympathise with her.

* The [[CharacterTitle eponymous character]] of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' himself, prior to the TimeSkip.
* Ruby of ''Franchise/{{Jewelpet}}''.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* ''TheBeano'' features [[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUK Dennis The Menace]], Minnie The Minx and The Bash Street Kids.
** Also Roger the Dodger, though he's more of a [[MagnificentBastard schemer]].
** Villainous "good kids" include Dennis's neighbour Walter and Bash Street school swot Cuthbert Cringeworthy.
* ''Comicbook/TheDandy'' has/had this with most of its characters like Beryl the Peril, Cuddles and Dimples, etc., but Bully Beef and Chips subverted it somewhat.

* In the kids' book ''Conrad'' , an old woman gets a giant can that turns out to contain a mostly-dehydrated boy, straight from a factory that creates boys for families who want perfect children. After she gets to know the kid, the factory guys realize they sent him to the wrong house, and come to try to get him back. The old lady and her allies manage to get rid of them by ''training Conrad to be naughty''. Specifically, they teach him to write on walls, slide down banisters, call adults names, and all the myriad things he was specifically designed ''not'' to do (they even have to punish him for doing the right thing, for a while). It's a very amusing read and a... ''very''... [[BrokenAesop strange Aesop]].

* ''DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': TheProtagonist, Greg, isn't what you'd call a good kid, and most of the time he's not even aware of how morally wrong his behaviour is.

* The ''Literature/HorridHenry'' series.

* Not exactly the same, but ill-mannered Goofus, of Highlights' ''Literature/GoofusAndGallant'' fame, tends to be the favorite of many more readers than the prissy Gallant.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''. Calvin is a little hellion a lot of the time, but the strip just wouldn't have been nearly as good if he were well-behaved.
** Proven when Calvin makes a good duplicate of himself. The Good Calvin is interesting only in contrast to the {{Jerkass}} Calvin.

* ''{{Matilda}}'' has a whole song dedicated to it: "Naughty". Which is about putting her mother's hair dye into her father's hair oil. Then she makes the the head teacher leave. Though to be fair she was a sadist so everyone's happy, even the teachers.

* ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'': The perfectly well-behaved Delightful Children From Down the Lane are creepy, sadistic villains; the heroes are rebellious, mischievous, and disobedient, but fight for the rights of kids everywhere.
** Interestingly, all the Kids Next Door appear to be pretty good sons/daughters if not 'good' kids. They all stop in their tracks when their parents tell them to. (And their parents are very GoodParents for the most part.)
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' tends to play with this trope a lot; while TheProtagonist, Ben Tennyson, is an immature kid who is not above using his powers for childish reasons, and as such seems to play it straight, his attitude is often shown to attract him trouble and get in the way of his heroic actions. It's usually only when he gets serious he proves to be a true hero, and his maturity in the sequel ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce is portrayed as a good change (though he later turned back to immature due to {{Flanderization}}). Moreover, his arc enemy and rival Kevin, who is even more mischevious than him, is portrayed as AxCrazy in the original show and a AntiHero in the sequels.
** Ben's cousin, Gwen, is a more ambivalous case; she is more reasonable than Ben but her exact portrayal is unclear; in the original show, she was a DeadpanSnarker and could be as naughty as Ben when she went at it with him but otherwise was rule-abiding and well behaved, though she was definitely not evil nor boring. In the sequels, she is portrayed as less snarky and much more cool-headed, but usually this is shown as the right attitude compared to Ben's and Kevin's.

While society tends to prefer children to be polite and well behaved, while still adventurous and cheerful, in fiction there seems to be an either/or set up. Children who are adventurous and who have interesting stories to tell, or to tell about, always seem to be mischievous at least and sometimes downright naughty and ill behaved.

This trope has been around in some form for quite a while, at least since the early twentieth century. Before that, especially during the Victorian era, naughty children in fiction would usually endure very bad [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin repercussions for their actions]]... [[DisproportionateRetribution sometimes they would far outweigh the actions they committed]]. After all, in Victorian times, MostWritersAreAdults was in force to an even greater degree than it is today.

This doesn't necessarily mean the kids will ''get away'' with being naughty in NaughtyIsGood stories. They're just as likely to find they CantGetAwayWithNuthin, but the story will still be on their side, rather than just saying "[[AnAesop And it served them right]]!"

Read more: Matilda London Cast - Naughty Lyrics | MetroLyrics

* The ''HorridHenry'' series.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''. Calvin is a little hellion a lot of the time, but the strip just wouldn't have been nearly as good if he were well-behaved.
** Proven when Calvin makes a good duplicate of himself. The Good Calvin is interesting only in contrast to the {{Jerkass}} Calvin.
* Not exactly the same, but ill-mannered Goofus, of Highlights' "Goofus & Gallant" fame, tends to be the favorite of many more readers than the prissy Gallant.

* TheHickoryLimb has a version of this that, today, comes off as incredibly mild: the main character, a little girl, decides to go swimming in the same pond as some boys. Though she gets in trouble for it, we're ultimately meant to sympathise with her.

* {{Matilda}} has a whole song dedicated to it: "Naughty". Which is about putting her mother's hair dye into her father's hair oil. Then she makes the the head teacher leave. Though to be fair she was a sadist so everyone's happy, even the teachers.

Well-behaved children are often antagonists to the main character if he or she is a child, and these "good" kids can be portrayed as being anything from just [[GoodIsBoring absolute bores]], to evil incarnate. The reason for this might be because the well behaved children in the stories are often viewed as being [[TheDragon suck-ups]] to the evil [[TheBigBad adults]], [[AlwaysChaoticEvil who only want to take away all the fun stuff for little kids]]. These kids also tend to be 'tattle tales' if they're real sticklers for the rules.

This trope has been around in some form for quite a while, at least since the early twentieth century. Before that, especially during the Victorian era, naughty children in fiction would usually endure very bad [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin repercussions for their actions]]... [[DisproportionateRetribution sometimes these repercussions would far outweigh the actions they committed]]. After all, in Victorian times, MostWritersAreAdults was in force to an even greater degree than it is today.

* {{Matilda}} has a whole song dedicated to it: "Naughty". Which is about putting her mother's hair dye into her father's hair oil. Then she practically makes the the head teacher leave. Though to be fair she was a sadist so...

* The main characters of ''TheLandBeforeTime'' rarely obey their parents' rules. Then again, [[AdultsAreUseless considering not one of their parents' rules has ever been shown to help with anything]], you can't exactly blame them.

* The main characters of ''TheLandBeforeTime'' rarely obey their parents' rules. Then again, [[AdultsAreUseless considering not one of their parents rules has ever shown to help with anything]], you can't exactly blame them.

** Interestingly, all the Kids Next Door appear to be pretty good sons/daughters if not 'good' kids. They all stop in their tracks when their parents tell them to.

* The ''HorridHenry'' series.

* ''TheBeano'' features [[DennisTheMenaceUK Dennis The Menace]], Minnie The Minx and The Bash Street Kids.

** Interestingly, all the Kids Next Door appear to be pretty good sons/daughters if not 'good' kids. They all stop in their tracks when their parents tell them too.

* The [[CharacterTitle eponymous character]] of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' himself.

* ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'': The perfectly well-behaved Delightful Children From Down the Lane are villains; the heroes are rebellious, mischievous, and disobedient, but fight for the rights of kids everywhere.

** Ben's cousin, Gwen, is a more ambivalous case; she is more reasonnable than Ben but her exact portrayal is unclear; in the original show, she was a DeadpanSnarker and could occasionnally appear as bitchy to Ben, but she was definitely not evil nor boring. In the sequels, she is portrayed as less snarky.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' tends to play with this trope a lot; while TheProtagonist, Ben Tennyson, is an immature kid who is not above to use his powers for childish reason, and as such seems to play it straight, his attitude is often shown to attract him trouble and get in the way of his heroic actions. It's usually only when he gets serious he proves to be a true hero, and his maturity in the sequel ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce is portrayed as a good change (though he later turned back to immature due to {{Flanderization}}). Moreover, his arc enemy and rival Kevin, who is even more mischevious than him, is portrayed as AxCrazy in the original show and a AntiHero in the sequels.

* In the kids' book ''Conrad'' (I think that's the title), an old woman gets a giant can that turns out to contain a mostly-dehydrated boy, straight from a factory that creates boys for families who want perfect children. After she gets to know the kid, the factory guys realize they sent him to the wrong house, and come to try to get him back. The old lady and her allies manage to get rid of them by ''training Conrad to be naughty''. Specifically, they teach him to write on walls, slide down banisters, call adults names, and all the myriad things he was specifically designed ''not'' to do (they even have to punish him for doing the right thing, for a while). It's a very amusing read and a... ''very''... [[BrokenAesop strange Aesop]].

* ''JustWilliam'' is the terror of his family and his teachers, and pretty much the embodiment of every "undesirable" trait an eleven-year-old boy can have, but he's also a beloved children's book protagonist. His friends, the Outlaws, are pretty much the same type of characters, though the series do also include some "naughty" children who are portrayed in a far less favorable light and serve as occasional antagonists. "Good" children tend to swing between being well-meaning but annoying nuisances and malicious antagonists.