History Main / TheGadFly

* Mai from ''{{Nichijou}}'' goes to great lengths in order to confuse her friends, going so far as to seemingly [[SchoolgirlLesbians confess to Yūko]] just to provoke a funny response.

* In KaichouWaMaidSama, [[TheAce Takumi]] [[EstrogenBrigadeBait Usui]] does this a lot to basically everyone, but his favorite victim is his {{Tsundere}} not-quite-girlfriend [[DoesNotLikeMen Misaki]] [[BelligerentSexualTension Ayuzawa]].

* Asuka Langley Soryuu from ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' does this due to her huge insecurities, so in her case it's basically a big cry for attention. She is still quite the {{jerkass}}, though.

* In KaichouWaMaidSama, [[TheAce Takumi]] [[EstrogenBrigadeBait Usui]] does this a lot to basically everyone, but his favorite victims seem to be his {{Tsundere}} not-quite-girlfriend [[DoesNotLikeMen Misaki]] [[BelligerentSexualTension Ayuzawa]].

* Prince Baka Ki=El-Dogra, also known as the Prince, in ''{{Level E}}'' is pretty much made out of this.

The name comes from the term social gadfly. The trope namer was {{Socrates}}, who said that like a gadfly he could be easily swatted, but that a government who does such thing pays too heavy a price. The gadfly would help improve politics by raising unpopular, controversial viewpoints for discussion.

* Prince Baka Ki=El-Dogra, also known as the Prince, in [[LevelE]] is pretty much made out of this.

* Half the time when [[SuzumiyaHaruhi Koizumi]] and Kyon talk, Koizumi will explain some theory to explain Haruhi and Kyon will start getting very involved in the conversation and thinking about it deeply. At which point he says "Just kidding, I made the whole thing up." Annoying!

* [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Asuka Langley Soryuu]], due to her huge insecurities. Basically a big cry for attention in her case. Is also a {{jerkass}}.

* By episode 12 of {{Bakemonogatari}}, Senjogahara admits she likes to troll Koyomi.
* Konata in LuckyStar constantly pushes Kagami's buttons and giggles quietly at the [[{{Tsundere}} explosive]] results.
* Similarly, [[{{K-On}} Ritsu]] loves pushing Mio's buttons, mainly to scare the crap out of her.

* Kazuma of KazeNoStigma is a DeadpanSnarker with a hobby: {{Troll}}ing his distant cousin Ayano.

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* In ''FatedFeather'', Yote relentlessly teases friend and foe alike (even during moments of high drama), and the beginning of Chapter 7 suggests he does it just because he enjoys getting a rise out of people.
* Mike of ''{{Shortpacked}}'' ordinarily is a puppy-kicking {{Jerkass}}, but occasionally he does or says horrible things to people that force them to acknowledge their own flaws.
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* Yuichi in ''{{Kanon}}'' is fond of making bizarre and outrageous claims while maintaining a completely serious atmosphere in order to confuse all his love interests. Few manage to catch on and also recognize when he is and isn't serious. This works really well considering he's also a [[DeadpanSnarker.]]

* Yuichi in ''{{Kanon}}'' is fond of making bizarre and outrageous claims while maintaining a completely serious atmosphere in order to confuse all his love interests. Few manage to catch on and also recognize when he is and isn't serious.

** A bad case of this comes from none other than [[spoiler: Ryoko Asakura, who tries to murder Kyon just to get a reaction out of Haruhi.]]

* Jade Curtiss from ''TalesOfTheAbyss''. Jade routinely spars with the rest of the party verbally and noone is entirely sure about his actual intensions.

* Similarly, Ritsu loves pushing Mio's buttons, mainly to scare the crap out of her.

* Tsuyuri from ''DoujinWork'' is this through and through, causing most of the misunderstandings in the series.