History TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': A particularly severe version happens in the episode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS10E2SeahorseSeashellParty Seahorse Seashell Party]]". In the episode, Meg lays a brutal TheReasonYouSuckSpeech onto Peter, Lois, and Chris because she is fed up with being the family's ButtMonkey. Afterward, Brian convinces her to stay with them because if she doesn't, their {{Jerkass}} behavior would destroy the family, culminating in Meg staying because she has to be their lightning rod for abuse.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]]. The Complainer of the group, Sokka, is also TheSmartGuy. Sokka is also The ButtMonkey, so it is played straight on occasion. Basically, if the thing being discussed is [[SingleIssueWonk a trivial matter]], Sokka will almost always be wrong, often for comedic effect. If it's something plot-relevant, [[ProperlyParanoid he's almost always right]].

** There's a [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries "Trouble With Tribbles"]] episode where rapidly-multiplying bugs have swarmed Ponyville. Everyone is focused on trying to herd them up and get rid of them, except for [[GenkiGirl Pinkie Pie]], who insists they start stockpiling musical instruments. Everybody else shrugs it off as her usual nonsense. When all hope seems lost, Pinkie Pie [[spoiler:comes over the horizon, playing a one-pony-band, becoming the Pinkie-Pied-Piper with the music leading all of the bugs away. [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight It turns out she knew how to get rid of the bugs the whole time, but the others didn't listen]]]]. The moral of this episode, as spoken by Twilight Sparkle, is that sometimes you need to stop and listen to your friend's advice, even if it doesn't immediately make sense, making this episode an Aversion.

** Another aversion happens in "The Odd Couple" when Tommy stays with Chuckie. Tommy constantly complains about Chuckie's way of doing things and tries to conform things to work like in his house, eventually leading to Chuckie having an outburst over his selfishness. Tommy is apologetic and tries doing things Chuckie's way, but soon Chuckie himself starts to become controlling, leading to Tommy lashing out this time. In the end, both accept that everyone needs equal points they're allowed to do things their own way. What makes this one even more hilarious is that Phil and Lil try to warn them about staying together and both Tommy and Chuckie blow it off, thinking their awesome friendship would help them make it through. However, when each baby confronts the twins later on, they both respond "I hate to tell you this, but...[[IToldYouSo we told you so]]."

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]]. The Complainer of the group, Sokka, is also TheSmartGuy. Of course, Sokka is also The ButtMonkey, so it is played straight on occasion. Basically, if the thing being discussed is [[SingleIssueWonk a trivial matter]], Sokka will almost always be wrong, often for comedic effect. If it's something plot-relevant, [[ProperlyParanoid he's almost always right]].

** In the Season 4 episode, "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS5E2Hollywaste Hollywaste]]", the Planeteers are playing stunt doubles in a movie [[WhoWouldWantToWatchUs based on one of their adventures]]. The eco-friendly actress who plays the movie version of Linka, Bambi Blight, is the younger sister of recurring villain Dr. Blight. Trouble happens as usual -- and clues point to Bambi. Most of the Planeteers are quick to blame Bambi but Wheeler alone trusts her. In the end, Dr. Blight reveals herself as the guilty party. After a battle and the arrest of Dr. Blight, Captain Planet says, "Bambi is proof that [[{{Pun}} one bad Blight doesn't spoil the whole crop]]." Note that Wheeler was right, but not because he disapproved of guilt by association -- he thought she was innocent because she was an [[BeautyEqualsGoodness attractive Hollywood actress]].
** This trope becomes a bit hilarious when comparing the two episodes dealing with overpopulation, where in each one Wheeler is on ''an entirely opposite side of the debate'', yet both times the "lesson" he "learns" is the same. The first season episode "Population Bomb" had him learn having too many kids is irresponsible via [[AllJustADream an obvious Lilliputian dream sequence]]. Four years later in "Numbers Game," Wheeler wonders why people had kids if they couldn't afford to raise them. Cue Gi jumping down his throat and putting words in his mouth simply for asking a damn question. This time, he has a dream that again, warns him of the danger of overpopulation. It's treated as if he's learned a lesson by the time he wakes up, despite him being right from the beginning. It's especially grating when you remember Wheeler's background. He's from a bad neighborhood in New York, and his own family's home is basically a hole in the wall apartment. He should know better than anyone else what happens to families who have more kids than they can afford.
** Averted for once in "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E3DomesOfDoom Domes of Doom]]". A new philanthropist, Baron Giftus, talks about the importance of Earth's forests and proposes a plan that will put them under his protection. Wheeler is the only one who distrusts Baron Giftus, and Gi scolds him for it. Later, however, it turns out he was absolutely correct in his suspicions that the guy had ulterior motives (it was Looten Plunder in disguise), something Ma-Ti lampshades after finding out the truth and being kidnapped for knowing too much.

** Most of the characters are characterized by unique personality quirks, but SourSupporter Grumpy Bear is unique in being the only bear to make a hobby out of finding the cloud wrapped around every silver lining (understandably, since the universe's opinion of him tends towards the ButtMonkey-esque.) Nonetheless, he remains quite possibly [[EnsembleDarkhorse the most awesome character on the show]], having cobbled together a fully-functional teleporter, survived an attack from a renegade bowl of fruit, and ''playing baseball with lightning''. Even the latest TV series, which gives all the bears a special power unique to their symbol, happily grants Grumpy arguably the most broken power on the show... The complainer may usually be wrong, but even hunting for clouds among the silver linings sometimes has a silver lining.

* WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck is frequently subject to this, especially in his confrontations with Chip and Dale, but "Crazy Over Daisy" is one of the biggest examples: The chipmunks spend the entire short ridiculing, tormenting, and abusing Donald to the point where they destroy his bicycle, and when he essentially punishes them by building a new bike that the chipmunks have to power, Daisy scolds and dumps Donald for being abusive to them.
* ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons1983'': The article referenced on the main page talks about this being the reason for [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Eric's]] existence in the cartoon. Fortunately, this trope was also subverted by the show: In some episodes, primarily in Season 2, there are cases where Eric is right and everyone else is wrong. One of the writers has since said that Eric was originally supposed to be right a lot more often, but the MoralGuardians basically forced this trope. The script for the unproduced final episode subverts this trope in that the group splits in two, and looks like Eric's group may be getting set up for this, but it turns out that [[spoiler:''both'' groups are wrong. Fortunately, they figure out what they really need to do just in time.]]

** "Merry Wishmas" is another blatant offender. The narrative acts like Timmy is the one who needs to learn a lesson about [[AnAesop not being greedy at Christmas]] and creating the titular new holiday, pushing Santa Claus out of a job. However, the episode is rife with problems that ultimately [[BrokenAesop mangle the lesson]]. First of all, the townspeople being angry that Santa didn't give them what they wanted for Christmas should be justified, but as the musical number "Not on the List" shows, their requests keep going back and forth between reasonable (Timmy just wanted a sled) and [[UngratefulBastard unreasonable]] (one boy got a "stupid red wagon" instead of an RC dragon). Second, Santa ultimately comes off as unsympathetic because he only explains his actions after he, his wife, and his elves have been freeloading at Timmy's house for an entire year, driving him and his parents crazy. At one point, Timmy points out that everything could have been avoided if he'd just gotten a sled, and flat-out asks Santa why he didn't get one. ''Santa completely ignores Timmy's question.''

* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'': Parodied mercilessly with the ShowWithinAShow "The Buddy Bears". They were three "cute" bears in [[TheGayNineties Gay Nineties]] attire who would endlessly perform an obnoxious "barbershop" routine with canes and madcap dancing. Their ShowWithinAShow was designed to teach children "educational things," but the main thrust of the lesson was simple: "Whatever the group decides is right." The Bears had no individuality whatsoever and would agree with whatever the first Bear decided in the name of "getting along" (a not-so-subtle dig at ''The Get-Along Gang'' mentioned below) and, in one instance, ''outright told'' children to "NEVER have an opinion of your own!" Not coincidentally, the head writer of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', and the writer of this episode, was Creator/MarkEvanier.
** They even had a group verse to express the sentiment:

** Their ''other'' verse, with double your creepy, goes:

** The Bears' debut episode featured Garfield, sick of having to deal with them, [[AppleOfDiscord manipulating their into a situation where they couldn't agree]]: [[spoiler:choosing pizza toppings, which Garfield claims no two people "in the history of Mankind" have ''ever'' been able to agree on]].

** Similarly, an episode of ''WesternAnimation/USAcres'' featured Roy Rooster, the cast's prankster and resident smart-aleck, getting fed up with the farm and joining the Buddy Bears as "Big Bad Buddy Bird" in order to exemplify this trope: their 'episodes' involved little skits showing kids what happens when you don't agree, even over trivial things: [[AnvilOnHead a 16-ton safe gets dropped on your head]]. Roy gets safes dropped on his head throughout the episode, once for wanting chocolate ice cream when the rest of the bears wanted vanilla, ''and they were all buying individual cones''. He eventually gets them to promise not to drop a safe on him, so he gets on with his act... [[spoiler:and they drop ''two'' safes on him]]. Roy gets fed up and yells at the audience, "Don't do everything your friends do, ''just because they do it!'' Have a ''brain'' of your own!"
** A sequel called "Roy Gets Sacked" would follow, which followed Roy as he thinks his friends don't want him anymore and finds himself back as a co-star to the Buddy Bears (who are this time accompanied by an AffirmativeActionGirl) in essentially the same role as before, but this time he is relieved to hear that they don't have any 16-ton safes to drop on him anymore. Unfortunately for Roy, [[ExactWords they drop other things on him instead]], such as a piano, a 1988 Convertible, and [[spoiler:a '''27'''-ton safe]]. Roy just makes a break for it after that last one, rather than tell the audience to make their own decisions like last time.

** There's a [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries "Trouble With Tribbles"]] episode where rapidly-multiplying bugs have swarmed Ponyville. Everyone is focused on trying to herd them up and get rid of them, except for [[GenkiGirl Pinkie Pie]], who insists they start stockpiling musical instruments. Everybody else shrugs it off as her usual nonsense. When all hope seems lost, Pinkie Pie [[spoiler:comes over the horizon, playing a one-pony-band, becoming the Pinkie-Pied-Piper with the music leading all of the bugs away. [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight It turns out she knew how to get rid of the bugs the whole time, but the others didn't listen]]]]. The moral of this episode, as spoken by Twilight Sparkle, is that sometimes you need to stop and listen to your friend's advice, even if it doesn't immediately make sense, making this episode an Aversion. Of course, [[CannotSpitItOut if she'd started her explanation]] with "Hey, I know how to stop the parasprite swarm!" instead of "Hey, help me find an accordion!", [[PoorCommunicationKills she probably would've gotten more help]].
** Again averted with the episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E5GriffonTheBrushOff Griffon the Brush Off]], where Pinkie accuses [[ShadowArchetype Gilda]] of being a bully and a liar. Twilight tells her that maybe [[GreenEyedMonster she's just jealous]], but by the end of the episode Pinkie is proven to be right. In many ways, this show can be considered an apology letter for previous versions that played the trope painfully straight.
** Also frequently averted by the rest of the series. The main complainer of the heroes, Twilight Sparkle, is actually ''right'' about half the time.
*** [[spoiler:It also derails the BigBad's plot in the first season when she points out the factual errors in a prophecy about how she'd be sealed up again.]]
*** [[spoiler:It derails the second season's BigBad's plot as well. Twilight Sparkle was the only one to realize that something was wrong with Princess Cadence's newfound Jerkass behavior, but when she declared her "evil", she lost her friends' and family's trust. Actually, it turns out Twilight Sparkle was right to complain, but for the wrong reason: Princess Cadence didn't suddenly turn evil; she was replaced by an evil Changeling Queen. Applejack apologizes for not trusting her word, though Twilight admits she didn't really go the right way about it either.]]
** However, it's played straight occasionally, too. [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E1MareInTheMoon In the very first episode]], Twilight Sparkle is complaining that being ordered by Princess Celestia to make friends in Ponyville is a complete waste of time, completely unrelated to the much more imminent threat of Nightmare Moon's return. She's right about Nightmare Moon's return being an extremely urgent situation. Making friends being an unrelated waste of time, however? [[ThePowerOfFriendship Not]] ''[[BatmanGambit quite]]''.
** Likewise, Twilight spends all of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E15FeelingPinkieKeen "Feeling Pinkie Keen"]] complaining that Pinkie's "Pinkie Sense" is illogical and that she intends to prove it's all a big coincidence. By the end of the episode, Twilight is forced to admit that even though she still doesn't understand "Pinkie Sense", it's very much real.

*** Played with in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000". While Rainbow Dash is the only one of the main six to question the Apple family's (admittedly hap hazardous) dispensing of cider and is [[ButtMonkey treated accordingly]], she pretty much succeeds in spearheading the rest of the town into agreement.
*** Played straight in "Parental Glidence". Admittedly, Rainbow Dash was really harsh when she was chewing out her parents for all the things they've done over the episode. But still, the narrative and the characters treat her as the one in the wrong for daring to have a problem with her parents' overbearing affection.
*** Also played straight in “Newbie Dash.” Rainbow Dash joins the Wonderbolts and immediately gets saddled with the embarrassing nickname “Rainbow Crash,” which is the same thing her bullies used to call her when she was a filly. The episode frames her as being in the wrong for being upset and the Wonderbolts as justified because it’s later revealed that they all have embarrassing nicknames, so once she learns this she just accepts it and moves on.

** Also subverted when the Mane 6 reform Discord. Everypony is convinced Discord can only be changed through force, watching him with their elements at the ready to turn him back to stone if needed. Fluttershy is agreeing with this mindset at first but quickly realizes that trying to impose authority on Discord only gives him more pleasure in defying it, and against the constant urges of her friends treats him with unconditional trust and kindness. This actually works, much to the surprise of everyone (most of all Discord, who'd just manipulated the Mane 6 into a situation where they would never use their elements on him again before realizing he cared about Fluttershy too much to take advantage of his new position).

** Zig-Zagged in the episode "No Second Prances", where Twilight is suspicious of [[HeelFaceTurn Starlight Glimmer's]] new friend and former bad-pony [[MilesGloriosus Trixie]] and feels that Trixie might be manipulating Starlight for her own ends and she shouldn't make friends with her. Starlight eventually gets fed up with this and [[WhatTheHellHero calls Twilight out on being suspicious of Trixie despite having given her a second chance]] and wonders what that means about herself. [[spoiler:As it turns out unlike the Discord example above, Trixie originally ''did'' only befriend Starlight [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter as a means of getting back at Twilight]], but she [[BecomingTheMask eventually grew to enjoy the bond they developed]] and was [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone crushed when she realized she almost destroyed one of the few genuine friendships she ever made]]. Twilight in turn realizes that she went overboard with her suspicions and apologizes]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'': There's an episode in which the animals attempted to cheer up Eeyore because he spent all his days staring gloomily at clouds. In a nice twist, after each of their heavy-handed attempts failed, Piglet simply sits and talks to Eeyore, who reveals that he's not depressed -- he is, in fact, playing an imaginary game with the clouds. A nice avoidance of this trope, in that the gang is encouraged to find out more about Eeyore's unusual behaviour and even appreciate it on its own terms. ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' tended to subvert this frequently with Eeyore, with the others and even himself suggesting making him over to be happier and fit in more, in the end however they usually decide both Eeyore and the others are happy with [[TheEeyore his usual "depressed" self]]. This is occasionally played more straight with Rabbit, however, whose objections to the antics of the others (usually Tigger) are usually shot down, though granted his ControlFreak tendencies and extremely prudish demeanor justifies it a little.

** Fred, meanwhile, is the parody: a RunningGag of the series is to have Fred always immediately trace every single mystery back to a kid named [[MeaningfulName Red Herring]], who would never have anything to do with it. [[spoiler: The ''only'' episode where Red is guilty is, of course, one where Daphne dares Fred that he can't go a single mystery without blaming him]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'': Parodied whenever the duo would be acquainted with a new group or fad. Stimpy would often goad a cynical Ren into joining in, of course, between Ren being the ButtMonkey and Stimpy being an imbecile, this usually only led to utter pain for Ren, with Stimpy usually earning a beating for dragging him into it in the first place.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' tends to play with this trope, especially in the early days. The formula usually has Tommy suggesting they do something, Phil and Lil agreeing, Chuckie mentioning that it's not such a good idea, one of the three calling Chuckie a "big baby" and dragging him along. It's usually subverted when the adventure goes south, but they still had a blast.
** Of course in said early days Chuckie's more temperamental attitude led him to point this out more frequently. In one episode he even lampshades how in every argument Tommy tricks him into following him and suggests to just skip it and go along with the plan right away.

** Homer shoots this quote to his nagging wife Marge, who is always way more sensible than him but wrong this one time, it's a Halloween episode so it's LooseCanon in a series with varying continuity over the years anyway.
** Another gag in The Simpsons involves Homer and Marge going to see the school counselor to find out why Bart's having such a hard time in school; he suggests that Bart try to remove his personality and be more of a "faceless slug". It is of course played as a joke rather than straight.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': [[WellExcuseMePrincess Courtney]]. She is admittedly bossy and often unpleasant, but this trope really kicks in during the second season. Everyone acts like she doesn't deserve to be back on the show, even though her original elimination really ''was'' the result of outright cheating. In her first episode she's put on the Killer Grips, and basically has to do all the work due to [[KidAppealCharacter Owen]]'s SanitySlippage and [[{{Narcissist}} Justin]]'s refusal to do anything; nevertheless, everyone acts outraged that she thinks they're incompetent. It ends with everyone trying to vote her off (despite knowing that they couldn't) and acting like it was a MoralEventHorizon when Courtney voted for Owen instead, despite him being TheLoad for the entire episode.

** There's a [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries "Trouble With Tribbles"]] episode where rapidly-multiplying bugs have swarmed Ponyville. Everyone is focused on trying to herd them up and get rid of them, except for [[GenkiGirl Pinkie Pie]], who insists they start stockpiling musical instruments. Everybody else shrugs it off as her usual nonsense. When all hope seems lost, Pinkie Pie [[spoiler:comes over the horizon, playing a one-pony-band, becoming the [[JustForPun Pinkie-Pied-Piper]] with the music leading all of the bugs away. [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight It turns out she knew how to get rid of the bugs the whole time, but the others didn't listen]]]]. The moral of this episode, as spoken by Twilight Sparkle, is that sometimes you need to stop and listen to your friend's advice, even if it doesn't immediately make sense, making this episode an Aversion. Of course, [[CannotSpitItOut if she'd started her explanation]] with "Hey, I know how to stop the parasprite swarm!" instead of "Hey, help me find an accordion!", [[PoorCommunicationKills she probably would've gotten more help]].

** Wheeler. This reaches ridiculous levels in a Season 4 episode where he's portrayed as a heartless jerk because he's the only one who doesn't want to take every injured or endangered animal they find on their missions back to Hope Island, which even Gaia told them they shouldn't do. Even on a show ''founded on the GreenAesop premise'', removing exotic species from their natural habitat shouldn't be okay, even if everyone agrees with it.
** In the Season 4 episode, "Hollywaste", the Planeteers are playing stunt doubles in a movie [[WhoWouldWantToWatchUs based on one of their adventures]]. The eco-friendly actress who plays the movie version of Linka, Bambi Blight, is the younger sister of recurring villain Dr. Blight. Trouble happens as usual -- and clues point to Bambi. Most of the Planeteers are quick to blame Bambi but Wheeler alone trusts her. In the end, Dr. Blight reveals herself as the guilty party. After a battle and the arrest of Dr. Blight, Captain Planet says, "Bambi is proof that [[{{Pun}} one bad Blight doesn't spoil the whole crop]]." Note that Wheeler was right, but not because he disapproved of guilt by association -- he thought she was innocent because she was an [[BeautyEqualsGoodness attractive Hollywood actress]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'': Fozzie Bear. The jokes he tells are booed at regardless. Though it was subverted when Fozzie finally got fed up with the boos and decided to give up jokes. This eventually made everyone sad as they realized that seeing Fozzie miserable is worse than enduring his jokes and at least knowing ''he's'' happy. Piggy ultimately puts it best: "[[SoUnfunnyItsFunny We love to hate your jokes]]!"

* ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'': Writers admit that this was one of the bits of ExecutiveMeddling they had to deal with, requiring them to depict the "good" teamwork of the G.I. Joes, and the "bad" arguing of the Cobra organization. However, they also admit this worked out in the end, since the constant squabbles and power-plays between Commander, Destro, Zartan, Baroness, and the Crimson Twins made for better plots, and made them much more interesting characters than many of the comparatively blander Joes.
** Eventually satirized in "The Wrong Stuff", where the viewer gets a brief glimpse of a Cobra-produced kid's cartoon show. It features non-conformists being magically transformed into "right-thinking" clones.