Line #20 ButtMonkey/Literature


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9	* ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'':
10	** Bill is catapulted out of a chimney, then Alice is kind of mean to him when he's part of the jury.
11	** Alice herself is a butt monkey considering how she's the OnlySaneWoman.
12	* ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'':
13	** Poor Mallory! [[http://community.livejournal.com/bsc_snark/39867.html Here's a list]]
14	** Also Mallory's brother Nicky and Jackie Rodowski.
15	* Mr Bagthorpe of ''Literature/TheBagthorpeSaga''. Yes, he brings a lot of it on himself, but fact remains he's bedeviled by more disasters, wrong bank statements, goats and awful relatives than anyone else in children's literature. If he doesn't break his arm trying to stand on his head he's accidentally bidding for hundreds of pounds of junk in auctions. And he's suspected of being a terrorist and murdering his wife in the later books. To quote, "I am the archetypal can carrier of all time!"
16	* Everyone other than the Bastard or the PFY in Simon Travaglia's Literature/BastardOperatorFromHell series of short stories.
17	* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'':
18	** Because of his stupidity, Vlok is a frequent object of jokes, particularly from Purple-Green.
19	** Nothing seems to work right for Glaves. His decision to join the legions in order to bolster his political status backfires when [[spoiler:King Sanker dies]], making him lose connections he previously had and getting him sent to actual war. He insults the Teetol, which leads to him getting challenged and beaten up by one of them. He tries to sell out his soldiers in exchange for means of fleeing from besieged Ourdh capital, but it fails when Bazil and Relkin escape captivity and effectively bring down the whole cult that he bargained with. He manages to commandeer a ship along with a band of other deserters, but they soon run her aground due to their incompetence and are captured by Captain Kesepton's team while arguing. Desertion and treason gets him thrown into prison and standing trial. However, [[AssholeVictim he deserves every single second of it]].
20	%%* ''{{Literature/Candide}}'': The whole point is that Everyone is a Butt Monkey.
21	* Creator/StephenKing's ''{{Literature/Carrie}}'': Carrie White is described as both heavily abused at home, school, and summer camp, as well as a perpetual screw-up.
22	* Penlan, aka "Jinxie", from the ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' series. Her bad luck hasn't killed her yet, heck, she even got promoted. Addtionally, she's rather popular with the rest of the 597th as it's believed that all the bad luck in her squad gets attracted to her and leaves everyone else alone. From [[OverlyLongGag what Cain has said]], it really does work out for her.
23	* In the ChivalricRomance ''Cleges'', the impoverished Sir Cleges received miraclous cherries at Christmas and went to give them to the king to mend his fortunes. Three royal officials each demand a third of his reward to let him in. When he does so, the king wishes to reward him. He tells the king that the proper reward is thirty blows, and then explains. The king gives his officials the blows and then rewards Cleges's wife for being so faithful to him in his poverty. Porters and other officials that could keep ministrels from the court are often treated like this in romance -- given that MostWritersAreWriters.
24	* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidOldSchool'': Rodrick ''really'' gets it bad during his shift at the Old Timey Tobias ice cream parlor; he's initially stuck taking the trash out and getting embarrassed by Susan's attempts for the Heffleys to stick by him as long as possible. The manager then "promotes" him to the position of the parlor's mascot, and poor Rodrick suffers ProducePelting and attacks left and right by angry kids. And on the night Greg is taken to celebrate his seemingly great academic process, his attempt to take the carpool lane to go to work faster is a disaster and ends with the police having his trusty Löded Diper van towed away, leaving him an open target for passing kids.
25	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
26	** Rincewind. He doesn't just want to be left alone, he actually wants his life to be ''boring''. But due partly to being the [[CosmicPlaything pawn of Luck]], and partly to his own self-defeating cowardice, he always ends up in the middle of some gigantic disaster surrounded by people who want him dead.
27	*** Lampshaded (hilariously) in ''Literature/TheLastHero''.
28	--->'''Rincewind:''' I do not wish to volunteer for this mission.\
29	'''Lord Vetinari:''' I beg your pardon?\
30	'''Rincewind:''' I do not wish to volunteer, sir.\
31	'''Lord Vetinari:''' No one was asking you to.\
32	'''Rincewind:''' ''(wagging a weary finger)'' Oh, but they will, sir. They will. Someone will say: hey, that Rincewind fella, he's the adventurous sort, he knows the Horde, Cohen seems to like him, he knows all there is to know about cruel and unusual geography, he'd be just the job for something like this. ''(sighing)'' And then I'll run away, and probably hide in a crate somewhere that'll be loaded on to the flying machine in any case.\
33	'''Lord Vetinari:''' Will you?\
34	'''Rincewind:''' Probably, sir. Or there'll be a whole string of accidents that end up causing the same thing. Trust me. sir, I know how my life works. So I thought I'd better cut through the whole tedious business and come along and tell you I don't wish to volunteer.\
35	'''Lord Vetinari:''' I think you've left out a logical step somewhere...\
36	'''Rincewind:''' No, sir. It's very simple. I'm volunteering. I just don't wish to. [[ResignedToTheCall But, after all, when did that ever have anything to do with anything?]]
37	*** Note that very few people manage to even momentarily confuse the Patrician. Rincewind is a sort of singularity. (The Patrician seems rather off his game generally in ''The Last Hero''; he does a couple of other things that are not quite in line with the CrazyPrepared bastard we've come to know and love. The world ''is'' about to end, so he's got some excuse for being distracted.)
38	** Also the Bursar. He went insane, and accidents are constantly happening to him; if someone throws away something, you can bet that it's going to hit the Bursar. Mind you, he doesn't seem to notice.
39	* In ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'', nothing goes well for Al. He is too afraid of hurting others to actually fight during the first phase of initiation, the fear serum destroys his mind in the second phase, he's attracted to a girl who'd much rather prefer their instructor, when he messes up said girl refuses to forgive him, [[spoiler:and he commits suicide]].
40	* [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]]. Practically the poster boy for IronWoobie and for good reason. His mother was murdered by magic as she gave birth to him, his father was apparently also murdered - though he appeared to have an aneurysm - when he was six, his adoptive father and teacher saw him as nothing more than a future EliteMook, his [[FirstLove 'first everything']] appears to turn on him and go bad leading to him appearing to kill her in the duel that kills his adoptive father. Oh, and he makes a deal with the third most powerful faerie in the Winter Court, after the two senior Queens, the Leanansidhe. Remember this, it'll come back later. Then he gets put on trial for murder and only survives because Ebenezar [=McCoy=] [[spoiler:(his grandfather)]] stands up for him. He is thereafter on probation. After he finally escapes probation, he has to deal with living in a musty basement, trying to do good and being looked down on as a freak and weirdo at best or a walking TykeBomb.
41	** Jim Butcher has said on several occasions that he considers it his job to make Harry Dresden's life miserable
42	* ''Literature/{{Fat}}'': Divorced television chef Grenville Roberts, wearily resigned to yet another weight loss attempt, finds himself hemmed into the gym's car park. When negotiation incurs only [[YouAreFat abuse]], pent up rage drives Grenville, with his own car, to smash his way out of the car park, whereupon he's arrested and later sacked from his job for being overweight. And that's before his time in the [[FatCamp Well Farm]].
43	* In the ''Literature/FairyOak'' series:
44	** To the Band's teasing: Acanti, lovingly, and Cherry, not so lovingly.
45	** Duff Burdock to Meum Spignel's antics.
46	* Creator/IsaacAsimov: ''Literature/FoundationSeries''' "Literature/TheMule": Magnifico Giganticus willingly tells Bayta and Toran about the various indignities that the Mule has subjected him to for entertainment, such as being held upside-down by his ankle while reciting poetry. [[spoiler:Subverted, as Magnifico ''is'' the Mule, and the story is made up to gain their sympathy.]]
47	* Oh so many protagonists from any ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' novel:
48	** Ricky Beamer in ''Literature/CallingAllCreeps'' is constantly harassed by everyone at school, most notably the [[GangOfBullies four eighth graders who pick on him sadistically]], and every time Ricky blows his chance to stay on the school paper, it's always ''THEIR'' fault. [[spoiler:[[FaceHeelTurn It says a lot when he decides to enslave the whole school at the end when they refuse to listen to his warnings and go back to picking on him.]]]]
49	** Samantha Byrd in ''Literature/BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor''. She's a [[TheKlutz total klutz]] who is very inept at basketball and is mercilessly picked on by [[AlphaBitch Judith]]. Her home life isn't much better either, as her parents, while not abusive or neglectful, are emotionally aloof towards her and don't relate to her well, and her older brother picks on her just as much. [[spoiler:It says a lot when she decides being magically turned into a bird is the happiest moment of her life.]]
50	** Michael Webster in ''Literature/TheCuckooClockOfDoom'' is blatantly TheUnfavorite of the family, as his parents dote on their youngest daughter, [[EnfanteTerrible Tara]], who has an excellent reputation of making Michael's life miserable, and when he does tell them about his sister's torments, they refuse to concede this and assume he's lying. What's more is that even back when he was as young as four, it's revealed that his own father insinuates he's stupid just because he didn't tie his shoe sooner. [[spoiler:Thanks to his sister's birth year being knocked off the cuckoo clock after Michael returns from his time traveling expedition, Tara no longer exists, and for all the shit she put Michael through prior to the ending, it's implied that he probably might never go back in time to get her back.]]
51	** Carly-Beth in ''Literature/TheHauntedMask'' is considered the biggest scaredy-cat in school, as she is often a victim of cruel practical jokes, mostly from Chuck and Steve, and even her brother often takes advantage of this when messing with her duck costume. She does eventually grow out of it in the sequel when she GrewASpine though.
52	** Evan Ross in ''[[Literature/MonsterBloodII ALL]]'' [[Literature/MonsterBloodIII the]] ''Literature/MonsterBlood'' [[Literature/MonsterBloodIV books]]. He's constantly abandoned by his parents to relatives who don't like him, gets used as a guinea pig by his nerdy cousin Kermit and often has the latter's experiments horribly backfire on him, is constantly treated like garbage by his science teacher, gets ruthlessly bullied and beaten to a pulp by Conan, and is also stuck in situations involving the titular green substance.
53	** Arguably the ''BIGGEST'' one out of all of them is Gary Lutz from ''Literature/WhyImAfraidOfBees'', and to put it bluntly, calling him a loser is a HUGE understatement. He has literally ZERO friends, is spurned by everyone else and even beaten up by a group of bullies ForTheEvulz, his beekeeper neighbor sadistically torments him with bees, and even his family seem to take great pleasure in picking on him for laughs. It's at the point in which he's considered the biggest [[TheWoobie Woobie]] of the protagonists of the series.
54	** Sarah Maas in ''Literature/TheCurseOfCampColdLake'', though admittedly we don't know much of her life aside from her horrible camp experience except that she had trouble making friends. After she accidentally offends each of her bunkmates, they take it upon themselves to bully and shun her to the point where she becomes the camp pariah.
55	** Matt Amsterdam in ''Literature/DontGoToSleep'' is TheUnfavorite to his older brother and sister whom his mother believes he should look up to and respect since they take care of him when she's busy, when in reality they bully him and make sure he's miserable. At the end of the book, he gains greater appreciation for his life and family after all the alternate realities he endured due to falling asleep in the guest room, though said life and family doesn't get any better.
56	* ''Literature/TheGreatControversy'':
57	** Anyone who's got the Seal of God and must either go through the Great Tribulation or be killed during it to get to Heaven. Many of the Protestant reformers are this too, for they often suffered humiliating deaths at the hands of the Papacy.
58	* Many a Thomas Hardy protagonist, particularly Jude of ''Literature/JudeTheObscure'' and Tess in ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles''. Jude and Tess both begin as wholesome, virtuous innocents until about the fourth page of their respective books, in which a endless series of escalating tragedies designed to rob them of all hope begin because GodIsEvil and [[InherentInTheSystem Victorian morality stifles any hope of a freethinking life]]. When things do improve in some minor fashion, it is only to make the next tragedy all the more poignant. Thomas Hardy biographers have tried and failed to come up with a reason for his unrelenting grimness; perhaps a contemporary review of ''Jude the Obscure'' sums the case up best by saying that, "He is depressing because he himself is somewhat depressed."
59	* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
60	** [[TheUnchosenOne Neville Longbottom]] was very much the Butt Monkey for the first four books, being there mainly just as a source of comic relief. However he TookALevelInBadass in the fifth book and if you're laughing at him by the seventh book, you have a very weird sense of humour.
61	** Peter Pettigrew took away Neville's title ever since the third book was released. Mostly because of the snark delivered his way by people from his ex-friends like Lupin and Sirius, to Voldemort himself. And all verbally assaulted him and gave him crappy jobs for the mere pleasure in seeing him squirm. But then again, when you decide to do a FaceHeelTurn on your best friends knowing it'll lead them to death [[FateWorseThanDeath or worse]], then spend twelve years as ''[[YouDirtyRat a rat]]'', you kind of deserve the title of Butt Monkey.
62	*** Even while he still was a rat, he was a Butt Monkey -- it was repeatedly pointed out how shabby Scabbers (MeaningfulName) looked, and Ron, despite loving his pet rat, was also a bit ashamed of him. And in the third book Hermione got the big cat [[EvilDetectingDog Crookshanks]], which made life difficult for Scabbers.
63	*** Even Peter's [[spoiler:death was pathetic; he gets strangled to death by his own hand in a scene that's basically treated as an afterthought by Rowling, while so much other stuff is going on that you barely notice his passing. Not that he didn't deserve it, mind you.]]
64	** In an extremely minor case, the Auror John Dawlish, who, though described by Dumbledore as a very good student in his first appearance, is the subject of a RunningGag where he is constantly being beaten up by, among others, Dumbledore himself (twice) and Neville's grandmother.
65	*** Not to mention getting constantly Confunded (a sort of hypnosis/forgetfulness/disorientation spell) by heroes and villains alike.
66	** Percy, Filch, Umbridge, Lockhart, and Draco also have their share in this trope, but they almost always deserve it. Although, Percy isn't a ''bad'' guy like the others, [[InsufferableGenius just annoying]] and the constant disrespect from his siblings [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal leads him to betray his family and the Order of the Phoenix]].
67	** No one respects the [[{{Seers}} Divination]] teacher, Professor Trelawney. Even Dumbledore jumps in on the snark fest when she’s not around. He tells Harry in the sixth book that he personally thinks all of Divination is a bunch of hooey but keeps her at Hogwarts partially because parents want it taught and partially to protect her from Voldemort.
68	** Harry himself is the ButtMonkey of the Dursley household until his 11th birthday.
69	** Life just seems to hate [[TragicVillain Severus Snape]]; his past isn't a cakewalk, to say the least.
70	** Ron's favorite [[FictionalSport Quidditch]] team, the Chudley Cannons. Once the Cannons' drought reached 80 years, their motto "We shall conquer" was changed to "Let's all just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best". [[http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/07/30/j-k-rowling-web-chat-transcript/ J.K. Rowling herself]] said the Cannons' only chance at a title would be to "replace the entire team and down several cauldrons of [[GoodLuckCharm Felix Felicis]]".
71	** HufflepuffHouse gets this both InUniverse and out. One of the Sorting Hat songs describes Helga Hufflepuff as "tak[ing] all the rest, and treat[ing] them all the same," demonstrating the most frequently mentioned defining traits of the House; fairness and equality. Of course, many people take it to mean that Hufflepuff [[AndTheRest is just a dumping ground for students none of the other Founders would deem "worthy"]]. Their one moment of glory was when Cedric Diggory was chosen as the Triwizard contestant for Hogwarts, which was soon overshadowed by Harry becoming the other contestant for Hogwarts.
72	* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'':
73	** Agrajag has his fate intertwined with Arthur Dent's in a unique way. He has been reincarnated as a bowl of petunias, a baby rabbit, and a cricket spectator, not to mention countless flies and other bugs, all of which died at least in part due to Arthur Dent's actions. Agrajag suspects malice on Arthur's part, but Arthur insists it's just "the universe playing silly buggers with the pair of us."
74	*** Reading carefully, it seems indeed ''every single thing'' for whose death Arthur is in any part responsible is an incarnation of Agrajag, and every single incarnation of Agrajag is killed at the hands of Arthur. It's understandable that he'd hold a grudge....
75	** Also, Marvin, as he seems to get himself stuck in many horrifyingly awful situations, including having his leg stolen for some universe-destroying ritual, having constant pain in half of his body, and being left behind on a deserted planet to literally ''wait until the end of the universe'' for his friends to arrive. It doesn't help either that he is programmed to be permanently depressed. And the worst part is, nobody else seems to care.
76	* Most Creator/TomHolt main characters have things go hideously wrong for them more or less nonstop. Everything from jackass parents to being a pawn in century-old {{GambitRoulette}}s to [[spoiler: ''having the Queen of the Fey wipe your girlfriend's memory of you''.]] At the end of the story, they are usually given a lot of money and/or a vast region of land somewhere on the other side of the world as a karmic payoff for putting up with vast amounts of misery.
77	* ''Literature/{{Hothouse}}'': The tummy-belly men, who spend the majority of their time in the story being subject to all kinds of physical and verbal abuse from Gren, the morel and the narration, humiliating themselves in various ways, dying off in undignified manners and ultimately being left behind to die when Gren decides he's tired of them.
78	* ''Literature/TheHoundsOfTheMorrigan'' has the Sargeant, who is [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep only ever known by that name.]] Almost his entire screentime in the book is devoted to having the BigBad torment him in increasingly ridiculous, magical ways -- which he blames on drink, as he's a {{Muggle}}. They send him up the Amazon river on a rubber duck, change the cross-stitch wall hanging in his room to insult him, and do various, other cruel things to him [[spoiler: which include using him as a pawn to get close to the MacGuffin]].
79	* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': [[spoiler:Poor Boggs. His life is a string of tribulations, from Katniss puking all over him to Gale breaking his nose to getting his legs blown off and dying horribly. The closest he comes to complaining is a sigh when Katniss pukes on him.]]
80	* Halkara in ''Literature/IveBeenKillingSlimesFor300YearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'' seems to exist solely to suffer in comedic fashion, cause trouble to Azusa and the others, and suffer even more as a result. Her lack of tact and sensibility, her alcoholism, and generally impulsive nature only make it worse.
81	* Creator/PGWodehouse's ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'': Bertie Wooster could easily be classed a Butt Monkey. He's forever insulted by everyone he knows, berated by his aunts, and is made to perform degrading errands by people who lean on ties of family or friendship to make him do those hideous tasks. Even Jeeves called him "mentally negligible". However, in the end he always avoids the worst, such as marrying girls he dreads and or getting beaten up by jealous guys, and returns to his comfortable IdleRich life.
82	* Justine, the title character of one of the Creator/MarquisDeSade's (in)famous works, is the ultimate embodiment of this trope. At every turn, she's subjected to abuse hidden under a mask of virtue. She is forced to become a sex-slave to monks, is locked up in a cave and abused, publicly humiliated and raped numerous times. And just when things begin to look up for Justine, she gets struck by lightening and killed. Butt Monkey indeed.
83	** This is, of course, a reflection of the philosophy of Sade's that [[CrapsackWorld virtuous people finish last]]. Every virtuous character in a story of Sade's is a complete Butt Monkey.
84	** A critic once remarked that De Sade's novels have a kind of inverted karma: ''good'' acts end up hurting the actor. For instance, Justine's sister Juliette has no scruples whatsoever, and the one time she refuses to commit a crime it is because she is afraid of the consequences, not from any moral considerations. Nevertheless, by refusing to commit the crime she loses her favored place at court and spends much of the rest of the novel in poverty and misery, until by a long series of evil acts she finally regains her power and luxury. (What really clinches it is betraying her sister Justine, of course.)
85	* Creator/FranzKafka: every protagonist of his ever written, every one, and he often put his characters out of their misery in the end.
86	* ''Literature/KnavesOnWaves'' has Barnaby, who is hated by the crew and universe alike. Even the ship's cat outranks him.
87	* Juro in ''Literature/{{Krabat}}'' most of the time. [[ObfuscatingStupidity He rolls with it]] and to him it is never mean...
88	* ''Literature/LandOfOz'': Nick Chopper (the Tin Woodsman) falls in love with a girl and wants to marry her. Problem: the girl, her family, or both (continuity wasn't Baum's strong suit) work for the Witch of the East. So, the Witch puts a spell on Nick's axe. When he tries to use it, he ends up dismembering himself. Adding insult to injury, the Witch dangled his hacked-off limbs from her broom like a bad pair of fuzzy dice. A tinsmith is able to replace his hacked-off parts with tin, but Nick was more machine than man by the time Dorothy found him. The reason he wanted a heart in the first place was so that he could go back to his girl and be a proper husband for her! Now here's where the Butt Monkey part kicks in. In ''Tin Woodsman of Oz'', he sets it upon himself to find out what became of Nimmie-Amiee. He finds that she had taken up with another man, Captain Fyter (who was cursed like he was, but isn't much bothered about the lack of a heart). He found the same tinsmith who ended up using "magic glue" to create Chopfyt, made from the body parts of both men. Topping it all off? Nimmie-Amiee married Chopfyt to essentially get the best of both worlds.
89	* In the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', Toc the Younger loses an eye, is sucked into a magic black hole, [[spoiler:is thrown out a half year later, killed, resurrected in a new body]], [[NoodleIncident loses the same eye at least twice more]], is betrayed, [[spoiler:dies again, is made to serve Hood, the Lord of Death, and is forced to make his best friend his enemy to top it all off.]]
90	* Roald Dahl's ''Literature/{{Matilda}}'' has Harry Wormwood, once Matilda works out how to get even with him without being found out.
91	* In Lawrence Block's Literature/MatthewScudder novel ''The Sins of the Fathers'', a young woman is raped and murdered by her male roommate, who is then immediately caught (covered in blood) by the police and hangs himself in his cell a day later. The woman's stepfather, who had been out of touch with her for a few years, hires Scudder to look into her life because he needs to understand how the crime happened (and the police, with such an OpenAndShutCase, have no reason to look into the circumstances any further). Scudder talks with a friend in the police department, and they both agree the stepfather is a "poor bastard." The cop points out how, even though a long police investigation and trial can be hard on a murder victim's family, it also gives them something to focus on while they adjust to the idea that their loved one is gone. But this stepfather just has everything -- his stepdaughter is dead, the killer is caught, and the killer is now dead too -- dumped on him all at once and has no idea how to deal with any of it.
92	* [[{{Pollyanna}} Little Nell]] from Dickens' ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' is a 14-year-old orphaned girl raised by her grandfather, who loses all of his money gambling. They are forced to flee his debtors and live as beggars, pursued by the villains, one of whom wishes to force her to marry him and one of whom wants only to torment them both. They finally reach relative safety. [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth Then she dies.]]
93	** Also Smike in ''Literature/NicholasNickleby''. He's beaten and enslaved by Squeers and his family until Nicholas takes him under his wing. While the Nickleby family care for him, his love for Nicholas' sister Kate is unrequited. He eventually [[spoiler: dies, then it turns out the father he never knew is Ralph, Nicholas' cruel, uncaring uncle.]]
94	* Douglas Pavlicek from ''Literature/TheOverstory'' tends to suffer a lot of injury and misfortune throughout the book. He participates in the StanfordPrisonExperiment, and gets shot out of a plane during a war and suffers burns and a bullet wound in addition to falling, gets pepper sprayed in the groin, has a truck crash into his car, falls eighty feet, and ultimately [[spoiler: ends up in prison, while having some kind of tumor that he is too dejected to even bother checking if it's dangerous.]]
95	* ''Literature/{{Pale}}'': Forsworn practitioners are actively treated as Butt-Monkeys by the Universe. Food and drinks spontaneously spoil or have bugs inside on the way to their mouths, wounds fester and are easy to acquire, anything they do will have the worst possible outcome for them, and they're prevented from killing themselves because that would relieve their torment.
96	* [[PlayingWithFire Ifrit]] from ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain'' and the 4th and 5th books in the series, ''Nemesis'' and ''Believe''. He can never win a fight:
97	** In ''Supervillain'', he first loses a 2v2 with [[AlphaBitch Miss A]] against [[MadScientist Bad Penny]] and [[LightningBruiser Reviled]]. Then he loses again in a single-shot battle with Bad Penny.
98	** In ''Nemesis'', he helps train Penelope (who he doesn't know is also Bad Penny) in dodging, and is summarily defeated when she reaches him from across the training grounds and traps him with one of her clockwork restraining devices.
99	** In ''Believe'', [[BloodKnight Ouroboros]] (formerly Miss A) tricks him into fighting Bad Penny [[spoiler:who's now a robot]], who slams his head into the ground and tells him to go back to being a sidekick.
100	* Kitty from ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice''. She's always coming in second to her ''younger'' sister, and after Lydia elopes, she's told by her father that there will be no more balls or parties unless she's chaperoned by one of her sisters. The family's somewhat dismissive treatment of her is even more pronounced in the BBC mini-series. (Though Austen does mention at the end that her fortunes were significantly improved by being around the Darcy and the Bingley families).
101	** Also her father was JOKING when he said no more balls for her. (Mind you the dad has a weird, almost cruel, sense of humor.) The real ButtMonkey, if there is one, is Mary, who Austen herself seemed to dislike and is only mentioned to prove how selfish and silly she is while thinking she's smart.
102	* Even though things work out for her in the end, Fanny Price of ''Literature/MansfieldPark'' would certainly count. She's constantly berated by her own relatives for coming from a poor family, despite doing nothing to antagonise them and is then relentlessly harassed by Henry Crawford, who just can't seem to accept she doesn't want to marry him.
103	* In the ''Literature/RainbowMagic'' series, Rachel is this. She's been frozen solid and captured at ''least'' 10 times, much more often than Kirsty or the fairy of the book.
104	** Both girls become this in Lindsay the Luck Fairy's book.
105	* Similarly used in ''Literature/{{Redshirts}}''. ''Intrepid's'' astrogation officer Kerensky has quite a track record of nearly dying, then being all healed up by the next week. [[spoiler:As it turns out, that's because he's the ButtMonkey of a TV series in another timeline whose plots are fucking with the ''Intrepid'' via NegativeSpaceWedgie.]]
106	* ''Literature/TheScavengerTrilogy'': Poldarn. Poor old Poldarn.
107	* The cast of Daniel Handler's ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''.
108	* In Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' (and the individually published ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin''), Túrin Turambar gets cursed by [[BigBad Morgoth]] when he is eight. He gets sent to safety and never sees either of his parents again, he runs away from his foster father the King of Doriath after sort-of-accidentally killing someone, he kills his best friend after he shows up trying to help him, his overconfidence causes the fall of [[spoiler: Nargothrond]], he fails to rescue the woman who loves him, (and him rescuing her was his ''other'' best friend's dying wish), and when he finally falls in love with someone else, gets married, and gets her pregnant, she turns out to be [[spoiler: his sister Niënor]]. "O master of doom by doom mastered, O happy to be dead" indeed.
109	** There's also Bombur from ''Literature/TheHobbit'', who is a more classic comedic example.
110	* Peter David's ''Literature/SirAproposOfNothing''. For three whole books.
111	* Creator/DerekLandy's ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'':
112	** Tanith Low was meant to be killed off in the first book but the publishers said it was too depressing so Landy was forced to keep her in. He wasn't pleased about that. Now as punishment for surviving, in every book she gets tortured in some way. Now she's possessed by an evil spirit and has eloped with a psychopathic hitman. She hasn't been seen since.
113	** Fletcher Renn is traditionally on the receiving end of insults and jibes and got dumped by his beloved girlfriend, Valkyrie Cain, in book 6 though he did get a BigDamnHeroes moment at the end of the book, saving her from the clutches of a {{Yandere}} vampire.
114	** [[PluckyComicRelief Vaurien Scapegrace and his minion Thrasher]] are nothing but this. They don't actually affect the plot in any way, and keep showing up just to get humiliated by the heroes, or other villains. [[ThrowTheDogABone Things do start to go their way though in the final book.]]
115	* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
116	** Tyrion Lannister. Born as a deformed dwarf, having his own mother die bringing him into the world, growing up being reviled and hated by his father, having his first wife gang-raped by his father's garrison, becoming the laughing stock of Westeros despite being wise and kind ([[BlackAndGrayMorality or at least not cruel]]), falsely accused of murder and imprisoned [[spoiler: twice]], protecting a city with his life only gaining more scorn, getting half his nose cut off, denied of his birthright, forced into a second marriage with a woman who finds him repulsive, [[spoiler: finding his lover in his father's bed and becoming an exile wanted by the whole of Westeros after [[Theatre/OedipusRex killing both]]]], [[spoiler: becoming a broken down drunk in exile, and getting captured, sold into slavery and nearly fed to lions for a momentary laugh from the audience of the Meerenese arena]]. Without a doubt one of the best examples of a dramatic ButtMonkey.
117	** Tyrion's sister, Cersei, is also this. She's beautiful, tough, resilient, brave, it's impossible not to like her. However, she's sort of trying to be TheChessmaster but [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain failing miserably]]. She's spent her life living in fear of a prophecy that one day her life would basically fall apart and then she'd be ignominiously killed so all of her efforts are dedicated to protecting her children and escaping this prophecy through manipulative attempts at power-grabbing that inevitably blow up in her face. As Petyr Baelish points out, while Cersei desires power, she has no idea how to wield it and while she thinks she is a player in the Game of Thrones, she usually just ends up being a pawn. However, she does now have Gregor Clegane on her side, so things should start looking up for her.
118	** Brienne of Tarth. She's an ugly woman warrior in an incredibly sexist world who has had to deal with one of her masters dying, another one mistakenly believing she betrayed them, being a suspect in a murder she didn't commit, attempted rape, getting put in a bear pit for [[PsychoForHire someone's]] sick amusement, and being constantly mocked. Not to mention her issues with [[ShipTease unrequited love]].
119	** Samwell Tarly. Nothing good happens to Sam. It's never played comically, but you never want to hit the people who do it, because Sam deserves it.
120	** Theon Greyjoy. He gets ''no'' respect, not even from his own kinsmen. The universe just seems to twist itself into knots in a deliberate effort to ruin Theon's life. On the other hand, he's such a massive jerk that even most of the other men in Westeros don't like him.
121	** On the "minor character" front, Edmure Tully, Lady Catelyn's sweet-natured brother who had the misfortune to be born a total dingbat with bad judgment and worse luck. Directly or indirectly, his mistakes manage to [[spoiler: lose the war for Robb, get Robb killed, and ensure that his sister will never get her daughters back. He also misses the fact that his king and family are being murdered down the hall because he's too busy having sex, spends half a book standing on a gallows with a rope around his neck as the world's most useless hostage, can't even take a bath without someone threatening to put his baby in a catapult, and had a popular and Actually Pretty Funny song written about his erectile problems. Also, tradition has it that he light his father's pyre by shooting a flaming arrow at it, but he continuously misses, so his uncle has to do it for him.]] Basically, if there's an opportunity for him to humiliate himself, Edmure will find it.
122	** The people of the Riverlands suffer the most in the war. Their lands have been ravaged by the Lannisters, who had House Clegane and the [[PsychoForHire Bloody Mummers]] pillage every settlement in their path, leaving the Riverlands a corpse-filled wasteland.
123	* ''Literature/SweetValleyHigh'': Jessica Wakefield, of all people. Her schemes blow up in her face, leaving her humiliated (though this is often deserved, given her malicious intentions). Her genuine efforts at improving herself (cooking classes, music lessons) end the same way. Every time she meets a guy she really likes, it falls apart. Everyone, even her own parents, blatantly favor her sister Elizabeth over her and said sister frequently lords her "perfection" over her.
124	* In ''[[Literature/{{Swordspoint}} The Privilege of the Sword]]'' the GenreSavvy Alec sets Katherine up to be one, but she is one (briefly) because she believes she is. She gets over it, though.
125	* ''Literature/TrappedOnDraconica'': Ritchie is treated as such by his owner, Kalak, but when it comes to his inability to roll his 'r's, he's this to everyone.
126	* Darkstripe and Snowtuft from ''Literature/WarriorCats'' are always getting picked on by the other villains. In Snowtuft's first appearance, his belly is violently sliced open, and later Mapleshade thinks that he was spying on her so she forces him into a battle where he gets wounded horrifically. Meanwhile, Darkstripe is repaid for his UndyingLoyalty to Tigerstar by being constantly mocked and beaten up when he so much as looks at the others.
127	* The protagonist in the short story "You're Another" finds out that people from the future are coming back to his time, completely changing things and then filming it as entertainment. (The protagonist brings up the GrandfatherParadox, but the people from the future say it doesn't work like that. "What happen to dog when you cut off his grandfodder tail? Noddin.") They even explain why he's always falling in holes, being cheated on by his girlfriend, and having paint cans spill over him. [[spoiler: He's "comic relief."]]
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Context ButtMonkey / Literature