Line #65 SadistShow/WesternAnimation


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8	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': The Wattersons cause chaos in [[CrapsaccharineWorld Elmore]], and the other characters aren't much better -- most are either insufferable pricks or stupid morons. It also turns out that Elmore would be ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt exterminated]]'' if [[BumblingDad Richard]] ever gets a job or does something useful.
9	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'':
10	** While not quite as prominent an example as Seth's [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy other]] [[WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow shows]], there's some frequent BlackComedy and the majority of the cast [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist are less than]] [[ComedicSociopath morally sound]] to say the least.
11	** An in-universe example is shown in "Morning Mimosa" with the titular ShowWithinAShow. The entire show is dedicated to humiliating its guests on live TV, with the hosts even going so far as to get their entire audience drunk on mimosas and provoke them into physically attacking said guests. Francine outright describes it as the "most hostile audience in television," and Steve finds this out the hard way when he becomes a Website/YouTube cooking celebrity and is invited onto the show.
12	** Another in-universe example is shown in "Trophy Wife, Trophy Life". The Smiths learn that a Korean TV studio is filming their neighbor Tuttle for a show. The audience seems to enjoy the fact that Tuttle is a depressed sad sack. Notably, the show's ratings drop when the Smiths (hoping to get on the show) start hanging out with Tuttle and his mood improves.
13	* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'', as well as other Creator/AdultSwim shows, are very liberal in regards to characters suffering disgrace and misfortune for the sake of it.
14	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': When the main character gets an erection at the idea of his mother's death and the RunningGag of Lana trying to kill him is not to be taken seriously, you know you have one of these.
15	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'' is full of this, with the main cast consisting of screwed-up individuals who have no problem tormenting and screwing each other over. The other characters aren't safe from this either, being in a CrapsackWorld where sex and hate crimes and child abuse are free to commit.
16	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBuzzOnMaggie'' is an interesting example where the protagonist isn't quite a saint, but nearly everyone else isn't much better, if at all. While Maggie tends to be self-centered, her older brother Aldrin is a JerkJock who would one-up his sister, their parents can be wet blankets (especially their dad), Maggie's best friend Rayna can be just as petty and [[WithFriendsLikeThese throw her under the bus]], and Dawn is an AlphaBitch who rarely gets her comeuppance. One of the only nice characters is Maggie's kid brother Pupert, but even he would occasionally dip into this.
17	* ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'' is a cynical BlackComedy set in a CrapsackWorld where a lot of the humor comes from how miserable the eponymous brothers' lives are and how [[YankTheDogsChain they rarely succeed at anything]].
18	* ''WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts'': WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck. In his own words: "You can't win. You just can't win."
19	%%* ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken''
20	* ''WesternAnimation/TheCrampTwins'': Pretty much similar to ''Johnny Test'' where the majority of the characters are major jerks that often cause trouble for others. One of the main characters is the show's biggest ButtMonkey that constantly suffers abuse from his brother. Said brother (named Wayne Cramp) cannot go a single episode without torturing his brother or even other kids. The twins' mother, in fact, is such a NeatFreak she is even willing to test dangerous products on her own family and said products are even deadlier than acid!
21	* ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' is all about the adventures of a paranoid, short-fused man who tries to enact revenge on almost anyone who slights him. Fortunately, [[AssholeVictim almost everyone he targets turns out to completely deserve it]].
22	* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' certainly qualifies. Dexter is rarely heroic and most of his exploits are usually for selfish reasons. And if that's not the case, he'll end up being the victim of Deedee's shenanigans.
23	* When ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' isn't about taking the piss out of RealityTV (the original premise which it dropped in the second season) or [[AnimationTropes cartoons]], it's about heaping abuse on the dysfunctional housemates. Fortunately, they all retain strong {{Jerkass}} tendencies, so there's little room for sympathy save for Captain Hero, who was originally the biggest of the Jerkasses but developed into the most sympathetic character.
24	* ''WesternAnimation/TheDrinkyCrowShow'', a series about a crow who drinks to escape the rigors of reality and tries to commit suicide regularly. What do you think?
25	* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''. It's a rare occasion that the neighborhood kids did something positive toward the Eds. [[spoiler:It changed by the end of the movie--the neighborhood kids actually start liking the Eds at that point.]] Although the Eds usually take the most abuse, the other characters also receive a fair amount of AmusingInjuries. The show pretty much revolves around pain.
26	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': Most episodes revolve around ways to just torture Timmy in the cruelest ways possible, especially from Season 4 onwards. Heck, even his parents get in on the act more often than not. In addition, Timmy is rarely heroic and most of his exploits are usually for selfish reasons.
27	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' starts to become this after its second revival, and it only gets worse with each season.
28	* From its third season and onward, ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' often wound up being this. Characters go through hell for little reason, many of the ones who cause trouble [[KarmaHoudini get away scot-free]], while more well-meaning characters often wound up in trouble.
29	* ''WesternAnimation/FraidyCat'': The premise alone revolves around the many troubles Fraidy faces in every episode. When Fraidy's life isn't accidentally made worse by his lives, dogs, other animals, or even fellow cats make life hell for him.
30	%%* ''WesternAnimation/FriskyDingo''
31	* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': What else can you call a show where the Grim Reaper is the OnlySaneMan of the main characters?
32	* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'': A megalomaniac alien, a deranged hedonistic robot, a paranormal-obsessed lunatic and his self-centered, sociopath sister and negligent father in an ignorant, cybergothic CrapsackWorld, wherein ''everyone'' within it is destined to fail at ''everything'' they try ''' ''almost all the time.'' ''' The only ones who usually come out okay are the ones who don't care about anything or are too dumb to know any better. Dib tries to foil Zim's latest plan to destroy Earth? Best case scenario is that Dib probably succeeds and Zim's plan fails, but Zim has learned nothing, Gir has destroyed half the lab (again), Dib's forced to take the blame for whatever damage Zim wrought on the world, and Gaz walks by to rub salt into his wounds by calling him a kook that cares too much. [[PyrrhicVictory Pyrrhic victories]] and [[DownerEnding downer endings]] all around, nobody grows, and the world is worse off. Some variant of this happens in ''nearly every other episode''.
33	* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' thrives on this, being rife with cruel and often violent slapstick and other forms of humiliation directed towards everyone, from Jimmy himself to random background characters. It's pretty much how the show does its BlackComedy. But what else did you expect from a cartoon that's set in a place that is pretty much just {{Hell}} by another name known as ''Misery''ville?
34	* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'': It's easier to list the characters who aren't selfish jerks who'd take advantage of one another. Though this is a lighter example then most, since a majority of the resolutions end up for the better.
35	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': All the characters are put through terrible physical and/or emotional torment just for the audience's amusement. Due to the ResetButton, some of them have even ''died'' and been fine in the next episode.
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39	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndTimesOfTim'': When [[ButtMonkey Tim]] isn't the victim of his own social ineptitude, he's suffering for being too meek and unassertive to turn down his friends and coworkers' terrible ideas.
40	* Pick one of the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' derived series from WB in the 90s, such as ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}},'' and tell yourself it isn't sadistic, you won't be able to.
41	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' isn't entirely a Sadist Show, but a major part of its comedy involves the protagonist Lincoln Loud being the victim of the antics and bullying from his family and other characters, especially in the earlier seasons. Later seasons added new characters as regular [[ButtMonkey Butt-Monkeys]] alongside Lincoln, such as his older sister Lori.
42	* The ''WesternAnimation/{{MAD}}'' series from Creator/CartoonNetwork. Much like ''Robot Chicken'', it bases a large amount of its humor around popular characters getting severely injured/killed, all while [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids abiding to the minimum quota of what qualifies as "child friendly"]].
43	* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' - Especially in the third season, when it stopped pretending to be a comedy.
44	* ''WesternAnimation/MyGymPartnersAMonkey'': Ordinary kid Adam Lyon tries to survive in a SuckySchool where everyone is a {{Jerkass}}, TheDitz, or both. [[YankTheDogsChain He fails constantly.]] Sometimes he wins... only for [[ResetButton his life to go back to being crap for him]].
45	* ''WesternAnimation/OggyAndTheCockroaches'' is the French posterboy for this. Characters love hurting each other? Check. Three cockroaches who look harmless at first sight but then will absolutely destroy you? Check. (Bonus points for "The Ghost Hunter" where they mentally and physically mess with [[TheWoobie Oggy]].) Poisoning everyone who you hate? [=McDouble=] check.
46	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' expressly and shamelessly averts this, as explained by the creators in this [[https://web.archive.org/web/20190719190040/https://www.wired.com/2010/11/mf_phineasandferb/ article.]]
47	* ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'' generally doesn't revolve around pain, but Penny and ''especially'' Oscar both suffer bad luck: Oscar with his [[ButtMonkey general misfortune]], and Penny with [[WithFriendsLikeThese her bad friends]].
48	* ''WesternAnimation/RabbidsInvasion'' is prone to this trope, especially in the first season. The Rabbids can be quite mean to each other, they inflict all sorts of AmusingInjuries upon themselves, and they'll ruin the day of just about any human they happen across. Driving countless people mad, getting several more into trouble, causing huge traffic accidents, and brainwashing an entire town make up just a few of the things they've done.
49	* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', in addition to being the TropeCodifier for GrossoutShow, also has this as well, since much of the humor involve around pain and torture, as the characters harm one another in a CrapsackWorld, [[KarmaHoudini and without consequence]].
50	* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'': Basically taking pop culture icons from the '80s and '90s and throwing them into BlackComedy situations which more often than not result in trauma or death ([[BreadEggsBreadedEggs or both]]).
51	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Robotomy}}'' takes place on a planet known as Insanus, mostly at [[SuckySchool Harry S. Apocalypse]], which is filled with extremely violent robots who mutilate each other at any possible moment. Almost every scene has some mutilation going on.
52	* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'': Rocko has been pushed and stepped on by almost everyone, [[WithFriendsLikeThese even his friends]].
53	%%* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2021}}''
54	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sidekick}}'': The show takes place in a city that is such a hive of villainy that there is an entire section where being a good person is literally forbidden. There are superheroes to fight the villains, but every single one we see is completely useless, and the only one we ever actually see doing something is only slightly more moral than the villains he fights. It's widely accepted in this universe that it's the job of the sidekicks, the real focus of the show (hence the name), to do all the real work while the superhero takes all the credit. Unfortunately, all the sidekicks we see are either completely incompetent, {{Jerkass}}es with little to no concern for those around them, or both. The only two characters who get a ''relatively'' sympathetic portrayal are Eric and Kitty, both of whom are subjected to a constant stream of mockery and humiliation by everyone including each other.
55	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
56	** The series is the only show ever to have a famous running gag involving ''child abuse''. And everything that happens to [[TheChewToy Hans Moleman and Milhouse]]. "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E23HomersEnemy Homer's Enemy]]" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E18TheBoysOfBummer The Boys Of Bummer]]" are some noteworthy examples.
57	** WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror. It's easier to justify constant examples of TookALevelInJerkass and TookALevelInDumbass in episodes where AnyoneCanDie.
58	** ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Itchy & Scratchy Show]]'', in which Itchy the mouse comes up with a sadistic new way each episode to kill Scratchy, who's just minding his own business.
59	** And then there's an in-universe example being that Japanese game show in ''Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo'', which involves things like skunks, human pinatas, lightning, volcanoes, and scorpions.
60	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The moral of the show appears to be "Life sucks, then you die. Then life continues to suck, and you die ''again''." And if you are a reasonable child SurroundedByIdiots or a NiceGuy in a WorldOfJerkass, you're going to get the short end of the stick quite often.
61	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', particularly after the [[WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie first movie]] and even moreso after the [[WesternAnimation/TheSpongebobMovieSpongeOutOfWater second movie]]. It's a rare occasion that [[{{Jerkass}} jerks]] like Squidward did something positive toward [=SpongeBob=]. Squidward and Plankton are two of the biggest [[ButtMonkey butt-monkies]] yet, but the other characters also receive a fair amount of AmusingInjuries, [=SpongeBob=] included at times. The show (namely in season 6-7 and 10-present episodes, and even in some of the episodes before or in between these seasons) pretty much revolves around pain.
62	* ''WesternAnimation/StressedEric'': The entire point of this show was to have ''every single thing'' in the protagonist's life go horribly wrong. At the end of every episode, he collapses of a heart attack or some other such stress-related malady.
63	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'': It has a sadist Willy Wonka-looking character for a prison warden.
64	* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' is prone to this, due to the main characters being jerks to each other. It's one of the reasons why the show is unfavorably compared to the [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans 2003 series]]. The worst offenders are "Staff Meeting", "Money Grandma", and "Boys vs Girls".
65	* ''WesternAnimation/TenYearOldTom'' focuses on a [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Butters Stotch-type]] well-meaning, slightly [[BookDumb ditzy]], ExtremeDoormat who constantly gets dragged into {{Zany Scheme}}s by the [[AdultsAreUseless adults around him]], as well as [[WithFriendsLikeThese his own friends]], and always [[TheScapegoat takes all the blame]] when they inevitably fail.
66	* ''WesternAnimation/TimeSquad'': Almost all of the humor comes from the main characters being complete dicks to each other. Tuddrussel abuses Larry, Larry tries to kill Otto, Otto attacks Tuddrussel, etc. The most vicious cases of this are when the writers had decided to make entire episodes dedicated to making sure that Otto is completely miserable, like having him abandoned on islands only inhabited by blood-thirsty baboons. If it's not the main guys, you can bet that some of the jokes come from either Tuddrussel beating people up for stuff they didn't even do or historical figures being stupid or jerks and their inventions or ideas cause mayhem.
67	* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'': Most of the engines tend to endure violent crashes (usually from either goofing off or not following instructions), with the people they're supporting often having to pay the price for it. This is mostly in the StopMotion series, though.
68	* ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeFriendsAndJerry'' supports this trope a lot. Almost everyone in this show is a {{Jerkass}}, a ButtMonkey, or both at the same time.
69	* Several shows like ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'', ''WesternAnimation/TexAveryMGMCartoons'' and ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' have their source of humor based on this trope, complete with violence that is over-the-top but still family-friendly (no blood or gore involved).
70	** A notable example was ''WesternAnimation/TheDucksters'', featuring a ShowWithinAShow 'Truth or AAAAAAAAH!'. The penalties for missing answers on that show were ... probably not going to make it past the FCC these days. Winning wasn't much better-- the prizes had a tendency to be ''dropped'' on you.
71	** ''WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner'' is probably the biggest example. The show consists of making Wile E. suffer every scene in every way possible.
72	** Famous Studios' ''WesternAnimation/HermanAndKatnip'' is effectively ''Tom & Jerry'' with the violent sadism stretched as far as it can go. The crew of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has confirmed that ''The Itchy & Scratchy Show'' is based more on this series than on ''Tom & Jerry''.
73	* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'', as a parody of the shamelessly sleazy and exploitative nature of actual reality TV, goes as far as being ''hosted'' by a sadist who pretty much personifies the show's love of hurting and humiliating its characters and making them as miserable as much as possible. By the time of the fourth season, the original cast is so sick of all the hellacious torture they've gone through that many have sworn to never be on the show again in any capacity, only coming back when called for because of their legally binding contracts. DJ ''freaked'' when he found himself back at Camp Wawanakwa in the fourth season for a challenge, and he was there as a ''judge''.
74	** Generally averted by ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'', which is the only entry in the franchise not to be hosted by a sadist. While there are definitely moments every now and then where the comedy comes from the torment the more immoral challenges inflict on the contestants, the characters are generally treated with a great deal of more dignity compared to the parent series.
75	* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'' is all about heroes and villains who are failures.
76	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Villainous}}'' is a VillainProtagonist show centered around an EvilInc owned by a SatanicArchetype which is contracted by supervillains to kill their SmugSuper rivals. Several of the promotional shorts had them tormenting the heroes (and even villains) of some other Creator/CartoonNetwork shows.
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Context SadistShow / WesternAnimation