Designated Hero / Western Animation

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The following have their own pages:

• The Powerpuff Girls
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil
• Teen Titans Go!
• Tom and Jerry
• Total Drama

Other examples:

A-D

• The Adventures of Kid Danger: Captain Man and Kid Danger, our so called "heroes", often act incredibly immature and dangerous, with very little provocation.
• Allen Gregory: Allen himself. No one in the show was really developed into a likeable rounded character, but he is just the worst of them; he's rude, lecherous, arrogant and manipulative, and we're apparently supposed to think he's funny and someone we should root for. There's the occasional, brief hints that Allen might actually not be all bad, mostly just being a product of his environment, and some Character Development might have helped in bringing this out; but the moments are usually either glazed over, forgotten, or immediately wrecked due to surrounding situations or Richard's influence. Then it's right back to normal.
• In American Dad! most of the cast qualify due to Depending on the Writer as they alter between Heroic Comedic Sociopath and Villain Protagonist in any ep or even within the same episode. Stan Smith, Roger Smith, Klaus, and to some extent Steve are at least deliberately portrayed as Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonists. Francine and Hayley however are designated into long suffering Women Are Wiser archetypes who have moral superiority 99% of the time, despite often proving to be equally hypocritical, self serving or outright sociopathic as the male Smiths.
• Angela Anaconda: Some people view Angela in an unfavorable manner. Since the audience is supposed to take her word on Nanette being unlikable despite little evidence supporting it, her treatment and fantasies about Nanette getting hurt or worse comes across as mean. There’s one episode where she imagined ordering her enemies (which includes her older brothers) at a restaurant, which is pretty disturbing for an elementary-aged schoolgirl to imagine.
• Angelina Ballerina: Despite being the main protagonist, Angelina Mouseling could be very nasty and horrible at times, at her very worst being an overtly whiny, self-pitying, selfish brat. This is especially if she is jealous (which she can be quite prone to). This was heavily toned down in The Next Steps.
• Animaniacs:
  • Slappy Squirrel becomes a Designated Hero in the short "I Got Yer Can", where she torments Candie Chipmunk to the point of insanity all because Candie lectured her on disposing of her trash in other people's bins. While Candie is shown to be a rather conceited Neat Freak and keeps throwing the can on Slappy's head, it still doesn't justify the lengths Slappy goes to ensure that she's stuck with Slappy's empty soda can.
  • Yakko, Wakko, and Dot themselves are usually depicted as Karmic Tricksters like Bugs Bunny in that they only torment and humiliate people if they're jerks and/or have done something mean to them, but they sometimes cause trouble for people who haven't done anything wrong:
    • "Toy Shop Terror" has the Warners wreak havoc in a toy store during closing hours. While the owner of the toy store is rather grumpy, he had every right to want the Warners out of his store, and you'd be pretty peeved too if some children were making a mess of your store while you were trying to sleep.
    • The Warners remorselessly cause Otto Von Scratchansniff to get injured and humiliated in "Fake" and "Anchors A-Warners".
    • "Back in Style" shows that during the 1960's, Warner Bros. Studios were desperate enough for money to loan the Warners out to be guest stars in parodies of cartoons that were popular at the time. Every single one of the 60's cartoon spoofs has the Warners do nothing but insult and harm the cartoon's main characters unprovoked, but the worst instant is in the Underdog parody, where they prevent Thunderdog from rescuing the Sweet Polly Purebred stand-in and cause him to suffer an injury that permanently deforms his lower body.
• Baby Huey: Huey, at least in some stories. He is, after all, basically just a big baby who always has to have his way, so he ends up causing a lot of trouble for sympathetic characters as well as villains.
• It seems that the main characters in Ben 10: Omniverse have forgotten how to be heroes.
  • The titular Ben Tennyson himself becomes one thanks to Flanderization. His Chronic Hero Syndrome, his defining trait in the previous shows, is heavily toned down in favor of making him an arrogant, incompetent, and thoroughly obnoxious Jerkass who causes as many problems as he solves, takes next to nothing seriously, cares more about having fun than actually helping people, and as the series finale shows, apparently cares more about Mr. Smoothies than his friends and family. It has gotten to the point that many fans prefer either Rook or some of Ben's alternate counterparts such as No-Watch Ben and Ben 23 along with his future self Ben 10,000. Fans have even resorted to rooting for the villains as Ben is just too unlikable. This is even lampshaded by Proctor Sevantis, who outright says that the Omnitrix is too powerful to be left in the hands of someone as irresponsible as Ben.
  • The Galactic Monsters arc is a prime example. Despite Zs Skayr being on Anur Phaetos and plotting to take over the galaxy, Ben's only concern is getting off the planet. Meaning that had he not been forced to stay on the planet longer than he wanted to, he would have left Zs Skayr undefeated and still scheming. This is thankfully rectified in the episode "It's a Mad, Mad Ben World", where after getting Dr. Psychobos to fix his and Ben 23's Omnitrixes, he opts to stay and help defeat Mad Ben.
  • Blukic and Driba to many fans. The many problems they cause by acting completely stupid and irresponsible don't exactly make them come out as charming, and their comments on Cerebrocrustaceans' intelligence just make them come out as flat-out racist.
  • Azmuth can also be one depending on the episode by virtue of being Unintentionally Unsympathetic. He is supposed to be the wise and benevolent ruler of Galvan Prime, but it's frequently shown that he can be just as much of a jerk as Ben. A prime example of this is at the end of the "Duel of the Duplicates" arc where he punishes Albedo by permanently trapping him in the form of 11-year-old Ben. While Albedo was clearly meant to deserve that, to many fans, it came off as a needlessly petty Kick Them While They Are Down moment. Especially since one of the reasons for Albedo's Start of Darkness was him being fed up by Azmuth's treatment of him.
• In the Johnny Bravo and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! crossover, "Bravo Dooby Doo", Mystery Inc are treated as the good guys when they leave Johnny tied to a tree in the woods at the request of his mean aunt who disliked him because he was an embarrassment to their family. Johnny might be stupid and a bit annoying, but that hardly justifies such a cruel action.
• Breadwinners: In the same vein as many other modern Nickelodeon protagonists, the titular Breadwinners are another pair of clueless jerks in general — wildly destructive and causing naught but trouble everywhere they go through a combination of their shared obnoxiousness and general stupidity. Some episodes will have them realize this and try to make amends (particularly if they antics involve Ketta, Jelly, or T-Midi), but most episodes don't.
• The Brothers Flub: Guapo is called out by fans and haters for not being a good brother to Fraz, sometimes being purposefully manipulative.
• Much of the Warner Bros. animated stable have these characters as their leads:
  • Bugs Bunny was like this in his early shorts, where he was an obnoxious prankster. In the later shorts this was rectified, with Bugs becoming a Karmic Trickster who only targeted those who deserved it, though who "deserved" said retribution was still determined by Protagonist-Centered Morality. Bugs more often than not though works on the basis that he just likes being a jerk, he didn't earn "Ain't I a stinker?" as a catchphrase in an ironic sense.
  • Everything said about Bugs Bunny also applies to Woody Woodpecker, except for the charm.
• Bubsy falls under this in his failed cartoon pilot. He is shown to be boastful, reckless, and obnoxious, and he often treats his armadillo sidekick Arnold like a lesser being. This is considered to be one of the main reasons for the pilot's universal hatred.
• Caillou:
  • Caillou can be this at times in early episodes. For example, in "Caillou Joins the Circus" from season one, you're supposed to feel bad and understand why Caillou is upset about not going to the circus, but its hard to do so since he throws a big temper tantrum about it and even misbehaves a bit (because of his temper tantrum, he woke up Rosie). It doesn't help he didn't get punished for misbehaving.
• The primary complaint about the classic Chip 'n Dale shorts is that, most of the time, they're the ones causing all the trouble and we're supposed to still take their side.
  • This is especially prominent whenever they're put up against Donald Duck or Pluto. At best, the two end up going with some case of Disproportionate Retribution, as in one short where Donald as a lumberjack unknowingly cuts down their house, or in another, where Donald the zookeeper is basically doing collateral damage in their efforts to steal peanuts from a rather annoyed elephant. At worst, they're the out and out villains, as in one infamous short where they come onto Donald's farm and start eating all of his apples, even just taking big bites out of them and then discarding the otherwise intact fruit.
  • Huey, Dewey and Louie also qualify in shorts such as "Donald's Snow Fight", where Donald makes a dick move by crashing his sled into their snowman and them, but ends up freezing alive and they don't show any remorse for putting him in that state.
  • To an extent, the "Disney mainstream character vs. mischievous cute animal" formula revolved around this. The title character would be pitted against a rambunctious creature that was usually disturbing them or victimizing them for a minor offense. For obvious reasons, the cute but abrasive little animal usually won.
• Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island: Take all of SpongeBob's negative traits and remove any of his positives and you end up with Fred. It's a little hard to enjoy his antics due to the virtually Chaotic Stupid nature of his mayhem. This isn't made much better by his Idiot Houdini nature.
• Code Lyoko: During the first season, before the show completely found its groove, the heroes could be this (Example: In one episode, Sissi tricks Ulrich by writing a note pretending to be Yumi, and that's considered terrible. In a different episode, Ulrich and the gang trick Herve by writing a note pretending to be Sissi, and that's considered perfectly OK). Later seasons tone down this aspect, fortunately.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: The episode "Operation: A.R.C.H.I.V.E.", about the origins of the title organization states that children only created adults to be their slaves and generally treating them horribly, and not doing one actual heroic thing the entire episode. Justified because the episode is not canon, but just the ramblings and speculations of Numbuh One, who has no idea what he is talking about. Maybe. The episode ends on an ambiguous note (the teacher calls someone and says "They know."), and it may explain the origins of Grandfather. Numbuh One does seem to hint at both sides being at fault until adults usurped control (where the even tone began going maniacal).
• Sam Manson of Danny Phantom is Danny's best friend and supposed true love and is favored by the creator, Butch Hartman. However, many see her as a Hypocrite and worse than his other love interest, Valerie. Throughout the show, Sam had a tendency to impose her will on other characters, from forcing the entire school to join her vegetarian lifestyle, to blackmailing her friends into releasing zoo animals, to scolding Danny for purposely getting rid of his powers without considering the stress and trouble he had been going through because of them (especially since she was the one who convinced him to do the deed that resulted in the Freak Lab Accident that gave him his powers to begin with).
• Darkwing Duck: The dinosaur scientists in "Extinct Possibility" are meant to be Darkwing's allies for the episode, but they off-handedly imply committing genocide against humanity's prehistoric predecessors without a shred of remorse and leave Darkwing to his fate after they accidentally encase him in amber.
• The Dick Tracy Show: The ONLY thing Dick Tracy does in almost every episode is call in someone to essentially do his job and shows to arrest the criminal, while doing very little actual work.
• The Dragon Prince: Much of the fandom feels this way about King Harrow. He's supposed to be an example of The Good King, but many of his actions within the plot simply don't align with this. He was perfectly willing to allow tens of thousands of his subjects to starve simply so tens of thousands of others from another kingdom might live, disregarding that he had a responsibility to look out for his people. When Viren found a solution to save the people, he foolishly refuses to leave his wounded behind to travel more covertly, which causes their party to lose valuable time behind enemy lines and results in the death of his wife, two queens from another kingdom, and the Dragon King. This causes elven assassins to attack Harrow's kingdom. Even worse, Harrow does not take responsibility for his actions and blames Viren and his magic for all these things, causing a rift between them and Viren's descent into villainy. No one ever calls out Harrow for these things and the main characters look back on him with fondness that doesn't seem wholly deserved given the circumstances, until season 3. When Callum learns the full story of what happened the day Zym's father died, he stares in shock at the Dragon King's petrified corpse and asks how a good man could do such a thing. Rayla doesn't have an answer.
• The Land of Dreams in The Dreamstone is presented as a saintly community whose love for peaceful dreams are always under threat by Zordrak and his malicious Urpney army. They tend to ignore the fact however, that most of the Urpneys are Trapped in Villainy and only try to take the Dreamstone or ruin their dreams because Zordrak press gangs, abuses or executes those that refuse. The heroes were also often depicted with an excessively nasty zeal, brutally beating up or toying with the Urpneys, often as they begged for mercy. Some episodes even borderline conveyed the heroes as hypocrites, fine with bullying the Urpneys for petty slights but cowering and surrendering the moment they acted too much like the dastardly villains they touted them as. The later points of the show tried to make the heroes look more benevolent, but since the Urpneys for the large part remained the same unwilling non-threats, it was still a delicate dance for them to look provoked by them.

F-M

• Thanks to Flanderization, many characters on Family Guy have a tendency to slip into this territory but here are the biggest ones:
  • The main character himself, Peter Griffin, is supposed to be a Bumbling Dad with a heart of gold. However, it can be kind of hard to see him that way. For example, one episode has him trying to save a beached whale only to kill it. The same episode also has him cooking his own kids (he puts Chris in the microwave, Stewie in the fridge and Meg in the microwave, which causes her head to explode). Both times, he is never called out for his actions and he ultimately gets off scot-free.
  • Lois is treated as the only sane person in a family that as dysfunctional as the Griffins but she's done tons of horrible stuff too. For example, she's slept with tons of people behind Peter's back (she even slept with Meg's boyfriend in one episode). "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q" has her criticize Brenda for staying with someone as abusive as Jeff but she should talk considering that she's married to an abusive and incompetent Manchild with an IQ that could rival Patrick Star's or Ed's.
  • This trope is one of the many reasons why Brian Griffin is such a divisive character. While yes, he does have every right to be annoyed by the people around him and he does make a few good points here and there, there are many, many, many different reasons why he's a Base-Breaking Character.
• The Ghost and Molly McGee: Molly, Darryl and Scratch in "Hooray For Mollywood". Before they joined Andrea they achieved absolutely nothing. Instead of simply leaving when they don't like how Andrea obliviously takes over the movie (while actually delivering results), they unleash a Disproportionate Retribution on her and everybody who happens to work on the set while trashing everything, leaving only chaos and ruin behind.
• In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, while Mandy and Grim are intentionally Villain Protagonists, Billy is generally portrayed as a Kindhearted Simpleton and the Token Good Teammate. This is in spite of the fact that he is often just as much of a jerk, treats his supposed friend Grim like a slave, has been known to use Grim's control over death as a weapon to get rid of people he dislikes (or attempt to anyway), and has committed all kinds of evil acts for little to no reason, such as sacrificing everyone else in town to an alien creature for no reason other than that he didn't have anything better to do.
• Grojband: The band (especially Corey) can come off as this. They intentionally make Trina emotional in ways depending on the episode just to get song lyrics from her diary. Sure, Trina is a Alpha Bitch to everyone, but that doesn't justifying the band plagiarizing songs from her.
• Herman and Katnip: Not that Katnip isn't a threat, but a lot of Herman's actions against his feline foe come off as mean-spirited at best and downright cruel at worst. The fact that many stories end with Katnip dead, once even having his corpse used by Herman as a Christmas tree, which would make absolute sense of this being the direct inspiration for Itchy & Scratchy.
• Hey Arnold!: Arnold Shortman in the Lila episodes. We are supposed to feel bad for him because he never gets the girl, but his actions make him come off as a bit of an entitled jerk.
• Horrid Henry:
  • Henry treats his family, his teachers and his friends rudely and carelessly, his alliterative name fits him well.
    • He gets a little better later on in the series by becoming a little nicer to the people he likes. But he’s still a horrid little boy to everyone else.
  • Henry’s family tends to act this way whenever they blame Henry and unfairly punish him for something he clearly doesn’t do.
  • Perfect Peter and Moody Margaret can be as bad or worse than Henry at times.
• Jem:
  • Rio is a Crazy Jealous Guy regarding both Jem and Jerrica to the point of being borderline abusive yet he is essentially shown as the "ideal boyfriend" of the show.
  • Synergy in "Midsummer Night's Madness". While she tried to point out to Jem/Jerrica that Rio loves her no matter what she looked like due to her good heart, she still had no problem manipulating her into enduring a confusing and stressful day or inadvertedly turning him as well as the Holograms against her while in her "Jaime" guise.
• This is one of the many problems viewers have with Johnny Test:
  • The title character bugs most everyone around him, participates in his sisters' experiments only in return for favors (which doesn't sound that bad - you can't expect something for nothing - but what Johnny asks for in return tends to end up being really reckless), and is really just a textbook example of the bratty Kid Hero, which makes it extremely difficult to like him, let alone root for him. It doesn't help that he gets away with his behavior nearly 99% of the time. One infamous example of this is when Johnny unintentionally zaps his sisters with a ray that lowers their IQ. Rather than immediately trying to find a way to return them back to their genius selves, he takes total advantage of their stupidity for his own amusement initially. In fact, the only reason he turns them back to normal (with the help of Bling-Bling Boy) is because the school the girls go to would've gone through a nuclear meltdown (don't ask).
  • Dukey, despite being the more level-headed one, isn't exempt from this either. While he does point out when Johnny is about to do something stupid and/or irresponsible, he's perfectly willing to join in with his friend's antics (And, if not, he's easily bribed with meat). One episode even had Dukey blatantly distracting Johnny from getting his schoolwork done causing Johnny to have to do extra credit (so he wouldn't have to go to summer school). Another infamous episode featured Dukey acting like a Jerkass dog (Including chewing up the sisters' belts and eating their food) causing said sisters' to invent an obedience collar for him to get him under control (albeit using him as a servant). In the end, it's Susan and Mary who end up being punished and Dukey and Johnny mock them for it. Not once is Dukey called out or punished for essentially putting Johnny in that situation in the first place (It's also Out of Character for Dukey since he's often the more responsible one of the two).
  • Susan and Mary are as likely as Johnny to put themselves, their family, and the world in danger with their inventions, and usually Johnny is the one who ends up fixing it.
• Kid vs. Kat: Millie. Whenever she doesn't get what she wants, she screams at the top of her lungs until someone caves in, and she just generally acts like a Spoiled Brat, yet she is loved by everyone, including Old Lady Munson (who hates pretty much everything) and sometimes Kat (an alien invader out to kill all humans). In one episode, she finds out Coop was right about Kat all along, and she's totally cool with it, in a scene we're supposed to find sweet.
• King of the Hill:
  • Hank Hill is usually a well-meaning person, but at times he is shown to be laughably old-fashioned compared to a more modern family that it's not even funny. Other times, he shows total disregard to his family and friends (ex. "Texas City Twister", "Pretty Pretty Dresses", etc.). The most ludicrous example probably has to be “Hank’s on Board”. After Hank and Bill discover that Dale and Boomhauer take secret fishing trips every summer, Hank thinks that they have been trying to avoid Bill. But, when the guys open up a vacation to include their relatives he discovers that Boomhauer and Dale are trying to get away from Hank because he is too bossy. When Hank cuts loose, the guys get into big trouble just as Hank thought, stranded in the ocean next to their fishing boat with no way to climb back up to it. Hank's take-charge nature saves the four in the end, as he devises a means to summon help so they can be rescued. The problem is, as Dale said, it was Hank’s fault that they got in trouble as not only was he the last one to jump off the boat, but Dale and Boomhauer have been doing this four years without a problem. To make matters worse, it turns out that Bill, Dale, and Boomhauer faked the fabulous time they had without Hank even though he didn’t find out that they were trying to get away from him until after they did that.
  • Also, Peggy. She sees herself as the sensible, long-suffering one, but there are many, many different reasons why she's a Base-Breaking Character.
• The Legend of Korra: The spirits. Book 2 goes in-depth on the history of the world and reveals that humanity was once confined to living in cities on the backs of lion-turtles after the spirits basically all but took over the mortal realm, and the spirits viciously hated them and would try to kill them if they so much as left to find food (and could possess their bodies and horribly mutate them). The spirits, including Raava, all talk about how Humans Are Bastards and are selfish and violent, and show no regard for their well-being even if humans haven't directly done anything to them. Then in Book 4, when Korra asks the spirits to help her defend Republic City from Kuvira, they flat out refuse and don't care what happens to the city or the people living there. Characters constantly talk about how humanity needs to learn to respect the spirits and live in harmony with them, but no one ever brings attention to the problem that the spirits are the ones constantly practicing Fantastic Racism towards humans even without Vaatu influencing them.
• Lilo & Stitch: The Series:
  • Lilo and Stitch come across as this in some episodes, particularly in the ones where they practically give the experiments over to Gantu and Hämsterviel usually because the experiments annoyed them, such as Nosy, Felix, and Heckler. This can be more justified with experiments whose abilities have little to no positive effect, such as Hunkahunka and Poxy, but can still come across as surprisingly harsh and callous. Worse is that these abandonments are often Played for Laughs as said experiments start messing with Gantu afterward (Felix starts making a mess in Gantu's ship, Poxy makes Gantu ill, and so on). "Snafu" does help alleviate this with Lilo and Stitch agreeing to go on a rescue mission to save all experiments from Gantu, plus Nosy calling Lilo out on this.
  • Stitch can be unnecessarily rough towards his cousins, with a couple of old YouTube videos titled "Stitch the Bully" showing clips of him mistreating his cousins (though the person who made those videos—a self-proclaimed Stitch fan—intended for them to be humorous and not actual criticism).
• The Lizzie short "Fifty Shades of Green" has Lizzie grossed out by her parents constantly showing affection toward each other in front of her. She eventually deals with this by tricking her father into watching a home movie of her grandparents getting intimate on her parents' anniversary, which disgusts her father to the point that he never wants to express his love toward his wife ever again. It's real hard to side with the protagonist when their goal was to ruin their parents' anniversary for selfish reasons.
• Loonatics Unleashed:
  • Ace is supposed to be the greatest hero of all time, but has some questionable moments, especially in the second season. In "Secrets of the Guardian Strike Sword," for example, he calls out his rival for attacking him from behind, then later in the same fight takes advantage of said rival's distraction to attack him from behind. Worse, that same fight is supposed to prove that Ace is a "true warrior" and thus the one who really deserves to wield his Cool Sword.
  • The Royal Tweetums. Much like ancestor Tweety in his very first 1940s incarnations, Tweetums is a self-centered jerkass who runs around getting into danger, is very obnoxious, and causes all sorts of pain and suffering for his caretakers when he's not treating them like crap. When foe Sylth Vester comes along, his reasons for trying to take out the little bastard include having had his head shoved into a singularity; he and Duck actually bond some over the abuse Tweetums has put both of them through. And the show wants you to believe installing him on the throne will prevent centuries of galactic warfare.
• Looney Tunes:
  • Bugs Bunny often falls into this if his Karmic Trickster nature seems a bit overblown. It was for this reason that a more vicious villain was made as his foe in the mid-forties (Yosemite Sam) to occasionally replace Elmer Fudd (who's much more affable) because Bugs was looking like an outright bully toward him. Eventually, Yosemite Sam was looking like an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain as well, and therefore Marvin the Martian was created, a character who's calm and polite but a competent villain who could still pose a threat.
  • The mouse in Canned Feud is apparently supposed to be the hero of the short, but it's difficult to see him as such. The short focuses on Sylvester's owners going on vacation and forgetting to put him out before they leave. He's understandably afraid that he'll starve, but as it turns out there's a huge supply of canned cat food in the house. Cue the mouse, who swipes the can opener and won't let Sylvester have it, then proceeds to spend the rest of the short tormenting Sylvester with it. And when Sylvester DOES get the can opener, the mouse improvises by locking the cupboard. Sylvester did nothing to provoke this mouse, nor does he even attempt to eat the mouse at any point in the short. And yet we're apparently supposed to cheer on the mouse as he torments Sylvester with the intent of making him starve.
  • In Lighthouse Mouse, we have another mouse who, thanks to a contrived Light and Mirrors Puzzle, is unable to sleep thanks to the lighthouse light and suppose to feel he's justified in trying to keep it off, disregarding the fact that by turning off the light, the mouse is putting ships in danger, as seen when a ship crashed into the island. Further contradicting the mouse's case is the fact that at the end of the cartoon, after Sylvester is forced to play the light after the mouse had permanently damaged it, the mouse is seen sleeping soundly underneath the light platform, proving that the mouse's problem could've been solved by simply finding somewhere else to sleep.
• The Loud House: The Loud sisters fall into this whenever they're thrown the Jerkass Ball. Lincoln is by no means a saint either, but we're rarely if ever supposed to see him as being in the right when he does something selfish. When his sisters do so, on the other hand, they rarely if ever face repercussions for it. Quite a few episodes have them being completely oblivious and/or ignorant of the abuse they put Lincoln through and typically getting away with it. They also often meddle in Lincoln's life, sometimes to suit their own needs, which can have negative consequences for him and can be very intrusive, not respecting his privacy. "The Sweet Spot", "Sound of Silence", "Sleuth or Consequences", "Brawl in the Family" and "No Such Luck" are notable episodes that elicited this reaction (and it doesn't help the latter episode's case that Chris Savino himself chastised fans on Facebook for defending Lincoln). Thankfully, after Season 2 the writers seem to have finally stopped throwing Lincoln and his sisters the Jerkass Ball.
• Magical Girl Friendship Squad: Alex and Daisy are not very sympathetic or endearing characters. The first thing they're shown doing is laughing at a man getting mugged. This wouldn't be an issue, except that numerous other episodes expect the audience to emphasize with the girls and their struggles are portrayed completely straight.
• Vendetta, on the Nicktoons show Making Fiends, is technically the villain of the story, since she creates the monsters that keep the rest of the town under her thumb. But when "good girl" Charlotte moves to town, the natural order of things is turned on its head by the fact that she's completely immune to the antics of Vendetta's creations and is completely obnoxious to boot. As she progresses blithely through the series, bringing about her own destruction in the process, the townspeople find her even more terrifying then Vendetta. More than once, Vendetta is forced into the role of hero to undo Charlotte's reign of tyranny. Maybe the evil test was right after all. The irony of the show is that Charlotte with her absolute "ignorance is bliss" attitude makes Vendetta powerless because she can't see the reasons to be afraid and thus cannot be swayed by Vendetta's reign of terror. So in short, we have a messed-up insecure bully who cannot conceive of the idea of someone not fearing her and unknowingly annoying her with her friendliness, and a messed-up happy-go-lucky girl who lives in her own happy-go-lucky world and has obvious issues.
• Minoriteam: The Minoriteam are blatant ethnic stereotypes that go out of their way to be as stereotypical as possible, which include sleeping with women, getting drunk and show equal racism to white people. They also once distracted White Shadow an entire episode, which ended with his niece and nephew getting killed offscreen... and they treat this as a victory.
• Miraculous Ladybug:
  • Ms. Bustier is meant to be seen as a Cool Teacher whom everyone (including Chloé) loves and is fair to her students. However, the fact that she's fallen victim to Adults Are Useless more than once, up to and including being quick to punish innocent students even when they're not at fault, combined with a hands-off approach to conflict resolution that leaves actual troublemakers unchecked, has left several fans wondering if she even deserves this reputation.
  • By the end of season 5, Félix Fathom is ultimately portrayed as a true hero who, like the rest of Marinette's allies, deserves to keep his Miraculous permanently...which ignores the fact that he essentially caused season 5's plot to happen by willingly delivering all the Miraculouses sans Ladybug and Cat Noir's to the Big Bad so he can get the Peacock Miraculous. And the fact that, not only did he never get a proper moment to atone for this, but that he continued to do morally-questionable things throughout season 5, including using a sentimonster to wipe multiple people from existence. Needless to say, a number of fans didn't exactly buy it.
• Monsters vs. Aliens (2013): Most of the time the titular monsters come across as idiotic xenophobic jerks, and there are several occasions where the conflict of an episode is brought about by the monsters being assholes or just being plain stupid.
• My Life as a Teenage Robot: Many of Sheldon's detractors see him this way. While he does mean well and is a very kind and sweet admirer to Jenny, you can’t forget the fact that he's ruined two of her dates out of jealousy, broke into her house and stole her blueprints so he could figure out a way to get her to fall in love with him, and even created a smarmy superhero persona in an attempt to make her hate the idea of dating other robots.
• My Life Me: Birch at her worst who can do no wrong because she's the Author Avatar even though by all means she does a lot of wrong.

P-Z

• Popeye: In "Weight For Me", Popeye and Brutus return from a naval tour of duty to find that Olive Oil has put on a lot of weight in their absence. Popeye is openly appalled at her size and demands she loses weight immediately, even though she repeatedly tells him she doesn't want to and that she finds his exercise routines exhausting. The episode presents his actions as loving but he comes off as a shallow jerk. Compare this to Brutus, who is just as, if not more, attracted to her fat as he was when she was skinny, spends the day trying to do romantic things for her and rightfully tells Popeye that if Olive didn't want to lose weight then he had no right to try and make her. That being said, no one can argue that Olive might be dangerously overweight and could have health complications if Popeye haven't forced her to exercise.
• The Problem Solverz: The main trio themselves. While they're technically "good guys" that stop every problem that goes on around them, it should be notified that they're technically responsible for causing the problems in the first place. Alfe especially, since he's the primary instigator for the problems due to his selfish eating habits (such as in "Time Twister") and he's always supposed to be seen as the one who saves the day, thus taking all the credit the other two "Solverz" deserve.
• Recess: The kids have altruistic and well meaning views, but in the same way a child would, i.e. kids get to do whatever they want and screw the adults.
  • TJ in particular thrives on this perspective, spearheading cases such as bullying substitute teachers and trying to exploit Principal Prickly's amnesia, even when the others feel they might have crossed the line.
  • Mikey occasionally has this attitude due to his Soapbox Sadie level moments. He successfully has the Kindergarten Derby abolished for example, despite most kindergarteners actually enjoying the sport, because he insists it is cruel and immoral because he humiliated himself when it was his turn. While still sad, is still extremely self serving and petty.
• The heroes of the show Redakai seem to be having some trouble with how to act heroic.
  • For example, they protect the Great Pyramids of Giza by leaping onto said monument and goading their enemies into firing at it.
  • In another episode, Maya, who is supposed to be The Smart Girl, leads the charge to protect the forest they're in by hurling flames everywhere.
  • One of the shows villain groups, The Imperiaz, are a trio of siblings working for the show's Big Bad reluctantly because he's holding their parents hostage. The heroes are aware of this, but rather than wanting to help or at least showing a little sympathy, they have no remorse making light of the siblings' situation to taunt them.
  • In the show, there exists something called "The Kairu Honor Code." So far, there are three parts of it. The Kairu must be taken from the object by the team that gets the rights to it. The second part is that Kairu Warriors must never attack ordinary people. The third part is that attacking your opponent even after they forfeit is forbidden. Even Lokar can't stand anyone who breaks the code and actually disbands the team that does. Team Stax, the good guys, attack normal people, and get away with it because they're the heroes.
  • One of those times, Team Stax attacked an ordinary person by stringing him by his ankles to a pterodactyl. And they're supposed to be portrayed in the right when they do this.
• Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby fall into this trope a lot of the time, thanks to being lazy slackers who blow off their park-keeper jobs to spend hours playing video games. Since they get to live in a house provided for them by their job, it comes off worse, because there is no way either of them have the life skills to support themselves. When it comes to any job they're assigned, they usually do it halfheartedly and poorly. It's no wonder Benson comes off as an uptight Jerkass around them, and it's been shown when they actually do an okay job, he lightens up and becomes friendly towards them.
  • Rigby alone must get a mention for being incredibly childish, bad-tempered, petty and fickle. Much of the conflict in the show is caused by him getting mad over something trivial. Special mention to the episode where he learns the "Death Punch" and goes around beating everyone up. The reason? Mordecai made him be Player 2 in a video game.
• The Ren & Stimpy Show: Stimpy does mean well and is not openly mean like Ren, but his stupidity and lack of common sense causes him to do questionable acts such as messing with Ren's possessions and doing things that put Ren through the wringer.
• Rocket Monkeys: Wally and Gus are the supposed protagonists, despite constantly leaving all kinds of mayhem in their wake. Even the show itself and its theme song does not readily classify them as heroes.
• Rocket Power:
  • Otto's highly inconsiderate and vain to everyone around him, and it certainly doesn't help matters that some of his enemies have extremely good reasons for antagonizing him to due to him being Otto.
  • Reggie, while not to the extent of Otto, occasionally has moments of this too.
• Sabrina: The Animated Series: Sabrina in Sabrina's Secret Life. Granted, it's usually to set her up learning An Aesop, and the show has no problem calling her out for her mistakes. Sometimes she goes too far, notably teaming with Cassandra to get revenge on Maritza, casting a spell to make Harvey fawn over her, believing an obvious rumour about Harvey cheating on tests and getting half the Netherworld sick with gargoyle flu.
• Santa Inc.: A bizarre indecisively Played for Laughs example, since the show routinely lampshades that everyone is a hypocritical Jerkass but still plays the standard personal conflicts straight:
  • The series is clearly trying to get viewers to sympathize with Candy’s situation and see her in the right but she constantly comes across as arrogant, egotistical and unreasonable. A prime example is when Santa offers her a compromise giving her a position with all the power and responsibility she desires with the sole proviso that someone else with better people skills (particularly with children) acts as the figurehead of the company, she turns this down using a Precision F-Strike purely because she doesn’t get to be the face of Santa Inc.
  • By contrast, Candy's family and friends call her out on her selfish and neglectful treatment of them in her crusade to become Santa. Despite Candy repeatedly putting them on the spot for their Never My Fault disposition about being just as inconsiderate and harming her efforts with their own selfish antics from the very start, it remains fleeting Hypocritical Humor, and still plays the resolution straight with Candy apologizing to them in the end.
• An in-universe example on Sidekick is Maxum Man, who is hailed as the greatest hero of all time, even though he mostly just takes credit for the actions of his Kid Sidekick, who are rewarded by being maimed repeatedly, often by him. Also, many of the villains he faces became supervillains as Disproportionate Retribution for his being a jerk to them.
• Shorty McShorts' Shorts:
  • The main characters in The Fabulizers kidnap an innocent boy and force him to change himself. This results in the boy getting injured to the point of wearing a full-body cast.
  • Dodger Dare from The Imperfect Duplicates of Dodger Dare is willing to kill his own clones just to get his date. Not to mention the unbelievable amounts of disrespect he heaps on his BEST FRIEND, who obviously and inexplicably has a crush on him.
• Parodied in The Simpsons with The Itchy & Scratchy Show; most of the time Scratchy is doing nothing wrong and Itchy brutally butchers or beats him for no reason. This is lampshaded a few times:
  Homer: Which one's the mouse?
  Bart: Itchy.
  Homer: Itchy's a jerk.
  • It's taken to such elaborate measures In-Universe that the show's interpretation of God once sided with Itchy killing Scratchy for fun and sent the latter to burn in the pits of hell.
  • Marge Simpson and Lisa Simpson. While the show generally enlists them into Straight Man roles against the former two, there are plenty of cases the girls can be just too priggish, hypocritical or self-serving in their cause to side with.
  • Frank Grimes from "Homer's Enemy". We're supposed to see him as a sympathetic character for having to put up with Homer, except that Homer, as incompetent as he is, spends the entire episode trying to be nice to Frank and yet Frank lashes out at him out of jealousy that Homer's life is, as far as he knows, better than his, claiming that he doesn't deserve his success and then attempting to humiliate him even after Homer attempted to make amends.
  • Lampshaded In-Universe in Tales From the Public Domain when the story of Joan of Arc is told with Lisa playing the part of Joan.
    Joan of Arc (played by Lisa): We must defeat the British. Their belief in individual rights will undermine the power of our beloved tyrant!
• Skunk Fu!:
  • Rabbit certainly counts. He's supposed to be a hero, yet he spends most of the time acting like an arrogant Jerkass around everyone else. This is the same series in which the Big Bad got his Start of Darkness for being arrogant.
  • The Heavens themselves could be seen as this despite being the Big Good of the series. It's explained in the official source material of the series that when Dragon asked if he could use his water powers to save the village, The Heavens said nothing. This causes Dragon to use his powers making The Heavens take away his water powers (he originally could control fire and water). Not once did The Heavens simply tell Dragon he couldn't use his powers to save the village (which, by the way, was dying from a drought). Even worse is that they are said to have punished Dragon for his arrogance. Even if Dragon was acting haughty at the time, causing him to want to essentially destroy the same village he tried to save years ago out of vengeance is far from a heroic act.
• The Smurfs (1981): The Smurfs themselves towards Grouchy in "A Hug for Grouchy". After the day is saved, a group of Smurfs pile themselves on top of Grouchy to give him a big hug (without showing respect for his personal space).
• Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): Sonic, though not unpopular in the show per se, gets occasional criticism claiming him to be this. While a fairly effective hero, Sonic is by far the most dysfunctional and arrogant of the Freedom Fighters (Antoine notwithstanding), frequently endangering the team due to his cockiness.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Bo-Katan Kryze, the female leader of the Mandalorian group Death Watch becomes this after becoming a heroic character in seasons 6 and 7. Keep in mind that Death Watch is a violent terrorist group and Human/Mando supremacist facton that's been seen terrorizing aliens and burning villages on at least one occasion. Even though the conflict between her and Maul is moreso Evil Versus Evil, she's by default deemed the more sensible party and given a much more sympathetic portrayal. Her various crimes against innocents , as well as the crimes of her faction, are swept under the rug with the worst thing anyone can say about her is that she's "untrustworthy", and not a dangerous radical.
• SuperMansion: The members of the League of Freedom legitimately do want to help people and stop crime. Unfortunately, they're all irresponsible and immature and they often cause as much trouble as they stop. It also doesn't help that they all have a flagrant disregard for due process.
• Super Noobs: All six of the main characters of the show.
  • The Noobs are four twelve year old kids who are tasked with protecting earth from the virus but many of their actions are far from being considered heroic. They mainly use their battle balls for selfish gain, cause mischief that wreaks as much havoc on Cornbury as the virus itself, and their behavior in many of the episodes is very bratty and rude.
  • Memnock and Zenblock too. Although they are alien warriors sworn to protect the universe from the virus and stand in as mentors to the Noobs, they spend a huge amount of their screen time either being vitriolic towards each other or taking the Idiot Ball and behaving very childishly when tempted with exploring what Earth has to offer.
• Tangled: The Series: Frederic is meant to be The Good King whose Knight Templar Parent issues are understandable, considering his only child was missing for nearly two decades, and someone who learned his lesson by the end of Season 1, but considering he makes crackdown on crime overly harsh following Rapunzel's disappearance, which caused Lady Caine to become fatherless and Eugene to nearly get hanged for a nonviolent crime, persecutes teenagers for petty theft in the same vein as adults, locks his royal tailor in a stockade for accidentally tearing one of his many robes, locks away the Sundrop Flower, attempts to steal King Trevor's pet seal as a prank, fails to acknowledge the danger of the Black Rocks, which puts his own innocent subjects in danger, sends guards to hunt down a poor orphaned young teenager, which caused him to be chased out of his own home, attempts to have Cassandra sent to a convent just for sneaking Rapunzel out the night before her coronation, reads his daughter's private journal, makes his daughter experience the same abuse she suffered under the hands of her abductor by locking her up, and never apologizes for his actions, it's not hard to see him as an oppressive tyrant instead.
• Teen Titans (2003): The Titans are this in the episode "Mother Mae Eye" when, at the end, they send the pie containing the titular villain to the Hive Five. It's supposed to be funny, but it's essentially attempted mass murder by proxy.
• Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster and Babs, who are supposed to be the heroes of the show, but are not above tormenting and heckling others just for fun, even if said person did nothing to deserve such treatment.
• Tiny Toon Adventures Spring Break Special: For a number of viewers, Buster and Babs getting Plucky captured by Elmyra just to save their own hides came off as just an unusually low move, especially since Plucky didn't really do anything particularly heinous to deserve it. It also doesn't help that they make jokes about it instead of showing concern for Plucky's well-being.
• Totally Spies!:
  • Jerry's morals are rather questionable towards the spies, as he sometimes puts them into situations that could have easily killed them had it been real life.
    • There's also the fact that he had been sending minor teenage girls on extremely dangerous missions that could have easily gotten them hurt or worse, and in "The Amazing Spiez!", he sends even younger middle school kids (The Clarks) on the very same missions as well.
    • There is also the fact that in the movie, he practically forced the girls into joining W.O.O.H.P., despite saying it was their choice but actively ruining their lives until they complied. It makes one wonder just how many W.O.O.H.P. agents are legitimately working for WOOHP by "choice", anyway.
    • His treatment of the girls in Season 1 episode "The Fugitives" arguably crosses the line from being ethically ambiguous into outright cruelty, attempting to have behavioral modification chips forcibly implanted in their heads after they're framed for a crime spree. Given the fact that Jerry doesn't even bother to hear them out when they protest their innocence, it's a wonder W.O.O.H.P. can be considered the good guys after all this.
    • He forces the girls (and the Clarks) to keep their spying secret from their parents. When the girls' mothers discover that their kids are spies (Thanks to Jerry) in “Totally Busted” their mothers were within their rights to pull their daughters out of W.O.O.H.P.. Later when the girls need help from W.O.O.H.P. to save their moms, Jerry (and G.L.A.D.I.S.) lock them out completely, leaving the girls having to rescue their mothers with hardware supplies.
    • Jerry also dismisses what the girls actually want. One example is in “Solo Spies” Jerry gives them what he thinks is a promotion (making them Solo Spies). The girls tell Jerry they don’t want this (and instead see this as a form of punishment) and tell Jerry they want to stay together but he forces them to become solo spies with them only one gadget each to complete a mission. He also sells their penthouse to Mandy which forces them to live in the West Coast Hall dorm rooms (something else they don’t want). Sam and Clover’s rooms have rats and a leaky roof and while Alex’s room is fine she only has a small box and her pet pig with her. Later in the episode because they are all alone all three get kidnapped. They are able to work together and finish their case. The girls still rightfully miffed at Jerry until he gives in and let’s them live and spy together... But he doesn’t apologize to them at all.
  • The girls' mothers were likely not meant to seem unbearable in “Totally Busted.” They were within their rights pull their daughters out of W.O.O.H.P. after all. But instead of listening to their daughters' point of view they just punish them throughout the three-parter. The girls had the spy life chosen for them by their boss, Jerry but the moms barely call him out preferring to punish the girls. During this, thanks to to a villain’s serum, Mandy and her friends turned into Spy Assassins. The girls HAVE to continue spying because Mandy and her friends are trying to KILL them. When Sam Alex and Clover are trying to figure out what’s going on, the moms tell their daughters they can’t hang out anymore. When the moms are later kidnapped by Mandy and girls go to save them (with no help from WOOHP). They get yelled at yet again! It’s only when the moms are back on the ground thanks to the girls using their jumpers as parachutes that their moms FINALLY let up. Even then the girls' mothers are never called out for how they acted or apologize to their kids.
• The Trap Door: Berk is frequently abusive to Drutt and Boni, and is often quick to kill off monsters from The Trap Door regardless of how much intelligence they display or how much of a threat they pose.
• Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans: Jim doesn’t seem to care that he literally just erased the existence of Steve and Aja’s children, gave up his chances at true love, sacrificed the friendships he made along the way, essentially brought back all of the villains who died, and undid the heel-face turns of Strickler, Nomura, NotEnrique, Angor Rot, Tronos Madu, and Morgana, all because of one individual. He even sets up said individual to do his job in the new timeline, as opposed to using his new experience to be a better Trollhunter.
• This trope is one of the many reasons why Velma has become universally despised by fans. While none of the cast are particularly likeable (save for Norville and possibly Fred), the titular protagonist manages to be the worst jerk in a World of Jerkass and is seen by many as an arrogant, narcissistic, judgmental, cynical, sexist, racist, and borderline sociopathic Insufferable Genius with a black and white, misanthropic view on the world. Her Establishing Character Moment has her attacking Daphne for no reason even though the two are supposed to be childhood friends, she gets Fred framed for the murders after accusing him with no evidence and feels zero guilt for this outside of worrying it will make her look bad if he's exonerated, generally treats everyone around her (Particularly Norville) like dirt, and never takes responsibility for her actions. She manages to be the worst jerk in a World of Jerkass: she's more racist, sexist, and obnoxious than Fred, more manipulative and self-entitled than Norville, and more judgmental and mean than the popular girls, while sharing none of their redeeming qualities like Fred's genuine (if severely misguided) attempts at showing empathy, Norville's warm personality, or the popular girls' body positivity and unwillingness to mock mental health issues. Meanwhile her one redeeming quality, her intelligence and detective skills, is an Informed Ability at best as she spends more time spontaneously soapboxing about sociopolitical issues rather than solving mysteries and her "detective skills" involve either blackmailing others for information or having Fred and Norville do the investigative work for her. While she's meant to be portrayed as a girl trying to solve the mystery of her mother's disappearance while dealing with being treated like an outcast, many found it impossible to sympathize with her because of what a thoroughly obnoxious Jerkass she is, and instead find it cathartic when she is scorned, disliked, and treated as an outcast.
• Winx Club: Prince Sky in season one; he was dating Bloom while being engaged to Princess Diaspro and lied to the former about his true identity (though to be fair, he had a good reason). He later makes it right by breaking up with Diaspro to be with Bloom, but nobody save Bloom seems to call him out on the initial two-timing.
  • Bloom is basically treated like she can do no wrong, and becomes somewhat of a brat in season five, essentially getting upset every time something does not go her way. For instance, she solely blamed Diaspro for ruining her relationship with Sky, despite the fact that 1) Diaspro had no idea who she was 2) Bloom randomly decided she was one of the Trix in disguise and attacked her and 3) Sky was essentially cheating on Diaspro with Bloom, meaning he deceived two people, not just one. Sky is also never held accountable for it. What really sells it, however, is that Sky's father clearly seems to see Bloom as someone rushing headlong into a situation she doesn't understand and upsetting things for specious and self-serving reasons. He's thus cast as a nattering nabob of negativity for letting someone charging around the whole situation like a bull in a china shop.
  • Some think Riven is a massive Jerkass whose relationship with Musa would be abusive in real life, and hate how we are supposed to cheer for him when he keeps getting back together with her.
  • Griffin spent the first season encouraging the Trix's bullying and harassment of Alfea's fairies, only expelling them because their failures kept embarrassing her. Later seasons would try to put her in a more heroic light but she's never called out for being the one who enabled the Trix's evil habits in the first place.
• The Wuzzles: Rhinokey always picks on Hoppopotamus, either by pranking her or making jokes about how fat she is.
• In the X-Men: Evolution episode "Joyride" Avalanche becomes this while Scott/Cyclops of all people becomes the Designated Villain. To explain the premise of the plot: Lance decides he'd rather be in the X-Men to get closer to Kitty. Scott doesn't trust him. The episode consists of Lance making it as difficult as possible to be trusted (he ruins not one, but two different training exercises for the sake of being the center of attention, taunts Scott about his trashed car, etc) and so when the new recruits take the various X-Vehicles for joyrides Lance gets blamed, not because the kids frame him, but because he outright gives the adults reason to. When the new recruits take the X-Jet out, Lance jumps on with Kitty to stop them. However, when all the chaos ends Lance confesses just to get into Scott's face. When Scott finds out he was innocent he apologizes, but Lance gets insulted by the fact he didn't trust him and quits the X-Men, not because of being blamed, but because he doesn't want to try. We're supposed to have sympathy for Lance even though he did all he could to ruin his chance of freedom.
• Zig & Sharko: Sharko might be heroic in several ways, but several moments show that he can play as dirty as Zig. For example, in "Marina's New Friend", he forces Zig to masquerade as another mermaid, endangering his girlfriend. He does the same thing in "Sharko and His Folks" because his parents do not accept his Interspecies Romance. He shaves basically everyone on the island and almost shaves Zig, (and later uses him as a replacement for his dorsal fin after Bernie used it to create a hair growth serum) in "Hair Story" just to make a wig for Marina. He openly flirts with another mermaid in the "Manic Mermaid", although Marina is his girlfriend. In "Goin' Home", Sharko cries about how much he misses beating up Zig.

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