Times where characters are left questioning Dude, Where's My Respect? in Western Animation.
- The Amazing World of Gumball: In the episode "The Pizza," Larry Needlemeyer gets hit with this hard; he holds down countless jobs and works very hard at all of them, to the extent that his continued employment is required to keep Elmore's economy and society from spontaneously collapsing... and despite it all, everyone in Elmore, particularly the Wattersons, are nothing but Ungrateful Bastards to him, to the extent that they barely acknowledge him as a person.
- On on Animaniacs, this happens to poor Chicken Boo all the time. He's held numerous jobs, and always does excellently at them. But sooner or later his disguise fails, and someone realizes he's a big chicken — and nobody likes chickens, (well, except Santa Claus) leading to him being fired or worse. (Probably why he disguises himself in the first place.)
- Buttons also. He suffers a lot to save Mindy, and always gets berated in the end with his actions never been recognized.
- In the short "Icebreakers", Ross Perot takes Runt with him as a sled dog, also reluctantly bringing Rita along despite hating cats because Runt refused to leave without her. Throughout the cartoon, she contributes her share of actions.... only for Perot to thank Runt instead. This reaches its logical conclusion when Rita saves him after the ice he's standing on drifts close to the tip of a waterfall... only for him to again thank Runt for sending out a cat to save him, at which point she just gives up.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Zig-Zagged with Aang. On one side, a lot of people just think he's a naive kid and often throw criticism towards him for neglecting his duties, accidentally or not. On the other side, being the Avatar is still a respected position and even the most important people in the country will speak with him. The Fire Nation also have a great respect for him... so they send their best soldiers to kill him.
- This gets somewhat egregious in the followup comic, The Promise. Sokka and Toph are trying to calm a crowd of angry Earth Kingdom villagers who want the Fire Nation out. So what happens when Sokka speaks up for them to chill out? He gets nailed in the head with a rock and called a "Water Tribe savage". And to think, one year ago he was instrumental in keeping the entire Earth Kingdom from being incinerated, taking out an entire dirigible fleet.
- In The Legend of Korra, this is a constant problem for Korra, whom none of the authority figures of the world respect for being the Avatar. This is initially due to her habit of bad first impressions, where she tended to do more harm than good, combined with being secluded from the world for her entire adolescence and the world's changing views on politics and opinion of needing an Avatar. Despite her best efforts however, most leaders continue to outright look down on Korra, dismiss her requests for aid, and sometimes outright work against her throughout the course of the series. Even during the final season, if Korra can't immediately solve a problem, she'll be ignored. This is most egregious in the episode "Beyond the Wilds" where a conference of world leaders included Prince Wu who was invited although he had literally nothing at all to contribute aside from his claim to the throne, but they left out Korra, the Avatar and the Keeper of Balance. Even her mentor Tenzin accidentally treats her rather poorly. Apparently, Prince Wu was the only one who actually thought Korra should have been invited.
- Courage the Cowardly Dog: Courage had constantly put his life on the line to rescue his co-owner Eustace, yet the latter never treats him any better or appreciates his help. It eventually got to the point where Eustace tried to have Courage killed by his past enemies despite everything the dog did for him.
- The titular character of Darkwing Duck deals with this constantly. Yes, he is an absolute egotist whose primary motivation as a superhero is to receive a great deal of fame and glory, but he's practically saved Saint Canard (and the world sometimes) from just about every threat imaginable. Yet, more often than not, he gets practically little, if any respect, whatsoever; just the occasional thank you from S.H.U.S.H. and perhaps the gratitude of a few innocent bystanders, but certainly not from Saint Canard itself. Sometimes, the city even gives him a hard time inspite of all he's done.
- His rebooted counterpart in DuckTales (2017) seems to have this a little better, but perhaps not by much. His primary motivation here is mostly to serve as an inspiration for others, much in the same way the the original Darkwing Duck series was for him, but he doesn't get off to the smoothest starts. When he takes up the identity full time, he's barely given notice when he helps to save the Earth from invading forces from the Moon (well, aside from Launchpad), and even this ends up exploited when Scrooge switches costumes with him to try and foil General Lunaris. And when he gets his own lair in Saint Canard? No crime whatsoever, thanks to Mayor Zan Owlson's efficient leadership. He's only given respect when he stops Gosalyn from breaking in to Taurus Bulba's lab, even getting the key to the city. Yet, he manages to save the city in the end, and who gets all the credit? Gizmoduck.
- Donald Duck in Duck Tales 2017 series. He raised the triplets for ten years entirely on his own, and they still think Uncle Scrooge (who didn't pay them a visit or give them birthday presents) and Uncle Gladstone (who is "the worst") are cooler than him (although the kids do eventually realize that Gladstone isn't a good person). It's only when the triplets are angry at Scrooge and passive agressively complimenting Donald as a contrast to Scrooge that they seem to realize just how much he's been there for them.
- The title character of Dexter's Laboratory is by no means "Mr. Popular" and is obviously cut off by everyone around him, his family included, mostly due to his vast intellect, and being very short compared to everyone. He also mistakenly gets into trouble that are beyond his control or he didn't do in the first place.
- Extreme Ghostbusters: The new team doesn’t receive a lot of public praise and respect compared to original team, being seen more as frauds and their busts are occasionally explained in media as non-paranormal incidents. It doesn’t help that the mayor is a complete Jerkass who is willing to deny them the recognition after they save his life. Granted, the EGB are thanked by the ones they directly save, and a famous author features him in his new book (though Garrett ends up getting the short end of the stick due to his attitude).
- Whenever Meg in Family Guy does anything altruistic for anyone, she is never reciprocated with any gratitude. Take the episode "You Can't Do That On Television Peter" for example. After Peter suffers a near-fatal attack in the sharp claws of a puma during his act on television, Meg uses her doctor techniques to save Peter's life. After Peter wakes up from his consciousness in the hospital, he refuses to thank Meg for saving his life, and no one else gives her any adulation for it.Meg: Isn't anybody gonna thank me?
Peter: Yeah, I'll have a water if you're getting one. - In the Futurama episode "Godfellahs'', even God himself (or at least a Cosmic Entity whom Bender identifies as God) claims that mortals rarely appreciate him for what He does, and always want more. What God says probably sums up this Trope pretty well: "When you do something right, people won't think you've done anything at all."
- Harley Quinn (2019):
- Harley Quinn wants to be respected and feared as a proper villain after striking out on her own which is constantly being undermined by people still dismissing her as merely Joker's ex-girlfriend. Despite the fact that she freed the Justice League from their imprisonment and was the one who *actually* stopped Dr. Psycho and his parademon army, she is not shown any appreciation by the city of Gotham. The Justice League are awarded for saving the day, when it was actually Harley. Likewise, Wonder Woman shows no gratitude toward her for saving Themyscira.
- Jim Gordon has this trope a lot worse than Harley. He's a genuine and honest cop, he's sacrificed everything from his ability to be there for his family to his own sanity to keep Gotham safe, and he's the only true ally Batman has in the city. What does he get for it? Nothing. Batman is kind of dismissive of him, most of the cops don't have much respect for him, and even when he gets off his butt and singlehandedly takes down Two-Face, the city gives keys to the League (who got imprisoned for most of the event) and people who weren't even there to begin with. It gets worse in Season 3 when the rest of the citizens blame Gordon for not stopping the numerous problems they have when he's wasting time trying to nab Harley and Ivy.
- Bane is an interesting case of this. As an Adaptational Wimp, he's more of a down-to-Earth Nice Guy than a Diabolical Mastermind like he is in the comics, but he's still a dangerous foe that can be an unstoppable force of destruction if pushed properly. It's because of this that Bane The Chew Toy amongst his fellow rogues—Season 2 shows the rest of the Injustice Gang treat him like a third wheel in their affairs, and Two-Face doesn't even bother acknowledging he's working with him. Bane seems to be aware of this on some fundamental level, but he's lost in his own world to notice. At least until Season 3, when he starts going through an existential crisis and feels down on his luck.
- Kim Possible:
- Ron Stoppable gets no respect from his peers or enemies, despite his key role in regularly going to Save the World with Kim. That being said, even she doesn't get much slack from people on the home front for all the times she's saved them all from certain doom.
- Ironically, Drakken gets this as well. Despite the fact he's probably come closer to succeeding than any other villain, he has trouble getting people to take him seriously and is sometimes mistaken for Professor Dementor. This is lampshaded in the Post-Script Season, where other villains breaking his Hypercompetent Sidekick Shego out of prison while leaving him to rot becomes a Running Gag.
- Looney Tunes: Dripalong Daffy has Daffy as a would-be western hero who does have the cajones to challenge the hulking brute Nasty Canasta to a duel. It's Comedy Relief (Porky) and his toy soldier that brings the beast down, so as the townsfolk laud him:Daffy: Hey, what's going on? Put down that Comedy Relief! I'm the hero of this picture! Give me the applause! Give me the cheers! Give me...(running out of steam) give me one dozen roses.
- Both Jem And The Holograms and The Misfits are supposedly two of the most popular bands worldwide but are constantly treated like B-tier celebs, if not people are outright ignorant of who they are. Even Stormer's brother was oblivious to the rivalry between the two bands when he tried out to be Jem's new drummer.
- A villainous example from Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures. The Dragon, Lorenzo, is fairly competent and unflinchingly loyal; his only flaw is being Book Dumb. The Big Bad, Jeremiah Surd, and the Dark Action Girl, Julia, never give him the time of day. In one episode, after he saves Surd from cardiac arrest, Julia goes, "Jeremiah! Thank the stars that you're alive!" Lorenzo retorts, "The stars had nothing to do with it", but they ignore him.
- In the animated version of The Legend of Zelda, Link suffers from this in a different way than described in the video game section. In the cartoon, it's Zelda herself who refuses to accord Link any respect. She's often nasty to him; she compares him unfavorably to another wandering hero; she almost never thanks him for his protection; and when things are quiet in the kingdom, she forces him to earn his keep by doing chores and maintenance around the castle. To add insult to injury, her father the King genuinely likes Link, but can't seem to remember his name.
- Miraculous Ladybug: Cat Noir, Ladybug's partner, is routinely subject of that by villains, some civilians and by Ladybug herself.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, being a Slice of Life comedy intersected with twice-a-season Saving the World arcs, has this come up quite often. It's much harder to write a plot about learning to Be Yourself despite social pressure when social pressure would be nearly nonexistent should everyone consider you a hero.
- Even outside of hero work, by the end of the series, members of the The Mane Cast gain great success in fashion, military and stunt work, teaching, etc. Still no outside of Ponyville seems to recognize them most of the time, while their hometown only ever holds them in high esteem within the context of their far more mundane day jobs, as they quickly came to see the occasional dangers that the group saves the town from as Unusually Uninteresting Sights. Even Twilight, protégé to the country's ruler and who was apart of the royal family through her brother before gaining a princess title in her own right, usually only gets her royal status noted when the plot explicitly requires it.
- Zig-Zagged with Spike. The character is a Butt-Monkey who tends to do a lot of menial labor for his friends without any hesitation and often little thanks, and is subsequently overlooked by everyone else in Equestria. In the Crystal Empire however, he's a Living Legend with the title of "The Great and Honorable Spike the Brave and Glorious", due to playing a key role in saving the region in a Season 3 episode, and is always praised by the masses as soon as he steps foot in its capital city.
- Deconstructed in the Season 5 finale, where the Big Bad of the season time travels and breaks up the Mane Six in response to them helping ruin her scheme during the premiere. This results in various timelines where different villains have won and are ruling the world. When she's confronted with one of these timelines (the destruction of Equestria was not something she wanted), she is unable to wrap around her head how breaking apart the bond of six random ponies could cause so much death and destruction. In other words, even the villains can forget how important they are, and she nearly ends up paying for that mistake. Granted, she did spent several years living in the desert...
- Averted and deconstructed in the Season 7 episode "Fame And Misfortune". The Mane Six decide to publish their Friendship Journal (kept from Season 4) and give it to the other Ponies in Equestria to read, hoping they would take their lessons and use them to better themselves. The Mane Six become instant overnight celebrities. They are famous far and wide, and everyone knows them. Unfortunately, the ponies miss the point of the journal entries and start harassing them to no end. After being put through the wringer several times over by their adoring "fans", it would be safe to assume the Mane Six wouldn't mind going back to being widely ignored.
- As the series progresses, this becomes less and less prominent, with the main characters getting recognized for their work more consistently.
- Played absolutely straight in an episode of The Powerpuff Girls. The girls had a full week of baddie stompin', city savin', and other matters that involved super heroines. However, the citizens get more and more demanding, each task more menial than the next, until the girls took no more and went on strike. Said tasks included carrying groceries, opening jars of pickles, and cleaning cat litter. Ironically, a monster attacked at that moment of the strike. The girls had to coach the town in defending themselves...and was responsible for pre-party cleanup afterwards. To be fair, they did refuse to do their job and entrusted it into the citizens, all while knowing the town could not handle that big a task, mentally and physically.
- Regular Show. Sure, Mordecai and Rigby are the embodiment of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, but they still clean up their own messes, save the park, and on some occasions, Benson's life. He usually repays them by threatening to fire them if they don't get back to work. This is because Benson suffers this to a larger extent from his boss, Pops' dad and the owner of the park.
- This and Ungrateful Bastard comes up frequently in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. The people of Crystal Cove berate the gang in unmasking monsters, because they believe the monsters make good tourist attractions, even if the monsters endanger their lives.
- In The Simpsons, the core family was at least tangentially responsible for every major event in Springfield, and while other characters might remember them for some specific thing in a previous episode, that's all that they're known for. They might even be remembered in another episode by the same character for something completely different. That being said, they are the cause of just as many problems as they are of good deeds, if not more, so the townsfolk may be justified by not giving them the time of day. Always Played for Laughs, there are some specific cases where one character calls out another for not remembering a Simpsons family member:
- The second time Bart Simpson meets up with Krusty the Clown, Krusty dismisses Bart as a nobody and brushes him off until Bart has to remind him that he saved Krusty from an attempted murder by Sideshow Bob. Even then, Krusty only reluctantly agrees to listen to Bart. This had become a Running Gag, that Krusty never remembers Bart, and a character trait of his, that Krusty doesn't remember or care who helps him.
- There was one instance where Mr. Burns asks Smithers about Homer Simpson's identity, and Smithers points out that everything important that has happened to Mr. Burns in the last several years was tied to Homer in some way. This does not change Mr. Burns's outlook on Homer in the slightest, though it does disappoint Smithers slightly. Smithers seems to be an aversion though: He is genuinely aware of what Homer has done and remembers it, trusting Homer enough to substitute as Mr. Burns's assistant in "Homer the Smithers" when Smithers goes on vacation.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
- Catra’s reaction after learning that Shadow Weaver stole the credits of Catra’s plan to sequestrate Glimmer and Bow during Princess Prom. To add insult to injury, when Adora offers herself in exchange of Glimmer, Shadow Weaver cruelly expells Catra from her quarters, saying she doesn’t need her anymore. In retaliation, Catra gives back Adora’s sword.
- The main reason why Entrapta joins the Horde. She does her very best to help saving Glimmer and Bow, but all the princess do is complaining she doesn’t stay put, or put her on a leash (while nobody complains when Sea Hawk wanders around). As the cherry on top, after Entrapta is accidentaly left behind (unaware her “friends” thought she was dead), Catra makes her believe they abandoned her on purpose.
- Sea Hawk and Scorpia have this during “White Out”, in Season 2. Despite being in opposite sides, they bond over temporarily because both feel unappreciated and just tolerated because they are useful. They come to conclusion they don’t need others’ opinions to validate themselves.
- Sonic Boom: No matter how often Sonic saves them from Eggman, the inhabitants of Bygone Island always seem prepared to believe the worst in him and turn on him at the drop of a hat over anything, no matter how large or small. In "Just a Guy," it reaches a point where Sonic goes off on a rant over it and goes into a 10-Minute Retirement to teach them a lesson:Sonic: You know what I think is "compassionate?" Saving the village from Eggman! Like, every week! But do I get any props for that? No! Everyone just goes around gasping at me whenever I call a guy a "guy," or people "people!"
- "Free Hat" from South Park had Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Tweek being invited to a ceremony. They believed it was for their cause to prevent George Lucas Altered Versions of movies (having survived the premiere of a version of Raiders of the Lost Ark with unnecessary changes), but it turns out they were being thanked for their other, less important cause of pardoning a proven child murderer (which they had reluctantly adopted to keep members of their club around). The boys leave with the mindset that what doesn't matter now would matter later.
- This trope was prominent in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, where Spidey would be able to rescue people and save the day and still have to deal with people like J. Jonah Jameson. deriding him. One iconic quote perfectly sums up Spidey's feelings on the subject matter[[note]]In context, Spidey's upset that a possible hope for his transformations in Professor Xavier turned out to be a false lead and he lashed out at him and the X-Men for it undeservingly.[[/note]:Spider-Man: I can save the world ten times over, but when I need help? I'm on my own. Thanks... for nothing.
- A recurring theme in Star Trek: Lower Decks, which was billed as a show about one of the "least important ships in Starfleet". Captain Freeman has a chip on her shoulder about California-class ships like the Cerritos being ignored and used for unglamorous busywork, so she's eager to raise their profile and takes it really personally whenever her ship is taken off a "prestigious" duty for a different one. This can lead to conflict with her crew (especially her daughter Mariner) because they're a bunch of Bunny Ears Lawyers... as is she, without knowing it. This reaches a breaking point in the third season when she goes to extreme lengths to make the ship look good in front of a reporter and ends up ejecting Mariner from the ship in a fury after the reporter brings up a bunch of embarrassing stories of the ship's misadventures—only to see in the final piece that it was everyone but Mariner who spilled the beans, by which time she's resigned from Starfleet, and Freeman's abysmal handling of the reporter's presence has made her look like a "cruel taskmaster".
- Teen Titans:
- Deconstructed in "The Beast Within", where it's clearly shown during the fight against Adonis that Beast Boy has deep anger issues because of the lack of appreciation from the other Titans, and during the fight all of his repressed anger goes out and he totally curb stomps Adonis, much to the shock of the other Titans.
- Played for laughs at the start of Season 5. Cyborg rescues Elasti-Girl, only for her to refer to him as "whoever you are". Cyborg is quick to show annoyance, noting that he's saved the world several times already.
- The Doom Patrol, Beast Boy's former team, seem to view the Titans as bratty rebel teenagers who don't know what kind of trouble they're getting in to. They really don't seem to know that the Titans fought villains just as dangerous as their arch enemies, the Brotherhood of Evil, including one maniacal demon that was very close to taking over the world.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): Despite proving again and again that he's the only one who has what it takes to be a good leader, Leo notes that his brothers only seem to follow his lead when they feel like doing so. In "New Girl in Town," it reaches the point where Leo gets sick and tired of constantly being second-guessed and not getting any appreciation for his efforts that he decides to let Raph be leader for a change.
- Played with in Lenny Bruce's Thank You Mask Man (both the cartoon and the stand-up comedy routine it was based on). The title character initially disdains expressions of respect and reward, but once a little boy thanks him he decides he likes it and demands more respect from the townspeople.
- Harold from Total Drama. He has helped his teams in numerous occasions and even saved a part of the campers from near-certain death. And yet, he hardly gets any respect, especially from Duncan, and to a lesser extent, from almost anyone else. Oh, and he is most likely the cause of a lot of the lack of respect towards him, but that's another story.
- Optimus Prime in his incarnation on Transformers: Animated, despite managing to survive several encounters with Megatron and the Decepticons and preventing them from getting their hands on the All Spark with his Ragtag Bunchof Misfits, rarely has his great deeds acknowledged by his superiors on Cybertron due to his position as an Elite Guard washout and being assigned to the unglamorous position of the leader of a Space Bridge repair crew. It is only at the final episode that he and his crew get the kind of respect they deserved.
- Wakfu: Rubilax is a Shushu with fairly dangerous powers and at one point manages to come up with an Evil Plan that would allow The Legions of Hell to invade the world. Despite this, other Shushus and especially his king Rushu always look down on him due to his past blunders, his fragile ego that he covers with boasting, and finally the fact that he's not really as evil as he tries to sell himself as. It's to the point when he unveils said Evil Plan, Rushu still insults him (though not without reason, as in the process of this Rubilax saved his partner/jailer Sadlygrove from death and kept his fellow Shushu imprisoned so he could get sole credit) and decides to have several of the imprisoned Shushu take over the plan. Rubilax gets so pissed at the disrespect that he completely abandons the plan and eventually makes a full Heel–Face Turn."I was the one who did everything, and you think you can just get rid of me like that?! Even the humans treat me better, fart face!"
- Raimundo of Xiaolin Showdown is constantly on the receiving end of his peers' (and occasionally his mentors') disrespect, despite the numerous times he's proved himself/been completely right. At first, it's deconstructed when it goes far enough that it drives Raimundo into making a Face–Heel Turn. Then it gets reconstructed later when Raimundo uses that attitude to convincingly pretend to pull the same thing again as part of a Batman Gambit for the good guys. And finally, it gets fully subverted at the series finale, when Raimundo's accomplishments get recognition, culminating in him being appointed leader of the Xiaolin Dragons, over the more traditional hero Omi.
