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"Meg just does not deserve this abuse. Which is why it's hilarious."
The character who is always the butt of the demeaning joke or "put him through hell" plotline.
Generally doesn't do anything to earn the inflicted pain, other than being a recurring target that's easy to mess with without wrecking the show continuity.
The direct opposite of a Karma Houdini. If carried too far, may result in Deus Angst Machina. Can be counteracted if you occasionally Throw The Dog A Bone. Occasionally dangerous if pushed too far.
When the universe itself is out to make the character suffer, they're The Chew Toy. If the audience sympathizes with them, they become The Woobie.
See also: Costanza, Baldrick, The Unfavourite, Did Not Eat The Mousse. Is nearly always on the receiving end of Comedic Sociopathy.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Played seriously in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Shinji Ikari is constantly bullied and ignored (even by his father), even though he saves the world. Multiple times. And in the more light-hearted Sit Com scenes in the first half of the series, guess who is the butt of every humiliating joke? Imagine Charlie Brown with a giant robot.
- Nearly the entire Fourth Division (the Captain is the only one who is spared, because the bullies are afraid of her) from Bleach, especially Hanataro Yamada, are frequently looked down upon by the Eleventh Division and are given grunt duties because their specialty is healing, not fighting.
- The Transformers mythos has its fair share of these. Dropshot from the Armada comics and the human Kelly (Junko in Japan) from Robots in Disguise are both fairly good examples.
- Keitaro from Love Hina; if it is bad, it happens to him, or he is blamed for it. The worst is almost always thought of him, no matter what he does. With violent results. He gets Character Development, and becomes lusted over by the other women once he starts behaving more competently.
- Hale from Hale Nochi Guu
- Manabu Kuchiki from Genshiken; when he joins the Genshiken, he becomes the frequent recipient of Saki's violence, once simply for being there. The others have him do grunt work at Comic Con, leading to him going a entire day buying their doshinji without food or water. However, unlike most buttmonkeys, he entirely deserves it, knows that, and accepts it all without complaint. In fact, he seems to like it; early on, he cheerfully declares himself to be a "shameless servant", and his masochistic streak causes him to smile whenever the Genshiken mistreat him. Except when they tied him to a lamp in volume 7 of the manga to keep him from peeping on the girls' bathing. Then he complained... for about ten seconds. And it was mostly acting.
- He's also highly self-sabotaging; the one time he was shown to be underneath a fairly
decent human being, managing to stop a thief from stealing from their stall, his reaction to the Not What It Looks Like that inevitably followed was to... wear the dress. In the middle of the crowded university. And scare off potential members.
- Every diclonius and even some humans suffer extreme Butt Monkey effects on the anime Elfen Lied.
- The titular character of the anime Naruto is the resident buttmonkey at the beginning of the series.
- Sakura (a boy) from Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan is probably one of the more over the top examples of a Butt Monkey.
- Taniguchi (to a minor extent) in Suzumiya Haruhi. And let's just say it is not good to be the Computer Club president, unless you enjoy flying kicks to the head (and hey, some do).
- Furthermore, Taniguchi's voice actor Shiraishi "Sebastian" Minoru in Lucky Star.
- Yoki from the original manga version of Fullmetal Alchemist is fired soon after he appears after Ed tricked him into selling the coal mines he was in charge of. After he sells out the Ishvalans, they force him to become Scar's slave, he gets attacked by a panda, and everyone thinks he's worthless (he is). Envy soon learns that he can't even use him as a hostage as the rest of the cast just say their goodbyes to him (they were bluffing). Of course he totally deserves it as he's an obnoxious loser.
- Vato Falman also qualifies. First he gets assigned the task of keeping an eye on Barry, which means he's stuck in his quarters with a crazy armored serial killer. His only contact with the outside seems to be Havoc, who just boasts about his new girlfriend. When he's transfered to Northern Headquarters, he does indeed get a promotion, but he has to constantly remind Ed and Al about it, and despite it his whole job seems to be picking ice off the ceiling. And believe it or not, readers who wanted to figure out who Pride was had guessed him. But in fact, Pride has a connection with Selim Bradley instead.
- Kawachi from Yakitate!! Japan. Though in the beginning he was a bit of a Jerk Ass, the series soon began abusing him seemingly for the hell of it. If there was something painful or humiliating happening, it happened to Kawachi. The people that were supposed to be his friends and supporters without fail insulted, dismissed, and derided him behind his back, or sometimes to his face. One entire plot point was even dedicated to him having to be a complete screwup on purpose... after which the characterization was apparently absorbed utterly and his Flanderization was complete.
- Sunohara Youhei of Clannad. Even his cute little sister treats him poorly.
- Kuririn in Dragonball. The man's died four times, he Cant Catch Up and his signature attack, likely the most deadly in the manga, just can't score a critical hit.
- Yamcha in the same series warrants mention. Once he died, he suffered permanent Cant Catch Up and loses Bulma to Vegeta as a result.
- His character didn't really develop though, so Bulma really left him because he was too immature. Still sad though.
- Keiichi from Ah My Goddess. Even in the pilot his life sucks so much that Heaven sends a goddess to grant him a wish to make up for it. Even though he gets a Magical Girlfriend out of the deal, he also becomes target number one for the former most popular girl at his school, Belldandy's sisters, a demon, the queen of Hell, and sometimes even Belldandy herself.
- On the other hand, he gets better digs (the temple), a job he likes (Whirlwind), a woman's love (Belldandy), and probably a life more interesting and enjoyable than he would have otherwise had. Not an easy one, but worth it perhaps?
- Now, if only he could just spit it out already...
- I can't disagree with you on that. Seinen Syndrome is a harsh thing.
- Natsuki in both Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome. Having one's underwear stolen and eaten? Being forced to Show Some Leg to hitch a ride back to school/town? Falling into an easily-avoidable trap set by a Trickster Goddess? It's funny how the most serious member of the cast is always the one to take the comedic pratfalls.
- Jonathan Joestar from Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure. Dio made Jonathan's life absolute hell by burning his dog, stealing his girlfriend's first kiss, turning his friends against him and killing his father. This is all BEFORE he uses Jonathan's own blood to turn himself into a vampire.
- The Claymores in the series titled after them are infused with the blood of Yoma, the monsters they are trained to fight and will eventually become them if they exert themselves too much; plus, if they start asking too many questions, the organization will send them on suicide missions to shut them up. The main character, Clare, generally has it the worst, since she started out as a human who was a companion to the most powerful Claymore, only to have her killed before her eyes. Her body is then used to turn Clare into a Claymore herself, except since she's only a quarter Yoma, she's the lowest ranked Claymore and everyone looks down on her.
- Tamaki from Code Geass.
- Kaidoh from The Prince Of Tennis can be counted as Seigaku's buttmonkey in some Slice Of Life-like anime chapters. Just see episode 22 named "Kaoru's Misfortune": Can't finish his morning lap? Check. Is run over by his rival on a bike? Check. Is stepped on by another guy? Check. Is mistaken for a thief? Check...
Comic Books
- One of the last good things about Mad Magazine after all its old regular artists and writers started dying like flies, Monroe's titular character is a definite example of a Butt Monkey, with ridiculously neglectful parents, a cruel bully who constantly leaves him battered and bloody, his only friend is a nerdy toadlike kid whom is the only person liked even less than him, and any spot of hope for him is usually destroyed by the end of the story.
- Herr Starr from Preacher is the recipient of ever-increasing quantities of humiliating violence. As a child, he has one of his eyes put out and goes bald; during the plotline of the comic, he gets raped by a male prostitute, has a large scar carved into his head (which makes it look like a giant penis), has one ear shot off, narrowly escapes cannibals who eat his leg, and finally has his genitals eaten by a Rottweiler, leading to his forlorn use of the phrase "my cock is in the bitch's mouth".
- Filler Bunny from various Jhonen Vasquez comics was created purely to entertain the audience by being tortured. Appropriately enough, at one point he is even told to climb up inside a monkey's butt.
- Don't forget Todd (Squee) from Jhonen's comic Squee; throughout the series, he gets frequently harassed by space aliens who want to probe him, a gigantic dust mite, and his cyborg-Grandpa; his parents continuously ignore him, the worst offender being his dad, who constantly says stuff like, "I haven't smiled since the day you were born" (at one point he's even seen watching a video of Squee's birth being played in reverse); his classmates constantly pick on him and laugh at him for no apparent reason whatsoever; his only real friends are Shmee (his stuffed bear), Pepito (the son of Satan), and Johnny (Nny); heck, at the end of the series, his parents place him in a mental institution!
- Marvel's Trapster, favored punchline of heroes (especially Spider-Man), despite being reasonably dangerous with his glue-based weaponry. He simply can't live down his initial moniker of "Paste-Pot Pete" (or the costume he wore with it). Just calling him "Pete" usually puts the fight half in the bag.
- Hank Pym is the Butt Monkey for the Marvel superheroic community. In two universes.
- After the controversial Civil War storyline in Marvel comics, several heroes who were on the side of registering metahumans were very unpopular among the fans and turned into Butt Monkeys. Tony Stark, leader of the pro-regs, spent every guest appearance for a month or two afterwards being yelled at and slapped around by other heroes. Tigra, who spied on the anti-regs while being pro-reg the entire time, was shot and beaten by the Hood (a supervillain whose powers she arguably outclasses or at least matches) while barely putting up a fight, constantly screaming "AIIEE", and being videotaped. She also joined Stature in being kidnapped by Puppet Master, almost sold into slavery, and being forced to fight her rescuer, Ms. Marvel (and losing). Interestingly, she also has a relationship with Hank Pym around this time.
- The aforementioned Stature really deserves her own bullet. Her former team, Young Avengers, was anti-reg and the others stayed anti-reg after she left. It's possible that the popularity of other members over her and the former cohesiveness of the team made her betrayal seem particularly egregious, which would explain her treatment in the later comics. Stature was kidnapped by Puppet Master, almost sold into slavery and had to fight Ms. Marvel. During this fight, she had a car hit her in the face. She joined a superhero boot camp some unspecified time after Civil War. Other instructors included former supervillains, including Taskmaster, who had fought Stature's superhero dad (Ant Man). New Ant Man Eric O'Grady mocked the former Ant Man to ingratiate himself with Taskmaster. Stature promptly tried to kill him, only for O'Grady to grow to giant size and smack her with a bus. They both were taken down by Taskmaster without Stature hitting O'Grady once. Later at the camp, a clone gone wrong combined with an alien weapon ran around maiming and beating trainees, including her. When she was eventually sent home, she had a screaming fight with her mother and stepfather and accidentally crippled her stepfather during a fight with a supervillain. The only good things were off screen reconciliations with the other Young Avengers and some Epiphany Therapy. Keep in mind that the last time we were updated on her age, she wasn't even fifteen.
- As depicted on www.superdickery.com, almost anyone that ol' Supes encounters becomes a Butt Monkey — he forces Lois and Jimmy to marry apes, leaves civillians in mortal peril (or just refuses to untie them) while he goes to hunt the bad guys...
Film
Literature
- Agrajag in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy books has his fate intertwined with Arthur Dent's in a unique way. He has been reincarnated as a bowl of petunias, a baby rabbit, and a cricket spectator, not to mention countless flies and other bugs, all of which died at least in part due to Arthur Dent's actions. Agrajag suspects malice on Arthur's part, but Arthur insists it's just "the universe playing silly buggers with the pair of us."
- Reading carefully, it seems indeed every single thing for whose death Arthur is in any part responsible is an incarnation of Agrajag, and every single incarnation of Agrajag is killed at the hands of Arthur. It's understandable that he'd hold a grudge...
- Rincewind, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld. He doesn't just want to be left alone, he actually wants his life to be boring. But due partly to being the pawn of Luck, and partly to his own self defeating cowardice, he always end up in the middle of some gigantic disaster surrounded by people who want him dead.
- Born as a deformed dwarf, having his own mother die bringing him into the world, growing up being reviled and hated by his father, having his first wife gang-raped by his father's garrison, becoming the laughingstock of Westeros despite being kind and wise, falsely accused of murder and imprisoned twice, protecting a city with his life only gaining more scorn, getting half his nose cut off, denied of his birthright, forced into a second marriage with a woman who finds him repulsive, finding his lover in his father's bed and becoming an exile wanted by the whole of Westeros after killing both - Tyrion Lannister from A Song Of Ice And Fire is, without a doubt, one of the best examples of a dramatic Butt Monkey.
- Another character from the same series that also could definitely be considered a Butt Monkey would be Brienne of Tarth. She's an ugly woman warrior in an incredibly sexist world who has had to deal with one of her masters dying, another one mistakenly believing she betrayed them, being a suspect in a murder she didn't commit, attempted rape, getting put in a bear pit for someone's sick amusement, and being constantly mocked. Not to mention her issues with unrequited love.
- Everyone other than the Bastard or the PFY in Simon Travaglia's Bastard Operator From Hell series of short stories.
- The whole point of Candide. Everyone is a ButtMonkey.
- Justine, the title character of one of Marquis de Sade's (in)famous works, is the ultimate embodiment of this trope. At every turn, she's subjected to abuse hidden under a mask of virtue. She is forced to become a sex-slave to monks, is locked up in a cave and abused, publicly humiliated and raped numerous times. And just when things begin to look up for Justine, she gets struck by lightening and killed. Butt Monkey indeed.
- This is, of course, a reflection of the philosophy of Sade's that virtuous people finish last. Every virtuous character in a story of Sade's is a complete butt monkey.
- Many a Thomas Hardy protagonist, particularly Jude of Jude the Obscure and Tess of Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Jude and Tess both begin as wholesome, virtuous innocents until about the fourth page of their respective books, in which a endless series of escalating tragedies designed to rob them of all hope begin because God Is Evil and Victorian morality stifles any hope of a freethinking life. When things do improve in some minor fashion, it is only to make the next tragedy all the more poignant. Thomas Hardy biographers have tried and failed to come up with a reason for his unrelenting grimness; perhaps a contemporary review of Jude the Obscure sums the case up best by saying that, "He is depressing because he himself is somewhat depressed."
- Mr Bagthorpe of The Bagthorpe Saga. Yes, he brings a lot of it on himself, but fact remains he's bedevilled by more disasters, wrong bank statements, goats and awful relatives than anyone else in children's literature. If he doesn't break his arm trying to stand on his head he's accidentally bidding for hundreds of pounds of junk in auctions. And he's suspected of being a terrorist and murdering his wife in the later books. To quote, "I am the archetypal can carrier of all time!"
- There are dozens of Shakespearean examples. The most extreme would be the entire cast of Othello, not just its criminally naive hero (one character, the perpetually stupid Roderigo, is even referred to in the cast list as 'a gulled gentleman'). Iago, revolting creep that he is, grins as he puts them all through hell.
- Another major example would be Shylock of The Merchant of Venice. He's forced to endure endless abuse from the Venetians, his daughter runs off with a Christian and steals his dead wife's ring, he's forced to convert and give up his profession in a trial that's completely unfair ... Yes, his wish for a pound of flesh is villainous, but Values Dissonance has made this alleged 'comedy' almost unwatchable.
- Where would this list be without Malvolio in Twelfth Night? He's a haughty Puritan who doesn't like roistering, it's true, and has a daft infatuation for Olivia, but being mistaken for mad and incarcerated leaves something of a bitter taste in modern viewers' mouths. Another Buttmonkey of epic proportions is Sir Andrew. Dense, naive and good natured, it's possibly a good thing he's so stupid as he never seems to realise the contempt everyone else holds him in. He tries to woo Olivia with no success, his 'friend' Sir Toby is forever sponging off him ... He can't even get a challenge to a duel right!
- The Duchess of Malfi. Poor girl. All she wanted was to get married ... and look at the horrors that unleashes! Imprisonment, mental torture, her eventual murder ... Her hapless husband Antonio also applies. Malfi probably has the earliest instance of the hitman being something of a Buttmonkey too.
- Carrie in VC Andrews' Flowers in the Attic and the sequel, Petals on the Wind. Has severely stunted growth from being locked with her siblings in an attic from age 4 to age 8, her twin brother is effectively killed with arsenic-laced donuts by their mother, she is friendless and tormented at boarding school, finally gets a chance at happiness with a fiance in a Throw the Dog a Bone moment only to feel so unworthy because of the fiance's religious zeal that she commits suicide.
- Neville Longbottom was very much the Butt Monkey for the first four Harry Potter books, being there mainly just as a source of comic relief. However he Took A Level In Badass in the fifth book and if you're laughing at him by the seventh book, you have a very weird sense of humour.
Live Action TV
Video Games
- Detective Dick Gumshoe from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney probably qualifies, especially in the second game, where he gets his pay docked several times for goofing up, and near the end of the final case gets in a car accident while trying to rush some crucial evidence to the courthouse. He is also frequently on the business end of perfectionist Franziska von Karma's whippings.
- His love interest, Maggey Byrde (introduced in Justice for All) has a perpetual streak of bad luck, which culminated in her being accused of murder on two separate occasions.
- And then there's Larry Butz, Phoenix and Edgeworth's old school friend and Unlucky Everydude to the extreme, who can never seem to hold a steady job or a girlfriend throughout the course of three games. He seems to be a danger magnet, and everybody in his circle often discredits the things he says, to the point where Phoenix and friends invented their own saying about him: "When something smells, it's usually the Butz."
- Arguably, Phoenix Wright himself, almost to a You Suck extent. After all, everyone in the game seems to go out of their way to make his life a living hell. It's certainly more subtle, however... It's easy to not realize how far it extended until the third game came, and with it the chance to play as Edgeworth: suddenly witnesses are much more forthcoming, investigators more respectful, judges less sarcastic, and prosecutors never whip you!
- Edgeworth even sympathizes with Phoenix a little bit when he realizes how hard it is to gather clues as a defense attorney and if you screw up during a testimony at one point, Edgeworth gets mocked and he wonders to himself if there is a kick me sign on the defense's bench.
- Not even inanimate objects are completely safe. The Kurain Pot, most valued object of Kurain Village (Maya's hometown), gets broken a lot. Pearl accidentally hits it with a ball in the second game, and scrambles the writing on its front as she glues it back together (from "AMI" to "I AM"). Adrian Andrews drops it on the floor and spills paint on the pieces in the third game, though she at least gets the writing back into proper order. And at the very end of the third game, we see a picture showing a very young Mia and Maya Fey... reassembling the pot, revealing it's been broken quite a bit before.
- Don't forget Maya, who gets arrested, trapped, or kidnapped at least once per game.
- The Ship Captain in God Of War, who has, as far as this editor has gotten in the series, been eaten alive by the hydra for captaining the ship Kratos was on; dropped into the hydra's gullet by Kratos, who only wanted the key he was wearing; been stabbed, used as a human ladder, and flung into the River Styx by Kratos; and resurrected as a spirit warrior promptly killed by Kratos. As he's trivial to the plot, reappears frequently, and all his misfortunes are caused by Kratos, he's also a borderline Yuppie Couple.
- In a nice shout-out, his appearance in God of War II was solely to have him scream, "Oh no, not you again!"
- Metal Gear Solid has Johnny Sasaki, whose Grandfather was also a butt monkey. In the first MGS he had diarrhea, and in MGS 4 he joins the new Foxhound to fight Liquid Ocelot. When Snake sees him, he is astounded that Johnny's been able to survive for 10 years (Snake confused him for a rookie). The 2007 TGS video has him farting and trying to take a crap in a barrel, when a guy sees him and starts chasing him while his pants are down. Butt Monkey indeed.
- He also has a hidden cameo in MGS 2. You can listen to him talking to himself in the bathroom, complaining about how getting knocked out and left lying in the prison floor gave him an even worse diarrhea. Poor guy.
- Let's not forget Raiden in MGS 2 and MGS 4. He's double-crossed by his colonel (actually an AI designed to control the world), beaten up by Snake and Olga to use as bait for Ocelot and Solidus, groped by the President of the United States (who is then shocked to discover he is a man), subjected to torture and having to run around nude until Snake brings him his gear, and subjected to an experiment by the Patriots where they cut his head off and attach it to a robotic body. He's frequently mocked in MGS 3, despite the game taking place years before he was born, with a Russian officer named Raikov who looks like Raiden, is gay for Colonel Volgin, and gets his clothes stolen by Naked Snake (later to be known as Big Boss) to use as a disguise, revealing that he wears a thong. Colonel Volgin himself later gropes Naked Snake, who is disguised as Raikov - and he is caught because, unlike Raikov, he doesn't get an erection from it! The fact that American and European audiences were not very receptive to the idea of an effete bishonen protagonist is probably the root of much of Raiden's (and his Russian body double's) suffering.
- And then there's the short comedy series in MGS 3 where Raiden tried to take the spot of main character from Snake by killing Big Boss... only to continuously fail so horribly, from beating up by Volgin (mistaking him for Raikov), raping by Volgin, slapping by The Boss, and getting a slight respect to Big Boss, only to be run over by Russian soldiers and the Metal Gear-like machine.
- The Prinnies are a species of Butt Monkey penguins in Disgaea. They get forced to do every last bit of the gruntwork for their masters, they explode if you throw them (and this is often a valid combat tactic), and their masters often torment them for amusement; the opening of Disgaea 2 shows a character throwing a knife at one. And no matter how much damage they take, they're valued so poorly that healing (or resurrecting) them only costs one Hell.
- Somewhat justified, seeing as Prinnies are the souls of murderers, thieves, etc.; doing the grunt work is how they atone for their sins. The Celestia Prinnies seem to have it a bit easier, as well. But still, Etna and company could go a little easier...
- In addition, there's Tink, the "Dirty Frog". Originally a handsome prince, he was cursed and turned into a lecherous frog. The Dark Court issued a subpoena against him, with his very existence being an unpardonable crime.
- Luigi of Super Mario Bros. is occasionally a butt-monkey, when he's not a Recolor of Mario. He is often the butt of cross-dressing jokes, self-delusional about his own abilities if he's not being depicted as an outright coward. He is always being kidnapped by ghosts, as some kind of backlash to his own game Luigi's Mansion.
- Nintendo seems to take a practically unholy glee in always ramping it up, too. In Luigi's latest appearance (Super Smash Bros. Brawl), he seems to have gone quite mad from the stress.
- Bowser is also a subject of mockery
- Kazooie, one-half of the titular duo from Banjo-Kazooie series, is Butt Monkey in avian form - especially in the first game, but still so in the second. Not only is she subject to quite a bit of slapstick, but she always seems to learn her moves in the most humiliating fashion. To be fair, she does give the universe plenty of grief in return.
- There's also Roysten, Banjo's long-suffering goldfish. He was tossed on the barbeque at the fake ending of the first game. Then in Banjo-Tooie, he was blasted along with Banjo's house and poor Bottles in the oppening cinema, subsequently buried under a huge rock, and found himself as part of Bottles' charcoaled dinner at the end of the same game.
- They also gave us Gobi the Camel, whom you first meet in his eponymous level. You have to Ground Pound his back several times, forcing him to cough up his precious water. After several rounds of this abuse, he runs away to another level... where you have to seek him out and do the exact same thing. After suffering much abuse at the hands of Kazooie's beak, he gets annoyed and vows to go to the "lava world." There's no lava world in Banjo-Kazooie. But he shows up in the sequel, trapped in a cage. You have to set him free, for once helping him. After he finally makes it to Hailfire Peaks, his "lava world," you get to abuse him with the Bill Drill again. Fun times!
- Roman Bellic of Grand Theft Auto 4, protagonist Niko Bellic's hapless cousin. A loser through and through, at one point he gets kidnapped, shot in the stomach when he can't stop screaming, healed in a filthy basment, and has to ask Niko to buy him some adult diapers.
- Soul Nomad And The World Eaters is chock full of Butt Monkeys. Gig, the evil force possessing the protagonist, takes glee in tormenting virtually every single party member the player meets. At first, the Hero's slightly ditzy friend Danette is his sole target, as Gig calls her by "stupid cow" instead of her name for literally the entire game, but the prospects open up as more of the less-serious story characters join... until the player meets Odie, who serves as Butt Monkey to not only Gig but virtually everyone else as well. He's so pathetic that he's a member of the Dio family, a lineage of the most powerful mages in recorded history... who flunked out of magic training.
- Salsa from Mother 3 is a Butt Monkey in the figurative and literal sense - he's constantly administered electric shocks from Yokuba, the Pig Masks kick him around, and he generally goes through all sorts of abuse all in the name of saving his girlfriend. It's rather satisfying when Kumatora and Wess help him bust out of his situation.
- Equally satisfying is what comes next - nothing says "was the entertainment worth it now, BITCH?!" like issuing a command to a dinosaur that sends Yokuba/Fassad on a one-way flight out of Tazmily. "OH MY PORK!" indeed.
- About half the cast in Psychonauts are Butt Monkeys of some variety, but the standout is probably Raz's friend Dogen. Bullied by seemingly everyone at the camp (with the possible exception of Lili, though even she makes jokes at his expense), he's even menaced by the squirrels, and everything seems to terrify him. He gets constantly blown up in Coach Oleander's training course, and he's the first child at the camp to get Brainwashed - after being held hostage, of course, and tortured by a deranged dentist. Other, lesser Butt Monkeys of note include Elton, a shy, sweet kid who makes friends with the fish in the camp's lake - prompting the bullies to go fishing. He's generally the first to get kicked out of any mental world. The long-suffering Unfunny Sasha also gets his fair share of abuse.
- Beyond Good And Evil has poor, poor Double H, who seems to be picked on by the universe itself. When you first meet him, within the span of about five minutes, he gets tortured, Easy Amnesia, and thrown off a cliff. In the grand scope of things, he's stricken with an evil alien disease, scolded by Jade for trying to kiss her, made fun of by children (this editor recalls one kid derisively calling him "canned food"), and used as a Meat Shield in the Final Boss by both sides. This is to say nothing of his apparent unrequited Bodyguard Crush on Jade, though that depends on who in the fandom you ask. In comparison, the other main sidekick, Pey'j, really only has to play James Bondage.
- Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja and its sequel have Mitsumoto, and to a lesser degree Shino.
- Touhou series can be said to practically run on Butt Monkeys. First off, there's Cirno, even abused in the manual. Then there's Reisen Udongein Inaba, abused by her mistress with punishment times, forced to be guinea pig and even her fellow rabbit Tewi plays prank to frame her for it. Then there's Hong Meiling AKA China, whose name is so hard to remember they turn into her Fan Nickname, and even the resident of Scarlet Devil Mansion (especially Sakuya) treat her poorly.
- Fanworks, however, show that even Sakuya could become a Butt Monkey towards both Remilia and Flandre, the same can be said for other master-Battle Butler relationship (E.g: Yuyuko-Youmu). Likewise, there's also Alice Margatroid, who is turned into some sort of Moe Moe character in the fanworks, practically a Butt Monkey bait for her partner Marisa.
- Galen "Starkiller" Marek of The Force Unleashed. Father dies before his eyes as a child, taken by his father's murderer and raised to be a Jedi killer, enduring an abusive upbringing. Receives no kind words from his surrogate father whatsoever and after one of his greatest acheivements, said surrogate father literally stabs him in the back for one little slip up, beats him up and almost kills him, saving him only that he might continue his work. After finally turning against him, Starkiller's ultimate fate is either Heroic Sacrifice or being horribly disfigured and enslaved for the rest of his life as punishment for one moment of weakness where he tried to get revenge.
Webcomics
- Almost the entire cast of the webcomic 8-Bit Theater takes turns being the butt monkey. Black Mage takes center stage(Brian has even flat-out said "everything that happens, happens to hurt Black Mage"), but Fighter is being stabbed by him almost constantly. Red Mage gets his fair share of pain. White Mage is emotionally tortured by the utter lack of interest the chosen warriors have in their quest and the frequency with which they kill innocents or each other. Garland, the first boss, started as this before becoming just incompetent. The recurring Onion Kid character only even exists to have his new foster families casually slaughtered. Thief has to deal with Berserker attacking him at sight and being torched by Bahamut, and Black Belt got near-slaughtered by several encounters including Black Mage, until he eventually died . In a mild subversion, Black Mage actually deserves buttmonkey status.
- Davan of Something Positive. Within the last three years, his long-time girlfriend left him to pursue her dream job, his mother died, his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, he's had a paternity scare (which the author admitted he almost made Davan the father just to spite some of his critics), and his acting career is a string of roles as rapists and psychos. All this doesn't even include the casual cruelties heaped upon him by his (so-called) friends.
- Some might argue Mike is a bigger Buttmonkey, but it's clear that most of the stuff that happens to him is both deserved and self-inflicted.
- And don't forget Kharisma, who was burned and disfigured and is currently serving a life sentence in prison for a murder that, ironically, she didn't even commit. Why is that ironic you ask? Because she was actively trying to kill the person whose murder sent her to jail.
- The entire line of Boxbots from Gunnerkrigg Court. After only two
 appearances, it's become clear that nobody, not even the Cast Page, likes Boxbot.
- And then there's this: an entire strip of nothing but Boxbot being a Butt Monkey.
- The character Head-leg (a head on a leg, go figure) from Irritability was literally made by Evil Genius Exoth to be tortured and die in horrifying ways over and over again. Exoth just doesn't like poor Head-leg.
- Hannelore from Questionable Content, with elements of The Woobie.
- The title character in the Charlie The Unicorn videos. The blue and pink unicorns apparently come up with extremely convoluted and surreal plans just to make Charlie miserable. This is probably why Charlie is a Deadpan Snarker.
- Riku in Ansem Retort is the target of countless acts of violence that should have killed him by now. He's been cut in half God knows how many times, burnt, blown up, electrocuted, stabbed, violated, tortured, and even had his heart removed. While he found a girlfriend in season 5, for the most part, even the comparatively friendly characters in the comic go out of their way to hate Riku.
- Myrith Mc Rain from Mortifer. It starts with Joey capturing him, chaining him to a desk near the breakroom, and forcing him to do hacking work to find black market kingpins. But the crowning moment of this has to be when Alyce, who is revealed to have known him from childhood, finds out he's there... And, well, just look.
- In the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Fan Web Comic by Q-Ice, being one of Nanoha's befriended ones automatically lands you in this role. Just ask Fate◊, Vita◊, and Teanna◊.
Western Animation
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