Buttmonkey - Television Tropes & Idioms

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.
- That gimmick was still pretty funny for a while... until it turned into all kinds of horrifying and disturbing.
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. P.S. Guess who he's voiced by?
- Among the Espada, Yammy. In all his fights with the good guys, he has made a fool of himself. To be fair, the two first times he ended up fighting Urahara Kiskue, and when Uryu attacked him he was prepared, but still.
  - His track record made his being the "0" Espada after release seem entirely unbelievable to more than a few readers, to the point he has almost become a Love It Or Hate It character, either they believe him, or they think he is a ridiculous dumbass because he looks 'ugly', and all the powerful characters up until now have been 'beautiful'
- 7th Division Lieutenant Tetsuzaemon Iba gets this quite a bit in the omakes, especially as president of the Shinigami Men's association, which ends up being pushed around and oftne having its funding cut. He also gets treated somewhat poorly in the potentially last battle, where he ends up running from Poww until Komamura saves him, and then tries to attack Allon, but is blown away by a Cero in a matter of seconds.
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.
- This is Lampshaded later in the manga when Keitaro suggests he has some kind of resistance to injury. He tells Naru (after they have fallen off a cliff) that it would be dangerous for Naru to fall but he would have no problem with it.
  - Being around and eventually in love with Keitaro seems to bring out Naru's inner Butt Monkey, and if she is not a victim of his being an Accidental Pervert, then she is a victim of her friends' dubious efforts to 'help' the would-be couple. This may also apply to Shinobu, whose own efforts to win Keitaro may have 'infected' her. Almost any time she takes the other girls' advice to win their 'game', she suffers some mishap, triply so if this help comes from Kaolla Su.
Haré from Haré+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 Comifest, leading to him going a entire day buying their doujinshi 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.
- To be fair, Kuchiki is a complete and utter tool, all the time. Considering how likable and "well-adjusted" Kio Shimoku makes the rest of the uber-geek Genshiken members, Kuchiki's behaviour is not only annoying, but embarrassing. Despite the Genshiken members acknowledging his creepy behaviour, they still include him as a form of loyalty.
Every diclonius and even some humans suffer extreme Butt Monkey effects on the anime Elfen Lied.
- But nobody does it better than our Nana, though Manga-version Yuka is competitive, often placing herself in ecchi situations, to the point she even stops hitting Kouta for them. Even a primal Tsundere can hit this point, it seems.
The titular character of the anime Naruto is the resident buttmonkey at the beginning of the series.
Sakura (a boy) from Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan is probably one of the more over the top examples of a Butt Monkey.
Taniguchi (to a minor extent) in Suzumiya Haruhi. In Haruhi-chan It Got Worse. 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 midget 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.
- Havok gets his far share of suffering. The fore-mentioned girlfriend actually paralyzed him from the waist down and Roy had to burn his wounds to keep him from bleeding to death. I'm pretty sure that was the end of that relationship.
- How many times has Winry had to build a replacement for Ed's right arm again? Honestly, I'll bet that once he gets his real arm back he'll lose in in five minutes.
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.
- Don't forget Kageto, who is ignored by everyone in the series, despite keeping the store going while everyone jaunts off to the next Tournament Arc.
  - Kageto practically defines this trope. He is so full of suck that he actually gets Yukino, the show's psychopathic Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, to pity him.
Sunohara Youhei of Clannad. Even his cute little sister treats him poorly.
- He gets redeemed a bit in the ~After Story~ when his little sister worried abot his future—only to be smacked down hard in the following episodes. Literally.
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.
- Even sadder in that by the end of the series, Krillin has trained and powered-up to the point that he's probably the single strongest human being who ever lived. But compared to all the various aliens, magical beings and cyborgs zipping around, he's a relative weakling.
- Hell, The Abridged Series even has a Krillin Owned Count.
- 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.
  - He smashed crotchfirst onto his opponent's head once. CROTCHFIRST.
  - Which was made even worse by the fact that his opponent was a nerdy guy in glasses and a pocket protector possessed by God. Hitting below the belt is usually against the rules in that particular tournament, but Kami was acting like it was an accident and he was a nerd in glasses at the freakin' World Martial Arts Tournament. The announcer let it slide.
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 Jojo's 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. He almost gets his revenge,until Dio Beheads him in the last chapter of his story, while nothing more then a HEAD, and uses his body to kill his grandson, his great-great-grandson's friend, and almost the great-great-grandson himself
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. Moreso, Jeremiah "Orange-kun" Gottwald.
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...
- As the story advances, his Big Brother Mentor Inui is the one who becomes a Butt Monkey. How many times the guy has been punished for trying to sneak out of something and/or has lost his pants? Specially in the OAV, where the punishments he suffers are even more embarrassing and funny
Sakuya from Candy Boy gets treated as such, only for being in love with one of a very close pair of twin sisters.
The titular character in Ode To Kirihito, pretty much from the minute he leaves the hospital. He is inevitably exposed to disease, human cruelty, murder, rape, imprisonment, pretty much everything possible that would destroy a person's faith in mankind. He doesn't even know about what his best friend is capable of as his mental fortitude disintegrates in Kirihito's absence. Here it's played for drama — Kirihito is a good person at heart, but hardens considerably as a result of his experiences.
- In the end, it's implied that his final visit to Japan led Kirihito to dare to hope again.
Chamo of Mahou Sensei Negima is a mild case; he's constantly abused (punched, stepped on, squashed, etc.) by everyone (mostly Asuna), although he probably deserves it. A more recent battle has an opponent impale him on her horn, where he hangs for a while. He's perfectly fine afterward, of course.
- Also, Chisame seems to be the person most likely to get put into humiliating situations; she's always the first to get caught by Nitta for breaking school rules and seems to always suffer her portion of Clothing Damage in front of the whole class or on stage at a cosplay contest. Not to mention that incident with the clothes eating octopus...
- In the alternate universe series Negima!?, Makie is given the role of the Butt Monkey, especially when it comes to the Baka Rangers segments that appear at the end of a number of episodes.
Keiichi from Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni seems to be a butt monkey sometimes. Though it may be due to his behavior.
- Satoko was once the butt monkey, within the fandom atleast. Until her death in Meakashi-hen. Even though some still considered her a nuisence until the first arc of the anime version of Kai, the second season.
Flute, from Violinist Of Hameln (manga continuity only). Despite being the story's heroine, she's constantly bullied around by Hamel — dressed in embarrassing costumes, forced to dance for change, ignored in favor of more attractive characters and even used as a weapon with some frequency. Luckily for her, when things get desperate or when Hamel gets too mean, she usually triumphs thanks to the Divine Cross of Retribution.
Angel Sanctuary has argueably a cast of them as there is probably none who doesn't get at least a Kick The Dog moment. Though the most suffering is probably Katou Yue, who is not only a drug addict in real life because his father hates him. He gets killed no less than four times throughout the series.
Dallas Genoard from Baccano! seems to exist for the sole purpose of getting smacked around by every other character he comes in contact with in increasingly painful and embarrassing ways, starting with Firo effortlessly handing him his ass and ending with the Gandor brothers dumping him off to be perpetually drowned at the bottom of the Hudson River. Though, given that he tends to be a grade-A asshole most of the time, it's hard to feel sorry for him.
Pedro from the Excel Saga anime. Practically tormented every episode, usually accomponied by his famous Big No.
Patrick Colasaur and Saji Crossroads from Gundam 00 have had very embarrassing and very soul-crippling things done onto them, respectively.
Mullin Shetland from Last Exile becomes the series' Butt Monkey when he joins the Silvana crew as a mechanic. Basically, he sucks at it, no-one bothers teaching him anything and every woman he falls for rejects him. A former rifleman who survived 19 battles (where riflemen have a 33% survival rate) he's remarkably Bad Ass at other times of the series- after leaving the crew he ends up single-handedly saving the Anatoray flagship with his Heroic Sacrifice (he gets better).
Tatewaki does not get any respect whatsoever. Even her profile page consists of a single phrase: "Whatever, really." OUCH.
Hanai of School Rumble is usually the first target for pranks. In fact, when he tried to play the recorder to remind Mikoto of when they were kids, Mikoto laughed at how bad he was and had forgotten completely.
In Wedding Peach Abridged, it seems that Limone is punished for his competence.
Matsuda of Death Note. Everyone on the investigative team doesn't hesitate to point out what an idiot he is. L especially treats him like crap. Of course, he does get his hero moments, particularly at the end.
Rito of To-Love-Ru. Poor guy.
- Kotegawa too.
Partially, Dante in the Devil May Cry anime. He says that people "usually leave him a bill instead of paying him".
Shungo of Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun.
Officer Kuhou of Franken Fran. A perfectly normal cop who managed to be a recurring character in a horror comedy manga. Poor girl had to be temporarily committed to the hospital for phychological analysis after witnessing Body Horror, then later subjected to Cloning Blues by Fran. Each chance meeting with Fran after the first one has her going in sheer hysterics thanks to all her past experiences with her.

Close Anime and Manga

Erica Pierce from Solar Man of the Atom is a rather unlucky woman. First off, she was with Solar when he had his accident in the reactor which gave her powers as well (she doesn't notice...at first), she later tries to have sex with the titular Solar but is turned down, Solar takes Erica with him outside the universe where she ends up cracking up do to her self-esteem issues, she tries to kill Solar due to the previous trip, Solar later on goes haywire which results in the universe being sucked into a black hole, she survives along with Solar, both of them being sent into a new universe. In the new universe, it's revealed that Erica (a another one albeit the same) has a abusive husband who impregnated her, said baby coming to life with powers similar to Solar, the baby ends up killing herself due to it's power which traumatizes Erica even more, and finally she kills her husband in a fit of rage. She is then killed by the Erica from the previous universe, who takes her son Albert with her into hiding.
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 who 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".
- And finally, to add insult to injury - literally - at the crescendo of his crusade of vengeance against Jesse Custer, he is handed prank binoculars and winds up addressing his troops for his final battle with black circles inked around his eyes.
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.
- The Ringmaster flirts with this status as well; he was once beaten by Howard the Duck.
Hank Pym is the Butt Monkey for the Marvel superheroic community. In multiple universes. And it's carried over into the animated adaptations too, thanks to Ultimate Avengers.
- This has gotten kind of ridiculous in recent years, perhaps epitomized by this quote from Mighty Avengers #23 (to give it a certain amount of context, Iron Man has showed up and told Hank he's going to now lead Hank's newly assembled team):
Hank Pym: You can take over from here? You? Tony Stark? Mister Fought-against-cap-in-the-civil-war, shot-Hulk-into-space-and-caused-World-War-Hulk, gave-the-skrulls-everything-they-needed-to-invade-Earth. You're taking over? Come on, give me one good reason why—
Iron Man: Three words. You're. Hank. Pym.
- Pym does have his moments of awesome. For example, the efforts he went to to redeem himself after his period of psychosis that brought about the original Yellowjacket identity, and his current run with the Mighty Avengers. However, these come so few and far between that it's like every "badass" period is just set up as another grace for him to fall from.
  - His Marvel Zombies counterpart was fairly respected amongst his comrades, although he was a Complete Monster even for zombie standards.
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 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 Hood is later retconned into having earth-shaking magic powers but... yeah.
  - Not really, in that same arc he trasnformed into a demon(The same demon he took the Hood from in his mini) and beat the crap of Wolverine.The only thing that was changed later was that he was an agent of Dormmamu and even then he did show magicall abilities in his orginal mini(though he didn't fully control them then) and he was able to beat Shocker,Jack O'Lantern and Constrictor in said mini.
  - The Hank Pym Tigra slept with was revealed to be a Skrull and she's now pregnant.
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 civilians in mortal peril (or just refuses to untie them) while he goes to hunt the bad guys....
Some writers seem to think that the biggest appeal of Spider-Man is that things constantly go wrong for him. As a result, we get countless stories of Peter suffering humiliation, lack of money, sickly aunt, girl trouble and just all round unpleasentness, to the point that reading the stories can actually get a little depressing. Note that after John Romita Sr started working on the title with Stan Lee, the book became much Lighter And Softer than it had been recently, a move which led most fans to label it as the golden age of Spider-Man.
Tails in the Fleetway Sonic the Comic.
Detective Soap from the Garth Ennis era of The Punisher. Just a few of many examples; Assigned to a joke squad to catch the Punisher after the brass is blackmailed. Sleeps with a tranny, a convict, his own mother, all three could have been avoided if the one person he thought was his friend said anything. Intimidated by the Punisher into feeding him info on crooks to kill. Regularly gets splashed in bodily fluids. Gets blackmailed himself, left and right. His love interest turns out to be gay. As a CHILD... dropped on his head as a baby, avoided rape because the pastor thought he was ugly... In the end, though, he gets his just rewards. It turns out he has a huge penis and is now a porn star. The gender of his companions is not revealed.
Charlie Brown from Peanuts. Woodstock and Snoopy have their moments as well.
Weasel,Bob Agent of Hydra.....Any of Deadpool's side-kicks really.

Close Comics

Jenny Curran (Robin Wright) in Forrest Gump. Played straight.
- She gets occasional breaks when she's in Forrest's close proximity, though she keeps moving away from him. She would have been touched by Forrest's charmed life if she'd only stayed with him all along.
Sid from Ice Age.
- But I think the award goes to Scrat. He exists only for the purpose of being a butt-monkey — er, squirrel. Thing.
The slightly oddball koala Nigel (voiced by Eddie Izzard) from Disney's The Wild, Nigel never gets any respect and gets made fun by some of the animals at the zoo because he's a cute, furry koala bear- this is mainly because of a doll of him that is sold in the zoo shop and says... "I'm so cuddly I like you!" when someone pulls his string.
Bernard from Stardust gets kidnapped by the witch Lamia, turned into a goat, put into a girl's body, almost trapped in a burning inn, kidnapped and kicked around by Septimus, before finally making an appearance at the end sequence looking surprisingly happy for all he's been through.
- Probably because everybody who did those things to him had died horribly and the people who were nice to him just became King and Queen. I'd be happy, too.
- Also, he dies in the book, so he's probably thankful for living at all.
- According to the DVD commentary he was found by Captain Shakespeare and joined his crew.
The protagonist of The Butterfly Effect is a Butt Monkey taken to the extreme.
Bruce from Bruce Almighty is a token example of this trope, and while it's not a strong showing, the movie gets bonus points for having a Literal Buttmonkey: i.e. a monkey that emerged from a person's anus. I am not making this up.
"Okay little anal-dwelling butt monkey, its time for you to go home!"
M-O from WALL-E.
- M-O has it easy compared to BURN-E.
Jan in The Brady Bunch Movie is treated like crap and overlooked to the point where she's hearing psychotic voices in her head.
Cogsworth in Beauty And The Beast. This is especially evident in the Updated Rerelease, where his entire role in the added musical number seems to consist of nothing but him being picked on.
- Also there's Gaston's loyal sidekick Lefou. Gaston uses him as a punching bag ever so often.
Psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss) from What About Bob?, whose life as he knows it is ruined when one of his patients (Bill Murray) follows him on his vacation.
- It could be argued that Dr. Marvin brings his misfortune on himself, as he is revealed through the course of the movie to be a closet Jerkass.
Milton from Office Space, who gets fired but not told about it, has his pay suspended without his knowledge while they allow him to keep on working for free, gets bullied by his supervisor into working every weekend and has his favorite red stapler stolen. He does get even however when he makes good on his threat to set the office on fire and burns the building down, making off to an exotic beach club with the company's entire payroll.
Vince Vaughn's character in Wedding Crashers, especially during their stay with the family.
Muerte (Stanley Tucci) from Undercover Blues is established as a borderline Ax Crazy after his first encounter with Jeff Blue (Randy Quaid) but by the end of the film, most people I know are feeling a little bit sorry for him because of the sheer amount of hell the Blues put him through.
The diction coach in Singin' In the Rain serves no other function other than being the victim of Don and Cosmo's tap-dancing stunts in the number "Moses Supposes."
Fredo Corleone. He's considered too soft for a responsible position in the family business. On the other hand Michael, not he, is sent to college so he can get a profession. Then Michael takes over the business anyway. When Fredo tries to get his own back Michael assassinates him. That must count.
Rodney Dangerfield. He says so himself: "I get no respect. No respect at all."
- It's even the tagline of the Rover Dangerfield movie poster. "The dog who gets no respect."
To some extent, Harold Lee in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Not only does he get no respect at work, but Kumar often steals his stuff, and throughout the movie, Harold is the one who gets victimized by extreme sports enthusiasts, the police, tree branches, raccoons, and Neil Patrick Harris.

Close Films

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.
- Lampshaded (hilariously) in The Last Hero.
"I do not wish to volunteer for this mission." he said.
"I beg your pardon?" said Lord Vetinari.
"I do not wish to volunteer, sir."
"No one was asking you to."
Rincewind wagged a weary finger. "Oh, but they will, sir. they will. Someone will say: hey, that Rincewind fella, he's the adventurous sort, he knows the Horde, Cohen seems to like him, he knows all there is to know about cruel and unusual geography, he'd be just the job for something like this." He sighed. "And then I'll run away, and probably hide in a crate somewhere that'll be loaded on to the flying machine in any case."
"Will you?"
"Probably, sir. Or there'll be a whole string of accidents that end up causing the same thing. Trust me. sir, I know how my life works. So I thought I'd better cut through the whole tedious business and come along and tell you I don't wish to volunteer."
"I think you've left out a logical step somewhere," said the Patrician.
"No, sir. It's very simple. I'm volunteering. I just don't wish to. But, after all, when did that ever have anything to do with anything?"
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.
  - The entire Stark Family seems to be the buttmonkey clan of Westeros.
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 in 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!"
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.
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.
- Peter Pettigrew took away Neville's title ever since the third book was released. Mostly because of the snark delivered his way by people from his ex-friends like Lupin and Sirius, to Voldemort himself. And all verbally assaulted him and gave him crappy jobs for the mere pleasure in seeing him squirm. But then again, when you decide to do a Face Heel Turn on your best friends knowing it'll lead them to death or worse, then spend thirteen years as a rat, you kind of deserve the title of Butt Monkey.
  - Even Peter's death was pathetic; he gets strangled to death by his own hand in a scene that's basically treated as an afterthought by Rowling, while so much other stuff is going on that you barely notice his passing. Not that he didn't deserve it, mind you.
Can't believe he wasn't mentioned. In JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion Túrin Turambar gets cursed by Morgoth when he was eight. He gets sent to safety and never sees either of his parents again, he runs away from his foster father the King of Doriath after sort-of-accidentally killing someone, he kills his best friend after he shows up trying to help him, his overconfidence causes the fall of Nargothrond, he fails to rescue the woman who loves him, (and him rescuing her was his other best friend's dying wish), and when he finally falls in love with someone else, gets married, and gets her pregnant, she turns out to be his sister Nienor. "O master of doom by doom mastered, O happy to be dead" indeed.
Children's fantasy novel The Hounds of the Morrigan has the Sargeant, who is only ever known by that name. Almost his entire screentime in the book is devoted to having the Big Bad torment him in increasingly ridiculous, magical ways — which he blames on drink, as he's a Muggle. They send him up the Amazon river on a rubber duck, change the cross-stitch wall hanging in his room to insult him, and do various, other cruel things to him which include using him as a pawn to get close to the Mac Guffin.
Job in the Book of Job. Getting literally everything taken from him by Satan — with God's consent no less — made him the ultimate Butt Monkey used by both Satan and God in attempt to prove their point to each other. The fact that eventually Job regained his status and property because God happened to win the argument (or rather Job won the argument for him by being the Butt Monkey) does not diminish his status as a Butt Monkey, because God, rather than bringing his family back from the dead in all his wisdom, decided to just give him a new one (probably because women and children were considered much like cattle and other property in other regards as well).
- Just a thought here-first wife and children were already at peace. What would be proven by dragging them back to the mortal world?
- In the Old Testament there is no direct indication of existance of an afterlife; hat line of thought only became popular later on. The worst God ever does to anybody is to kill them horribly - no mention of post mortum punishments.
PG Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster could easily be classed a butt monkey. He's forever insulted by everyone he knows, berated by his aunts, and is made to perform degrading errands by people who lean on ties of family or friendship to make him do those hideous tasks. Even Jeeves called him "mentally negligible".
Most Tom Holt main characters have things go hideously wrong for them more or less nonstop. Everything from jackass parents to being a pawn in century-old Xanatos Gambits to having the Queen of the Fey wipe your girlfriend's memory of you. At the end of the story, they are usually given a lot of money and/or a vast region of land somewhere on the other side of the world as a karmic payoff for putting up with vast amounts of misery.
Little Nell from Dicken's The Old Curiosity Shop is a 14-year-old orphaned girl raised by her grandfather, who loses all of his money gambling. They are forced to flee his debtors and live as beggars, pursued by the villains, one of whom wishes to force her to marry him and one of whom wants only to torment them both. They finally reach relative safety. Then she dies.

Close Literature

Whose Line Is It Anyway had Colin, who was constantly being made fun of for being bald.
Xander from Buffy The Vampire Slayer introduced the term, with his line "I'm sick of being everybody's buttmonkey" in the Dracula episode. (The term first appeared on TV in BtVS, but was heard "on the street" well before that.)
Josh Nichols from Drake and Josh. He gets taken advantage of by Drake quite a lot and is the butt of many jokes, and on some occasions Megan will say that he has a huge head- when in actuality there's nothing wrong with his head at all.
- In one episode, literally assaulted in the streets several times.
Miles O'Brien from Star Trek Deep Space Nine was the character of choice when the writers needed to put somebody through hell for an episode. This led to the "O'Brien Must Suffer" in-joke among the writers, who intentionally tried to inflict something truly awful on him at least once per season. If an alien attacks one crew member, it's almost always either O'Brien or Worf (although the latter is for a different reason).
On Star Trek Voyager, fans were fond of observing that Ensign Harry Kim was killed and brought back to life with something approaching regularity. Seems even being a major character isn't enough for an Ensign to survive. Not to mention his terrible luck with women.
- Subverted in the episode "Timeless", where everyone BUT Harry Kim (and Chakotay) dies.
  - Until the end of the episode, when, of course, they both die.
- Don't forget, he really did die in the episode where a Negative Space Wedgie duplicated the ship. The duplicate had the sense to send over his replacement before it blew up. Oddly, many in The Other Wiki fail to recognize this.
  - And since Status Quo is God, no one ever mentioned this again. They don't even see fit to hold a memorial service for the original Harry — they just welcome the duplicate on-board and pretend he was the real deal all along.
Let's not forget about Geordi from Star Trek The Next Generation who gets pwned nearly as much as Worf. He's even worse with women than Harry Kim ever was. One particularly cruel episode had an alien taunt his blindness by moving his visor around, just because. The series seems to never let us go on the fact that he's blind (until the movies, well actually he gets taunted again in Generations). And apparently his mom disappears as some plot of the week. Worst yet is that nobody gives a damn about his mom afterwards. And to add insult to injury, in Voyager's "Timeless" he tries to stop Harry Kim and fails. Ouch.
And, of course, on the original Star Trek, Chekov did more screaming-in-pain than the rest of the crew combined.
- He even got a torture scene in the episode "Mirror, Mirror".
Adam Mitchell in Doctor Who. The Doctor didn't want competition. That's the only reason he got rid of Adam. Adam's probably rocking back and fourth mutated right now.
- Although he did kind of bring it on himself; it was his own unethical attempt to profit by learning information from the future and using it in the past that almost got the Doctor and Rose killed, which was partly what prompted the Doctor to dump him back on Earth.
- Mickey from Doctor Who eventually realizes that he gets less respect than the Robot Buddy.
  - In an Authors Saving Throw, he promptly decides to Take A Level In Badass.
- Jamie McCrimmon is this to an even bigger extent. Sometimes (just sometimes), the Second Doctor.
- Arguably Turlough, who was constantly getting captured/locked up or otherwise abused, predominantly because the writers at the time had no real clue what to do with a male companion who was meant to be both intelligent and technically apt. Arguable because he at least partially brought it on himself through being a devious and treacherous coward.
Numerous Characters on Heroes have super-powers which give them nothing but grief...
- Ted, whose unchecked radiation powers give his wife cancer before killing her, force him to go on the run after he's accused of being a terrorist, imprisoned by The Company and eventually getting killed by Sylar.
- Niki, who develops Multiple-Personality Disorder as a response to her power's manifesting. The product of an abusive home, she is forced into a job stripping to pay back the money she owes a gangster, commits herself to an asylum (where she is, naturally, hassled by the evil redneck guards) after she realizes just how much control her alter ego has, indirectly causes the death of her husband D.L. and is generally manipulated by The Company, the gangster who runs it and her alter ego up until the point where she is Stuffed In The Fridge.
- Maya, whose power to poison people from a distance cannot be focused at all. After killing most of her family and friends at her brother's wedding, she flees to a church to become a nun, kills everyone in the church and then lives the harrowing life of an illegal immigrant trying to get to America and the one scientist she thinks can cure her. She has the misfortune to cross paths with Sylar, indirectly causes her own brother's death when he realizes what she fails to regarding Sylar being dangerous. And then she gets in a relationship with Mohinder, who puts her in a cocoon in his lab as he's turning into a spider.
- Matt, whose telepathic powers lead him to discover his wife has been cheating on him with his former partner. Over the course of the first season, Matt is also mistakenly arrested, kidnapped, manipulated by Eden's power, suspended from his job, thrown out a window by Jessica, and SHOT WITH HIS OWN BULLETS. Somewhat subverted in the second season when he rebuilds his life, gets a new job as a detective in New York City, adopts Molly, and learns the extent of his powers but he still gets his ass kicked on multiple occasions. Back in full force in the third season, where Matt has been forcibly teleported around the world and found out that he is destined to get married in the future but that his wife will die.
  - And although that future is averted, the woman (Daphne, his girlfriend) winds up dying anyway.
- And then we have Sylar, whose ability to literally NEED to know how everything works led to him turning from what might have been a brilliant genius into an attempted suicide case, followed by a psychopath who just can't lead a normal life even when he tries his damnedest.
Boomer (David Morse) on St Elsewhere was the ultimate Butt Monkey; losing his wife, having his son abducted, and even getting raped in prison. Kind of puts the "butt" in buttmonkey. Poor Boomer.
During the middle seasons of The X Files, A.D. Skinner suffered a lot of abuse: being shot, framed for murdering a hooker, blackmailed, and poisoned with nanotechnology (this last was never really resolved).
Daniel Jackson on Stargate SG-1 is often getting killed, captured, kidnapped, or injured. One might argue, however, that this was because Daniel was The Chick — gender notwithstanding.
- During his short run, Lt. Colonel Mitchell also seemed to get more than his fair share of beatings, so much so that the actor even described the character as the "whipping boy". This may have been a way of presenting his relative lack of experience in comparison to the older characters. And possibly a way to cheer up fans who didn't like seeing Jack replaced.
This was a symptom of Ross' degeneration on Friends, beginning with his three divorces, nervous breakdown, and job loss, he was also to be humiliated by the writers in front of women again and again and again. No matter what situation he is in, his so-called friends will not have much of a problem with reminding him how many times he has been divorced or how much of a failure he is. Sometimes he brings it on himself, but even just feeling a bit good and smug about himself is enough for them to forcefully bring him down.
- Chandler, while not normally suffering as directly as Ross was also a Butt Monkey of sorts. He is the one character who is constantly belittled behind his back and sometimes to his face, usually by Rachel and Phoebe. In one episode Rachel even admits that she often wants to punch Chandler - and she doesn't know why. This is always played for humour.
Paul on Spin City, most memorably when he was sued for being shot in the head. (And the plaintiff was rewarded more than he asked for.)
Sid from Skins.
- One could argue that Chris from the same show is an even more extreme example; not only is he abandoned by his family, dubiously lucky in love, and prone to unfortunate drug-related incidents, his, er, underendowment is not only apparently common knowledge but a series running joke.
Chief Tyrol on Battlestar Galactica. The list is frighteningly long: Girlfriend a Cylon. Girlfriend shot by co-worker. Girlfriend's clone has baby with someone else. Loses everyone he loves. Mercy-killed Socinus. Almost executed, multiple times. Freaky dreams. Accidentally hurts people. Almost Thrown Out The Airlock. Populist leanings inevitably doomed. Married to fan-hated Cally, the co-worker who shot his Cylon girlfriend. Enough for you? Oh, and, almost forgot - did I mention he's a Cylon? And when Cally finds out, she nearly goes insane and attacks him. Then she gets Thrown Out The Airlock by another person who recently found out that she's a Cylon. And he thinks she committed suicide. Then, in a fit of drunken emotions, loses the commander's good will and forfeits his post. Doesn't look like things are going to go any better for him in the last season.
- It has to get better for him. Things literally can't get any worse. Note his reaction to the reveal at the end of the mid-season finale, he's almost happy because anything would be good following everything that has happened to him.
  - Oh it gets worse. Now he finds out that he isn't actually the father of his kid.
  - Things do seem to be looking slightly up, as Adama seems to have given Tyrol his post back.
  - Things are looking right back down. Boomer comes back, and he realizes that they're still in love. Only, she's going to be tried by the Cylons for treason, and Roslin won't cut her a break. So he springs her from the brig. He only finds out a while later that she was playing him like a grand piano and had just kidnapped Hera and seriosuly damaged Galactica. Now it's hard to see how things could get any worse for him. Poor bastard.
  - Saul Tigh makes Tyrol look lucky. He: has a drinking problem, has an alcoholic manipulative wife, survived through the first Cylon War, seen his best friend shot, got captured on New Caprica where he lost an eye, then when he got out, had to murder his wife for being a Cylon collaborator about four seconds before they're all rescued, and then guess what? He's a Cylon, too! And because the universe hasn't stomped his nads enough — he finds out the final unknown Cylon? Ellen, his {not-so) dead wife.
  - Though just about everyone on that show has elements of this, because Ron Moore loves torturing his characters, though it is appropriate for the setting.
- Gaius Baltar is another frequent victim. Whether or not he deserves it depends on which side of the Face Heel Revolving Door he is this week.
- Throw in Boomer too. Quite possibly the most shit upon character in the entire show.
- Is there even a single major character on this show who HASN'T gone through absolute, unimaginable hell? Lee Adama's wife committed suicide, Roslin's mind snapped like a twig when she learned that her religion is a load of crap, Starbuck stumbled upon her own corpse, there's the whole Admiral Cain/Number Six plot thread... however, if there is one hapless character who just sort of happens to be the butt of all the jokes, it's undoubtedly Gaius, especially in the first season when he's still trying to get used to seeing Number Six everywhere (and, in one episode, is surprised that everyone else can see her, and Hilarity Ensues).
Ted, the lawyer on Scrubs, is so often the victim of abuse he was dubbed in one episode the hospital "sad sack."
- J.D. himself gets the Butt Monkey treatment often, usually in the form of the Janitor pulling some kind of prank on him.
Major Frank Burns from MASH. Although he usually deserves it by virtue of being Frank, being accused of rape by a female superior officer who was trying to seduce you is a bit over the top.
- Also Major Charles Winchester after Frank's departure. He too often deserved it, just not quite as often.
  - Ironically, it was because of his Butt Monkey status that Frank Burns was written out: Larry Linville expressed his opnion that Frank Burns had been developed about as far as possible, and could never advance beyond the uptight, reactionary portrayal that had become so well-known.
John Melendez as portrayed in sketches on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
- Before that Branford Marsalis. Like in the Beyondo segment where Jay played a floating head that made predictions.
Toby in the US version of The Office. Pretty much anything he says is guaranteed to get an undeserved nasty and insulting response from Michael. And sometimes his just being there can provoke Michael.
Michael: "Toby is from corporate, so he's not really a part of our family...also he's divorced, so he's not really a part of his family."
- Even when he agrees with and/or helps Michael he gets this
Ben on Reaper. If something nasty is going to happen to one of the trio of Sam, Sock, and Ben, it always heads straight for Ben.
To some extent, all of the main cast of The Young Ones, but most especially Neil.
Essentially the entire premise of Curb Your Enthusiasm seems to be that horrible things are funny when they happen to Larry David.
Trivette from Walker Texas Ranger. Next to frequently kidnapped district attorney Cahill, he's the most hapless character in the show, being the butt of every joke and the victim of every attack by redneck thugs.
- It should, however, be noted that Trivette is also quite a Deadpan Snarker and said rednecks thugs are usually very sorry afterwards. That is...
Gareth in the original UK version of The Office is set up for pranks at his expense regularly by co-worker Tim, some of which can seem quite mean-spirited... However Tim often gets away with it because Gareth is depicted as being gormless and irritating, and often mean-spirited himself along with it, so you could say that Tim is simply giving him payback. Gareth still catches a break every now and then, though.
- Dawn is also portrayed as such, at least later in the series where David Brent is constantly leaving her to clean up after him. She is much more sympathetic than Gareth though.
Tony Lewis of The Tenth Kingdom is a Butt Monkey for pretty much three-fourths of the miniseries, culminating when the seven years of bad luck he receives for breaking the Traveling mirror causes him to break the entire complement of the Dwarves' mirrors, compounding his bad luck by thirty times so that he ends up falling and breaking his back. After this, aside from continued snarkiness, he even Took A Level In Badass during the climax, sort of.
Howard Steel in The Worst Week Of My Life.
Jerry the perpetual understudy from Slings And Arrows, who averages a hilarious injury every three or four episodes and inevitably gets parts snatched away from him as soon as he starts enjoying them.
Chris Kattan as Paul Begala in Saturday Night Live's recurring "Hardball" sketch.
Jon Stewart is frequently tormented by correspondents and guests alike on The Daily Show, from jabs about his height to insinuations that the departure of previous host Craig Kilborn was the worst thing to ever happen to the show.
- Recently there was John Oliver's particularly brutal criticism of Jon Stewart's hosting the Oscars.
John Oliver: You know the only thing you'd be good at hosting, Jon? The funeral of fun. No, you're right, I take that back. You know who'd be better at that? Hugh Jackman. The guy's amazing!
- Let's not forget the line "...the George W. Bush of comedy" Oliver said to Stewart in the same bit.
Bud Bundy in Married With Children. If he isn't having his scholarship money stolen by his parents or missing out on a once in a lifetime chance to meet the president, he is losing a toe to frost bite after being tricked by a girl, growing breasts from an allergic reaction to an experimental pesticide or being dumped live on radio in front of his entire college. Still, he is marginally luckier than his father....
- Bud's sister Kelly isn't much better off. Whether it's going from being the most popular girl in school to being reduced to working as a waitress in a miserable run-down diner, having her potentially hit TV show destroyed by Executive Meddling, being fired from her job for refusing to wear a bikini in a TV ad, losing all her hair and growing a beard when she tries an experimental zit remedy, getting bitten by poisonous insects that either force her to tell the truth or drive her insane, being forced to take the Bundy dog's place in a dog food commercial, or being rejected by a hot rich guy because of the expensive makeover that was meant to attract him, Kelly is proof that the women of the family are just as apt to fall victim to the Bundy Curse.
- Al. Period. To list the things that have happened to him would require it's own website.
E.B. Farnum from Deadwood is the camp's resident Butt Monkey, who constantly suffers physical and verbal abuse and degradation from just about everyone, even his hotel guests. At one point, one of the villains spits in his face twice and tells Farnum that he will kill him if he wipes it off, so Farnum has to walk around with spit and mucus on his face for a while. After justifiably being frozen in terror for hours.
If it's possible for an inanimate object to be a Butt Monkey, Buster the dummy from Myth Busters qualifies. (And if he doesn't, Tory from the build team comes close at times.)
Chris Skelton from Life On Mars; his condition's improved slightly in Ashes To Ashes, in which he's acquired a steady girlfriend, learned to shoot straight, and stopped falling into goal nets, but he's still the go-to guy when it comes to fishing abandoned guns out of chemical toilets.
~~Egg~~ Anne from Arrested Development is constantly belittled and she gets abandoned in Mexico. Her?
Reviews on the Run host Tommy Tallarico frequently makes jokes at the expense of co-host Victor Lucas, implying he has a huge head when in fact his cranial proportions are quite normal.
It's usually played quite serious with Dean from Supernatural (in that he really doesn't like himself much either) but, bloody hell, in "Sin City"? Dean, sweetie, remembering an exorcism that will send a demon back to hell should really be one of your top priorities, you know?
Corey and Trevor fulfill this role on Trailer Park Boys, constantly screwing up when they try to help the Boys commit their crimes, being tricked by the Boys into taking the fall when they're busted by the cops, and being insulted and humiliated despite their idolizing Ricky and Julian.
Mary Ingalls, from Little House On The Prairie. The tragic blindness could be excused as historically accurate... but not the sandstorm on her wedding day, the miscarriage of one child, the horrible death of another in the same fire that destroyed the school she and her husband ran and just generally having her isolation and helplessness exploited for every last drop of drama. They even devoted an entire episode to raising her hopes about getting her sight back, only to dash them in the last act.
Red's nephew Harold suffered through this role for the first several seasons of The Red Green Show.
Detective Carlton Lassiter in Psych. He's constantly being upstaged by a Deadpan Snarker Slacker who, despite having no formal police training or official standing with the department, effortlessly sweeps him aside in any investigation they become involved in, usually managing to charm the socks off everyone present in the process. Whatever leads he follows or moves he makes in those cases? Usually are wrong. And the Deadpan Snarker he loathes so intensely? Usually proved right. None of the other characters seem particularly inclined to show him any respect whatsoever (which is something that, admittedly, is partly his own fault, given how abrasive and uptight he is), and any misfortunes or unhappy circumstances that occur, will usually occur to him.
- To a lesser extent Gus, as part of his role as the Straight Man, usually finds himself taking this role when Shawn manipulates him into doing something he doesn't particularly wish to do.
Post-season 1 Bellick in Prison Break. He was something of a Smug Snake in season 1, definitely not likeable. But the payback he get's is far worse than what he deserves. It is implied that he got raped by a prisoner at the end of season 2, was forced to drink water from a mud-puddle in season 3 and all such stuff, despite actually starting to become more likeable. In season 4 he seems to have regained a "good guy" status (and is on the team) and occasionally actually helps the plot.
Murray, the incompetent "manager" of Flight Of The Conchords. The Conchords number "Cheer Up, Murray" practically lampshades this, as the list of things that are supposed to cheer him up includes "You've got a wife... but she comes and goes" and "You've got all of your limbs" before the song just puts him down again: "Some people don't return your calls, they don't return your calls/ And some people call you Gingerballs, they call you Gingerballs..."
The Shield has two dueling butt-monkeys
- Detective Ronnie Gardocki is largely treated like a red-headed stepson of the Strike Team, forced to run the other guys errends, had his car shot up by gangsters, mocked for his lack of a sex life, and suffers great physical harm over the course of the series (disfigured, mauled by dogs, hit over the head with a large cross) and ultimately made to be the fall-guy for Vic Mackey's crimes, as so far as Vic refusing to let him flee town when he wanted to leave, as far as Vic basically telling Ronnie that he had put his life in Vic's hands and trust him, lest he fuck up Vic's own quest to get immunity/a job working with the Department of Homeland Security after getting run out of the LAPD.
- Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach was "The Barn's" go-to target for derision and disrespect, despite probably being the best actual cop in the building. In the pilot episode (later confirmed on DVD commentary) it's shown that his own partner, Claudette Wyms, is responsible for a continuous wave of mean-spirited pranks pulled on him (including putting dog shit in his desk drawer) as part of a long-standing LAPD tradition to keep certain talented officers "humble". Dutch's relationship with Claudette is tense on a good day, due to Dutch having his various overtures of friendship and concern rebuked by his partner, who wouldn't even tell Dutch that she had a potentially fatal medical condition (lupus) until several years into their partnership. When Claudette gets promoted to Captain, Dutch is forcibly partnered up with Steve Billings, a lazy detective determined to spend his last years on the force doing as little work as possible and forcing Dutch to cover up his attempts to scam the department (most notably with a fake disability lawsuit). His relationship with series main character Vic Mackey is more complicated: while Vic acknowledges that Dutch is the precinct's best detective (and is terrified of him possibly uncovering the Strike Team's crimes), Vic generally goes back and forth from bullying Dutch for sport and feeding his ego, in order to manipulate Dutch to do his dirty work for him. Dutch's butt-monkey status also extends to his relationship with women; the few successful relationships he has are with women formerly involved with Vic, furthering the rivalry between the two men.
  - Dutch's personal life is even worse, especially since he's one of the few characters on the show who's private life has been revealed in graphic detail: spent his youth/teenage years being mercilessly bullied, raised by an emotionally distant father for whom Dutch became a police officer in order to try and gain his father's approval, failed marriage to an alcoholic who got knocked up by a guy she met while in rehab (which led to him becoming the Butt-Monkey of the Barn in the first place, when another detective revealed this to the other officers), and generally has crappy relationships with women in general as far as women seeing him mainly as a friend/mentor and not a love interest.
Dr. Stephen Franklin from Babylon 5 who, despite always trying to do the right thing, generally winds up suffering for it, especially in later episodes.
- Centauri ambassadorial aide Vir Cotto also might loosely qualify, but also seems to display qualities of the Baldrick (at least in the early seasons), The Unfavourite (by his own account, the only reason he got such an important job is that his family didn't want him at home), the Did Not Eat The Mousse and The Woobie.
  - If we're going to count Vir, then don't forget Delenn's lackey who was in love with her... whatever his name was. Unrequited love is a bitch.
Joel, and later Mike, from Mystery Science Theater 3000 usually ended up being the butt of most of the jokes made by robots Crow and Tom Servo. This didn't only happen in the host segments, sometimes the robots manage to include mockery of Joel/Mike in their movie riffing.
Detective Randy Disher on Monk is definitely that series' Butt Monkey. He is the butt of every joke and is probably way too dumb to be a police detective.
Celia Hodes on Weeds suffered more than any character on the show. She suffers breast cancer, falls in love with a religious man who cheats on her with her best friend, gets jailed all thanks to her own family and friends, and nearly gets shot by Nancy's employers once they discover her spying on them (Nancy saves her life by hitting her on the face with a gun, resulting in her losing a front tooth).
- Then she gets addicted to cocaine.
Alan Harper on "Two and a Half Men" is the patron saint of this trope.
Aaron on Ghost Adventures.
Increasingly, Lutz on 30 Rock. When Jack asks the writers what their parents tell people they do for a living, the others' answers are things like "surgeon". Lutz's response: "Died".
- Jenna is also the butt of many jokes. Such the writers all acting like she is ugly when she clearly isn't.
Tony DiNozzo on NCIS tends to be the team's Butt Monkey, often justified in that he is a Jerk Jock with a very hidden heart of gold. Sometimes McGee fills this role instead; either way, at least one of them is often the butt of an episode's Running Gag.
Joxer on Xena Warrior Princess. Nearly every climactic scene involving "Joxer the Mighty" invariably has him getting knocked unconscious. No one hesitates to insult him, be it Xena, Gabrielle, Autolycus or even his murderous brother Jett. This is coupled with his affection for Gabrielle, who barely tolerates his existence. He's even reviled on fansites.
Power Rangers RPM. Poor Ziggy. It seems that barely an episode can go by without the Green Ranger totally embarrassing himself in some way. Best reflected by his first ever morph. Previous rangers, whether they Jumped At The Call, were thrown in the cockpit or even stole their powers, always morphed with a fair amount of dignity and grace the first time. What's Ziggy's first line upon realising what he has become?
Ziggy: Woah! I'm a Power Ranger! I don't wanna be a Power Ranger! I do not want to be a Power Ranger!

: He then proceeds to get kicked all over the place.

In QI, Alan Davies.
Off-island Locke on Lost. His flashbacks are one agony after another. He's abandoned by his teenage mother, raised in foster care, foster sister and mother die, bullied in high school, and then it gets bad. His biological parents team up to con him out of a kidney. He loses the love of his life. He's kicked out of his commune "family." Finally, his own father pushes him out an 8th-story window, paralyzing him. Crashing on the island is probably the best thing that ever happened to him. After he leaves the island, he's again in a wheelchair, everyone mocks him for being pathetic and lonely, he finds out his ex-girlfriend is dead, and he's unable to convince the Oceanic 6 to return. He's ready to hang himself when Ben arrives, talks him out of it, and then strangles him. But he gets better as soon as he's back on the island.
- NOT!!! Turns out Locke is actual the universe's buttmonkey. Or at least the Anti-Jacob's one
In the second episode of the Walking with Monsters "documentary", the giant Mesothelae spider is something of a Butt Monkey. When it returns to its burrow after catching a lizard, the burrow is flooded. On its way to find another burrow, a giant dragonfly steals the dead lizard. It goes to get a drink, only to be scared off by a giant predatory amphibian. It finds a good number of other holes, but they're all occupied by other spiders. It gets chased off by a giant millipede. Finally, it finds a hole... which is struck by lightning once the spider's done building the web inside. The spider is roasted, and later eaten by another of the lizards.
Col. Klink in Hogans Heroes. Constantly duped by Hogan and his men, threatened and intimidated by his superiors and held in contempt by his own men who lined up to volunteer when he was imprisoned and facing a firing squad. Admittedly he was a Nazi but...
Freddie in iCarly. He has a hopelessly unrequited crush on Carly, that gets used against him by Carly to do things he doesn't agree with. The first time he actually goes against what Carly wants (to do something he really likes), she insults him then tells Freddies mother about it. The main source of his buttmenkeyness lies in Sam who endlessly insults, harasses, physically abuses him, humilates him in front of other people at school and on the webcast, breaks his possessions and causes him constant problems. And then there's his monstorously over protective mother.
- Pilot episode: Freddie doesn't have a single apperence in the episode that doesn't invole Sam insulting him, Freddie being reminded that Carly doesn't love him back (by both girls, Sam does this especially harshly) and being physically abused by Sam for making a simple mistake. Carly convinces Freddie to keep helping the girls, not by getting Sam to stop insulting him, but by manipulating Freddie through his crush on her. It doesn't get better.
Deputy Ben Healy in American Gothic. Anytime his conscience looks to be getting the better of him, Lucas Buck will subject him to a cruel and elaborate joke to get him to keep his mouth shut.
Connor in Primeval's employment contract must have Butt Monkey in the job description. He doubles up as the Plucky Comic Relief and part time Woobie as well.
Everyone (even the husbands) on Desperate Housewives gets this treatment at one point or another during the show, but Tom Scavo takes the cake. His wife Lynette HATES Tom with a passive-agressive passion that has resulted in her doing horrific things to her husband (like destroying his entire career, largely out of jealousy that she was stuck at home as a miserable and unfullfilled stay at home mom to four kids during the first season of the show), that would have led any sane husband to file for divorce from his wife.
- On the female side, you have Bree who among other things: had her husband murdered, had one child turn into a sociopath bent on his mother's destruction (though he ultimately gets redeemed), stalked by a psychopath who tried to kill her therapist, lost the grandson she was raising as her own third child to her daughter (the child's biomom) who then decided to raise him in an ultra-liberal form just to spite conservative Bree, the loss of said (grand)child causing her marriage to her second husband to collapse, and nearly being killed by said second-husband's psychotic mother not once but twice.
Tommy from the sitcom Titus and in some episodes Titus himself.
The protagonist (forget her name) from Dead Like Me. Oh so many ways...
- Killed by a deorbiting toilet seat on her lunch break of the first day of a job she hates at a temp agency.
- Finds out that since she never made anything of her life, she is now doomed to serve as a Grim Reaper, helping to ferry souls to their individual afterlives.
- Has to find somewhere to live, as she can't live with her mother.
- Ends up working at the same office, under her "new" name.
- Is called "Toilet Seat" by everyone but the supervisor of the reapers, who affectionately calls her "peanut".
- And that's just the first episode or two...

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Furry Fandom is pretty much the punching-bag of the Internet.
Shippers show a lot of the classic signs of this, even on this very wiki. Although let's face it; you can't really run out of jokes about the stereotypical shipper who's compilations of "evidence" are inaccessible to those with common sense and earthly logic, and will viciously verbally attack you for basically saying "No, the sky isn't plaid." And laughing about the worst cases is all the rest of the internet can do to keep from crying from the sheer absurdity of it all.
FMyLife.com is a site where people post their Butt Monkey moments online.

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Beaker is the resident Butt Monkey of the Muppet clan, always the victim of the experiments of his "friend", Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.

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Santino Marella. When he's not doing something to hurt/humiliate himself (like trying to mimic someone doing the splits and hurting his crotch in the worst possible way) or getting dumped when the dummy he's dating abruptly grows a brain, he's getting mauled by everyone up to and including the weakest females on the roster. It's vaguely implied his current girlfriend Beth Phoenix might occasionally beat him up just for the hell of it.
For TNA it's Eric Young

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Karl Pilkington in Ricky Gervais' radio and podcast series, The Ricky Gervais Show. Despite it being Gervais' goal to make Pilkington a bona fide star, he introduces him as "a shaven monkey with a head like a f***ing orange", and it all goes downhill from there.

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An example of this trope played seriously is in War Hammer 40000. The Imperial Guard tends to be Games Workshop's favorite punching bag as the guard tends to get picked on the most in other faction's battles in their respective codex. For a while, this extended to Imperial Guard players as well as they have had to play with an underpowered codex with half of their units were useless, and during 5th edition actually had a game type that was literately unwinnable because Annihilate was obviously not play tested wih Imperial Guard. Forge World however sees the guard as The Favorite. IG players eventually got the bone tossed in a big way during the last few years as they got the mother load of Apocalypse releases and the new guard codex not only resolves the Annihilate problem but also allows guard players to use their Forge World goodies in normal games. Everyone else is scared that guard players are going to enter Whos Laughing Now mode.

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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!
- In The Taming of the Shrew, everyone at least breaks even, except for Hortensio, who gets beaten up by Kate and ends up marrying a widow who hates him, but needs a husband to be reaccepted into Paduan society.
- Ophelia in Hamlet (although almost everyone in that play could qualify).
  - But nobody out-crazies Ophelia!

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The Bionicle charecter Matau.

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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."
  - On the flipside, those girlfriends? Supermodels, each and every single one of them.
- 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.
  - Phoenix notes he has some enough bad karma as a reason he won't steel something.
- 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...
- Even when they get their own spinoff game, the Prinnies are still butt monkeys. In "Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?" Etna thinks nothing of sacrificing the lives of 1,000 Prinnies toward the task of bringing her a rare dessert.
- 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.
  - In Super Mario Galaxy, Luigi even plays second banana to himself.
- Bowser is also a subject of mockery.
- Wario and Waluigi are usually this in the intro to the Mario sports games.
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 opening 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!
- Also arguably Clanker, a mechanical whale (who looks more like a giant shark with a blowhole). In the first game, he appears in his level, "Clanker's Cavern," a sewer where he serves as a garbage grinder for the villain, Gruntilda. He also has a terrible toothache. Later, in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, he appears in the nostalgic wonderland, Banjoland. Now torn to pieces, his torso, head, and jaw are all located in different places...but he's still alive. His eyes also end up the target of some baddies in one of the missions in Banjoland.
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.
- Also Lazlo from the radio. All the time, he'll reminisce about his (not so glorious, in fact, really crappy) Glory Days.
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 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.
Shepard from Mass Effect can be one of these, if you give him (or her)both the Colonist and Sole Survivor backstory. One results in their entire colony, and then every one of their fellow soldiers die on Shepards first backstory mission!
One of the selling points of You Don't Know Jack: The Ride was the return of all five hosts from the series so far. They get competitive about it. In particular, everyone repeatedly screws Buzz (the host of YDKJ2) out of his hosting duties. By the time you've played every round of the game, he has only asked one trivia question.
Pierce in Saints Row 2, in the first instance you see him, he involves a plan to break in to a casino down to the second. Cue Gat, "Real nice dollhouse, but how 'bout we just go in and blow up the security guard, and every other motherfucker that stands in our way?" After the mission cue News Reporter, "The leader of the 3rd Street Saints, Notorious criminal Johnny Gat, and an unknown accomplice (Pierce)" Butt Monkey thru and thru.

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Strong Sad from Homestar Runner, whose two brothers Strong Mad and Strong Bad enjoy heaping physical and psychological abuse on him.
- Also from Homestar Runner, almost everyone in Strong Bad's comic book Teen Girl Squad.
- Nebulon, Rumble Red, the King of Town, Cartoon Mary Palaroncini, and 1-Up are also frequently abused. There's only one person who does like Nebulon's style... and she's an enormous alien cow. However, it's justified in Red, Mary's and 1-Up's cases, in that they're parodies of annoying cartoon sidekicks.
  - Besides, Red's a communist fool.
Germaine in the Neurotically Yours cartoon series. She's a magnet to stalkers and perverted men, has trouble controlling her weight, is the butt of Foamy's criticisms and Jerkass rage, and can't get any of her poetry published. She recently shaved her hair and gained more weight as a desperate attempt to get men to stop hitting on her.

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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.
- In contrast, everyone loves Robox. Must be the legs.
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.
To a certain extent, Vaarsuvius from The Order of the Stick, who in the recent arc keeps getting screwed over by the plot in painful and imaginative ways.
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◊.
Nodwick; one of the many Butt Monkeys to adopt the Deadpan Snarker path to make up for it. Even when he isn't shown "onscreen" to be suffering from fates ranging from being eaten by an ogre to being actively disintegrated by evil adventurers, well... the page quote is a pretty good indicator of the kind of things his employers put him through for a quick laugh. And then there's the henchapult....
Sore Thumbs: Fairbanks, the Strawman Political Republican, who at this point is even starting to actually resemble a monkey. (It's all about the ears and facial expressions!)
Jyrras Gianna from Dan And Mabs Furry Adventures never seems to get a break. He's frequently harassed by his family, choked by girls, teased by Abel, written into an embarassing novel, and finally, cursed by The Fair Folk shortly after having a nervous breakdown when discovering his feelings for his best friend. Good Lord!
Twokinds: Poor, poor Keith...
Subverted in Tales Of The Questor where the lead character, Quentyn, is the apparent Butt Monkey of the story. He is a runt, bullied and put down by many of his peers, the governing counsel of his town largely doesn't take him seriously, and he is unable to use the Lux power around him like almost everyone else. However, when he finally makes the big sacrifice that gets him hailed as a hero in his hometown, the chief bully, Rahan, drunkenly complains about how Quentyn actually has an unfair advantage. Rahan wails that since Quentyn is seems to be such a Butt Monkey to everyone, they always feel sorry for him and thus he has gotten away with a variety of antics that would have had anyone else run out of town. Quentyn comes close to believing that, but his friend Kestrel reminds him forcefully that he deserved that sympathy and he never abused it.
Doug from Fletcher Apts, but only when Bill is involved.
In Misfile Rumisiel started out as a Butt Monkey, however as he has become (marginally) more competent, the job of Butt Monkey has fallen more and more to resident Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Cassiel who has sunk to the point where she has been defeated by a caterer.
A Game of Fools: Neeg. Poor, poor Neeg.
- And, to a lessor degree, Joey.

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Almost every character in the dark-comedy short story Vatsy and Bruno falls under this description. Vatsy is an insane, unscrupulous journalist who can't understand why his laughably poor articles aren't making it big-time. Bruno, his stoic bodyguard, gets pretty badly thrashed in a fight against a bounty-hunter pastiche known only as trenchcoat. Most badly, the character referred to as Chinbeard gets hunted like an animal, mutated into a freakish abomination, and then put down like a dog by Bruno because it's more convenient than finding a way to turn him back.
Dr. Poque from Mega 64 can never get his way. The worst time was when he gets into a bet to get a girlfriend with stolen money of his being used. He eventually gets one but she's taken away by one of his roommates (who's a puppet), gets made fun of by her and when it appears he won her back she's hit and killed by a car.
AH Dot Com The Series has Luakel, who in his various incarnations has been shot, stabbed, eaten by cannibal supermodels, turned into a bizarre squid/yeti hybrid, had his brain transferred to several different bodies, lost his virginity to a transgendered gay Welshman, etc...

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Meg Griffin on Family Guy goes through all kinds of crap, primarily being ignored, neglected, and ridiculed by her family.
[hanging off the edge of a cliff, being held only by Lois's hand]
Joe: Hold on to me like I'm your child!
*hand begins slipping*
Joe: Not Meg! Not Meg!
*she pulls his up*
- With everything that she deals with for no particular reason, it seems quite possible that she's a parody of the trope.
  - Word Of God seems to indicate that it's played straight, and the only thing the writers can think of to do with the character.
- Peter goes so far as Breaking The Fourth Wall to tell the viewer that no-one'd blame them for changing the channel, as it's a "Meg episode".
- Thanks to a mix of Flanderization and Peter's Jerkass nature, the paraplegic Joe Swanson has also become quite a Butt Monkey for most Dead Baby Comedy in the show following its return. A quick gag in a recent episode reveals that he retains suicidal intentions.
- Brian is was also a very big butt monkey on the show. Let's see, his mother got turned into a table, bad things always happen whenever he's left in charge of the house, his brief stint as a cop inadvertently made him a drug addict, and he's dating a woman whose stupidity rivals that of Ralph Wiggum. It probably explains why he drinks wine out of Big Gulp cups. Oh, and he once got the everloving crap beaten out of him by an infant. Granted, he's hardly the first of Stewie's victims, but still.
The Toiletnator from Codename Kids Next Door, sure the guy has the power to control all toilets and has the coolest name but none of the other villains give him any respect they all think of him as being annoying.
- It is made apparent at one point that he CAN be incredibly dangerous in his own right. After a team of villains rejects him, he decides to go commando on the KND himself (armed with plungers, urinal cakes, etc.). It turns out that the villains had already invaded their treehouse, Toiletnator mistaking them for the KND in disguise and soundly beating them all, apparently his only victory done against his teammates.
- It's somewhat poetic that, in the Grand Finale, Toilenator is the only villain to not go on the big scavenger hunt that has been set up and stays behind at the starting place to goof around. As a result, he's the only nemesis that winds up completely unscathed in the end.
Butters of South Park is a naive, wide-eyed, sweet-hearted little boy who Matt and Trey exhaust their imaginations thinking of new torments to inflict upon, including beatings, attempted murder by his mother, ninja star in the eye, etc. The character he has effectively replaced, Kenny, was also a prime example of a Butt Monkey.
- Pip, the little British kid from the earlier seasons was a definite Butt Monkey before he was phased out of the show. He was so unpopular with the other school kids that in one episode they tried to see who could spit on him the most. In another episode, Cartman makes fun of him because his parents are dead. Like Butters, he had a polite and pleasant disposition and generally took all the abuse with good nature.
- Then there's a literal butt monkey on the show, the multi-buttocked Five-Assed Monkey.
  - Wouldn't that be a butts monkey?
- Cartman was also a buttmonkey, as he's the character that the other boys make fun of the most. ("Wow, this place is huge!" "Yeah, it's almost as big as Cartman's ass!") The pilot episode is literally about things going into and coming out of Cartman's ass. Of course, he stopped being a buttmonkey when he started to actually deserve all the bad stuff that happened to him. And there comes a point at which it could be argued that the four boys are all buttmonkeys, in that they always find themselves inextricably involved in absolutely ludicrous situations that they have no interest in ("we don't care, we just want our Okama Gamesphere back"). And, of course, there's Scott Tenorman, who was tricked into eating his parents, and was then mocked by his favorite band of all time. While not a recurring character, he had the show's Ultimate Buttmonkey Moment.
  - Although Cartman rarely played along with the fat jokes involving comparisons to the size of his ass.
- Kenny used to South Park's resident Chew Toy/Butt Monkey. In much earlier seasons he dies at the end of nearly every episode. It's Lampshaded in the Thanksgiving short with Jay Leno making a guest appearance.
Sokka on Avatar The Last Airbender, as a frequent source of comic relief throughout the series, is a victim of increasingly violent slapstick. Aside from humor, he once fell for a princess, only to learn that she was engaged, which was a moot point once she got killed off. It culminated in the second season in which, for the entire length of an episode, he was stuck in a hole.
Dib, from Invader Zim, is the butt of everyone's jokes, due to his perceived insanity regarding the paranormal (as well as the size of his head). An interesting example as he is the show's designated protagonist. His father is generally absent, using the little time he has with Dib to bemoan his "insanity" and pressure him to study "real science"; his younger sister, Gaz, is eternally unsympathetic to him and often turns horribly violent if Dib, for example, takes her last piece of pizza or talks too much. One could say the Halloween episode "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom" quite literally "put him through Hell." (In a twist, by the end of the episode he was the only character who wasn't injured).
- Almost subverted in "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom", when Dib actually gained superpowers, thwarted the Irken invasion, and became hero of the world. Unfortunately, it was all a simulation so Zim could get him to confess that he threw the muffin.
- Pushed even further, and here not because of people seeing Dib as a lunatic, in the video game Nicktoons: Globs of Doom, where Dib is stuck with the Card Carrying Villains because Zim managed to lie his way to the heroic side (The entire game is a Strange Bedfellows situation). No one (except Plankton, whom Dib complained to) raised an eyebrow. Not even Jimmy Neutron, who should know better than this. And when the villains snap back (and take them Dib with them, booting Zim out with the heroes for whatever reason), only to be defeated and left stranded in space? He complains that he's still not a bad guy. No one still cares.
- Zim, the titular character, is that too. Like for Dib, he's regarded as being a freak by his classroom. Being a "failure is the only option" show, you can imagine what happens to him a lot of times and... well, his leaders sent him to Earth (not even knowing its existence) just to not see him anymore. And they gave him GIR. And now is regarded by them both like a pain and a joke. However, they do have their reasons—-with the odd exception of Earth, which Zim cannot destroy, Zim's presence on a planet tends to cause lots of destruction and death.
- Keef could also be called a Butt Monkey; he is an overly-friendly child who wants nothing more than to be friends with Zim and Dib, yet his attempts usually end with him being horribly hurt. However he is only significant in two episodes, one of which was unfinished and unaired. Iggins, who only appears in one episode, could also be called a Butt Monkey, though there is a reason for his admittedly over-the-top suffering (taking a video game that rightfully should have been Gaz's).
Bill Dauterive from King Of The Hill. He's a divorcee, a loser, and a source of many, many jokes. Illustrated most poignantly in "Soldier of Misfortune," where the villain smacks him when Boomhauer mouths off.
- Either that or in "Unfortunate Son" where a running gag that has almost nothing to do with the main plot has Bill get repeatedly attacked by a falcon.
Many characters from Drawn Together end up being butt monkeys in one way or another, given the deranged nature of the show. In particular, Ling Ling, Woldoor, and Toot suffer the worst effects.
Tom Dubois of The Boondocks. He's an upstanding citizen who tries to distance himself from the negative stereotypes associated with African-American males in his neighborhood (his wife is Caucasian and is heavily involved in many Black causes), but still gets the majority of mistreatment from Riley and the self-loathing Uncle Ruckus. In a recent episode, he became the unwilling host of the ghost of Colonel Stinkmeaner, and nearly wrecked his own reputation by acting completely out of character at the most inappropriate times.
Jon Arbuckle, in Garfield And Friends, frequently finds himself in this role.
- And it's wonderfully Lamp Shaded by the webcomic Garfield Minus Garfield, in which the artist removes Garfield (and other minor characters) from the strips — and leaves the apparently-schizoid Jon talking to himself. Trust me, it's very amusing.
- Jon's counterpart on U.S.Acres would be Wade. If anyone is bored on the farm (Roy more than anyone else), the solution is to make Wade run screaming in a fear-induced panic.
I. R. Baboon of I. M. Weasel. He fits the trope perfectly, but with a bonus. As a baboon with no pants, he's about as close to a literal butt monkey as you can get.
Donald Duck, from the classic Disney cartoons, frequently finds himself in this position, open to torment by various supporting characters or simply cruel fate. Other times, he brings on his own misery by virtue of being hot-headed and kind of a Jerkass.
- There has been a vocal outcry in Italy over Donald's butt monkey status in the late 1960's, so comic book writer Guido Martina and fellow artist Giovan Battista Carpi made it up for them by creating a superhero alterego for him called "Paperinik", a portmanteau of Paperino (Donald's name in Italy) and Diabolik. The Paperinik stories eventually spun off into their own canon.
Tom Peters of Tom Goes to the Mayor. His wife is hateful and grotesque, he can't connect to his step-sons on any level, he's an utter failure as an entrepreneur, and his every plan is doomed to failure merely by his association. When other characters are in a position to help him they never do. While it seems that Tom meets the mayor for the first time in every episode due to Negative Continuity, it's also hinted that Tom is so tragically insignificant that the mayor simply forgets who Tom is. The sole instance Tom was actually successful he turned into a complete Jerkass.
For Totally Spies!, let's put it this way: a good idea for a drinking game. If you happen to be watching a Totally Spies! marathon or are watching the show on DVD, take a drink every time something bad happens to Clover. You won't be sober for long.
- To be fair, Clover's transformation into a Cat Girl may not necessarily have been a bad thing, if you get my meaning.
Timon in Timon and Pumbaa.
- To be fair, a lot of what Timon goes through is karmic retribution for some recent act of Jerkassery, usually by being overly rude, selfish, or proud. When using his powers for good such as dressing in drag and doing the hula to distract hungry, bi-curious hyenas, he's untouchable.
Greasepit from Biker Mice From Mars.
Adam Lyon in My Gym Parter's A Monkey. Everytime Jack Spidermonkey has does one of his shennigans Adam is usually the poor sap who has to go along with it.
Candace from Phineas And Ferb. Might actually be considered the Costanza, were it not for the fact that much of her suffering is inadvertedly self-inflicted.
The script writers for The Simpsons never seem to run out of new afflictions to plague Milhouse with.
- Speaking of The Simpsons, need we mention Hans Moleman?
- From about seasons 9/10, Moe and Kirk van Houten become two of the major butt monkeys of the show.
- Homer himself has his moments of Butt Monkeying. From his frequent injuries (which reached the point that the Behind the Music parody stated that Homer became addicted to painkillers due to said injuries), humiliating situations (such as losing his clothing, getting covered in mud, running into other campers which led to him being chased and captured, and being examined by scientists because they thought he was Big Foot) and general bad luck and mistreatment. Granted he usually really deserves it (and most of the time causes it).
Pud'n from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, who seems to be a dumping ground for the weirdest, most horrible incidents that Maxwell Atoms can think of.
- Irwin is twice the butt monkey Pud'n is. Let's see: he's in love with Mandy, who hates him and hurts him commonly; he goes through torture like being eaten, made fun of, physically attacked in every way, ended up in a few downer endings, and more; he got caught in the tub twice both in court and a warp hole. He's like the black equivalent to Milhouse.
  - He's genetics are quite interesting: his mom is a mummy and his grandfather is Dracula.
Prince Nestor from World of Quest always seems to have something slimy and gross cover him multiple times in an episode.
- Not to mention the rivalry he and Quest have is pretty one-sided, as Quest is big and muscular and, well, an adult, therefore usually always prevailing over poor Nestor.
Iago of Aladdin: "When in doubt, hurt the bird," was the actual mantra of the writing and animation teams.
The entire purpose of Eek The Cat was about placing an incredibly sympathetic, sincere, likable character in a series of gags designed to bring harm to him.
In Teen Titans, Beast Boy. Poor guy even suffers in the Downer Ending. No wonder he's embarrassed that his first name is the same as that of a certain well-known cat.
Kif Kroker of Futurama is a bit of a cross between a Butt Monkey and the Eeyore. He gets put upon a lot because Zapp blames him for his failings, and he's gotten a bit depressive as a result.
- Oh, And Zoidberg.
  - The fact that Zoidberg wasn't even identified first from this show is merely another example of his status as that universe's King Butt Monkey.
- Fry also gets a fair bit of this, although not the the extent of the other two.
- As a matter of fact, the time Amy snuck onto the Nimbus was probably the only time Kif gladly obeyed Zapp's command.
Kevin of Ben 10 Alien Force can't catch a break with his Troubled But Cute persona. On top of being too ~~afraid~~ macho to ask Gwen out, even after she kissed him, he gets his butt handed to him at least once an episode. In the premier, Ben thoroughly trounces him as Swampfire, and the Highbreed brushes off his attacks. Next episode, he winds up frozen and needs defrosting (Although to be fair, he was frozen along with Ben, Gwen and a police squad). Then he's chained down and turned into a giant chandelier and mined for crystal by ~~Oompa Loompas~~ little robot henchmen. Then his instant self-made armor gets blasted off of him by a sparkly blond prettyboy. Episode six gives him a break (though he does complain it's "the worst road trip ever"), but in seven it's back to being pounded, this time right into the ground by Gwen's grandmother. And in eight, he ends up being ripped into by an old school bully of Ben's who's possessed by a vicious metal armor. He was threatening in the original Ben10. One wonders why he's respected by the rest of the cast...
If you get annoyed at Jerk Ass Sentinel Prime in Transformers Animated, just wait five minutes and something nasty will happen to him. Usually it's related to Earth's weather/inhabitants/road structure, but he's also had his body stolen by a human, been humiliated in front of his comrades, screamed like a little girl when encountering organics, failed at driving in the rain, and been wrong in pretty much every arrogant assertion he's made.
- Starscream is a Buttmonkey in this series too.Heck, his clones leave him to go with Megatron.
Sissi from Code Lyoko. She's supposed to be The Libby, but you would be hard pressed to find a single character that doesn't enjoy constantly insulting her to her face. She's basically involved in a kind of Vicious Cycle, acting like The Libby in response to the bad treatment she gets from everyone else, which is essentially a response to her Libby behavior. The Lyoko kids do manage to break this cycle in the finale, and Sissi does prove that she's been a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold all along.
- Odd from the same show also gets little respect and is constantly failing at various goals he pursues, such as holding on to a girlfriend (though, to be fair, it doesn't help that he dates multiple girls at the same time). He also is notoriously bad at school that even the teachers mock him for it. Let's not forget the constant dissing he gets from his friends, most infamously them stealing his own virtual pet toy and giving it to Yumi's little brother, who soon afterwards breaks it.
  - Of course, neither of the two above examples combined could make the Butt Monkey magnitutde of the show's resident gym teacher, Jim Moralés (but he'd rather not talk about it).
In the Animated Adaptation of the Bubsy video games, Arnold the Armadillo is dragged along on an adventure he wanted no part of and is put through seemingly endless physical abuse by the title character, as well as Bubsy's hyperactive, destructive niece and nephew.
Virtually everyone living in the Valley in The Oblongs. Helga and James get the absolute worse treatment though.
Beast Wars Waspinator's many deaths can be watched here.
- Terrorsaur and Sporponok were also co-Butt Monkeys before they met their fate at the start of season 2, then Waspinator became arguably the sole Butt Monkey (Inferno has been picked on a bit as well).
- It's only fitting that at the end of Beast Wars, Waspinator is the only Predacon to get a happy ending, becoming ruler of the early humans. Though, I guess it doesn't last long before he's booted from Earth by the humans. Though, by the end, Waspinator is the only Predacon who doesn't meet his/her fate (minus Blackarachnia, who's a Maximal by the end)
- Rattrap becomes kind of a Butt Monkey in Transformers: Beast Machines, at the beginning. In Beast Wars he was considered slightly obnoxious but otherwise a valuable robot to have on your side. Then along comes Beast Machines and the only thing standing between Rattrap and getting thrown off a cliff is Optimus. When Optimus gets put out of commission temporarily, everyone gets downright hostile, even after he learns to transform again, because he doesn't offer anything in the way of firepower (Cheetor even says they're only keeping him around because he sits on the outside fringes of being "one of us", and therefore they're not ditching him). Then they're surprised when he turns to Megatron for a little sympathy and weaponry.
- Also from the Transformers verse are Ransack and Crumplezone, a Terrible Trio duo. Quoth Crumplezone:
"When he [Optimus] sees our true power and feels our vengeance, he'll regret beating us over and over and over and..."
Mr. Persnickety on The Mr. Men Show often falls victim to this.
Principal Haney from PBS' Arthur. In one episode, two characters even related flashbacks which ended in him suffering some form of abuse, and when a third character related a flashback that did not, Arthur asks "Aren't you forgetting something?" Cue the continuation of that flashback in which, yes, Principal Haney suffers abuse.
Coconuts on The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog (who actually was a monkey). He appeared the least out of the Badnik Trio, and when he did appear, he would always get defeated by Sonic and Robotnik would demote him to janitor duty. His catchphrase is even, "I hate (insert noun here)! Hate it, hate it, hate it, HATE IT!!!"
- Similarly, Antoine in the SATAM version was the usual butt of Sonic's jokes, constantly reprimanded, and only Tails ever listened to his stories.
Tucker of Danny Phantom. He's dumped on quite a lot and has saved Danny more than once and yet, he only gets thanked once and it's a "thanks for being my friend" that Danny throws out to Sam as well. Although it's heartfelt, the execution of how that came about feels rather tacked on and awkward. Later seasons have him either virtually ignored or usually getting victimized.
Eugene from Hey Arnold! And probably Brainy too (the one that is always behind Helga "breathing" and gets punched in the face as a result).
Ron from Kim Possible has elements of this, gets no respect, villains never remember his name, gets ignored by everyone in favor of Kim. Of course he ends up dating Kim, so it's hard to feel bad for him.
- A better example maybe is Dr. Drakken. Kicked out of university, unable to achieve anything by himself, constantly and vigorously berated by his sidekick who is undeniably superior to him in just about every way, constantly and repeatedly beaten by Kim, often with little or no effort.
  - Like Ron, he ends up with his female partner, so it evens out in a way.
The Looney Tunes team, particularly Chuck Jones, liked to pit "winners" against "losers," which meant that many of the villains (Daffy, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam) got the stuffing kicked out of them on both a physical and personal level. However, the defining character of this trope in undeniably Wile E. Coyote, who has never once had a chance to be anything BUT a Butt Monkey.
- Tiny Toons had Plucky and Hamton.

Close Western Animation

Real life: Horatio Spafford.
Real life/reality TV: Ryan Seacrest. He seems to take it pretty well, though.
- It helps that he gets paid alot of money.
The Jews. Those in Israel have gone into Whos Laughing Now mode after about 2000+ years of being on the receiving end of history pushed them past their limits
- Slave in Egypt: Think of it this way: Every group of people has to go through some tough times. But us Jews are getting ours out of the way early. From here on out, it's going to be smooth sailing!
  - Jewish Slavery in Egypt is probably a work of fiction. Archaeological evidence pretty much points toward that and the whole of the Moses story being just that. A story.
  - It should be noted that the ancient Egyptian pharaohs routinely eliminated all records and evidence of people— even past pharaohs— who had fallen into disfavor, up to and including having slaves chip away their names and likenesses from statues and temple walls. (archaeologists discovered this when a particular disenfranchised Egyptian queen was incompletely removed from the record....) Details of their escape regardless, the likelihood of the new Pharaoh allowing any remembrance of a former Egyptian king who was defeated and killed by a pack of escaped slaves, or of the slaves themselves, to remain around to embarrass and demoralize the mighty Egyptian Empire rated somewhere between "jack" and "squat." Egyptians built memorials to themselves, not to their enemies or their embarrassing predecessors.
  - Add to this the fact that, somewhere in the bracketed historical period normally assigned to Josephs arrival in Egypt and the tribes' departure, the rule of the land of Egypt swapped hands at least once, with invaders executing and supplanting the royal line that had honored Joseph....
  - Well, they were second class citizens with a religion different from the main population's. While they weren't slaves in the sense that they would have been bought and sold, and that whole thing about killing firstborn sons is almost certainly a myth (Seti I wasn't that much of a psycho and would have realized the less than awesome political consequences), they weren't having exactly good time in the country, either. The story about being chased by the Pharaoh and his troops was probably a result of being harassed repeatedly by the country's border patrols which, while less dramatic, would have been pretty unpleasant as well.
- Their place has now been taken by the Palestinians, who have continually been screwed over by everyone, including (arguably even especially) the other Arab countries and their own political leaders.
  - The Middle East and everyone in it. Full stop.
- Not just Jews, but every minority (those who can be distinguished easily, that is) in every country possible had or have some kind of negative prejudice against them. African-Americans in the USA, Romani in Europe, etc.
  - Every ethnicity has at some point been a Buttmonkey of history. Usually you don't even have to look that far back to find a moment where any particular ethnicity was just royally screwed.
Tommy from Nitro Circus. Good grief, Tommy. I end up praying for the man's survival every night, just because I know he probably needs it. (Falls under Reality TV - er, sort of. It's a bunch of guys performing idiotic stunts, getting incredibly lucky in that they don't DIE... and then they put it all on tv. One of them came within milliseconds of crashing to his death in the Grand Effing Canyon.)
Native Americans. It took us this long to mention a people who had their culture stopped, their land stolen, and a large number of their children still today trapped in lives of poverty?

Close Real Life

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