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I give you Timmy Bobby Rusty!
"Do? What does he do? Why, he's adorable! And people will love it!"
"Aw, I freakin' hate that little kid! Why'd they ever bring her on the show?"
Cousin Oliver is that inexplicable kid added to the show's roster, probably in an attempt to liven up an aging cast.
Sometimes Cousin Olivers are then afflicted with SORAS. This doesn't always make it better. Compare it to The Bumblebee, who is generally less annoying.
If the addition is a literal cousin, also Nephewism. Very susceptible to becoming The Scrappy.
Examples
- Chibi-Usa's addition to the Sailor Moon cast wasn't initially for this reason, but the writers did end up using her for a younger demographic marketability in the retooled fourth series of the anime. Sailor Luna in the live-action series could also be an example of this trope in the same fashion. And who hasn't read a Mary Sue Fan Fic where the author surrogate was Ken's twin sister, or Usagi's long-lost second child, or what have you.
- Arguably, Max from the Pokemon anime fits this trope.
- Parodied/subverted in the Hellsing TV series with the previously unmentioned "Integra Hellsing's sister." She's actually the last of a kind of bizarre vampire that used mind-control abilities to make the Muggles (including the Battle Butler) "remember" her. Also, she actually manages to seriously hurt Integra, something even the Valentine Brothers couldn't do.
- Sort of parodied in the anime version of Excel Saga, where a few of the characters were explicitly created out of thin air (did not appear in the original manga) because the writers were out of ideas.
- The bunny suited girl from that Ergo Proxy anime.
Comic Books
- Danny Chase in the comic book version of Teen Titans. He was even designed to look like Cousin Oliver. Combine this with abrasive personality, lack of codename, costume, or original powers and he quickly became the franchise's Wesley, as well.
- In other words, Danny Chase is to the Teen Titans what Zam, Jayna, Wendy and Marvin are to the Super Friends Justice League.
Film
- The addition of Howard Phillips (Jason Barry) to the third film in the Re-Animator series, replacing the lead character of the last two films, Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott). Though not a kid, Phillips is significantly younger; producer/director Brian Yuzna admitted freely that Phillips' addition was due to Yuzna's desire not to make a film about "two middle-aged guys".
Live Action TV
- The Trope Namer was added to The Brady Bunch toward the end and was the last gasp of the show. He's also cited as the definitive proof of the franchise having jumped the shark.
- Stephanie on All In The Family, arguably a case of Tropes Are Not Bad.
- Somewhat parodied on Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Dawn. Buffy comes home at the end of an episode and suddenly has a little sister, when up to before she'd always been explicitly an only child. Everyone acts like she'd had a sister all along, and no one notices anything strange. An entire episode passes like this, leaving viewers to wonder if this sudden appearance is part of the plot or just the writers shoehorning in a new character with no regard to continuity. Luckily, we soon learn that Dawn is there because of a magic spell which altered everyone's memories (including hers) and that she's actually a Cosmic Keystone in human form. There was a good bit of bitching among the fanbase about the addition before they realized she was plot relevant.
- Olivia on The Cosby Show.
- Sam on Diffrent Strokes.
- Peter Cooksley, a Lawrence kid clone.
- Eight Is Enough had Cousin Jeremy (Ralph Macchio, who went on to become The Karate Kid).
- Andy and Pippa on The Facts Of Life.
- In Family Matters the Winslows adopted 3J, a streetwise little orphan. Since there already was a Cousin Oliver in the show, little Richie, they merged into a single split-personality Cousin Oliver ("Maybe we shouldn't do this." "Oh, come on, it'll be fun!").
- Joey Lawrence for Gimme A Break. The Lawrence kids made a cottage industry of being a Cousin Oliver.
- Penny from Good Times. Introduced to give Willona someone to care for, since the Evans kids weren't really kids anymore.
- Growing Pains had two: Chrissy, the youngest Seaver daughter, and then later Leonardo Dicaprio's homeless-kid character.
- Little House On The Prairie's final seasons featured a hilarious number of random "adorable" orphans shoehorned into the Little House after the original kids left home. Albert (adopted off the streets of the Big City), James and his sister Cassandra (parents killed in a wagon crash), Jenny (left on Laura's doorstep by her dying brother-in-law), etc. This is despite the show already having two younger Ingalls sisters in Carrie and Grace. Oddly enough, as more than one fan has remarked in alarm, Pa Ingalls never did build an addition onto his two-room shanty.
- Married With Children had Seven, who started as a Cousin Oliver (since both "children" were college-aged). After Katey Sagal, whose real-life pregnancy had been written into the show, had a miscarriage, he became a Brother Chuck when he was removed with absolutely no explanation (though he had his Face On A Milk Carton for Lamp Shade Hanging effect).
- MST3K sharply parodied the Trope with "Timmy Bobby Rusty", a lisping kid whom Dr. Forrester employed to help boost the show's sagging ratings. He lasted exactly one segment.
- In My Three Sons they formally adopted Chip's orphan friend Ernie. Justified, sort of, by the need to maintain the accuracy of the show's title after Mike was written out of the show.
- Justin on Power Rangers Turbo.
- The diner in the Supernatural episode Jump The Shark is called Cousin Oliver's... and the plot is about a possible younger brother turning up. Subverted though, when it turns out that the character in question was actually their half-brother, emphasis on "was" because he was already dead before the start of the episode.
- The Porters' foster child Declan in the last series of Two Point Four Children. He also served as a Jonas Quinn for the departing Jenny.
- Played with in The X-Files in which one episode had a man who assumed this identity because he associated with the original Cousin Oliver.
- That series played with other shows a great deal, and that in turn got played right back on them when the series ending for Strangeluck had Chance directed to seek out Mulder.
- Somewhat lampshaded in My Name Is Earl, when Earl has a dream that he is happily married, and he remembers when "all our kids stopped being cute and Cousin Wendel came to live with us."
- It's questionable whether this is played straight or not. Oliver replaced Jeff in Coupling. Considering how the Trope Namer is Cousin Oliver, it could be done as a parody. However, in one episodes after season 3, Jeff is actually removed from a clip of a dinner party.
- Arguably, April in ''Gilmore Girls". Even more annoying in that she is basically a science-and-math-oriented version of Rory.
Video Games
- Robots don't age, but Capcom added the rookie Axl, who acted all of 13 to the cast of Mega Man X7 to contrast with veterans X and Zero. If that wasn't bad enough, X was Derailed into retirement (no, not "Retirement") to force you to use Axl.
- Joey MacAdoo, Samantha Pearce, and Arthur Chen in the Backyard Sports series, replacing the much more mature Jocinda Smith, Sally Dobbs, Kenny Kawaguchi, and Billy Jean Blackwood. Joey is easily becoming The Wesley now.
Web Original
Western Animation
- Scrappy-Doo, from Scooby Doo .
- There's also Flim-Flam, the ethnic kid from The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby Doo.
- As well as Scooby-Dum, who made appearances in "The Scooby-Doo Show" and "The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour."
- The Simpsons spoofed the idea by adding a teen named Roy for only one episode ("The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show"). This was based on a real suggestion given to the writers by an executive who wanted to add a new kid who had "the genius of Lisa but the attitude of Bart."
- Sharko, from the final season of Sealab 2021, is a spoof of this character type.
- Also not a kid, but the shoehorning in of Lola Bunny into the Looney Tunes lineage (even being a baby in Baby Looney Tunes...even though the gang didn't know her in Space Jam) somewhat rubs this editor the wrong way.
- Spoofed in Drawn Together with Strawberry Sweetcake.
- Spoofed in the Pinky And The Brain episode "Pinky and the Brain and Larry" before Executive Meddling retooled the show into Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain.
- The animated version of Godzilla (not that one) added a baby called "Godzooky".
- Hana in Season 4 of Kim Possible.
- The Critic parodied this Trope when Duke Phillips attempted to add a cute kid with an endearing speech impediment to Jay Sherman's show to try to boost his ratings.
Jay: Well I find you "wepulsive" and "wepugnant"!
Kid: (suddenly normal-voiced) Hey, that speech impediment shtick is copyrighted. You'll be hearing from my lawyers!
- Parodied / referenced in Batman The Animated Series, where "Little Cousin Spunky", the new child star added for the last season of Baby Doll's sitcom was also designed to resemble Cousin Oliver. (Also, the original cousin Oliver's actor voiced one of the actors that Baby Doll kidnaps.) Also subverted in this episode — Robin watches the entire series trying to find clues; Spunky turns out to be the only enjoyable thing in the show... well, the only thing Robin liked.
- Poof, Cosmo and Wanda's son on The Fairly Oddparents.
Webcomics
- Every once in a while an example comes along that defies the precedent, that's exactly what happened in Coming Up Violet. As many readers know, the primary schick with Fur Will Fly was that Brad was the only human living a world filled with furries. (Well, at least until Brad sets a whole mess of pandimensional aliens [like himself] free from a detention facility, but that's neither here nor there.) The comic's sequel changes this dynamic by introducing Dawn, a young — incredibly normal — teenaged girl to the mix. However, rather then being resigned to the Scrappy Heap, the fans love her and she adds quite a bit of character to the cast — indeed, being an even bigger Fish Out Of Water than Brad ever was. (May overlap with the Jonas Quinn.)
- This is surprisingly similar to Futurama, where Fry was originally a Fish Out Of Water who got used to the future relatively fast due to being a Cloud Cuckoo Lander. In a later episode another human from his time was unfrozen and she couldn't cope with anything due to being more down-to-earth.
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