Jerkass - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Jerk Asses

The Jerkass will literally feed off your misery.

"I aspire to more creativity than the common asshole. I'm more of a ... class-hole, if you will."

—Black Hat Guy, xkcd

"Why do you put so much energy into pissing people off?"

—Kagura (to Tomo), Azumanga Daioh

I drive really slow in the ultra-fast lane!
While people behind me are going insane
I use public toilets, and I piss on the seat
I walk around in the summertime saying "How about this heat?"
Sometimes I park in handicapped spaces
While handicapped people make handicapped faces!

— Denis Leary, "Asshole"

A Jerkass is a character who is so offensively obnoxious that it is unbelievable anyone would willingly interact with him; let's face it, much of the character's charm is a sort of schadenfreude. What makes him or her entertaining is the fact that you don't have to deal with them yourself in real life. Usually, the Rule Of Funny enables the people around the person to be able to live under the same roof as them without, y'know, blowing their brains out. Oftentimes, the Jerkass is the Plucky Comic Relief who's stepped off the beam and become irritating rather than funny, in which case the Rule of Funny fades away; they may be okay in the other characters' eyes, but the audience would still love to see them die with sharp objects in their head. Because of this it's hard to feel sorry for them when something bad does happen to them and is often seen as comeuppance.

This is especially disconcerting in any series following a team that needs to be coordinated and would realistically not put up with this kind of behavior. This can also happen with a hardass or grouchy character who becomes an obstacle to others rather than providing pragmatic, but perhaps unpopular, advice.

To be clear, the Jerkass is nearly always a protagonist/good guy/hero, or a friend of the protagonist, or on the protagonist's team, or in the protagonist's social circle, since an asshole villain is just a villain, and to be expected.

The single factor that pushes a merely annoying character over the line into full-time Jerkass status is their absolute obliviousness to other people's perceptions of them. Nothing they do ever strikes them as out of proportion; they never realize that anything they are doing might ever be considered inappropriate, excessive or cruel; in fact they believe they are actually right and everyone around them is in the wrong. If anyone ever does call them out on their jerkassery, expect them to just rationalize it or shrug the accusation off.

Often the result of Flanderization or Madden Into Misanthropy.

On the off chance that something happens to nice-ify or remove the Jerkass, the other characters will be relieved at first, but will proclaim "We Want Our Jerk Back" by episode's end.

The Neidermeyer is a military-specific version of this character type. Internet trolls are a Real Life example, and rely on anonymity to get away with what they do.

The Jerk with a Heart of Gold talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk, being a basically nice person underneath despite a rough outside. When a character is intentionally pretending to be a Jerkass in order to keep people from getting close to him for whatever reason, he's putting up a Jerkass Facade.

A Mary Sue with Jerkass traits is a Jerk Sue. Compare Heroic Sociopath which is basically this cranked Up To Eleven. If a character is a Jerkass hiding behind a nice person facade, it's a Bitch In Sheeps Clothing.

If you still root for them in spite of their apparent lack of redeeming qualities, it's Draco In Leather Pants. If it's clear they really are a jerk but nonetheless have redeeming qualities and a Dark And Troubled Past, you've got a Jerkass Woobie.

The Villain version of this is the Smug Snake, though a fence-sitting Jerkass may become a Smug Snake by crossing the Moral Event Horizon.

Often relies on Jerkass Dissonance for popularity, both in fiction and in Real Life.

There is a certain level of subjectivity in this trope. One troper may find character X to be a total Jerkass wheras another troper may find character X to be the Only Sane Man in a Crapsack World using snarky complaining to keep his sanity. This can be boiled down to members of the audience having different values and thus judging the same character traits differently. As such, with all examples listed below, Your Mileage May Vary.