In the '50s the
Mouthy Kid would have been slapped upside the head and shipped off to the military academy. Children were little angels, or at least tried to be (
Leave It To Beaver,
My Three Sons,
Family Affair). That all changed when Arnold on
Diffrent Strokes popularised the bratty kid. Television parents have been dealing with sass ever since.
Likely started out as a subversion of the
Children Are Innocent attitude that had prevailed since Victorian times.
See also:
Bratty Half Pint and
Plucky Girl. Contrast
Elephants Child, who talks as much but isn't as bratty.
Examples:
- Exception that defines the rule: Eddie Haskell of Leave It To Beaver — bratty around his peers, but with a nice phony front of shallow flattery while he was around adults.
- While the Sweathogs of Welcome Back Kotter are considerably older than the usual Mouthy Kid, they form an obvious precedent.
- As does Danny Bonaduce's character in The Partridge Family.
- Most popular contemporary example: Bart Simpson, of course.
- Mike Judge said that Beavis And Butthead's dialogue is a better reflection of the real-life Mouthy Kid — not too clever, relies heavily on toilet humor — because in reality, kids aren't as smart as a roomful of Harvard-graduate writers.
- Calvin of Calvin And Hobbes
- Shinnosuke "Shin-chan" Nohara...although he is a 5 year old whose dialogue is pretty much "farty poop fartfart", he crosses the realism line once he calls his mom flat-chested (in both the original and the Gag Dub).
- Artie Smarty in Kim Possible.
- James Fitch from Skins (Katie and Emily's kid brother), most likely due to the influence of his (unseen) friend Gordon MacPherson. "I want fish and chips! This tastes like bollocky wankshite!"
- "Gordon MacPherson says you call them dykes, because you have to stick your finger in them."
- Darlene Connor of Roseanne epitomizes this trope in the early seasons until she grows into quite the deadpan snarker as the show focuses more on her. DJ also sometimes fell into this trope as well.
- Mouth in The Goonies is appropriately nicknamed. "Shut up, Mouth!"
- Thanks to being Older Than He Looks even before Immortality, as well as an all-around smartass, Baccano!'s Firo Prochainezo gives off this impression to nearly everyone he meets even between the ages of nineteen and ninety
- Star Wars The Clone Wars has Ahsoka Tano in a very odd example, seeing as Jedi Padawans are encouraged to be respecteful. Case in point, look at the way Obi-Wan and Mace snap at Anakin for talking back in Episode II and III and then compare it with how much snark Ahsoka gets away with. On one occasion she even chewed Obi-Wan and Anakin out for letting Count Dooku get away. Why don't you try going up against a Sith Lord who is known for being one of the greatest lightsaber masters of the age yourself before criticising other people dearie?
- Darkwing Duck has the title character's adopted daughter, Gosalyn, who is quite a handful (while also often helping to save the day).
- Jinpei "The Swallow" in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.
- All of the boys from Malcolm in the Middle.
