alt title(s): Scrappy
The more astute readers among you may have noticed that I haven't yet gone so far as to give anything an actual "F." That's not out of any kind-heartedness on my part, it's just that every time I got ready to give one out, I would ask myself, "is it really that bad, compared to the verminous, soul-tainting badness of Scrappy-Doo?"
Popular characters have fandoms. But sometimes, there is a character who has a
hatedom. We'll call this guy The Scrappy. While much depends on execution, certain kinds of characters have a much higher probability of being hated:
- The Ace, when used for the wrong situation.
- The Barney, a character (even the central one) hated immensely outside the specific demographic it was meant for.
- A Bratty Half Pint.
- A Cousin Oliver is very likely to irritate the fans by upsetting the standard character dynamic.
- A Damsel Scrappy, for not doing anything plot-relevant and being the subject of distracting side-plots.
- A Jerkass, when not Played For Laughs, and even if they are they still can get this by making the main character(s) life a living hell.
- The Load, simply for hanging around the heroes and becoming a liability to them.
- The Reckless Sidekick, when they never contribute anything but getting themselves captured all the time.
- A Smug Snake, especially if he/she does something so heinous they stop being "cool", though some are made this way on purpose.
- The Suspiciously Similar Substitute will undoubtedly be hated by fans of the beloved character they replace.
- A Swiss Messenger. You can practically touch the markedly-better alternate universe that could have been, if they hadn't been in that place at that exact moment.
- The Wesley, which is a sort of "evolutionary level" above a regular scrappy in that they continue to have a major role in the plot despite fan hatred.
In addition, if the writers begin relying too heavily on an already-present character with some potentially annoying quirks (like
The Unintelligible or the
Non Human Sidekick), the viewers may begin to find him/her very annoying indeed. Sometimes even a very popular character is at risk of becoming a Scrappy when he or she wears out his or her welcome.
Occasionally, a character intended as a
Butt Monkey will backfire and become a Scrappy, too. This usually happens when a writer attempts to make his mishaps even funnier by making him an unlikeable person to whom it's very satisftying to see horrible things befall. A great idea, but sometimes it backfires when the
Butt Monkey becomes so annoying that whatever happens to him in the story, audiences are haunted by the feeling that it will never be enough. An especial risk when the
Butt Monkey gags are prolonged, after which even a character who's not inherrently unlikeable can stop being funny and become a
Damsel Scrappy. It also comes full-circle in a way; note also that many Scrappies can easily become
Butt Monkeys when touched upon in fan discussions and literary parodies.
Particularly awful manifestations are the
Ethnic Scrappy and
Alien Scrappy. If it's the performer, rather than the character, that draws the reaction, it's
X Pac Heat. If the main reason the character is hated is because they're a
Replacement Character or suddenly the protagonist, they're a
Replacement Scrappy.
Not all Scrappies are doomed to their status. If the writers notice what's happening, they may
change the character for the better, or simply give him/her/it a
tragic death scene. If the character is a
Costanza,
Jerk Ass Straight Man,
Butt Monkey, or
Chew Toy, though, don't expect anything to change; these characters are dislikable on purpose, as it's part of their charm.
On the other hand, if the writers take a shine to The Scrappy and add some elements of
Mary Sue, or otherwise put more focus on them over more popular/likable characters, this will add gasoline to the flames - they've just turned
The Scrappy into the dreaded
Wesley. Expect anti-websites (and, more recently,
dozens of anti-orkut-communities); message threads that
degenerate into flamefests; and
a hard fast descent into loonydom.
Whenever fanfiction (especially
shipping) is involved,
The Scrappy will very likely
die for the writer's chosen pairing. Even if they aren't technically involved in the Ship.
In rare instances where the Scrappy has a unexpected
Dying Moment Of Awesome, it's
Alas Poor Scrappy (
very subjective).
This trope is named after Scrappy-Doo from the
Scooby Doo cartoon. The hatred of Scrappy was so prevalent that the 2002
Scooby Doo movie (which is not considered
canon with respect to any other
Scooby Doo series) used Scrappy
as a villain.
This is a very
subjective trope, more based on the fandom than the character itself. The visceral response to
The Scrappy can baffle other fans who don't take the character as
seriously, or even
sympathize with him or her. Please only post examples of the fandom hating a character; posting Personal Scrappies could get messy, especially if the Scrappy is in at the center of a
Fandom Rivalry.
Die For Our Ship entries should also be placed on that trope page only. The polar opposite of this is
Like The Character Hate The Show.
The Trope Namer (in English)
- Scrappy-Doo from Scooby Doo was hated by many of the show's longtime fans, with some of the hate coming from his introduction timed with major retools to the show (specifically, dumping half the original cast, switching to a Two Shorts format, and the franchise's first clumsy attempts to lose the Scooby Doo Hoax), but a great deal also being earned by his thoroughly obnoxious behavior of vainly boasting about picking a fight with villains he couldn't hope to harm.
- Ironically, despite how much Scrappy has been loathed and how hard the franchise has distanced themselves from the character, at the time of his introduction, Scrappy was extremely popular. The show was already on the verge of cancellation due to low ratings, leading the writers to create the character in a last ditch attempt to save it. Kids loved him and the ratings sky-rocketed, leading to the various format changes that happened later to give more prominence to Scrappy.
- The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo subjected audiences to Flim-Flam, the fast-talking kid con-artist. Yes, Scrappy-Doo himself was there (though he had changed drastically over the last two shows), and Flim-Flam was still the bigger Scrappy. An Ethnic Scrappy, at that. The amazing thing about Flim-Flam was that the producers thought it would be a good idea to remove Freddie and Velma and replace those two pillars of the Scooby-Doo series with some random kid who looked like the bastard child of Geraldo Rivera. A shameful mistake, considering it was otherwise one of Scooby's more clever incarnations.
- It should be noted that there are some fans who support Scrappy-Doo. For more info, please see The Facts on Scrappy
and The Unofficial Scrappy-Doo Fan Page. Also read Mark Evanier's "Scrappy Days" articles.
- Scrappy is a little bit funnier for people who have spent lots of time with a lapdog, because his annoying antics are a fairly accurate parody of theirs. "Toy breeds," like all dogs, are ultimately bred from wolves, and they will act aggressively to much larger people or creatures, ignorant of the fact that they're not the same size as their distant ancestors.
- A more recent Scooby-Doo series (Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue) made a similar mistake, taking out Freddie, Velma, and Daphne and replacing them with the forgettable Uncle Albert and a bumbling, megalomaniacal cyborg.
- The 2002 movie, meanwhile, parodies this nicely: the gang are revealed to have kicked Scrappy out several years beforehand for attempting to take over Mystery Inc, going as far as leaving him in the middle of a deserted road while they drive off. And There Was Much Rejoicing. He then is revealed to have been the diabolical villain of the piece, becomes a hulking monstrosity bent on destroying Scooby and tries to kill the main characters, even going so far as to suck the souls out of Velma, Fred and Daphne. Following his defeat, Scooby PUNCHES HIM. Is anyone else seeing a massive subtext about Scrappy's negative influence on the show here?
- "And he wasn't even a puppy! He had a gland problem!"
- Of course there are those of the strong opinion that the movie's "twist" as more or less a cheap shot at an established character that was considered an easy target.
- Also parodied in this Cartoon Network promo, where he complains about the greater success of the Cartoon Cartoon characters, despite he being much older than them.
- In the eyes of a lot of Italians, the Scooby-Doo series has become an entire Scrappy series and is well on its way to Wesleydom: Italian networks insist in broadcasting it whenever they have to fill in some voids. All at the expense of newer shows like Spider Riders or Gormiti The Lords Of Nature Return.
- Same in Romania where Cartoon Network is broodcasting Scooby Doo 15 years after it started at the expense of many shows that started airing at the same time, or after. In fact many shows contemporany to Scooby Doo that were extremly popular, like the Flintstones, have not been broodcast in years, but Scooby Doo has seen almost continual airing in the last 15 years.
Other examples:
