The Shameless

Peggy: Luanne... honey, tell me, what is it like to live without shame of any kind. Is it a good feeling?

[Beat]

Luanne: Yeah, it is.

— King of the Hill, "Square Peg"

Some people have no sense of shame. It can be nigh-impossible to embarrass them. This character may discuss sexual matters without a blush. They're shameless about other things, too, be it greed, gluttony, sloth, or any other number of vices. Attempts to embarrass them will often end up as an Insult Backfire. This person, if an ally, is often The Friend Nobody Likes. If an enemy of the protagonist(s) they're likely to be the Hate Sink. Although their unabashedness can sometimes make them amusing, and an Ensemble Dark Horse.

There is a distinction between The Shameless and a Cloud Cuckoo Lander or Bunny-Ears Lawyer. The Shameless must be perfectly willing to violate moral, societal, or ethical standards in such a way that it can cause problems or harm to themselves or others without any concern.

Simply being odd does not qualify for this trope. The character must do something morally, ethically, or socially wrong, and be unaffected by someone pointing out their transgressions.

The Shameless differs from The Sociopath in that, while they tend to be more concerned with their own pleasure, they are not without moral standards, and they can show genuine concern for others, just typically not when they're the ones causing the problem.

This character may be proud of being a villain or a simple jerk. They may also be Fat and Proud, so being called fat isn't upsetting to them.

If they invoke the Five-Second Rule, or worse still, don't bother citing the rule before eating something questionable off of the floor, chances are they belong here.

Shameless Fanservice Girl and The Barnum are subtropes, and examples should be sorted to those pages accordingly. Expect a few Casanova Wannabes and Harem Seekers as well. Heroic versions my also overlap with The Gadfly. May also involve Clingy Sleepers. The Troublemaker is often in this category as well.

Compare The Unapologetic and Taking Advantage of Generosity.

Examples should specify actions taken by a character that qualify them. Merely being called Shameless is not necessarily an indicator, even if the character agrees with the accusation.

No Real Life Examples, Please!

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Momoha is the closest to a straight example of this so far. She spends most of her money on alcohol and gambling, drinks while on duty despite being an ethics teacher, and while she isn't the first teacher to join Rentarou's harem, she is the first girl to ask him to have sex with her right after she confesses to him. That being the case, she uses the money she doesn't spend on her vices to provide support for the school's gardening club and her parents, weeds the school grounds every day of her own accord, and if she can't indulge in her desires at the moment, she has no problem waiting until she can. Rentarou doesn't hesitate to call her out on her unethical behavior, nor does she hesitate to call him out for dating 20 girls alongside her, one of whom is 89 years old.
• Azumanga Daioh:
  • No matter what insults are thrown her way about her laziness, poor grades, or Jerkass behavior, Tomo is blissfully oblivious. One example is when, during a Beach Episode, Tomo, hearing Chiyo say that if she'd lost the keys would have them all in trouble, seizes the keys from her and tosses them into a field. While everyone is hunting for the keys, knowing how she has already inconvenienced everyone, says that it'd be funny if she found the keys and tossed them again.
  • Yukari Tanizaki makes Tomo look like an amateur. She Drives Like Crazy, makes unreasonable demands of her childhood friend Nyamo, is not quite The Alcoholic, but near enough that Nyamo worries about her drinking around her students on vacation, and makes bets with other teachers about her student's performances during the Sports Fest (though she at least bets in favor of her own class). She even gives a speech in Engrish about how she is not afflicted with shame and is merely fascinated by the Japanese view of the subject.
  • Mr. Kimura has absolutely no qualms about telling his students that he became a teacher because he "likes high school girls". He's married and has a daughter, but he openly shows a great deal of interest in Kaorin, despite her constant efforts to rebuff him.
• Bakugan: Battle Planet: Everett Ray, one of the Awesome Brawlers' most recurring foes. He's a sleazy Young Entrepreneur who engages in everything from dirty business dealings, propaganda films that paint Bakugan in a negative light, and even sham contests and games that steal the Bakugan of those who enter, all with an unapologetically smug air. Even when the AB call him out on his reprehensible actions, he just lets it roll off his back, not caring one bit what they think of him.
• Lucky Star: Konata will talk all day long without reservation about her Otaku hobbies, including the erotic dating sims she plays. The only things that seem to faze her are people making fun of her short stature or threatening to cut her off from being able to copy Kagami's homework.
• Wasteful Days of High School Girls:
  • Not even being saddled with a nickname like "Baka" (idiot) seems to faze Nozomu. She'll also gleefully display her test scores, which are nothing to be proud of (she once got a grade of 1 on a math test), and she has no qualms with being hopelessly vulgar in her speech, to the point where Akane "Wota" Kikuchi tells her to stop saying "crap" so loudly. She'll also eat foul-smelling foods in the middle of class, like natto, or leek and pot sticker-flavored chips (something "Wota" calls akin to an act of terrorism).
  • "Waseda" starts the school year discussing the follies of attempting to date one of the students in such a way that all of the girls are very worried that he's going to be a problem. He will also unabashedly discuss his fetish, college girls in business attire. And when "Baka" suggests he's interested in her, he goes on a lengthy speech comparing her to a fish too young to use for sushi, saying he cannot like a fish that is too young or too old.

Comic Books

• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Donald's cousin Gladstone Gander was Born Lucky, a fact that he enjoys throwing into everyone's (but especially Donald's) face. Everything from food to money always falls into his lap without an ounce of effort from him, and he proudly flaunts his resulting laziness and lack of ambition. One story reveals that he does, in fact, have one thing that he is ashamed about — having worked one single day in his life.
• X-Men: Emma Frost's lack of shame (or at least the ability to make people believe she lacks shame) is quite legendary. Besides her choice in clothing, Emma doesn't mind much when people see her naked. In New Mutants she teased Sean about him seeing her naked and in Wolverine: The Best There Is, she didn't bother to put any clothes on when an emergency required her quick presence and ignored Scott's requests for her to put some clothes on. She and Hank even start joking about how much of a prude Scott can be. Emma is also very good at putting on an aloof front when people throw her past as a villain or her sexual history in her face.

Comic Strips

• Garfield:
  • In one strip◊, after Garfield once again eats one of Jon's pet fish, Jon asks Garfield if he has any shame. After pondering on it for a moment, Garfield proudly proclaims he doesn't have any.
  • In another strip, Jon tries to convince Garfield to go on a diet by placing a mirror in front of him while he is eating so he can watch his own Jabba Table Manners. Garfield just cheerfully comments on the "charming and witty dinner companion" Jon just gave him. Jon grumbles "You can't shame a shameless cat" in response.

Fan Works

• Vow of Nudity: Fiora the forest witch, in pretty much every way. A mischievous nudist sex pest who cheerfully admits to being evil and always says what's on her mind, she's quick to admit to countless skeletons in her closet from selling her soul to a demon to robbing battlefields for corpses to sell. Her complete lack of a filter keeps Haara from investigating her and realizing there's actually one event from her past she doesn't want anyone to know about...
• A Wand for Skitter: When Taylor hears about the nasty slur "mudblood" for those of nonmagical heritage, rather than be upset by it or ignore it, she starts calling herself that. Draco Malfoy is thrown far off balance — especially when she proceeds to imply that she's a crazed killer.
  Taylor: Oh, I know what it means. And if anyone else calls me that, they'll likely regret it. But it doesn't bother me all that much. I know what I am, and I'm comfortable with it.

Film — Live-Action

• Adventures in Babysitting: Daryl lampshades his status as shameless by asking a group of college frat boys if they know the Playboy definition for "unabashed" when he crashes their frat party. Mind you, he's only in high school. At one point he mentions that Chris's boyfriend (who stood her up, hence why she's babysitting in the first place) kicked his ass the year before for touching his car, which Daryl denies doing. Then he asks if they want to see the footprint. He also seems interested in the services offered by a prostitute. He's still an actually likeable character, as when they find that Chris's boyfriend had cheated on her, he wasn't above getting a little karmic retribution.
• "Funny People' deconstructs this a little. George Simmons has fewer inhibitions because he's rich and famous and people will let him get away with whatever he wants. His protege has to fall in line a little more.
• Sherlock Holmes: Holmes' brother Mycroft casually struts around his home completely nude. When Sherlock takes Mary with him to visit Mycroft, she is profoundly embarrassed and averts her eyes, but Mycroft's servants aren't fazed at all so he obviously does this on a regular basis.

Literature

• Used darkly in the Dean Koontz novel The Husband. Main character Mitch's wife, Holly, is kidnapped, and a 2 million dollar ransom is demanded. Mitch, not having the money, during the course of the book visits his brother Anson, who claims to have the money. As it turns out, Mitch and Anson's parents had HIGHLY UNCONVENTIONAL (read: immensely abusive) ideas on how to raise children, and their 'treatments' to prevent 'unnecessary clutterage' in their children went too far with Anson, who proudly declares as a reveal that he has 'no shame' (ie, he's a psychopath), was pretending to help to screw with his brother, and doesn't care if they both die.
• Discworld: Corporal Nobby Nobbs is never embarassed by his failings either morally (he's a petty thief in a Watch uniform and when asked to uphold the law, has been known to ask what's in it for him) or socially (he tells dirty jokes and does tricks with his boils in any company, and fails to take the hint when women respond to his advances by throwing fish at him because he's getting a fish out of it). In Jingo, as the war with Klatch heats up, ladies begin handing white feathers to men to shame them into joining the army. Nobby, however, is "a man for whom shame held no shame", and tries to get enough to fill a duvet.

Live-Action TV

• Community: In the episode "Origins Of Vampire Mythology", Jeff meets Britta's ex-boyfriend Blade, whom she is desperate to reunite with. Jeff goes to the carnival Blade works at to try and learn his secret about how he attracts women. Blade is initially unwilling to tell, but relents after Jeff spends hundreds of dollars on his game, and admits that he is incapable of feeling shame after a freak accident damaged part of his brain.
• Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23: Chloe runs circles around her roommate in terms of outlandish stunts and she doesn't care about societal rules much either.
• Oskar on Intimate goes through life with very few scruples, particularly when it comes to pursuing girls who his friends are already involved with. When he and his brother Emil (who really isn't that much better) encounter a girl they used to bully, Emil feels at least a little bad about the incident, while Oskar's only concern is getting publicly cancelled. He's also got no problem running around on set wearing just a modesty pouch between takes while filming a sex scene.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: All of the main characters have a particular area in their lives where they lack the self-awareness required to have shame, but it is possible to shame Dee, Dennis, Mac, and Charlie into trying to conform to more normal forms of behavior (even if it's just for appearances) if you can target the one thing they each are deeply insecure about. This is not the case for Frank. Frank has no delusions about the fact that he's a mean, gross, bigoted Jerkass. He's a proud hedonist who doesn't really care what others think of him, likely because he's so independently wealthy that he doesn't need to.
• Leverage: The mark in "The Miracle Job" is completely shameless. In fact, when Sophie says as much to him, while posing as his publicist, he embraces her delightedly, saying, "Oh, you get me so well." He had hired a group of thugs to beat up a priest whose church he was trying to buy out so he could tear it down. And when the team's efforts to fake a miracle almost have him throwing in the towel, he suddenly has a bout of inspiration and decides to revise his shopping center into "Bibletopia" instead.
• In Quantico, Iris Chang was prepared to do almost anything to become an FBI agent. When one training exercise required her to somehow get back into the US without her passport, she simply took off all her clothes and streaked through a Canadian airport terminal so that she'd get deported back to America.
• Where the rest of the Seinfeld characters are neurotic about fulfilling (or at least being seen to fulfill) various social obligations (however arbitrary or confusing they might be), Kramer bulldozes through such problems with a complete disregard for social etiquette. That can mean showing up to the opera in casual clothes ("I thought you said people dress up when they go to the opera?" "People do - I don't"), critiquing someone's appearance to their face ("You just need a nose job"), or mooching off Jerry without a care in the world.
  Jerry: You're not normal. You're a great guy, I love you, but you're a pod. I, on the other hand, am a human being. I sometimes feel awkward, uncomfortable, even inhibited in certain situations with the other human beings. You wouldn't understand.

Music

• "Weird Al" Yankovic: In the bridge to his song "Tacky", Weird Al sings "Bring me shame, can't nothing Bring me shame"

Stand-Up Comedy

• Denis Leary has a song, "Asshole" that is very much about this trope. Among some of the actions taken by the persona in the song, using public toilets and pissing on the seat, driving slowly in the fast lane, and deliberately parking in handicap spaces, all very unrepentantly. Or, as he concludes at the end of the song, "I'm an asshole, and I'm proud of it."

Web Comics

• In The Greatest Estate Developer, Lloyd is absolutely shameless when it comes to acquiring and spending money. He'll gladly beg Queen Alicia for funding while bowing in a Pose of Supplication and looking up at her with Puppy-Dog Eyes in front of the entire court. Later on, the sultan of Samarkhan attempts to humiliate Lloyd and the other members of the Magetano delegation by giving them the padashar, essentially an unlimited credit card, to force them to beg for amenities from the local shops. Lloyd instead goes on a ridiculous spending spree that empties a year's worth of the nation's savings in a single night.
• Ménage à 3: Matt is an extremely sexually successful bisexual, even by the standards of this uninhibited Sex Comedy, and while he may be aware that a current partner expects fidelity, that never stops him. He may try to keep these infidelities secret, but strictly to avoid inconvenience. He occasionally becomes aware that he's done something wrong, but the lesson never sticks. He also has zero body modesty, but that comes with his job as an underwear model.

Western Animation

• The Amazing World of Gumball: In "The Fraud," after Gumball and Darwin find out that Principal Brown's diploma is fake, he tries to Blackmail them into keeping their mouths shut by being in possession of them wearing ridiculous clothes (Gumball dressed as a Goth while Darwin dressed up in hip-hop gear). It doesn't work, since they have apparently felt ashamed so many times that they are literally incapable of feeling it anymore.
  Gumball: Look Principal Brown, first, that was a phase, and secondly, we've felt ashamed so many times in life that I think we're now incapable of feeling it. As in chemically.
  Darwin: The doctor says we've run out of shame-osterone.
• Martha Speaks: Downplayed for T.D. While he does find his mother's dog impression embarrassing, he's usually never embarrassed, and once even said, "You can't let a little thing like total public humiliation stand between you and a good time".

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