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Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist
"A man may fight for many things: his country, his principles, his friends, the glistening tear on the cheek of a golden child. But personally, I'd mud-wrestle my own mother for a ton of cash, an amusing clock and a stack of French porn".
—Edmund Blackadder, ''Blackadder'

Sort of the comedic counterpart to the Anti Hero. A character in a comedy, often the main character and more often a huge Jerkass, for whom we root, more or less, even though he is pretty much everything a human being shouldn't be... or everything a human being essentially is.

Sometimes the character is presented as the only moderately sane, intelligent person in a land of fools (especially noticeable in Blackadder). Alternatively he or she is someone whose loneliness and self-loathing make them, if not likeable, at least pitiable, despite engaging in Comedic Sociopathy. Nevertheless, it's not surprising when watchers actually take the "Unsympathetic" side of the character literally, with less than pleasant consequences for the fandom if they don't shut up about it.

This seems to be more prevalent in British comedy than in US comedies.

Compare with Al Bundy, Ted Baxter, Heroic Sociopath

Examples:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Film

  • All the guys, but especially the news team, in Anchorman.
    • Hell, most characters Will Ferrell has played. He wasn't going to be cast as Ignatius P Reilly for nothing.
  • Pierre Brochant in The Dinner Game. "Il est méchant Monsieur Brochant," vraiment.
  • Adam Sandler has personified this trope in a bunch of his early films.
    • Until the inevitable Pet The Dog moment, typically near the end of the film, that is.
      • This troper actually finds his protagonists unbearable simply for the fact it feels like he's trying WAY too hard to pull this off much of the time. Davey on Eight Crazy Nights being the ur-example of all aspects of his previous works.
  • Captain James B. Pirk of Star Wreck is intentionally the exact opposite of the character he's parodying, James T. Kirk. That is, he is a cowardly, loud-mouthed bully who gets incredibly lucky. The writers thought he was too nice in the fifth film of the series (where he actually seemed motivated to save the world besides his own skin) and made sure that he was his own nasty self in the feature film.
  • The protagonist of both versions of The Heartbreak Kid.
  • W.C. Fields, in most of his films.
  • Vinnie Antonelli aka Todd Wilkenson, played by Steve Martin in My Blue Heaven.
  • Brüno.

Literature

  • Mr Bagthorpe of Helen Cresswell's Bagthorpe Saga. No other children's character comes near him for arrogance, misanthropy and sheer awfulness- but he's still hysterically funny.
  • From The Wind in the Willows, we have Toad of Toad Hall, who frequently swings from jerk to noble idealist in the space of as little as two paragraphs. Say it with me: Older Than Television.
  • Greg Heffley, the title character in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid novels. Though he feels victimized by the world and is suffering at the hands of his obnoxious older brother Rodrick, Greg brings a lot of his problems on himself; he's always trying to take the easy road out of any difficult situation and lies and cheats to get ahead (though he rarely gets far). As the books consist of his journal entries, it's clear from reading them that he is oblivious to his flaws - and a fair amount of the comedy comes from the reader recognizing that.
  • Octave Parango in 99 Francs is a habitually late, drug-abusing, infantile, misogynist, snobby jerk. The Film Of The Book implies that he successfully performs a Karma Houdini trick by Sticking It To The Man and vanishing before the authorities can have a word with him about his rampage in Miami. However, Word Of God says that he serves jail time before the sequel.

Live Action TV

  • Roseanne of Roseanne.
    "Hear that, Dan? All these years people though I was being a bitch; but I was just showing an opinionated, blue collar outlook!"
  • The ladies of Sex and the City, and Carrie Bradshaw in particular. She's juvenile, shallow, and self-absorbed. But, we're supposed to root for her because (1.) the male characters are as bad or worse, and (2.) she wears great shoes.
  • Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm.
  • Pretty much all the main characters in Seinfeld, with a special mention reserved for Costanza. Jason Alexander himself feels that Seinfeld is "a very dark show about very dark people".
    • In a bit of Lampshade Hanging, in the episode "The Fatigues", Jerry acknowledges that he's not the nicest guy in the world:
      Abby: I need someone I can trust.
      Jerry (disappointedly): Oh.
    • Also lampshaded, of course, in the final episode, when they're actually put on trial for their selfishness.
    • Alexander supplied the voice for another one in Duckman.
    • Truth In Television, since Alexander based his portrayal of George Costanza on Larry David, Seinfeld's head writer at the time. Interestingly, he thought the character was based on Woody Allen until one day, after reading a certain episode's script, Alexander told David he didn't understand the situation detailed in it since "not only could this never happen, but no human being would react like this". David responded that it happened to him and this was the way he reacted. From that point on, Alexander understood just who Costanza was meant to be.
  • GOB, Lucille, Lindsay, and others in Arrested Development.
    • Near miss for Michael, since he is the Only Sane Man in a land of fools and tries to save his family from financial and legislative ruin. He is more of a hypocrite than a Jerk Ass though.
  • Larry Sanders and his sidekick, Hank Kingsley in The Larry Sanders Show.
  • David Brent in The Office and to a lesser extent Andy Millman in Extras.
    • Series creators Gervais and Merchant claim that Brent is not a horrible person, despite the things he does in the show; he's just an idiot, a fallible human being who is star-struck by the Mockumentary film crew, which drives him to act the way he does to get attention. By the end of the second series his true colours are shown and he is much more sympathetic, no more so than when he breaks down when he is about to be made redundant and practically begs for his job back. Word Of God also says that the character of Chris Finch was introduced so Brent would appear less of a wanker by comparison.
    • It's also debatable whether 'to a lesser extent' applies to Millman, as that character is certainly not without his dickish and unlikeable qualities. In fact, Millman is in many ways arguably worse than Brent; Brent is often insulting or offensive entirely by accident or through poor communication, whereas Millman, as the creators have noted, is saddled with a self-awareness that at times turns otherwise-ignorant actions into intentional cruelty.
    • Brent's 'Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist' status was also lampshaded and explored in The Office Christmas Specials as being at least partially a consequence of the Mockumentary format of the show; he bitterly notes how the documentary crew 'stitched him up' in order to make him look bad, arguing that they overlooked or downplayed his achievements and benevolent qualities and presented an uneven focus on his incompetence and stage-hungry nature in order to present him in the worst possible light for the sake of ratings. That same episode also ultimately showed Brent in a more positive light — hinting that he was actually quite a talented salesman (if not actually management material), showing him manage to charm a woman and actually managing make the staff laugh in genuine good humour at one of his impressions — almost as if the fictional documentary makers were trying to make it up to him.
  • Basil Fawlty on Fawlty Towers.
  • Edmund Blackadder
  • Bernard Black in Black Books. At least until the last episode.
    • It should be noted that are numerous hints throughout the series that Bernard was not always such-
      • When his traditionally dark clothes are actually washed, they're white.
      • When Manny tries to drum up business by selling coffee, Bernard notes that it was 'going back to how it was'.
      • You can even pinpoint when he started his decline- when his girlfriend of several years faked her death to get away from him five years prior to the show. (This suggests he wasn't the nicest guy in the world even then, but perhaps he was at least trying back then...)
  • All the main characters from Frontline except for Emma.
  • Bill Bittinger (Dabney Coleman) in Buffalo Bill.
  • Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge persona.
  • Pretty much everyone on Becker.
  • Archie Bunker from All In The Family, and Sacha Baron Cohen's character Borat Sagdiyev stand as extreme examples, where many of the jokes derive from their extreme ignorance or outright bigotry. A dangerous device, if any bigots in the audience fail to get the joke.
    • As any Brit or Aussie can tell you, the original model for the above characters was Alf Garnett of Till Death Us Do Part; a right 'orrible little man, but for some reason, sympathetic (sometimes, anyway). (The US show All in the Family and its equivalent character Archie Bunker were directly inspired by him.)
    • Archie Bunker, for what it's worth, is more sympathetic than he first appears; he often seems more ignorant than ill-intentioned, and in certain episodes, it's heavily implied that he's more a product of his environment than anything, and, while misguided, he seems to be a generally good person.
    • For this, you don't have to look any farther than his speech at the end of the Klan episode.
    • Don't forget Archie's black counterpart, George Jefferson.
  • Gordon Shumway (the title character) in Alf.
  • Steptoe And Son and its American remake Sanford And Son.
  • Peep Show — between Jeremy eating a girl's dog in an attempt to have sex with her and Mark attempting to get out of his wedding by hiding in the church balcony both of these guys are about as unsympathetic as it gets.
    • Mark actually started off pretty sympathetic, to the point where his actor David Mitchell claimed to feel for him, but decayed over time. You could call it Character Derailment, but it may also be Character Development given how nothing ever worked out for him even when he wasn't doing anything wrong.
  • Gareth Blackstock on Chef!
  • Every single character on Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia. All of them.
  • Baber in Little Mosque On The Prairie who may be a retired economics professor, but he's still unapologetically the Islamic version of Archie Bunker.
  • Peter Dragon in Action.
  • Eddie and Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous
  • Howard Moon and Vince Noir of The Mighty Boosh. Howard is a prickly, asocial, know-it-all; Vince is vain, shallow, and flighty.
  • Most of the cast of Two And A Half Men.
  • This is the entire point of We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High.
  • The entire point of Strangers With Candy.
  • Bottom
    • For that matter, every single character ever played by Rik Mayall. Including himself in his not-entirely-serious ego-trip of an autobiography, Bigger Than Hitler, Better Than Christ.
  • Every character save for one and maybe two from Unhitched is a horrible, horrible excuse for a human being. Part of the reason why the show was So Bad Its Horrible.
  • Victor Meldrew from One Foot In The Grave. Though he does fall in the "at least pitiable" category sometimes, after all he does end up in the oddest predicaments which does go some way explain his eternal grumpiness.
  • All the main characters in Withnail And I. All despicable people. Even Marwood can't be all innocence and light.
  • Sarah Silverman of The Sarah Silverman Program.
  • Grace. Dear God, Grace. Just barely has enough morals to not be a Jerkass, but still broke up with someone for having an extra toe, admitted that it was because she was shallow, then asked for sympathy.
    • Really, this Troper finds all four of the show's leads to be just barely more sympathetic than the Seinfeld crew.
  • Alex from Wizards Of Waverly Place.
    • This and her Deadpan Snarker tendencies are the only reasons why this troper watches that show at all.
  • The title character from Father Ted. "JUST PLAY THE F***ING NOTE!"
  • Barney from How I Met Your Mother manages to be the most popular character on the show, despite being a Corrupt Corporate Executive, misogynistic womanizer, and a borderline sociopath in general. For most viewers, he avoids becoming truly unlikable partly because he does have a senstivie, caring side (even if it only comes up once or twice a season), and partly because he uses and manipulates people with so much style that he enters Magnificent Bastard territory.
  • Rimmer from Red Dwarf. To a lesser extent, the rest of the cast.
  • All main characters in The Young Ones (except perhaps Neil, sometimes). According to the DVD commentary for the pilot, when that episode was shown to American networks the writers were asked which of the characters was supposed to be the "hero" that the audience sympathised with, and had to explain that none of them really were and that that was sort of the point.
    • Not to mention the Balowski family. But Vyvyan was a particularly good example of this, arguably one of the most likable "complete bastards" in the history of British comedy, precisely because he was a totally unpredictable bastard.
  • Needless to say, the main character of the (thankfully) One Episode Wonder Heil Honey Im Home.
  • Jack Benny's eponymous character, on his TV and radio series.
    • Though every once in a while (such as the "It's Jack's birthday!" episodes) the rest of the cast would acknowledge that Jack was a particularly harmless, even endearing example of this type. Then things would go back to normal by the next show.
      • Jack was always pretty benign in his show, being portrayed as much more self-absorbed and stingy as opposed to out-and-out malicious, and his character rarely strayed into Jerk Ass territory. In Real Life, Jack Benny could not have been any farther from his on-air persona — apparently he was very much a man who'd give you the shirt off his back if he thought you needed it.
  • Jackie Thomas in The Jackie Thomas Show.
  • Rick Spleen in Lead Balloon is another case where the character arguably worsened over time, with him being slightly sympathetic in season one and then doing a massive Kick The Dog at the beginning of season two. However, in season two there was also an episode that focused on him doing a good deed by supporting a charity with no evident ulterior motive...and it still blew up in his face.
  • Lee and Tim in Not Going Out decay into this in some episodes of the third season. A definite case of Character Derailment, as Lee was doing things like pretending to be disabled in order to win a contest using an essay he'd plagiarised, when in the first season he was actually the most level-headed of the main cast and was portrayed as being a pretty decent guy beneath his sarcastic exterior.
  • Dick Solomon of 3rd Rock From The Sun is the main character and a pompous egomaniac. You might say he has the excuse of being an alien, but even his fellow aliens call him on this.
  • Rigsby in Rising Damp.
  • One has to wonder if the writers of the later seasons of Friends weren't trying for this. By season 7, half the cast had been Flanderized to the degree that the following actions were reasonable for their characters:
    • Monica lied about being a reverend so a pregnant woman would let Monica adopt her baby.
    • Chandler screwed a peon out of a huge promotion because he didn't want the man, who thought Chandler's real name was Toby, working on the same floor as him because it would be awkward.
  • Sam, Dear Lord and Lady, Sam.
  • Everyone in The Thick Of It. The most sympathetic character is a complete bastard, which says a lot about the rest of them.
  • Shawn in Psych often butts up against this with his self-centered man-child shtick.
  • Hollywood superagent Ari Gold from Entourage, and he hasn't got better after six seasons. The other cast members have their moments as well.
  • Hank Moody in Californication. To sympathize with a promiscuous character having an STD scare is one thing. For that STD scare to go down only a few episodes after the character got a vasectomy for the sole, expressed purpose of wanting to have sex without condoms? That's Wall Banger territory.
  • The three main characters from Nathan Barley, particularly the eponymous Nathan, who Word Of God described as a "strutting, meaningless cadaver-in-waiting" who "genuinely deserves to die".

Machinima

Newspaper Comics

Theater

  • Shakespeare's character Falstaff from Henry IV, his most popular and beloved by far. How popular? The play had two sequels and a spinoff starring Falstaff, called "The Merry Wives Of Windsor," reputed to be commissioned by Queen Elizabeth herself.
  • Of a sort: Mr Punch of the traditional puppet show Punch And Judy is a thoroughly vile fellow given to outrageous acts of villainy. He beats his wife and mistreats their child. He solves all his problems by repeated application of a big stick: he is convinced that's the way to do it, and says so frequently. He violently resists any attempt by any form of authority to bring him to justice or impose any kind of richly deserved punishment - whether that authority be the local policeman, or the devil himself. Throughout all this the children watching cheer and laugh.

Video Games

  • Jimmy Hopkins of Bully.
  • Travis Touchdown, the protagonist from No More Heroes. A sociopathic Byronic Hero who kills people largely for fun while generally being a repugnant asshole, he character flaws are so pronounced that he ends up becoming hilarious.
    • At least at first. He has a few redeeming qualities by the end of the game. A few.
    • Moe.
  • Wario in both the Wario Land and WarioWare games.

Web Animation

  • Strong Bad of Homestar Runner.
    • Homestar himself could be considered this as well, seeing how his general cluelessness has often drifted into to Jerkass territory

Web Comics

  • Something Positive averts this trope in regards to Davan. He has enough humanizing moments to keep him sympathetic, misanthropic bastard that he is. Aubrey and Peejee, on the other hand? Not so much with the sympathy.
  • Ethan from Ctrl Alt Del. Seriously, could you stand being around such a Psychopathic Manchild for more than a few seconds?
    • Lucas has his moments too, especially where relationships are involved.
  • Polkster from PolkOut
  • All four of the Light Warriors in 8-Bit Theater are very much this. Or at least they should be, as many fans do sympathize with the Omnicidal Maniac Black Mage.

Western Animation

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