Basic Trope: The reason and motive for a character being a jerk.
- Straight:
- Bob tells Alice that the reason he's mean is because it's the only way to get ahead in life.
- Bob tells Alice that the reason he's mean is because he's right and everyone else is wrong.
- Bob tells Alice that the reason he's mean is because it's the way he is.
- Bob tells Alice that the reason he's mean is because he suffered a lot in his past.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob tells Alice that the reason he's downright villainous is because it's how people achieve their goals.
- Bob tells Alice that the reason he's villainous is because he believes that he's right.
- Bob tells Alice that the reason he's villainous is because it's how he is and he enjoys it.
- Downplayed: Bob sometimes grouses about the quality of his day as he does something mean.
- Justified:
- It's a Crapsack World, and Bob feels that being nice in this setting will cause people to step over him.
- Bob is just too self-centered to be compassionate.
- Bob doesn't want to change his behavior for others' sake.
- Inverted:
- Subverted: ???
- Double Subverted: ???
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Bob begins to justify his jerkish behavior, but Alice swiftly shuts him down with an Armor-Piercing Question, leaving him with no excuse.
- Bob doesn't justify his jerkassery.
- Bob isn't a Jerkass.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "I have an excellent reason for acting like an insufferable prick; I'm just not telling you."
- Invoked: Alice has turned the tables on Bob, and he's offering a weak justification in the hopes of stalling her judgment.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz spends his time studying why Bob is mean to everyone in order to manipulate him.
- Defied: "Dress up a goat however you like, it's still a damned goat."
- Discussed: "Do you think that's enough reason to act like a prick?"
- Conversed: "There's no good reason for Bob to be such a jerk." "Well, he only cares about himself, so any reason he can think of is good enough for him."
- Deconstructed:
- People are so sick and tired of Bob justifying his Jerkass behavior that they decide to give him a taste of his own medicine.
- Jerk Justification Is No Justification
Back to Jerk Justifications
