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Unpopular Popular Character / Western Animation

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Unpopular Popular Characters in Western Animation.

Note: Although this is subjective, only blatantly obvious or creator-acknowledged examples should be listed.

A No Recent Examples rule applies to this trope and examples shouldn't be added until 3 months after the character is introduced.

  • Adventure Time:
  • Wakko Warner from Animaniacs was intended to be this, as a joke about "Middle Child Syndrome," and it was explicitly mentioned a few times in regards to Dot's cuteness making her so much more popular with the fans. The truth of the matter was the exact opposite.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Prince Zuko counted as this for a time, having to endure the hatred and neglect of his cruel father Ozai throughout his youth and of his sociopathic younger sister Azula, with only his beloved and kindhearted Uncle Iroh to support him through life even after his father deemed him "lucky to have been born". After he is banished from his homeland for speaking out of turn before his father, he is scorned and loathed by the Fire Nation elite as well as his former enemies in the world abroad, ultimately hoping to capture the Avatar in the hopes of regaining his father's love and admiration. In-universe this eventually all changes as Zuko realizes his nation's corrupt ways and devotes himself to helping Aang defeat his father, going on to serve a very successful and prosperous reign as Fire Lord after the war; out-universe, he has been one of the most beloved and respected characters since the very beginning, with his constant struggle between good and evil and his original status as a Tragic Villain serving as a key appeal of the series.
    • His sister Princess Azula as well. We see her being mostly a bratty bitch who ends up nearly killing Aang, torturing Zuko, and kicking kid's sandcastles but her emotional turmoils combined with her epic breakdown at the end of the arc painted a different picture about her to many fans. Even beforehand, fans loved the hypercompetent dragon of Ozai for her accomplishments and amazing talents with a suave, confident air.
  • Regarding The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The Hulk has so many fans, the second intro makes him one of only four members referred to by name.note  Unfortunately, the second season of the show sees Red Hulk frame him of terrorizing SHIELD, torture him in prison offscreen for several episodes, and provoke him into performing a rampage that causes even his best friends to lose their respect for him. Worse, during the Hulk's imprisonment, none of the other Avengers acknowledged his absence.
  • Beavis qualifies as this during the Christmas Episode of Beavis and Butt-Head when during both the It's a Wonderful Life parody where Butt-Head learns he's now Stewart's sidekick and even protected from Butt-Head by helpful homeless people. During the "Letters to Santa Butt-Head" segments, Beavis gets increasingly more and better fan mail, much to Butt-head's annoyance.
  • Beast Wars:
    • Why universe hate Waspinator? And his suffering also makes him beloved by fans, to the point his popularity saved Waspinator from being killed in Season 2.
    • Beast Megatron. He's despised by virtually all of his troops (save Inferno), the Maximals hate his guts, the Tripredicus Council thinks he's just a rogue agent with delusions of grandeur, and he's a slimy manipulator who would happily play everyone like a fiddle for his own gain. Yet the fans love him because he's such an effective Magnificent Bastard who's managed to be far more successful than his namesake, he's a Wicked Cultured Baritone of Strength with the memorable performance of David Kaye, and he turns into a giant T-Rex. When fans voted for the Hall of Fame entires, he won by a landslide. Yeeeeees.
  • Argit from Ben 10: Alien Force. The guy's a Con Man who'd sell his grandma for money. He seems to have everywhere in the galaxy people who want him dead. And even the protagonists despise him, allowing him to go around only because he isn't that much of a threat. The only reason someone as obnoxious as him could survive so far is that he has the ability to stop his pulse to play dead. Yet, fans adore him because they find him hilarious.
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers: While Wheeler is considered a friend (or potential love interest) by the rest of the group, he's also the least environmentally sensitive (due to being the only city kid), resulting in a lot of criticism from his comrades-in-arms. The fandom as a whole considers him Unintentionally Sympathetic due to being dismissed even when he has a point and criticizes the more sensible Planeteers for being preachy, flawless, and condescending.
  • Clone High: Abe, Gandhi and Joan. Especially Gandhi, in spite of his best efforts to fit in with the popular kids. Abe would occasionally get a taste of popularity in-universe, usually when dating Cleo. Joan would become one of the popular kids in the revival until the finale of Season 2.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door:
    • Numbuh 86 is a grumpy, unpleasant and confrontational Straw Feminist who is associated with the feared practice of decommissioning other Kids Next Door agents. For those reasons, she's not very popular among the main characters or any other KND operative, but the fandom (and the show's creators) loved her enough that she went on to become a highly recurring character, receiving plenty of character development all the while that helped make her less one-dimensional, which, in turn, only made her more popular with the fandom.
    • The Toiletnator, the resident Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain with toilet-based superpowers. The main characters laugh at him, the other villains hate him, but the fans love him.
  • Disney's Donald Duck is one of the most famous enforced examples. Disney always ensures that Donald In-Universe is portrayed as second banana to Mickey and that in his adventures with Mickey and Goofy, he's often The Load who gets into trouble (while Mickey and Goofy are portrayed as more collegial, in spite of similar blundering from Goofy), and he's often invoked as the sourpuss and unlikable one. Outside Disney's corporate brand image politics, however, Donald is easily more popular and beloved than Mickey Mouse and Goofy, a character who has been reinterpreted time and time again for multiple generations, and who still finds new audiences around the world. He's a far more consistent and in-demand moneymaker than Mickey and Goofy ever were.
  • Xandir of Drawn Together is largely the show's Butt-Monkey, being on the receiving end of all kinds of abuse by the other characters, particularly Captain Hero. However, in the fandom, he's far and away the most popular character on the show; just go to any Drawn Together message board or fan community and check out how much Xandir traffic there is compared with the other characters.
    • This only follows: He and Foxxy Love, both the only minority characters on the show, are the only ones who aren't complete and total moronic jackasses. Their negative traits are his naivete and romanticism and her raging Electra complex and many illegitimate children, respectively - which is a huge step up from most of the other characters.
  • Eric the Cavalier in Dungeons & Dragons (1983) was intended to be a case of The Complainer Is Always Wrong, but his Butt-Monkey luck, copious sarcasm, and the fact he was the only one of the party willing to call Dungeon Master out on his dirty tricks made him a fan favorite, especially among tabletop players who have said things like that to their own dungeon masters.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy:
    • All three of the Eds are this.
      • While Ed's near-lethal idiocy annoys nearly everybody in-universe and it's implied that not even his own family likes him that much (at least in the case of his mom and sister), he's loved for being so stupid and kindhearted as well as providing a lot of memes and comedy.
      • This is played with in the case of Double D, who's probably the most popular character in the series—while he tends to get in trouble just as often as his companions (even when he had minimal involvement in their scam-of-the-day), he's clearly still more liked and respected by the other kids than Ed and Eddy are (the latter especially). In fact, when you really get down it, it seems like the rest of the kids really only dislike Double D because of the fact that he's friends with Ed and Eddy (mainly the latter). Double D's also the biggest Chick Magnet on the show (in the Nerds Are Sexy-way) and, of course, has plenty of fangirls in Real Life.
      • Eddy's the most straight-up example of the titular trio—almost everyone on the show hates him with a passion and not even Ed and Double-Dnote  sugarcoat just how much of an asshole he can be at times (particularly in the later episodes). But plenty of the show's fans do like Eddy (or at least sympathize with him).
    • Marie Kanker (the Kanker Sister who likes Double D) is this as well—while everybody except for her sisters, Lee and May, fears and/or loathes her, she's considered to be the most popular female character on the show. And despite being an Abhorrent Admirer, many male fans consider her to be more attractive than resident hottie Nazz. The same also applies to Marie's sister May (albeit to kind of a lesser extent), especially since May's considered to be the nicest of the Kanker Sisters.
    • Jonny 2x4 is definitely this to an extent—while he's generally more liked and accepted by Kevin, Rolf, Nazz, Sarah, and Jimmy than the Eds and the Kankers, he's still a bit of a loner and it's also clear that the other kids do find him to be weird (including the Eds and the Kankers). He eventually becomes the most despised kid on the show after the movie.
  • The Fairly OddParents!:
    • Tootie is extremely popular with the fanbase, despite her position on the show. A decade into the show's life the creators seemed to have finally picked up on this, and elected to make her one of the main characters of the live-action Fairly Odd Movie.
    • Timmy Turner is subject to this as well (mostly in the early seasons).
    • Crocker, although he has become more a Base-Breaking Character (and even a borderline scrappy) case due to his overexposure and Flanderization in later seasons, especially in Seasons 9 and 10.
  • Family Guy: Early on, Meg Griffin wasn't a fan favorite due to being a rather bland, typical teenage girl character. She became popular with fans when the writers turned her character into an exaggerated Butt-Monkey and the rest of the cast started treating her like crap for somehow being considered so ugly, people have committed suicide by setting themselves on fire. Due to her Woobie status, she has lots of fans, many pictures of her on DeviantArt, and lots of stories of her in fanfiction.net, which tend to revolve around her getting revenge on everyone who's ever wronged her.
  • Futurama:
  • Hazbin Hotel
    • Charlie. To most characters in-universe, they don't take her too fondly. To the fans, however, she's just downright precious. Though the 50K incident with Verbalase has also made her popularity take on a more questionable tone.
    • Alastor is The Dreaded within the show, but is well-liked despite (or perhaps because of) it.
    • Adam is a self-important, misogynist, genocidal, immature jerkass who's not liked by any of the main cast for both his personality and his role in the genocide, and even in Heaven he's considered to be a Black Sheep. However he's very popular with fans due to how hilarious, hammy, and utterly oblivious to his flaws he is and many of them were actually saddened when he got killed by Niffty in the season one finale.
  • Hey Arnold!:
    • Eugene's peers (bar Arnold) ostracize him for being a jinx and being all-around unlucky. However, he has a lot of fans for his charming personality.
    • Helga G. Pataki is widely disliked by the same peers for being a bully, but due to her character development, she's arguably the most popular character in the show as well as the Breakout Character. Being a complex Jerkass Woobie really helps.
  • Invader Zim:
    • Dib is the most unloved and abused character in the show. Everyone hates him... and yet, he's the second or third most popular character.
    • Zim himself. Ostracized by his classmates (although they do sometimes stick up for him when he's being picked on by Dib, who they hate more), banished to Foodcourtia by his superiors, then double-banished to an obscure planet beyond the edge of known space when he escapes from his original banishment and tends to be the target of revenge plots whenever he comes into contact with other members of his own race. But his Large Ham tendencies and Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain nature make him a hit with fans.
  • Johnny Bravo: Johnny can't get a girl on his home show, but there are plenty of chicks that would like to handle his bod in Real Life.
  • In Justice League, Hawkgirl ends up becoming hated in-universe following the Thanagar Invasion, where neither the Thanagarians nor most Earth residents are willing to cut her a break. The other members of the League are pretty much her only holdouts, and it took many of them a long time to accept that she had atoned. But among fans, she has far more support.
  • On KaBlam!, Henry is pretty much the planet's punching bag. But of course, most of the fans wanna pick him up and hug him.
  • Among Kaeloo fans, Stumpy is the most popular character, yet he is a literal Cosmic Plaything and his friends make fun of him and bully him.
  • Daffy Duck from Looney Tunes is one of the longest-running and most famous examples ever. His ever-escalating rivalry with Bugs Bunny has always been balanced by the audience knowledge that Daffy is very funny... or more accurately, his constant and frequently self-inflicted suffering is. A major theme of Looney Tunes: Back in Action is that everyone hates Daffy, but can't get rid of him because he is a pivotal part of the show. Interestingly enough, after that movie, Warner Bros. began using Daffy a lot more, giving him bigger roles and even his own show.
  • The Loud House:
  • Pigeon from Mike Tyson Mysteries is a drunk, drug-addicted, sexually perverted Jerkass and is hated by pretty much everyone except Mike. Ask just about any fan and they will say that Pigeon is the best/funniest character on the show.
  • Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot. Oftentimes she gets no respect from her hometown in spite of her saving it every other day, only has three real friends (one of whom has a bit of a infatuation problem with her), and is the school freak. With the fans, she remains one of the popular and iconic Nicktoon characters to this day, with many people hoping for a reboot of the show. Half of this trope does start to fade away as the show goes on though, Jenny's heroics are not entirely lost on the town and eventually they give her the recognition she deserves.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • Downplayed with Cat Noir, who's a popular hero, but to a lesser extent than Ladybug. In universe, several characters already made clear that they see him as less important, and as her sidekick. When it comes to girls, many (including Marinette) have crushes on his Secret Identity, Adrien, who's a popular model, with hundred of fans. But nobody loves Cat Noir, including his crush Ladybug (aka Marinette), who is turned off by the alter ego of the boy she loves. Fans, however, love Cat Noir even more than Adrien, the most often, due to his funnier and edgier personality. (And his Superpowered Evil Side, Cat blanc, fall under "Evil is cool".) In fact, he's responsible for cases of Perverse Sexual Lust among more or less little girls in the fandom.note 
    • Played straight with Chloé Bourgeois. She was never popular in her school (unlike the classic Alpha Bitch character), with nearly no friends, and she's the Creator's Pest. For that reason, she was The Dragon to Hawk Moth in season 3 finale. As a result, season four saw Chloe stripped of her superhero status when the Bee Miraculous was given to her newfound and nicer half-sister, before Chloe was put Out of Focus. But many fans found her behavior hilarious, and her getting her comeuppance each time she wronged someone was satisfying (unlike the other and way more dangerous Alpha Bitch Lila). Chloe was also the only character who went through positive Character Development during the first three seasons, from a Hate Sink bully to a part time superhero with the Freudian Excuse of her horrible mother. Throwing away all her development by the window arguably gained her more support from the fandom, actually.
    • Félix is really only loved by his mother in the show but is adored by the fandom for being one of the smartest villains in the series, and the most threatening despite not having the same powers as Gabriel. In his second episode, he learns that Gabriel is Shadow Moth and is also the one who tricks Ladybug and hands over the other miraculous to Gabriel and to top it all off takes the Peacock miraculous for himself. Meaning that he achieved more in 3 episodes than Gabriel has managed in 4 seasons.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Princess Luna. Within the show's universe, she comes to be accepted back after her exile, but many ponies are initially suspicious of her, as seen in the episode "Luna Eclipsed". Outside of the show, she's one of the most popular characters, even beyond the Mane Cast.
    • The Great And Powerful Trixie is an egotistical showoff attention horse who spends most of her stage performance in her first appearance bragging about her accomplishments, humiliates Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash after they heckle her show, and earns the scorn of most of Ponyville before the episode is over. In real life she has a dedicated fanbase, regularly appears in fanworks, Snips and Snails swiftly became utterly despised by the fans for causing the conflict that ruined Trixie's career, Derpibooru (the largest FiM fansite) uses Trixie's color palette and cutie mark as an icon (as well as the alternate domain "Trixiebooru" and her face as the icon for the "best pony" category), and the owner of Equestria Daily (the second-largest FiM fansite) is an open and unabashed Trixie fan to the point that people used to have him appear in fanworks just to praise her. The showrunners very clearly picked up on her popularity, as she was the first antagonist ever in My Little Pony to get a toy, her second appearance had her return for revenge against Ponyville (particularly against Snips and Snails) that ends particularly well for her, and by the sixth season, Trixie had gone from one-off "antagonist" to a regularly appearing supporting character who has eased back on her narcissism.
    • Gilda the Griffon also receives plenty of love from the fanbase despite her being almost literally run out of Ponyville by the main cast at the end of her debut, getting one more appearance several seasons later.
    • Silver Spoon is often characterized by the fanbase as being emotionally conflicted and not actually enjoying taking part in Diamond Tiara's bullying of the Cutie Mark Crusaders but doing so simply out of loyalty to her only friend. In contrast, Diamond Tiara herself was considered a Hate Sink by the fandom until her Freudian Excuse was revealed in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark".
    • Much of Fluttershy's childhood consisted of other pegasi bullying her for her substandard flying skills, to the point that she left her hometown behind and never looked back. But even when she got older, she continues to be berated or taken advantage of by other characters. However, Fluttershy was voted the most popular member of the Mane Six by an official poll.
    • Discord, even after making a Heel–Face Turn, was still distrusted by the show's cast for a good while due to his antics in the past. Said antics are hilarious and made him among the most popular characters in the show despite his few appearances.
    • Maud Pie, Pinkie's older sister. Pinkie adores her to bits, but the rest of the Mane Six were initially put off by her extremely Stoic mannerisms, monotone voice, apparent dullness, and her obsession with rocks. They fail in bonding with her and even express that they don't really consider her a friend since they have virtually nothing in common with her. The fanbase however finds her quite intriguing and even hilarious.
  • The Penguins of Madagascar:
  • Phineas and Ferb: Heinz Doofenshmirtz is pretty much this, Oh so much. He's victim to a Hilariously Abusive Childhood and his best and evidently only friend is also his Arch-Enemy. And earlier in the series, his own daughter didn't appreciate him either, but Characterization Marches On. But put short, he only has Perry, Vanessa, and Norm, and that's it. His balloon story doesn't even begin to cover it. He was forced to wear dresses after his mother believed they were having a girl, but it was a boy. He also had to become a garden gnome, moved to NYC after he was kidnapped, etc. One has to believe whenever or not he is really a misunderstood guy.
  • The Powerpuff Girls: Mojo Jojo. He would always be the butt of jokes, and he never wins. But in real life, fans love him due to his Laughably Evil traits. And let's not forget how he speaks. Being the villain who appears the most, he's obviously the one who takes the most damage.
  • The Ren & Stimpy Show: In the episode "Stimpy's Fan Club", Stimpy gets tons of adoring fan mail, while Ren gets none. Stimpy tries to cheer Ren up by making him the president of Stimpy's Fan Club, but this just drives Ren to new levels of psychosis (and for Ren, that's really saying something). The next week, Nickelodeon got a truckload of letters from children telling Ren they loved him too.
  • Rick and Morty: Rick Sanchez is hated by many characters In-Universe due to his eccentric, dangerous and unpredictable nature, and seems to alienate everyone he comes across. His daughter only wants him to stay because of her abandonment issues, and his grandchildren have also slowly begun to dislike him due to his above-mentioned nature, and knowing he has infinite grandchildren ready to be replaced at a drop of a hat. Even infinite versions of Rick hate him, which is reciprocated. Rick has very few people he can call a true friend, and it's implied due to them turning a blind eye to his stranger activities. Outside the universe though, Rick is extremely popular among fans, to the extent that his rants have become Memetic Mutations as well as Rick being genuinely funny, smart and quirky in nature, and accurate about his world in general.
  • The Simpsons: While the audience finds them lovable, it's made clear that most of the populace finds the Simpsons family troublesome and/or dangerous. In the episode "Simpson Safari", this subtle exchange occurs:
    Homer: The Simpsons are going to Africa!
    Family: Yay!
    (In Africa, two tribesmen dance around a fire. Suddenly, one of them stops)
    Tribesman: What is it, N'gungo?
    N'gungo: Evil is coming.
    Tribesman: What shall we do, N'gungo?
    N'gungo (puts his mask on the other tribesman's head): You are N'gungo now! (runs away screaming)
    • Milhouse fits this trope fairly well. He's one of the least popular kids at his school and a hopeless Butt-Monkey in the show, but in the fanbase, he's one of the most popularly quoted characters.
    • In-Universe, Moe the bartender is mean, ugly, creepy and a pervert. Fans love him thanks to his tragic circumstances and Hidden Heart of Gold.
  • South Park:
    • Kenny McCormick is killed off on a regular basis for five seasons, bullied and insulted by all of his friends, and generally treated like dirt. Of course, as soon as he was Killed Off for Real, the fans were in an uproar, and he was back for good by the end of the season.
    • Subsequently, the character of Butters Stotch has taken Kenny's place as the fan-loved, but terribly treated character.
    • According to Craig in "Pandemic," the entire main cast qualifies as this. Eric Cartman, being a sociopath, comes as no surprise, but Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski are disliked because of their propensity towards getting involved in Zany Scheme after Zany Scheme that end up with them getting shot into space or stranded in Peru, which: A) only happens to them, out of all the children in South Park, and B) is their fault, according to — well, everyone in South Park.
    • Pip, who nobody in the show seems to like (including the creators) but has lots of fanart.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • Squidward Tentacles is often berated, loathed, and disrespected by most of the rest of the characters; which is pretty understandable considering a majority of the time he is a selfish and lazy jerk. That has not stopped countless fans however from sympathizing with his misfortunes and appreciating his Deadpan Snarker moments.
    • SpongeBob SquarePants himself seems to be despised by nearly everyone in Bikini Bottom, to the point where they actually have a holiday dedicated to getting away from him. This is however a zigzagged example, since in other episodes Spongebob is practically a town hero who is adored by all.
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
  • Hondo Ohnaka from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels isn't exactly someone that a lot of people in the galaxy like. Both the Sith and Separatists hate him for either capturing their leaders or humiliating them in some way. He's not too popular with the Jedi either and Obi-Wan, the one Jedi whom Hondo considers his friend, sees having to deal with Hondo as an unpleasant chore. He can be popular with his own men but they would willingly backstab him if they saw an opening, since they're all space pirates. With the fans, however, Hondo is wildly popular to the point of being a Breakout Character, leading him to become a main character at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.
  • Steven Universe:
    • The Crystal Gems initially can't stand Peridot because a.) she's one of the Homeworld gems that they've been fighting for centuries and b.) she is obnoxious and annoying. It's even implied that her own allies tolerate her at best. Although these issues lessened as the plot moved on, they were very much there for quite a while. Meanwhile, the fans have pretty much always loved her and she quickly became a popular character thanks to her antics and complete inability to be threatening.
    • Lapis Lazuli is, for some time, mistreated and manipulated by everyone other than Steven himself. Out-of-universe she is quite possibly the most popular character outside of the protagonists thanks to her cute design and tragic story.
    • In-Universe, Jasper is highly respected for being a pinnacle of gemkind. None of our heroes like her though; this is compounded in Steven Universe: Future when Jasper is one of the few gems interested in preserving Homeworld's former warlike ethos. Though Jasper has committed morally reprehensible actions, it is hinted, then outright confirmed, that the circumstances of her "birth", combined with Homeworld's fascism, has left her with a deep, abiding sense of self-loathing, that is only ameliorated by her deep, abiding love for her diamond. This, along with her beefy physique, makes her a very popular character.
  • Furrball from Tiny Toon Adventures is an unwanted stray cat who is often abused and unable to find a home with anyone but Elmyra (who's the most frequent source of said abuse). His status as the show's resident Butt-Monkey is epitomized in the lyrics to the opening theme, "Furrball's unlucky," complemented by a piano falling on him as he's happily sniffing a flower. Yet he's quite popular for a relatively minor character, with numerous fanart and fanfiction devoted to him. Being both a Ridiculously Cute Critter and The Woobie probably helps a lot, as quite a few YouTube commenters on his shorts express their desire to see him get a home. To say nothing of the fans who want to see him "get lucky" in the form of a certain purple skunkette from the same show...
  • Tom and Jerry: The former of the titular duo is not only more often than not the loser of the two's altercations at the end of many shorts, he is loathed by almost everyone else in the show, and most of them even take Jerry's side during the two's frequent quarrels. This, however, doesn't stop Tom from receiving a rather popular fanbase in which about 60% of them would root for him to win at the end, usually because Jerry either started the conflict between the two for no reason at all or took his retribution towards Tom too far (as well as the fact that Jerry often portrays a rodent who steals more food than he really needs from the kitchen and Tom is ordered by his owners to get rid of the mouse). Luckily, in many of those instances, Tom ends up getting the last laugh at the end.
  • Total Drama:
    • Chris is hated by the majority of the contestants in-universe, but some of the fans find him to be an interesting part of the show.
    • Heather is a perfect example, she was the most hated character in-universe (until Alejandro showed up), but is a fan favorite and has one of the largest fan bases out of every character in the show.
    • While Duncan was one of the most popular characters in the show, the vast majority of the contestants in TDA hated him in-universe. This was evident in the TDA finale, where Duncan won in a close [3-4] vote in his ending.
    • Cody during Island, who was disliked by most of the girls in-universe but was an Ensemble Dark Horse in the fanbase. In World Tour this gets reversed where he's a favorite in-universe but becomes a Base-Breaking Character out-universe.
    • Harold is fairly popular in the fan base but was deemed a loser and Butt-Monkey in the series. Though much like Cody he becomes more liked in-universe as the series progresses.
    • Courtney, in a sense. She's very unpopular with most of the other contestants because of her bossiness and "win at all costs"-attitude. However, in real life, while she's currently a Base-Breaking Character, she has one of the largest and most vocal fanbases.
    • Noah is not very liked in the show, due to his condescending, sarcastic know-it-all, slacker nature. But in the fan base, he's an Ensemble Dark Horse, and unlike Cody, his support has not waned.
    • Ezekiel was hated by the female campers before his transformation and utterly feared by everyone afterwards, but he's built up quite a fanbase that thinks of him as The Woobie and want him to get another chance and are hoping for him to be reverted back to his human self.
    • Scott in All-Stars arguably qualifies. He still carries his hatred from Revenge of the Island in the show, but his Iron Butt Monkey and increased stupidity has earned him a lot of fans from his very large hate base.
    • Samey from Pahkitew Island could possibly be the best candidate for the show to represent this trope. In that season, she is not strongly well-liked by her fellow contestants (except Jasmine, who understood her the most) due to her bullying sister Amy making them believe that she's "horrible at everything". In contrast in real life, many fans have shown their huge love for her because of how she is genuinely sympathetic and kindhearted, as opposed to her sister who is greatly hated because of her heartless, ignorant, and barbaric nature in the show, especially towards the former.
    • Scarlett is probably universally disliked in the show after the events of "Scarlett Fever", but she gained a lot of fans both before and after that incident in real life.
    • Max is another perfect example, as he's arguably the most hated character since Heather, yet has quite a sizable fan base (despite being a Base-Breaking Character).
    • The Ice Dancers from The Ridonculous Race were the villains of that show/season, and became hated by every other team for their cheating and backstabbing throughout the series. These traits also made them the most entertaining to watch.
    • The Goths regularly freaked out the other teams with their dour personalities, but they were decent people, and the weird situations they got into made them a lot of fans.
  • The Transformers: Starscream is the one Decepticon that nobody can stand, even his own fellow Seekers, because he's such a treacherous backstabber with an ego the size of Cybertron, and his loyalty to the cause (not Megatron) means no Autobot likes him either. In real life, he's one of the signature staples of the franchise and is extremely popular and beloved either for being such an unlucky amusing asshole, for somehow never giving up his ambitions despite all the setbacks, for ocasionally inspiring as much bile as he inspires pity from the audience, or even for having moments demonstrating that he's still not to be underestimated despite his flaws.
  • Transformers: Animated: Blitzwing alternates between an aloof Jerkass, a Hair-Trigger Temper Jerkass, and a psycho Jerkass, and even his partner Lugnut can't stand him all the time. He's also one of the most popular characters in the show.
  • If there was ever a poster boy for this trope, it'd be Wacky Races own Dick Dastardly. Not only is he universally despised by all (even his own sidekick), but he never won a single race in the original series despite having the fastest vehicle in the tournament (mostly due to a compulsive desire to cheat, and every attempt always backfiring on him spectacularly). And the one time he actually appeared to have won a race by legitimate means (and by legitimate, we mean by the typical standards of this race), the judges called foul play and disqualified him, despite the same tactic being used by another racer who won. Regardless of these failures, Dick Dastardly is easily the most popular character in the fandom, to the extent that he (and fellow contestant Penelope Pitstop) got spinoffs!
  • Jack Spicer from Xiaolin Showdown. An Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain/Butt-Monkey, described by many as being the funniest character on the show, and even having the largest number of fangirls. Following him is Raimundo, who has either a larger or equal number of fans, and is the butt of a lot of jokes within the show (not as much as Jack).

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