History AllGirlsWantBadBoys / WesternAnimation

** Manny Rivera, the titular AntiHero/AntiVillain WesternAnimation/ElTigre, has a thing for bad girls. He first developed a crush on Zoe Aves before he dumped her upon realizing she was ruining his friendship with Frida. Then when a school dance comes up, he tries to woo a gang of bad girls to get a date with one. Even his best friend Frida Suarez, who [[spoiler: [[WordOfGod ends up marrying and starting a family with]]]], has a rebel side to her, and loves making mischief as much as he does.

** Prince Zuko, who has the scars, the attitude, and the fangirls to qualify, not to mention [[Film/{{Grease}} a familiar name]]. Even well before his HeelFaceTurn however, the more he is seen outside of battle, the clearer it is that he is much less a bad boy than a [[HeroicBSOD brooding]] [[{{Adorkable}} dork]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', Lana Lang dates Lex Luthor in "My Girl" and tells him she likes bad boys...[[SubvertedTrope but]] given the choice, she'd much prefer {{Nice Guy}}s like Clark Kent. Played straight in "[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS3E8SupermansPal Superman's Pal]]" when Jimmy's crush Tina [[spoiler: turns out to be involved with Metallo]].

** Kitty (Shadowcat) is attracted to and dates the TroubledButCute Lance (Avalanche), even though he tried to kill her in an earlier episode. The whole relationship was an homage to Claire and Bender from the 80s teen movie ''The Breakfast Club''. Avalanche looks exactly like an animated version of Judd Nelson's Bender.

-->'''Play!Katara''': Oh Jet, you're so ''bad''.

** It's played entirely straight in "The Ember Island Players," wherein Katara falls for Jet (who wipes out the town for her) and later Zuko. What she says about Jet is on the quotes page.
-->'''Player Katara''': Oh Jet, you're so ''bad''.

--->'''Jessica:''' ''[walking up]'' You're "bad", Bart Simpson.
--->'''Bart:''' ''[plaintive]'' No, I'm not! I'm really--
--->'''Jessica:''' Yes, you are. You're bad...and I like it.
--->'''Bart:''' ''[suave]'' I'm bad to the bone, honey.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM Sonic The Hedgehog]]'': Princess Sally's LoveInterest is [[ProtagonistTitle Sonic the Hedgehog]] - an [[AntiHero arrogant, egotistical showboat]] with a [[BookDumb minimal formal education,]] who also has [[SmugSuper superpowers]] that [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers allow him to ignore most of these shortfalls.]]

* WesternAnimation/KimPossible admits to Ron (in the appropriately titled episode "[[Recap/KimPossibleS3E4BadBoy Bad Boy]]") that she likes the TroubledButCute type. Ron sees a pattern, and attempts to cultivate a bad boy persona as date-bait. This coincides with a TransformationRay that makes him a genuine supervillain. Ironically, not Disney, but Nickelodeon would grant Kim's wish in one of their [[Magazine/NickelodeonMagazine magazine's]] [[http://i.imgur.com/niUmRw4.jpg prank comic books]] that announced she was dating...

** Turned on its head, as Jessica is actually worse than Bart: she was willing to steal from the Church collection plate while Bart was not. Jessica had set Bart up as a patsy all along, so if they got in trouble, everyone would look at him instead of her.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleShow'' has Jessica Cat being into Lou the Wolf.
* WesternAnimation/KimPossible admits to Ron (in the appropriately titled episode "[[Recap/KimPossibleS3E4BadBoy Bad Boy]]") that she likes the TroubledButCute type. Ron sees a pattern, and attempts to cultivate a bad boy persona as date-bait. This coincides with a TransformationRay that makes him a genuine supervillain. Ironically, not Disney, but Nickelodeon would grant Kim's wish in one of their [[Magazine/NickelodeonMagazine magazine's]] [[http://i.imgur.com/niUmRw4.jpg prank comic books]] that announced she was dating...
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' and its sequel ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' both have examples which, interestingly enough, are either not played straight or end up subverted in some way or another.

* Extreme badass characters on various shows such as Brock Samson on ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' seem to have an almost supernatural ability to court women. Even though both of them are kind of ugly, physique aside.
* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution''
** Kitty (Shadowcat) is attracted to and dates the TroubledButCute Lance (Avalanche), even though he tried to kill her in an earlier episode. The whole relationship was an homage to Claire and Bender from the 80s teen movie ''The Breakfast Club''. Avalanche looks exactly like an animated version of Judd Nelson's Bender.
** Also note that Pietro is the biggest jerkass in the Brotherhood, has repeatedly bullied and tormented the X-Men, primarily Evan, and, later, teased Kitty, was an irredeemable DirtyCoward, and, in some episodes, seemed like a budding sociopath. This has not stopped him being able to date FOUR girls at the same time.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'':
** AlphaBitch Pretty and Kaeloo herself have both shown attraction towards [[VillainProtagonist Mr. Cat.]]
** Also inverted, as Mr. Cat seems to like NiceGirl Kaeloo.

* Yin of ''WesternAnimation/YinYangYo'' ignores Coop the chicken when he's in his normal geeky state, but when he's tainted with evil, she's mad about him. This also goes for other males in their world. She finds evil "dreamy."
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E4AHunkaHunkaBurnsInLove A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love]]", Mr. Burns acquires a girlfriend who is attracted to "bad boys," and finally dumps him for her former boyfriend--pretty criminal Snake Jailbird, causing much confusion for Mr. Burns: "I don't understand, Simpson! I'm a ''bad boy''! I'm completely evil! [[ContinuityNod I once blotted out the sun]]!"
** {{Discussed|Trope}} on the DVDCommentary for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E7LisasDateWithDensity Lisa's Date with Density]]," with those present ruefully concluding for all the nice guys out there that, "It's nice to be a nice guy, but with the ladies...steal a hood ornament...otherwise you'll have to wait to be someone's second husband."
** In the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E7BartsGirlfriend Bart's Girlfriend]]," Rev. Lovejoy's daughter, Jessica, is attracted to Bart's "Bad Boy" status after a dinner with the Lovejoys has gone awry:
--->'''Jessica:''' ''[walking up]'' You're "bad", Bart Simpson.
--->'''Bart:''' ''[plaintive]'' No, I'm not! I'm really--
--->'''Jessica:''' Yes, you are. You're bad...and I like it.
--->'''Bart:''' ''[suave]'' I'm bad to the bone, honey.
** Turned on its head, as Jessica is actually worse than Bart: she was willing to steal from the Church collection plate while Bart was not. Jessica had set Bart up as a patsy all along, so if they got in trouble, everyone would look at him instead of her.
** When Kirk van Houten was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, he found himself becoming an object of affection to a group of women who thought he was guilty.
** Bart invoked this to make himself popular at a new school. In exchange for attending Ralph's birthday party, Chief Wiggum pretended to take Bart into custody in front of the entire school, calling him a rebel who follows his own rules. One girl promptly swoons after hearing this.
** Discussed in a later episode when Bart asks Lisa [[ArmorPiercingQuestion why she still has a thing for Nelson]]. She goes from denying any kind of attraction, to admitting that he's mysterious, to gushing that he's dark, complex and she's the only one who can change him!

* Gender inverted in ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' with the relationship between Bob and Mouse. Early episodes showed a certain degree of {{U|nresolvedSexualTension}}ST between them, but we knew Bob's {{O|neTruePairing}}TP was with Dot and Mouse found her love interest with Ray Tracer, the web surfer.
* Jazz in ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' fell for the motorcycling Rebel-Without-A-Cause type Johnny 13 after he rescued her, the results of which had her acting rebellious as well. [[spoiler: Of course, he's really a ghost planning to entrap his equally dead girlfriend in Jazz's body. Creepy.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''
** There's an episode where Buttercup develops a crush on Ace from the Gangreen Gang who, naturally, upon noticing, decides to suck up to her to get her on his side while the rest of his gang try to kill her sisters.
** In a later episode which shows the girls as teenagers, all three flirt with the [[ThePsychoRangers Rowdyruff Boys]].
-->'''Bubbles:''' We can't talk to them! They're ''bad''.\\
'''Blossom and Buttercup''' (''excited'')''':''' I know!
* In ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'', Courtney and Gwen both dig Duncan.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''
** Quagmire (who is only a ChivalrousPervert towards [[ButtMonkey Meg]] and is an implied rapist otherwise) [[DiscussedTrope explains]] that the more a woman is treated like crap, the more interested she'll be in you.
** In one episode, Stewie realizes the way to get Olivia to go out with him is to treat her like crap. It works.
** The trope is also {{subverted|Trope}} in one episode when Chris gets a girlfriend and Peter tells him to treat her like crap so that he'd be "cooler than the other side of the pillow." [[NiceJobBreakingItHero She dumps him almost immediately for it.]]
* In one ''WesternAnimation/SlackerCats'' episode, Eddie seduces a female cat by pretending to be a hardcore bad boy, this proves too much for him because, while he was always a bit of a jerk, he was never as bad as she wanted. Eventually, he tries to prove how evil he is by robbing a baby panda, but it backfires and, eventually, she leaves him to date [[spoiler:Dooper, the local homeless cat]] (who she considered more "bad"). But due to the ResetButton, this never lasted after the episode.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', Lana Lang dates Lex Luthor in "My Girl" and tells him she likes bad boys...[[SubvertedTrope but]] given the choice, she'd much prefer {{Nice Guy}}s like Clark Kent. Played straight in "[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS3E8SupermansPal Superman's Pal]]" when Jimmy's crush Tina [[spoiler: turns out to be involved with Metallo]].

* On ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad,'' one episode has Hayley fall for a Saudi terrorist who is torn between his mission and his love for her. [[spoiler:Actually an InvokedTrope--he isn't a terrorist at all, he just uses that schtick to get American girls to sleep with him.]]
* Gwen in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' gets one towards Kevin, someone she wouldn't even considered talking to before her GirlinessUpgrade. Partially subverted in that she seems more appreciating of his softer side, and usually gets pissed off by him acting like a jerk or doing illegal deals.
* One would think the ending of the [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts Disney short]], ''The Barn Dance'' would qualify for this as Minnie leaves WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse for WesternAnimation/{{Pete}}. However its actually a SubvertedTrope as Pete was actually a [[AdaptationalHeroism courteous gentleman in this cartoon]] for once, whilst Mickey, while sympathetic, was a mischievous young man.

* ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan'': Most of the girls at Sherman High School seem to be crushing on [[TroubledButCute Lance]].
* Discussed in ''WesternAnimation/BabyBlues''. Were Daryl bemoans that his babysitter is going out with a complete jerk who acted like he was "hurting inside." They try and set her up with a nice boy but she displays no interest in him and runs back to the jerk at the episode's end. The jerk boyfriend even threatens Daryl to get Dizzy together with him again. Despite the threat of violence he refuses and gives the guy a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about how nice guys like him are the ones hurting inside because girls flock to utter assholes like him who treat them like crap.
** Daryl is also the victim of this, since in high school he lost the girl he had a crush on to a guy playing the bad boy to get girls. He's vindicated years later when it turns out that guy became an overweight, balding janitor at not even thirty.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman,'' [[PlayingWithFire Firefly]] gets a girlfriend who seems rather self-aware about this.
-->'''Firefly:''' Beauty, brains ''and'' cool under fire. What did I do to deserve you?
-->'''Blaze:''' Simple. You were very, ''very''...bad.
** {{Lampshaded}} by Batgirl in the same episode: "Like [[Comicbook/HarleyQuinn Harley]] and [[Comicbook/TheJoker Joker]]. It's a bad boy thing."
* Gender reversed on ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''. Both Comicbook/BlackCanary and ComicBook/{{Huntress}} throw themselves at Franchise/{{Batman}}, but he's solely interested in "reforming" Comicbook/{{Catwoman}}.
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'':
** ''Adventure Time with'' ''[[GenderFlip Fionna and Cake]]'': Marshall Lee believes that Fionna likes him because of this. Fionna also raises a good point to this trope - if Marshall is as bad as he claims, then ''why'' would he want to hang out with a nice hero like her? Thus, she knows it's all just an act.
** This was also skewered in an early episode. The Ice King, who at that point in the story has little character besides abducting various princesses and attempting to marry them, shaves his beard in a fit of depression, dresses differently, and his line "Well, I'm an ice king" is misheard by a princess as "Well, I'm a nice king." Princesses turn out en masse in their eagerness to meet and court the "Nice King," as do Finn and Jake, who immediately come to offer their services to him. However the Ice King's inability to be truly nice or considerate of anyone else, (as well as his beard rapidly growing back due to the magical influence of his crown, giving him back his distinctive appearance) quickly undoes the ruse and drives everyone away.

* {{Subverted}} in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''--Dipper worries that Wendy and Robbie will start a relationship because, even though Robbie's a jerk, "He's a jerk with tight pants and a guitar." When Wendy and Robbie do hook up, it's implied to because of Robbie showing an occasional soft side. They break up largely due to him being unable to keep the "jerk" aspect buried.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheDeep'', Fontaine Nekton clearly has feelings for Smiling Finn, a pirate. Smiling Finn returns those feelings.

** It's played entirely straight in "The Ember Island Players", wherein Katara falls for Jet (who wipes out the town for her) and later Zuko. What she says about Jet is on the quotes page.

** Better yet, in the sequel series Korra's first crush Mako seems like Zuko 2.0 with the same personality and attitude... but is actually such a LoveMartyr [[MartyrWithoutACause Without a Cause]] that he makes ''anyone he's in a relationship with'' the Bad Boy by default. [[spoiler:He ends the series single]].
* Gender flipped in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', where good-boy Knight-In-Shinning-Armour Silverbolt can't stop himself from falling for the naughty bad-girl Blackarachnia. And he's not the only one. Cheetor has the hots for her as well. She appears to show some interest in his upgrades after he became the much more badass Transmetal II Cheetor, but still calls him a "nice kid", pointing out that it's already two strikes against him, prompting Cheetor to angrily mutter that he's neither a kid nor that nice. She still goes with Silverbolt, probably because spending years around Predacons has turned her off to this trope (and she's a Maximal at heart anyway).

* Yin of ''WesternAnimation/YinYangYo'' ignores Coop the chicken when he's in his normal geeky state, but when he's tainted with evil, she's mad about him. This also goes for other males in their world. She finds evil "dreamy".

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E4AHunkaHunkaBurnsInLove A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love]]", Mr. Burns acquires a girlfriend who is attracted to "bad boys", and finally dumps him for her former boyfriend--pretty criminal Snake Jailbird, causing much confusion for Mr. Burns: "I don't understand, Simpson! I'm a ''bad boy''! I'm completely evil! [[ContinuityNod I once blotted out the sun]]!"
** {{Discussed|Trope}} on the DVDCommentary for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E7LisasDateWithDensity Lisa's Date with Density]]", with those present ruefully concluding for all the nice guys out there that, "it's nice to be a nice guy, but with the ladies...steal a hood ornament...otherwise you'll have to wait to be someone's second husband".
** In the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E7BartsGirlfriend Bart's Girlfriend]]", Rev. Lovejoy's daughter, Jessica, is attracted to Bart's "Bad Boy" status after a dinner from the Lovejoys have gone awry:

-->'''Batman:''' One: dating within the team always leads to disaster. Two: you're a princess from a society of immortal warriors; I'm a rich kid with issues... lots of issues...

** In one episode, Stewie realises the way to get Olivia to go out with him is to treat her like crap. It works.

* One would think the ending of the [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts Disney short]], ''The Barn Dance'' would qualify for this as Minnie leaves WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse for WesternAnimation/{{Pete}}. However its actually a SubvertedTrope as Pete was actually a [[AdaptationalHeroism courteous gentleman in this cartoon]] for once, whilst Mickey while sympathetic, was a mischievous young man.

* Discussed in ''WesternAnimation/BabyBlues''. Were Daryl bemoan that his babysitter is going out with a complete jerk who acted like he was 'hurting inside. They try and set her up with a nice boy but she displays no interest in him and runs back to the jerk at the episodes end. The jerk boyfriend even threatens Daryl to get Dizzy together with him again. Despite the threat of violence he refuses and gives the guy a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about how nice guys like him are the ones hurting inside because girls flock to utter assholes like him who treat them like crap.
** Daryl is also the victim of this, since in high school he lost the girl he had a crush on two a guy playing the bad boy to get girls. He's vindicated years later when it turns out that guy became an overweight, balding janitor at not even thirty.

** ''Adventure Time with'' ''[[GenderFlip Fionna and Cake]]'': Marshall Lee believes that Fionna likes him because of this. Fionna also raises a good point to this trope- if Marshall is as bad as he claims, then ''why'' would he want to hang out with a nice hero like her? Thus, she knows, it's all just an act.
** This was also skewered in an early episode. The Ice King, who at that point in the story has little character besides abducting various princesses and attempting to marry them, shaves his beard in a fit of depression, dresses differently, and his line "Well, I'm an ice king" is misheard by a princess as "Well, I'm a nice king." Princesses turn out en masse in their eagerness to meet and court the "Nice King", as do Finn and Jake, who immediately come to offer their services to him. However the Ice King's inability to be truly nice or considerate of anyone else, (as well as his beard rapidly growing back due to the magical influence of his crown, giving him back his distinctive appearance) quickly undoes the ruse and drives everyone away.

** In "Cheer Up Star" Star develops a crush on Oskar Greason, a keytar-playing slacker who "has a record". Given her demonic ex Tom, it's not the first time she's had a crush on a bad boy.
** Marco, meanwhile, seems to believe in this trope, and thus tries to act like a "misunderstood bad boy". In truth, he's really just a NiceGuy.

** Katara also was quite goo-gaa over Jet in his first episode when he was a heroic Robin Hood-esque figure fighting for the freedom for the Earth Kingdom but still had the roguish aloofness of a bad boy. [[spoiler: At least, until she saw for herself that Jet and his gang were about to destroy an occupied Earth Kingdom village.]]

* Extreme badass characters on various shows such as Brock Samson on ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' and Korgoth from ''WesternAnimation/KorgothOfBarbaria'' seem to have an almost supernatural ability to court women. Even though both of them are kind of ugly, physique aside.

** Subverted, as Jessica is actually worse than Bart: she was willing to steal from the Church collection plate while Bart was not. Jessica had set Bart up as a patsy all along, so if they got in trouble, everyone would look at him instead of her.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'':
** In "Cheer Up Star" Star develops a crush on Oskar Greason, a keytar-playing slacker who "has a record". Given her demonic ex Tom, it's not the first time she's had a crush on a bad boy.
** Marco, meanwhile, seems to believe in this trope, and thus tries to act like a "misunderstood bad boy". In truth, he's really just a NiceGuy.

* One would think the ending of the WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse cartoon, ''The Barn Dance'' would qualify for this as Minnie leaves the titular character for ''WesternAnimationPete.'' However its actually a SubvertedTrope as Pete was actually a [[AdaptationalHeroism courteous gentleman in this cartoon]] for once, whilst Mickey was more of a mischievous young man.

* The ending of ''The Barn Dance''. Poor WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse.

* WesternAnimation/KimPossible admits to Ron (in the appropriately titled episode "[[Recap/KimPossibleS3E4BadBoy Bad Boy]]") that she likes the TroubledButCute type. Ron sees a pattern, and attempts to cultivate a bad boy persona as date-bait. This coincides with a TransformationRay that makes him a genuine supervillain. Ironically, not Disney, but Nickelodeon would grant Kim's wish in one of their [[http://i.imgur.com/niUmRw4.jpg magazine's prank comic books]] that announced she was dating...

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': AlphaBitch Pretty and Kaeloo herself have both shown attraction towards [[VillainProtagonist Mr. Cat.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime with'' ''[[GenderFlip Fionna and Cake]]'': Marshall Lee believes that Fionna likes him because of this.
** Fionna also raises a good point to this trope- if Marshall is as bad as he claims, then ''why'' would he want to hang out with a nice hero like her? Thus, she knows, it's all just an act.

* Rather extreme example: Comicbook/HarleyQuinn in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' is [[MadLove crazy in love]] with ''ComicBook/TheJoker''. Even before he slowly takes her sanity, Dr Harleen Quinzel is attracted to the Joker. It's hard to get more "Bad Boy" than a sociopathic, mass-murdering clown...

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheDeep'', Fontaine Nekton clearly has feelings for Smiling Finn, a pirate. Smiling Jack returns those feelings.

* In the first season of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', Dipper worries that Wendy and Robbie will start a relationship because, even though Robbie's a jerk, "He's a jerk with tight pants and a guitar." When Wendy and Robbie do hook up, it's implied to because of Robbie showing an occasional soft side. They break up largely due to him being unable to keep the 'jerk' aspect buried.