History SmallNameBigEgo / WesternAnimation

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'', Temple Fugate sincerely thinks that the guy who shares his seat at the subway after one year had to know his name, or that Counselor Hill knows his impending legal case simply because his law firm is handling it, or that he gave the AdviceBackfire on purpose.

* The late 80s series ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' featured several characters from Nintendo games, like VideoGame/KidIcarus and VideoGame/MegaMan. Simon Belmont from ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'' was depicted as a vain and arrogant "Ted Baxter"-like vampire hunter and rival to the main hero, Captain N.

** Later episodes explain that the reason for Peggy's inflated ego is because her own mother was an overly critical, judgmental, and controlling shrew who never praised Peggy for anything. Peggy ''has'' to believe she's the best at everything because it's the only way she can convince herself that her mother was wrong and she's not worthless.

* Number 2 in ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor''.
** Subverted in that he is very competent, most of the time, but tends to overestimate even that. More than anything though, he thinks he's funnier than he actually is.
** Number 4 is a better example.
*** Actually used by Numbah 4 in a MirrorUniverse episode, when it's revealed that the BigBad is [[EvilTwin alternate version of himself.]]. Numbah 4 realizes that if his counterpart is a hypercompetent villain, then he must also be a DirtyCoward.

** Actually, Dash makes several references to the fact that it's [[FutureLoser all downhill after high school]]. Maybe he's actually a JadedWashout in disguise?

** Possibly Tyler, who thinks he is the greatest athlete around, but constantly proves to be possibly the worst.

** Possibly subverted as of ''Recap/MagicDuel'' with Trixie's claim that her career was ruined due to her being humiliated in Ponyville, which might just imply she actually ''had'' some fame to her name previously. Of course, since nobody else on the show ever seems to bring the matter up or even mention having heard of her before, [[UnreliableNarrator we still only have her own word for that]].
*** Especially as her version of the events of ''Recap/BoastBusters'' do not match up with the actual episode.

* Lok from ''TakAndThePowerOfJuju''.

* Cartman from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', though he displays a number of tropes at a number of different times.

** Not to mention her, erm, ''unique'' take on the Spanish language.

*** Not to mention when he [[spoiler:breaks down and admits that he's nothing but a failure and that he doesn't deserve such loyal friends as Ed and Double D.]] It's a HUGE step towards CharacterDevelopment for Eddy and it causes him to become less of a jerk.

* Squidward from ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' aspires to be an artist, and thinks living next door to idiots like [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick while working as a cashier at [[BurgerFool the Krusty Krab]] is beneath him. Of course, he's not a very good musician, and all his paintings and sculptures seem to be of himself.

* The eponymous character of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', notable for being despised by his entire ''species'' due to the combination of this trope and TooDumbToLive.
** Pretty much all Irkens are this trope, as the Almighty Tallest demonstrate. Zim just takes it much farther because he single-handedly destroyed their invasion fleet once - yet thinks he behaved properly.
* Appropriately-named Dash Baxter from ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' is a slight variation in that only the audience and the main characters see through his self-image, the rest of the characters viewing him pretty much exactly as he views himself.

** Of course, the title character himself fell into this a lot, especially early on. Jake was quick to praise himself - only to fall flat on his face when things got tough. Of course, when [[LetsGetDangerous he shed the ego]], he'd be a force to be reckoned with.

** Not to mention Chris and Justin on their own attractiveness.
*** Though with Justin [[EvenTheGuysWantHim it seems to be justified]].

* Master Shake from ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce''. He constantly refers to himself in ways that assume whoever he's talking to has heard of him and always believes everything should involve him in some way. He's also a NoNothingKnowItAll who's clearly making it up as he goes along, and even more clearly thinks he's getting away with it.

* Brainy Smurf, on ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs''. Often, he will brag and moralize to his fellow Smurfs in invariably any situation, only for his advice to be dubious at best and completely wrong at worst. (In the animated series, when one of the Smurfs tires of him, he will be thrown out of the village ... literally.) He believes his quotations (compiled in volumes usually titled "Quotations From Brainy Smurf") will get other Smurfs to see him as a great orator and with insightful wisdom, although the quotes are little more than nonsensical ramblings, or copied wisdom from one of his fellow Smurfs. He thinks of himself as a ''de facto'' second-in-command whenever Papa Smurf is gone or needs someone to reinforce his authority, but this authority is often better handled by other Smurfs.

* Brian Griffin from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' spent years working on a novel entitled ''Faster Than The Speed of Love'' which turned out be a complete rip-off of the ''Film/IronEagle'' film series, even though Brian claimed he never saw any of them. Pretty much everyone who had heard of the book's plot mercilessly taunted Brian about it being a rip-off but he refused to acknowledge it. When the book did get published yet did not sell a single copy after being critically lambasted, the next day Brian read a rave review for a celebrity self-help book and thought self-help books were the reason the novel sold so terribly. He then decided to write a similar book out of spite; the book became popular and Brian slowly began raving "I have created a best selling PHENOMENON" until he was taken down on ''RealTimeWithBillMaher''.

** Brian is also egotistical when it comes to women. Brian always tries to act intelligent and suave to impress women so that he can easily have sex with them, but whenever they break up, Brian tends to blame the women he dates as the reason they broke up instead of admitting that his negative behavior was his own fault. One episode has Brian being confronted by every single woman he ever dated and they all point out how flawed he is, only for Brian to retort with flaws he sees in every woman he dated, basically saying [[NeverMyFault it's their fault their relationships with him went sour]].

* At the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'' this tropes is justified because this is one of the character traits of TheSociopath. Temple Fugate sincerely thinks that the guy who shares his seat at the subway after one year had to know his name, or that Counselor Hill knows his impending legal case simply because his law firm is handling it, or that he gave the AdviceBackfire on purpose (implying Hill, who only shares the subway with Fugate each morning, somehow knows Fugate is a CosmicPlaything), and even when the DramaticWind is blowing his documents, Fugate talks to [[{{Franchise/DCAU}} the Universe itself]], implying Fugate believes the Universe is doing this to him:
-->'''Fugate''' (talking to the DramaticWind): ''No! No! Don't do this to'' '''me!''' ''My lawyer needs those papers''.

* Master Shake from ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce''. He constantly refers to himself in ways that assume whoever he's talking to has heard of him and always believes everything should involve him in some way.

** As of ''Recap/MagicDuel'', Trixie is arguably a subversion. She claims that her career was ruined due to her being humiliated in Ponyville, which implies she actually was a fairly large-name celebrity across Equestria.

** Rainbow Dash has this to a degree as well, but [[RoundedCharacter doesn't let it get in the way of helping her friends.]] It also helps that [[AwesomeEgo she truly is quite the]] {{Badass}}.

* Kuzco was this at the beginning of ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'' having absolutely no doubt that everyone admires him. That turned out not so right.

** Brian is also egotistical when it comes to women. Brian always tries to act intelligent and suave to impress women so that he can easily have sex with them, but whenever they break up, Brian tends to blame the women he dates as the reason they broke up instead of admitting that his negative behavior was his own fault. One episode has Brian being confronted by every single woman he ever dated and they all point out how flawed he is, only for Brian to retort with flaws he sees in every woman he dated, basically saying it's their fault their relationships with him went sour.

* Brian Griffin from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', who was working on a novel for years entitled ''Faster Than The Speed of Love'' which turned out be a complete rip-off of the movie ''Film/IronEagle'', even though Brian had never seen it. Pretty much everyone who had heard of the book's plot mercilessly taunted Brian for being a rip-off but he refused to acknowledge it. When the book does get published yet doesn't sell a single copy after being critically lambasted, the next day Brian read a rave review for a celebrity self-help book and thought self-help books were the reason the novel sold so terribly. He then decided to write a similar book out of spite; the book became popular and Brian slowly began raving "I have created a best selling PHENOMENON" until he was taken down on ''RealTimeWithBillMaher''.

* Master Shake from ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce''.

* Johnny Bravo of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo''

* Brian Griffin from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', who was working on a novel for years entitled ''Faster Than The Speed of Love'' which turned out be a complete rip-off of the movie ''Film/IronEagle'', even though Brian had never seen it. When the book does get published yet doesn't sell a single copy after being critically lambasted, the next day Brian reads a rave review for a celebrity self-help book and thinks self-help books are the reason no one bought his novel. When he decides to write a similar book out of spite, the book becomes popular and Brian slowly begins raving "I have created a best selling PHENOMENON" until he's taken down on ''RealTimeWithBillMaher''.
** It seems the only people who did read it and enjoy were [[PeripheryDemographic a book club made up of mentally retarded people]].

*** Not to mention when he [[spoiler:breaks down and admits that he's nothing but a failure and that he doesn't deserve such loyal friends as Ed and Double-D.]] It's a HUGE step towards CharacterDevelopment for Eddy and it causes him to become less of a jerk.

* {{Kent Brockman|News}} of ''TheSimpsons'' is an intentional copy of Ted Baxter.

** Subverted in one episode, where he takes credit for Spongebob's sculpture and fails miserably at getting him to make another, better one to show the art critic. He snaps and goes insane, randomly throwing and chiseling like a madman, and then storms by the critic and angrily tells him that the ''janitor'' is now the artist and storms off. The art critic sees the sculpture, which is ''a magnificent work of art'', and says:

** Mr. Krabs is turning into one of these

* Same goes with [[JerkJock Brad]] on ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'', who's practically a {{Disney}} equivalent of Dash.

* Starlite, ''RainbowBrite'''s talking steed, who likes to introduce himself as "Starlite, the most magnificent horse in the world".
* ChuckJones turned ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' character DaffyDuck into this starting in the early 1950s.

** Surprisingly, Daffy went through a bit of a deconstruction of this trope in ''LooneyTunesBackInAction''; in one scene, he actually acknowledges his lack of success relative to Bugs, lamenting his position at Warner Brothers and the fact that all Bugs has to do is "munch on a carrot" for everyone to love him. Not quite enough to qualify as BigEgoHiddenDepths, since it only lasts the one scene, and throughout the movie there is every indication that the SmallNameBigEgo personality is the true one.
* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' brings another main (and title) character example. He does have [[LetsGetDangerous genuine competence lurking beneath surface]], though.

** In ''HouseOfMouse'' Gaston is a recurring character, often saying "No one (verb)s like Gaston!"
*** Also a [[MemeticMutation recurring character]] on the internet in many forums and imageboards alike. Parodied in one ban message where he says "NO ONE SHUTS U-" followed by a beat panel where he realises this means he'll have to stop talking, then he tells the viewer "Eh, I think I'll let you have that one."
* Henry Masterson, aka the Headmaster from ''TransformersAnimated'' is very deliberately a parody of this trope.

* It seems a lot of ducks fall for this trope: {{Duckman}} is another main character who embodies this.

* Tako from ''SushiPack'' considers himself to be a great artist worthy of the world's admiration, but his abstract paintings are less than admired by anyone, even his own teammates. One episode, in fact, had him chasing down the bad guy not because he stole all the art in the museum, but because he stole all the art in the museum except for Tako's paintings.

* Brian Griffin from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', despite he is very intelligent and have a good number of talents, usually thinks of himself as a great writer, but when he finally got his novel published, he didn't sell a single copy. Worth of mention that, the Literary Award he won at the beginning of "Play it Again, Brian" was because he plagiarized another guy's work.

* The late 80s series ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' featured several characters from Nintendo games, like Kid Icarus and Megaman. Simon Belmont from ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'' was depicted as a vain and arrogant "Ted Baxter"-like vampire hunter and rival to the main hero, Captain N.

* Cody from ''TotalDramaIsland'' is this on his flirting abilities, as well as Owen on his [[AnimalsHateHim wilderness skills]], and Courtney as part of her second-season JerkSue persona.

* Master Shake from [[WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce ATHF]].

* Lucius on ''JimmyTwoShoes''.

* Brainy Smurf, on ''TheSmurfs''. Often, he will brag and moralize to his fellow Smurfs in invariably any situation, only for his advice to be dubious at best and completely wrong at worst. (In the animated series, when one of the Smurfs tires of him, he will be thrown out of the village ... literally.) He believes his quotations (compiled in volumes usually titled "Quotations From Brainy Smurf") will get other Smurfs to see him as a great orator and with insightful wisdom, although the quotes are little more than nonsensical ramblings, or copied wisdom from one of his fellow Smurfs. He thinks of himself as a ''de facto'' second-in-command whenever Papa Smurf is gone or needs someone to reinforce his authority, but this authority is often better handled by other Smurfs.
* [[OccidentalOtaku Birch Small]] of ''MyLifeMe'', especially when it comes to her artworks. She shows off her own "manga art" to her manga idol Miyazaki [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign Lee]], which the idol claimed to like only to insult a different "local" comic also made by Birch, which prompts her to bitch him out and start insulting some of the very work of his she was praising earlier.
* Antoine of ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatam'' sees himself as a heroic, intelligent "and so very handsome" Freedom Fighter who can take Swatbots in their thousands. In reality he is a sniveling DirtyCoward that often acts as TheLoad. Sonic and Sally, though much more genuinely competent, frequently have IdiotBall moments due to their conflicting egos.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' episode ''Hot Ice'' gives us Cecil, a burglar who believes himself to be a criminal genius, to the point '''that he leaves handwritten signed notes declaring himself to be a criminal mastermind at the scenes of his crime'''.
* TheEeyore of WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest, Hubert "Dad" Test.

* Kyle and Salty Mike from ''SquirrelBoy.''

* Principal Pixiefrog from ''MyGymPartnersAMonkey''.
* Dean from ''TheGoodeFamily''.

* Kitten Kabootle and Mr. Fischburger from ''RickySprocketShowbizBoy''.

* ''InspectorGadget'', far more so than in the film version. This actually is a major element which [[StatusQuoIsGod preserves the status quo]]. Most notably, he is convinced that Dr. Claw is so terrified of him that MAD packs up and leaves as soon as Gadget is assigned to a case. This may be the main reason he canonically can't catch Dr. Claw, despite the number of times they've been physically close: Gadget ''cannot believe'' Dr. Claw would dare go near him, and thus cannot recognize him. To some extent, this is also why Inspector Gadget tends to not notice MAD agents trying to kill him or recognize the MAD logo.

* Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel in ''LiloAndStitch''.
* ''RegularShow'': Park Avenue, graffiti artist from "Under the hood".

* Lampooned in the ''{{Animaniacs}}'' episode "Broadcast Nuisance". The Warner siblings provide (admittedly poor) service to Dan Anchorman, host of a news show, who has been shown to be arrogant, rude, demanding, and egotistical. Being rude to the Warner siblings is very bad for your mental health. (The Warner siblings have been shown capable of being polite and apologizing -when treated accordingly.)
* Brian Griffin from ''FamilyGuy'', who was working on a novel for years entitled ''Faster Than The Speed of Love'' which turned out be a complete rip-off of the movie ''IronEagle'', even though Brian had never seen it. When the book does get published yet doesn't sell a single copy after being critically lambasted, the next day Brian reads a rave review for a celebrity self-help book and thinks self-help books are the reason no one bought his novel. When he decides to write a similar book out of spite, the book becomes popular and Brian slowly begins raving "I have created a best selling PHENOMENON" until he's taken down on ''RealTimeWithBillMaher''.
** It seems the only people who did read it and enjoy were a book club made up of mentally retarded people.

* Antoine of ''SonicSatam'' sees himself as a heroic, intelligent "and so very handsome" Freedom Fighter who can take Swatbots in their thousands. In reality he is a sniveling DirtyCoward that often acts as TheLoad. Sonic and Sally, though much more genuinely competent, frequently have IdiotBall moments due to their conflicting egos.