History TookALevelInJerkass / WesternAnimation

*** "Pet Sitter Pat", when he "takes care" of Gary while [=SpongeBob=] visits his grandma for her birthday, he just [[BabysitterFromHell eats his food, pours the rest of it in the sink, terrorizes him with a]] FireBreathingWeapon, [[BabysitterFromHell forcefully washes him with a hose and soap flakes, planned to use salt to dry him up (only not doing so because he couldn't find any), and uses a hairdryer that painfully dries, hardens and shrivels up Gary]].

** While not as much as Mr. Krabs, [=SpongeBob=] can also shift into {{Jerkass}} territory at times. A good example of [=SpongeBob=] being more of a jerk comes in "A Pal for Gary". Worried that Gary is lonely, he gets a new pet (by stealing it) but ignores the seller's warning it hates other pets, which constantly ruins Gary's life among with berating and punishing him for being unsupportive of it. When [=SpongeBob=] sees Puffy Fluffy eating Gary, he says that Gary should put Puffy Fluffy down. [[LaseeGuidedKarma Then Puffy attempts to eat him]] and when Gary saves him, [[UngratefulBastard he scolds him for making Puffy run away rather than thanking Gary]]. Even by the later seasons' standards, that's moronic of [=SpongeBob=], not to mention quite dickish.

*** A post-HD example would be "Jolly Rodgers", in which both [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick seem to disrupt Squidward and follow him all over the hotel deliberately despite his insist to be alone, and they won't stop until he comes to the jellyfish convention with them. In addition, they were the ones responsible for the urchin outbreak in the beginning.

** While not as much as Mr. Krabs, [=SpongeBob=] can also shift into {{Jerkass}} territory at times. A good example of [=SpongeBob=] being more of a jerk comes in "A Pal for Gary". Worried that Gary is lonely, he gets a new pet (by stealing it) but ignores the seller's warning it hates other pets, which constantly ruins Gary's life among with berating and punishing him for being unsupportive of it. When [=SpongeBob=] sees Puffy Fluffy eating Gary, he says that Gary should put Puffy Fluffy down. Then Puffy attempts to eat him and when Gary saves him, [[UngratefulBastard he scolds him for making Puffy run away rather than thanking Gary]]. Even by the later seasons' standards, that's moronic of [=SpongeBob=], not to mention quite dickish.

*** In "Demolition Doofus", while he accidentally injures Mrs. Puff, he isn't less dickish since he proposes to call her "Mrs. Pop", says she looks better that way, and seems uncaring for her plight. Although Mrs. Puff is also uncharacteristically bitchy in the episode, going so far as to attempt to ''murder'' [=SpongeBob=].

*** In "Demolition Doofus", while he accidentally injures Mrs. Puff, he isn't less dickish since he proposes to call her "Mrs. Pop", says she looks better that way, and seems uncaring for her plight.

** While not as much as Mr. Krabs, [=SpongeBob=] can also shift into {{Jerkass}} territory at times. A good example of [=SpongeBob=] being more of a jerk comes in "A Pal for Gary". He gets a new pet (by stealing it), which constantly ruins Gary's life. When [=SpongeBob=] sees Puffy Fluffy eating Gary, he says that Gary should put Puffy Fluffy down. Then Puffy attempts to eat him and when Gary saves him, [[UngratefulBastard he scolds him for making Puffy run away rather than thanking Gary]]. Even by the later seasons' standards, that's moronic of [=SpongeBob=], not to mention quite dickish.

*** There's the episode "Yours, Mine, and Mine", where Patrick "borrows" money from [=SpongeBob=] to "share" a Krabby Meal together. He of course eats the whole thing himself. Mr. Krabs then makes Sponge pay ''extra'' for the toy (which is really just a Krabby Patty that Krabs dressed up as a doll). Patrick then claims that since he and [=SpongeBob=] are still "sharing" that he gets to play with it. Long story short, Pat eventually never lets [=SpongeBob=] play with the "toy" (that he paid for) and he inevitably eats it just so [=SpongeBob=] can't have it. After the two eventually make-up, Pat offers to pay for some new toys, by using [=SpongeBob=]'s wallet. When [=SpongeBob=] calls him out on that, he asks him "[[KnowNothingKnowItAll Have you learned nothing about sharing?]]"

** Mr. Krabs changed from a decent, if money-obsessed, businessman, into a horrendous boss who has a MoneyFetish and ([[KarmaHoudiniWarranty almost]]) always [[KarmaHoudini gets away with his crimes]].

* Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/IronMan'' saw its title hero adopt many of the less-admirable traits the comic Tony Stark had, as he decided to start keeping secrets and even faked his death without telling anyone about it, which caused Force Works to dissolve until the series finale. The "Armor War" adaptation had Tony commit many of the same actions he did in the comic version, including getting into fights with other heroes over the suspected use of his tech and shutting down the Vault.

** Star Butterfly was pretty stubborn and rough during the first season, but Season 2 displays her more selfish than earlier on.

** If that wasn’t enough, Star’s mother, Moon, took a much bigger one in Seasons 3-4, while in the first two seasons, Moon did start out as a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold strict but honest]] parent who, despite her cold and serious nature and low tolerance for anything reckless and destructive, does care about Star and her husband, River at times (Also, some may consider that her strict attitude towards her daughter may have been a [[FreudianExcuse cause and a horrible effect]] on Star becoming more selfish and oblivious in S2b, since Moon has been so hard on Star her whole life before she sent her to Earth in the first episode,through she still loves her and wants the best of Star no less). But after her character development at the end of Season 2 and Battle of Mewni, her overbearingness and anger towards Star was taken to extremes and she goes from a serious,strict queen to an outright terrible and racist queen, who is often blinded by her hatred against monsters, gets mad at and acts more tyrannical towards Star more than usual after she returned to Mewni, and has a grudge against her grandmother Eclipsa for being in love with a monster and using dark magic on her. Despite having a [[FreudianExcuse reason]] for the way she is due to Toffee killing her mother, Comet, she ends up going down the wrong path to become such a horrible queen and bad mother to her own daughter by making the Magic High Commission lie to her family for years and has done a lot of bad choices in her life such as [[WhatAnIdiot leaving her kingdom to be taken over by Toffee by taking shelter at Buff Frog’s and caring more than her daughter’s safety than her kingdom]], [[NeverMyFault blamed]] Eclipsa for corrupting her arm due to the spell she performed with her harming it badly and called her evil not because of it,but for being in love with an Monster, and hastily attacked Meteora just as Eclipsa was succeeding in taking her down (which led to her isolating herself in the realm of magic and Meteora destroying her kingdom, leaving it in ruins). She was not even happy when Star told her to give her a fair trial much to her grudgement and resentfulness against Eclipsa and showed no care in Star trying to repair the monster-Mewman relationship (despite telling her earlier to seek a monster expert). Even through she did loosen up in Season 4 after Star rescued her from Pie Island after being transported there,she ended up becoming much worse at the end of the series when she teamed up with Mina Loveberry to remove Eclipsa from power after she became queen of Mewni as revenge for [[NeverMyFault making]] her lost in the magic realm and separating her from her daughter, Star. Her betrayal as well as lying to everyone and leaving millions of die in the hands of her Solarian warriors was the reason and cause for Star’s hatred and later destruction of magic in the finale. Moon’s overall unethical, horrible actions,misguided judgements, and betrayal in the later seasons made her much worse to the point she ends up making Star look like a saint in comparison.

** While not as much as Mr. Krabs, [=SpongeBob=] can also shift into {{Jerkass}} territory at times. A good example of [=SpongeBob=] being more of a jerk comes in "A Pal for Gary". He gets a new pet (by stealing it), which constantly ruins Gary's life. When [=SpongeBob=] sees Puffy Fluffy eating Gary, he says that Gary should put Puffy Fluffy down. Then Puffy attempts to eat him and when Gary saves him, [[UngratefulBastard he scolds him for making Puffy run away rather than thanking Gary]]. Even by the later season's standards, that's moronic of [=SpongeBob=], not to mention quite dickish.

** Randy Marsh started off as a somewhat incompetent but well meaning parent, and to an extent one of the more rational adult residents. As his role elevated, he slowly evolved into a sociopathic ManChild whose selfish antics his family often have to face the brunt of (especially his son Stan).
*** Season 23 took this UpToEleven, where he stops caring about his family at all and accuses them of not caring about his family if they express that they hate Tegridy Farms, and becomes a greedy, sociopathic monster who care only about profits and commits numerous murders and unethical business actions to get more money. At this point, he’s comparable to Cartman in terms of evil.

** Even Kyle arguably got this. "Tonsil Trouble" has him laughing at his SitcomArchNemesis Cartman after he gets HIV, in "Douche and Turd" he almost has ''[[WithFriendsLikeThese Stan]] killed by Puff Daddy'' [[ItsAllAboutMe so he can get his vote for his candidate]] and then gets even madder at him for voting for Cartman's Candidate, and "Fatbeard" shows him willing to send Cartman's entire Pirate crew (including classmates such as [[ButtMonkey Butters]] and Clyde) to their death in Somalia.

** Eddy went from an UnluckyEverydude to a JerkWithAHeartOfGold to a greedy bastard due to {{flanderization}}. Reversed in TheMovie, where we find out that Eddy was just acting that way because [[spoiler:he idolized his older brother, who we find out is a far bigger bastard]].

*** Season 23 took this UpToEleven, where he stops caring about his family at all and accuses them of not caring about his family if they express that they hate Tegridy Farms, and becomes a greedy, sociopathic monster who care only about profits and commits numerous murders and unethical business actions to get more money. At this point, he’s comparable to [[VillainProtagonist Cartman]] in terms of evil.

*** Season 23 took this UpToEleven, where he stops caring about his family at all and accuses them of not caring about his family if they express that they hate Tegridy Farms, and becomes a greedy, sociopathic monster who care only about profits and commits numerous murders and unethical business actions to get more money. At this point, he’s comparable to Cartman in terms of evil.

* [[WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil:

* [[WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil Star Butterfly]] was pretty stubborn and rough during the first season, but later episodes display her more pigheaded than earlier on.
** All Star wanted do was have fun with the Buff Frog's tadpoles she and Marco are babysitting in "Starsitting", instead of following Buff Frog's instructions like Marco.
** When Ruberiot arrives to write Star's song for Song Day in "Face the Music", she leaves after asking him for tea. Returning, Ruberiot says he can't leave until he writes her song, and Star was threatening to leave again unless he leaves. When Marco pleads she do as he says, Star replies she doesn't want anything to do with him or the song he'll write because she's appalled of the fact she has to have her own written song that stretches the truth about her. She even [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calls him out on his work]].
** In "Booth Buddies", Star drags Marco into taking photos in the old photo booth frpm the Bounce Lounge due to Star reminiscing their old taken photos. She even ''[[MoralDissonance takes Marco's money to pay for the photos without asking him first]]''!
*** If that wasn’t enough,Star’s Mother,Queen Moon Butterfly took a much bigger one in Seasons 3-4,while in the first two seasons,Moon did start out as a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold strict,but honest]] parent who, despite her cold and serious nature and low tolerance for anything reckless and destructive,does care about Star and her husband,River at times(Also, some may consider that her strict attitude towards her daughter may have been a[[FreudianExcuse cause and a horrible effect]] on Star becoming more selfish and oblivious in S2b, since Moon has been so hard on Star her whole life before she sent her to Earth in the first episode,through she still loves her and wants the best of Star no less). But, after her character development at the end of Season 2 and Battle of Mewni, her overbearingness and anger towards Star was taken to extremes and she goes from a serious,strict queen to an outright terrible and racist queen, who is often blinded by her hatred against monsters,gets mad at and acts more tyrannical towards Star more than usual after she returned to Mewni,and has a grudge against her grandmother Eclipsa for being in love with a monster and using dark magic on her. Despite having a [[FreudianExcuse reason]] for the way she is due to Toffee killing her mother,Comet, she ends up going down the wrong path to become such a horrible queen and bad mother to her own daughter by making the Magic High Commission lie to her family for years and has done a lot of bad choices in her life such as [[WhatAnIdiot leaving her kingdom to be taken over by Toffee by taking shelter at Buff Frog’s and caring more than her daughter’s safety than her kingdom]],[[NeverMyFault blamed]] Eclipsa for corrupting her arm due to the spell she performed with her harming it badly and called her evil not because of it,but for being in love with an Monster,and hastly attacked Meteora just as Eclipsa was succeeding in taking her down(which led to her isolating herself in the realm of magic and Meteora destroying her kingdom,leaving it in ruins). She was not even happy when Star told her to give her a fair trial much to her grudgement and resentfulness against Eclipsa and showed no care in Star trying to repair the monster-mewman relationship(despite telling her earlier to seek a monster expert). Even through she did loosen up in Season 4 after Star rescued her from Pie Island after being transported there,she ended up becoming much worse at the end of the series when she teamed up with Mina Loveberry to remove Eclipsa from power after she became queen of Mewni as revenge for [[NeverMyFault making]] her lost in the magic realm and separating her from her daughter,Star. Her betrayal as well as lying to everyone and leaving millions of die in the hands of her Solarian warriors was the reason and cause for Star’s hatred and later destruction of magic in the finale. Moon’s overall unethical,horrible actions,misguided judgements,and betrayal in the later seasons made her much worse to the point she ends up making Star look like a saint in comparison.

** Roger was a pretty plausible Jerkass to begin with, though (DependingOnTheWriter at least) could occasionally show compassion and restraint in his antics. In later episodes the callousness of his actions and schemes border outright FauxAffablyEvil territory. For example, in "Virtual In-stanity", he [[DisproportionateRetribution/WesternAnimation hunted down five frat boys who stiffed him $20]], then killed some more random people just because he's "got the blood lust".

** Cosmo after the first three seasons.

*** If that wasn’t enough,Star’s Mother,Queen Moon Butterfly took a much bigger one in Seasons 3-4,while in the first two seasons,Moon did start out as a strict,but honest parent who despite her cold and serious nature and low tolerance for anything reckless and destructive,does care about Star and her husband,River at times(Also some may consider that her strict and attitude towards her daughter may have been a [[FreudianExcuse cause]] and a horrible effect on Star becoming more selfish and oblivious in S2b since Moon has been so hard on Star her whole life before she sent her to Earth in the first episode,through she still loves her and wants the best of Star no less). But after her character development at the end of Season 2 and Battle of Mewni,her overbearingness and anger towards Star was taken to extremes and she goes from a serious queen to an outright hateful,terrible,and racist queen who is often blinded by her hatred against monsters,gets mad at Star more than usual after she returned to Mewni,and has a grudge against her grandmother Eclipsa for being in love with a monster and using dark magic on her. Despite having a [[FreudianExcuse reason]] for the way she is due to Toffee killing her mother,Comet, she ends up going down the wrong path to become such a horrible queen and mother to her own daughter by making a lot of bad choices in her life such as [[WhatAnIdiot leaving her kingdom to be taken over by Toffee by taking shelter at Buff Frog’s and caring more than her daughter’s safety than her kingdom]],[[NeverMyFault blamed]] Eclipsa for corrupting her arm due to the spell she performed with her harming it badly and called her evil not because of it,but for being in love with an Monster,and hastly attacked Meteora just as Eclipsa was succeeding in taking her down(which led to her isolating herself in the realm of magic and Meteora destroying her kingdom,leaving it in ruins). She was not even happy when Star told her to give her a fair trial much to her grudgement and resentfulness against Eclipsa and showed no care in Star trying to repair the monster-mewman relationship(despite telling her earlier to seek a monster expert). Even through she did loosen up in Season 4 after Star rescued her from Pie Island after being transported there,she ended up becoming much worse at the end of the series when she teamed up with Mina Loveberry to remove Eclipsa from power after she became queen of Mewni as revenge for [[NeverMyFault making]] her lost in the magic realm and separating her from her daughter,Star. Her betrayal as well as lying to everyone and leaving millions of die in the hands of her Solarian warriors was the reason and cause for Star’s hatred and later destruction of magic in the finale. Moon’s overall unethical,horrible actions,misguided judgements,and betrayal in the later seasons made her much worse to the point she ends up making Star look like a saint in comparison.

* ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse2013'' makes WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, normally a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, a straight-up {{Jerkass}}. The most infamous example is "[[Recap/MickeyMouseS2E19BroncoBusted Bronco Busted]]".

* The ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheFuture'' animated series makes [[ActionSurvivor Marty]] [[GuileHero McFly]] this.

* It's safe to say that {{Flanderization}} has engulfed the cast of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' so intensely that it's easier to list characters who haven't taken a level in jerkass. The best instance of an inversion is Stewie, who TookALevelInKindness to the point where he's now the most likable character on the show. (Relatively speaking, of course; he used to be ''evil'', and nowadays he's just an asshole.)

** Bill and Ben are known to be mischievous and bratty engines, but since their return in Season 17, they've become considerably nastier. This is especially noticeable in their treatment of Timothy.

** Bart Simpson is known for being a {{Jerkass}}, but sometime his {{Jerkass}}ery reaches HeroicComedicSociopath levels ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E7BartVsThanksgiving Bart vs. Thanksgiving]]"[[note]]where he deliberately ruins Lisa's centerpiece, although he later runs away out of guilt[[/note]], "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E17MySisterMySitter My Sister, My Sitter]]"[[note]]where he does everything in his power to pester Lisa while she's sitting him, even risking his own life[[/note]], "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E3BartVsLisaVsTheThirdGrade Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade]]"[[note]]where he turns up the dial just to make sure to give Lisa a nightmare in the grade he was degraded to[[/note]], "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E3PleaseHomerDontHammerEm Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em]]"[[note]]where he approaches Skinner's peanut allergy to control him[[/note]], "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E11MillionDollarMaybe Million Dollar Maybe]]"[[note]]where he blackmails Homer for privileges[[/note]], "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS22E17LoveIsAManyStrangledThing Love is a Many Strangled Thing]]"[[note]]where he takes advantage of Homer and even ''leaves him for dead''[[/note]] and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS25E2TreehouseOfHorrorXXIV Dead and Shoulders]]"[[note]]where he tries to kill Lisa so he can have her body to himself[[/note]] being some examples).

** Since debuting in season 7, Emily started off as a kind and mature engine. At the start of season 8, she becomes bossy, rude, and haughty. Even the episode "Emily's Adventure" focuses on her learning how to be polite to others. She returns to her original personality in season 13, but she still has shades of her childishness.

* While still a rather sympathetic character, Baloo's ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' counterpart is often shown to act more selfish and egotistical than his original ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'' interpretation (albeit DependingOnTheWriter). In contrast Louie and Shere Khan are slightly less antagonistic.

*** In the same special, The Fat Controller also feels like this. In fact, some fans thought he was actually going to tell Thomas he had had enough of him and intended to replace and sell him. Though to be fair, his attitude throughout the special stems from the fact that Thomas is causing tremendous amounts of damage both physically and financially [[RealityEnsues (meaning Sir Topham Hatt has to pay for repairs to the damaged coaches, listen to complaints from angry passengers, and deal with the repeated delays to the construction of the new branch line)]] and is refusing to take responsibility for his actions. Given that, it's [[JustifiedTrope understandable that Sir Topham Hatt seems stricter than usual.]] Then again, he was too harsh and unfair towards Thomas after the dynamite incident, not letting him explain that he was trying to save everyone and cruelly sent poor Thomas to his shed in disgrace.

* Princess Bubblegum of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' was given a few morally ambiguous traits in some of the earlier episodes. She sometimes let her anger get the better of her and would mercilessly pursue those who had wronged her. Some of her science experiments also went wrong, such as producing her extremely screwed up offspring Lemongrab. However, more often than not Bubblegum would show regret when she screwed things up, and work to fix her mistakes. Over the course of season 5, her actions turn from well meaning mistakes into outright atrocities, such as committing genocide on a group of defective robots, sacrificing one of her subjects because she thought he wasn't as valuable as Finn or Jake, throwing Tree Trunks' entire wedding into prison just because Tree Trunks preferred the fake King of Ooo preside over her wedding than her, causing almost the entire conflict of one episode just because she doesn't like people thinking of magic as anything than another kind of science, and in general showing no remorse for hurting people if she believes it's for the greater good. A canon video game also reveals that she trapped and performed painful experiments on the two Lemongrab brothers, when she had previously been shown trying to help them. The only reason she doesn't come across as a villain is because of the nature of these threats, namely evil!Lemongrab and that the fake king intended to make everyone his servants. She does mellow out after Flame Princess gives a [[WhatTheHellHero serious]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech piece]] of her mind.

** Bloo is shown as the perfect ImaginaryFriend in the pilot/TV movie, but just one episode later he has become a self-absorbed jerk who [[WithFriendsLikeThese verbally and/or physically abuses Mac]] OncePerEpisode. [[WMG/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends It's possible]] that living in an OrphanageOfLove might ironically have something to do with it. He wasn't used to having so much freedom before moving into Foster's, so it probably inflated his ego.

* [[WesternAnimationStarVsTheForcesOfEvil Star Butterfly]] was pretty stubborn and rough during the first season, but later episodes display her more pigheaded than earlier on.