Insufferable Imbecile / Western Animation

Examples of dimwitted jerks in Western Animation.

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• South Park

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A-K

• The Amazing World of Gumball:
  • Gumball Watterson, Depending on the Writer. He is Book Dumb, ignorant, lazy, reckless, hedonistic, and petty, although he is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold on his better days.
  • Jamie is an unintelligent Barbaric Bully who often threatens and beats up other students when they upset her.
• American Dad!:
  • Stan Smith is an extremely stupid CIA agent who has anger issues and frequently engages in depraved and assholish behavior. However, unlike Peter Griffin, he does these things because he thinks it will help either America or his family.
  • Francine isn't as stupid as her husband, but she is nonetheless an airheaded Dumb Blonde who can also be apathetic and Ax-Crazy Depending on the Writer.
• Daggett from The Angry Beavers isn't the brightest bulb on the chandelier, and he has a hot temper and a general disregard for social graces. He's still a decent person deep down and can be surprisingly selfless in certain circumstances.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force:
  • Master Shake is a dimwitted Jerkass who uses nonsensical reasoning to justify his behavior, fails to properly plan his many ridiculous schemes, bullies Meatwad For the Evulz, and antagonizes the rest of the characters for attention.
  • The Mooninites and Oglethorpe of the Plutonians are very close seconds, being Jerkasses in their own right while being incredibly stupid at the same time, with the latter being a rude, self-centered Psychopathic Manchild prone to fits when he doesn't get his way. However, they're pretty much harmless (or, in the former's case, most of the time).
• Archer: Sterling Archer is an ignorant, boisterous, and reckless Narcissist who is callous, abrasive, and rude to most people he interacts with (especially Woodhouse and Cyril) and his dumb actions are a result of his arrogant and self-absorbed nature.
• Beavis and Butt-Head infamously defined this trope for the '90s with the eponymous slacker metalhead duo, who cared for little except for music videos and chicks. Beavis is the somewhat nicer but also less smart and assertive of the duo, albeit not quite enough to avoid this trope.
• Bratz: The Alpha Bitch Tweevil twins, Kirstee and Kaycee, are quite self-absorbed and ditzy to the point that their own boss regularly calls them "incompetent morons".
• Brickleberry:
  • Steve Williams, the protagonist, is very stupid and very self-centered, showing no remorse for the trouble he causes others.
  • While he's not quite as dumb as Steve, Woody Johnson has demonstrated poor judgment on several occasions and often prioritizes short-term gain over everything else.
• CatDog:
  • Cliff is the meanest member of the Greasers who, while smarter than Lube, isn't too bright himself. Subverted with Lube, however, as he is just playing along with them and doesn't know any better.
  • Depending on the Writer, Dog can be this, as he can be rather insensitive himself, all the while being a moron. He's Innocently Insensitive on his better days, though.
• Chalkzone: Reggie Bullnerd is a bully who lacks intelligence and doubles as a Know-Nothing Know-It-All.
• Clerks: The Animated Series: Randal Graves was flanderized into this, as he became an immature idiot who was also willing to "punch holes in Dante's boat" and throw him under the bus at the first opportunity.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog: Eustace Bagge is a Grumpy Old Man who is violently cruel towards Courage and is a self-righteous dick towards just about everyone. Ironically, despite calling Courage a "stupid dog", he's also Too Dumb to Live since he frequently does something moronic to put him and the rest of the family in danger and often causes himself to suffer from certain villains' wrath due to his own stupidity. Also, in another episode, he fails at answering the simplest of questions during an impromptu game show with a deer, even calling the globe a "Bowling ball covered in throw-up". Shirley even refers to him as "the stupid one".
• Drawn Together: Captain Hero is extremely dimwitted and has no problem with screwing people over to get what he wants.
• Duckman: Duckman is a cantankerous, bitter asshole who rants about anything and everything, a lousy father to his kids, a bad friend to Cornfed, his loyal detective partner, and a total pervert. He is also grossly incompetent at his job as a detective, most of the time not even doing any work. He constantly forgets one of his son's names, goofs regularly, and whenever he's not causing problems with his jerkishness, it's his idiocy. He does have a heart deep down, though.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • Downplayed with Eddy, who can be a reckless, ignorant Jerkass. While a genius compared to Ed, who is anything but insufferable (unless there is a pebble in his shoe), he is still prone to Idiot Ball moments such as falling for Rolf's "money tree seed" story^note Even Ed recognizes his folly, saying, "Even I am not that dumb, Double D.". He's also very Book Dumb:
    Eddy: R-E-S-P-E-E-K. Respect, Double D.
  • May Kanker is a Dumb Blonde. While more sympathetic than her sisters (at least, in some episodes), she's still quite violent and she forces herself on Ed.
• The Fairly OddParents!:
  • Cosmo, Depending on the Writer. His stupidity often makes him act selfish and careless. He's also not a very good husband to Wanda, often drooling over attractive female characters (e.g. the Tooth Fairy, Mandie) even when Wanda is right next to him.
  • Timmy's parents are dimwitted, and instead of being loving parents, they are neglectful and irresponsible parents who care more about themselves than their son's happiness.
  • Francis is a Dumb Muscle bully.
  • Timmy isn't immune to this. He's a Book Dumb kid whose stupid wishes drive most of the episodes' plots, and he can be quite a Jerkass, particularly in the final season after Chloe's introduction, since Timmy's negative traits are flanderized to make him a Foil to the smart and nice Chloe.
• Family Guy:
  • Peter Griffin is narcissistic, slovenly, lazy, and imbecilic, all of which Meg laid into him for in her rant near the end of "Seahorse Seashell Party". Peter, of course, completely misses the point and takes offense to her calling him "a waste of a man".
  • Usually subverted with Chris Griffin, who is a Dumb Is Good character most of the time, and, along with Meg, the least Flanderized in Jerkassery of the Griffins. However, he has his moments of cynicism and insulting people for no reason.
  • Carter Pewterschmidt is a rich, greedy Scatterbrained Senior who treats people like dirt, can be easily fooled (such as when he failed to recognize Peter when the latter took off his glasses), and is immature to the point of being incapable of taking care of himself.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends:
  • Mac's older brother Terrence is a sociopathic bully who exists solely to ruthlessly torment his little brother. That aside, he's so dumb that the people in his dreams talk in syllable-emphasized speech.
  • Downplayed with Bloo. While he isn't that dumb, he is still a rather ignorant Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist and a colossal Attention Whore.
• Futurama:
  • Zapp Brannigan is a sexist, arrogant jerk with no redeeming qualities but manages to be funny because of his idiocy.
  • Walt, though the smartest of Mom's three sons, is still pretty dimwitted. He's also the nastiest of the three and often slaps his brothers when Mom can't do it.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
  • Billy started off as a Kindhearted Simpleton who meant well in spite of his gross habits in the earlier seasons right before shifting on to this in later episodes when Flanderization kicked in to turn him into an Ax-Crazy jackass who is often the cause of the chaos ensuing due to his inconsideration for others and had shown to be just as much of a Bratty Half-Pint as Mandy on his worst days.
  • Mindy is an airheaded and obnoxious Alpha Bitch who thinks Paris is a country and Africa is a city.
• I Am Weasel features I. R. Baboon playing this as foil to the eponymous lead. Whereas Weasel is scholarly, uber-competent, and selfless, Baboon is a selfish underachiever who constantly tries upstaging Weasel, who, even knowing this, considers him a friend and even goes out of his way to save his bacon.
• Invader Zim:
  • The titular Zim is a selfish, Lethally Stupid Jerkass whose evil plans often fail due to his own stupidity (as Gaz even points out). He's only barely smarter than his Bumbling Sidekick GIR.
  • Most of the human population are Too Dumb to Live jerks who often belittle Dib whenever he attempts to warn them about Zim.
• The titular character of Johnny Bravo. A good deal of the show's humor relies on Johnny's tendency to get himself in trouble by being a self-centered halfwit or make problems worse because he is hopelessly unable to understand what's going on and never listens to those who know better. He is also often too obtuse to realize his method of macking on women only causes them to rebuff his attempts. Nevertheless, he is a good person deep down.
• King of the Hill Jimmy Wichard is an idiotic man who is also mean-spirited and aggressive due to his mental state as his debut episode being an idiot of a boss to Bobby to the point of forcing him to get a soda for him by having cross through the track during the Nascar race which Hank found out and kicks his ass as a result. When Peter Sterling who hired Jimmy to fake-bully him so Bobby would believe that the waste-removal job isn't cracked out to be since Bobby doesn't have the charisma and social skills to not go through ridicule, Jimmy attacks him for real by trapping him into a port-a-potty and sending him rolling down a hill for no good reason.

L-Z

• Looney Tunes:
  • Yosemite Sam is short-tempered, haughty, and violent. And while he’s somewhat smarter than Elmer, he’s still pretty dumb.
  • In the Toon Heads episode "Tasmanian Devil", it's stated that Taz "has the temper of Yosemite Sam and is dumber than Elmer Fudd". Being a mindless animal (instead of a Civilized Animal like most Looney Tunes), Taz is quite vicious and dangerous.
  • The Looney Tunes Show:
    • Because of his Adaptational Dumbass, Daffy Duck is an idiot in this show, while also keeping his selfish Small Name, Big Ego persona.
    • Cecil Turtle is actually nastier than he was in the classic shorts, to the point of attempting murder. Aside from that, Bugs Bunny is able to run mental circles around him once he gets wise to the turtle's schemes, such as tricking him into thinking he's gone forward in time. This is in contrast to his original incarnation, who was the only character who could consistently outwit Bugs.
• Captain K'nuckles from The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is a lazy, self-serving, cowardly cad who occasionally takes Flapjack for granted and is half the time a borderline sociopath. On top of that, he and reason aren't on the best of terms.
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey: Jake Spidermonkey is an obnoxious pest who's obsessed with his butt, gives Adam horrible advice, constantly belittles him, and does nothing but goof off 90% of the time.
• Paradise PD: Robby is a Dumb Blonde criminal who believes America was founded by "Christopher Cumbus" and treats his family members like dirt, especially on his birthday.
• Planet Sheen: Sheen is stupid, impulsive, and very self-centered. Just about all of the bad things that happen in the series are a result of his poor decisions. This was a complete 180 from his characterization in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, where he was still dumb and could be selfish at times but still obviously cared about his friends.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): The Rowdyruff Boys are a Terrible Trio of evil bullies and also idiots, especially as they Took a Level in Dumbass since their reappearance. Brick is arguably the smartest, but only by comparison.
• The Proud Family: Dijonay is selfish and insensitive, as well as dimwitted, impulsive, and incompetent. As such, her friend group doesn’t trust her for very important stuff, and for good reasons, too. This gets toned down in The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, usually to the point where she’s simply imbecilic, but she could still relapse into being insufferable.
• Regular Show:
  • Rigby is often a lazy, selfish Manchild who makes rude/stupid comments (which Mordecai usually punches him for); he can't tell the difference between a square and a rectangle; and it's even mentioned several times that he's a high school dropout. However, he eventually Took a Level in Kindness later in the series.
  • Muscle Man. In addition to being an obnoxious prankster who goes on rampages when enraged (though he does have a soft side, especially with women), he also thinks there's 400 days in a year. He sometimes endangers his life in episodes like "Dead at Eight". Though much like Rigby, he also eventually Took a Level in Kindness.
• Ren Hoëk in The Ren & Stimpy Show. Despite being much smarter than Stimpy, he is still rather idiotic himself, constantly screwing himself over with his incompetence and poor impulse control. He is also abusive towards Stimpy, regularly slapping and insulting him and making him his personal slave.
• Jerry Smith in Rick and Morty. His ignorance coupled with his obnoxious and selfish behavior means he'll usually rub someone the wrong way, especially his family. "Something Ricked This Way Comes" exemplifies how his need to be perceived as right makes him ignore his son's reasoning and indulge himself in the praise of a misguided alien species, which turns out to be the alien leader's attempt to continue exploiting his people and resources.
• Heffer Wolfe in Rocko's Modern Life could definitely shift towards this on his worst days when he becomes selfish and causes problems for others. His worst moment was when he refused to return the letter Rocko wrote for a female mail carrier since it's considered a federal offense (despite the fact that he was reading Rocko's incoming letters, which would have resulted in him losing his job as a mail carrier) and attempted to send the mail to Rocko's crush out of pure spite. He also gets into frequent quarrels with Filburt over trivial matters.
• The Simpsons:
  • Homer Simpson, Depending on the Writer. He's lazy, stupid, prone to jokes at others' expense (especially Ned Flanders), and is also well-known for his frequent habit of strangling Bart whenever he angers him.
  • Though not as stupid as his father, Bart Simpson is nevertheless a Book Dumb Jerkass who takes joy in tormenting others (particularly Lisa and Principal Skinner), does not understand the concept of irony, and cannot pronounce 'cottage cheese' correctly.
  • Chief Wiggum is a Dirty Cop who sometimes engages in Police Brutality and is so stupid that he accidentally rats out his own undercover men; he once even almost accidentally shot himself while eating donuts wrapped around the barrel of his handgun.
  • The majority of Springfield has also showcased to be this — and when we're talking "insufferable", we mean "dare to point it out in any way, shape, or form, then expect an angry mob with Torches and Pitchforks to form and come gunning for you." The "imbecile" part is proven in "HOMR", when the normally dumb Homer becomes much smarter and is ostracized because of it; Homer's IQ in that episode is only barely above average (105), but still too high compared to most Springfield citizens, whose average IQ level is generally low.
• Spliced: Entree is really dumb in addition to being very mean and selfish.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Many characters have displayed this kind of behavior later seasons:
  • Patrick Star ventures into this trope in later seasons, thanks to Flanderization. The most infamous example comes from "The Splinter"; when SpongeBob rightfully complains to Patrick about worsening the problem, he thinks SpongeBob doesn't want his help.
  • Patrick's sister Sam from "Big Sister Sam". She is dumber than Patrick and exhibits Hulk Speak. She is also an extremely destructive and rageful Knight Templar Big Sister.
  • The majority of Bikini Bottom (particularly in the post-movie era) also qualifies; they are often rather irritable, petty, self-righteous, airheaded, and, like Springfield mentioned above, prone to angry mob mentality when anything goes wrong. They are even referred to as morons on several occasions (mostly by Squidward).
  • SpongeBob himself has fallen into this trope at his worst. The most notorious examples are "Demolition Doofus" (where he causes Mrs. Puff to suffer a disabling injury, then makes fun of her for it) and "A Pal For Gary" (where he doesn't notice that Puffy Fluffy is trying to eat Gary, even scolding Gary for being afraid).
• Early Cuyler from Squidbillies is a not-too-bright criminal whose schemes frequently blow up in his face. He also has a Hair-Trigger Temper, abuses his family, and generally treats everyone he meets with contempt.
• Squirrel Boy: Rodney J. Squirrel is an obnoxious Sidekick Creature Nuisance with a fondness for bizarre leaps of logic, Misspelling Out Loud, and a tendency to act before thinking.
• Steven Universe: Kevin is such a chauvinistic Jerkass that even Steven hates him, and he mistakes Lion for a dog and apparently thinks Steven's name is Clarence.
• Teen Titans Go!: All the main characters are Denser and Wackier and more foolish than their original Teen Titans counterparts, and they are also much less heroic, being often jerks to each other and to other people. While Starfire is still generally nice towards her teammates and other people in general, and Raven can, at least in the first two seasons, be the Only Sane Man, both have fallen into this as much as the rest of the team.
• Tom and Jerry:
  • Tom himself has his moments of picking on Jerry For the Evulz or taking a little too much pleasure in his duties. He's also rather gullible and doesn't know when to cut his losses, which has gotten him killed a few times.
  • The babysitter from "Busy Buddies" and "Tot Watchers" is grossly incompetent and never notices when the baby wanders off, instead preferring to talk on the phone. She also beats up Tom for "bothering" the baby when he and Jerry are only trying to keep it safe.
• The 2023 reboot of Total Drama has Ripper, who, in addition to being a major Jerkass, is also too dense and immature to be a threat.

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