- Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, "Why me?", then a voice answers "Nothing personal, your name just happened to come up."
— Charlie Brown
Some guys have all of the luck, while some have no luck at all. Why are they doomed to fail? We'll probably never know, but we love watching them stumble through life.
Contrast Master of the Index, for characters who excel in at least one craft.
Tropes about characters that explicitly are defined as losers:
- Acceptable Hard Luck Targets
- Basement-Dweller
- Beady-Eyed Loser
- Beleaguered Assistant
- Beleaguered Boss
- Born Unlucky
- Butt-Monkey
- Casanova Wannabe
- The Chew Toy
- The Chosen Zero
- Classical Anti-Hero
- Cool Loser
- Cosmic Plaything
- Designated Monkey
- Deus Angst Machina
- Doom Magnet
- Dream Sue
- The Devil Is a Loser
- Expectation Lowerer
- Failure Hero
- The Friend Nobody Likes
- Future Loser
- High Hopes, Zero Talent
- High School Rejects
- Hikikomori
- Hollywood Nerd
- Inept Mage
- Iron Butt-Monkey
- Jaded Washout
- Little Jimmy
- Loser Deity
- Loser Friend Puzzles Outsiders
- Loser Protagonist
- Loser Son of Loser Dad
- Lower-Class Lout
- Master of None
- Memetic Loser
- Neet
- No Respect Guy
- Polka Dork
- The Poorly Chosen One
- Poor Man's Substitute (when used In-Universe)
- The Slacker (Is a loser due to their own apathy)
- Straw Loser
- Super Loser
- This Loser Is You
- Unlikely Hero
- Unlucky Everydude
- Unwanted Spouse
- Walking Disaster Area
- The Woobie
Tropes that are very closely related to losers and/or show up in almost every loser story:
- All of the Other Reindeer
- Atrocious Alias
- Brown Bag Mask (when used as a mark of shame)
- Cannot Talk to Women
- Circle of Shame
- Critical Failure
- Disaster Dominoes
- Disproportionate Celebration
- D.I.Y. Disaster
- Dodge Ball Is Hell
- Domestic Appliance Disaster
- Dunce Cap
- Eating Lunch Alone
- Eject the Loser
- Embarrassed by a Child
- Embarrassing Nickname
- Epic Fail
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed
- F--
- Failure Is the Only Option
- Failure Montage
- Failures on Ice
- Fake Muscles
- Flexing Those Non-Biceps
- The Freelance Shame Squad
- Friendless Background
- From Bad to Worse
- Future Me Scares Me
- Geek Physiques
- Give Geeks a Chance
- Gym Class Hell
- Hard Work Hardly Works
- Humiliation Conga
- I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me
- If I Were a Rich Man
- I Just Want to Be Badass
- I Just Want to Be Special
- I Just Want to Have Friends
- Internalized Categorism
- Kafka Comedy
- Losing Horns
- Misery Lit
- Misery Poker
- Misfortune Cookie
- Muscle Angst (type A)
- My Car Hates Me
- Nerds Are Virgins
- No Social Skills
- Not on the List
- Perpetual Poverty
- Picked Last
- Pity Sex
- Plague of Good Fortune
- Plethora of Mistakes
- Poke the Poodle
- Power Fantasy
- Revenge of the Nerd
- The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction
- Soul-Sucking Retail Job
- Stuffed into a Locker
- Stuffed into a Trashcan
- Suckiness Is Painful
- Swirlie
- Teasing the Substitute Teacher
- Teeny Weenie
- Throw the Dog a Bone
- Trauma Conga Line
- Vaudeville Hook
- Vengeful Vending Machine
- Viewers Are Morons (when used In-Universe)
- Wannabe Line
- What the Fu Are You Doing?
- Wimp Fight
- The World Mocks Your Loss
- Yank the Dog's Chain
- You Are What You Hate
- Zonk
