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“He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,
And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.”
Ali ibn-Abi-Talib, fourth Islamic caliph

Alice is fairly popular and well-liked by everyone around her, but then she discovers that there's one person that just doesn't like her. She freaks out because she must be loved by everybody. "How can Bob not like me? What's not to like?" Alice may go through every single event of her life trying to figure out what might have offended him. Sometimes, this type of story is used to teach the audience An Aesop that "You can't please everyone," but other times Hilarity Ensues.

For some reason, Alice never wonders why she even wants to befriend someone who's consistently rude to her and blows her off despite her kindness. At best, she could be genuinely hurt if it's someone she has to interact with on a regular basis. At worst, it's less about the other person and more about her pride. Her attempts to reverse this dislike will only succeed in really giving the other person a reason to hate her.

It may sound like Alice is an attention-starved narcissist, but this trope doesn't always reflect poorly on her. You don't have to be best buddies with someone to show them basic politeness, which Bob refuses to do. If she is of a different race, religion, sexual orientation or nationality than he is, there may be implications—real or imagined—that he's prejudiced. Alice's attempts at reaching out to him can teach a "Bigotry is bad" aesop if he comes around—or if he doesn't but everyone else finally sees him for the jackass he is. But if he isn't a bigot and has legit reasons to dislike her, then he certainly won't take kindly to her accusations and she can forget ever being his friend (or, albeit rarely, he might realize how he comes across and try to be nicer to her).

Doing this in Real Life can be the result of narcissism or sociopathy, but it can also be caused if "Alice" has been emotionally abused, bullied, or otherwise personally or socially ostracized in the past and thus developed people-pleasing tendencies as a survival mechanismnote .This can make what happens to them even more tragic, especially when they see it as only trying to protect themselves from abuse or placate haters — and as a result ends up drawing even more abuse and ostracism for falling into this trope.

Related to Unrequited Love Tropes, if the hero romantically pursues the one person who can't stand them, which can range from "sweet if hopeless" to "You're only doing this for the Forbidden Fruit, aren't you?" to "Stalker with a Crush."

Compare No Hero to His Valet for "Somebody Doesn't Respect the Hero" and No Badass to His Valet for "Somebody Doesn't Fear the Badass".

Contrast Enemies Equals Greatness, where someone likes that they have the contempt of others, and Only One Finds It Fun for when only one person likes something. Compare Jerkass to One, which is this trope from the opposite angle. Compare/Contrast Offended by an Enemy's Indifference, where a character is mad that someone they hate doesn't care about them.


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • In Call of the Night, Midori is so used to being the cutest, most popular girl around (when her vampire friends aren't with her, at least) that she becomes seriously irked when Yamori turns her down. Later, when it appears that someone is taking racy pictures of the girls at the maid café she works at, Midori becomes similarly peeved when Yamori points out there aren't any of her specifically.
    Midori: Huh?! They didn't take any of me, the number one maid?! But I'm the obvious first choice!
    Nazuna: Huh? You wanted your pictures taken?
    Midori: No, of course not!
  • In The Disastrous Life of Saiki K., Kokomi Teruhashi is the absolute perfect School Idol, beloved by every single boy in the school... and just sort of ignored by protagonist Saiki, who thanks to his powers knows she's not quite as wholesome as she makes herself to be. Although Kokomi convinces herself that Saiki is actually one of her fans but is just pretending to not be interested in her, her obsession with getting him to react dumbfounded over her like the other boys do is clearly rooted in this trope (at least in the beginning; afterwards, it is more obvious that she has actually fallen for him).
  • Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA: Illya's school friends become really upset that no matter what they do, Miyu refuses to befriend them or even bother to remember their names. Miyu says they are useless and the only person she considers a friend is Illya. This is because Miyu is very emotionally damaged and Illya was able to prove she was not alone in their shared responsibility as magical girls. Since Illya's school friends are Muggles and Locked Out of the Loop regarding the supernatural, unless someone decides to reveal their secret to them, it is unlikely they will ever be able to connect with Miyu the way Illya has.
  • Fruits Basket:
    • Tohru is deeply distressed at Akito's dislike of her. It stems from confusion over Akito's behavior (their first meeting had Akito being rather shy and eager to befriend Tohru, only for later meetings to have Akito revert back to Standard Creepy Mode) and Tohru's usual belief that if someone is angry with her, it's caused by some fault on her part and that she should do whatever she can to make amends for it.
    • Hiro is also one of the few characters who isn't immediately charmed by Tohru being an All-Loving Heroine, and at first he acts quite bratty and condescending towards her. It's later made clear that this is out of jealousy since Tohru was able to help Kisa through her troubles when he couldn't. Though he never truly warms up to Tohru in the same way most of the other cursed Sohmas do, he does eventually come to respect her.
  • Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles: Yuu-chan constantly tries to be friends with Koizumi no matter how many times she says no. As it turns out, over the course of the series, her obsession with Koizumi is taken to unhealthy levels of delusion.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • Asuka is one of the few people able to pilot an Eva, marking her as one of humanity's saviors, and quickly becomes a popular student with no shortage of admirers. She's flummoxed by the fact that Shinji is too emotionally withdrawn to connect to her, and her attempts to attract his attention (trying to goad him into sharing a room, getting a new swimsuit, kissing him) are in vain. She is also extremely put off when Rei reacts to her grandstanding offer that they should be friends with annoyed indifference (the way Rei reacts to pretty much everyone who intrudes on her personal space), and it forms the beginning of her (very one-sided) rivalry with her.
    • End of Evangelion has a Played for Horror example with Shinji himself. Despite having the power to preserve humanity in his grasp, he decides it's not worth it because he believes the people closest to him did not truly care about him, despite them being the literal minority of people who would otherwise regard him as a hero. He only stops Instrumentality at the last minute, and when Earth is already devastated.
  • In One Piece, Boa Hancock is very proud of her World's Most Beautiful Woman quality and uses it to screw the rules. Her charm pretty much works on everyone, even on her all-female subjects... except when she encounters Luffy, who's such a Chaste Hero that he's completely immune to her charms. This initially leads her to decide that he cannot be allowed to live. Then she falls in love with him.
  • In one chapter of Ranma ½, a cursed brooch made Shampoo despise Ranma rather than love him madly as usual. Rather than being grateful that one of the most troublesome angles on his Love Dodecahedron had fixed itself, he took a massive blow to his ego and set out to win her back, just so he could feel manly.
  • School Mermaid: The last arc of the original series had the school nurse trick the protagonist into activating the mermaid spell simply so she would fail before its deadline and turn into a mermaid herself. Why? Because all the boys at the school fawn over her save for one boy who just happens to be the protagonist's crush. The nurse finds that unacceptable and wants the girl turned into a mermaid because the girl has the same first letter as said boy (it's due to the odd rules of the spell) and she plans on enacting the spell herself, hunting the girl down and eating her flesh so she can force the boy to love her. Yeah...
  • The World God Only Knows touches on this when a pop idol insists that The Protagonist love her music in order for her to have a sense of self-worth, ignoring the millions of cheering fans. Ultimately the trope is subverted; by the end of her arc, Kanon is able to live with the fact that not everyone will be her fan, and Keima has come to like her music.
  • In Yuri is My Job!, Hime Shiraki is a cute girl that virtually everyone in her class loves because of the façade she puts up, with the only exception being Mitsuki, her coworker at the salon, much to Hime's dismay. Part of the reason why Hime's so disturbed by someone disliking her is her belief that such individuals will ruin her façade, as one girl did to her in elementary school, resulting in the rest of the class shunning Hime. It turns out that Mitsuki is none other than the girl from elementary school, who'd once been friends with Hime, but exposed her as a liar when she thought Hime had betrayed her.

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 
  • A Dovahkiin Spreads His Wings has Sansa Stark, who's used to people indulging and loving her for being a perfect Proper Lady and is implied to be rather dismayed that her half-brother Jon doesn't lavish the same amount of attention on her. On Jon's side, it's justified by the fact Sansa treated him rather coldly for being a bastard and he connects much more easily with their other siblings. Oh, he's still kind to her, but she's not his favourite, and she knows it.
  • Leave for Mendeleiev: Adrien is aghast to learn that Marinette isn't one of his countless doting fangirls when she argues against the concept of Love at First Sight. No, she's not interested in kissing him; she barely even knows him...! His horror over this is compounded by his suspicion that she might be Ladybug, whose love he feels entitled to as Chat Noir, so the fact that she both rejects his advances as her 'partner' and isn't interested in him as a civilian either seriously bothers him.
  • Played for Drama in Lenore Raven's Murder Mystery. Since Marinette doesn't like Lila, Alix labels her 'the next Chloé', claiming she's nothing more than a Spoiled Brat Attention Whore who can't stand the notion that her classmates aren't fawning over her instead. When Marinette naturally protests, Alix claims that she's just "dismissing what anyone says about [her] if it's not praise."
  • A Possible Encounter for a Phantom:
    • Sam is the only one of her friends that does not like Kim because she's a cheerleader and part of the popular kids she hates. Subverted when Sam sees Kim is not like Dash and Paulina and stands up to them even though she is jealous that Danny has feelings for her.
    • Sam can't accept the fact there's an animal (Rufus) who doesn't like her.
  • Invoked by Twilight Sparkle towards Princess Celestia in Take Two. This happens because her future self went back in time and uploaded a copy of her future memories into her younger selves mind, which revealed how Celestia had released Discord thinking he could be reformed; only for Discord to later kill all of Twilight's friends and loved ones in the future.
    Twilight Sparkle: What the buck is wrong with you? I've done my job, I've saved your precious sister and all of Equestria while you just went and... ran away. Doesn't that give me the right not to fawn over you like every other pony on this planet? To have my own ideas? To be left alone from now on? Of course not! The great Princess Celestia isn't worshiped by her student! But instead of accepting this and going on with her delusional little lie of life where everypony is happy, she just has to try and figure out why I don't want to kiss her plot anymore! Instead of, I don't know, taking the time to visit with her estranged sister and help Luna adjust to this new time period she's found herself in, she comes running to me because I don't like her anymore! You turn away from the most important pony in your life to try and tend to your wounded ego, and you wonder why you disgust me? You're pathetic.

    Film — Live Action 
  • Shattered Glass features an interesting example. Chuck Lane seems to be the only person in the office who doesn't think Stephen Glass is the greatest guy ever. Though it's played with, since it gradually becomes clear that Chuck is in the right and that people really shouldn't like Stephen as much as they do, as he has actually fabricated the majority of his stories and got away with it for so long because he was well liked.
  • Smokey and the Bandit II has Bandit meeting a gas station attendant who thinks he's one of the biggest assholes in America (the rest of the series shows that amongst the trucker crowd he's a Living Legend and regular folks have no problem helping him because they think he's cool and/or because he's annoying "The Man"). Bandit doesn't take it very well, even threatening to beat him up over it.
  • Discussed in Wayne's World. Wayne mentions that it's okay if a few people don't like his show and explains it this way:
    "Led Zeppelin didn't write tunes everybody liked. They left that to the Bee Gees."

    Literature 
  • A rare non-comic example may be found in author Flannery O’Connor's short story "Revelation". In it, smug Ruby Turpin is the well-bred wife of a successful farmer and highly respected by her town and church; she seldom lets anyone forget how blessed by God she is. Everyone goes along with this and with her constant passing judgments until a girl from a white-trash background insults Mrs. Turpin and hurls her philosophy book at her. (It's implied the girl is mentally disturbed.) Shaken, the older woman returns home, refusing any consolation, shouting at her black farm help who keep saying they admire her. Ultimately the girl's words leave Mrs. Turpin severely upset, recoiling at the unpleasant truths she sees about herself and railing at God.
  • From the Earth to the Moon: Barbicane's bitter rival Captain Nicholl is forever publishing letters refuting everything Barbicane claimed in a previous article, out of spite and principle (Barbicane designed artillery shells and Nicholl armor plating for Union ironclads, as the Civil War ended before Nicholls could put his latest design to the test, it technically counted as a win for Barbicane). The narration mentions that as is often the case, Barbicane is more sensible to the single dissident when hundreds of admiring voices (and the chapter is titled "One Enemy vs. Twenty-Five Million Friends").
  • The Twilight Saga kicks off this way. After nearly everyone Bella meets at school is friendly and welcoming to her, she is nearly driven to tears because Edward Cullen is distant with her. Instead of doing her best to ignore it, she does nothing but obsess over this. In later books, Bella has a paralyzing fear of even talking to Rosalie and Leah, because they are pretty much the only vampire and werewolf respectively who don't like her— though this may be more a case of wanting to avoid supernaturally powerful beings who might have a grudge against her. Finally, Bella spends an inordinate amount of time being mentally catty about Lauren, the lone human who doesn't like her, when she's immediately surrounded by friends otherwise and Bella herself doesn't like Lauren in return.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Inverted in 3rd Rock from the Sun. Lots of people don't like Dick, and he rarely cares, or even notices. But for some reason, he notices that a cafeteria worker doesn't like him, and becomes obsessed with winning her approval. When he confronted her about it, she revealed that she didn't even hate him for an actual reason, which made Dick even more frustrated. Nina replied "Does she need a reason? 'Cause I can give her reasons."
  • On 30 Rock, Jenna's narcissism regularly runs up against the rivalry between the writing and acting staff. In particular, she is upset by the fact that Frank doesn't like her, and spends an episode trying to win him over. Strange, in that Jenna is a gorgeous blonde and Frank is a geeky, slovenly pervert. In another episode from another season, she was upset that Frank wouldn't brag that he slept with her - Frank had his reasons, though. Everyone is disgusted when they find out; disgusted at Frank for sleeping with Jenna.
  • Cheryl in According to Jim, lampshadedly by Dana, when she hears Andy's girlfriend doesn't like her. She learns it's because she is too perfect.
  • An episode of Becker has Margaret realising that Mrs. Connolly, a patient she visits at home who has always been strangely cold and crotchety to her, gets along well with both Lynda and Becker (and has done so for years, in the latter case). Rather than go through the usual plot of trying and failing to make her like her by changing her behavior, Margaret straight-up asks for an explanation. She doesn't really get one, with Mrs. Connolly saying that she just doesn't like her.
    Margaret: John's the one no one likes! Lynda's the one no one understands! I'm the likable one!
  • On Better Off Ted, Ted learns that he's wildly popular among every demographic of the company, except for men over 50. Naturally, he becomes determined to gather up every guy in that group and convince them to like him. In the process of hanging out with them, he realizes that he doesn't really like any of them, and gets over trying to win their approval.
  • In one episode of Boy Meets World, Cory discovers that Angela keeps trying to avoid him and spends the entire episode trying to figure out why she doesn't like him. Eventually it is revealed that she is only avoiding him because she is hurt over her breakup with Shawn and being with Cory is a painful reminder. The revelation brings the two of them closer together.
  • One episode of Caroline in the City has Caroline obsessing over the fact that a pair of people don't like her comic strip. Richard, who despises everyone in the world pretty much equally, is bemused.
  • One episode of Community had Jeff finally realize he'd had a locker for three years, which was filled with mail, one piece of which was a note from someone named Kim who hated him. He spends the whole episode obsessing about what could have made Kim hate him, and more or less completely fails to realize that Kim didn't like him because he's honestly a huge jerk to everyone. At the end of the episode, there's a twist when the real Kim reveals that he wrote that note due to Jeff never remembering his name as an attempt to get his attention.
  • Susan on Desperate Housewives with anyone, but especially when Bob and Lee moved in, and mistook her for being homophobic. She ended up hiding their lost dog so that she could help them find it. Of course, things really backfired when they figured her out.
  • In an episode of Dog with a Blog, Tyler tries to find out why Chloe's friend doesn't like him and does all sorts of things to win her over. Even after he learns the lesson, he finds out that she really does like him and was pretending not to so he would keep doing favors for her and Chloe. He then celebrates the fact that he's learnt that not everyone has to like him and that everyone does like him.
  • In an episode of The Drew Carey Show, Drew Carey was horrified to discover that he had a hate group composed of people he'd accidentally wronged. Drew spent an episode apologizing, only to accidentally wrong another character, starting the cycle anew.
  • The trope name comes from the Sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which, yes, built an episode around this trope.
    Robert: Is it really that hard to fathom that somewhere, in this vast cosmos, there might exist a single person - a single ENTITY - that thinks ya suck?
    • When Ray Romano did stand-up comedy at Just for Laughs, he posited to the audience that everybody truly loved him. There were three objections: Herb from New Brunswick (who is not Micky Dolenz), the swinging Levines, and Shelagh Rogers from CBC's This Morning.
  • This often happens to Frasier; it's often lampshaded with the explanation that Frasier is a pretty emotionally needy person. In one notable instance, his show was being focus-grouped. Eleven members of the group raved about how great he was, and one person didn't like him, without offering explanation. Frasier, of course, obsessed over the one negative review and ended up hounding the guy to find out what it was the guy didn't like. This naturally escalated to a series of misadventures, culminating in Frasier accidentally burning down the man's newsstand. The guy finally takes Frasier to task, yelling that he simply didn't like Frasier's know-it-all personality, but now had plenty of other reasons to hate him.
  • Friends had a plot like this: Phoebe forgets to mail an invitation to Rachel's mother for the baby shower that Monica is throwing. Rachel's mother blames Monica for it (because it was Monica who called to tell her about the mistake) and Monica spends the rest of the episode obsessively trying to make Rachel's mother like her again. In the end, she learns nothing.
    • Another one has Chandler finding out that Monica hasn't told her parents about their relationship because they don't like him. Eventually he finds out that years ago Ross lied and told them that Chandler had smoked pot in his room. When the truth is revealed, they immediately warm up to him.
  • The Golden Girls:
    • In one episode, Rose has a coworker that cannot stand her. Her efforts to make him like her only worsen this, naturally, and quite frankly, border on harassment.
    • A variation of this appears in "The One That Got Away," in which Blanche reunites with Ham, the one man who didn't want to sleep with her in high school and makes it her sworn duty to seduce him just to maintain her reputation, even though he's lost his good looks. At the end, he reveals that he didn't want to sleep with Blanche is because he thought he'd already slept with her and had a terrible time, but he'd really slept with her sister Virginia. Ham then propositions Blanche for sex, but she turns him down and kicks him out.
  • Teddy Duncan of Good Luck Charlie tries in vain to win the favor of her jerkass English teacher Mr. Dingwall (mostly because he gave her a bad grade). Dingwall has a Pet the Dog moment when he explains to Teddy that just because he doesn't like her doesn't mean there's anything wrong with her.
  • The main character in Hannah Montana believes she is Loved by All across the planet, so it comes to a shock that the (hot) guy she's trying to date casually admits to hating her superstar ego. She spends the rest of the episode trying to win him over, which causes him to get fed up and transfer to another school.
  • In How I Met Your Mother, Ted finds out that he's gotten loads of glowing reviews from his students on ratemyprofessor, from "A++++" to "brilliant puns", but ignores them all and fixates on the single person who called him "boring". He spends the entire episode obsessing about it, and sure enough, boring everyone to tears with his constant attempts to prove he's not boring.
  • iCarly (2021): The second episode plays with this. Carly becomes determined to track down a troll who has been harassing her online. However, she mentions that she's had haters for a long time, this was just the first one who was bad enough to warrant her attention. And while Carly doesn't appreciate the negativity, what really pisses her off is the troll continuing to send hateful comments after she sent him a kind message.
  • Jane the Virgin: A consistent flaw of Jane's. According to Xo, Jane has a 'compulsive need to be liked'; she is affected when people don't immediately take to her (like Patricia and Jane R.) and tries to warm them to her.
  • In an episode of Kickin' It, the sub-plot of the episode "Fawlty Temple," features Jack, going to meet Kim's father for the first time. He unintentionnaly spills a drink in Kim's fathers lap and it's made clear that he does not like Jack. Throughout the episode Jack tries to set up more dates with Kim's father to make a better impression on him. He does in the end after Kim fakes in injury to get Jack to substitute for her in a laser tag game. It kind of is justified because if you are dating a girl, you must impress her father so he can approve of you dating his daughter.
  • An episode of The Latest Buzz has Michael desperate to get validation for his fashion choices from a total stranger after he thinks the stranger made a sarcastic remark about his tie.
  • Letterkenny inverts this with Shoresy, The Gadfly who loves to piss others off eventually meeting an opposing player who simply doesn't respond to his insults. As a result, Shoresy's hockey skills deteriorate and he eventually gets benched for nailing the ignorer behind the knees with his hockey stick.
  • Warwick Davis in Life's Too Short sets up a personal website with a comments section. When one person makes a negative comment (out of several flattering ones, no less), Warwick tracks him down to his school and publicly shames the kid...before seeing that he's a paraplegic and thus can't defend himself from the hordes of bullies Warwick has now subjected him to.
  • A whole episode on Mad About You is devoted to Jamie's need for the new stuffy English couple who move in next door to like her. After many incidents - including Paul getting caught with the neighbor's wife's panties on his head, a misdelivered pizza, and Murray getting lucky with their prized show dog - the couple can't stand either one of them. Somewhat unique for this trope, they stay on as regular supporting characters.
  • In New Girl, Jess reconnects with an ex who parted on bad terms with her in an earlier season. She calls, texts, and emails him to try and put things right until he ends up taking a restraining order out against her.
  • Odd Squad: When Agent Olympia discovers one supervillain has given her a 1 on her evaluation form, rather than the 10 she got from every other villain, she becomes obsessed with finding out who gave her the bad evaluation.
  • Pam admitted in a testimonial on The Office (US) that she was made uncomfortable by the notion that she could be disliked by anyone, even anti-American terrorists.
  • Parks and Recreation: In the episode "Bowling for Votes", Leslie tries to earn a potential voter's vote by trying to make him like her, only to come on too strong (plus the guy's just a Jerkass anyway). Eventually, she realizes that she can't force people to like her and focuses on the bigger picture.
  • On Scrubs,
    • JD's constant efforts to get the Janitor to like him, or eventually just to call off his grudge, usually backfire in this manner. There have also been a few episodes where it is implied or outright stated that in fact a lot of people at the hospital don't like him, though he usually manages to avoid the revelation.
    • In the episode "Med School", JD gets a negative review from a student after spending an entire class period explaining why he is the best teacher around. JD then spends the episode trying to figure out who that was, only to find out that it was Dr. Cox himself. Also happens when he checks his ratings on the RateMyDoc website, after being rated #1.
  • Seinfeld:
    • After Babu's restaurant goes under because of Seinfeld's advice. "Was mother wrong?"
    • George cannot take it when Jerry's girlfriend doesn't like him; it goes so far that he falls in love with her because she dislikes him so much. Meanwhile, George's own girlfriend is growing increasingly irritated over his obsession with this woman, eventually giving him an ultimatum. When he chooses the girl who doesn't like him, his girlfriend says that now she doesn't like him. George is fine with that. He's used to his own girlfriends not liking him.
    • In another episode, this trope was turned on its head, when Jerry starts going out with this cute, perfect girl. The only thing is, everybody else - including her closest friends - talk about her as if she were a loser, like he's doing her a favor by going out with her. George and Kramer are so worried about Jerry's mental health that they even stage an intervention to try and get Jerry to break up with her. Naturally, Jerry obsesses over what hidden trait could possibly make her undesirable. He eventually becomes so desperate for somebody to approve of his relationship with this woman that he introduces her to his parents, and they just love her. He dumps her immediately.
      Helen: She's a million times better than that awful Amber girl you were with!
      Jerry: Yeah, Amber... I wonder if she's back from Vegas, I should give her a call...
    • Jerry's mother's reaction to Crazy Joe Davola wanting him dead: "How can anybody not like him?!" His father is not so surprised.
      Morty: Maybe some people don't like him, I could see that!
  • Rocky Blue of Shake it Up is particularly adamant that everyone likes her, and spends an entire episode trying to win the favor of the cantankerous old witch Mrs. Locassio.
  • The Thundermans: Phoebe gets upset if she hears that she's not someone's favorite among her family, especially if Max is placed above her. It's especially bad with Chloe, who ranks all her other siblings above Phoebe.
    Phoebe: How would you like to do a favor for your favorite big sis?
    Chloe: What's Nora want?
    Phoebe: ...I meant me!
  • One episode of Will & Grace had Grace and her husband Leo both obsessing over why Karen doesn't like Leo (she doesn't think he's funny). Leo even digs up an old yearbook to show Karen all the signatures he got, proving everyone loved him and thought he was hilarious.

    Religion and Mythology 
  • In the Book of Esther, Haman is the second most powerful person in the most powerful empire in the world, and everyone is required to bow down when he passes. Then somebody points out that Mordechai the Jew doesn't bow, apparently on the grounds that his religion forbids it. Haman's solution is to wipe out all the Jews in the empire. At one point he rants to his wife and friends about how all of his good fortune and successes don't mean anything whenever he notices Mordechai standing when he passes.
  • Played for Drama in Norse Mythology. The god Balder is murdered by Loki, but Hel, ruler of the Underworld, agrees that he can be resurrected if every creature in the universe cries for him. One random giantess named Thok (who, Depending on the Writer, might be Loki in disguise) says that she never particularly liked Balder anyway, so Hel can keep him. He will somehow come back from the dead after Ragnarok, though.
    • Balder's death in itself is an example, his mother asked everything in the world to swear not to hurt him, but didn't see the mistletoe plant and so didn't ask it. The gods made a game of throwing things at the Nigh-Invulnerable Balder to see them bounce off or even swerve away. Then Loki shows up with a spear made of mistletoe, gives to a blind Aesir...

    Standup Comedy 
  • Christopher Titus is convinced that all comics have this problem by virtue of being inherent Attention Whores, suggesting that the best way to get under a comedian's skin is not to heckle, but to sit in the front row and never laugh. Heckling them means you're still engaged, and "every comedian has sixty things in his head he's used a million times" in response to hecklers. Titus even uses himself as an example of this when he finally snapped and yelled at a woman sitting in the front row who was not only not laughing but wouldn't even look at him. Turns out that she wasn't looking at him because she was blind.

    Theatre 
  • Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 has another non-comic example: Natasha goes to visit her future father and sister-in-law.
    I know they'll like me, they can't help but like me, everyone has always liked me...
    • When it doesn't go well (and it really, really doesn't) Natasha is thrown into grief and her anxiousness at not being accepted, as well as Andrey's departure, drives the whole story and leads her to some pretty destructive decisions.

    Video Games 
  • Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn does this in a way that keeps both parties sympathetic. Vika is the only member of the Liberation Force who is distrustful of Micaiah and tries to avoid her. However, she acknowledges that her wariness is illogical, and she doesn't want to dislike someone when she can't even find a good reason for it. Laguz, like Vika, are innately capable of sensing beorc-laguz hybrids, but don't automatically know what they are sensing. Vika lacks the experience to know what she is feeling; she just knows that there is something "off" and that it scares her. Micaiah, for her part, knows exactly what Vika's problem is, doesn't press the issue, and is willing to keep her distance for the sake of Vika's comfort.
  • Psychonauts 2: According to Lili, Truman Zanotto is the only person who doesn't like the workplace-beloved mail clerk Nick Johnsmith, regarding him as a sycophantic Yes-Man. (Or in his words, an "obsequious little lickspittle".)

    Web Animation 
  • Dreamscape: Jenna is the one person who doesn't like Ahjeen. Not liking him isn't what bothers Ahjeen though, what bothers him is she never gave him a chance. With that being said, he still treats her with kindness and gives her information that anyone whose Dylan's friend would want to know.
  • In the Ultra Fast Pony episode "So Random!", Pinkie Pie stakes her entire self-worth on being regarded as a hilarious comedian. Cranky doesn't think she's funny at all, so she becomes obsessed with convincing him otherwise. The absurdity is lampshaded at the end of the episode:
    Cranky: Oh, I'm so happy now! Pinkie Pie, how can I ever repay ya?
    Pinkie: Can you please tell me that I'm funny?
    Cranky: I don't understand, we've only just met. Why does my opinion even matter?
    Pinkie: Look, Lanky, if I can't get the approval of complete strangers for my sense of humor, then my life will never be validated!

    Webcomics 
  • Heartful Punch of Sleepless Domain is a generally well-liked, popular Magical Girl. While the trope never actually happens to her, part of H.P.'s Establishing Character Moment has her stating that she can't stand the thought of someone she barely knows disliking her, even if she herself believes there's good reason for that dislike. Later, when someone remarks to Undine that H.P. can be intense about recruiting for their workout club, H.P. gets defensive and wonders if that's something people really say about her.

    Western Animation 
  • All Hail King Julien has Julien find out that his approval rating is "only" 99%, which means that one citizen doesn't like him. His efforts to find out who this person is results in nearly everyone hating him. Saving a baby (and a mango) gets his popularity back to where it was at the start and he decides to compensate for the one guy who doesn't like him by loving himself twice as much. It's then revealed that the one guy who doesn't like him is Mort. He loves King Julien.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball: Throughout most of the series, Alan the friendly balloon seems to be impervious to Gumball's distaste of him — until it is revealed in "The Faith" that not only is he painfully aware of Gumball's distaste of him, it's also something of a sore spot for him. While Gumball can't exactly promise to like Alan, he does make it a point to treat Alan more nicely from that moment forward.
  • Amphibia: Sprig Plantar learns that Mrs. Croaker is the one person in Wartwood who doesn't like him, and of course is incapable of accepting it.
  • Arthur has the episode "One Ornery Critter". Arthur enthusiastically volunteers to look after a dog that belongs to Buster's cousin's family. As it happens, this dog doesn't seem to want to bond with Arthur but instead bonds with D.W. Apart from the above formula, Arthur gets so worked up about one dog's dislike of him that he stops working at the local animal shelter since he's great with dogs otherwise. Arthur comes around when Buster tells him that the dog is very selective of who she likes: She only seems to like one of Buster's cousins out of her owner's immediate family.
  • Family Guy: In one episode, Brian finds out that Quagmire hates him. As you'd expect from any sitcom, he goes through several ordeals to improve their relationship, only to make it worse and horribly awkward (including thinking that Quagmire's sister [whose boyfriend is abusing her] is one of Quagmire's dates and tricking Quagmire into thinking that Cheryl Tiegs [the only woman with whom Quagmire was really in love, the break-up of which was what turned Quagmire into a sex addict] was taking him to dinner). When Brian asks him why he hates him, he replies with a long tirade based on viewers' complaints about Brian's personality.
  • In one episode of Fish Hooks, Bea freaks out when she finds out Albert Glass doesn't like her because she's not used to not being liked by anyone. She's trying different things to make Albert change his opinion about her, without much success. After her accidentally ruining a long-awaited derby causes her to be disliked by the majority, Bea gives up on caring what other people think about her, realizes that she already has her best friends who like her, and most importantly, she likes herself. Because of her change in attitude, Albert begins to like her. He found her previous people-pleasing behavior obnoxiously needy.
  • One episode of the 2007 George of the Jungle has George growing increasingly upset over the one animal in the jungle who doesn't call him a friend, a sloth that shows no affection or even interest in him. He runs around screaming and crying himself into a complete nervous breakdown before finding out that the sloth actually does like George, but is very, very, very slow to show it.
  • The Great North: In Season 3 "Can't Hardly Date Adventure", Wolf becomes obsessed with making Cody, a former classmate who doesn't like him during high school, like him. Honeybee reminds him that he has a tendency to go overboard getting people to like him. Eventually, Wolf gets Cody to at least be less ambivalent about him, only to find out that he's a real jerk and abandons him.
  • An episode of Harvey Street Kids centers around Friend to All Living Things Lotta trying to win over a cat who likes everyone else on Harvey Street. After the cat gets stuck in a tree, she goes up there to save him, to which he claws at her, letting her grip go. Once she is saved by other animals, she learns her lesson, and the cat, who easily lands on his feet, gets some comeuppance.
  • One episode of Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart centers around Mao Mao's attempts to impress Old Blue—the only citizen in Pure Heart Valley who wasn't particularly impressed by Mao Mao's victory over a huge monster. The episode culminates in Mao Mao finally getting the validation he craved, with an added twist that he now sees Old Blue regularly as a therapist to help him past his issues with praise.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The episode "A Friend in Deed" has Pinkie Pie encounter Cranky Doodle Donkey, the one creature in Equestria she's met who refuses to be her friend. She spends the rest of the episode trying to change that, and true to the pattern, makes it worse. She pulls it off by reuniting him with his lost love.
  • The Recess episode "Nobody Doesn't Like TJ" has TJ obsesses over why Gordy doesn't like him. After going through the typical insanity that is normal to this plot, Gordy talks to TJ and tells him that he actually thinks he's cool. He just doesn't like him, and doesn't even know why. TJ, after a bit of grumbling, accepts that not everyone is going to like you no matter what you do... telling this epiphany to Miss Finster, who (thinking he's talking about her) assures TJ that she does like him, to his exasperation.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Homer Simpson is rather off-put when he gains a personal enemy in Frank Grimes from the appropriately-titled episode "Homer's Enemy". Moe tries to comfort Homer by saying that there are people who don't like him, too. Homer refuses to accept this. Meanwhile, Grimes is later off-put himself that nobody else feels the same way about Homer when he can clearly see him as being Too Dumb to Live.
    • In "Beyond Blunderdome", Homer and Marge go to a remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington where Homer gives the only negative review because it didn't have any mindless action or lowbrow humour. True to the pattern, the director (guest star Mel Gibson) decides to listen to Homer and only Homer and allows him to help redo the film's ending. It...doesn't go well, to the point where the producers try and burn the film to prevent its release.
    • In "Bart Star", Ned Flanders is the coach of the Springfield pee-wee football team and leads it to multiple victories and everybody in Springfield likes what he's done...everybody except Homer of course, who goes on a relentless one-man bullying campaign that ends with Ned, completely fed up, quitting the coaching job and giving it to Homer. Homer then goes on to drive the team into the ground with a barrage of incredibly stupid decisions, not the least of which is showing Bart favoritism that Bart utterly loathes because he knows he's a mediocre player (at best) but Homer won't listen to him when he points this out.
    • In "Black-Eyed, Please", a substitute teacher, Ms. Cantwell, acts like a Sadist Teacher to Lisa, and only Lisa. Lisa can't imagine why any teacher would not like her, and can't figure out why Ms. Cantwell bullies her. After using Bart to get her to quit teaching, Lisa chases her out to her car, begging to know the reason why she doesn't like her. It turns out Ms. Cantwell thinks Lisa is pretty and thus assumes that she's a popular Dumb Blonde party girl who is worth hating because "Bookworms like her can't stand party girls". Lisa is stunned by this and overjoyed that someone actually called her pretty.
    • In "Lisa's Pony", Homer gets the cold shoulder from Lisa after his latest blunder and is so desperate to win back her affection that he decides to buy her the pony she's always wanted, even though its upkeep is far beyond what the family can afford, forcing him to take a second job.
      Homer: Marge, I've got to get her a pony. When I look in Lisa's eyes I don't see love anymore.
      Marge: That's no reason to buy a pony!
      Homer: See? Even when you yell at me I can see love in your eyes.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants has "Plankton's Regular" which features Mr. Krabs throwing fits and going to ever-increasing measures to lure back the one, count 'em, one customer who ignores the Krusty Krab in favor of Plankton's Chum Bucket. Though it turns out that Karen was paying the customer to eat there, who got sick after eating his food.
  • Tangled: The Series: In "Rapunzel's Enemy", Rapunzel tries to figure out why Uncle Monty, an otherwise kind-hearted and lovable sweet shop owner well-liked by everyone in Corona, seems to hate her. It turns out he doesn't like the way she's been shaking up age-old traditions ever since her return, and he's also not happy she disguised herself and deceived him in an attempt to find out why. Rapunzel decides she doesn't like Monty's grudge-holding and stubborn traditionalism, and the two part as "not-friends".
  • The late-fifties Terrytoons short "Flebus" about a guy who is genuinely liked by everyone. When he meets the one person who doesn't like him, Flebus starts obsessing over him. Turns out the guy who hates Flebus is obsessed with him as well, as he's the only one he hates, and doesn't understand why either.
  • Trolls: The Beat Goes On!: Queen Poppy gets the results of her first job approval poll, and all of the ratings but one are positive. She obsesses for the whole episode trying to find out who gave her the negative review. It was her father, who only did it to teach her a lesson in humility.
  • In The Weekenders, Tino spends an entire episode trying to get someone to invite him to a party, and he doesn't even like the guy. At the episode's conclusion, that same guy asks if Tino likes him. Tino reluctantly admits that he doesn't, even if he doesn't know why, and is told that feeling is mutual.

    Real Life 
  • Julius Caesar held a number of triumphs in his life, but at his fifth triumph, it was recorded that Pontius Aquila, one of ten Tribunes of the Plebs and an opponent of Caesar's from the start, did not rise in respect to Caesar as Caesar passed by in his procession. This apparently got under Caesar's skin enough that he laughed it off by taunting Aquila mid-procession, but then followed up the next several days by asking his subordinates to do certain things, but would add "...that is, if Tribune Aquila will allow me."

 
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Wolf Wants to Be Liked

Wolf becomes obsessed with making Cody like him. Honeybee reminds him that he has a tendency to go overboard getting people to like him.

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Main / SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond

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