Playing With / Butt-Monkey

Basic Trope: A character who is constantly put through hell.

• Straight: Bevis T. Monkey's day was unlucky: He got hit in the groin and was stung by bees.
• Exaggerated:
  • Bevis T. Monkey's day was unlucky: He got mugged and was stabbed.
  • Iron Butt Monkey
  • Poor Bevis T. Monkey was hit in the groin by bees.
  • The Chew Toy
  • Cosmic Plaything
  • Reluctant Fanservice Girl
  • Sadist Show
• Downplayed:
  • Bevis T. Monkey gets hit in the face, and stung by one bee every month.
  • The whole cast regularly takes comical abuse, Bevis just takes the worst of it.
• Justified:
  • Cosmic Plaything
  • Kafka Komedy
  • Karmic Butt-Monkey
  • Born Unlucky
• Inverted:
  • Bevis T. Monkey's day was very lucky: He got a million dollars and was treated as a king soon afterward.
  • Invincible Hero.
  • Karma Houdini.
  • A invokedMary Sue and invokedGod-Mode Sue could arguably be considered the polar opposite(s) of a Butt-Monkey.
• Subverted:
  • A truck was about to hit Bevis T. Monkey when he was crossing the street but stopped at the last minute...
  • Bevis's abuse gets to the point where it isn't funny anymore.
  • Bevis is usually unlucky but he occasionally gets some luck.
  • Bevis eventually gets tired of his treatment and pulls a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal.
• Double Subverted:
  • It was the bus next to the truck that ran Bevis over.
  • Then the abuse Crosses the Line Twice.
  • Bevis gets an award thinking he's no longer a butt monkey, but then it gets taken from him.
  • Bevis's new group treats him just as bad.
• Parodied: Pretty much everything Bevis T. Monkey does fails spectacularly. And his life is a seemingly endless chain of Disaster Dominoes and Humiliation Conga. He's got to have sanity (or faith) made of iron if he's not screaming Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter by now.
• Zig-Zagged: Bevis almost gets hit by a car, but the car stops. What does hit him is the baseball that rolls off the roof of a nearby building. But it turns it to be autographed, and worth thousands of dollars! Then he trips and falls down a hill. Into a river. But he finds a gold ring in the bottom of the stream! So he goes to the pawn shop... and gets mauled by a bear on the way.
• Averted: Bevis T. Monkey is not particularly unlucky, nor is he especially lucky.
• Enforced: The creators needed comic relief so they created Bevis.
• Lampshaded: "Why do these bad things keep happening to me?"
• Invoked: "I'm bored, let's go pick on Bevis T. Monkey because that's always good for a laugh."
• Defied:
  • "We could pick on Bevis T. Monkey as usually, but maybe we should leave him alone for now."
  • (Bevis places a loaded gun on the table, talks in an eerily matter-of-fact voice): "I refuse to be anybody's toy, and least of all yours."
• Exploited: Bevis T. Monkey knows he's unlucky, so he milks it for all its worth.
• Discussed: "Is it just me or does God seem to hate Bevis T. Monkey?"
• Conversed: "Maybe we should cut Monkey some slack." (Beat) "Naaaaaahhhh..."
• Deconstructed:
  • One day, Bevis gets an assault rifle and, without hesitating, starts to chase the people who make his life hell, killing them mercilessly.
  • The constant unluckiness kept bothering Bevis with increasing levels of misfortune to the point of him breaking and ultimately committing suicide.
  • All the abuse Bevis goes through causes him to become very bitter and cynical to the point where he's afraid of being happy lest something bad happens as a result. Whenever anything goes his way, he becomes paranoid that it's merely a set up for him to be knocked down in an exceptionally cruel way.
  • Bevis’ constant mistreatment eventually causes the audience to not watch the show.
• Reconstructed:
  • This completely tarnishes his pity from other people, who now see him as a violent madman. They end up mistreating Bevis even worse than his former tormentors, since he pretty much deserves it at this point.
  • All of the misfortune forces Bevis to overcompensate, resulting in the equivalent of Training from Hell. Character Development ensues, and Bevis promptly takes a level in badass.
  • In spite of all his bad luck, Bevis is The Stoic or manages to keep a Stiff Upper Lip. Due to this mentality, he never sees his bad luck as anything more than a bother or annoyance (even if logic says he really should). His low key reaction to the bad stuff that happens to him only serves to enhance the comedy.
    Bevis: (after having been hit on the head with a plate, which breaks on his head; in a bored tone) Ow.
    Bob: Wow. A year ago, you'd have been groaning in pain!
    Bevis: I've built up an immunity.
• Played For Laughs: Unlucky streak to the point where you can't help but laugh, known as The Chew Toy
• Played For Drama: Unlucky streak to the point where you feel bad for the person, known as The Woobie and the Designated Monkey.
• Played For Horror: Unlucky streak that is more unsettling in hindsight:
  • Monkey is the cast's Red Shirt. Worse yet, he was designated as the Red Shirt and nobody cares about how this means he will suffer a horrible death.
  • Monkey's reputation and bad luck gets him constantly targeted with Bully Brutality, and nobody cares about how he's constantly maimed, brutalized, and in some cases even raped by bullies.

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Back to Butt-Monkey, if God doesn't smite me first...

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