Butt Monkey/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

Line 52:

** In a nice inversion, he's the only one who ''doesn't'' get hit with the aging disease in "The Deadly Years". He still ends up getting subjected to a thousand and one medical checks, though.

*** "Blood sample, Chekov...Skin Sample Chekov...If this keeps up...I'm going to run out of samples!"

*** This was explained as a convenient way to show there was mortal peril. Apparently, Kirk, Spock and [[McCoy]] all being older, dignified men would have made it improper for them to scream, but Chekov is in his early twenties and still very boyish, so it's all right for him. Doesn't make it any easier on the poor guy, though.

* Mickey from ''[[Doctor Who]]'' eventually realizes that he gets less respect than the [[Robot Buddy]]. In an [[Author's Saving Throw]], he promptly decides to [[Took a Level In Badass|Take a Level in Badass]].

** Rory Williams has a lot in common with Mickey in this sense, though he progresses to [[The Woobie]] level with surprising speed and doesn't so much take a level in badass as [[Determinator|bypass the concept of levels completely]] [[The Power of Love|and end up becoming a near legend in plastic, guarding an ancient box for two thousand freaking years]].

*** Yet a butt monkey in that he dies/is wiped from existence/turns into plastic...how many times?

*** So many times that in the series six finale "The Wedding of River Song", {{spoiler|the Silence torturing alternate universe Rory as they are about to kill him [[Lampshade]] the fact. Subverted in this instance as alternate-universe Amy shows up. With a machine gun.}}

** Jamie McCrimmon is this to an even bigger extent. Sometimes (just sometimes), the Second Doctor.

Line 62:

** The Doctor, particularly Eleven, really is "everybody's buttmonkey", even his own. {{spoiler|See: "Amy's Choice", in which the Doctor, as the Dream Lord, makes fun of himself for his "tawdry quirks" ([[Granola Girl|vegetarianism]], [[Rummage Sale Reject|stupid costumes]], dragging around a [[Team Pet|cutesy]] [[Small Annoying Creature|space]] [[Robot Buddy|dog]], etc.), and the Doctor admits, indirectly, that [[Heroic Self-Deprecation|nobody hates him as much as himself]].}} Amy, via [[Bait and Switch Comparison]], says he "could almost be mistaken for a real person". River keeps shooting his hats. Going back a little, Donna kept calling him "Martian boy". And the [[Worf Effect]] has its way with him about [[Once an Episode]], and he has (recently?) developed a habit of [[They Killed Kenny|getting killed]] [[Death Is Cheap|off constantly]] even ''between'' [[The Nth Doctor|regenerations]].

*** Not to mention, in a recent killing off, he spoke with the TARDIS's voice interface. When it first showed up with his face he yelled "No, not him, someone I like!".

** The Ood seem to be going this way too as an entire ''race'' of Butt Monkeys. Whenever an Ood shows up you can bet something awful will happen to it.

*** The Doctor even lampshades this in the episode 'The Doctor's Wife', after accidentally vapourising an Ood. He casually says 'Another Ood I failed to save' in a mildly regretful tone.

* Numerous Characters on ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' have super-powers which give them [[Blessed with Suck|nothing but grief]]...

Line 107:

** Michael's reaction to seeing that Toby has returned after an aborted [[Put On the Bus|escape to Costa Rica]]:

{{quote|'''Michael:''' NO, GOD! NO GOD, PLEASE NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...}}

** To a lesser extent, Phyllis also fulfills this role, having Michael constantly belittle and humiliate her. And let us not forget the time she got flashed by a pervert in the office parking lot and when Dwight drove her to a bad side of town to only leave her there without a phone, forcing her to walk miles back to the office.

* Ben on ''[[Reaper]]''. If something nasty is going to happen to one of the trio of Sam, Sock, and Ben, it always heads straight for Ben.

* To some extent, all of the main cast of ''[[The Young Ones]]'', but most especially [[Wangst|Neil.]]

Line 170:

** Jenna is also the butt of many jokes. Such the writers all acting like she is ugly when she clearly isn't.

* Tony DiNozzo on ''[[NCIS]]'' tends to be the team's Butt Monkey, often justified in that he is a [[Jerk Jock]] with a very [[Hidden Heart of Gold]]. Sometimes McGee fills this role instead; either way, at least one of them is often the butt of an episode's [[Running Gag]].

** Marty Deeks on ''[[NCIS: Los Angeles]]'' just loves this trope to bits. Though, Callen, Nell and Eric could fill this trope just as easily as well. It's even more hilarious in staged missions where the characters are under a different alias other than their main name.

* Joxer on ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]''. Nearly every climactic scene involving "Joxer the Mighty" invariably has him getting knocked unconscious. No one hesitates to insult him, be it Xena, Gabrielle, Autolycus or even his murderous brother Jett. This is coupled with his affection for Gabrielle, who barely tolerates his existence. He's even reviled on fansites.

* ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]''. Poor Ziggy. It seems that barely an episode can go by without the Green Ranger totally embarrassing himself in some way. Best reflected by his first ever morph. Previous rangers, whether they [[Jumped At the Call]], were [[Falling Into the Cockpit|thrown in the cockpit]] or even stole their powers, always morphed with a fair amount of dignity and grace the first time. What's Ziggy's first line upon realising what he has become?

{{quote|'''Ziggy:''' Woah! I'm a Power Ranger! I don't wanna be a Power Ranger! I do '''not''' want to be a Power Ranger!}}

::He then proceeds to get kicked all over the place.

* In ''[[QI]]'', Alan Davies, especially to start with. He was clearly placed on the show to serve as a foil for genius host [[Stephen Fry]], making inane points and earning forfeits with practiced ignorance. As such, he is commonly on the receiving end of numerous traps, into which he glibly walks. Later seasons have shown that he can play well, though, if he wants to and the studio happens to be lenient.

* Off-island Locke on ''[[Lost]]''. His flashbacks are one agony after another. He's abandoned by his teenage mother, raised in foster care, foster sister and mother die, bullied in high school, and then it gets bad. His biological parents team up to con him out of a kidney. He loses the love of his life. He's kicked out of his commune "family". Finally, his own father pushes him out an 8th-story window, paralyzing him. Crashing on the island is probably the best thing that ever happened to him. After he ''leaves'' the island, he's again in a wheelchair, everyone mocks him for being pathetic and lonely, he finds out his ex-girlfriend is dead, and he's unable to convince the Oceanic 6 to return. He's ready to hang himself when {{spoiler|Ben arrives, talks him out of it, and then strangles him. But he gets better as soon as he's back on the island.}}

** {{spoiler|'''NOT!!!''' On return to the island, Locke turns out to be the biggest [[Unwitting Pawn]] [[Chew Toy]] of the universe. He's still dead, the [[Big Bad]]'s using his body as a suit and everything he believed about the island led him to that end. The only good thing that can be said is that there is literally no possible way for things to get worse for the poor bastard.}}

Line 234:

* In [[The Thick of It]] Glen Cullen is a pretty extreme example of this trope. He's regarded as an aging, irrelevant joke despite all his attempts to claim his 'experience' (read: age) has given him connections, sex-starved to the point where even his friends don't hesitate to point out "the last time you saw snatch was [[Basic Instinct]]" and scapegoated numerous times for the screw-ups of other people in the department. By the second series, it's become enough to give him a pitiable [[Angrish|but quite hilarious]] mental breakdown.

** In "Spinners And Losers", the less sympathetic Ollie Reeder becomes a [[Butt Monkey]], bullied left and right by Malcolm Tucker, sucking up to the various [[Smug Snake|Smug Snakes]], forced into embarassing himself trying to rekindle a relationship he just broke off and then reduced to the status of ''cheese monitor'' while his ex-girlfriend and [[Arch Enemy]] laugh at him.

* Jerry on ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' seems to exist primarily to be abused by the rest of the cast. Part of the humor comes from the fact that he seems like a totally normal, likable guy who does nothing to provoke or deserve this treatment, yet he is dismissed or insulted by the others at the slightest opportunity. Additionally, he's treated as a Butt Monkey not only by the insensitive or thoughtless characters, but by ''everyone'', even the "nice" characters. Even [[The Pollyanna|Chris]] manages to be mean to him, if only by obliviously forcing him into a leadership position where he can't perform.

{{quote|'''Ron:''' A schlemiel is the guy who spills soup at a fancy party. A schlemazel is the guy he spills it on. Jerry is both the schlemiel and schlemazel of our office.}}

** Subverted in that recent episodes imply that outside of work, he has a happier life than any of the other characters. He's been happily married for over 25 years, for example, while no one else on the show can even keep a relationship going for more than two or three episodes. The gag seems to be that Jerry's life is actually pretty good... except for the parts of it that the viewer sees.

Line 256:

* Beaker is the resident Butt Monkey of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'', always the victim of the experiments of his "friend", Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.

* Rachel Berry from ''[[Glee]]'' is actually ''such'' a Butt Monkey that even within a club full of Butt Monkeys, she ''still'' gets frequently insulted and snarked at for laughs over how irritating her fellow glee club members find her.

** Sandy could also qualify for this trope toward the beginning of the series.

* Nick Stokes from ''[[CSI]]'' {{spoiler|got buried by a madman, got molested by his babysitter, had a stalker, was accused of murder when his prostitute girlfriend was killed}}, and is one of the few people who ever cries on the show.

* On [[Talkin Bout Your Generation]], Generation Y is generally the [[Butt Monkey]], but mainly Josh.

{{quote|'''Josh''': "I never thought we had a problem, [[Shaun Micallef|Shaun]], but people keep telling me on Twitter that it's obvious you don't like me."}}

* Fez from ''[[That 70s Show]]'', ever the effeminate, unlucky-with-the-ladies guy. Kelso also fills this role to some extent out of sheer stupidity.

* Fez from ''[[That '70s Show]]'', ever the effeminate, unlucky-with-the-ladies guy. Kelso also fills this role to some extent out of sheer stupidity.

* Lee Mack has become this on ''[[Would I Lie to You]]?''; the producers play up the fact that he is a [[Bad Liar]] by giving him the stupidest lies possible, and he gets mocked a lot by the host's autocue jokes.

* Mel Cooley on ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]''.

Line 271:

* In the [[Mockumentary]] series ''[[People Like Us]]'', documentarian Roy Mallard often falls prey to accidents in the course of filming.

* In the 1995 [[CBS]] dramatic series ''[[Central Park West]]'', Rachel Dennis (the fashion editor for a fashion magazine called Communique) suffers the brunt of almost every humiliating incident - if something bad happens, it's usually to her. Even though she tries [[Gambit Pileup|many plans]] during the series, almost all of them backfire on her (and leave her worse off than before). From the time she's introduced, she gets hit with a divorce settlement, gets thrown out of her hotel because she can't pay her bills, is scared that she'll be deported because she doesn't have a valid passport, gets rejected twice by lead character Peter Fairchild (even after she openly admits her feelings for him), her co-workers belittle and insult her, she gets fired shortly after she assumes control of Communique during a staff shake-up and the new editor humiliates her when she's gone by producing better material. And that's just the first season - she then goes on to humiliate herself (by getting covered in mud) to get her job back, and then disappears into the background because of the plot.

* Batly on ''[[Eureeka's Castle|Eureekas Castle]]''

* In ''[[Round the Twist]]'', who gets targeted by bullies, [[Widget Series|attacked by rubbish and mauled by pigs]]? Poor Pete Twist. Out of all the characters in the show, even including the bad guys, he probably gets the ''worst'' deal.

* [[The Medic|Dr. Simon Tam]] on ''[[Firefly]].'' The other characters frequently point out how much he [[Fish Out of Water|doesn't fit in]] and he's the only one who gets pranks played on him. In "Bushwhacked," [[Boisterous Bruiser|Jayne]] tells Simon that [[The Captain|Mal]] wants him to get suited up to treat surviviors on an abandoned ship they found. Cue Simon showing up, uncalled for, in a spacesuit he put on incorrectly, with everyone staring at him as if he'd grown a third eye.