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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"'''Do?''' What does he '''do?''' Why, he's '''adorable!''' And people will '''love''' it!"''|'''Dr. Forrester,''' ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000
{{quote|''"Aw, I freakin' hate that little kid! Why'd they ever bring her on the show?"''|'''[[Homestar Runner
Cousin Oliver is that inexplicable kid added to the show's roster, usually in an attempt to liven up an aging cast with a character the younger demographics can ([[Totally Radical|supposedly]]) relate to. However, such a character is likely to upset the dynamic of the show. And since their only character trait is to be cute and innocently wisecracking, it's far too easy for them to become overbearing and annoying to viewers, especially the ones who have followed the series for a while, making Cousin Olivers very susceptible to becoming [[The Scrappy]].
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Often a form of [[Jumping the Shark]].
If there's actually an in-series point to the character, compare [[Cain and Abel
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Chibiusa's addition to the ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' cast wasn't initially for this reason, but the writers did end up using her for a younger demographic marketability in the retooled fourth series of the anime. Sailor Luna in the live-action series could also be an example of this trope in the same fashion.
* Arguably, Max from the ''[[Pokémon (
* Parodied/subverted in the ''[[Hellsing]]'' TV series with the previously unmentioned "Integra Hellsing's sister." {{spoiler|She's actually the last of a kind of bizarre vampire that used mind-control abilities to make the [[Muggles]] (including the [[Battle Butler]]) "remember" her. Also, she actually manages to seriously hurt Integra}}, something even the Valentine brothers couldn't do.
* Sort of parodied in the anime version of ''[[Excel Saga (
* Timothy Hearst in ''[[D
* Subverted in ''[[Digimon Adventure]]''. Despite Kari appearing much later than the other Digidestined there was already a younger child on the team with T.K.
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== Comic Books ==
* Danny Chase in the comic book version of ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]''. He was even designed to ''look'' like Cousin Oliver. Combine this with abrasive personality, lack of codename, costume, or original powers and he quickly became a [[Creator's Pet]], as well.
** In other words, Danny Chase is to the Teen Titans what Zan, Jayna, Wendy and Marvin are to the ''[[
*** At least they tried to be heroes; Chase tried to be holier-than-thou.
* Damian Wayne in the ''[[
* Chris Kent when he was introduced in [[Superman|Superman's Comics]]. It didn't help that [[Superboy|Kon-El]] had been killed off recently. Following the trope to the letter, he eventually caught a case of [[Plot-Relevant Age-Up]].
* Subverted with [[Fan Nickname|Kid-Loki]] who is just the normal Loki reincarnated as his kid self (with only his childhood memories and powers). He has avoided being [[The Scrappy]] by being just so much fun to read about (getting the best lines in any current Thor comic), and because he is perfectly aware that he's doing things most kids shouldn't do (but, being Loki, doesn't care because he wants [[Big Brother Worship|to save Thor's life from The Serpent]]. D'awww).
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** And then he did it ''again'' when he played Doctor Zee in ''Galactica 1980'' - though he was replaced with another actor after the pilot.
* Stephanie on ''[[All in The Family]]'', arguably a case of [[Tropes Are Not Bad]].
* Somewhat parodied on ''[[
** And a year later, Connor showed up on ''[[
* Andrew on ''[[Family Ties]]''.
* Kirby on ''Frasier''.
* Olivia on ''[[The Cosby Show]]''.
** Is it possible this was a direct nod to Oliver? Olivia/Oliver?
* Sam on ''[[
* Peter Cooksley, a Lawrence kid clone.
* ''[[Eight Is Enough]]'' had Cousin Jeremy (Ralph Macchio, who went on to become ''[[The Karate Kid]]'').
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* Penny from ''[[Good Times]]''. Introduced to give Willona someone to care for, since the Evans kids weren't really kids anymore.
* ''[[Growing Pains]]'' had two: Chrissy, the youngest Seaver daughter, and then later Leonardo Dicaprio's homeless-kid character.
* ''[[Little House
** Not to mention the Olesons' adoption of street urchin Nancy, [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|who just happens to look and act a lot like Nellie]]. This is a mild subversion, in that Nancy is added to be the ''[[Alpha Bitch]]'' as opposed to a beacon of cuteness. Even more interesting, this is an invoked example--Harriett Oleson deliberately adopted the brattiest, most misbehaved child in the local orphanage to replace Nellie.
*** Incidently, Jenny, introduced a year after Nancy, may have been made the age she was in order to have a little girl around Nancy's age to butt heads with.
* ''[[Married...
* ''[[
* In ''[[My Three Sons]]'' they formally adopted Chip's orphan friend Ernie. Justified, sort of, by the need to maintain the accuracy of the show's title after Mike was [[Brother Chuck|chucked from the show]].
* Justin on ''[[Power Rangers Turbo]]''.
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*** ''[[Gosei Sentai Dairanger]]'' with Ko fits, except he is a bit of a pervert and relies on his [[Empathic Weapon]] to help him out.
*** In all fairness, [[Cousin Oliver|Cousin Olivers]] were not uncommon in the original series and were arguably a useful proxy for the younger fans. Also, Fred had a [[Hot Dad]].
*** For some, such as [[Atop the Fourth Wall
* The diner in the ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' episode "[[Jump the Shark]]" is called [[Cousin Oliver]]'s... and the plot is about a possible younger brother turning up. Subverted though, when it turns out that the character in question {{spoiler|''was'' actually their half-brother, emphasis on "was" because he was already dead before the start of the episode}}.
* The Porters' foster child Declan in the last series of ''[[
* Played with in ''[[The X-Files]]'' in which one episode had a man who assumed this identity because he associated with the original Cousin Oliver.
** That series played with other shows a great deal, and that in turn got played right back on them when the series ending for ''Strangeluck'' had Chance directed to seek out Mulder.
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* Little Nicky in ''[[Fresh Prince of Bel Air]]'', though he's a bit of a [[Subverted Trope|subversion]] since he managed to avoid becoming the show's [[The Scrappy|scrappy]]. Partly because his [[Intergenerational Friendship|friendship]] with Will was amusing and he was not a [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|spotlight stealer]].
* Ricky, the kid next door who liked to sing with ''[[The Partridge Family]]'' (often seen as a [[Dueling Shows|Dueling Show]] to ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'').
* Arthur McArthur, also known as "the little fat kid", from ''[[Hey Dad..!]]!''.
* Billie Jenkins was an extra witch added onto ''[[
* Guppy in ''[[
** Not to mention he wasn't shoved down our throats like some of the other aforementioned examples of this trope, having appeared in only five episodes. However, they were all in the same year and that could be evidence that the writers stopped before he got a chance to become a [[The Scrappy|scrappy]].
* Nicky and Alex in ''[[Full House]]''.
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* Sky, a late addition to the cast of ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'', who appeared in the final three stories of the series as a regular before it was cancelled due to the death of its lead actress. Played straight and Sky is not necessarily a Cousin Oliver in the case of being an annoying addition, but she does qualify as far as being a young character added to a well-established cast that was growing older than their target demographic.
* On ''[[Degrassi]]'', Snake's never-before-mentioned godson, Connor, comes to live with him — conveniently right after his daughter goes away to college.
* Riff in ''[[
* Adric in ''[[Doctor Who]]'', although elements of the trope are averted in that the character was simply one of a long line of transient companions, and the series itself continued for a number of years afterwards. Plus Adric's final episode was one of the most dramatic send offs for a character in the history of the series.
* Sofi in [[Two Broke Girls]]. While she doesn't adhere to the basic Cousin Oliver requirement - she's a 50-something post-cougar, rather than a kid or teenager - she otherwise fulfills a number of the other Cousin Oliver criteria; she upsets the dynamic between the two leads, and critics and fans have singled the character out for criticism. As this is written the series is still midway through its first season, so time will tell if Sofi catches [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]].
== Video Games ==
* Robots don't age, but Capcom added the rookie Axl, who acted all of 13 to the cast of ''[[
* Joey MacAdoo, Samantha Pearce, and Arthur Chen in the ''[[Backyard Sports]]'' series, replacing the much more mature Jocinda Smith, Sally Dobbs, Kenny Kawaguchi, and Billy Jean Blackwood. Joey is easily becoming a [[Creator's Pet]] now.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Every once in a while an example comes along that defies the precedent, that's exactly what happened in ''[[Coming Up Violet]]''. As many readers know, the primary schick with ''[[Fur Will Fly]]'' was that Brad was the only human living a world filled with furries. ({{spoiler|Well, at least until Brad sets a whole mess of pandimensional aliens [like himself] free from a detention facility, but that's neither here nor there}}.) The comic's sequel changes this dynamic by introducing Dawn, a young -- incredibly normal -- teenaged girl to the mix. However, rather then being resigned to the Scrappy Heap, the fans love her and she adds quite a bit of character to the cast -- indeed, being an even bigger [[Fish Out of Water]] than Brad ever was. (May overlap with the [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]].)
** This is surprisingly similar to ''[[
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== Western Animation ==
* [[The Scrappy|Scrappy-Doo]], from ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' .
** Parodied in ''[[Scooby
** There's also Flim-Flam, the [[Ethnic Scrappy|ethnic kid]] from ''[[The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo]]'', though it's possible he may have been added as some sort of company bet to see if they could actually create something more obnoxious than Scrappy Doo.
** As well as Scooby-Dum, who made appearances in ''The Scooby-Doo Show'' and ''The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour''.
* ''[[The Simpsons (
* Sharko, from the final season of ''[[Sealab 2021]]'', is a spoof of this character type.
* Lola Bunny, although not a kid, was shoehorned into the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' lineage the same way a Cousin Oliver often is. Even to the point of her being a baby in ''[[Baby Looney Tunes]]''... even though the gang didn't know her in ''[[
* Spoofed in ''[[Drawn Together]]'' with Strawberry Sweetcake.
* Spoofed in the ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' episode "Pinky and the Brain and Larry" before [[Executive Meddling]] [[Retool|retooled]] the show into ''[[Funny Aneurysm Moment|Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain]]''.
* The animated version of ''[[The Godzilla Power Hour|Godzilla]]'' ([[Godzilla:
* Hana in Season 4 of ''[[Kim Possible]]''. Fortunately, she played an extremely small role (when she even appeared) outside of two episodes, so her existence did not significantly impact the tone of the show.
* ''[[The Critic]]'' parodied this Trope when Duke Phillips attempted to add a cute kid with an endearing speech impediment to Jay Sherman's show to try to boost his ratings.
{{quote| '''Jay''': Well I find you "wepulsive" and "wepugnant"!<br />
'''Kid''': (suddenly normal-voiced) Hey, that speech impediment shtick is copyrighted. You'll be hearing from my lawyers! ''(cute voiced)'' I mean, ''wawyers''. }}
* Parodied / referenced in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series
* Dil, and later Kimi, in ''[[Rugrats]]''.
* Poof, Cosmo and Wanda's son on ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]].''
* This trope can be a variation on having a [[Kid Sidekick]] and is very prone to happen when a live-action series is turned into an animated one; this is usually done for Saturday morning TV or the local equivalent, so the thinking is that kids want to watch other kids involved with the heroes. A classic example is ''[[Emergency|Emergency +4]]'', in which the paramedics and fire-fighters from the show ''[[Emergency]]'' were saddled with a bunch of 4 kids who got to chase the grown-ups around in a van labelled "+4". The network that commissioned the ''[[Star Trek:
* In the season 2 episodes of ''[[Action League
* Spike Witwicky and Carly were teenagers in the first two seasons of ''[[Transformers]]''. Then, in [[Transformers:
** ''Every [[Transformers]]'' series has kids who tag along with the 'bots just because network people don't think like humans and believe kids would truly rather see [[Transformers Prime|some kid try to impress some girl with racing]] than ''Autobots vs. Megatron and his robo-zombie horde.'' Daniel is generally considered the worst (with Kicker from ''[[Transformers Energon]]'' a close runner-up) and Sari from ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' was actually ''liked.'' The ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' kids and the ''[[Transformers Film Series]]'' kids are considered mostly harmless if not for the [[Developing Doomed Characters|screentime-hogging]]. The [[Transformers Prime|current batch]]... we'll see. However, it quickly became clear that Miko's being a [[Running Gag]] of "Everything's going fine for the Autobots, but oh no! Miko's snuck along and we have to go save her ''again!''" moments are something the creators are having a lot more fun with than the audience. Over the first season, though, her doing this diminished from "thrice per episodes" to "once every few episodes." In general, though, Transformers fans are [[Just Here for Godzilla]], so every TF human begins life in Scrappy status and must pull himself/herself out.
* Nibbles from ''[[
** The ''[[
* ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police (
* Corporal Capeman from ''[[Inspector Gadget]]''. He added nothing to the series when he was added and his chemistry with the others is zilch.
* In ''[[Batman:
* Bat-Mite himself in ''[[The New Adventures of Batman]]'', to the extent that he basically wrecks the series by spoiling the Batman/Robin dynamic and taking screen time away from the more worthy third wheel, Batgirl.
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