Jerk with a Heart of Gold/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The Jerkass has hidden depths revealing that he really is a nice guy after all.

  • Played Straight: Bob is mean to everyone on the outside, but is hiding that deep down, he really is a good person.
  • Exaggerated: Bob is a Jerkass in name only, and is really a very sensitive soul who will shed a tear over a lost puppy.
  • Downplayed: Bob is usually a Nice Guy, and his good qualities are somewhat obvious to those who know him, but he has a temper, or a massive ego or other such flaws that keep him from being a clean-cut Nice Guy.
  • Justified: Bob acts like a jerk because he's been hurt in the past, and doesn't want to show his soft side because he thinks it's a sign of weakness.
    • Alternately, Bob comes across as a jerk but he's frequently shown to have a very good reason to act angry or annoyed, particularly if he's Surrounded by Idiots.
  • Inverted: Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
  • Subverted: Jerk with a Heart of Jerk
  • Double-Subverted: Bob is a jerk who appears to have a hidden nice side, but who turns out to be just a jerk, except for that deep down, he really feels bad about being a jerk and does want to be a nice guy.
    • Bob was just pissed off that day.
  • Parodied: Bob makes fun of the heroes, puts everyone down, and steals lunch money, but whenever a kitten comes his way, he cannot help but hug it and sing to it.
  • Deconstructed: Bob acts like a jerk because he's been hurt in the past, doesn't want to show his hidden soft side, and because of this everyone hates him and he ends up completely and utterly alone, becoming an even more hardened Jerkass as a result.
  • Reconstructed: Bob acts like a jerk because he's been hurt in the past, doesn't want to show his hidden soft side, and because of this everyone hates him and he ends up completely and utterly alone, until his hidden Heart of Gold is revealed and he and the people around him learn not to judge others by their appearances.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob is a jerk but has a hidden nice side, which he only shows occasionally, and later goes back and forth between acting like a jerk and being nice.
  • Averted: Bob's just a jerk through and through, and everyone knows it.
    • Bob is your average Nice Guy without a hint of jerkiness.
  • Enforced: Bob is the most popular character on the show, and so it's revealed that he has a hidden heart of gold because that's how the audience prefers to see him.
  • Lampshaded: "Well, it looks like he's not such a jerk after all!"
  • Invoked: "I know you think I'm a jerk, Alice, but I have a hidden heart of gold. You just can't see it!"
  • Defied: "I don't care what he's really like inside, that doesn't give him an excuse to act like a jerk!"
  • Discussed: "You may think he's a jerk now, but most people who act like that are merely using it as a facade because they're insecure."
  • Conversed: "I really wish I could be swept off my feet by the kind of dashing bad boy who you see in the movies. Oh, he'll appear rough and uncouth at first, but deep down, he's perfectly sweet."

Get the hell outta here, and go back to Jerk with a Heart of Gold with you! Because you don't belong here. You need something better.

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Jerk_with_a_Heart_of_Gold/Playing_With?oldid=1133665"