Jerk with a Heart of Gold/Web Original

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.



  • Strong Bad from Homestar Runner. He tries to cheat to win contests, bullies around his brother Strong Sad, and left Cloudcuckoolander Homsar for dead, but he does get along well with his co-stars.
  • Sean "Lucky" O'Cann of Survival of the Fittest acts like a bit of a prick, but has been shown to be genuinely warm and affectionate at other times. It's how he deals with his insecurities, for the most part.
  • Simon Drake from Shadow of the Templar can be an insensitive bastard to say the least, especially when he's laid low by injury or lack of caffeine, but cares deeply for his teammates. And also for his sort-of boyfriend Jeremy, no matter how many times he insults him.
  • Steg, a popular YoutubePooper, says that although he seems to act quite angry on the Internet, he's pretty nice when you get to know him. And he has a sense of humour.
  • The Nostalgia Critic. He ridicules old movies and TV shows, shoots characters who get on his nerves, and though enjoyable to watch, definitely isn't a nice guy. When he goes to rip up "Follow That Bird", he spends most of the review squeeing like a Fan Girl over all of the characters, finally culminating in this loud declaration:

NC: I CAN'T DO IT! I CAN'T MAKE FUN OF SESAME STREET! IT'S THE FIRST SHOW THAT I EVER SAW! [...] I LOVE YOU ALL! YOU'RE SO BEAUTIFUL AND INNOCENT! YOU ARE CHILDHOOD!

    • He then proceeds to cry, run away, and pay one of his alter-egos Chester A. Bum to finish the review for him.
    • And in reality, Doug Walker is nothing like his character. A few people have suggested that because he's so likable and dorkily charming that it rubs off on the Critic and makes him more 'heart of gold'-y than what was intended.
      • And shall we put his Distaff Counterpart The Nostalgia Chick up here too? She's condescending, has her moments of being utterly deranged, abuses her best friend and hides all of it behind an overly cute, girly persona. But she nearly always tries to find at least one good point in the crap she reviews, she's smart as hell, she clearly thinks Nella's adorable like the rest of us (just have a look at the ends of her "My Little Pony" and "Ever After" reviews) and, as is with Doug/Critic, Lindsay's likability shines through easily.
      • Really, aside from the obvious evil characters (Ask That Guy, Sage, Mechie), we could put the majority of That Guy With The Glasses here.
  • Church from Red vs. Blue is surly, rude, and generally hates everyone around him. On occasion, however, he shown he genuinely cares about his friends, going as far as to utter a Big No when Caboose - a character with an IQ of -12 who had done nothing but annoy him since they met - when he was killed (he got better). In the season finale of Reconstruction, he sacrifices himself so his friends can escape.
    • Its more than that, Church could have easily escaped with the rest of the Reds and Caboose, but stayed behind to help Washington, who he seemed to dislike more than anyone because of his freelancer status. Because Church would be destroyed by the EMP, staying behind meant certain death whether or not Wash succeeded. Heroic Sacrifice indeed.
  • In DC Nation, most of the Outsiders fit this like gloves. Travis is a street kid turned Green Lantern who sometimes forgets there are actual people involved when he starts planning. Green Shield has the Arrow family's moxie with a side order of caustic sarcasm. Caleb and Amelia Zukov love to put up a good show of not giving a shit about their teammates, but God or Hell help you if you if you go after the team...especially if Caleb doesn't particularly like them.
  • Rhett McLaughlin could qualify as this when he tells the true and hilarious story of Link's snowboarding accident. Link was clearly in a lot of pain, but Rhett could not stop laughing.
  • The "Misunderstood D-bag" meme is all about this; describing a behaviour usually associated with douchebags or generally unpleasant people, then giving a reasonable explanation that frequently makes them a good guy.
  • Kodiak of the Whateley Universe. He chases girls, he pushes people around, he was in the Alphas when Don Sebastiano ran it. But he's been looking for Ms. Right and is sticking with her; he pushes people to see if they'll stand up to him because he has the spirit of the bear giving him superpowers; and as soon as he could kick Don Sebastiano out and fix the Alphas, he did so, even though it meant he could lose his spot as the head Alpha in doing so.
  • Hashimoto Daichi in Greek Ninja. He's arrogant, selfish and self-centered, and yet somehow... he's not.
  • Raimi and Oran from Broken Saints.
  • Simon, aka Honeydew from the Yogscast. Lewis (Xephos) too, to an extent. They're often seem pushing one another off cliffs, making questionable jokes and burning things For the Lulz but they call each other friend at least once every video, Simon's the first to reassure Peculier when he doubts his abilities as a hero and they often show genuine concern for the NPC's they help out along the way. And then there's their reactions when somebody they like dies...