Jerkass/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Charlie Sheen barely has to stretch to give us the Charlie of Two and A Half Men.
    • Virtually every character on the show is a Jerkass, including even Alan.
  • Malcolm in the Middle give us several: Reese's favorite activity is physically assaulting Dewy, Malcolm is an Insufferable Genius, Hal regularly puts his own wants and desires ahead those of his family, Francis was one until he emancipated himself and became a generally nice person (although he seemed to go back on that one after he got fired from the dude ranch), Dewy usually shows these traits toward someone who has wronged someone in some way, making him a subversion even a toddler Jamie is shown stealing, framing his brothers, and being an overall asshole, even by toddler standards. The mother of them all is Lois: Specific examples are numerous but for simplification, while the entire family is generally disliked by their neighbors, the seem willing to at least tolerate everyone except Lois. Watch one episode and it will become entirely clear how much of a Jerkass you need to be to make the rest of that family tolerable by comparison.
  • Eddie McDowd is the epitome of The Bully, not to mention that his face is not shown to the viewers. He arrives to school stealing a student's sandwich for breakfast, probably bullies a teacher for money, pushing a student to a trash can, and bullies another student for milk. When Justin Taylor came to the school, he is spilled milk on him by accident. Eddie starts to retaliate by putting paint on him and hanging him on a flagpole. Later on, he skips classes just to "exercise" by tossing rocks into windows. Noticing a dog, Eddie starts throwing rocks on the car that it's hiding until it explodes. The Drifter shows up and knows everything about Eddie of how he took people's lunch money, the bikes he stole, the kids he terrorized, and his heart-shaped birthmark.
    • The Drifter, to a lesser extent, as he may be a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but he acts like an a-hole about Eddie doing good deeds.
  • It's easier to list people on The Wire that aren't pricks.
    • Ditto The Sopranos, where it's probably even harder. You could probably sum it up for the show as "everyone except Bobby."
      • Bobby who murders people, threatens to have people shot and beats up protesters with a baseball bat? That Bobby?
      • That was only because Jerkass Tony decided Bobby needed to pop his cherry by killing a bad business contact, until that point Bobby had never committed murder. Even after said event Bobby was consistently more bearable than the likes of Tony and Pauly.
        • Bobby beat up protesters with baseball bats and threatens jury members before he "popped his cherry" and anyone who commits murder a planned murder is still a jerkass
  • Cliff Clavin in Cheers is not only a Know-Nothing Know-It-All, he's also the Jerk Ass - so much so at one point he tries to give himself electroshock therapy to stop being a jerkass. Needless to say, it doesn't work. Carla Tortelli also serves as a Jerk Ass - at one point, Rebecca tells Carla, "There's some customers over there having a good time. Shouldn't you be putting a stop to it?"
  • Much of the humor in Seinfeld is derived from all the characters being complete jerks who have zero Character Development over the course of the series.
    • Larry David's next show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, fits the bill as well. Nearly every character seems to be an unhappy, neurotic, oversensitive, needlessly-hostile Jerkass. The fictional Larry David himself is merely a crass and socially-backwards Jerkass.
  • Avon in Blakes Seven is a combination of this and the Deadpan Snarker. Also, arguably, Del Tarrant and almost everyone else on the whole show.
  • Ray Carling in Life On Mars. At times, he exists purely to make Gene Hunt appear likeable in comparison.
  • In House, Dr. Gregory House, the main character, is a Jerkass. He usually gets away with it because he's the patient's only chance of survival, although the show does put a strain on your Willing Suspension of Disbelief in its realism, as a House who actually did suffer the consequences of his behaviour would make the show's premise impossible.

    In Season 3 the writers seem to realise how far he's stretching his luck. Boss Cuddy notes that she got House for a fraction of what he's worth because the other hospitals won't touch him with a barge pole, he's in a legal mess by the halfway point, and in the finale, his entire medical staff quit - although he fired one of them (after the other two quit on their own accord) because of Jerkass Facade. He felt they had gotten too close to him and started to actually worry for him and ultimately giving in to him instead of just opposing him.

    It's then immediately reversed at the beginning of the fourth season, when, despite his Jerkass tendencies, and his well-deserved reputation for being an asshole, he still has forty very qualified (with one exception) doctors damn near killing each other to be on his team. It's not that they don't know he's an asshole and Jerkass, its because they recognize his skill in diagnostic medicine, and wish to learn under him. It's doubtful that any of them want to work long-term with him, just learn what they can and then leave. People have put up with worse to learn under a genius, and in spite of his attitude, House is a genius with diagnostic medicine. At least he (sort of) has a heart of gold. Well... maybe bronze.
  • Classic TV Example: Eddie Haskell from Leave It to Beaver. Unctious towards adults, a complete jerk around his fellow teen-agers, and a bully to younger kids. At one time Wally Cleaver tells him: "Eddie, even I don't like you -- and I'm your best friend."
  • Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) of Stargate Atlantis starts out as this. Constantly complaining, constantly obnoxious, egotistical, and cowardly. As his character matures he is shown to have redeeming characteristics though, developing into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He also still manages to come up with the plan almost every time regardless of his Jerkassitude, usually saving many lives in the process.
    • More completely straight examples from Stargate Atlantis would be Sergeant Bates and Dr. Kavanagh, although they're clearly Designated Villains as they do have legitimate points, but because these are directed against the main characters they're portrayed as petty jerks.
    • The living Ancients that showed up in "The Return". "Thanks for protecting our city, now get the fuck out so we can wallow in our misery." Not verbatim, obviously, but this is essentially what they wanted. They blamed the Atlantis team for everything that was happening with the Wraith (Woolsey at least has the good sense to call their commander on this and she shuts up real fast), threw the Athosians off the planet (they weren't even living in the city, the Ancients apparently felt they needed the entire planet - they only repopulated Atlantis mind you - to themselves), and only allowed O'Neill and Woolsey to stay as guests. Frankly, it's hard to sympathize when they all die in the next episode.
  • Stargate: Universe ups the ante on Atlantis by having an entire cast composed of extreme jerkasses, with only one or two exceptions. But then it is pretty much Battlestargate Galactiverse (with the worst qualities of both).
    • They do get better though, when Rush and Young come to an agreement and when Rush sits in the Ancient chair and sees his wife die again. They all have moments, but in general the characters, except for Telford, have escaped from this trope.
      • Telford may be stepping away from Jerkass territory, now that he's no longer under the brainwashing influence of the Lucian Alliance.
  • Pretty much the entire Gavin family from Rescue Me.
  • Dr. Smith of Lost in Space, played with scene-stealing gusto by veteran actor Jonathan Harris, virtually took over the series. Standing out that much in a series not intended to be all that serious was a remarkable achievement.
  • Both Dr. Cox and Dr. Kelso (especially Dr. Kelso) from Scrubs are mean spirited misanthropes bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling to everybody that comes in contact with them (especially each other).
    • They both soften as the series goes on, or at the very least have their jerkass-a-tude played for laughs more.
    • Frankly, The Janitor also qualifies, especially when J.D. is nearby him.
      • Although he does also have a heart of gold. Even towards J.D. at times, while it might not show as often to him than to the other main characters.
      • And it turns out that his attitude to J.D was sort of justified, because J.D lied to him in the first episode.
    • Jordan, ex-wife of Dr. Cox, also deserves to be listed here.
  • Owen Harper from Torchwood. Despite being unbelievably rude, sexist and condescending - not to mention opening the Rift, with apocalyptic results, and shooting his superior, Captain Jack Harkness, in the head three times (don't worry, he got better) - everyone on the show seems to love him (sometimes, inexplicably, in a romantic sense; not one, not two, but three of his female co-workers have been strongly sexually attracted to him). Flashbacks in "Fragments" showed he was nice, but losing his fiancée and joining Torcwhood really took its toll and he gradually dialed back to a Jerk with a Heart of Gold by series 2.
  • In Torchwood's parent show, Doctor Who, the Doctor frequently exhibits fickle, merciless, almost psychopathic behaviour, but as he is a godlike being, i.e. a Time Lord, some degree of inhumanity is to be expected. When it comes to being obnoxious, the Sixth Doctor most certainly takes the cake out of all eleven incarnations to date.
    • Jeremy Baines and most of his fellow bullies in "Human Nature". Being possessed by an insane alien doesn't help much.
    • Even worse are the passengers in "Midnight". While the whole repeating thing was a bit creepy, it didn't justify their attempts to throw the Doctor and Skie off of the vehicle into the instantly lethal sun.
    • Eleven has turned the Jerkass up to... well 11 (but in a good way). There are many instances in the new series but as some random examples - the way he introduces himself to Amy's fiancé and the way he "reassures" Amy when she becomes possessed in the "The Time of Angels".
      • You know, it seems to be that a lot of the Doctor's last few incarnations' jerkiness is not so much outright cruelty so much as it is his totally overlooking peoples feelings. Sometimes he genuinely doesn't know when he's being a jerk. Like how Ten has to stop and ask if he's being rude in his first episode. And let's be honest, the people and creatures whom he does act particularly hostile too usually have it coming or have no one to blame but themselves.
  • James "Sawyer" Ford from Lost spent much of the first season as the Jerkass before his evolution into Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
    • Pre-Character Development Jack Shephard, anyone?
      • Jack all the time would be more accurate.
  • Col from The Adventures of Lano and Woodley cannot go five minutes without physically or verbally abusing Frank.
  • Hyacinth "It's Bouquet" Bucket, of Keeping Up Appearances. Of course, one of the running jokes of the series is that very few people are willing to have anything to do with her. She is genuinely intolerable by most standards and people behave accordingly.
  • Rick from the British sitcom The Young Ones is an over-the-top example of this character type. One of his housemates describes his name as being spelled "with a silent P."
    • Oh, hell. The characters from this show took turns being the Jerkass! Except for Cloudcuckoolander Neil, who never got a turn for anything.
    • Neil belongs here as well; his particular brand of Jerkassery simply takes the form of whining, self-absorbed Wangst rather than the more sociopathically violent form of his housemates. After all, his response upon learning of the death of both Rick's parents was to moan "You think that's bad?"
  • Supernatural: While John's awful, emotionally abusive behaviour towards Dean in Something Wicked could be excused because of how the demon killing his wife broke him, the "I wouldn't have given you the damn thing [The Impala] if I thought you'd ruin it" incident in Dead Man's Blood--lashing out at Dean (who has been a good little soldier throughout the entire episode) because Sam (who has been rightfully asking questions) annoyed him--is just cruel. Far more callous is the exchange where John bitches at Dean for not calling to pass along important information. As Dean points out, "Sam called you when I was dying," and John didn't pick up. John's response to this is to admit that his son's got a point...and then to criticize his tone.
    • Sam can approach this, especially when the darkness introduced into him as a baby gains more influence on him. In season four where we see him under the influence of demon blood, he's prone to lying, being condescending, declaring openly that Dean is too weak to get the job done, and even fights with his brother and almost strangles him after Dean calls him a monster, then approves the bleeding of a possessed woman for the power to defeat the Big Bad. Flashes of this in season five accompany cravings, and he even tells his Big Brother Instinct-driven brother that Dean's controlling behavior is part of what drove him towards his Evil Mentor girlfriend.
    • Dean approaches this too, most notably in "Point of No Return" when--in one episode--he coldly tells Bobby "You're Not My Father," tells his brother that Sam's so "angry and self-righteous" he'll eventually give in to Lucifer, and decides to give in to the angels' plan for him even though that will invalidate everything Castiel has done against Heaven's orders for Dean and destroy most of the world. Throughout the series, Dean has repeatedly called his brother a freak and a monster even though he knows that's Sam's biggest fear.
      • Let's just say they all go through so much trauma that it isn't surprising when the boys lash out, and continual proximity means their brother is usually the victim.
  • Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory.
    • Why are the other characters friends with Sheldon? He seems to bring nothing to the party.
      • Well, Howard and Raj liked Leonard. I don't know about his excuse though - maybe he's a masochist.
        • If the flashback is anything to go by, Leonard was kinda forced into the friendship. He needed a place to live and because Sheldon doesn't drive and they work on the same campus, Leonard didn't have much choice but to spend extended periods of time with him. Plus, Sheldon invited himself to everything they did and didn't understand why they wouldn't want him around.
          • Plus, of course, Sheldon saved Leonard's life.
  • Carrie Heffernan from The King of Queens. Don't let her pleasant appearance fool you. She has an incredibly short fuse, is incredibly demanding of everyone around her, makes ridiculously selfish requests (often for minor reasons), and even caused a Downer Ending. In addition, she's a status-seeking social ladder climber. To be fair, she learns her lesson by the end of the episode (most of the time... and then forgets it by the next.)
    • Honestly, if you hadn't seen his collegate wrestling photo, you'd think the reason overweight Doug has her is because he's the only person who can be around her for any length of time.
  • Bill McNeal on News Radio. He almost always gets away with it, and most of the other main characters let him walk all over them (especially Dave, his boss).
  • Noah's Arc: Ricky is this at times, particularly when putting his consorts before his friends. One particularly notable example is when his friend Chance is lost in a dangerous neighborhood at night and calls Ricky to pick him up. Ricky says yes, but then immediately forgets about it when distracted by a stripper (who he consequently has sex with). The really Jerkass part though is that when Chance confronts him about it, Ricky laughs the whole thing off as a joke.
  • Rimmer on Red Dwarf qualifies, though he's really only marginally worse than everybody else. Nonetheless, the man's avarice is shown to have virtually no limits, going so far as to steal his crew mates' bodies against their will, attempt to seal them in a quarantine cell for several months just to torture them, alter history to prevent Lister from becoming a successful millionaire, and many, many more.
    • Similarly, Cat is a vain, shallow, narcissistic Jerkass who, in the early seasons especially, has absolutely no problem leaving a clearly unwell Lister slumped unconscious on the floor in favour of going to find something to eat (although he does draw the line at stealing Lister's shoes in the process). It says something that when a universe-hopping stimulant arrived on Red Dwarf seeking to remove the useless and worthless from the ship, both Cat and Rimmer were spared because their own shallow, narcissistic personalities and low expectations for themselves meant that, by their own selfish standards, their lives were worthwhile.
      • Rimmer actually was justified on that due to Ace. His alternative self being such a heroic, charismatic, likable figure. Rimmer is actually pointed out to be the worst Rimmer by the show, yet he was able to take over Ace's role when he died.
  • Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show, an overblown parody of unruly high school students who seemed to go out of her way to humiliate other people as much as possible for her own amusement. She gets her comeuppance more than once, though. (She still ain't bovvered, tho'.)
  • T'Pol on Star Trek: Enterprise, possibly Star Trek's biggest Jerkass. She was seriously flirting with Jar Jar Binks status. Of course, like many Vulcans, it was a case of Jerkass Facade. And there was the whole sex appeal thing...
    • However, she didn't even come close to the Krenim from Star Trek: Voyager. Listen to the minor Krenim functionary before the time shift, and you will have looked into the very face of Jerkass.
    • Whenever Q gets bored, he goes to f*** with the Enterprise.
  • Cordelia Chase on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, although she got better after the first season.
    • In the seventh season and the comic book, Kennedy.
  • Glee's Sue Sylvester spends her days verbally (and occasionally physically) abusing her students and co-workers, blackmailing her boss, and scheming to destroy anyone who crosses her. She's kind to her sister, but that's about it.
    • She has her good moments. She voted for the good guys to win in the Season 1 Finale. Besides, he Jerkass-iness in general is what makes her SO DAMN FUNNY.
      • As of Silly Love Songs, every character at one point has had a Jerkass moment.
  • Sarah Silverman from The Sarah Silverman Program takes this trope to sociopathic levels. Being a Dead Baby Comedy, it'd be hard to expect anything less.
  • Considering that its a show about The Mafia, quite a few characters on The Sopranos could qualify, but Ralph Cifaretto exemplifies the tropes.
  • Major Frank Burns of M*A*S*H. Though only one of the characters qualifying as a Dr. Jerk, Burns stood out for his lack of surgical skills, constant scheming to get rid of Col. Blake, and all around nastiness to tent mates Hawkeye, Trapper, Spearchucker, and B.J. (whom he once shot in the leg).
    • Shooting B.J. was an accident attributable to Frank's idiocy rather than his jerkassity. He has both in spades.
    • This was the reason Larry Linville (Burns' actor) left the series - he felt that he had gone as far as he could with the character, and that Burns' jerk tendencies were so awful there was no way at all to redeem him.
  • Chris Finch from The Office (UK). But his jerk-assedness sets up a Crowning Moment of Awesome for David Brent in the final episode, when Brent finally tells "best friend" Finch what he can do.
    • Word of God has it that he was created so that Brent wouldn't seem like quite so much of a tosser in comparison.
    • The American version of Chris Finch is Todd Packer. They're both obnoxious, over-sexualized, condescending sales reps.
  • Patrick from Dead Set was a total Jerkass. On top of demanding that the survivors save him, risking their own lives, he ate some of the last food they had without permission, cut up a dead friend to use as zombie bait, and was willing to sacrifice every other survivor to try and escape Britain.
    • And look how that turned out.
    • In an interview, the actor who played Patrick believed everything the character did was justified.
  • Cook from Skins. Oh, so very much.
  • Raven from That's So Raven has, over the course of the show, grown from being "a bit bossy" to full-grown Control Freak, to the extent that she sometimes attempts to control every aspect of her friends' lives.
  • Louie De Palma from Taxi.
    • Best. Jerkass. Ever.
  • Tony from NCIS. He's consistently rude and disrespectful to his colleagues, his superiors, other law enforcement agencies, and even the friends and families of the victims.
    • That's more of a Jerkass Facade than anything else, though.
    • Gibbs himself counts to an extent. Regardless of personal problems, he comes off as very abrasive and cold towards others. Though this could be a case of Jerk with a Heart of Gold, as he is also a venerable and respected Jerkass Woobie.
  • On Soap, the ventriloquist Chuck seemed like a sweet mild-mannered guy, but his dummy alter-ego Bob was a massive flaming jerkass to everyone in sight. To the point where Benson achieved a Crowning Moment of Awesome by throwing Bob out the window.
    • Hilariously, Bob's victims almost always took out their rage on Bob, the dummy, and left Chuck alone. (And it's a testament to Jay Johnson's ventriloquism talents that you could find yourself totally going along with that until Fridge Logic kicked in.)
      • Elaine was also a supreme Jerkass, which led to another Crowning Moment of Awesome when Mary threw a pie in her face at dinner. Then Elaine opened up to Danny about her dysfunctional upbringing and started to turn things around --only to wind up getting killed.
  • Rude, smug, condescending, arrogant, cruel, selfish Ethel Tonks from All the Small Things.
  • If Pitchmen is any indication, Billy Mays takes this to the level of sociopathy.
  • Nevel from iCarly.
    • The main cast don't seem too eager to actually bury the hatchet where he's concerned either. The most recent example was one in which all he actually wanted was a kiss from Carly and he'd give her back her website, that he, to be fair, tricked them out of earlier in the episode. They double-cross him and spill "guacamole" on him. It's like they want him to continue trying to screw them over!
    • Sam a lot of the time as part of her Jerk Sue character build, Carly and Freddie not so much.
  • Dr. Stegman on Kingdom Hospital.
  • Phyllis was a huge Jerkass directly toward Rhoda on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In the very first episode, she keeps calling Rhoda a "dumb awful woman" and admits to getting Mary her apartment mainly to keep Rhoda from getting it. The height of her jerkassery may be in the episode "My Brother's Keeper," where she nearly has a nervous breakdown over the possibility of her brother dating Rhoda, causing the first of Mary's traditional bad parties in the process.
  • Jayne Cobb from Firefly is another example.
  • Coincidentally Pvt. Cobb from Band of Brothers is one too. In episode 4 he guilts one of the New Meat into removing a ribbon that he says he didn't earn (a veteran sergeant puts him in his place by pointing out his hypocrisy). He gets really annoying in episode 8 until his shit is finally confronted by an Ensign Newbie and a Sergeant Rock.
    • Another Jerkass on the show was Captain Sobel, being just a total dick and making the men run miles just after deliberately feeding them a heavy spaghetti meal. Although if you read about his life after the war he attains Woobie status.
  • Christine Campbell from The New Adventures of Old Christine fits this trope pretty well.
  • Sonya Paxton of Law and Order SVU.
    • And pretty much every single defense attorney on the show.
  • Rico from Hannah Montana.
  • Dan Fielding, from Night Court.
  • Dr. Romano on ER. Continued to be one even after having one arm severed by a helicopter blade!
  • Laurie, Eric Forman's sister on That '70s Show.
    • She obviously gets it from their father Red Forman.
  • Rygel from Farscape is greedy, selfish and vindictive. He does have his more noble moments, especially later in the series, so he's really on the border between Jerk with a Heart of Gold and Jerkass, but he can be a complete prick at times.
    • Ka D'Argo is if anything worse. Quick to anger, and for the first two seasons does absolutely nothing but make their situation worse whilst belittling everyone else. His inability to control his temper and incredible speed to jump to conclusions despite reality is amazing and he never learns from his mistakes. Someone brings news your son is being sold as a slave, strangle them!
  • Reg Trotter in Only Fools and Horses, who just packed his bags and left his family to fend for themselves after his wife Joan died.
  • Damages has Arthur Frobisher, who is all the more so because, in his mind, he's The Woobie.
  • Kirk from Dear John.
  • Jesse Flores from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Resistance fighter from the future who came back pretty much solely to wreck John Connor's life. With a seemingly counter-productive desire to destroy the only thing protecting the savior of the human race, she brought a sidekick Scrappy of her own to seduce John Connor, and then promptly disposed of said girlfriend as part of her scheme. What's potentially even more disappointing than Fox's cancellation of the show is that we never got to find out if Derek really killed her or not.
  • Ryder Daniels from an episode of Victorious...good god. He has a reputation for using girls to get a good grade and then cruelly dump them. Even worse is that he dumps Tori midway through the episode just to make her try to get him back (though that was somewhat justified by the fact that she was snooping through his phone at Trina's advice), even though he had the intention of dropping her afterward. It's made clear that he doesn't care about breaking others' hearts.
  • Zack Martin from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody could be this. Not only is he disobedient and lazy, he has, more than once, been responsible for the titular pair's problems. He once locked Cody (who was wearing only a towel) out of the hotel room, was told not to do it again under pain of grounding by his mother, did it again, then acted surprised when she grounded him. He also once worked a job with Arwin, and spent most of the time goofing off at the store where Cody was working. He once did this even after Arwin told him to put a filter on the pool to keep all the junk from going into the pool, got a paper cut and left for hours. By the time he got back, it was too late. The Suite Life On Deck also has shades of this, as he and Cody now have part-time jobs on the ship because he used up all of their student money buying things for girls. He even stole Cody's, insisting that he "left it lying around" when it was in Cody's wallet under his pillow, guarded by his teddy bear.
  • London Tipton also has her moments, but never more so than in the Hannah Montana crossover where she throws Hannah's anklet, the one her mother gave her overboard and then flounced off as if it wasn't a big deal. And wanted Miley to give her a receipt and two forms of ID for a bracelet that HER MOTHER HAD GIVEN HER.
  • Bernard Black in Black Books.
  • Hells Kitchen: There are many, many Jerkasses on this show. Prominent examples include Jason and Jen from Season 4, Andrea from Season 5, Joseph from Season 6, and Benjamin from Season 7. What also doesn't help is that the good majority of the Jerkasses are the ones who can cook well, but are horrible with getting along with the team, prolonging their stay in Hell's Kitchen.
    • Joseph was so bad that he was suspected to be a plant, though one thinks that if that was the case, he would have hung around for several episodes instead of blowing his stack and getting kicked off at the end of the second episode.
    • Sabrina in Season 8 tried to get teammate Nona eliminated in the first episode because she snores (and because she made fried chicken, which Sabrina felt did not count as a good dish).
    • Russell from Season 8 was just as bad, if not worse. He was probably the most talented chef in the competition, but by the final dinner service everyone despised him so much that Nona's brigade was fired up at the prospect of beating him, and Russell's brigade clearly put minimal effort into cooking for him. Russell even vowed to blackball the chefs he picked for causing him to lose (even though he did plenty to lose it himself, like trying to fire two tables at once and nearly getting in a fight with Rob). Classy to the end.
    • Season 9's Elise definitely takes the cake. Her irrational hatred of Carrie as well as her tendency to blame others for her mistakes and never take responsibility for her own made her extremely unpopular among her fellow chefs, as well as the audience. When Jennifer was eliminated (the two never got along to begin with), Elise mouthed off about how much of a better chef than she was, causing Jennifer to curse Elise out and flip her off when she walked off.
  • Who Wants to Be a Superhero?: Mindset from the second US season. Aside from insulting Ms. Limelight, he deliberately failed a challenge out of refusal to spell words with the extra "bee" word, getting his teammates stung by bees in the process.
    • According to Mindset, at least in the second case, he was refusing to play by Bee Sting's twisted rules and banking on that being the secret challenge of the day. (On this show, stranger things have happened.) Except it turns out it wasn't, and he was reprimanded for putting himself above his teammates, who had no say in his choice even though it affected all of them, and they were understandably not pleased.
    • The Iron/Dark Enforcer from the first season also counts.
  • Georg, the Bad Boss in Naeturvaktin. He confiscates his employees' pay, assaults a stroke victim, offends customers with racist tirades, and is utterly obnoxious to everyone he meets, all while absolutely convinced that he's in the right. Much of the humour in the series comes from schadenfreude when Georg's behaviour backfires on him.
  • Depending on the Writer, many characters from Coronation Street have at a hand at playing this. Currently, Kevin Webster is playing up it the biggest. After sleeping with his friend's wife several times, he sabotaged her car. After Molly died and the affair was exposed, Kevin went around acting as though he was the victim. Twice he attacked Molly's widower Tyrone in the street and then filed for devorce, claiming that Sally was behaving unreasonably. He also treated his daughter Sophie's girlfriend Sian like dirt and blaming her for Sophie falling off the church roof.
  • Power Rangers has had its share of Jerkasses Bulk and Skull during Season 1 being the most notable.
  • Frank Pembleton from ~Homicide: Life on the Street~ was a major one until Season 5. He was condescending, cold and never gave anyone else, including the partner who idolised him, for any credit for their work. He was kept because he was an excellent detective. In Season 5, after a major stroke, the other characters prove to be getting on fine without him with Bayliss doing brilliant work on his own. He then realizes that he can't do it alone and asks to be partners again.
  • Megan Parker in Drake and Josh is a massive jerkass, but it's a wonder why she always gets away with it.
  • Degrassi has had a couple. One of the most notable is Lucas, who is a bully, the Disappeared Dad to Mia's daughter Isabella, and is so bad that his sister, Jane, actually changed her last name because she didn't want it to be known that she was his sister. If you're so bad that your sister changes her name to avoid being associated with you, then you have cemented that status.
  • The Community main cast has two, for different reasons:
    • Jeff is flattering and manipulative.
    • Pierce is insulting and insensitive.
  • Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers is mean, snide and abusive to everyone from his wife to his employees to the guests at the hotel he owns. Many of his victims are just as obnoxious as he is, but it's impossible not to feel for poor Manuel, the naive Spanish waiter who takes the most abuse of all.
  • George Oscar Bluth, Sr. from Arrested Development. His company builds substandard housing, he steals company funds, hates at least two of his children, constantly has affairs and puts his entire family at risk with his attempts to evade justice.
  • Both Merle and at first, Daryl Dixon in AMC's The Walking Dead.
  • Frank Stallone from Smoking Gun Presents World's Dumbest.
  • Every single one of the main characters in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is selfish, arrogant, amoral, conniving, and dishonest. Many of the show's episodes involve them hatching elaborate schemes for either personal gain or revenge.
  • Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother treads the line between Jerkass and Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He's definitely the latter towards his friends -- despite often being manipulative, insensitive, and insulting towards them, he's done a number of incredibly sweet and selfless things for them out of sheer love and devotion. But to the people outside of a tight-knit circle that seems to consist of Ted, Marshall, Lily, Robin, his mother Loretta, his brother James, his brother's husband Tom, and his nephew Eli, he's a straight Jerkass who demonstrates barely any trace of scruples or conscience. At least, until season six, where his Character Development reaches a new level that includes glimmers of self-awareness about how his actions affect strangers.
  • The title character of Sherlock tells John that he has no friends, acts like a complete jerk towards Molly, shouts at an hysterical woman so as to get her to co-operate, and is unaware that Lestrade even has a first name. Though, by the end of the first season, he's turned into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It, obviously.
  • Walter White from Breaking Bad is, at his core, an unpleasant, spiteful, arrogant individual. Jesse tends to face the brunt of his rudeness, with Walt constantly blowing up on him and riding his ass over everything he does whether it's a severe blunder that could get them into serious trouble, a tiny mistake that doesn't even matter, or him simply wanting to take out his anger and bitterness on someone. But near the end of the show's run, not even his friends and family are spared his toxic attitude.
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