Jerkass/Oral Tradition

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Advertising

  • The Panda from the 'never say no to panda' commercials.

Music

  • Denis Leary's signature song "Asshole" (and arguably, his entire stand-up career) is a celebration of this trope. Leary himself is actually a case of Mean Character, Nice Actor.
  • While it's rather hard to tell whether or not they actually were like this, The Sex Pistols certainly presented themselves this way, much to the horror of Moral Guardians and awe of fans.
  • Murdoc Niccals from the band Gorillaz
  • Esham strongly exhibits this in his lyrics, going as far as to call himself "Black Hitler" at one point. According to some of his fans and former associates, he exhibits this in real life as well.
  • Mr. Douchebag.

Oral Tradition

  • Almost every single Greek Hero is one. Also every Greek God, varying between "Jerkass to some extent" and "Jerkass on steroids." (Athena is an example of the former, while Zeus is definitely the latter.) Considering the jobs of the Greek Heroes in Myth is to pretty much get completely screwed in the end (and they know it too) it is sort of understandable for them. Then you notice that the Greek Gods are doing most of the screwing on the Heroes and that most of the Heroes are children or grandchildren of the Gods, which only makes the Gods even worse Jerkasses.
    • Among the noteworthy Greek Gods, the exceptions are arguably Hestia, Demeter, and Hades - and there are stipulations even there. Hestia hardly did anything in any myths, so her personality's a little flat, and Demeter did go into a sob-fest over not having her daughter Persephone by her side every waking hour of every day (case in point - it's when Persephone is with Hades that Autumn and Winter occur, never mind the mortals that suffer for her "grief"). Hades is generally considered a whole lot nicer that his siblings, but he can also be a Jerkass depending on which story featuring him you read. (Did he take Persephone callously? Did she seduce him? Did Aphrodite have him struck by Cupid's arrow?) Hades was at least a lot more lawful that the rest, and despite a capacity for cruelty he was more sympathetic towards others (particularly compared to his brother Zeus).
      • Hell, compared to Zeus and the others, Hades was downright saintly. He was willing to compromise and give fair deals, whereas the others would make a bet with you and then change the rules so they win, and punish those who dare to go against them.
    • There is an exception to the Greek heroes: Perseus. Possibly the only decent person in all of their mythology.
    • To be fair to the heroes, some of them like Hector, Cadmus or Hercules tended to be all-around nice guys. Some of their jerkiness is from Values Dissonance between ancient times and now or doing what they had to to survive in a harsh world. Many of their victims had it coming both then and now. Others like Jason and Achilles suffer from that, but are such big jerks that even back then they were regarded as complete assholes.
    • With regards to gods, though, Ares takes the cake. Granted, he was also relatively stupid and was the closest thing the Greek gods had to The Brute, but the fact that he was the god of unrestricted war...well. Athena, his equal and opposite, hated him. But then, so did everyone else.
    • In nearly any incarnation of the Greek gods in media whether it be comics, books, or television they will come across as this. Sometimes it will be toned down so they are more balanced or even likable, but they will somehow or another come across as jerks.
    • Interestingly, perhaps the noblest hero of Classical Mythology is Hector, greatest of the warriors of the Trojans. He actually opposed the Trojan War, only fought to protect his family and his people, treated his foes with honor, and actually treated his wife like a human being instead of a trophy (which was unheard of). He was even considered one of the Nine Worthies by medieval scholars, and it was said he was the first to wield Roland's legendary sword Durandal. Why is this interesting? Because he was neither a Greek nor the descendent of a god.
  • The parents in Korean legends are usually that type, but those in the Korean legend "The Child General" take the cake. In the story, the couple who wished for a son for a long time (as they need one to carry on the family cult) finally gets one. He is predestined to be a lead general and as a child can already fly and do wonders. So, with this gift, the parents come to the conclusion that because of the danger that the child could become a rebel against the king (although the prophecy said he will be a general...) they kill the kid via asphyxiation with a pillow. Epic.

New Media

  • Bitey, from the Brackenwood series of web cartoons by Adam Phillips, is practically the living embodiment of this trope. No matter how many times he gets beaten up, tossed, humiliated, or so on, he never shows any regret, and is always back to extreme Jerkass-hood in the next toon.
    • Bitey creates a lot of his own problems-in fact, the only time Bitey's ever been attacked without provocation was his encounter with the Yuyu.
  • Foamy the Squirrel, from the Neurotically Yours web cartoons. Even your garden variety Jerkass doesn't do things like encourage his owner to call back a stalker/serial rapist who keeps leaving psychotic messages on her answering machine.
    • When you think about it, every character is an asshole in Neurotically Yours to an extent. (Possible subversion in Pilz-E's case - his pills may make him this way)
  • Strong Bad of Homestar Runner. From making fun of Homestar, prank-calling Marzipan, kicking The Cheat to terrorizing Strong Sad, if he doesn't qualify as one, then who does?
  • Tinkerballa from The Guild. All she does is insult the other guild members, and openly admits that she only plays with them to swell her own ego.

Tabletop Games

  • Warhammer 40,000 is subject to deconstruct this trope, namely the Marines Malevolent, who are all a bunch of arrogant, prideful bunch that doesn't care for the lives of the average imperial citizen, claiming they are superior to these citizens. And they are loyalists, too. Needless to say, that kind of behavior triggered the Salamanders' Berserk Button during the Second War for Armageddon.
  • This is what the Pathfinder blog has to say about Alain the cavalier.
  • In the Magic: The Gathering fandom, this is how many, many people view blue decks (and many partially blue ones as well). Given that a large part of blue magic is built around counterspells ("yeah, that cool spell? No."), this was perhaps inevitable.
  • In Shadowrun we have Clockwork, a hobgoblin rigger and probably the most hate-filled, paranoid jackass on Jackpoint. At least his paranoia (the kind that isn't shared by every other Shadowrunner, of course) is relatively contained to technomancers, but it still was enough to make him try to sell Net Cat (a technomancer and fellow Jackpoint user) to the megacorps when he knew they'd perform horrific experiments on her and was practically freaking out when he learnt she was pregnant. When he mentions the child's eye colour at one point, Net Cat, Slamm-0! (the child's father) and their friends are suitably disturbed.

Theatre

  • Freddie, the American champion in the musical "Chess," certainly fits the bill. Throughout the plot, Freddie engineers offensive publicity stunts to get more money, constantly abuses Russia and his opponent, mocks/manipulates his second, generally acts like a whiny little child, and eventually breaks down after he loses the championship. Moreover, he's also violent and sensitive, making him easily provoked. Yet, oddly enough, he (arguably) doubles as The Woobie, considering he sings an entire song called "Pity the Child."
  • Bertram, Count of Rousillon, in All's Well That Ends Well. Because he is married to a peasant girl (in the Distaff Counterpart of the Standard Hero Reward), he rebuffs her, saying he will only bed her when she can prove he has gotten her pregnant. Then he goes off to fight in one of the wars between Italian states.
  • Oh, Henry Higgins from Pygmalion! So very, very much! To wit: when he first meets the heroine Eliza he insults her accent even as she's trying to scrape enough money just to pay her rent; and he's endlessly patronizing and insulting to her when she comes to him for speech lessons. He makes no bones about the fact that other people annoy and bore him; and most of his interactions with other characters involve him insulting them, bullying them, challenging them, complaining about how bored with them he is, or else just bluntly identifying their accents. What's satisfying, though, is that the characters do notice this, and every single one of them Lampshades it when they remind him to have better manners.
  • Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire.
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