Jerkass/Western Animation

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • South Park
    • Eric Cartman. Possibly his Crowning Moment of Jerkassery: spending a huge inheritance on an amusement park, refusing to open it to the public, then running TV advertisements telling everyone that they can't come. Cartman examples could fill several pages, but the episode "Awesome-O" really stands out. Butters generally treats Cartman at least better than Stan and Kyle (though he has admitted not liking him much) and has never actively done anything to hurt him, or anybody. For no reason other than having material to humiliate Butters with (because he seems to get a kick out of taking advantage of Butters' naiveté), Cartman pretends to be Butters' new robot friend to find out his secrets. He doesn't feel guilty about it at any point either. That particular scheme however, backfired in several ways.
    • Stan's big sister Shelley - although she has insisted that nobody is allowed to treat Stan like trash except her.
    • Kyle's dad Gerald can be one. Being a lawyer has given him several other opportunities to choose the side that pays better over his own son, and he's been a jerk in other ways on occasion (like in "Smug Alert").
    • Chef explains to Stan in "Kenny Dies" that God is one of these:

Chef: Stan, sometimes God takes those closest to us, because it makes him feel better about himself. He is a very vengeful God, Stan. He's all pissed off about something we did thousands of years ago. He just can't get over it, so he doesn't care who he takes. Children, puppies, it don't matter to him, so long as it makes us sad. Do you understand?
Stan: But then, why does God give us anything to start with?
Chef: Well, look at it this way: if you want to make a baby cry, first you give it a lollipop. Then you take it away. If you never give it a lollipop to begin with, then it would have nothin' to cry about. That's like God, who gives us life and love and help just so that he can tear it all away and make us cry, so he can drink the sweet milk of our tears. You see, it's our tears, Stan, that give God his great power.

  • The Simpsons
    • Some viewers claim that Homer Simpson's lovable goofiness was exaggerated into him becoming a selfish, arrogant, callous, deceitful, over-impulsive, obnoxious, moronic, greedy, alcoholic, near-mindless jerk who treated his wife like a slave, emotionally bullied his children when he wasn't deliberately avoiding them or physically abusing Bart, and regularly broke the law and endangered lives, particularly during seasons 9-12, when Mike Scully was showrunner. To quote The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror XIII":

Homer-Clone: Me good dad.
Lisa: Has Dad seemed a bit stupider than usual lately?
Homer-Clone: (is bashing the car with a baseball bat)
Bart: Eh, me no notice.

    • In a deconstruction of this Trope, "Homer's Enemy" from the episode of the same name, Frank Grimes, reacts to Homer the way a normal person would. He can't seem to get anyone else to recognize the obvious. In the end, he goes insane and accidentally electrocutes himself ("What's this? 'Danger: High Voltage'. Well I don't need safety gloves because I'm Homer Simp...(Zap)").
    • In The Simpsons Movie, his family starts treating this attitude more realistically; the writers also admit during production test audiences found Homer a little too rough at this point and he was adjusted accordingly. In fact, Bart realizes Flanders is a better father even though he is a little too pious, Marge realizes that she doesn't know why she even loves him anymore, and the whole family decides to abandon him. Homer spends the next part of the movie learning he can't keep acting this way or he will be lonely for the rest of his life, and he eventually becomes prepared to make a Heroic Sacrifice to save the town and his family. He kind of makes a mess of it, but at least he's now trying...
    • Lampshaded in "E Pluribus Wiggum", when Homer, in the process of doing something that will very quickly result in a gas-main explosion that obliterates a city block, takes a cigar out of a box marked "Jerkass Homer Cigars". Though since this was something he did by accident, it might really fall under Idiot Ball.
    • Lampshaded again in Mommy Beerest, Homer: "Dah duhh that's me, Jerkass Homer".
    • Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley, the showrunners behind season 7 and 8 (Right before the Mike Scully's run, and some of the two highest fan-rated seasons) have themselves admitted in DVD commentaries that Homer does get dumber and dumber with every passing season. A side effect of the show running for longer than anyone ever expected it to, as well as the fact that it's pretty unavoidable if you want the show to remain funny and surprising (Homer simply has to top himself). They have made effort to keep Homer from appearing villainous or too much of a jerk, though later staff may not have put as much effort into it. In season 1, Homer was willing to kill himself out of the shame of being an unfit father. He tied himself to a large rock, dragged it to a bridge, and was about to drown himself by throwing it off a bridge, but his family loved him so much that they went and stopped him. He then saw how close they came to being run over and started a campaign for better road signs to be installed in Springfield, which snowballed into a campaign for public safety in general. Mr. Burns gave Homer his job back out fear that his competence in public safety could bring down the entire power plant. Has the change become clear yet?
    • Lisa seems to be a Jerkass too. Who other than a jerk would call Bart's friend Andy a "loser" even AFTER he gets a successful job writing comedy?
    • Bart has also slipped into jerkass territory as of late. While he has his share of mischief, he usually means no harm to the victims of his pranks and does try to make it up if it goes too far. Nowadays, Bart's pranks either are borderline physically harming people or completely overstep them and he does all for the sake of getting a cheap laugh or getting out of homework.

Lisa: Bart, you would really ruin Mom and Dad's marriage just to get out of a little homework?
Bart: Hey, hey! I would end all life on this planet if it would get me out of learning fractions.
Lisa: Fractions aren't so hard. All you have to do is find a lowest common denominator. For example, one-half plus one-third is four--
Bart: End...All...Life...On...This...Planet!

    • The worst was probably where Bart kept instigating arguments between Homer and Marge to keep them from noticing what he was up to. Lisa even called him out on it by saying "Congratulations, you're now a sociopath."
    • To return to Homer, he did already had some jerkassness in season 2's "Dead Putting Society", even when Flanders apologized for having a better life then Homer, the latter continues to break him. And the same treatment he gives to Bart.
  • Adventure Time is a show FILLED with jerkasses. Their levels of jerkassery range from "completely evil jerkass" to "sympathetic Jerkass Woobie." The most obvious in the latter category are Magic Man, Xergiok, and the Tree Witch. Magic Man inflicts Body Horror galore on innocent people and turns a bird inside-out, Xergiok spends most of his time SPANKING his subjects, and the Tree Witch actually tries to suck the protagonist Jake into her ass. (It Makes Just As Much Sense in Context). The Ice King and Lemongrab are very sympathetic characters thanks to their mental/emotional problems, but they're still jerks. The Ice King is insane and actually a decent guy, but seriously; he NEEDS to stop kidnapping princesses. That's just impolite. And Lemongrab isn't evil—just maladjusted, but he doesn't empathize with people easily, and he sends everybody to the dungeon for a million years.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants
    • SpongeBob often crosses the line from "lovable idiot" to what could only be described as "insane idiot", such as whipping the entire town into a mad panic over a butterfly, or (twice!) collecting every single citizen in town and locking them up. One episode has the town throw a "National No Spongebob Day", where everyone except Spongebob burns a giant wooden Spongebob and dances around the ashes.
    • Though, as "Once Bitten" shows, the people of Bikini Bottom can work themselves into a mad panic without Spongebob involved.
      • Mr. Krabs is an even bigger jerkass than Spongebob. He's wrecked Spongebob's house, eaten him when he was shipped back home after a failed attempt to infiltrate Pearl's slumber party, tried to tear a guy's arm off over a penny, stole a $1.25 secret ingredient and tried to frame Spongebob for it, and sold Spongebob's soul to the Flying Dutchman for 62 cents after Spongebob stood up for him. Even Squidward, who hates Spongebob enough to let it happen, called him out on the last one, not believing that Mr. Krabs could be THAT big of a jerkass, and Krabs himself realizes he went too far there and throws the money back. It only gets worse as the seasons go on where Krabs does anything in his power to get money even if it involves causing extreme misfortune for others (The Krabby Kronicle and The Krusty Sponge are prime examples of this) and let's not even get started on what Krabs does to Plankton in the later seasons. For the most part, the callousness of Mr Krabs's and everyone else's character (everyone is a jerkass at times) is a case of Depending on the Writer; they can shift back to their more likable early characterizations at times, though when they play this trope, they play it very straight.
    • Squidward. Sure- he isn't a bad guy, and it's understandable WHY he finds Spongebob so annoying. It would be odd for a person NOT to find SB annoying. But his treatment of Spongebob goes into jerkass territory quite often. Usually he rights his wrongs soon after, but he's a jerk for being a jerk in the first place. His actions often fall under Dude, Not Funny territory. Like making Spongebob cry in the Christmas special, by shattering his belief in Santa or the April Fool's Day special, in which he played a horribly cruel prank on Spongebob, which resulted in the poor guy bursting into tears and running home, sobbing. Squidward is still a good person, shown by how he was remorseful a little while later, but he's still a jerk for not only performing that prank, but LAUGHING at Spongebob while the prank was happening.
  • Michigan J. Frog has been a Jerkass for his entire existence, screwing around with people by singing and dancing, and then making them look crazy by acting like a normal frog when they try to get other people to see it. Later on, his jerkass tendencies got even stronger in Tiny Toon Adventures, where he taunts (in song) a turtle trying to get away from Elmyra, and as mascot for The WB, where, in early promos, he'd straight up insult the viewers while praising the WB as an escape from their crappy lives. And he's hilarious.
    • Wouldn't a majority of the Looney Tunes characters be considered jerkasses on varying levels?
    • Daffy Duck (After his Flanderization).
    • Foghorn Leghorn can be the very picture of jerkassry.
      • Both Daffy and Foghorn's Jerkass behavior is a case of Depending on the Writer usually (though Daffy got more consistantly meaner as time went by). Even Bugs Bunny has his moments at times, especially early on. Daffy's mean-side of his Jerkass mode is tossed aside for The Looney Tunes Show as he turns out to be more of an annoyance to Bugs Bunny than a mere rival.
  • Teddy Thaur in Monster Allergy when it comes to be a show-off.
  • Bloo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends becomes a bigger jerk each week, though he might be leveling off. However, in a subversion, it is explained that the others (or at least, the management) only put up with this because they have an obligation to, and are frequently glad to be rid of him. In the official comic-strips, he's at least a bit less jerky and more lovable in general. As in the pilot TV-movie. The TV movie (where Wilt is trying to find his original creator) implies that the "negative" aspects of the imaginary friends are an unconscious Secret Test of Character for their kids: Wilt's Extreme Doormat-ness encouraged his boy to be a better sportsman (I think) while Eduardo's meekness made his girl - a future policewoman who dreamed him up to be her protector - be more courageous. Thus, Bloo's Jerkassness shows Mac how not to treat his friends everybody.
  • Junior Wetworth from The Snorks.
  • Master Shake of Aqua Teen Hunger Force seems to become more and more of a horse's ass every week, though it could just be a result of him being a Cloudcuckoolander.
  • The entire cast of Drawn Together has Jerkass tendencies, especially Captain Hero and Clara. That being said, the characters are really no worse than the reality television 'stars' they parody.
  • In The Fairly OddParents, a vast majority of episode plots, especially in the later seasons, are derived from Timmy and Cosmo's ridiculously portrayed Jerkass tendencies in conjunction with the two perpetually holding the Idiot Ball.
  • In American Dad, Stan Smith is a huge Jerkass right from the get-go, with Roger the Alien being a distant second. Among Stan's crueler schemes include framing his wife for murder so she wouldn't tell him "I told you so", and evicting the entirety of the neighborhood so they wouldn't make fun of him.
    • Really though, it may have been a good thing for Stan to be a humongous jerkass from the beginning. Although he has topped himself in bastardy, he has also had numerous actions and development which make him seem a much better person than he once appeared, despite the continued jerkiness. He had nowhere to go but up.
    • Hayley, though far from Stan's level (yet) also has Jerkass moments, notably in "Haylias" when after accidentally breaking Jeff's arm during a nightmare, she first attempts to convince him he is dreaming, then callously dumps him. Makes you wonder what she will be like by the time she is her father's age...
    • Roger enacts plans to severely traumatize people or destroy their lives, for the most trivial reasons or infractions, only occasionally being punished for it. In fact his Lack of Empathy is played to such extremes that when he first cared for someone more than himself the trauma caused a split personality to develop (said personality being far more sympathetic than his own).
  • The quintessential Jerk Jock Dash Baxter from Danny Phantom is an example of this trope.
  • Eric, from the Dungeons and Dragons animated series, spent most of the series wavering between Jerkass and Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He frequently got the team into trouble through his whining and attempts to become the leader. He once left them entirely to marry a beautiful queen, though he came back eventually... but only after learning his bride-to-be was really a hideous monster in disguise. At the same time, he was the only character to successfully guilt trip Dungeon Master over his gratuitously enigmatic ways, and at some point he was fully ready to make an Heroic Sacrifice to send his friends home and battle Venger.
    • As has been pointed out elsewhere, Eric was also the victim of parental watchdogs who, at the time, believed that the best lesson to teach children was that "The Complainer Is Always Wrong". Thus, in spite of the fact that Eric was reacting as any NORMAL person would to being trapped in a homicidal fairy-tale world run by a dwarf with a Yoda complex, and, in fact, was often the only one making any SANE arguments about their situation, he was turned from being the voice of sanity to the Butt Monkey of the show.
  • Eustace from Courage the Cowardly Dog made humorous by the fact that he is also The Chew Toy.
  • Professor Professor on The Secret Show fills this trope through his childish behavior, his penchant for pulling practical jokes in times of danger, never actually testing his highly dangerous inventions, always leaving out crucial information until the moment, or, oft times, after it's needed, and sending the agents out on random missions. The worst thing he's done is sent them to the "Bermuda Trapezoid" into a fight to the death which ended up with the agents almost being killed in a volcano, simply to get back the satellite that broadcasts his favorite show. However, he is such a fun character that it really doesn't end up mattering in the long run.
  • Bender from Futurama. In one particularly nasty episode, "A Pharaoh to Remember", Bender, Leela and Fry are trapped on a ancient Egyptian planet where Bender encourages the overseers to whip the slaves (which include Leela and Fry) more and work them harder. This goes on to where he starts ordering people worked to death to construct a monument to himself. Bender's callousness reached such extremes at times it led even the Robot Devil himself to be taken aback.
    • Zapp Brannigan is definitely even worse than Bender. Whereas Bender has occasional Pet the Dog moments and sometimes seems to actually care about his friends, Zapp is a lecherous, egotistical jackass with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Brannigan is a parody of the kind of leaders (political and military) who are obviously incompetent and hypocritical to anyone with an ounce of common sense but who nevertheless somehow manage to be given more power and responsibility and receive more public adoration than they should, so this is probably intentional.
    • The Professor himself agrees when Fry describes him as a "senile, amoral crackpot". He gleefully sends the crew to very dangerous missions (many of his previous employees died because of this).
  • The contender for Biggest Jerkass in any animated X-Men series is Evolution's version of Quicksilver; he steals from his best friend, frames said best friend, joins the bad guys to get out of jail, regularly abuses them, betrays them when they seperate from Magneto's thumb, allows Magneto to Mind Rape his mentally unstable twin sister Wanda so that she'll be out of the way, triggers Wanda into accidentally derailing a train (which their escape attempt ends up painting them in positive light & getting their house rebuilt), then has the Brotherhood cause events that make them into heroes in the public for money, further manipulates Wanda's state of Mind to attack the X-Men & incriminate them, then sets a train crash so they can stop it & abandons it when they realize that it's going to colide with a another train & cause an explosion which could level the entire city, & worse of all he went to a dance with four dates. and yet, he's also one of the most popular character's in the eyes of the female fanbase, which also doubles as a Majority of the Fan Dumb of Evolution, causing most fanfictions to be about him & some female character, usually Mary Sue or Possession Sue, with the nicer character's such as Cyclops, Jean, sometimes even the entire X-Men. And why? Because he's "hot", you know, because animated characters, especially skinny ones with no sense of fashion, can be hot.
  • Sentinel Prime from Transformers Animated. It was to display how ironic it was that an arrogant jerk like him would become a member of the Elite Guard when Optimus Prime, who was more competent and nicer, ended up on a Space Bridge Repair crew.
    • Does it count as ironic if it's due to Sentinel's refusing to take any responsibility for the apparent loss of Elita-1 after he convinced her and Optimus to go to an off-limits organic planet full of giant deadly spiders and just letting Optimus take it all on himself without saying a thing about his own involvement?
    • The TF Wiki page for Sentinel Prime makes something of a Running Gag out of "Sentinel Prime did this. Jerk. Then he did that. Jerk."
      • The disambiguation page for "Sentinel Prime" even distinguishes his entry with "2007 — Sentinel Prime, a jerk and member of the Autobot Elite Guard in Transformers Animated."
  • In the animated pilot episode based off of the Bubsy video game series, the title character is an arrogant, obnoxious jerk who nearly brings about the end of the world through his carelessness. In the games, he is merely a wisecracking do-gooder.
  • Kuzco starts out as one of these in The Emperors New Groove, but gradually gets better. He suffers something of a relapse in the spin-off TV series, The Emperors New School.
  • Eddy from Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy is arrogant, scams his peers, is full of himself and likes to think that he's better than everyone else on the show. And people wonder why him and his friends get the living shit beaten out of them sometimes.
    • And what's worse is that his big brother is even a bigger Jerkass then he is, which makes you think that it might be hereditary.
      • Well, it is revealed in The Movie that Eddy's jerkish behavior is all just a Jerkass Facade since he thought that acting like his brother would make him look cool to all the other kids. In the end Eddy realizes that being a jerkass was what was keeping him from being popular and tearfully laments that he'll never learn his lesson. Cue the one of the show's only, and most triumphant, Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
        • To an extent. Some of Eddy's Jerkass traits seem to be engraved in his mindset. He once went mentally insane without anyone in the cul-de-sac to scam.
    • Well, undoing years of abuse and manipulation would take a while, in fairness.
    • Though Eddy has a Freudian Excuse, Kevin is one through and through. in one episode he finds out Eddy's middle name after finding his wallet and threatens to tell the other kids, but promises to not tell if Eddy does everything he says. Eddy does so. Kevin tells them anyway, and his "excuse" is "Oops! I forgot!"
      • One could argue Kevin to lean into Knight Templar / He Who Fights Monsters territory, after being harassed by the Eds for so long he has came to believe they are always up to no good and so up for punishment. In "See No Ed" he becomes suspicious after the Eds disappear for an extended period, eventually becoming a paranoid wreck expectant of them reappearing to scam him at every turn. When he sees Eddy's own reasons for his behavior, he lightens up.
    • Ed's little sister Sarah is a violent, manipulative Bratty Half-Pint that frequently abuses her brother physically and verbally on a scale only slightly lower than what Eddy suffers from his brother.
      • By extension, Sarah and Ed's parents could qualify too, as it's implied that they allow Sarah to bully Ed.
    • It's possible they don't realize how bad it is, since Ed is so strong he can pick up houses with ease and Sarah is a little girl. It's also implied Ed and Sarah's mother generally favors girls, whereas the father is more apathetic.
  • Dr. Venture from The Venture Brothers. Rhis is to be expected when you live in such a Crapsack World.
  • Code Monkeys has not just one, but three jerkasses in the forms of Dave, Todd and Mr. Larrity. Dave is a messy, rude, irresponsible pervert who's constantly stoned and it's a real wonder that Jerry is still willing to associate himself with the guy. Todd is a mixture between a jerkass and Small Name, Big Ego. Mr. Larrity is a maniacal, money-hungry, nutjob who would think nothing of selling his own employees to further his own twisted ambitions.
  • Clay from Moral Orel, the main character Orel's father, who is initially viewed (at least in Orel's eyes) in a sympathetic (or at least tolerable) light, but is ultimately a pathetic, blundering, selfish jackass who even crosses the Moral Event Horizon at one point or another.
    • His "crowning moment" of jerkassery and Moral Event Horizon was when he drunkenly shot Orel on a hunting trip and proceeded to blame it on Orel with a series of unconnected lies. He stood there insulting Orel to bring him down, ending with him starting to walk away, turning around and saying "And I'm GLAD I shot you!".
  • Quite a few characters in The Boondocks, especially Uncle Ruckus.
  • Given the nature of the show almost every single character of the Total Drama series had at least one Jerkass moment during the course of the series.
  • Bushwacker Bob from Taz-Mania.
  • Jerry of Tom and Jerry occasionally picked on Tom for no reason in some of the earlier cartoons, though the times where Tom is the first to start the fight far outnumber the times where Jerry attacks without being provoked. And in episodes where Jerry really goes overboard, Tom tends to win, though that doesn't change the fact that Jerry was sometimes a Jerkass in retaliation.
    • Perhaps to balance this, Tom himself is occasionally shown to pick on Jerry for the sheer fun of it (or take a little too much pleasure in his duties).
    • Both have had their share of Karma Houdini moments.
    • There was also Tom's owner Clint Clobber from the Gene Dietch shorts, he had an extremely nasty temper and beat the crap out of Tom for even the littlest offenses and he was even shown laughing at some of the cruel things he did to him.
    • Jerry was really more of a Screwy Squirrel in the Chuck Jones shorts. Jones admitted later on that he didn't always understand how to write for the two characters, and this is the man who brought us the Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons.
  • There were times on Muppet Babies when Skeeter could become a huge jerkass rival to Piggy. Two big examples are when she gleefully watches Piggy get blamed for a snack theft she and brother Scooter actually did, and when the group puts on a performance of "Snow White" and she forces Piggy to be the Evil Queen while she plays Snow White (which includes getting a kiss from Kermit, no less).
  • Let's put this straight: almost EVERY CHARACTER FROM FAMILY GUY (at least since the show came back) has been, at one time, self centered, nasty, snarky, and insane. Some notable examples:
    • Peter Griffin actually started out as a decent man who often made stupid decisions and would've done anything for his kids especially Meg, but by the middle of the fourth season he became a selfish jerk who openly hates Meg for no reason and both physically and verbally abusing her and he often puts his other family members in danger without caring what would happen to them such as when he jumped out of their car to watch a movie in a van leading to the rest of the family's near death, and then proceeds to admonish Lois when she points out how stupid and selfish he is.
    • Connie, an Alpha Bitch character from Meg's school is an absolute bitch to Meg, and continues to bully her even after Meg showed her the cuts she deliberately gave herself as a result of Connie's cruel mistreatment towards her. To balance things out however, she also falls victim to a rather Disproportionate Retribution by another Jerkass character in the majority of her appearances (her bullying seems kinda low-scale when you consider she has been brutally beaten twice over, framed for paedophilia by Stewie and sexually harrassed by both Peter and Quagmire).
    • Stewie had his Crowning Moment Of Jerkassery in the episode "No Chris Left Behind" when the family went to see the Nutcracker and Stewie turned to Meg and said "You know Meg, female ballet dancers are famous for anorexia and bulimia, and uh... seems to work out for them. So, hintedy hint hint."
      • That's very tame compared to the downright villainous things he has done in the past, like brutally beating up Brian for some money he owed him. Twice. He got his come-uppance in the end, but it was still very asshole-ish if not downright evil. Though, to be fair, Stewie is supposed to be an Affably Evil villain who wants to kill his family and has even murdered others in the past. The ballerina insult would be a Crowning Moment of Jerkassery for most other characters in the show, but for Stewie it's nothing compared to what he has done before and will do later.
    • During the recent seasons Lois has had Flanderization moments that have degraded her from a loving mother and wife to acting like an abusive shrew, especially towards Meg and Peter.
    • Brian. Quagmire's Reason You Suck Speech is a perfect descriptor

"You are the worst person I know. You constantly hit on your best friend's wife; the man pays for your food and rescued you from certain death and this is how you repay him? And to add insult to injury, you defecate all over his yard. (getting angrier) And you're such a sponge. You pay for nothing. You're always like. "Ooh, I'll get you later," but later never comes. And what really bothers me is you pretend that you're this deep guy that loves women for their souls, but all you do is date bimbos. Yeah, I date women for their bodies, but at least I'm honest about it! I don't buy them a copy of Catcher in the Rye and then lecture them with some seventh-grade interpretation about how Holden Caulfield is a profound intellectual. He wasn't. He was a SPOILED BRAT! And that's why you like him so much: he's YOU! GOD, you're pretentious! (brimming with indignation) And you delude yourself by thinking you're a great writer, even though you're terrible. You know, I shoulda known Cheryl Tiegs didn't write me that note. She woulda known there's no "A" in the word "definite!" And what I think I hate most about you is your textbook liberal agenda. How we should (mockingly) "Legalize Pot, maaan..." How big business is crushing the underclass; how homelessness is the biggest tragedy in America. Well what have YOU done to help?! I work down at the soup kitchen, Brian... never seen YOU down there! You wanna help? GRAB A LADLE! And by the way, driving a Prius does not make you Jesus Christ. Oh, WAIT! You don't believe in Jesus Christ, or any religion for that matter, because (mockingly) "religion is for idiots." Well who the HELL are YOU to talk down to anyone?! You failed college TWICE, which isn't nearly as bad as your failure as a father — how's that son of yours you never see? But you know what? I could forgive all of that... all of it... if you weren't such a BORE. That's the worst of it, Brian. You're just a big, sad, alcoholic BORE. Well, see ya later, Brian. Thanks for the fucking steak!"

    • Ironically, Quagmire is not exactly a saint himself. For example, after learning that Brian slept with his transsexual parent, Quagmire beat Brian up, no questions asked. He also has sexually assaulted MANY women in the show, one-shot characters or otherwise. Peter himself once referred to Quagmire as a "heartless sex hound".
  • Peanuts: Lucy Van Pelt could be one of the pioneers of this trope as far as western animation is concerned. She truly believes that the world is ending any time Charlie Brown actually does something right. One of her worst acts is from "It's Your First Kiss Charlie Brown" near the middle during their football game they have to score a field goal in order to win the game and Charlie Brown begs her not to pull away the football which she had been doing throughout the game, she promises she won't and just as he's about to she pulls it away like usual costing them the game, later at the after party she mocks and yells at Charlie Brown like nearly everyone else even though the entire thing was HER FAULT in the first place.
    • And who gave Charlie Brown a bunch of rocks one Halloween when the gang went out trick-or-treating?
  • Tim's Boss in The Life and Times of Tim.
  • Beef, the alien Jerk Jock from Galaxy High.
  • Aquaman in Justice League. He spends his appearances doing whatever he wants without caring what anyone else thinks, never explaining his motives and always insisting that his home city is more important than the rest of Earth.
  • In Cow and Chicken, if you pay attention to what Chicken dose most of the time, he is quite a jerkass, he even once refused to take a a bath and caused his family a lot of discomfort form not being able to use what is apparently their only bathroom, grinning as she sits and lays back listening to their cries to hurry up. (When was the last time you had to really really really need to use the bathroom and were a bit away from one? It's really a horrible feeling.)
  • Detective Bullock from Batman the Animated Series seemed rough around the edges, and his main claim to fame was merely distrusting Batman. Then he got his Day in The Limelight and spent it proving that he was nothing short of an asshole. A reporter offered him help figuring out who tried to kill him, but had work to do and asked him to wait a half hour before she showed him whatever he needed to see. Bullock decides to break into her office and dig through the files like a burglar instead of just waiting like he agreed to.
  • In Nine, 1 and 8 are both this. 1 is a commanding coward who sends 2 to his death because he is old and weak, while 8 follows his every whim and brutishly mistreats the others, particularly 9. Both are redeemed somewhat: 8, by having the funniest scene in the movie, by getting "high" by putting a magnet to his head, and 1, more seriously, in a Heroic Sacrifice to save 9 and help destroy the Fabricator. Redemption Equals Death in both cases.
  • Many characters of King of the Hill, most notably Hank's racist Laotian neighbor, Khan, who just wants to show up Hank, and Hank's racist, misogynist father, Cotton, who outright refused to tell his son he loved him. even on his deathbed. To be fair to Khan, there are times that he shows that he isn't a complete Jerkass. Cotton is certainly the worse Jerkass. Kahn is also revealed to be bipolar, making him more of a Jerkass Woobie.
    • Peggy believes herself to be superior to everyone she knows in every way, and uses it as an excuse to talk down to, insult and generally be a total dick to everyone around her. Almost everyone she meets outside the main cast quickly grow to dislike her and within the main cast it is heavily implied, if not outright stated, that they don't like her and only associate with her due to living right by her or by proxy of Hank. Dale has bluntly stated he hate her, Bill is in love with her (he is shown to have masochistic tendencies), and Boomhauer is never actually shown speaking to her. When involved in a competition that she will likely lose, rather than admit defeat she will almost always make sure that everyone loses (regardless of how unlikely she is to win from the get go) or lie, back stab, blackmail or use any other unethical or illegal means to give herself the win.
      • "Master of Puppets" has, after they accidentally forgot to pick up Bobby on date night, Peggy making a special breakfast for Bobby in a blatant bribe and shifts the blame towards Hank. Showing that when as a group she's at fault, Peggy has no qualms about downplaying her own involvement while emphasizing her partners'. To be fair though, Hank had expected the whole thing to blow over the next morning simply because they apologized to Bobby. When we see Bobby the next morning, before Peggy gives him his breakfast, it's obvious everything was not better. Peggy was a jerk ass for bribing Bobby, but Hank was a jerk ass for thinking a simple apology would fix leaving Bobby stranded in a parking lot.
    • Dale also counts for his belligerent heckling of his friends, among other things.
    • Hank has his moments of being a Jerkass. Particularly when he's confronted by things he doesn't understand (which is quite large list). Or when Bobby has hobbies and interests that he doesn't agree with (which tends to overlap with the 'things he doesn't understand' list).
  • Roger Klotz in both the Nickelodeon and Disney versions of Doug.
    • Roger started out as a stock bully, but by the end of the Nickelodeon series he seemed to be one of Doug's friends, albeit a selfish and irritating friend. Doug's narration acknowledges this in the episode where Roger is bullied by newcomer Percy Femur: "Roger may be annoying, but Mr. Bone's nephew was just plain mean."
      • For instance, Roger helped organize a surprise party for Doug, and in the graduation episode he and Doug have a heart-to-heart about their anxiety over leaving elementary school.
  • Angelica from Rugrats plays this trope straight, from childhood to the All Grown Up! episodes.
    • Well, both parents were ones, too. Blame it on heredity.
  • Tales from the Cryptkeeper (animated series) - The hunter from the episode Hunted. He openly admits to the English speaking Amazonian native that he will use the animals he captured to make fur coats, rugs and fancy appetizers and not take them to a zoo as the boy hoped. The hunter tries to justify his actions by claiming his people also hunt the animals for food, but the boy retorts that they only hunt the animals for as much as they need. He also lets the hunter know that there are not as numerous as he believes and the ones he captured may be even the last of their species. Hunter's response? "Then all the better. The rarer they are the higher the price." Wow, what a total shithead. Luckily he gets his at the end of the episode.
  • Sterling Archer from Archer is a perfect example of this, as he is completely unrepentant and rude to every other character on the show.
    • He definitely has a Freudian Excuse. Malory Archer's jerkass tendencies range from enjoying watching her son be electrocuted in the pilot, to being proud that six pigmies died cutting down an endangered tree to make her a fancy coffee table. Oh, and she also murdered a cleaning crew for forming a union.

Mallory (after an elevator audibly crashes): How's that for bread and roses?

  • Miranda from As Told by Ginger.
  • In most KaBlam!! episodes, June can be one of these. She's usually bossy, demanding, and pretty nasty to Henry AKA her best friend.
  • The Weavils from Jimmy Two-Shoes are an entire race of completely obnoxious rat-like creatures. And then there's Lucius.
  • Murdoc Niccals of Gorillaz. Among other bad habits, he thinks it's appropriate to get someone to join your band by kidnapping them.
  • Both Scooby and Velma of Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated have become repulsively oafish owing to their being in a Friend Versus Lover triangle with Shaggy as the apex. Although they usually only act that way when the triangle drives either the plot or sub-plot.
    • Mayor Jones puts local tourism first and the well-being of his son, Fred, a distant second. The town's main squeeze for tourism is when people dress up as monsters and cause property damage or even harm to others. By episode 13, you'll be expecting him to cross the Moral Event Horizon soon.
    • And he does in episode 26.
  • Plenty of characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Zuko is this at the beginning, before he gets a backstory and is revealed to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Toph and Sokka have their moments as well, but the biggest Jerkass in the series has to be Zhao, who is an insufferable Smug Snake who taunts someone in the cruelest ways possible in each of his appearances. Oh, and he killed the moon.
  • Deliberately averted in Phineas and Ferb. They kinda broke "no idiots or jerks" policy with Suzy, though.
    • Peter the Panda.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Peter the Panda? You were disassembling my Freezinator ray? While I was singing about my feelings? You! You're dead to me!

Fluttershy: Hey, Twilight! What's soaking wet and clueless?
Twilight Sparkle: Fluttershy, I've just about had enough--
(Fluttershy dumps a bucket of water on Twilight's head)

Fluttershy: Your FACE!
—(Fluttershy slams the bucket on Twilight's head)
    • Fluttershy gets another turn as this in 'Putting Your Hoof Down', where she reduces Pinkie Pie and Rarity to tears for pretty much no reason. Speaking of that episode, Boxxy Brown the cherry salsepony is one. He constantly jacks up the price of a cherry to ludicrous degrees after Fluttershy says how much she needs one, and immediately sells it to another pony for a much lower price, and mocks Fluttershy about it.
    • The Flim-Flam brothers, traveling sales ponies nonpareil.
    • Bon Bon. Whether she's avenging herself on Apple Bloom for an attempted scam by demanding every apple from the stand for free, pretending not to know Rarity because she's not the now-famous Fluttershy, or bullying the latter, she can be really unpleasant. Heartstrings must be the element of patience.
  • Jamie in Megas XLR, who has all of two Pet the Dog moments in the entire series. It is often implied that he brings absolutely nothing to the table in his friendship with Coop, and that he has no skills of his own, yet despite that he is a jerk with a superiority complex who insults his comrades, hits on women, and schemes for his own profit.
  • Burke and Murray, the former junkyard managers before the protagonists, in Swat Kats.
  • Everyone on Space Ghost Coast to Coast—but especially Space Ghost himself, a petty, megalomaniacal Small Name, Big Ego who regularly abuses his co-hosts and sometimes murders his guests. It's that sort of show.
  • Dan from Dan Vs. Sometimes the targets of his vengeance are even worse jerks, so much so that Dan looks heroic in comparison.
  • Allen in Allen Gregory is heavy on this. He displays narcissism in spades, disregards his sister's emotions and well being, puts his needs and wants ahead of others, and completely disrespects his father's life partner for no apparent reason. Allen is only a 7 to 9 year old boy! It also doesn't help that Allen's father displays the exact same behavior to his life partner and his daughter.
  • Benson from Regular Show, in a "uptight boss" sense. Rigby also counts, in an "impulsive manchild" sense.
    • Benson's kind of iffy, considering how incredibly stressed out he is. And let's face it, Mordecai and Rigby are prety awful at their jobs. He does have some more Jerkass moments, but the biggest jerkass in the show is Muscle Man... And even he took a level in kindness to Jerk with a Heart of Gold, leaving Rigby as the biggest jackass in the show.
  • Ultimate Spider-Man: Nova. Most of the cast can be pretty bad, but Nova is ridiculously overboard in this respect, using any chance he can to put Spider-Man down.
  • Recess:
    • Lawson, the resident Jerk Jock
    • Gelman was this for most of the series, usually picking on Gus for no reason at all. In "A Great State Fair", he pulls a Heel Face Turn.
    • The Ashleys. While the girls do sometimes have their Lovable Alpha Bitch moments, their usually stuck-up jerks. Ashley Q. shows this the most
    • Randall Weemes, who likes the get the gang in trouble For the Evulz.
    • Most of the adults (sans Miss Grotke) in season one.
    • Becky Detweiler, T.J.'s big sister, is this and a Bratty Teenage Daughter. She gets beter at the end of Recess: School's Out, but goes back to her normal ways in the sequel, Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade.
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