Jerkass Has a Point: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

''I'm not Good. I'm not Nice. I'm just Right. I'm the Witch!"''|'''The Witch''', ''[[Into the Woods]]'', "The Last Midnight"}}

 

== Film ==

* Used in-universe in ''[[Gremlins|Gremlins 2]]'' with this exchange:

'''Clamp:''' That's a good question Bill – how do you know so much about them? }}

* In ''[[It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World]]'', [[Evil Matriarch|Mrs. Marcus]] is the one who suggests simply splitting [[MacGuffin|the $350,000]] that's been buried under the big "W", but if anyone had listened to her, we wouldn't have a movie.

* In ''[[Darkest Powers]]'', Tori Enright, while not necessarily evil, is a self-proclaimed bitch who once made it her priority to make Chloe's life hell. While her first time attempting to give Chloe advice ends up in the two of them almost getting carved up by a trio of street thugs, when it seems that Chloe is having trouble with Simon and Derek and gets subsequently very depressed about it, Tori's pep talk ends up helping Chloe to realize just what's wrong with herself. Which in turn leads to her accepting the fact that the one she's liked all along is actually Derek and allows her to return to a mostly normal state.

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', there's a scene in the second book where Alliser Thorne, an abrasive and arrogant training instructor with the Night's Watch, comes to King's Landing to present evidence that the dead are walking and warn everyone that [[A Storm Is Coming|an invasion by the Others is imminent]]. Every time we've seen Thorne before, he's been portrayed in a negative light, so most readers cheer when [[Breakout Character]] Tyrion [[Break the Haughty|makes a fool out of him in front of the royal court]]:

'''Tyrion:''' If you ''bury'' your dead, they won't come walking. }}

** It doesn't change the fact that Alliser was telling the truth: The dead are walking, the Others are coming, and the kings and lords of Westeros are too busy fighting each other to do anything about it.

* In the second season of ''[[Community]]'', a recurring plot arc was Pierce Hawthorne's increasingly [[Jerkass]] behaviour towards his friends, which eventually reached a point where they were debating whether to throw him out of the group or not. However, while Pierce was shown to be unreasonable and cruel with many of his actions, he was also shown to make the entirely valid point that one of the main reasons that he was acting out in this fashion was that his supposed friends weren't actually that much nicer or better towards him in many ways, often deliberately excluding, mocking or ignoring him. While Pierce is the group's [[Acceptable Target]] in that he's a racist, sexist jackass, his friends were forced to concede that in several ways he had a point. However, the trope is played with in that Pierce is ''also'' forced to concede the point that it's in many ways his own fault he's excluded in the first place.

* In the season 1 finale of ''[[Spartacus: Blood and Sand]]'', Oenomaus angrily calls out Ashur for his cowardice, dishonorable tactics, arranging Barca's murder, ruining Crixus and Naevia's relationship, and other slights. Ashur retorts that ever since he arrived in the ludus, everyone gave him a hard time: repeatedly calling him a wimp and a coward even though he won a few matches, and making fun of him when Crixus crippled his leg, so [[Then Let Me Be Evil|why shouldn't he try to ruin their lives?]]

* Annie's father in the ''[[Masters of Horror]]'' episode "Cigarette Burns". Kirby treats him like an unreasonable jerkass, but Kirby did get his daughter killed by indulging her drug habit, abysmally failed to get her on the right track despite agreeing with him to do so, is still massively in debt to him, and just evades him whenever the topic of repaying the loan comes up. {{spoiler|It's only when he resolves to kill Kirby that he crosses the line into outright villainy.}}

 

* ''[[Something Positive]]'': When Kharisma leaves the medicaid company at which she works with Davan, she advises him to get out, telling him that he can do better and that she wouldn't wish the job on her worst enemy.

* In ''[[Misfile]]'', [http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=1188 Emily ends up calling Molly for relationship advice].

* Several instances in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' where [[Sociopathic Hero|Belkar]] says something useful. [[Big Bad|Xykon]] delivers some foreshadowing to [[Knight Templar|Miko]] in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0371.html this strip], by way of paraphrasing Yoda: "fear leads to anger, anger leads to suffering, and suffering leads to the Dark Side." {{spoiler|Minus the fear, that's just what happens to Miko later on.}}

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' got pretty unpleasant Zulenna who habitually advocated Baron's dubious actions [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040312 including] imprisonment of "Othar Tryggvassen, {{smallcaps|Gentleman Adventurer}}". Agatha and other students ignored this. The guy turned to be more or less as much heroic as he pretended to be... and [[Hero Antagonist|dangerous nutcase]] as a bonus. Zulenna generally has a point any time she is not posturing.

* ''[[Drowtales]]'': As part of the [[Grey and Gray Morality]], this pops up quite a bit. The Kyorl'solenurn, for instance, are surprisingly justified in their extremism against the tainted, especially after recent revelations {{spoiler|like the fact that most tainted have been given intentionally faulty demonic seeds that will kill them within 50 years}}. Quain'tana also has some of this, since while a terribly abusive parent and all around not very nice person she does make good points, especially when it comes to the Sharen, who [[Dramatic Irony|the readers]] know are not what they seem at all. This also applies to her interactions with her daughter Mel, who has twice tried to claim submission to her mother, but Quain doesn't buy it, and we [[Dramatic Irony|the audience]] know that she's actually right to not trust Mel since she was put up to it by the character who's effectively the [[Big Bad]] of the series.

* ''[[Homestuck]]'': [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|Karkat]] has a problem: [[I Hate Past Me|he is constantly bickering with past and future versions of himself.]] He's berated for this by nearly everyone, including [[The Pollyanna|Jade.]] But when Jade has to deal with a incessantly whiny version of herself for reasons that would take hours to explain, Karkat pulls this one on her.

'''CG''': OH I SEE, AND ALL THOSE IDIOT PAST AND FUTURE KARKATS WEREN'T??? }}

 

== Western Animation ==

* In one episode of ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man|The Spectacular Spider Man]]'', Peter, under the influence of the black spidey-suit, acts uncharacteristicaly abrasive to his friends. A speech from [[Jerk Jock|Flash Thompson]] causes Peter to realize what a jerk he's been and cast off the symbiote.

* Eric in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' was set up as [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong]], but if you're listening carefully, he's the only one in the party perfectly willing to call out Dungeonmaster over those dirty tricks and half-truths that get the party in trouble, and the only one to tell Hank that [[Honor Before Reason]] may be a bad idea.

* On ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'', after the Flying Dutchman (the Bikini Bottom version of Satan) is ready to drag Mr. Krabs to Davy Jones' Locker for being greedy, Spongebob sticks up for his boss, wagering his own soul that Krabs is really generous. The Dutchman then offers Krabs a handful of pocket change in exchange for Spongebob's soul, which Krabs accepts without hesitation. Krabs gloats over the money, while the Dutchman departs with the sponge, causing Squidward to go ballistic. Normally Spongebob's sworn enemy, Squidward yells to Krabs, "I can't believe I'm saying this but how could you sell Spongebob for 62 cents?" Eventually Squidward's abuse [[My God, What Have I Done?|makes Krabs see the light and he regrets his greedy ways.]]