Straw Loser: Difference between revisions

[[File:loser3_827loser3 827.jpg|link=Garfield|frame|Exactly the way to do it.]]

Sometimes, the easiest way to show how awesome and cool a character is to make sure there's others nearby who simply aren't as awesome. The [['''Straw Loser]]''' is a character whose main purpose in the plot is to not be "with it" - making it all the more obvious just how cool the main character is.

Most kinds of media have been known to use the [['''Straw Loser]]''' at one point or another, but the character type tends to be most common in media which appeal to the [[Lowest Common Denominator]]. The [['''Straw Loser]]''' is an especially effective way of making sure that the audience understands who the good guy is in commercials - when you only have half a minute to make a sales pitch, it helps to make sure that the viewer understands [[Scapegoat Ad|how lame the opposition is]].

Long-form media can fall to this, too. A character who may have started off as a mild loser can become a [['''Straw Loser]]''' given enough [[Flanderization]].

In extreme cases, can lead to [[Misaimed Fandom]] when the audience winds up ''sympathising'' with the [['''Straw Loser]] -- or'''—or, at least, thinks of the "cool guy" as "too cool for them".

[[Straw Loser|'''Straw Losers]]''' usually fall under [[Acceptable Lifestyle Targets]] - this is typically the safest way to show them as being uncool in such a way that isn't blatantly offensive. In this sense, the [['''Straw Loser]]''' is also usually a [[Take That]] against whatever group is "uncool". The viewer must tacitly understand and agree with the characterization of the [['''Straw Loser]]''' in order for it to have any effect. As part of this, whatever the group is known to oppose or be worried about is likely to be depicted as a [[Windmill]], making their efforts [[Windmill Crusader|something to pity or laugh at]].

* ''[[Clannad]]'' - Tomoya has his eternal buttmonkey Sunohara hanging off him -- ahim—a foil whose job it is to suck.

* Subverted in Reinouryokusha Odagiri Kyouko no Uso when the designated [[Straw Loser]] (a skeptic whose life's work is to debunk the alleged "psychic powers" of the main character), is helped by the main character, into showing the audience that he treasures his wife's life more than proving that his opponent is a fraud.

* Sometimes beginner screenwriters tend to do this -- wherethis—where instead of writing a standard hero with a combination of strengths and flaws, they will have a [[Mary Sue|statically perfect protagonist]] with an overly-flawed, meant-to-be-unlikeable associate who is always wrong and needs to be put in their place and learn their lesson. Said lesson usually involves the designated scapegoat realizing how awesome the protagonist is compared to them.

** Aunt Petunia is revealed, retroactively to be a [[Straw Loser]], and is only jealously lashing out at Harry because she didn't get to go to wizarding school. It's worse than that-Lily and Petunia's parents were so excited that their daughter was a witch, that Petunia became convinced that she had become [[The Unfavorite]] for no better reason than that fate had simply seen fit to choose the wrong sister. So she takes revenge on her sister for having a gift that caught their parents' eye, partly by abusing Harry, but especially by spoiling Dudley before Harry's eyes, so that Lily, in some way, can know what it's like to be the reviled child.

* Way back in 1632, natural philosopher Galileo Galilei was commissioned to write a book that would get the Catholic Church out of looking like it blindly supported Aristotle's dogma in a time when it was becoming increasingly clear that he was in serious error. He was told to make the book balanced, so he included a character who would represent all the old beliefs ... a ridiculous straw character based on his most extreme enemies. In a bizarre self-inflicted [[Stealth Insult]], Pope Urban VIII became convinced that the [[Straw Loser]] represented ''him'' and had Galileo tried by the Inquisition. Equally humorously, the trial required the Church to actually declare the Copernican system heretical - previously the Church was tied to it mostly by its conscious philosophical debt to Aristotle. Galileo, ironically, became a better writer while under house arrest - Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences took away the [[Straw Loser]] status of the character while still letting him be critical of Galileo's work.

* The U.S. government has paid TV networks to make sure that anyone using drugs was portrayed as a loser. ''[[ER]]'', ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'', ''Chicago Hope'', ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'', ''[[7th Heaven]]'' and other shows had their scripts reviewed by the government and changes made so the network could pocket some cash.<br /><br />One example in the Warner Brothers' show, ''Smart Guy'', an original episode script portrayed two young people using drugs at a party. Originally depicted as cool and popular, after input from the government drug office, they were redefined as losers and put into the utility room, just to make sure the audience knows that drugs are bad.

* The TV series ''[[Fame]]'', full of good-looking artistic characters, in later seasons had one minor character who was fat and dumpy and played something called the flugelhorn (a real instrument, but look at the dorky name). He was given all the "wrong" views just to make it clear to the audience. The most [[Egregious]] case was when the school protested having an ROTC program there--literallythere—literally every other student and teacher was in on the protest, and Mr. Flugelhorn was apparently the ''only'' student who joined. (Which made what was probably intended as a "students being aware and caring and activist" plot turn into a "We don't want your kind around here" plot.)

* ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]]'' - Carlton Banks was the [[Straw Loser]] to Will Smith. When the show started they had more of a friendly rivalry with Carlton's sheltered-but-intelligent booksmarts being pit against Will's experienced-yet-wild streetsmarts, but as the show progressed Carlton morphed into an immature dork who simply couldn't compete with Will.

* Trina Vega on ''[[Victorious]]''. Unattractive [[Hollywood Homely|despite being portrayed by]] [[Daniella Monet]]? [[Hollywood Tone Deaf|Horrible Singer]] ?<ref>Despite her actress providing backup vocals for a few songs</ref>? [[Small Name, Big Ego|Ego too big for her actual talent]]? [[The Friend Nobody Likes|Disliked by the main cast]]? [[Parental Favoritism|Her parents preferring]] [[The Hero|her sister]] [[The Unfavorite|over her]]? She practically exists just to show how better Tori is by comparison.

** In ''[[The Looney Tunes Show]]'', Daffy is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to use this trope to his advantage--headvantage—he purposely gathers a circle of friends ([[Porky Pig]], Marvin the Martian and Pete Puma, to be precise) who are so lame that ''he's'' the cool one and proceeds to do everything in his power to keep Bugs from joining the group.