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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''Daimonji''': "Wake up, will ya! You're living in some kind of fantasy world! Here's a dose of reality for ya. You're a weakling. You're never gonna be strong no matter how hard ya try. Your a loser! You're always gonna be a loser and guys like me are gonna step on ya for the rest of your worthless life!"
|'''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]'''}}
▲[[File:you_suck.jpg|link=The Simpsons (animation)|frame|[[America's Funniest Home Videos|America, America, this is you.]]]]
You can't spell ''sympathetic'' without ''pathetic''!
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Note that this same person's friends are all clever, athletic, highly competent and, above all, cool. Why such an implausible situation? It's because, while the protagonist sucks just like you, at least he has friends that are just the kind of people you wish you knew. Which is supposed to make you identify with him even more. At least, that's what the network executives seem to think. As far as they're concerned, [[Viewers are Morons]].
The opposite of
Paradoxically, applying
Could lead to [[Fridge Logic]] when the protagonist wins and the enemies don't suck. An extreme and rather cynical version is [[Humans Are Morons]].
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In short, this is where the [[Every Man]] character or [[Audience Surrogate]] is a "typical" loser like [[Lowest Common Denominator|half the audience]] is [[Viewers are Morons|imagined to be]]. This is usually intended to make them endearing. A sub trope is [[Loser Protagonist]]
'''''Note: If you see any mis-potholes to [[You Suck]] (which now redirects to here), please remove them.''''' This isn't about, say, a work outright saying that the audience or viewer sucks. Also, this trope is '''''not about hostility''''' toward the audience. For that, see [[You Bastard]], [[Viewers are Morons]] and/or [[Take That, Audience!]]. Also is rarely [[Justified Trope]] with a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]], [[I Thought It Meant|despite what you might think.]]
{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* The basis for more commercials than can probably be counted. As counterintuitive as it may seem, ads depicting the intended consumers of the company's product as [[Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket|drooling imbeciles]] are becoming more and more popular, to the point that it would be folly to point out all but the most egregious offenders here.
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* [[Comedy Central]] got in a bit of trouble with the fans with a ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' commercial showing a pair of redneck stereotypes nerding it up over the show, implying that the network saw the whole fanbase as such. They didn't help themselves by opening another commercial about the show's return after a long hiatus by literally saying "Quit your bellyaching!"
* [[Sony]] obviously feels this way about their customer base, considering their "All I Want For Christmas" marketing campaign. The rap can be found [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX_3GEvF8RQ here].
* There's a Web advertisement that says, "Beach Bum makes $237,000 from Laptop! Click Here!"
** And going by these ads, you are almost certainly a local mom who knows absolutely ''everything!'' It's really amazing, how these local moms are always figuring out $5 miracle cures in their spare time that not even Pfizer can come up with. All kidding aside, though: the only web ads that actually show any respect for the viewer's intelligence are the ones that '''do not exist'''.
* Jack Link's has an advertising campaign entitled "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR-at8V5cvI Messin' With Sasquatch]," which features a number of Jack Links-loving hikers playing various cruel jokes on Sasquatch, only to be beaten up by him. Because apparently people who eat Jack Link's Jerky are moronic little twits who take sadistic pleasure in tormenting someone who had done nothing to them, and who get the crap justifiably beaten out of them on a regular basis.
* The advertisement for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP5lz2CYNR4 Sakuracon 2009] caused much controversy amongst anime fans, many of which were offended by the depiction of their fandom. A discussion about the commercial can be read [http://www.animenewsnetwork.
* The commercials for esurance.com have the company's sales representative helping its customers, who are depicted as being really dumb. The first guy is trying to break up the street with a baseball bat. She hands him a jackhammer. The next guy is painting a wall by throwing the paint onto the wall. She gives him a brush. The third guy is trying to send a message by using smoke signals. She gives him a cell phone. The intended message is that signing up for their insurance is really easy. The perceived message is that their customers are really dumb.
** While everyone seems to love Progressive's bubbly mascot Flo, few notice that the people she helps are often amazingly dorky and uncool (one wears a [[The European Carry All|man purse]] and another is implied to [[Acceptable Lifestyle Targets|still live with mom at age 40]]).
*** This varies from one commercial to the next. Some are fools (the guys mentioned above), some are cool (mostly in the motorcycle insurance ones), others are normal (like in "Big Money").
* Hyundai recently began airing commercials featuring a teenager ramming a wall in ''[[Crazy Taxi]]'' and a group of teenagers on a giant slingshot, with the emphasis being that teenagers are crazy and don't know how to drive, so you should get a Hyundai to protect yourself from them. Keep in mind, that for most of their history, the vast majority of Hyundai's consumers were young drivers...
* There's this ad for a site apparently called poor decisions, in which an unshaven man sits on the side of his rumpled bed, holding a cigarette and looking like he's contemplating suicide. There's a blow-up doll behind him. The ad text reads "Does this look like your morning?"
* Hardees commercials seem to be pushing the envelope on just how vile, depraved, and wretched they believe their customers are, always depicting some sleazy, unlikable young man in his daily routine, while an incredibly bored voice rambles about something entirely unrelated. Such examples include "having three girlfriends is great...sometimes" while a man paints over the word "cheater" carved into his car, or a group of men watching football until one brings a trey of biscuits into the room, offering them, where they all stare at him as if he had two heads while the voice says "guys don't bake". Perhaps the most alienating, however, has to be "Don't want chili fries with your burger? Too bad, you get them anyway", as a man tries to scrape chili off a counter with his fries. The message seems to be "Are you the slimiest stain on the bottom of society's shoe? So are we. Eat at Hardees."
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8odkYKT370 The guy in this Lipton commercial]
* State Farm has recently been running a series of commercials that is equal parts this and [[Take That]] to [[Brand X|a rival insurance company that claims they'll set you up over a fifteen minute phone call]]. The earlier commercials saw State Farm taking aim at the rival company and [[Side by Side Demonstration|claiming their coverage was of lesser quality]], but the recent commercials also stereotype the type of person that would use their rival's service. Most notably, this series of commercials stars a [[Drives Like Crazy]] fool who tries to weasel his way back into his previous agent's good graces after getting into an over-the-top accident
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== Anime and Manga ==
* [[Love Hina|Pretty]] [[Girls Bravo|much]] [[DearS|any harem]] [[Magikano|series]] [[
* The title character of ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]'' gets terrible grades, constantly screws up spells, is an athletic failure, is greedy and self-centered, and just is an all-around [[The Ditz|Ditz]]. So naturally the Queen entrusts her with ''the newborn next heir to the witch kingdom''. In contrast, her five-year-old sister is [[Wise Beyond Their Years|prodigiously competent and mature]], and her friends include a [[Yamato Nadeshiko|lovable]], [[The Ojou|rich]] [[The Smart Guy|genius]], an [[Action Girl|athletic prodigy]], and an [[Idol Singer]].
* This is the entire point of ''[[Doraemon]]''. Doraemon is sent back in time to change Nobita's
** This is probably [[The Artifact]] of the extremely long series; Doraemon's antics were partly a commentary that Japanese people in the 1970s were becoming lazy and over-reliant on technology.
** It must be noted that while the nature of the "future" depicted changed from time to time, most often Nobita became a responsible blue collar worker and family man. He also managed to bag Shizuka somewhere along the line.
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** Manga Usagi is surprisingly A LOT more competent and intelligent than her anime equivalent. She's suffers more from naiveté than actual stupidity. It's just the anime kept resetting her character growth every season while the manga left it intact.
* Kinnikuman, and his son Mantaro Kinniku, from the manga ''[[Ultimate Muscle|Kinnikuman]]'' are extreme examples of this; at the beginning of their respective adventures, they are both impossibly stupid, hideous and pathetic in almost every way, only ever succeeding through dumb luck. However, due to [[Cerebus Syndrome]] this is slowly peeled away to reveal competent, yet silly, characters.
* Tsuna Sawada, protagonist of ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', is regularly mocked by his peers for being a loser in just about every endeavor. He does get several moments of awesomeness, but only when he gets "touched" by Reborn's [[Magic Bullets]]. And then things begin to get ''weird''. Of course, as the series goes on, he becomes less of a living incarnation of
** Also, Kozato Enma.
* Yumi from ''[[Mariasama ga Miteru]]'' is described as being a plain, non-athletic girl of average intelligence, who berates herself constantly for being insignificant. Still, she has one of the most popular girls of her school chase after her and drag her into the [[Absurdly Powerful Student Council]]. She befriends most ''everyone'' there, which even culminates in a declaration of love of sorts from one of the coolest persons in the series. Later she is shown to have pretty good people skills, but that still doesn't convincingly explain why everybody chases her.
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** At first, definitely, though no cast member is really moving forward in their lives when we first meet them. Most do a better job than Keitaro at masking it, but the series shows various times where the masks crack. Still, in that same epilogue sequence, the ladies take pains to say why he is not a loser.
* Played depressingly [[You Bastard|straight]] in ''[[Paranoia Agent]]'', with the unnamed [[Otaku]].
* [[Kaiji]] is an unemployed bum who spends his time drinking cheap beer, losing cheap gambling games, crying over the fact that he doesn't have any money, and slashing other people's tires and stealing car ornaments. To his credit, [[Took a Level
* Jiro "Roji" Kusano, half of the titular ''[[Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation]]'', despite being assistant to genius executor Muhyo, starts out as a Second Clerk who failed his application exams to the Magical Law School, and is often unable to understand basic texts on Magical Law (he did not even know the difference between Magical Law and Magic). However, he has a large amount of tempering, and as time goes on, becomes very good at using magical seals in desperate situations.
** Also, Muhyo chose Roji because Roji actually cared about spirits, as opposed to other candidates who saw the assistant position as a way to improve their resume.
* Yuuto of ''[[Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu]]'' is an average everyday dude with average aspects and almost zero personality, till he meets cute Otaku Haruka...
* The entire premise of ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]''.
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* Katsuya Jounouchi from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' is an arguable example of this. [[Book Dumb]], [[Hot-Blooded]] [[Berserk Button|given the right (or wrong) kind of provocation]], and inexperienced at Duel Monsters, though in his defense his strategy is based on luck. Some villains even [[Lampshade Hanging|point this out]]: "So you're going to rely on luck to win? Well I guess you can't rely on skill..." It doesn't help that within each tournament [[Can't Catch Up|he proceeds to decline in rank]] (From 2nd place in Duelist Kingdom to 4th place in Battle City to top 8 in Kaiba Corp Grand Prix).
** Judai Yuki in ''GX'' also counts. At least, at first. [[Break the Cutie|But]] [[Despair Event Horizon|then]] [[Deconstruction|Season]] [[Broken Hero|3]] [[Tear Jerker|Happened]].
* ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]'' begins as this trope, being the proverbial "97 lb weakling" to take series's crash course in [[Charles Atlas Superpower]]. [[Took a Level
* ''[[School Days]]'': Makoto.
* Hatsumi of ''[[Hot Gimmick]]''.
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* ''[[Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu]]'': Akihisa Yoshii.
* With his obsession with Gundam models and [[Adult Child|bouts of childishness]], it's not hard to argue Keroro of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' is a parody of [[Otaku]].
* Ginta from ''[[Marchen Awakens Romance]]'' at the beginning but quickly grows out of it around episode 10 (volume 3 of the manga).
* The titular Karin of ''[[Kamichama Karin]]''. Her ONLY good feature is her fairly-cute looks. She's TERRIBLE academically, routinely scoring a flat 0 on tests, and celebrating wildly when she got through a test as the 30th-worst in the school (after weeks of [[Training
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'''s protagonist Shinji Ikari, believed by many to be a critique of the [[Otaku]] culture, is a fearful, frail, young boy with quite a few social phobias and other [[Oedipus Complex|psychological issues]], who is tasked with saving the world. The "loser" part might to be too overplayed in some people's eyes, as he has a relatively strong [[Hatedom]], especially amongst the western audience.
** Turned [[Up to Eleven|up to 11]] in End of Evangelion, so much so that quite much of hate he gets can actually be sourced to that movie alone. {{spoiler|Hospital scene at the beginning, Anno being mad at [[Otaku]] fapping over these 14 year old characters. Do the math.}}
** Kensuke Aida is a more direct parody of otaku, Anno himself included (Anno is a military geek, same as Kensuke).
* [[Aria]]'s protagonist, Akari Mizunashi, feels this way about herself, but she's actually very skilled and personable and suffering from a lack of self-confidence. [[Character Development]] and lots of training and practice with her friends snap her out of it by the end.
* ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' features personified countries, and most of these countries are made fun of a lot, so it could count as this to anyone from any of the featured countries.
* Kouji Aiba of ''[[Infinite Ryvius]]'', who despite having two [[Love Interest
* Saji Crossroad during the first season of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' only cares about getting a happy life of his own, ignorant of the large causes of the world - {{spoiler|hell! He even blindly hates the Gundams after first [[Cute and Psycho|Nena Trinity]] blasted an arm out of his girlfriend, and then [[Intrepid Reporter|his sister Kinue]], in her quest for getting info about Gundam, was murdered by [[Complete Monster|Ali Al-Saachez]]. It is not until Tieria Erde delivers him a [[Bright Slap]] in the second season does he gets better.}}
* In ''[[Cardfight Vanguard]]'', Aichi has actually lost more matches than he has won. However, this trope has officially come into effect as of episode 32. Not only does Team Q4 {{spoiler|get knocked out of the nationals}}, but Team AL4's leader Ren Sugimori proceeds to rub it in his face (and possibly starting him on the path to [[Wangst]]). Then in the next episode, Team Q4 has to watch as Team AL4 completely devastates the other Teams...
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[Marvel Comics]] always tries to avoid the unrelatable [[Superman]]-type characters, and probably sometimes goes too far in the opposite direction. Every unambiguous good guy in the [[New Avengers]], for instance, either has [[Joss Whedon]] levels of "issues" or is just [[Jerkass|a bit of a cock]].
** Their own version of Superman, [[The Sentry]] (with the Power of a Million Exploding Suns!), despite [[Informed Ability|apparently]] being the most powerful man on the planet, is pretty much incapable of doing ''anything'' without sitting in a corner rambling incoherently for at least 4 issues first.
** While [[Spider-Man]] is considered an archetypal Everyman superhero, he was originally not an example of this trope (having above-average intelligence and just enough luck with girls to get caught in [[Love Triangle
*** Of course, he said this while noting that it ''was something a comic fan could relate to doing''. Cue massive [[Internet Backdraft]] from offended fans.
** Quasar was "billed" as this for his solo-series. Wendell Vaughn was a high-school dropout with no marketable skills, no experience or education, not qualified for any meaningful... ''except'' being a superhero. Fortunately, he's pretty good at that, at least. Unfortunately, the writers seemed to stretch that concept a little too much.
** Sums up the paltry zero sum that is the whole of the [[Humans Are Morons|Human Race]] in a nutshell. Undeserving, unimportant and for all intents and purposes unreliable for much of anything besides betrayal, greed, racism, hypocrisy and catastrophic incompetence; makes you wonder why those who give so much to save they're undignified asses bother. Mankind's poor choices in a [[Democracy Is Bad|reviled unilateral election]] leads them down the road to self-destruction every time, makes you think they literally ask for it.
*** As if pinging "Was it worth it?" territory, Agamotto of the Avengers 1000000000 B.C. The prehistoric forebearers of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, questioned if they were saving a [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|bigger problem]] than the first Celestial host descending on the newly-formed Earth.
* The series ''[[Wanted (Comic Book)|Wanted]]'' has Wesley Gibson, an [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|Eminem look-a-like]] who is saddled with a dead end job, and an annoying, cheating girlfriend, bullied by assorted townfolk, and in general is shown to be practically spineless in regards to his life. Of course, afterward he [[No Fourth Wall|breaks the fourth wall]] to tell you that [[Take That, Audience!|you suck even more than he does]]. The idea is that Gibson is one of the people making life ''actively worse'' for anyone who isn't a super-villain - and yet the structure of the story encourages you to root for him as the underdog hero. He's reminding you, metatextually, that he's the bad guy.
* Captain Haddock of ''[[Tintin]]'' fame is an overly verbose, recovering alcoholic, amazingly clumsy disaster magnet. ''The Castafiore Emerald'' in particular seems to be Herge running through the many ways he can possibly torment him. More than anything, he represents how everyday people suck- and the readers love him for it.
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*** The good Captain also showed some moments of competence and actually contributed to the action, such as in ''The Red Sea Sharks'' and ''The Crab With the Golden Claws''. Although on the latter occasion he was already drunk off the fumes emanating from some broken wine barrels...
* Since ''[[Infinite Crisis]],'' Superboy-Prime has been an unsubtle jab at fanboys and people who hate change, and because of it was a unique villain. His ultimate fate, however, was something of a kick in the balls as he ended up on Earth-Prime (our Earth), reduced to typing angry posts on the [[DC Comics]] forums from his parents' basement.
** It is worth noting that Superboy Prime is ''native to'' our earth. And this whiny fanboy-type is ''the only superhero we're scheduled to produce for another thousand years''. Gentlemen, we are, as a ''universe'',
* It has been debated whether or not [[Scott Pilgrim]] can be considered a loser. On the one hand, he's a jobless college dropout who lives in a windowless hole in the wall where he has to share a bed with his gay roommate. On the other hand, he plays bass in a [[Garage Band]], hooks up with girls who are out of his league, and he's fairly proficient at kicking ass. Some argue that the story is about Scott putting his loser tendencies behind him and learning to be an adult, while others charge that he's just a semi-delinquent hipster.
* [[Donald Duck]] is adored in Finland to the point many children (and adults) distinctly remember learning to read from the Donald Duck comics, which remains the most read weekly magazine in the country. [[Mickey Mouse]] doesn't get much fandom because of his goody-goodiness, Donald is loved precisely for his utter loser status and for his guts that rarely allow him to give up.
== Film ==
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** Up to winning the girl, of course.
* [[Transformers (film)|Sam Witwicky]].
* [[Woody Allen]]. While he avoids this trope with his intelligence, he makes up for it in neuroses.
** Mashed together with [[Big Applesauce]] and [[You Have to Have Jews]]. Almost always going after a [[Shiksa Goddess]]. This [[Yiddish as a Second Language|Nebbish]] Is You.
* ''[[The Toxic Avenger]]'' takes this to such an extreme, one suspects it's parodying the trope. The protagonist, Melvin, is described as "A 98 pound weakling". The announcer forgets to mention the fact that he also seems to be somewhat mentally disabled. He's bullied by literally everyone in the health club he works at, to the point where he's chased out the second story window and into a barrel of chemical waste that causes him to burst into flames. Apparently he's so reviled that the people continue to laugh at him for this. Then he turns into a suave (if nightmarishly ugly) mutant monster and becomes beloved by everyone in the town after he rips criminals limb from limb. [[Lost Aesop|It's about at this point that the message becomes somewhat garbled.]]
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** Which also fits because he's hated by many teens for this very reason. His indecisiveness and other such traits don't help things either.
** Due to it being one of the first novels to tackle teen angst, it also suffers heavily from ''[[Seinfeld Is Unfunny]]''
* Alan Campbell's ''[[Scar Night]]'': Dill is an angel, but a [[Super Loser|really pathetic angel]] who spends most of the book [[
** An alternative view is that Dill is an idealist who wants to live up to the heroism of his predecessors but is seen as nothing more than a propaganda tool by the church and thus has no training, real world experience or even the freedom to leave his temple, there really is nothing he can do except angst until he's given a chance.
** Averted in the sequels, though, when he {{spoiler|winds up in Hell a second time and [[Took a Level
* Dr Watson of ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' fame. Watson, originally depicted as Doyle's [[Author Avatar]], is really quite charming, far more human and likable than Holmes. If anyone's the audience identification figure, it's him. Unfortunately, adaptations (and even, arguably, later stories in [[Canon]]) miss the point and make him out to be a [[Flanderization|complete doofus]].
** Spoofed in [http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=210 this Kate Beaton comic.]
* Many, many romance/chick-lit novels in the vein of ''[[Bridget Jones|Bridget Jones' Diary]]''. Bad at their (dead end) jobs, klutzy, overweight (and cranky about it), [[The Ditz|ditzy]], neurotic...All in the name of allowing the audience to identify. When overdone, it just makes the audience wonder what the hell the perfect hero sees in her.
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== Live Action TV ==
* Most sitcom dads/husbands will be portrayed as unintelligent, morally-lax, and unattractive schlubs who are [[Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket]] and desperately need their wise, virtuous [[Mary Sue]] wives to basically [[Parenting the Husband|change their diapers for them.]]
** Almost any [[Hollywood Nerd]] is also traditionally treated as an [[Acceptable Target]]. Any character who happened to enjoy sci-fi, comic books, and wear glasses, have been portrayed in most sitcoms of the past 30 years as a [[Basement Dweller]] and as a socially-incompetent loser who [[You Need to Get Laid|needs to get laid]] and needs to learn how to pursue more "mainstream" interests. That being said, geek chic is starting to become very popular, as evidenced by the [[Big Bang Theory]], which does an admirable job of taking a more more well-rounded view of geekdom than earlier sitcoms.
* Avoided in ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]''. Malcolm, the viewpoint character, is a gifted child and does very well at school (when not distracted or lazy or too busy or [[Idiot Ball|when it's just needed to tell the story]]). But even in the episodes where nothing is made of his academic prowess beyond his nerdy friends, he usually acts as the [[Straight Man]] in the cast, and the voice of reason. His [[No Fourth Wall]] segments clearly mark him out as the viewpoint character. In the last two seasons, he entered in [[Dumb Is Good|pompous intellectual]] [[Jerkass]] territory - abandoning the friends who liked him for no reason, spending all his time moping about [[Loners Are Freaks|being alone]], and trying to constantly prove he was the smartest person on the planet. The viewpoint slowly switched over to younger brother Dewey despite Malcolm's continued [[No Fourth Wall]] segments.
* ''[[Married... with Children]]'''s [[Jaded Washout|Al Bundy]] is a textbook example of this trope. He is revealed as always having had potential and opportunity in life, but just never having any real ambition.
* Lead protagonist Doug in the sitcom ''[[King of Queens]]'' is also a classic example of this trope. He is shown to have aversion to reading anything other than cereal boxes, watches way too much TV. He avoids healthy food like the plague, and makes fun of people for trying to eat healthy and makes fart noises at anyone trying to say remotely intellectual. Also the finer aspects of this trope apply to the character as he has friends and wife who are much more attractive and cool compared to him.
* As are Archie and Mike ("Meathead") in ''[[All in The Family]]''
* A few ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' heroes have been like this, including:
** Shinji Kido from ''[[Kamen Rider Ryuki|Ryuki]]'', to some extent.
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== Newspaper Comics ==
* Wonderfully done in ''[[Peanuts]]'', where Charlie Brown's particular negative trait is indecisiveness. Although usually rejecting complaints he was cruel to Chuck, Charles Schulz admits properly balancing
** Oddly enough, Schulz seemed to get just as many complaints about Peppermint Patty's troubles. Schulz explained that was probably because she was a rather inoffensive character, but admits that removing these traits simply makes her not funny anymore.
* ''[[Pluggers]],'' a [[Funny Animal]] comic about rural working-class America, is a strange case, as the traits depicted are supplied by readers of the comic. It may be thought of, perhaps, as [[Self-Deprecation]].
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* Ruben Bolling parodies this with "Dinkle, the ''Un''lovable Loser" strips in his comic, ''[[Tom the Dancing Bug]]''.
* ''[[Luann]]'' features this frequently, as the title character is depicted as lazy, sloppy, jealous, clingy, angry, vindictive and horribly insecure on a regular basis.
** Her friend Bernice and older brother Brad are worse. Bernice is relatively unattractive, constantly puts down Luanne, and got jealous when Luanne became too close to her long-lost older brother. Brad used to be lazy and antagonistic towards his sister; he then [[Took a Level
* ''[[Cathy]]'' is a post-adolescent, premenopausal Luann. (I'm surprised that nobody's done a parody strip from this idea.)
* ''[[Dilbert]]'' is stuck in a meaningless, dead-end job for an incompetent and unethical corporation. Also, he's fat and ugly, and women find him dull and disgusting.
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* Former [[Ring of Honor]] World Champion Nigel McGuinness invoked this trope, making "acne-riddled fat boy" Kevin Steen the audience surrogate en route to Steen's three title shots against McGuinness.
* [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] has had two characters lately who were originally presented as being big wrestling fans. Santino at least manages to be a legitimately funny guy. Eugene is less... Positively presented.
* Dusty Rhodes was always a far more positive portrayal of the archetype.
* WWE has also in the past had background characters who were supposed to represent the average wrestling fan, ranging from the irksome Charlie Minn (hyperactive excitable fanboy) to the loathsome Jameson (greasy, repugnant, socially inept nerd)
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== Video Games ==
* Ernie Eaglebeak of ''[[The Spellcasting Series]]''; a scrawny geek in [[Nerd Glasses]] who is obsessed with sorcery and sex.
* In the MMO ''[[City of Villains]]'', one mission you can get is to kidnap a snitch named Joshua who saw you committing a crime from his apartment while he was "staying up late playing
** And to add injury to insult, his pathfinding sucks, which not only makes him really annoying during the mission, but making him look extra idiotic as every twenty feet you have to go back for him and find him standing there staring around as if he had no clue where you went.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' starred Cloud, who started tough and independent but turned out to be the exact opposite of what you thought you were getting. When he was younger, he picked fights with the other kids to hide his insecurities and decided he would join [[Super Soldier|SOLDIER]] in order to impress the girl he'd had a crush on for years but never had the courage to ask out. When this attempt failed due to his stated insecurities and mental fragility, followed by his hometown being burned down by the man he idolized, followed by his best friend in the world- an actual member of SOLDIER- gunned down before his eyes, he lost his mind and believed he ''was'' that best friend, with all his memories and triumphs. The Cloud we play as for most of the game is a shell of a man who believes he is a great hero because that's the only thing keeping his mind intact at all. [[Misaimed Fandom|Many people missed the point of this]].
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** He does face his problems eventually and become the supreme [[Ascended Fanboy]], capable of (sort of) taking Sephiroth one-on-one. It's a positive message overall. It's about admitting you suck and overcoming it to be awesome.
** Something similar can been said about [[Final Fantasy VIII|Squall]], who cynically put, starts out as an antisocial jerk. But he was actually a competent orphan/child soldier
** At the beginning of the game Cloud was also pretty uncaring about pretty much everything; when Barret told him the planet was dying Cloud pretty much kept responding with "Whatever"s.
** Cloud isn't exactly to blame for his circumstances. He believes himself to be a great hero mainly due to the influence of Sephiroth/Jenova and the treatments he was given. He confuses his past with that of Zack because his memories and mind are being tampered with. One of the Jenova boss fights makes it clear when it tells him "You are just a puppet". Tifa played a role as well: She found him nearly catatonic on a street with a mako glow in his eyes clutching a massive sword. Given that the last time she saw him, he told her he was going to join SOLDIER, she naturally assumed that he had done just that. Nursing him back to health, she likely prompted him with questions about being in SOLDIER, and in his madness, he confabulated, intermixing his own memories with the deeds of the member of SOLDIER he knew the best. While the treatments are what made him lose his grip on sanity, the nature of his dissociative fugue state likely has little to do with Jenova and much to do with Tifa. Sephiroth actually acknowledges Tifa's role in it all when, during the burning Nibelheim illusion, he says to Cloud, "Inside you, JENOVA merged with Tifa's memories, creating you."
* ''Lester The Unlikely'' is the embodiment of this trope. He's a nerd who takes damage from falling off a small distance off a cliff and runs away scared near creatures, even a turtle! Undoubtedly gamers saw too much of themselves in him, which is probably why the game has so much hate. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZj-MjOakZY&feature=related See for yourself].
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* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'''s Raiden. While he is beautiful rather than ugly, this is a side-effect of him being made deliberately androgynous so that [[Multiple Demographic Appeal|both sexes identify with him]]. While he is fairly book-smart, he lacks common sense and does everything extremely by-the-book. He is routinely humiliated, [[Butt Monkey|mocked]], and has a great sense of smallness and lack of control against the huge [[Government Conspiracy]] plot. The [[Older and Wiser|coolest man on the planet]] develops a liking for him, but, even so, [[You Didn't Ask|hides information from him]] and says things deliberately to rile him up and humiliate him. His [[Voice with an Internet Connection|CO]] patronises him, his girlfriend nags him, and he experiences all manner of humiliating circumstance, such as slipping on bird droppings or getting urinated on by a guard. [[Word of God]] has it that all this was designed to make the player identify more with him. Naturally, [[The Scrappy|everyone hated him]]. One blogger even went so far as to call him [http://users.livejournal.com/_dahne_/104748.html Robo-Shinji].
** Raiden did EVERYTHING, {{spoiler|it's a plot point}}, Snake did with more emotional baggage. He also had to go through more crap, from being pissed on to {{spoiler|watching a young girl die, finding out his enemy is his godfather, discovering his dark past that haunts his PTSD-fueled nightmares, discovering his support team were all AI, he was being manipulated all along, his girlfriend may be faking her love for him, NOTHING MAY BE REAL. He and you, the player end up on the receiving end of an epic [[Mind Screw]].}} They even spell it out for you at the end, when {{spoiler|Raiden looks at the dog tags he was wearing for the whole game, notices that they say ''your name'' on them, and throws them to the ground.}}
** Also from ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' is Otacon, who, well... [http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3168048 1up.com says it better than us]{{Dead link}}:
{{quote|''Otacon was named after the nutty computer in ''2001''. He was seduced by his stepmother, which made his father kill himself. He [[For Science!|accidentally designed Metal Gear Rex]] as a tool of the apocalypse. His stepsister died hating him. He named himself after an anime convention. He peed himself in terror when he first met Snake. He wondered aloud if love could bloom on the battlefield. Worst of all, [[Hideo Kojima]] designed Otacon as someone that you, the player, could relate to. You are the real loser.''}}
** His sister didn't die hating him, quite the opposite {{spoiler|It was implied she was attracted to him. Hence "Look at me as a woman, not your sister."}}
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* Despite being a [[Heroic Mime]], Link from ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' semi-qualifies in ''[[The Wind Waker]]'' and ''[[Phantom Hourglass]]'' due to how the games cutscene-humor tends to abuse him. (At least until he gets [[Badass]] ). It is very easy to picture him scoring 10% on a math test, despite being able to take on the most complicated dungeons and puzzles known to man. His often very, very clueless expressions really don't help.
** To quote [[The Obi-Wan|King of Red Lions]]: "You are... surprisingly dull witted..."
* Lose enough units to get enough [https://web.archive.org/web/20130513060312/http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Replacement_characters replacement characters] in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Shadow Dragon'', and eventually you'll get ones with insulting names. Note that to get the best secret characters, you ''have'' to keep your army small, and there will be some times where picking up replacement characters (which happens automatically) will put you ''over'' the desired army size.
** Generally speaking, though, passing up optional characters and taking only the cream of the required ones (using the rest as cannon fodder) will spare you the replacements.
* ''[[Forum Warz]]'' [[Zig-Zagging Trope|can't quite make up its mind]]. On the one hand, you're fat and living in a basement, and you spend most of your time either [[Troll
* Part of the [[Justified Tutorial]] in ''[[Splinter Cell]]: Conviction'' involves the protagonist giving explanations to his young daughter. The guys at ''[[Unskippable]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20130205085637/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/1699-Splinter-Cell-Conviction point out the implications]:
{{quote|'''Paul:''' It is refreshing, though. This is the game ''literally'' explaining the combat mechanics to you as if you were a child.}}
* Possibly the oldest examples of this in video gaming are [[Space Quest|Roger Wilco]] and [[Leisure Suit Larry|Larry Laffer]].
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** [[Playing with a Trope|Inverted and played straight]] by the quests Mystery of the Infinite and Mystery of the Infinite Redux. The former includes a Future You NPC, and latter a Past You NPC. Both state they are kind of ashamed of you... while looking exactly like you, implying you don't improve at all, and goes about combat in a way that would pretty much be very incompetent if a player actually did that (as in they just run up and and hit stuff).
* Pretty much the whole point of Vincent, the weak-willed, cheating protagonist of ''[[Catherine]]''.
* ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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** He's getting better, though. He's recently made his first steps towards relaunching his stand up comedy career, and has stumbled into what may be a decent relationship.
* [[Ctrl+Alt+Del|Another Ethan]] is said to be a portrayal/caricature of gamers. Apparently gamers are violently antisocial and misogynistic man-children with the IQ of [[Too Dumb to Live|an eggplant.]]
** It's worth noting, however, that there are two male main characters, and the secondary one, Lucas, is much closer to a normal human being. He's [[All Men Are Perverts|somewhat]] [[Idiot Ball|flawed]], but he's not nearly as screwed-up as Ethan is, and he's probably closer to what the author thinks gamers ''really'' are rather than a [[Flanderization]] thereof.
*** Depending on which side of the [[Hatedom]] you're on, this might actually be worse.
* The last panel of [http://www.jaynaylor.com/originallife/archives/2009/06/001.html this] ''[[Original Life]]'' strip is apparently the main character. Even ignoring the obvious, the one bit of personalization we can see in his room is a [[Halo]] poster, whereas the girls have a map and trophies.
* ''[http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/ Garfield Minus Garfield]'' takes [[Garfield]] strips and removes all the main characters except Jon, making him seem even ''more'' pathetic and [[Cloudcuckoolander|weird]]. Often he'll just talk to himself and nothing will happen. Maybe no-one is actually saying people are supposed to identify with such a hopeless loser apparently struggling with depression, but apparently [[Truth in Television|people find their lives resemble his anyway]].
* Done unintentionally in [[
** Although he's not nearly as much of a loser as most of the characters he's listed alongside. Kind of a [[Butt Monkey]], but not overwhelmingly terrible or anything.
* No-one-likes-you comics: [https://web.archive.org/web/20180604202324/http://threewordphrase.com/thisisyou.htm
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** Getting back to ''[[Family Guy]]'', it sometimes looks as though [[Flanderization|post-renewal]] [[Butt Monkey|Meg]] is this in regards to her [[Unpopular Popular Character|fanbase of actual teen girls]] that she got back when she was, y'know, just a normal teen girl.
** Arguably subverted with Fry, who starts out as an occasional [[Jerkass]] idiot in his own right, but gradually matures over the course of the series. Nobody'll ever confuse him for his brilliant nephew, but Fry's repeatedly sacrificed everything for his friends and loved ones. At his worst, he's dim and willing to humiliate himself to ingratiate himself with others, but he's probably the least selfish and noblest person on the show, [[And Zoidberg|except possibly Zoidberg]].
* ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'' had its share of
* ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]''. [[Mike Judge]]'s magnum opus was a particularly ruthless deconstruction of the lifestyle of its own target audience.
* Jay Sherman of ''[[The Critic]]'' hosts a TV show that gets really low ratings and is always on the verge of being canceled, with his looks modeled after a fat version of Jon Lovitz, who provides his voice. His adoptive parents Franklin and Elenor are wealthy, and they adopted Jay when he was a baby. His friend Jeremy is a combination of Paul Hogan and [[Mel Gibson]], and his son Marty goes to United Nations Middle School.
* Danny in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', to [[Idiot Ball|move the plot]], almost all time prior to learning his Aesop at the end of an episode ([[Aesop Amnesia|only to forget it by the next]]), serves to show how much [[Totally Radical|teenagers]] suck, i.e. blowing off his homework, stuffing his face with corndogs, calling everything lame or crud, playing mindless video games, acting like a jerk, wanting to make-out with the [[Romantic False Lead]], perpetually being a C-student, etc. [[Character Development|He gets better though]].
* Timmy from ''[[The Fairly
* Ron Stoppable is pretty much this in ''[[Kim Possible]]'', in various actions including fighting, picking up girly signals from girls who actually like him, his schoolwork, his parents. The times he isn't sucky usually ends up with him having to give up whatever he doesn't suck at (e.g. his job at Bueno Nacho). The titular Miss Possible is occasionally this, usually in relation to boys, and dating.
* Given how amazingly prevalent it is in children's entertainment, it's worth noting that it's averted in the ''[[Static Shock]]'' animated series. Virgil was generally portrayed as intelligent and a good
** In the comic book predecessor, Richie's even more of a
* ''[[WITCH (animation)|W.I.T.C.H.]]'''s Will Vandom, like Doremi, is often shown getting terrible grades as well. To make matters worse, the writers of the television series have taken away Will's energy powers, the main perk of her being the Guardians' leader, though it was restored to her later.
* [[Metalocalypse|Dethklok]]'s "Fan Song" is a massive, scathing criticism directed to their very fans. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly, considering how hardcore their fans are), ''they loved it''.
** [[GWAR]] had a similar song, "Bohab". In fact, 'bohab' is an insult the band invented to describe stereotypical basement dwelling, unhygienic metal fans. (The word comes from a guy named Bob who allegedly pronounced his name that way).
* ''[[King of the Hill]]'' largely subverts this. Hank has his flaws, but is a decent, hard-working human being and the [[Only Sane Man]]. However, there was an episode where Peggy, Mihn, and Dale decided to play the stock market, and who did they research to find out what the American public wanted? Bill. Fat, bald, ugly, lonely, unlovable Bill, with the overall implication that the things that Bill likes are the things the American populace overall would want. It's an... interesting choice on their part.
* [[Chuck Jones]] explained many times his interpretation of [[Daffy Duck]] defined human characteristics, especially selfishness. Many of his later shorts involved the character being placed in a 'hero' role and being pitted against a villain (usually one [[Bugs Bunny]] [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|defeated several times over without even trying]]) and getting the stuffing beaten out of him, largely due to the fact he was a [[Small Name, Big Ego|pompous]], [[Dirty Coward|cowardly]] [[Butt Monkey|bumbler]] with [[Jerkass|few redeeming aspects]], at which point a much more competent true protagonist would take his place. It is worth noting in his autobiography ''Chuck Amuck'' Jones explained the use of perspective and one person's incompetence being obscured by another even more bumbling adversary (this would certainly explain Porky's near opposite role in his [[Hypercompetent Sidekick|pairings with Daffy]] to those with Sylvester during that same period or the two largely different versions of Nasty Canasta used against both Bugs and Daffy). Daffy sucked so much he made other [[Butt Monkey|hapless fools]] [[Straw Loser|look extremely competent]].
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*** Bugs ''did'' lose once. See the entry under [[The Bad Guy Wins]].
*** And Bugs was the [[Villain Protagonist]] for those occasions.
* One common complaint about ''[[Captain Planet and the Planeteers]]'' is that Wheeler, the token American on the [[Multinational Team]], is portrayed as being hotheaded and less knowledgeable than the rest of the team, with the show [[Informed Flaw|acting like he's the bad guy]] [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong|even when he's right]]. However, this didn't stop him from being the most popular character (possibly a case of [[Misaimed Fandom]]), in part because he's the only character who seems flawed and grows over the course of the series.
** It's also worth noting that while every other Planeteer's [[Ring of Power]] had a variety of uses, Wheeler's was only good for setting things on fire or blowing them up.
* Sierra from ''[[Total Drama World Tour]]'' largely exists to be a [[Take That]] at the fanbase, Cody fangirls in particular. The ''Action'' special established her as being an obsessive [[Straw Fan]], while the series generally has her as a crazed [[Stalker with a Crush]] to Cody.
* Although he has a giant robot car and kicks butt with it, Coop from ''[[Megas XLR]]'' lives in his mom's basement watching wrestling and playing video games.
** And if Coop is not
* One episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' had a fat, bald nerd obsessed with the Powerpuff girls as the villain, who captures the girls because he's obsessed with his collection. He is defeated when {{spoiler|the citizens of Townsville start getting all his toys out of the packages}}.
* Carl on ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]''.
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== Real Life ==
* Unfortunately, many voters' avowed desire for an "everyman" in office basically makes [[Ivy League for Everyone|well-educated and intelligent]] politicians try to pass themselves off as this.
* Celebrity side-taking/team-joining (
* "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilisation, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teach of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there; on a mote of dust suspended in a sun-beam." ~ Carl Sagan, on the image of
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Insult Tropes]]
[[Category:Viewers Are Indexed]]
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