What the Hell, Hero?/Western Animation

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Happens a bit in Justice League Unlimited, in particular the episode "Clash". Lex Luthor has, in an attempt at genuine charity, built a self-sustaining city for the homeless. Superman sees a device underground with a timer and sets out to destroy it, despite Lex's attempts to convince him that he's mistaken. Captain Marvel wisely disagrees and thinks they should call an expert in to see what the device really is. Mayhem ensues. In the end the fight destroys the city, and the device is revealed to be a kryptonite-powered generator. It's later revealed that this was a Batman Gambit by Lex Luthor to discredit Superman, by manipulating Superman's distrust of Luthor. The whole fiasco made Captain Marvel verbally tear the Original Seven a new one before resigning:

Captain Marvel: Back home, I've come up against my share of pretty nasty bad guys, but I never had to act the way they did to win a fight. I always found another way. I guess I'm saying I like being a hero. A symbol. And that's why... I'm quitting the Justice League. You don't act like heroes anymore.

  • Also of note was the episode "Dark Heart". In a desperate attempt to stop some deadly nanomachines, the League reveals that their satellite base doubles as a Kill Sat... and are actually surprised that the US government is unhappy about the League having a deadly orbital weapon pointed at the Earth constantly.
  • Let's not forget the episode "The Doomsday Sanction" where Batman gives one to Superman:

Batman: Sent [Doomsday] off to the Phantom Zone, didn't you?
Superman: He left us no choice.
Batman: Spoken like a true Justice Lord.

  • The League gets called out by a lot of people for easily forgiving Hawkgirl after her actions in the previous season finale. Fortunately, this died down eventually. It also helped that it was clear that not everyone completely forgave her, not even among the Big Six, particularly Wonder Woman, although she eventually did forgive Shayera after teaming up to save Hades from Felix Faust. As Shayera said after Wonder Woman asked if things were OK between them:

Shayera: Like oil and vinegar. We go together, but we don't mix.

  • Also in the Justice League episode Twilight (of the Gods) Superman has a massive one due to Darkseid popping up to ask for help to save Apokolyps from Brainiac: while everyone understood why Superman's reaction at seeing him was a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, cheering when Darkseid told them that Apokolyps was about to be destroyed received this.
  • Lighthearted example, Wonder Woman gets a brief lecture on Freedom of the Press after an annoying newscaster compares her to a showgirl.
  • In the first season finale of Teen Titans, Robin accosts a random dockworker for information on Slade's whereabouts, and has to be physically restrained by Raven. The rest of the team accuses him of emulating Slade's tactics in his zeal. What makes this worse is that Slade is pretty civil to his informants, which is why he can use them again and again. So, Robin was actually worse than the villain.
    • The MASSIVE shaming Robin received once the crew realized that he was pulling a Batman Gambit via being Red X and playing them off to get close to Slade.

Starfire: Whoever Slade is, you are...similar. Slade did not trust you, and you did not trust us.

Rattrap: You know, I thought I had you pegged. "Oh sure, he's a slag-sucking saurian, but at least you know where he stands." I guess you live and learn.

  • Prowl of Transformers Animated can't seem to convince Optimus Prime that the Dinobots are alive, and thus melting them down would be wrong. Prowl says he can sense a spark, but Prime says the destructive, lumbering, fire-breathing former animatronics are too big a risk when all Prowl has to go on is his feelings. So Prowl convinces Bulkhead to sneak out with him in the middle of the night and save the Dinobots. Prime is not happy about this once he finds out, so depending on how you feel about the Dinobots, it could be a What the Hell, Hero? moment for either Prowl or Optimus; the Dinobots are living things, but they're also incredibly destructive. When they finally get around to telling Prime of this, he is not happy that they stole the Dinobots. Prowl points out that they rescued the Dinobots.
    • Ratchet calls out Prowl for his destructive romp when apprehending Starscream (or rather, unbeknown to them, his clone) by pointing out the bird's nest he ruined. Given that Prowl is a Friend to All Living Things, this hit him particularly hard. Even Starscream gets in the act, with a Not So Different line.
    • TFA seems to like this trope. In a flashback, Ratchet does this to Ultra Magnus and the rest of the autobots who created Omega Supreme, for making what is essentially a Tyke Bomb Person of Mass Destruction to win the war with the Decepticons. While none of them deny that what they're doing is wrong, it's quite possible the Autobots would have lost the war without doing it.
    • In "This Is Why I Hate Machines," Alpha Trion berates Sentinel Prime for his decision to fire at Omega Supreme, knowing the risks of possibly destroying Cybertron. He makes it very clear that if the decision was up to him, Sentinel wouldn't be Magnus any longer.
    • Sentinel himself, despite being a Jerkass most of the time, got to call Optimus out in "Predacons Rising" when he learns Optimus kept the whole Elita-1 / Blackarachnia thing a secret from him.

Sentinel: You knew about this?!
Optimus: I didn't know how to tell you.
Sentinel: Well, thanks for not spoiling the surprise. 'Cause I wouldn't wanna be, I don't know, PREPARED FOR THIS OR ANYTHING!

      • Though this is mitigated a bit by the fact that this immediately precedes what is probably Sentinel's Crowning Moment of Jerkass, when he reacts to Blackarachnia with pure, undisguised disgust and attempts to kill her solely for existing.
  • Transformers Prime has Jack call out Bulkhead for being perfectly fine with letting jerks be taken by Deceptacons, twice.
  • This trope was the essential plotline for a Liberty's Kids episode where Sarah goes to Thomas Jefferson's farm and discovers that the writer of "All men are created equal..." is a slaveholder. She is understandably shocked and confronts him.
  • A more realistic example is displayed in 6Teen, when in one episode, the six characters tell each other their most embarrassing secrets. Caitlin blabs to her boyfriend all their secrets with the exception of hers, explaining that she couldn't ruin their relationship. When said boyfriend becomes hypnotized and blabs to the entire mall about it, her friends, as expected, were not too happy with her.
  • In The Fairly OddParents "Wishology" trilogy, Timmy calls out Jorgen and Turbo Thunder for automatically assuming the Darkness was evil because it "looked scary".
  • In an episode of The Powerpuff Girls, the Professor gets a new job and moves the family from the City of Townsville to the Town of Cityville. After spotting a bank robbery, the girls ply their usual trade, doing craptons of collateral damage while catching the bank robbers (a normal day in Townsville). When they report to the mayor for congratulations, he yells at how stupid they are and that the money they recovered was a tiny fraction of the cost of the damage done.
  • The second season of the 90s Iron Man cartoon starts with Tony faking his death as part of a plan to stop the Mandarin. He doesn't of his friends in on it so their grief will convince the villains he's really dead. All but two of the supporting cast (Rhodey and Julia) walk out on him in disgust, and even the two who stay make it clear he crossed a line.
    • The final episode has Iron Man and his buddies capturing Hypnotia and trying to get vital info from her. Except rather than interrogating her or giving her a chance to explain willingly, they simply gag her and then forcibly rip the information out of her mind via Century's psychic abilties. That's gotta be violating some civil liberties....
  • In Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Rhodey calls Tony out in one episode for being willing to use lethal force on people and justifying it with a 'whatever it takes' mindset. Rhodey points out to Tony how that attitude makes him exactly like the people he's fighting and that it's beginning to look like Tony's out for revenge instead of saving lives, which was his original motivation. Tony doesn't respond, but instead the two have a non-verbal glare-down as the episode ends, indicating that Rhodey's words probably struck a little too close to home.
    • In the following episode, Tony acknowledges Rhodey was right.
    • Another notable one comes from Iron Man's interactions with S.H.I.E.L.D.. Tony frequently collides with Nick Fury on being willing to use drastic methods to solve a problem when Fury's only doing his job by protecting the people. In "Fun with Lasers" Living Laser holds the world hostage from a space station and demands a fight with Iron Man. After an attempt to retrieve two of their agents from the station fails Fury opts to blow up the station. Tony calls him out on it in spite of 1. The agents knew what they were getting into when they joined SHIELD and 2. Living Laser was close to killing MILLIONS of innocent people. Iron Man's Take a Third Option plan only succeeded with seconds to spare. Considering the circumstances Fury's decisions would it have come to it were justified.
    • Later one Tony looks into a SHIELD computer and finds the Living Laser dying and calls Fury out on it again in spite that Living Laser was a criminal who had held the world hostage not too long ago. While YMMV on whether or not it was right to let him die considering Living Laser's condition was his choice it could easily by argued that you whether or not Fury would be obligated to help.
  • In A Bug's Life, Flik the ant, desperate to make up for his blundering, decides to ally the colony with stronger insects to drive off the villainous grasshoppers. It's only after he's brought them back and introduced them as the colony's saviours that he realizes that it was a misunderstanding, and they're actually circus performers. Rather than be exposed as a blunderer yet again, Flik wheedles the circus bugs into keeping up the charade and works behind-the-scenes, formulating their battle plan. When the circus bugs' original boss shows up and Flik's dishonesty is revealed, the Queen angrily orders them to leave, and pulls no punches when she banishes Flik:

Queen: I never thought I'd see the day when an ant would put himself before the rest of his colony! The point is, Flik, you lied to us!

  • The Jem and The Holograms episode "Music Is Magic" ends with the Holograms finding the members of their rival band, the Misfits tied up and gagged backstage with a note from the episode's villain explaining that he'll be back to get revenge on them. Rather than calling the police or at least untying the Misfits, the Holograms simply laugh at their rivals' predicament and jokingly remark that they're glad someone finally shut the Misfits up.
  • In the episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender "The Storm" an elderly fisherman calls out Aang on abandoning the world to 100 years of war (although the man is entirely unaware of the circumstances, and believes it to just be a result of cowardice and willful neglect of his duty as Avatar, which it was, up until the whole "frozen in an iceberg" bit). Katara gives the old man one of these in return after Aang runs off.
    • Also in "The Storm," this trope is used to show that most people from the Fire Nation are not Exclusively Evil, and that Zuko's own crew does not appreciate him acting like an idiot and a Jerkass. His lieutenant calls him out for placing his search above the safety of the crew and accuses him of having utter contempt for everyone besides himself, thus hitting Zuko's Berserk Button, when he claims that Zuko knows nothing of respect, unwittingly echoing Ozai's words to him before he gave him his scar.
    • Toph calls the rest of the Gaang out in "The Western Air Temple" when they refuse to accept Zuko, despite the fact that he is currently their only hope of finding a Firebending teacher for Aang.
    • Basically the whole Gaang's reaction to Jet, once they find out that he's willing to target Fire Nation civilians as well as soldiers. Even Jet's own followers call him out when he plans on catching Zuko firebending rather than going straight as they planned.
    • Sokka gives a rather harsh one to Aang in "Bato of the Water Tribe" when he hides a map from his friends, a map that reveals where their father was at. The real reason why is because Sokka feels that Aang betrayed them, when he hid the map because he didn't want him and his friends to seperate yet. Afterwards, a bit later, Sokka and Katara decide to go back to Aang and apologize.
  • Played for laughs in an episode of Phineas and Ferb when Perry crashes through Dr. Doofenshmirtz's door rather than just knocking. Doofenshmirtz proceeds to give Perry a lecture about not going around breaking down other people's doors, and then guilts him into paying to get the door replaced. This had a great callback in a later episode, where Perry had a KEY and Dr. Doofenshmirtz actually comments how much nicer and easier it is now.
    • Played straighter in the movie, Across the 2nd Dimension, when Phineas discover's Perry's secret identity.

Phineas: So not only have you been leading a double life this whole time, you sat there and let us help an evil scientist open an evil portal into an evil dimension and you did nothing to stop us?!
Ferb: Well, he did pee on the couch.

    • And that last comment sparks another one from Doofensmirtz.

Doofensmirtz: Wait a minute, I just realized, that was a conscious choice. You purposefully peed on my couch!
(Perry grins sheepishly and shrugs in embarrassment)

  • The Nightmare Before Christmas: Santa gives Jack a hefty chewing-out when he comes to apologize. In the original poem, he's much more understanding (possibly because he didn't have an evil, sapient burlap sack full of insects gloating about how it intended to turn him into stew and eat him).
  • Deconstructed in American Dragon: Jake Long. After finding out that Jake had his Dragon Chi confiscated on purpose, Lao Shi scolds him for irresponsible and not flawlessly rising to the job. Haley (who has been filling in for Jake) loses her temper and angrily tells Lao Shi that being the American Dragon is not as good as it seems -after being on the job for just a few days, she wouldn't even consider doing it for two more days - let alone two more years. She also points out that ever since Jake began his duties, he's always been late for school, had to lie to his dad, had his own girlfriend forget about him, and in addition to all that, he's the guardian of a magic realm that no mortal (other than his friends) know about. Lao Shi takes this to heart and decides to cut Jake's dragon training in half.
  • The Penguins of Madagascar: After Kowalski confesses to the other penguins that he stole parts from Mort's "Friend-In-A-Box" in order to finish his mind-reading device, he turns it on them to see what they're thinking...

Private: Oh, Kowalski... How could you?
Skipper: The sight of you makes me throw up in my beak, soldier!
Rico: Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssshhhhh!

  • South Park: Cartman as the Coon is called out for actions such as planning to blow up a hospital, faking pictures to blackmail someone, and teaming up with Cthulhu. Of course with Cartman, the term hero is used loosely.
    • Jesus questions Santa's actions when he shoots his terrorist captor in an inversion of a scene from Three Kings.

Santa: I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't let him live. He shocked Santa's balls!

  • In the Duck Dodgers cartoon episode "Detained Duck", an evil counterpart of Dodgers, Drake Darkstar, attempts the old switcheroo trick to get out of prison, which eventually ends with a fight between the two which causes them to look identical. The cadet has to try and figure out which one is real and tell the prison guards. Hilariously, Dodgers starts naming off several moments where Dodgers has belittled the cadet, the evil criminal mastermind Darkstar calls him on one:

Dodgers: Hey, I know! Tell 'em about the time I sold your sister to the sausage factory!
Darkstar: You sold his sister to the sausage factory? Dude, that's cold.

  • In the Family Guy episode, Brian's Got a Brand New Bag, Brian calls out the entire Griffin family for harassing his latest girlfriend, Rita trying to get her to reveal how old she is, and bringing her to tears in the process. Later in the same episode, Rita calls Brian out for having sex with another woman, and acting like it was no big deal, and promptly breaks up with him.
    • Similarly in another episode, Peter has his identity stolen by James Woods. James Woods impersonates Peter and claims the house, the family, and everything else belongs to him and calls the cops on Peter to kick him out. Joe appears after the call and you would think that he would arrest James Woods since Joe knew Peter for years or at least ask Peter for his identification to clear up the mess. What happens that Joe follows the law instead and declares James Woods is telling the truth, prompting Joe to kick Peter out. Lois calls Joe out on this bullshit, but he doesn't listen due to him holding the Idiot Ball.
    • Brian doesn't try to hide the fact he is willing to do anything for a drink or to sleep with a woman, but in the episode "Be Careful What You Fish For", Brian dates Emily, Stewie's preschool teacher who is far from qualified from looking after toddlers. Emily basically lets the kids do what they want and doesn't bother trying to keep the place clean or safe, which creates horrible conditions that Stewie tells Brian about and Brain was going to have words with Emily until he saw how hot she was. Stewie calls Brian out for his actions and after his arm got pulled of his socket by Emily and when Stewie tries to tell Lois, Brian attempts to shut Stewie up just to be able to keep dating Emily. Only when Brian finds out Emily already has a boyfriend does he decide to call the cops on her for the preschool's conditions.
  • My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: The Cutie Mark Crusaders get a few from "Ponyville Confidential", but special mention goes to Big Macintosh, who was actually mad enough to chew them out for humiliating him and Applejack.
    • In "Putting Your Hoof Down," after seeing Fluttershy violently deal with a random tourist pony Rarity and Pinkie Pie call her out on her behavior. Considering her new personality though, it doesn't end well for them.
    • In "A Canterlot Wedding," Twilight Sparkle is suspicious of impostor Princess Cadence's behaviour, and after misinterpreting one of her actions sort of, Twilight bursts into the wedding rehearsal and accuses the princess of being outright evil. Her friends all leave without even speaking to her, and even Princess Celestia herself makes it clear she's disappointed.
  • Peter gets a lot of those in The Spectacular Spider-Man, but among the biggest are the one he gets for running away to make pictures of Lizard and publish them in Bugle, instead of helping everybody finding the cure for his state, then gets one from Eddie for not calling the cops but taking pictures of Spider-Man stealing alien lifeform and again for not visiting Aunt May in hospital (of course Eddie doesn't know about Peter's Secret Identity).
    • Flash Thompson's first moment of proving himself as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold takes place when he confronts Peter (currently infulenced by black costume) and calls him out on being a jerk to his friends. This is what directly makes Peter realize something is wrong and leads to him rejecting black costume.
    • In second season he gets one from his girlfriend's brother, for paying more attention to Gwen Stacy, than to her.
    • Jonah gets one from captain Stacy, when he cheers on Mysterio's mechanical gremlins beating Spider-Man.
  • Young Justice is rife with these moments:
    • Batman calls out Superman for remaining distant from his clone Superboy since Superboy needs a role model.
    • Batman admonishes Aqualad for the team's near death at the hands of Clayface and tells him that he can't split his mind between Atlantis and the surface and he needs to make a commitment to one or the other.
    • When Aqualad keeps his suspicions of a mole on the team to himself and the rest of the team finds out, they hold it against him for an entire episode before conceding that he had good reason to do it.
    • When M'gann apparently kills Mister Twist's pilot the team freaks out before the pilot is revealed to be a nonsentient robot.
    • Captain Marvel calls out Nabu for forcing Zatara to sacrifice himself to the Helmet to free his daughter Zatanna from it and openly questions why Nabu is allowed to be a member of the Justice League.
    • When Artemis lets her insecurity get the better of her and tries to lead the rest of the team away from Cheshire so she can fight her herself in an effort to prove herself better than Roy and the rest of the team finds out, Kid Flash calls her out on it. Even more painful since he had spent most of the episode supporting her.
    • In the season 2 episode "Earthlings", Miss Martian psychically rips out the knowledge of what the six missing Leaguers did in space during the sixteen hours they were under the control of the Light from a Kroloteran, leaving him in a coma. Superboy tries to call her out on it but she interrupts with the reveal of her newfound knowledge. Superboy relents but he's clearly furious.
  • Code Lyoko: In the episode "The Chips are Down", Ulrich uses the Return to the Past sequence to help Yumi's parents with finances, buying a lottery ticket after learning the results. When the other members of the team find out, they really let him have it. (This was after it has been established that XANA is gaining power as a result of the frequent time hops.) Jérémie suspends him from the team and to add insult to injury, Yumi's folks give the ticket back, claiming it's too expensive a gift for them to accept. Ulrich eventually manages to redeem himself by the end, and then decides to give the ticket to a charity.
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