Oh, he got the sucker, all right.
"Tom, being a cat, of course, sees [Jerry] either as a meal or as an interference. Whatever the setup, he's always the one who starts the fight, which makes it very easy to laugh when he gets his comeuppance. But that's not the only reason to feel like he deserves it; he's cocky, he's egotistical, he's prone to anger, he's stubborn."
This is a Butt-Monkey whose misfortune is well-deserved and a repeated case of Laser-Guided Karma. Maybe they're just enough of a Jerkass. But far more frequently, they are a full-blown baddie. If the character is an outright villain, they are generally a particularly comedic Card-Carrying Villain or, if not that, the Laughable Lackey to his master's Vile Villain. They are rarely, if ever, a Complete Monster; Magnificent Bastards likewise tend to be Immune to Slapstick. As such, this can make the Karmic Butt-Monkey come off as more pitiable than anything else, becoming easily mockable for the fandom.
The Karmic Butt-Monkey's natural enemy is often the Unintentionally Karmic, a Nice Guy character who offers Unwanted Assistance and friendship to the Butt-Monkey, only for their actions to set off Disaster Dominoes or some other horrible effect that always ends in suffering for the bad guys.
A Sub-Trope of Butt-Monkey and Laser-Guided Karma. Sister trope to Asshole Victim (though that's also a Super-Trope) but they don't die, and while this trope is a guest character or someone only seen getting karma once, the Karmic Butt-Monkey is a main/recurring character who has a Running Gag of "does something mean or bad and getting the short end of the stick because of it". May become Unintentionally Sympathetic if the Butt-Monkey part overlaps too much the Jerkass part.
Compare Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, when the only difference is that this character isn't necessarily the protagonist. It is more than likely that the subject comes across as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain. Compare Jerkass Woobie, sometimes they overlap, though. Often the victim of Contempt Crossfire and Rudeness Backfire as well. If the character eventually dies (and becoming an Asshole Victim), expect to be a Karmic Death, of course. People subject to Karmic Abuse might be this.
Compare and contrast Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, a villainous character who fails so often and so hard (often resulting in them harming themselves) that you can't help but pity them, and yet there is all too often overlapping, and they end up both laughed at and pitied by the audience. Contrast Kafka Komedy, where pain all-too-often happens to someone who especially doesn't deserve it, Karmic Overkill, where the audience thinks a character doesn't deserve the retribution that they get, and Designated Monkey where the audience thinks the slapstick of the resident Butt-Monkey is overbearing (karmic or not) and doesn't deserve the ridicule and injuries they get.
Example subpages:
Other examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Bungo Stray Dogs: Any time Chuuya tries anything considered bad or underhanded, he is almost guaranteed to be humiliated in short order, usually by Dazai. This is even how he debuts, as Chuuya tries killing Dazai, only to be immediately blackmailed and emasculated by his ex-partner. However, it feels less deserved after it's revealed that Dazai had not been a nice partner and was often responsible for causing Chuuya suffering, yet never really received any comeuppance.
- Durarara!!: Izaya becomes this in the final season and deserves every bit of punishment he gets, given he is a Manipulative Bastard internet troll responsible for causing massive strife amongst numerous characters. Within the span of only a few hours, his plans fall completely apart, his minions abandon and betray him, his scheme to kill Shizuo fails miserably and Izaya is beaten within an inch of his life before he's forced to flee Ikebukuro permanently, with not a single character giving a damn about his predicament.
- Future Card Buddyfight: Student council president Magorokou Shido constantly suffers punishment and humiliation from anyone and everyone, even his own buddy monster. You don't have to feel sorry for him, considering he's a corrupt, egotistical asshole who willingly supports the goals of several Big Bads in the series.
- I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire!: Con Man Yusashi exploited Liam for years by pretending to be a Master Swordsman and offering impossible training tasks, which inexplicably succeeded in birthing the Way of the Flash sword-style. Since Liam is also dead set on being an evil lord, Musashi constantly suffers for his association with Liam in some way or another, and all the while Liam is blissfully unaware and continues his misguided (and literal) Hero Worship of him.
- Jewelpet Sunshine: Applies on a meta-level to Tour, who treated Sulfar horribly in "Twinkle"—Ruby, a character who was previously in love with him during the first anime and Twinkle, rejects him harshly in favour of Mikage.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Two examples occur in Stardust Crusaders.
- Cameo is a minor villain and especially despicable minion of DIO that exploited the death of Polnareff's sister and the supposed death of Avdol to make replicas of them and try to murder Jotaro and his group. Once they figure out his Stand's ruse and discover his underground hiding spot, Avdol and Polnareff subject him to a Humiliation Conga consisting of shoving dirt, ants, a spider, and rocks into his reed snorkel, followed by the duo pissing into the tube, and then Avdol giving Cameo a taste of fire from Magician's Red when he finally surfaces, retiring him and leaving him alive but thoroughly humiliated.
- Alessi is a spectacularly Dirty Coward of a Child Hater who actively picks on and kills those weaker than him—his stand Sethan just so happens to inflict de-aging on anyone it touches, even turning an adult woman into a fetus, and he goes Ax-Crazy and preys on his de-aged opponents while he thinks he has the upper hand (complete with pedophilic undertones). Unfortunately for him, even the three-year-old Polnareff manages to outwit Alessi repeatedly: he stabs him in the neck with a de-aged Silver Chariot, throws feces at him, and then launches him through a window. Then when Alessi de-ages Jotaro, he's beaten into unconsciousness by the seven-year-old's bare fists, which returns Jotaro and Polnareff to normal, and when he finally awakens the pair defeat him soundly with one last thrashing from their Stands.
- Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: King Dedede is a greedy, egotistical tyrant who's always plotting to get rid of Kirby by using monsters that also terrorize Dream Land, and he also tends to suffer the most punishment and humiliation out of any character in the show.
- My First Girlfriend Is a Gal: Yui Kashii is a haughty Alpha Bitch hiding behind a dignified and pleasant demeanor. However, this illusion is shattered when her favorite "pet", Junichi, begins dating another girl and no longer gives her the same attention. Her jealousy prompts Yui to hatch multiple schemes to steal "her dog" back from Yukana, which typically fail and leave her in some kind of humiliating or objectifying position. Even after she goes through a Love Epiphany and Jerkass Realization, and no longer sees Junichi as merely a "pet", she still has a habit of scheming to seduce him, usually with the same results. When one character asks why she keeps putting herself through it, she simply states that any chance of being with Junichi is Worth It.
- No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!: Tomoko's often unscrupulous ways of trying to look cool will bite her in the ass and turn out horribly for her.
- One Piece:
- Spandam, the cowardly and manipulative leader of CP9, is responsible for the execution of Franky and Iceburg's mentor Tom; crippling Franky and forcing him to become a cyborg; severely emotionally and physically abusing Nico Robin while literally dragging her to Enies Lobby; beating up Franky while he couldn't fight back; and trying to get his hands on the blueprints for the ancient weapon Pluton so he can amass even more power than before. Since his debut, he's constantly suffered punishment from both enemies and allies, and the end of the Enies Lobby arc has him beaten senseless and left with a broken spine, and Rob Lucci eventually becomes his new boss when they get transferred to CP0.
- Demalo Black is a Fat Bastard pirate who impersonates Luffy in order to amass an army of strong pirates, and loved shooting innocent civilians and pirates who had low bounties for petty reasons. When the real Straw Hats return to Sabaody, Black and his crew of Fakes are effortlessly beaten up and/or humiliated multiple times by them and the marines, as well as pirates like Caribou who were planning on killing them to bolster their own reputation. Black is beaten senselessly by Sentomaru and arrested, while the other fakes are Buried Alive by Caribou.
- Buggy the Clown, a low-level pirate captain who terrorized the East Blue. Upon meeting Luffy, he's subjected to one indignity after another, from having his own power exploited for a Groin Attack, to getting struck by lightning, to getting locked up in Impel Down and used as a Human Shield by other characters.
- "Wet Haired" Caribou is an Ax-Crazy up-and-coming pirate who favors burying his victims alive and tries to kill Luffy to bolster his reputation, leading to his defeat of Demalo Black and the Straw Hat impersonators. When he tries to do in the real Luffy, however, he's easily dealt with, and ends up suffering all kinds of other misfortunes, such as getting his ass kicked by Pekoms and others or becoming one of the inmates of Kaido's prison in Wano.
- Caesar Clown, the Big Bad of the Punk Hazard arc, specializes in making WMDs, including one responsible for the destruction of an entire island; he also sees his own followers as expendable guinea pigs, and subjected dozens of children to an experimental gigantification formula that also reduced their remaining lifespan to less than five years. Following Caesar's defeat, he's reduced to a bargaining chip and tool to be used by the Straw Hats and Trafalgar Law, due to the latter holding his heart hostage. He's also doomed to suffer the wrath of Big Mom, who funded his gigantification formula experiments in the first place: Caesar shamelessly blew most of the funding on groupies and alcohol because he believed he had the indirect protection of Kaido through Donquixote Doflamingo to keep him save from her.
- Charlos the Celestial Dragon is a slaver that also beats up on said slaves and forces women into sex slavery even if they're married—he also tries to buy the mermaid princess Shirahoshi as a slave, and regularly shoots the sick and ill. He ends up disrespected by Zoro, punched senseless by Luffy, clubbed by a fellow Celestial Dragon, Mjosgard, and pounded into the ground by Sai and Leo so hard he folded like an accordion.
- Osomatsu-san: Iyami is a selfish con artist who has a high opinion of himself, despite not having much going on. His schemes tend to backfire on him, and he tends to suffer because of the Matsuno brothers' actions (either indirectly or directly).
- Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: Marie was a Spoiled Brat with an All Take and No Give relationship to her brother, which caused his death in her past life. What followed was a Trauma Conga Line of abusive partners and debt, ended by a husband killing her. Afterwards, Marie reincarnated in another world as an unwanted and abused child that was forced to pay her new family's debts. Marie proceeds to seduce five guys while tormenting Olivia and Angelica, but then the five boyfriends proceed to endlessly make her suffer due to being Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense after going from Riches to Rags. Marie's supposed to be a Butt-Monkey, but Word of God admitted to making her Unintentionally Sympathetic.
- Taiko no Tatsujin: 4-Koma Matsuri De Do-Don-Ga-Don!: The Master Bachio are lazy, selfish and self-centered teachers who are often mean/insensitive to the protagonist DON-chan, and think they can get away with whatever they do to him because they're his senseis. And every time, they are proven wrong and immediately punished (comedically, of course) in one way or another.
- Urusei Yatsura: Ataru is subjected to a lot of comical physical abuse for his selfish and perverted behavior.
Asian Animation
- Noonbory and the Super 7: Wangury's petty plots often land him in some kind of comically embarrassing trouble. In "Wangury Wants to Fly" (the first episode alone), he steals some Beavyuck eggs, only for them to hatch and playfully try to peck him.
- Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Wolffy's the main antagonist of the series who is always trying to catch and eat the goats, but his plans to catch them always result in some kind of slapstick for him.
Comic Books
- Bone: Phoney tends to get into embarrassing situations quite a lot as a result of trying to scam people (along with his schemes to get rich).
- The Boys: Rayner's assistant Monkey is constantly humiliated by Butcher (and got the nickname from an incident where a pair of monkeys had sex with his ears) and is shown to have a fetish for paraplegic athletes to the point of going to an event with a popcorn box with a hole in the bottom. When he replaces Rayner as head of the CIA, he goes into full Tyrant Takes the Helm mode... which only lasts long enough for him to corner and try to rape a Paralympics competitor. Butcher steps in to save Monkey from a Curb-Stomp Battle (a paraplegic athlete is still an athlete), explains that Monkey isn't right in the head, and has Monkey raped by his dog.
- Joker: Johnny Frost is an ambitious young gangster (and wifebeater) who thinks sucking up to the Joker will make him a bigshot. Every single villain sees him for the dumbass he is and lets him know it in no uncertain terms (when he tries to boss Killer Croc around because they both work for the Joker, Croc hangs him on a meat hook).
- Scooter Girl: Given Ashton's philandering personality and behavior, it's hard not to see his misfortune as anything but deserved, at least at first. Margaret later lampshades how she wasn't much better than him, kicking him while he was down.
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin is lazy, a Bratty Half-Pint, self-centered, and has a Never My Fault complex and an ego the size of Jupiter. He also Can't Get Away with Nuthin', bringing it upon himself most of the time.
- Garfield:
- Nermal is a Smug Snake Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who will boast about his cuteness and insult Garfield at any opportunity he gets. As a result, he almost always gets mailed to Abu Dhabi or thrown out the door by the latter.
- Garfield himself isn't immune to this either, especially on Mondays and when he's on the fence. Whether he deserves it or not depends on what he's doing at the time and if he's just minding his own business.
Fan Works
- Adventures of the Morning Star: Deckard is a Smug Snake of the highest order, acting as though he's the top dog at all times... despite being constantly shown up and beaten by the protagonists.
- Bakugo vs Everyone is a collection of one-shots that all see Bakugo receive a myriad of humiliating fates from characters much stronger than he is across the multiverse, all of which throw his pathological obsession with brute strength and having superpowers back into his face. Considering how Bakugo never received any consequences for bullying Izuku or ever had his toxic behavior punished at any point in canon, no one will lose any sleep over the many terrible ends (lethal or otherwise) he meets in all chapters. To add insult to injury, Bakugo never gets to meet his former victim Izuku in every scenario shown thus far.
- Beezuku: Turns out, Katsuki suffers from apiphobia, so Izuku gaining the ability to control bees thanks to Kuin leaves his long-time bully utterly terrified and trying to avoid being around Izuku at all costs. His ongoing terror and humiliation are presented as fitting payback for all the years he spent terrorizing Izuku.
- Danny Phantom: Stranded:
- This is an ongoing process with Colette Bevier, Star's utterly Spoiled Brat of a stepsister who made a habit of stealing all of Star's boyfriends just because she could. The more she pursues Danny, the more humiliating misfortunes she finds herself dealing with, especially whenever ghosts get involved.
- In Danny Phantom: Entranced, Puck punishes Vlad for all his crimes by forcing him to fall in love with Alicia... who happens to be the sister of the woman Vlad has spent ages obsessing over making his at any cost. As far as Puck's concerned, it's Laser-Guided Karma.
- Helluva Witch: After his death, Belos is tricked into believing he made it to Heaven just so Emily and Caleb can reveal the truth and drop him straight into Hell. His attempt to hire I.M.P. to get revenge on Luz fails since she's friends with their sponsor, and he winds up being temporarily killed and having his body dumped at a strip club while slowly regenerating.
- Ignited Spark: After getting expelled from the Hero Course, Bakugou attempts to intimidate his replacement, only for Mineta and Shinso to tackle him and draw him into a slap fight.
- Love's Sacrifices: Theo Straka spends much of the series as a Butt-Monkey, suffering heavily for his arrogance while clinging to his hopes for revenge. Later proves to be a Not-So-Harmless Villain when he slaughters a family whose home he'd broken into, leading into a killing spree throughout Bailey Downs.
- In Madam Malfoy, ili Brak po prinuzhdeniyu, Draco forces Pansy to play along with his father's delusions, threatening to have her mutilated if she doesn't do whatever he demands. This leads to Draco losing all of his wealth and possessions.
- The Mountain and the Wolf:
- The captain of a dark elf slave ship is repeatedly insulted by the Wolf, then tied to the mast of his ship as it goes through the Warp, then gets sandwiched between two undead corpses before finally being sold as a slave to Chaos Dwarfs. Dark elves are among the most sadistic of Warhammer's factions, so it's hard to feel sorry for him.
- The Wolf's henchman Einarr is constantly told he's doing something wrong by the Wolf. However, apart from soliciting Melisandre as a prostitute, he's not actively shown being evil, apart from being part of a group of Always Chaotic Evil fantasy Vikings who are shown gleefully committing war crimes.
- Oh Lady Luck (How I miss you so!): After Easily Condemning Marinette, booting her out as their Class President and disavowing their friendships with her, Alya and all the rest of her Fair-Weather Friends find themselves suffering through horrifically bad luck. Alya drops her phone in the toilet and loses everything on it; technology keeps malfunctioning around Nino and Max; Alix becomes an Unwillingly Girly Tomboy thanks to her grandmother insisting that she wears all the frilly dresses and other clothes she buys her; class activities turn into utter disasters, and Rose sets her kitchen on fire trying to bake cookies.
- A Possible Encounter for a Phantom: Dash's Karma Houdini Warranty runs out once Kim threatens to expose how the staff at Casper High have turned a blind eye towards his bullying for years. All of his efforts to take Kim down get him beaten up and humiliated; Bonnie publicly rejects him; the school stops covering for him, and his victims start taking revenge.
- Sitting Behind You: Akeichi's appearances typically involve him getting trolled by Ren, or suffering some other misfortune, like being the only guy that Yusuke refuses to let into Eiko's party.
- Sonic: The Bad Guys and its surrounding AU rake Sonic over the coals, having all of his friends cut ties with him, Shadow spectacularly dump him in a side story, and in the main fic, subjects him to a massive Humiliation Conga at the hands of Surge and the Bad Guys before ultimately meeting a Fate Worse than Death at Eggman's hands. Considering this version of Sonic is directly based on deliberately bad-faith readers of the IDW comics, and thus really is the psychotic and manipulative Evil Hero they falsely parade his comic self as, nobody mourns his suffering.
- Trolling the Toad revolves around Umbridge being repeatedly pranked by Harry and other students at Hogwarts as revenge for her being a Sadist Teacher.
- Ways to Kill Homelander is an anthology featuring Homelander meeting a variety of humiliating scenarios that often end in his death. Given how the Homelander is one of the most infamous examples of an Evil Hero in pop culture thanks to his sheer cruelty and psychopathic entitledness, no one ever mourns his many brutal fates.
Films — Animation
- 101 Dalmatians: Horace and Jasper suffer a lot of abuse at the hands of Pongo and Perdita. That said, they deserve much of it for trying to skin the puppies on Cruella's orders.
- Aladdin (1992, Disney): Iago. Given that he's a jerk and a willing participant and contributor to Jafar's plots, and even after his Heel–Face Turn he keeps doing selfish things that backfire, the pain he suffers is a fair dose of karma. In fact, "When in doubt, hurt the bird" became the actual mantra of the writing and animation teams.
- The Aristocats: Edgar brings all his misfortunes on himself with his Evil Plan. If he hadn't plotted against the cats, he would have been fine and nothing too bad would have happened to him (aside from tolerating the antics of Georges Hautecourt).
- Bambi II: Ronno's a bully and a braggart who can't back up his claims, so naturally, whenever he boasts or is mean to Bambi, he will be knocked down a few pegs shortly afterwards.
- Barbie of Swan Lake: Odile is a shrill, whiny Spoiled Brat who loyally helps her father Rothbart in his Evil Plan to kill Odette, which makes her more than deserving of her comical mishaps that range from being sprayed by skunks to accidentally getting turned into a pig.
- The Emperor's New Groove: Yzma, being the Treacherous Advisor with ambitions of becoming Empress, takes a lot of crap throughout the movie, from losing her shoes and faceplanting into a muddy swamp while being chased by a swarm of angry bees to rolling down a hill, getting covered in honey and feathers, and becoming a human pinata as a result... to getting zapped by a random lightning bolt that appears out of nowhere. All this culminates in her Karmic Transformation into a kitten.
- The Great Mouse Detective: Fidget, Ratigan's handicapped bat minion, is far from incapable of real villainy (just watch how he brutally kidnaps Olivia's father at the start of the movie), but he gets treated like a disposable moron by Ratigan. When Fidget fails him one too many times, Ratigan sics his cat Felicia on him, only sparing him thanks to a "Eureka!" Moment. And then there's that time when he and Ratigan are holding Olivia hostage on Ratigan's blimp and the bat suggests that Ratigan lighten the load. Obviously, Fidget was expecting Ratigan to toss Olivia overboard, and he was caught off guard when Ratigan tossed him overboard.
- The Jungle Book 2: Kaa, every time he tries to eat Mowgli, suffers countless Amusing Injuries. Later on, he's brutally beaten up again when he tries to eat Shanti, and his last appearance has him being threatened by Shere Khan. He was already an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain in the first film but his Butt-Monkey status is more exaggerated in the sequel.
- The Loud House Movie: Throughout the first half of the movie, the corrupt Morag is constantly pushed around by the Loud children (with the exception of Lincoln).
- Captain Hook from Peter Pan (1953) probably gets the most slapstick and humiliation of all the Disney Villains. Frankly, he deserves a lot of it due to being a violent and devious pirate whose underhanded tactics backfire, leading to said humiliating situations.
- The Rescuers: Madame Medusa is a Child Hater who kidnapped Penny, made her dig for the Devil's Eye diamond, and once called her "homely," but she isn't much of a threat; she is a lousy shot with a gun, hitting her allies more than the heroes. Near the end of the film, she endures a rather embarrassing but rather cathartic defeat; she gets tripped up, jabbed in the tush, whacked by a rolling pin, her gun blows up in her face, she gets singed by rogue fireworks, and dragged by the swamp-mobile in an undignified fashion while trying to hang on to the rope. And finally, she ends up slamming against her riverboat's funnel and can't go down lest she wants to be eaten by her own gators.
- Return to Never Land: Like Wendy in Peter Pan (1953), her daughter Jane is a Butt-Monkey that has everything in Neverland turning against her, at least in early scenes. Unlike Wendy, whose Butt-Monkey status mostly made her pitiable in the first film, Jane's funny mishaps are more deserved because of her rude and cynical attitude, and she stops being a Butt-Monkey after becoming friendlier.
- Robin Hood (1973):
- Prince John. As a result of his selfishness and overall villainy, he often suffers many well-deserved mishaps throughout the entire film, often culminating in him crying for “mummy” and sucking his thumb.
- Sir Hiss also helped John usurp the throne from King Richard, and in return, he gets a lot of abuse from Prince John.
- Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright: Dewey Ottoman turns out to be the Phantom or one of them, anyway. During his attempt to steal the Soap Diamond and kill the gang after they get it back, he suffers a number of things that trigger his germophobia, such as being covered in some liquid from barrels, landing in a trash barge, and handling a slobbery dog bone.
Films — Live-Action
- Airheads: Milo, the station manager for KPPX "Rebel Radio", is this among the hostages, as, unlike Ian, who simply doesn't find '90s music to be that great, Milo is entirely uninterested in music at all. Everybody takes it badly once they discover that Milo was planning to change "Rebel Radio" into an easy-listening station and sack the entire staff and wasn't going to tell anybody about all this till the last minute (the fact that the Lone Rangers accidentally find the new station merchandise forces his hand).
- The Count of Monte Cristo (2002): Despite serving as the film's primary antagonist, Fernand Mondego is kind of a loser. No one particularly liked him before the Time Skip - he's implied to be lazy and is shown to heavily drink while working. After the Time Skip, despite inheriting his father's wealth, he's blown it all on luxuries, gambling, and bad investments. He's a crass womanizer that everyone (except Albert, and even this doesn't last) treats with barely disguised disdain, and by the time he's killed by Dantes, he's penniless and on the run from the law.
- Godzilla vs. Kong: Maia Simmons is not nearly as steely as her father believes her to be, and it shows – of course, since she's also an obnoxious, stuck-up Rich Bitch, to say nothing of her villainous actions, her misfortunes are quite satisfying. After the bridge of the naval carrier is temporarily flooded, the camera focuses on a drenched Maia standing on her own, vomiting seawater. After the HEAVs cross the Vile Vortex's boundary into the Hollow Earth, Maia is the only one onboard Team Kong's HEAV who needs to make use of a barf bag due to the effects of the trippy ride; an occurrence which Nathan predicted precisely before they went in. To say nothing of the embarrassingly comical way that Maia causes her own death.
- John Wick 1: The movie relishes in showing Iosef Tarasov's suffering and terror in the face of John's vengeance, after Iosef played a major part in killing his dog and stealing his prized 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1. The entire movie makes it clear from how much of a Determinator John is and how much of a Dirty Coward that Iosef is that it's not a matter of if John will put a bullet in his head, but when he will. All of this started because Iosef felt insulted by John sassing him in refusal to sell his car on the spot.
- Rogue One: Orson Krennic tends to draw the short end of the stick whenever he appears, getting attacked, humiliated, or suffering from bodily harm. He also gets little to no respect from Tarkin and Darth Vader, losing command of the Death Star to Tarkin, gets Force-choked by Vader when he tries to complain about it, and finally gets killed directly by the Death Star's superlaser beam. But since he's an uncharismatic, pompous, arrogant, irrelevant villain who has committed countless atrocities by killing imperials or innocent people, as well as taking away Jyn's parents and forcing her to fend for herself, it's safe to say he had it coming.
Literature
- Captain Underpants:
- Kipper, Loogie, Bugg, and Finkstein are bullies to the kindergartners and revel in hurting them. George and Harold get their revenge by pranking them. At first, Kipper gets the worst of it when George and Harold make it look like he has an Unmanly Secret (which he doesn't have), but then his friends begin to get the brunt of it as well when George and Harold trick them into thinking that the nonexistent ghost Wedgie Magee is after them.
- Mr. Krupp tends to be on the receiving end of George and Harold's pranks, directly and indirectly. Besides that, he's had his share of embarrassing situations. Considering that he's a Dean Bitterman who bullies his students, it's safe to say that it's all karmic.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg is an egotistical, smart-alecky Dirty Coward who often doesn't give a damn about others. He usually ends up paying for it whenever he steps out of line in any way, especially when he tries to hide what he's done. Although in some of the later books, bad things happen to him for no reason, even if it's not (directly) karmic.
- Harry Potter: Draco Malfoy is constantly suffering some over the top misfortunes like being smacked in the face by Hermione or turned into a ferret, and he gets hexed on the Hogwarts Express by several different students at the end of two subsequent books. Considering that he's a racist bully and all around Jerkass and his suffering is usually the result of him provoking or outright attacking his classmates, it's hard to have much sympathy for him. Until Book 6, where he is tasked to assassinate Dumbledore and realizes that not only is he in way over his head, but he isn’t evil enough to commit murder — and worse, Voldemort will kill not only Draco but his parents for failing, leading to a case of Break the Haughty.
- The Dursleys as well. They often suffer from all sorts of mishaps such as Fred Weasley “accidentally” dropping a bag full of toffees when the Dursleys have to go on a diet thanks to Dudley being so obese, and “accidentally” leaving one behind for Dudley to get before leaving for the Burrow. Said toffee is a Ten-Tongue Toffee and Dudley’s tongue grows to about four feet long before it’s fixed by Arthur Weasley. The reason for the prank? Dudley bullied Harry and his parents were abusive to Harry as well.
- The Misfit of Demon King Academy: Before her initial departure from the series, Emilia Lud(o)well's only role seemed to be being ridiculed by Anos anytime they interacted, be it directly (like when he discovers her ruse of hiding the magical scepter he and Misha retrieved from his castle in the exam of the first arc in the body of another student) or indirectly (when Anos addresses and then grabs Ivis, a very important figure in the demon society, casually to return him his actual memories, in front of the whole class). The last thing to happen to her before she made her departure was being transformed into a stark naked half-demon, which resulted in her losing her job and having to endure the very racism she previously was a fanatic of. Given her racist and murderous nature at the time, she deserved it all.
Live-Action TV
- Attention Please: Yoko always slacks off in flight attendant training, causing her to forget standard protocol and embarrass herself in front of the passengers, and later, held back while her colleagues advance to further training. She grows out of it by the end, becoming a successful stewardess.
- The Boys (2019): The Deep is a Deconstruction. While he is an absolute garbage human being in every way, shape and form imaginable, and richly deserves his comeuppance, the sheer level of pain, humiliation and general shit he gets put through while his equally vile colleagues get off scot-free makes you wonder where the line between satisfaction at a righteous infliction of retribution and gleeful sadism actually goes, and on which side you fall.
- Game of Thrones: Joffrey Baratheon whom despite being the king, suffers a lot of misfortune, which includes but is not limited to getting bitchslapped by his uncle Tryion, is reduced to tears when a little girl kicks his ass, and whenever he tries to assert his authority, he ends up being humiliated, especially by his grandfather and uncle who boss him around and insult him. Then he gets murdered at his own wedding, which nobody aside from his mother really cares about, as they all despise him. You'd almost feel sorry for him if he weren't such a reprehensible, sadistic, Ax-Crazy sociopath with practically zero nice moments.
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The main characters are a bunch of Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonists. They try to scheme their way through life, but usually just end up making things worse for themselves and/or each other. Two of the protagonists are considered Butt Monkeys: Charlie, a stalker, and Dee, who once set a woman on fire.
- LazyTown: Whenever Robbie Rotten concocts a plan to make people act lazy against their will, this plan will result in him being comically injured in some fashion.
- Lost: Benjamin Linus is the series' main Manipulative Bastard, an unrepentant murderer, and makes the survivors' time on the Island a living hell for no good reason. He's also on the receiving end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown so many times it comes across as a Running Gag.
- M*A*S*H (1972): If anytime you see Frank Burns being a jerk, you won't have to wait long before misfortune befalls him in return.
- Katteni! Kamitaman: Yokoyoma is a Stalker with a Crush who won't stop trying to force his advances on Mari. Any episode where he gets too confident violating Mari's boundaries often ends with her beating the crap out of him.
- The Nanny: On one hand, C.C. Babcock is a horrible, greedy, and selfish Rich Bitch; on the other hand, she is also by far the most abused character on the show, especially when she is around Niles, who always loves making fun of her.
- Oz:
- If anyone is going to get beat up, it generally tends to be Oz's resident bully Kenny Wangler.
- Supreme Allah is constantly subject to all manners of Frame Ups and attempts on his life, while all of his schemes constantly blow up in his face. Given that he's also an arrogant thug who once beat up the wheelchair-bound Hill for no reason, it's hard to feel sorry for him.
- Logan Reese in Zoey 101 suffers the most misfortune of the main cast, though he's also such a jerk towards others (even to his friends) that it's mostly just karma giving him a good dose of often humiliating punishment. However, a few times, his punishments come off as Karmic Overkill.
Video Games
- Dispatch: Flambae is at least as unpleasant as Invisigal, but lacks most of her redeeming Jerk with a Heart of Gold moments. This is balanced out by having him suffer far more frequently for his dickery. In Episode 1, his very first scene has him get utterly humiliated by Robert when he tries to kick him out of Crypto Night, which only gets excerbated if the latter chooses to splash water on him, as he ends up slipping and knocking himself out (and losing a tooth) when he hits the bar counter; he's still getting teased for it in Episode 2. Then Episode 4 has him getting food or drink thrown at him in retalliation for his bullying of Waterboy. And if Robert reveals his identity as Mecha Man in Episode 5, Flambae tries to kill him and is immediately shut down by the rest of Z-Team, who laugh at how pathetic he is while he flies off in anger. Oh, and the car that Phenomaman destroys? Going by the end credits, it’s his. Tellingly, it's in scenes where he's actually behaving himself (or trying to) that he's largely left alone or even gets to show off.
- Fire Emblem: Thracia 776: If you recruit Perne with Lifis, he gleefully recounts how he used to bully Lifis in his youth, even bringing up the latter's bedwetting problems, and revels in getting to do it again by joining the army. To anyone else, this would be cruel, but Lifis is a former pirate who hasn't changed his ways, sold out Leif to The Empire in the first chapter, and only joined the army in the hopes of seducing the cleric Safy or, failing that, turning Leif over for a reward. He's one of the least sympathetic playable characters in the series, so most players cheer at Perne's treatment of him.
- Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes: Edelgard promotes Count Varley to Bishop of the Southern Church, which promptly turns him into a target of many assassination attempts by the Central Church and reduces him to a reclusive, paranoid wreck. Meanwhile, his allies, especially Bernadetta and Hubert, have very little respect for him, and the latter of the two makes it clear that they only need him alive for political reasons, and it's all but stated that Edelgard promoted him with the intent of making his life less comfortable while filling a seat. Given his abuse of Bernadetta, his greed, and his involvement in the Insurrection of the Seven, he practically earned his predicament. From a gameplay standpoint, while he is considered a main objective that needs protecting in the final chapter of Scarlet Blaze, he is one of the few where his death doesn't result in a Game Over, and Hubert's only gripe with his death is that he's going to be hard to replace.
- Genshin Impact: Childe is tasked with stealing Rex Lapis' gnosis. To accomplish this, he deceives the Traveler to lead him to it, but when that doesn't pan out, he summons Osial to threaten Liyue and draw Rex Lapis out. Outside of that, he's an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight (albeit a weirdly Affably Evil one) with a massive body count. He's later not pleased to find out La Signora and Zhongli had already negotiated for the gnosis and Childe was only an unwitting pawn used to test Liyue, who was never meant to succeed. On top of that, he's wrongfully blamed for Rex Lapis' 'murder', ruining his reputation. Then, come to Fontaine where he loses his Vision, goes to jail for a crime he did not commit, and becomes badly injured after a month-long battle with the Arc Villain of that chapter.
- Hollow Knight: Zote the Mighty is a big-mouthed egotistical Jerkass who always belittles the Knight and treats it like a nobody, all while bragging about victories he never achieved. He's also extremely weak and always ends up in trouble. In fact, when the Knight meets him for the first time, he gets chewed on by the Vengefly King and can potentially die if you neglect to save him, complete with the achievement if you do so, and later he gets webbed up by spiders in Deepnest and gets captured by the Fools to fight in their Colosseum against his own will, to be humiliated in public.
- Honkai: Star Rail: Skott basically exists in the plot to be a nuisance and a target of much humiliation, befitting his status as the Hate Sink of the mini arcs he's involved in. In no particular order, Skott can be made to bark like a dog and humiliate the IPC, oink like a pig and humiliate himself and the IPC, soil his pants from eating laxative-laced soup, brought to tears by Qingque, get possessed by Tail and hypnotized into behaving like a wolf and then some. Then, during Sweet Dreams and the Holy Grail, he gets repeatedly humiliated again (including by his own Servant, making him croak like a frog) while trying to take revenge on the Trailblazer and, at the end, Boothill beats the shit out of him for being part of the Marketing Development Department, the same department headed by Oswaldo, the man who destroyed Boothill's home planet.
- Mario & Luigi: Popple, the self-proclaimed "Shadow Thief", never manages to successfully get away with his stolen goods and suffers at the hands of his lackeys. Even his Bros. Attacks lead him to get harmed in some extraordinary action. It's hard to say he didn't have it coming, considering how he acts a Bad Boss towards his rookies, blames them when things go wrong, and runs away if his rookies are defeated first. He also needlessly provokes a Wiggler into fighting him and the Mario Bros., acts as The Millstone throughout the battle, and betrays Mario and Luigi after the Wiggler is defeated. His bad treatment of Birdo would lead her to attack him and send him flying, the Mario Bros. take him down pretty easily every time they fight (especially during the Wiggler boss fight, where the Mario Bros. also have to attack him to stop him from provoking the Wiggler further), and the Wiggler chases him out of his garden when he proceeds to insult it.
- Naughty Bear: The teddy bears tend to be terrorized and even killed by Naughty (though they always come back), but he does this as revenge for them ostracizing and making fun of him even if he does something good. It doesn't help that they can never remember that he has a breaking point.
- Neighbours from Hell: Rottweiler is aptly known as a neighbor from hell, being a huge source of misery for the people around him, including unfriendly interactions with children, abusing animals for his own entertainment, and peeping on women, on top of many typical Jerkass attributes, which eventually gets himself repeatedly pranked by the player character and Karmic Trickster Woody. No matter how often Woody's pranks throw Rottweiler into a fit of rage, he refuses to make any effort to improve himself on any sort of standard throughout the scenarios in which you prank him.
- Persona 4: Yosuke is a downplayed example. While he often does bring his Butt-Monkey status upon himself (namely when he makes fun of Kanji's sexuality, making insensitive remarks towards the girls or signed them up for a beauty pageant behind their backs) there are just as many times when he doesn't (such as getting his scooter wrecked shortly after getting it or Chie spending his money on an expensive outfit for Teddie without his informing him).
- Super Solvers: Morty Maxwell is the main antagonist of the series. A common Running Gag throughout the series is him telling the robots about how they can attack the Super Solver, only for the robots to use said attack on him. He also usually gets defeated in very comical ways. And because of all the trouble he causes, it's pretty funny to watch.
Web Animation
- The Debbie and Carrie Show: Ted Wilson, one of the title characters' worst enemies and a notorious bully, was subjected to various forms of humiliation, including getting beaten by Carrie Sims herself more than once, getting repeatedly beaten by other prisoners while he was locked up for murdering his own wife and blinding his baby daughter, and even getting killed no less than THREE TIMES, including TWICE in the same episode, due to time travel incidents.
- Gameoverse: Fold is subject to a lot of grief and cartoonish violence in the pilot, to his dismay. He's also the on-duty enforcer of a horde of planet destroyers, and a dick on top of that, so it's completely deserved.
- GoAnimate: Whenever a troublemaker causes some kind of mischief, destruction, or chaos, they will always be punished for it. They'll either be grounded for a ridiculously long time and/or receive "Punishment Days" from their parents.
- Happy Tree Friends: Lifty and Shifty are uncaring crooks who steal and swindle other people. The show balances this out by giving them some of the lowest survival rates in the series, and they painfully die in almost every single episode they appear in. In the internet series, they die in every one of their appearances, and they only fare slightly better in the TV series.
- Murder Drones: J is the most unchangingly evil of the titular drones, and by far the bigger asshole towards N. She's also hounded by terrible luck and often-hilarious misfortune, such as getting stabbed in the eye twice with her own beloved corporation-branded pen, being stabbed in the leg with her own acidic tail stinger because she got Caught Monologuing, and getting her head blasted off while her last word is an interrupted corporate jargon of all things.
- Queer Duck: Dr. Laura Schlessinger suffers a humiliating injury in every one of her appearances. Given that she is a fictional representation of a real-life homophobe, she has it coming.
Webcomics
- 8-Bit Theatre's Black Mage, who's a Comedic Sociopath. As Brian Clevinger said (paraphrased), "The universe exists to hurt Black Mage". Considering Black Mage wants to destroy everything, the punishment the universe sends might be considered self-defense.
- In Full Frontal Nerdity, Lewis is the member of the group most prone to misfortune and humiliation in games and in real life. As he is also the most personally unlikable and at least half the time his suffering is the result of his own stupidity and recklessness, it remains funny rather than cruel.
- Lackadaisy: Mordecai Heller isn't much of a Butt-Monkey... in canon. In the dubiously canon bonus strips, however, he suffers a lot, both physically and in the form of losing his precious dignity. Since he's a borderline sociopathic Professional Killer, it's hard to feel at all sorry for him.
- Two Guys and Guy: Wayne, while not as bad as the other two, is a rude, selfish slacker and often subjected to Guy's rage.