Calvin's mother taught him that it's important to share.
"Misery loves company."
— Mephistopheles, Faust (translated from Latin)
People respond to misery in different ways; some people might eventually move on from it, others might wallow in it for the rest of their lives, and still others might take their own lives because of it. One of the most harmful ways a person can express their misery is to share it with other people. Said misery can be something petty or major, but regardless of what the source is, some people will try to make it everyone else's problem by spreading it.
Because there are so many ways to be miserable, there are many ways to share one's misery. Someone who is unlucky in love might seek to ruin relationships so others will share their loneliness. A person who failed to achieve their dreams might seek to destroy the hopes and dreams of others. A person who is an outcast might try to ruin the reputations of others.
There are several reasons why someone would spread their misery around. Some might do it as a form of revenge against the source of their angst. Some might do it to draw attention to their plight in the faint hope that others might help solve the issue. Others may do so simply to make themselves feel better; in a twisted way, having others in as foul a mood as yours can help brighten your own, if only slightly.
Super-Trope to If I Can't Have You…. Share the Sickness is one way this can be carried out. Sometimes this may be a result of Freudian Excuse. See Misery Poker for when people try to be competitive with their miseries. Someone who is Driven by Envy might do this. A form of Evil Is Petty. Compare Bad Mood as an Excuse, which tends to be a less intentional version of this trope. Also compare Taking You with Me and Hope Crusher. The Chain of Harm can sometimes be a form of this. Compare/Contrast Put Them All Out of My Misery for when a villain seeks to end their misery by killing others rather than tormenting them.
Contrast Oppose What You Suffered for when someone tries to prevent others from suffering the same misery. Also contrast Sad Clown, for a sad or insecure character who copes through comedy and smiles, ironically spreading the joy they don't personally feel.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You: Inverted with Meru. Her irreparable disillusionment at the world's despair prompted her to want to preserve the innocent worldview held by children by becoming a children's picture book author, seeing fairy tales as the last remaining bright spot in a dark world.
- Bleach: Äs Nödt, the Fear of the Wandenreich, lived his life in constant agony before Yhwach gave him powers. Now he uses those powers to make everyone else feel the same fear and pain that he used to feel.
- Cowboy Bebop: In "Brain Scratch", the Scratch cult claims people can live forever on the net if they give up their bodies, leaving a lot of comatose and brain-dead bodies in its wake. Jet and Ed find out the real identity of the leader of Scratch, Dr. Londes, who is nothing more than a computer avatar created by a paraplegic kid stuck in a coma, yet his brain waves were strong enough to hack the system (it's never explained how he managed this). When Ed finally locks him out of the net to stop his scheme, his avatar's last words are to proclaim that everybody should have the same body he has.
- Digimon Adventure: Apocalymon was formed out of the pain and grief of all the Digimon who perished trying to Digivolve. His goal is to plunge all of existence into darkness, so he no longer has to be alone in his misery.
- Hyde and Closer: The Watchman is trying to crack an egg called Resentment and unleash it into the world because in life, he was a doctor who was trying to help an African country. However, when famine hit the area, the tribe blamed him and sacrificed his family before his eyes. Thus, he studied black magic to take his revenge on the world. Later on, though, it's revealed that the Watchman is the reincarnation of a girl who invertedly put Resentment into the egg in the first place.
- SSSS.GRIDMɅN: Alexis Kerib's motivation for helping Akane create kaiju to terrorize the city turns out to be this. Alexis is immortal and has found his endless existence to be unfulfilling and empty, where the only thing that can bring him pleasure is to find people like Akane, let them become the god of a self-created escapist world with kaiju as a maintenance tool, and watch them spiral further towards the Despair Event Horizon into a suicidal borderline Empty Shell from their inability to stay in control. Akane being immortal to the point jumping off a crane doesn't even bruise her is likely an intentional touch on Alexis' part.
Comic Books
- Green Lantern (2023): In issue #13, after Carol Ferris left her fiancée, Nathan Broome, at the altar, the unstable Emotional Spectrum combined with Nate’s extreme sadness turns his wedding ring into a new grey Power Ring powered by sorrow, turning him into the Sorrow Lantern. One of his powers is that he can cause anyone near him to be consumed with sadness.
- Sonic the Comic: In the story "The Sky’s the Limit", from issue #135, the villain of the story is Sydney Bland, a newt who was miserable his entire life. Sydney inherited a huge amount of money, but it didn’t make him happy, so he decided he’d use his money to make everyone else miserable, too. He then bought a flying saucer so he could terrorize people and try to take over the world.
- Youngblood: Judgment Day: A variation; a child Marcus Langston, future hero Sentinel, gains a reality-altering book his father stole from a hero, reads it and learns he is to die at 19 after a predictable criminal life. Instead, he alters his prophesied future for a better one where he is successful and becomes a respected hero. However, as the modern-day lawyer gives a summation, Marcus keeps writing about having "stunning adventures", but still too tame for his "embittered" self, since there is not enough shooting and killing. Thus, by the mid-1980s, growing bored of such adventures, he writes "a nastier, shadowier and more violent world for himself", creating the The Dark Age of Comic Books.
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes: At the beginning of the insect collection arc, Calvin is in a bad mood as he waits for the bus. Susie tries to say hi to him, but he tells her to step in front of a cement mixer. She's now grumpy too, while Calvin smirks and thinks, "Nothing helps a bad mood like spreading it around."
- One Garfield comic has him in a foul mood for whatever reason and he walks by Jon, claws up the newspaper he was reading (prompting his owner to casually reply, "I hate you") and says, "When I'm unhappy, everyone's unhappy!"
Fan Fiction
- Once Upon a Time: The Reboot: In the flashback portion of season 1, episode 10, Regina is exiled with her mother Cora, and watches as the fairy tale characters achieve their many happy endings after her banishment. She reaches a "breaking point" and, with a stranger reminding her about the Dark Curse, she decides to use it as her last resort against her stepdaughter Snow White and the entirety of the Land of Ever. In season 6, episode 10, it is revealed that it was Gaston who sought Regina for a way to destroy Prince Adam and Beau's happy ending, which gave Regina the idea to use her mentor's Dark Curse.
Films — Animation
- Rise of the Guardians: Pitch "the Boogeyman" Black is jealous of the Guardians because people believe in them, but not him. Thus, he wants to make it so that people don't believe in them either — for instance, he gives people nightmares so that they won't believe in The Sandman, prevents the Tooth Fairy's minions from collecting the teeth so that kids won't believe in her, and smashes all the Easter Bunny's eggs so that kids won't believe in him either.
Films — Live-Action
- Cinderella (2015): Implied with Lady Tremaine, who was widowed by the man she married for love, leaving her with two daughters to provide for. She marries Ella's father for money, but when Ella's father dies too, she takes this out on Ella by making her a servant in her own home, because she can't stand seeing Ella content while she is miserable.
Ella: Why? Why are you so cruel? I don't understand it. I've tried to be kind to you.
Lady Tremaine: You? Kind to me?
Ella: Yes. And though no one deserves to be treated as you have treated me. Why are you doing it? WHY?
Lady Tremaine: Why? Because YOU are young, and innocent, and good, and I... [Beat; storms out and locks the door behind her] - Memoirs of a Geisha: Years after Sayuri is adopted into the Nitta okiya, Pumpkin ends up becoming a prostitute for the American soldiers. While she seems to have forgotten about it, she reveals her true colors when Sayuri asks her to bring Nobu over to see her sleeping with Col. Derricks to get him off her back — instead, Pumpkin brings the Chairman to spite her for taking away her one chance to be adopted.
Sayuri: How could you? You don't know what you have done!
Pumpkin: But I do.
Sayuri: I do not understand. Why did you have to bring the Chairman?
Pumpkin: Because I know how you feel about him. A long time ago, you took something from me. The only thing I'd ever truly want. Well... now you know how it feels. - The Running Man (2025):
- The Network does this intentionally as a way to keep the populace under control, creating propaganda to make people paranoid and hate each other so that they'll attack each other or keep another down so that they don't rebel against them.
- McCone kills Runners largely because he lost his family after Killian killed them to give him incentive to take the deal to become a hunter after he nearly beat the show by making it to 29 days, a day short of the show's 30 day deadline. He feels he has nothing left to live for after that and figures he might as well bring misery to others to dull his own pain.
Literature
- In Aesop's Fables, a fox gets caught in a trap and escapes only by losing his tail. At first, he skulks around, ashamed, but then he comes to the other foxes and claims that having no tail is great; all of them should do the same. One of them points out that it's more likely that misery just loves company.
- Discworld: Sam Vimes, the Commander of the Watch, has a reputation as both a By-the-Book Cop and a Cowboy Cop. Crime actually goes down when he unwillingly leaves the city on a diplomatic mission, as nobody wants to be a legitimate target for an extra-irritated Vimes to take out his anger on.
Vetinari: It’s been a crime-free day, Drumknott. Very unusual. Even the Thieves’ Guild is lying low.
Drumknott: Yes, my lord. I can’t imagine why. When the cat’s away...
Vetinari: Yes, Drumknott, but mice are happily unencumbered by apprehensions of the future. Humans, on the other hand, are. And they know that Vimes is going to be back in a week or so, Drumknott. And Vimes will not be happy. Indeed, he will not. And when a commander of the Watch is unhappy, he tends to spread it around with a big shovel. - Great Expectations: Since Miss Havisham was jilted at the altar, she spent her life as an obsessive recluse and eventually adopted her daughter Estella for the sole purpose of grooming her to be a heartless Ice Queen. Under Miss Havisham's instructions, Estella breaks the hearts of countless suitors, marries the worst one of all just to twist the knife, and is trapped in an abusive marriage herself.
- Miltons Secret: Implied; Carter calls Milton a weirdo for being named that. Later, Milton sees Carter looking unhappy (it's never revealed why) and Milton surmises that Carter is unhappy and is trying to cheer himself up by making him unhappy too.
Live-Action TV
- Burn Notice: Discussed in "Truth & Reconciliation" during one of Michael's monologues regarding Jean-Pierre Duman, a former prison official for the Aristide regime in Haiti whom Team Westen is targeting this week:
"Spend time with corrupt, homicidal Third World political figures, and you hear a lot of self-pity. What kind of man throws his political enemies in prison and tortures them to death? Generally it's a guy who feels so sorry for himself that he feels justified doing anything. Killers, by and large, are whining losers. But that doesn't make them any less dangerous."
- Fallout (2024): The Ghoul goes out of his way to break Lucy down, mistreating her in just about any possible way: kidnapping, torture, horrible tasks, over-the-top acts of violence in her presence, mutilation, selling her into slavery... all just because how miserable his own life in the wasteland has been ever since. The fact that she never breaks or cracks is what only further drives him to abuse her, and at least that makes him feel better.
Lucy: [after another round of abuse] What are you?
The Ghoul: Oh, I'm you, sweetie. You just give it a little time. - Marry My Husband: Su-min is like this exclusively to her childhood best friend Ji-won and later her husband Min-hwan. She has been the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing for most of Ji-won's life, secretly undermining Ji-won's happiness every chance she got since their school days, including sabotaging her relationships, making her look bad, one-upping her at work, and eventually having an affair with her husband and plotting with him to kill a terminally-ill Ji-won for the insurance money (in the original timeline). The reason for this turns out to be due to her own misery: Her father left their family for Ji-won's mother, leaving Su-min with an abusive mother while Ji-won still had her supportive father to take care of her.
- Once Upon a Time (2011): Regina, the Evil Queen, loses her youth's true love and a mix of external and internal factors throughout her adult life causes her to fill the role of Evil Queen to the people, until she is eventually defeated, spared and banished by Snow White and Prince Charming. Rumplestiltskin, Regina's mentor in magic, reminds her of the Dark Curse he once gave her, and she goes to Snow White's public/official wedding to gloat she will give them a "gift": the Dark Curse, which will rob everyone of their happy endings. When the Dark Curse is cast, Regina boasts to a crying Snow White and a dying Prince Charming that this is her (Regina's) happy ending.
- Scrubs: When Turk is sued by a patient, Dr. Cox takes it as an opportunity to bring Turk around to his bleak way of seeing the world.
Carla: Why do you need to make everyone in this hospital as cynical and jaded as you?
Cox: How do you not get this? What does misery love? - The Sopranos: Tony's mother Livia is a miserable, narcissistic nihilist whose favourite pastimes are trash-talking other people, moaning about how much her life sucks, and making other people as miserable as herself. Tony discusses the possibility that Livia may have been physically unable to feel joy, so she coped by dragging everyone else down with her.
- What We Do in the Shadows (2019): Evie Russell is an emotional vampire who feeds off of others' energy by telling tragic stories about her life to make others feel sorry for her. Even after starting to date energy vampire Colin Robinson and having a good time together, she eventually turns on him too, just to get more pity from others.
Music
- In "Parasite" by Set It Off (Band), the singer is calling out someone who leeches onto them and feeds off their pain. One lyric calls them out for trying to spread their own misery around:
If your pain's their pain then maybe you are not alone
Sick, delusional pest stuck to the host
Mythology & Religion
- In Christianity, the reason why Satan and his minions want to tempt humans into sin is because they know that they are destined to be sealed in Hell forever, and want to doom other humans to suffer alongside them out of spite.
- Japanese spiritual movement Happy Science teaches that since demons were once spirits of light who went astray while living as humans or other sentient material beings, all of them seek to make humans as miserable in Earth as they themselves are in Hell by spreading atheism and other doctrines contrary to El Cantare's laws.
Tabletop Games
- Vampire: The Masquerade: The Nosferatu Clan has the Clan Curse of having their appearance be warped into that of inhuman monsters that can't possibly pass as human. Some Nosferatu, known as Cleopatras, are formerly beautiful people who were transformed into members of the Clan by spiteful Nosferatu. While some Nosferatu only target vain and cruel beauties, others have no issue with knowingly inflicting their curse on innocent, beautiful people out of sheer spite and sadism.
Toys
- Transformers: Generation One:
- Dead End of the Stunticons has a nihilistic streak, believing all life is pointless and he isn't afraid to share that mindset with others around him. Unsurprisingly, this makes him unpopular with the other Decepticons. In addition, he also spends much of his time polishing his body frame, leading to teasing and mocking from other Decepticons who don't understand that his one and only desire is to at least leave behind a beautiful corpse when he's killed. Which, according to his mindset, is an inevitability.
- Darkwing and Dreadwind are both known to be morose, depressed individuals, with Dreadwind in particular suffering from an existential crisis most of the time. Darkwing is more proactive than Dreadwind, however, deciding that he'd rather spread misery to show the pointlessness of life to others than to keep it to himself. Meanwhile, Dreadwind doesn't really care but he isn't really opposed to it either.
- The Dinobot Snarl hates everything and everyone, especially himself and his ugly Stegosaurus alternate mode. He's happiest when in the midst of a battle, as it allows him to vent his anger and hatred on others. It also helps take his mind off said hatred.
- The Decepticon Pretender Finback suffers from a corrosive disease that leaves him in a constant state of pain. His one joy in life lies in making the Autobots feel as much pain as he does.
Video Games
- Blue Archive: In the Highlander Railroad Runaway Incident event, the Highlander students and Sensei are on a subway when a gang of delinquents pick a fight with them, quickly admitting they're just taking out their frustrations with living on them. Aoba, in response, goes on a depressive spiel about how the world is a cold, cruel place and one should give up on expectations to avoid being hurt. The delinquents are so disturbed by her negativity that they leave them alone.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- Nidhogg's motivation is revealed to be this rather than annihilating Ishgard. He was overwhelmed by grief and desire for vengeance after King Thordan and his Knights Twelve betrayed Nidhogg's brood sister Ratatoskr and consumed her eyes. After Thordan and his knights managed to defeat Nidhogg using Ratatoskr's power, Nidhogg demanded Hraesvelgr lend him an eye so that he may torment Ishgard for eternity, thus beginning the Dragonsong War. Learning this makes the heroes realize that there's no ending the war without slaying Nidhogg, whose emotional wounds are as fresh as they were a thousand years ago due to the Time Dissonance experienced by dragons.
- Fandaniel openly describes how he wants everyone and everything to die screaming in agony and despair, including himself. Endwalker reveals that his nihilistic sadism began after he, in his former life as Amon, learned of the meaninglessness of existence from Emperor Xande, whom Amon had resurrected to lead Allag to greatness. Amon's devotion to Xande and the misery he experienced from Allag's fall at the end of the Third Astral Era led him to spread his own misery to the rest of Etheirys by restarting the Final Days.
- Samidare is the main antagonist of the Dawntrail Melee Role Quests. He's a ninja who was forcibly conscripted into the Garlean army following the Empire's conquest of Doma. Samidare's miserable experiences under Garlean command lead him to believe that kindness and decency are lies hiding mankind's true nature. After joining the Passage of the Unbound and obtaining the Dreamweave Cocoon, Samidare decides to "prove" his theory by attempting to foment Civil War in the Far East not long after it won its freedom from Garlemald in Stormblood.
- In Sengoku Basara, Otani Yoshitsugu suffers from crippling leprosy and has been driven mad by the illness and the ridicule he suffered because of it. His one desire is to spread his misery to the entire world, manipulating Ishida Mitsunari to wage a destructive war across Japan.
- Goede, the Big Bad of Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 is a being born from humans' negative feelings, destined to die and revive whenever said feelings are sent to the World Tree. After finding out his true purpose, he loses it and ventures to destroy the world. One of his schemes is to infect people with his negative feelings, causing them to turn into monsters or creating negative duplicates that will kill them.
Web Animation
- Bowser's Kingdom: In episode 4, Jeff is envious of the fact that Hal can have sex with Princess Peach and he can't because Jeff, being a Goomba, doesn't have a penis. Jeff decides if he can't get any, Hal can't either, and throws Peach out, which ends up accidentally killing her and setting up the plot to find a way to revive her.
- Revenge Films: "My friend tried to make me have a miscarriage"
: Rinko spiked Kanae Mubita's tea with a uterotonic to make her miscarry. While both Kanae and her baby survived, Rinko revealed in her visit that she suffered a miscarriage earlier on. Furthermore, Rinko admitted that she wanted Kanae to suffer the same because in her own words, she studied hard for her baby only to miscarry while Kanae did nothing for hers yet she gets to become a mother.
Kanae: That's how you thought of me?
Rinko: Yes, that's right. I studied so hard for my baby and yet I had a miscarriage. But you, you were doing nothing for your baby but your stomach would grow bigger and bigger every day. I just couldn't accept that. That's why I wanted you to disappear.
Webcomics
- The Order of the Stick: Crystal confides in her rival Haley that she's been in constant pain ever since her boss had her corpse resurrected as a flesh golem, but that it hurts less when she's killing or inflicting pain on others.
Web Originals
- Neopets: The Arc Villain of The Void Within is Nyx's long-lost brother Ozzy, a sad grey Yurble using a magic paintbrush to spread greyness and depression across the entirety of Neopia. He does not want anyone else to be happy because he has issues with Nyx being separated from him.
- Reddit: In the story "My best friend told me she was having a baby. It wasn’t good news." from r/shortscarystories, the main character and her best friend Monica bond over their fertility struggles until Monica marries a rich man, and he pays for Fertilex, an expensive fertility clinic that uses artificial wombs. After the main character gets tired of Monica rubbing it in her face that she's having a baby, she gets a job as a cleaner at Fertilex and poisons Monica's unborn baby with a syringe full of whiskey and thalidomide.
In a few months, Monica's joy would turn to ash in her mouth. Maybe then she'd finally remember what brought us together in the first place.
Grief.
Web Videos
- Dayum: In "Types of Kids in Kindergarten Portrayed by Minecraft", Dylan is told to stay in class and do his homework while the rest of the kids play outside. Angry, Dylan bricks up the doorway and says that if he can't play outside, nobody can.
- Vampires SMP: Thanks to having been ostracized in his original lifetime for a health condition beyond his control, after being turned into a vampire and immediately losing his beloved sire afterwards, Owen's main motivation shifts to making everyone feel as outcast as he did during his pre-vampirism days.
Owen: For me, this isn't about killing more, getting more people on our side, I want humans to feel what I felt. I want them to feel like outcasts in their own community. Do you feel like you don't belong, Apo?
Apo: Yeah?
Owen: Then I got what I wanted. I want them to feel it too.
Western Animation
- The Amazing World of Gumball: In "The Pest", Anais is being bullied at school, and the bully is eventually revealed to be Billy, a kid who had a crush on Anais, but was rejected by her. When Gumball intervenes, Billy explains that him lashing out at Anais is mainly due to his bitterness that Anais rejected his love. Gumball tells him that's no excuse, pointing out that everyone faces disappointments in life and there’s no reason to take it out on others. Billy actually takes that to heart and stops bullying Anais.
- Batman: The Animated Series: This is basically Freeze's MO in the New Batman Adventures episode "Cold Comfort". Due to the fact that he can no longer be with his cured wife Nora due to his body deteriorating, Freeze decides that if he can't be happy, no one else can be. He destroys a set of dinosaur bones reconstructed by an archeologist as well as an artist's masterpiece painting, and even tries to kill a woman's beloved dog before Batman interrupts him. At one point he even tries to kill Alfred, Bruce's surrogate father just so he can experience the loss of a loved one. His end goal is to destroy the entirety of Gotham and force Batman to watch as the city he protects is destroyed, though Batman fortunately manages to foil his plot, though Freeze is still at large.
- Courage the Cowardly Dog: In "The Tower of Dr. Zalost", the titular Dr. Zalost is a scientist with severe depression. He feels like if he can't be happy, no one else should be, so he creates gloom-inducing cannonballs and fires them on the whole town (though because Eustace is already an unhappy person, he is completely unaffected). Courage finds that Muriel's plums can cure everyone, and once Dr. Zalost has one, he cheers up as well.
- The Ghost and Molly McGee: Done unintentionally by Pete when his siblings visit Brighton. Said siblings have been bullying Pete since they were kids, and he's miserable from the moment they arrive. This unwittingly attracts Sob Goblins: tiny ghosts that feed on misery and spread it to those around them. As the siblings' visit continues, more and more Sob Goblins spread from Pete to the family (which he isn't aware of as only Scratch and Molly can see the misery-eaters). The ghosts are only banished when Pete finally stands up to his siblings.
- Lucious Heinous from Jimmy Two-Shoes is the demonic ruler of Miseryville and the CEO of Misery Inc., who is obsessed with tormenting the residents of Miseryville to make them as miserable as possible, particularly Jimmy Two-Shoes, whom he despises for his positive demeanor.
- Little Clowns of Happytown: The Big Bad, Awful B. Bad, likes to spread gloom around the world and make people just as miserable as him. He serves as a contrast to the Little Clowns, who spread joy and laughter. He and his henchmen make this very clear in their Villain Song:
Awful B. Bad: We wish in every rotten clown
To lose the smile and wear a frown
When gloom and doom abound
It makes me awfully bad
If folks were awful just like me
Whiner: There'd be much more misery
Geek: And he'd be happy as can be
Awful B. Bad: I'd be so awfully bad! - Little Princess: In "I Want My Dummy", the Queen decides to give up chocolate and have the King give up croquet if the Princess gives up her pacifier, so that the family is "giving up together". The General laughs, and so the King, angry that the Queen made him give up croquet, makes the General give up his hobbyhorse Nessie. The General starts using a mop as a hobbyhorse, making the Maid laugh too, so he angrily confiscates her makeup. This makes the Chef laugh, so the Maid gets angry and swipes his radio.
- The Loud House: In "Candy Crushed", Rita tries to teach her daughter Lola, who has a Sweet Tooth, moderation by having her go a week without sugar. Grumpy about this, Lola disallows everyone else from eating sugar, too, yelling, "You're either with me or against me!"
- Miraculous Ladybug:
- After Chloe cruelly rejects him on Valentine's Day, Kim is akumatized into the supervillain Dark Cupid, who has the power to turn feelings of love into hate. He uses this power to ruin other people's Valentine's by turning their loved ones against them so they can be miserable too.
- In "Guiltrip", the titular sentimonster was formed out of Juleka's guilt at betraying Rose's trust, and causes all those who become trapped within it to be literally consumed by their own guilt.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): In "The City of Frownsville", Lou Gubrious is a constantly crying man who envies everyone else's happiness. He creates a machine called the Miser-Ray that channels his gloom to the entirety of Townsville, causing them to burst into Ocular Gushers like him. Now that he's mechanically removed his depression, he becomes cheerful and renames himself Hal Larious. The entire effects of the Miser-Ray are reversed when Lou Gubrious ends up slipping on a Banana Peel the end of the episode, which causes everyone in Townsville to start laughing again, and Lou Gubrious to back to being depressed.
- Smiling Friends: In "Frowning Friends", the title company is an Evil Counterpart to the Smiling Friends, including two Straw Nihilist equivalents to Pim and Charlie named Grim and Gnarly. Their only goal seems to be going around town and making random strangers discouraged and depressed For the Evulz.
- South Park: In her speech near the end of the episode "Dead Kids", Sharon says this. She has a good reason, though.
"Don't you guys see what's happened here?! I want you to be angry! Every day we hear about another school shooting! It used to be a big deal! I want it to be a big deal again. ...I want you all to be shocked! I want you all to be sad!"
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series: Lonnie Lincoln and Robbie Robertson were friends as kids, but Lonnie was a delinquent while Robbie was a model student. One day, Lonnie pressures Robbie into robbing a store, but after the police come, Robbie gets away and while Lonnie gets arrested and grows up to be an actual criminal after getting out of jail. After learning that Robbie has a successful life, having graduated from college and landed a cushy job as a cub reporter, Lonnie tries to ruin Robbie's life by tricking him into coming into a chemical plant so he can frame Robbie for the break-in, which would result in Robbie also having his life ruined by a criminal record. Fortunately Lonnie's plan failed when Robbie's coworkers reveal that he had been tricked.
- Totally Spies!:
- Eugene, the villain from the episode "Matchmaker", is an Intentional Heartbreaker who uses advanced technology to disguise himself as girls' ideal matches for the sole purpose of standing them up on Valentine's Day. His motive? His girlfriend dumped him the previous Valentine's Day, and rather than getting over it, he decided to ruin other people's Valentine's out of spite.
- In fact, this is a motive for a lot of the villains the spies face. Some of them were in a profession, got into misfortune, turned bitter and decide to take it out on the rest of the world for extremely petty reasons.
- Unikitty!: Master Frown is infamous for ruining parties and joy, which he enjoys as a doom lord's job. In "Trapped in the Tower", he answers Unikitty's question about why he is doing it. One of his childhood birthday parties became a disaster, where guests got injured and his gift got damaged. Ever since, he grew to hate parties and wanted to ruin them for everyone else.