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Good Is Not Nice - TV Tropes

  • ️Sat Sep 13 2008

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodIsNotNice

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"Good is not nice, polite, well-mannered, self-righteous, or naive, though good characters may be some of these things."

Affably Evil is when a villain is polite, friendly and genuinely kind, even while plotting evil. Good Is Not Nice is the inverse: characters who are rude, unfriendly, or mean, but still firmly on the side of good.

They won't kill (if they can help it), nor would they turn a blind eye to human suffering. They are always willing to go out of their way to save the town and complete strangers. When the call comes, they answer it, usually with little protest. They often help people in need who can't pay them back. In almost every way, they act like the Ideal Hero, except...

...they are asocial and sometimes downright rude. They may refuse to explain anything or listen to anyone. They actively refuse offers of gratitude, friendship, love, and/or support for their own emotional problems. Yes, they'll always be there for you. But they don't always seem to like you.

There are a few reasons these people may act like this:

  1. They may want to be selfish and arrogant or just unbiased to either side, but their morality keeps on getting in the way, even if it is to their detriment. They may put on "jerkass/bitch mask" to try to counter it.
  2. They do consider themselves as better than everyone else, and their attitudes range from Smug Super to Insufferable Genius to flat-out prick. After all, it is difficult for them to be nice to people when they do not even respect them. However, they still feel compelled to help these lower creatures on a regular basis.
  3. They are natural loners. Their senses of duty force them to perform heroic acts, but they do not consider chitchat or politeness to be parts of their obligations.
  4. They may want to be affable people, but they believe that being nice does not always get things done, and that doing good can require them to be harsh or cruel sometimes, particularly if they have to teach something. (This may be an intermittent effect, applied only when necessary; contrast Beware the Nice Ones, where such outbursts result from break-down. On the other hand, emotional trauma can coincide with the realization that nicety won't cut it.)
  5. They cannot afford to let others get close to them because their enemies will use others against them.
  6. They might wish to be nice but live so far outside normal human experience that they have no idea how to go about it; similarly, the hero might be autistic, or a non-human alien.
  7. They weren't always like this. They had friends and/or even romantic relationships, but time kept taking their friends and family from them. So, at some point, they decided never to have any relationship deeper than acquaintance.
  8. The world the heroes live in is operated through cynical ends, so Strict Good Guyism does not work — either in the eyes of the author or in a literal in-universe sense.
  9. They operate on Blue-and-Orange Morality, their unpleasant actions can be seen as "nice" in their worldview.
  10. They intimidate enemies through harsh demeanors.
  11. They used to be a villain before warming up to the heroes. While they may have renounced their evil ways, they retain their bad attitude.
  12. They may be good, but SOOO fed-up with the won't-know, the won't-learn, the ideology, the gaslighting, etc, that they've become .. abrasive.

Note that when handled well, this can create an interesting, complex character. When done poorly, you can end up with an Unintentionally Unsympathetic character or even a Designated Hero. Furthermore, a "good" character with an extremely abrasive personality and/or deplorable actions may find themselves targets of Ron the Death Eater and/or Never Live It Down.

Compare Noble Demon, who will likely fall into this if not too morally ambiguous. Often a Knight in Sour Armor, Mr. Vice Guy, Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Jerkass Woobie, or sometimes just a Jerkass who does good things. The term Anti-Hero is sometimes used to cover this trope. Sister trope to Creepy Good. Naive newcomers may be surprised to learn they are not the idealized hero everyone thinks they are. The hero's meanness will result with him becoming a Hero with Bad Publicity.

Why Light powers can be the Holy Hand Grenade even when Light Is Good.

Lawful Good versions of this trope may be strict, humorless and serious. In other cases, they will put more emphasis on "Lawful" than "Good". This is fairly often used as a personality flaw for The Paladin. Chaotic Good versions will often see politeness and good manners as useless rules and are only concerned about doing good.

See also Hidden Depths. Also see the Knight Templar, who goes beyond merely not being "nice" into darker territory.

Contrast Good Is Not Dumb. May overlap with Good Is Not Soft, but the key difference is that a character can be nice but ruthless, which makes them Good Is Not Soft, or they can be mean but not necessarily ruthless, making them this trope.

See also Affably Evil, a trope that could be called "Evil Is Not Mean." Contrast both with Faux Affably Evil, for when the villain is a far bigger asshole than any hero under this trope while acting superficially nice.

This is what the Knight Templar and the Obliviously Evil tend to think they are.

Types of heroes who will often fit under this trope 

Examples:

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Comic Books 

  • Reggie Mantle from Archie Comics sometimes falls into this category. Some stories portray him as hating the holiday season because the Christmas spirit interferes with his natural desire to be rotten, while others portray him as actively taking precautions to make sure the victims of his pranks are only humiliated, without actually being hurt.
  • Aloysius Crumrin of Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things does not get along well with others most of the time and the feeling is mutual. He's had a long life of making tough ethical decisions which has worn him down considerably, and he's faced a number of personal tragedies and setbacks as well, but he's also generally arrogant, manipulative, and rude. His great-niece Courtney shares many of his personality traits, which is probably why they get on so well - and also why she seems to be following down the same path he did.
  • Gemini Storm. The heroine helps keep down the plague of monsters by viciously killing them and enjoying every minute of it.
  • Grimjack aka John Gaunt. His code of "Always Seek The Truth" can (and often does) hurt his friends, family, clients, random people on the street, etc.
  • In Holy Terror, the Fixer shows no compassion at all to any of the terrorists, shooting them, breaking their spines and blowing them up.
  • WildC.A.T.s (WildStorm): Mr. Majestic is what you get when an alien warlord tries his hand at superheroing. While his intentions are mostly benevolent, he is not above imprisoning criminals without a trial or, in one instance, unilaterally re-arranging the entire solar system in pursuit of his goals.
  • Red Sonja is (usually, Depending on the Writer) known in-universe for kicking ass first and asking questions never. Anyone who offends her or violates her code gets a Badass Boast and one chance to apologize and leave. Those who fail to do so are almost universally killed. Corrupt leaders often don't even get that chance because Sonja knows their crimes by the time she's in their presence.
  • The British-published Sonic the Comic by Fleetway paints the eponymous hedgehog as such. He's a hero and saves the day constantly, but if you're one of his allies? Expect to be belittled, verbally abused, and made to cater to his ego.
  • The Internship:
    • River Lakes is, as the storyline shows, a very compassionate, supportive, and helpful person…while also being, at the same time, hypocritical, short-tempered, and even manipulative. Volume 3 has them inadvertently reveal to Cooper that their cheery attitude is something of an act; River's heart is truly in the right place, but they're also a Stepford Smiler who uses being cheery to cope with their own loneliness. Volume 3 and onward showcase this; River provides a major catalyst in getting Coop's head out of his ass and pushing him to regain control of his life, while also being quite physical with him and betraying his trust by outing him as gay without his knowledge or consent. And then subsequently lying about it.
    • Andy is a Downplayed example. He's pretty nice, but his insecurities can drive him to be a real A-hole when they get the better of him, something he admits in Volume 3. Emery then tells him (in response to his confession, in fact) that Andy's still a genuinely kind person, and that what matters is that he focuses on improving himself.
  • The Transformers (IDW):
    • Prowl gets this treatment a lot here. He's an arrogant prick, a Manipulative Bastard, comes off as cold and unfeeling, seems to treat even people he professes to like as tools more than as comrades or friends, and sometimes does some morally-questionable things in the name of getting things done... but in the end of it all he's without a doubt a loyal Autobot dedicated to defeating the Decepticons, protecting the innocent, and reaching for the greater good overall.
    • Several Autobots come off this way in the course of the IDW run of comics. Repugnus is underhanded, ruthless, argumentative, and more than willing to resort to violence, but he's an Autobot all the same - just one who does jobs that those with more delicate morals could barely consider.
    • The Wreckers by and large consist of violent diehards, mental jobs, or trouble cases with an appallingly high body count and casualty count, but they go after the most dangerous of foes that no normal Autobot team could hope to match. In particular, Wreckers leader Impactor coldly executes the entirety of Squadron X after their capture on a neutral world on the basis that the threat posed by a crack team of ten Decepticons outweighed the political technicalities that required the Wreckers to release their foes.
  • The Transformers (Marvel):
    • The Dinobots. They're a rag-tag bunch of jerks who don't really like anyone, and occasionally go off to do their own thing. None of them like Optimus. But they like Megatron and his lot even less.
    • The Wreckers probably count. Their first appearance involves them planning to lure several prominent Decepticons into a trap and kill them in any way they can, including harpoons or hammers to the head.
  • Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan is usually very fitting of this trope. He can be perfectly nice to those he considers innocent, however.

Film — Animation 

  • In Bambi, The Great Prince of the Forest is a harsh and emotionally neglectful parent by being too aloof towards his son. The 2006 sequel gives him Character Development, turning him into a much more loving father.
  • Basil of Baker Street, from The Great Mouse Detective, is condescending and rude. Children coming to his office to say their fathers were kidnapped are told "I have no time for lost fathers!" Of course, this turns out to be because he's focused on trying to apprehend a local crime lord named Professor Ratigan, whom ironically happens to be very Faux Affably Evil, the polar opposite of this trope.
  • Shifu in Kung Fu Panda is unquestionably on the side of good, but is irritable, harsh to his students and insulting towards Po.
  • God in The Prince of Egypt. See the Religion and Mythology section.
  • The eponymous ogre of the Shrek films initially just wants to be left alone in his swamp. Then he agrees to rescue a princess in exchange for clearing out the exiles in his swamp, and things spiral from there.
  • In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, after the Kongs form an alliance with the main heroes, Donkey Kong, who is willing to help defeat Bowser, is still openly rude and condescending towards Mario for most of their time together.

    Donkey Kong: Cool raccoon suit!
    Mario: Really?
    Donkey Kong: Not at all!

  • Quite the literal example from Wreck-It Ralph: while the arcade game characters fulfill "good guy" and "bad guy" roles while the game is being played, offscreen their actual personalities greatly vary. Many "bad guys" are nice, gentle people while various "good guys" or "innocent bystanders" are mean, condescending and/or Innocently Insensitive (Felix...). Or in the case of Turbo, who was the main protagonist of his game, psychotic, attention-obsessed, spiteful, murderous and insane.
  • Chief Bogo in Zootopia is blunt about his (often negative) opinions, has disdain for niceties, is easily annoyed, appears somewhat prejudiced against small animals at first, and is a stubborn stickler for procedure. Yet, he's one of the most consistently honest characters in the movie, willing to accept he was wrong after being shown proof, and the Token Good Teammate among the city's major authority figures.

Films — Live-Action 

  • Bernie LaPlante from Accidental Hero (1992) is an unscrupulous thief who nevertheless can't help but do good deeds like rescuing people from a crashed airliner.
  • Ace Ventura is a send-up of this sort of character, whether intentionally or otherwise. He talks out of his backside, is inherently immature and even sociopathic, but losing someone he was trying to save drives him into seclusion in a monastery. That someone was a raccoon...
  • A major theme of the Dirty Harry series, where the title character is portrayed as frequently doing cruel but justified things. Summed up with a remark he made after punching someone in the face to make it easier to stop him from committing suicide.

    "Now you know why they call me Dirty Harry. Every dirty job that comes along..."

  • The Man with No Name from the Dollars Trilogy is a classic example of this trope.
  • The various church members from End of Days know that the best way to foil Satan's plan of siring the Antichrist on Earth is to kill Christine, the one woman he needs to impregnate, and are more than willing to do it once their hit on the Prince of Darkness himself fails. Even Jericho, who is fighting tooth and nail to save Christine, makes it very clear he's willing to kill her to foil Satan as well when he puts a gun to her head orders Satan and his minions to back off.
  • Although Black is one of the more heroic characters in Exam, he has no problem lashing out at those who go too far, specifically White, whom he has punched, tied down and knocked out.
  • Gamera: Gamera is the Friend to All Children and a walking, turtle-shaped natural disaster to everyone else.
  • Hancock starts off like this. He goes out of his way to help people in need and stop criminals, and he also doesn't commit murder, with one possible exception right near the end of the movie. He's also an alcoholic with a short temper who isn't afraid to use his powers to intimidate people he doesn't like.
  • While Thorin in The Hobbit is unmistakably one of the protagonists, he can often be incredibly stubborn, proud, harsh, and quick to criticize, as well as discriminating against all things elvish. Well, he is the stereotypical Dwarf.
  • Merlin from Kingsman: The Secret Service. He comes across like a Jerkass to his students, but he is doing so to keep them in reality and to test them to see if they truly are Kingsmen material.
  • The Axe and Cross of The Last Witch Hunter has been mankind's bulwark against witches for centuries, but it didn't make them nice. They sentence witches without giving them a chance to speak, they are merciless in their prosecution of magic, they keep dark secrets from Kaulder to keep him working for them and they treat their top hunter as little more than a tool.
  • Lean on Me portrays Joe Clark as on several occasions being willing to do the right thing when the right thing isn't exactly nice. He expels hundreds of "troublemakers" at a time to improve the school for the better students, orders the school's doors "chained and locked" on being told that someone from inside the school let an expelled student into the school building, and fires a teacher for picking up trash during the school song for which everyone was told not to move.

    I cried "my God, why has thou forsaken me?" and the Lord said "Joe, you're no damn good. No, I mean this! More than you realize, you're no earthly good at all unless you take this opportunity and do whatever you have to." And he didn't say "Joe, be polite."

  • Action Hero Snow in Lockout is snide, sarcastic, and deeply cynical throughout the movie. He's also constantly rude to the woman he's trying to save, including cutting her hair against her will and punching her to make her pass for a male prisoner.
  • Non-Stop: Air Marshal Marks is definitely the good guy, but he has no qualms about roughing up suspects, which does little to endear him to anyone. The crew can barely tolerate him and the passengers think he's borderline psychotic.
  • Larry Garfield from Other People's Money is almost the Trope Namer:

    Since when do you have to be nice to be right?

  • Chuck Hansen in Pacific Rim. The Australian may be doing everything in his power to protect and save humanity from the Kaiju, but don't expect him not to insult or sneer at the people around him, especially if he believes they're incompetent or just not worth his time. The only person he's truly nice to is his English bulldog, Max.
  • Painkiller Jane: Watts holds Jane against her will for testing and makes her justifiably afraid she'll never be free, so she escapes. It seems like he may be the villain briefly due to Graham's assertions. However, in the end he turns out to be good nonetheless, just heavy-handed about finding out what's happened with her.
  • The Sound of Music: Sister Berthe, Mistress of Novices, is a stern, no-nonsense nun who is by far the most critical of Maria at the convent. She is adamant in calling a Maria a clown. Maria also relates that Sister Berthe makes her kiss the floor in front of her whenever they have a disagreement, so much so that Maria has taken to kissing the floor whenever she sees Sister Berthe, just to save time. But at the end, when the Von Trapps are hiding from the Nazis? It is Sister Berthe who slowly and intentionally fumbles with the keys to the convent before letting them in. Sister Berthe is one of the two nuns who sabotage the Nazis' cars so as to let teh Von Trapps escape.
  • Terrified: When Walter tries to enlist the services of Allbreck, an Occult Detective, he just gets the runaround from Allbreck's assistant, who is remarkably passive-aggressive and callous to Walter's plight. Allbreck won't even speak to him unless he provides proof of his haunting, but by the time she finally takes notice of him, he's already become a victim.
  • Carrie in Vicious Fun has no time for niceties and doesn't so much as smirk unless she's in the middle of stabbing a serial killer at least a dozen times. But she's still determined to save the innocent guy who wanders into the serial killer support group she's infiltrated, even if that means complicating her mission to rid Ohio of mass murderers.
  • From The Prophecy movie, regarding biblically correct angels:

    "Did you ever notice how in the Bible, whenever God needed to punish someone, or make an example, or whenever God needed a killing, he sent an angel? Did you ever wonder what a creature like that must be like? A whole existence spent praising your God, but always with one wing dipped in blood. Would you ever really want to see an angel?"

    "I'm an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why."

  • John Rambo. He may be on the good guys side, but the mountain of corpses and Ludicrous Gibs he leaves in his wake proves he's not exactly the nicest guy around.
  • A theme of the Star Wars series. More general examples include the strict Jedi code and the lengths the well-intentioned pro-republic characters are willing to go to in order to keep the galaxy together. (For example, an army of clones whose genetics are modified to make them obedient, as a means of crushing the separatists, was created, and Mace and Yoda didn't object at Palpatine's announcement of this.) In addition, in the novelization for Episode III, Kenobi and Yoda make quite clear they have nothing against sacrificing anyone, including each other, if it would end the war a day earlier.
  • In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, this is Sarah's response to Dr. Silberman when she's leveraging his life to escape Pescadero State Hospital and he tries to call her bluff.

    Dr. Silberman: It won't work, Sarah. You're no killer. I don't believe you'd do it.

    Sarah: You're already dead, Silberman. Everybody here dies. You know I believe that so DON'T FUCK WITH ME!!!

    Dr. Silberman: Open the goddamn door!

  • Willow: Fin Raziel is the closest thing to a Big Good in this film, and she does help the heroes significantly. However, she revels in the idea of smacking down her old rival Bavmorda a... little bit more than is quite healthy. Or sane.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: Mystique is brisker and stricter with the young X-Men than Professor X.

Western Animation 

  • Avatar:
    • From Avatar: The Last Airbender, post-Heel–Face Turn Zuko has shades of this. He's only slightly friendlier than he was in the first season. In fact, almost all of the Gaang is like this: when Aang gets pissed, he turns into a cold, ruthless Creepy Child with Glowing Eyes of Doom and the Voice of the Legion; Sokka is not big on sentimentality and always solves problems in a pragmatic way; Katara has shown a nasty, vengeful side when someone wrongs the people she loves; and Toph is a Deadpan Snarker who cons several Fire Nation citizens and sinks a zeppelin full of Fire Nation soldiers in the finale.
    • From the Sequel Series, The Legend of Korra:
      • Lin Beifong, daughter of Toph and chief of the metalbending police. She can come off as overly harsh at times and appears to be a total hardass. However, she is unquestionably a good person who is trying to keep the peace and protect the innocent. This is made only more clear by her Heroic Sacrifice in the first season which cost her her bending all in the name of protecting the last airbenders in the world which are very important to her ex-boyfriend Tenzin. Another case is her would-be another sacrifice in the third season in order to give her former estranged sister Suyin a shot to kill one of its enemies using herself as a bait. She might be an ass, but she takes her role as a protector seriously, into the point that she considers herself as expendable.
      • The true identity of Avatar Spirit, Raava, can also be considered this. She's an extreme version of this during the Beginnings, which also proves to be her undoing in unleashing Vaatu to the world despite pinning the blame to Wan by being dismissive to the human as of why interfering their fight is a bad thing. She mellows out significantly thanks to her unlikely alliance with Wan, the eventual progenitor of the Avatar Cycle by permanently merging with him that enables her remember and understand why the world is worth protecting and fighting for. But she's not to be trifled with if she's crossed and anything who gets in her way in her goals to protect the balance of the world. Whenever Aang went on his rampages in the first series, Raava was probably holding the controls. This includes annihilating the Fire Navy when they managed to kill a spirit of importance of the Water Tribes. It's heavily implied that the reason behind Aang's rampages was because at his time, the world is clearly worse than a Crapsack World, it's basically out of balance with the Fire Nation trying to conquer the world and even managed to commit genocide against the Air Nomads and another transgression against the Water Tribes when they killed the Moon Spirit which would eradicate waterbending as a whole, and given that Wan was once hailed from the ancestors that would form the future Fire Nation, it's like seeing all his work being undone... something that the spirit of light and peace won't appreciate one bit that might as well as she experienced even worse than a culture shock. And not to mention, spending a century being dormant meant also another short time to prepare for the Harmonic Convergence, which she will face her Archenemy Vaatu once again. Small wonder she's damn pissed during the events of the first series, most especially when she and her incarnation via the Avatar State faced Fire Lord Ozai at the finale.
  • Blinky Bill and his friends are sometimes considered to be downright cruel in terms of behaviour. Considering that he was "toned down greatly" in the cartoon compared to his original literary incarnation, he must have been a real Jerkass in the books.
  • Huey Freeman from The Boondocks. Although he has good intentions in building a greater American society, he is quite cynical, pessimistic, cantankerous, and has been labeled — not unjustifiably — as a "domestic terrorist".
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: Chad Dickson, f.k.a. Numbuh 274 was so devoted to the cause of the KND that he willingly turned traitor and smeared his good name in order to serve as a spy. That does not detract from the fact that he became a jerk as his jealousy for Numbuh 1 consumed him. Eventually, he is so driven by his envy that he tries to kill Nigel in his final appearance on the penultimate episode of the show, despite still being loyal to the organization as a whole. As a result, this prevents Nigel from idolizing him again, as well as restoring their friendship.
  • Scrooge McDuck of Disney comics (such as ones by Carl Barks and Don Rosa) and adaptations such as DuckTales (1987) will never resort to illegal or underhanded means to make money (The one time he did, he ended up haunted by a zombie for several years — and Donald got chased as well several decades afterward.), but neither will he donate a single penny to charity. He'll give you a (really low-paying) job at the drop of a hat, though.
    • Donald Duck too. Especially when he's put in a blatantly heroic role, such as the Kingdom Hearts series. He might be selfish and temperamental, but when you get right down to it, he's nothing if not loyal to his friends.
  • There was a cutaway gag in Family Guy where Peter encounters Kenneth, the bad-ass mail clerk with a heart of gold. Peter is then told by another employee that the clerk donated half his paycheck to orphans with diseases.
  • Glitch Techs: While Mitch Williams is the best Glitch Tech in their division, he's also a complete egotist who happily abuses the company's technology to serve his own personal needs and constantly talks down to his coworkers.
  • This sums up the morality of Granamyr from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. He brokers no disrespect from anyone, actual or perceived, and has been known to demand tribute for any help he gives. His enemies also rarely return for a second round once he decides to get involved.
  • On Invader Zim, Dib is the Hero Antagonist who wants to save the human race from an evil alien monster. And he often makes it clear that he will enjoy taking part in that alien's autopsy.
  • Rex Splode from Invincible (2021) may be a superhero but that doesn't stop him cheating on his girlfriend, try to antagonize everyone around him, and every word that comes out of his mouth is either to express anger or complain.
  • The Legend of Zelda (1989):
    • The show portrays Zelda as a hard-edge Action Girl with an occasionally short temper. One episode has Link distinguishing between the real Zelda and the fake one by setting up a kissing contest in which Zelda's evil twin eagerly kisses him whereas Zelda herself slaps him in the face. Link assumes the real Zelda to be the one who slapped him. She's not completely unaffectionate, though, since she agreed to kiss him a few times but they always got interrupted before it could happen. When Link's body is separated from his body, she's able to see him because she's in love with him — the "kissing contest" in hindsight appears to show her reason for hitting Link wasn't because of him asking to kiss her, but because he kissed someone else.
    • Link himself could hardly be called "nice" most of the time. He's lazy, selfish, and basically harasses the princess for a kiss. But he's also unwaveringly heroic and courageous. It also turns out that he's not particularly good with a sword if it doesn't shoot beams, because he could actually hurt someone with it rather than simply sending them to Ganon's Evil Jar.
  • The main trio of Mao Mao Heroes Of Pureheart may be the town's sheriff's department but they're hardly paragons of virtue. Mao Mao can be quite the tight-ass when it comes to rule enforcement, Baderclops can be quite lazy and doesn't take criticism well. (It's later revealed he used to be a thief), and Adorabat is quite violent for a 5-year-old, to the point where even her father is scared by her.
  • In Miraculous Ladybug, Master Su-Han is a member of the Order of the Guardians dedicated to safeguarding the Miraculous and protecting the world from evil. He's also a genuine asshole; he constantly insults Master Fu, who last he remembers was a scared 14-year-old who was forced into inheriting a legacy he didn't want, all of his interactions with Marinette/Ladybug involve him bitching her out for "failures" she couldn't have possibly known about and generally doing nothing to help her improve, and he has no problems using physical force against either of them.
  • Skipper from The Penguins of Madagascar is supposed to be the main protagonist, but he's pretty coarse and violent even on his comrades.

    Alligator: That looks as if it could be violent.
    Skipper: If done correctly.

  • Major Monogram from Phineas and Ferb. He's dedicated to fighting the forces of evil, but he's not a very nice person, especially to Carl, his unpaid intern.
  • Spinelli from Recess is hot-tempered, cynical, and has a violent streak, but is still a good friend to the rest of the main characters.
  • Benson from Regular Show. He's constantly angry and constantly threatening to fire Mordecai and Rigby, but all he's really doing is his job which includes making them do theirs. Plus, as later seasons show, he can actually be a friendly and fun guy when things aren't out of hand.
  • Rick and Morty: Rick admits he falls under this category during his best man speech at Birdperson's wedding. Of course, even calling this guy "good" is a real stretch, but even if only for entirely selfish reasons the guy has saved the world numerous times and does have a habit of saving his family, even Jerry, for no reason other than he might actually care for them.

    "Listen, I'm not the nicest guy in the universe, because I'm the smartest, and being nice is something stupid people do to hedge their bets."

  • In Samurai Jack, the Scotsman is Jack's closest ally and probably the closest thing he has to a friend in the future world. He's really not nice. In fact, he's downright rude.
  • Hefty as the Smurf Of Christmas Future in The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol leaves Grouchy in the Bad Future where all the Smurfs are captured to be chased after by Gargamel and Azrael.
  • South Park has this in spades. Usually Kyle or Stan fits this, particularly when Cartman is the antagonist.
    • The Big Damn Movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, has "Ze Mole." A huge Jerkass to everyone, who spews obscenities about God frequently, and goes on about how childish and naive the other boys are, but he still joins the boys to help Terrence and Phillip in the name of freedom and dies in the process. He does get better thanks to the Reset Button, though he's never had a major appearance since.
    • Reality, which takes the form of a top hat-wearing villain, in "Safe Space". He attacks an incredibly rattled Butters for filtering everybody's negative comments, and verbally attacks everyone for letting their obsessive fear of criticism push Butters into suicide by having him work to maintain their safe spaces. The townspeople, just make third-world children filter comments for them and publicly hang Reality.
    • James Cameron is portrayed as an unbelievably arrogant, egotistical, and gullible "hero" in "Raising The Bar", who is so obnoxious he forces his crew to listen to his theme music while he ignores their insistence that the "bar" is a metaphor. In true South Park fashion the bar is real, he saves the whole world from degenerate media by raising it, and he denies accepting any credit or thanks for what he's done because "James Cameron does not do what James Cameron does for James Cameron."
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • Mr. Krabs can be quite the greedy, selfish jerk, even risking the lives of his fellow employee's just for the sake of making a quick buck, but is still considered a good guy.
    • Squidward is an Anti-Hero who can at times be meaner than necessary. Despite being a jerk, he's still on Team Krabs for life.
  • Star Wars Rebels: After his Heel–Face Turn, Kallus qualifies as this, willing to do morally grey actions, including framing another Imperial officer he'd been on good terms with, in order to maintain his cover.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
    • Raphael in all incarnations. He's cool but rude. (As he himself puts it, "I don't do nice!")
    • Casey Jones is like this in roughly half the incarnations. (For the other half, he's more a Knight Templar.)
  • Sentinel Prime from Transformers: Animated. He's technically a good guy, but is also a Jerkass who hates organics and is willing to work with Lockdown in order to defeat the Decepticons.

The League of Lois Lanes

While the League of Lois Lanes are after the legitimately dangerous Mxyzptlk, they're are willing to use violence against anyone they even remotely perceive as a threat, putting them in conflict with Lois and Jimmy when they open fire on Clark.

Example of:
Hero Antagonist

Alternative Title(s): Mean Is Not Evil, Good Is Edgy, Jerkass Hero