#1 Smugness (Worst Character Cliches)by EmeraldOfTheOcean
Watch
DeviantArt Related /
Devious Fun /
Memes©2017-2018
EmeraldOfTheOcean
I Hate trope so much, that EVERY character above has gotten a negative comparisons and as a bonus, I added the other smug negative characters I’ve done.
Also a warning, this is very ranty because this IS my most hate character cliché in ALL of fiction
Brainy Smurf (The Smurfs)
Know it Alls
Lois (Family Guy)
Regrettable Actions
Trip (Pokemon)
Bitter Rivals
Ronaldo (Steven Universe)
Conspiracy Nuts
Courtney (Total Drama)
Control Freaks
Zapp Brannigan (Futurama)
Egotisical Heroes
Johnny Test
Narcissistic Jokesters
Brian Griffin (Family Guy)
Voices of Morality
Renet (TMNT 2003)
Dora the Explorer
Helpful Innocence
Timmy (Fairly Odd Parents)
Children
Blossom (PPG 2016)
Grade Crazy Students
Velma (Scooby Doo MI)
Persistent in Difficult Romances
Pony Head (SVTFOE)
Grating Comic Reliefs
Nom Nom (We Bare Bears)
Dirty Celebrities
Diamond Tiara
Jake
Venus
Amy
Ash (Unova)
Skyla
Peter
Alvin
Mr. Krabs (Post first movie era)
Piper Hart
Chloe
Trina
For me personally, there was no other choice for number 1 than Smugness, to the point where I didn’t really hide it, I’ve talked about why I hate this cliché before, but now it’s time to go into full detail on why it makes my blood boil and my skin crawl.
This is when a character is overly prideful, egotistical and arrogant, to the point where they’re insanely annoying and unlikable. Now there’s a difference between having a massive ego and being smug; Egotistical characters focus on being funny ands please to the audience, ya know. Being entertaining. Smug characters only care about satisfying themselves, they seem willing to torture the audience as well as the other character. Take Ronaldo Fryman, a character that 95% of the fan base despises, especially after Rocknaldo. Some people theorize that he only exist to troll the audience, and they’re probably right. Ronaldo doesn’t work the way Cartman does because he exist to make the audience miserable, and he’s not exaggerated enough. This is a guy who gaslighted a young boy for his own ego and abducted him because he’s obsessed with the supernatural. Again, he’s too similar to actual extremists in the real world, his attitude is too uncomfortable and his performance is too slow. He’s a horrible human being. Pony Head is the worst Disney character since Buck Cluck or Hannah Montana because she’s unbelievably smug; she’s speaks in the most obnoxious slang I’ve ever heard, she’s a selfish, whiny, useless, attention whore. There’s no reason for her to be the way she is and all she does is damage every scene she’s in. There are real people like Pony Head who only want to entertain themselves. Dora the Explorer is so smug and condescending about “teaching” the audience, that she might as well be wearing a CEO suit with a hat saying “I
charts” on it. Because Dora, the character, is a similar person to the people behind the Emoji movie, who don’t have faith in the audience’s intelligence
There are people like Brian Griffin in the real world, and you don’t want to be ANYTHING like Brian Griffin. He’s my second least favorite character of all time because he lacks morality and something in the story to contrast with him. Mouthpieces like Brian fail because the writer whose speaking through them and it displays a straightforward voice of arrogance that were supposed to take seriously. That’s why Jailbreak failed, she was so smug about her political messages, that they didn’t bother to work it into the context of the movie.
Jailbreak brings me to another major problem with smugness; it brings down characters who would be fine otherwise, and it adds nothing but poison to their personalities. Take Courtney from Total Drama; she was cheated on her new friend, and they STILL managed to make her too childish, bratty, annoying and pretentious to sympathize with. Henry Danger expects you to sympathize with Piper when she gets treated the way she treats everyone else. That’s one of the biggest problems right there, when the writer asks you to feel sorry for them even though they haven’t earned sympathy, they just expect because of their smug attitude. You’re supposed to feel sorry for Lois when she treats people as poorly as Brian does. The Griffins are smug in their jokes and their beliefs and that’s why their some of the most hated characters in fiction. They could be funny, but they have either no self awareness or too much self awareness, thus, it feels like they’re being destructive and discriminatory on purpose. Zapp Brannigan, in my opinion, is not much better. He’s not as manipulative and extreme as Bender or as creative as Farnsworth. Because those two work so much well, Zapp’s smugness doesn’t work because Bender and Farnsworth are both funnier and more likable. What’s the point? What was the point of Velma being so smug if we’re supposed to root for her to get with Shaggy? What’s the point of the Bears constantly nice to Nom Nom if his crappy, selfish attitude is going to keep him from developing? Because he’s smug and that’s what the plot tells him to be. Why should I pity Diamond Tiara? Because the plot tells me too, and she’s so smug, she thinks forgiveness can be handed to her and it was. She fails because she’s smug. Smug characters always TELL their desire for forgiveness and almost never show it.
This is number one on the list, not because it’s the most common or has the most unfortunate implications. It’s number one because it is legitimately impossible to make smug characters work! You can make bad parents work (Most of South Park), you can make bullies work (Pacifica), but the only way to make smug characters work is if they are outright bad guys. I have NEVER seen a good smug main character or a supporting cartoon. Even as antagonists, they rarely work. Trip from Pokémon sucks ass as a character and a trainer. He’s a rip-off of Paul, but where Paul was actual threat, challenge, and had a reason to dislike Ash, Trip is a smug asshole who’s rude to Ash because he’s from Kanto. No other reason for his attitude, he’s not compelling or challenging, he’s just toxic. Even in one shot characters, this fails. I don’t know about her appearance in the comics, but TMNT 2003’s Renet was such a smug, ignorant little shit, that she managed to become my least favorite character in a 30+ year old franchise. Renet caused thirty years of suffering, death, slavery and trauma because she didn’t want to own up her very small responsibilities. One of the reason 2012 Renet worked is because she had a sense of humility and sense of empathy towards other people!
You’ll notice that I’ve used the term “least favorite” a lot. That’s how little tolerance I have for them because it’s a certain level of air headed arrogance. Who really likes characters like Johnny Test who feel entitled to take advantage of other people with a grating sneer, and no desire to improve themselves? It tends to go into shows that have gone on too long like with Family Guy and Fairly Odd Parents. It’s why aging your characters is important; otherwise you get characters like Timmy Turner and Peter Griffin, and the shows are like “Yeah, we’re still going, and you can’t stop us! SCREW YOU!” Which is why most people were happy Fairly Odd Parents ended.
I hate when people or characters think they’re SOOOOOOO smart and likable and that people respect them when they’re uneducated and just want to boost their egos. People like that exist and they can cause actual harm. That’s Gawayne from Mysticons and Amy from Total Drama “It’s okay that they’re slang using sociopaths, they’re just smug! You’re not supposed to like them!” No, we’re supposed to love to hate a character like Rick or Bender or Bojack or Daria because they display ACTUAL darker but redeemable parts of ourselves that we need to face. Seeing them suffer consequences (humorously or dramatically) is what makes them human. Smug people exist but we lose any empathy for them all they do is act like they’re better than you............
And that brings to my mortal enemy
Clumsy Luck- Animated Atrocities
Favorite Least Favorite Male Female Character meme
Know it Alls-Character Comparison
THE TOP 11 WORST CHARACTERS I VE COMPARED
Brainy Smurf Rant
Brainy...... Smurf.........
I left those links up there because I’ve gone on and on and on about him, but let me say again, Brainy is everything I hate my most hated cliché in all of fiction. He’s..... I’m just sick of talking about how awful, ageist, dangerous, selfish, bitter cruel, ignorance and SMUG he is! One thing I will say; one character that reminds me a lot of Brainy is Gibson from Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, except that character is to Brainy what Milo Murphy’s Law is to Stressed Eric. Gibson is complex, intelligent, funny, developed, well voice acted, a good kind of killjoy and despite his huge ego, actually values others’ lives instead of his ego!
To clarify why this is doesn’t work; it’s the cause for almost all the clichés I’ve already talked about; the worst bully characters are smug about how little development and maturity they have, the worst kinds of bad parents are smug, the BIG BAD governments are smug because “They know better” Jailbreak, Arkayna and other Forced Females are smug about being female, to the point where the message is lost and they become assholes. There’s nothing else to talk about, just...... NEVER write a smug character or you’ll fall into so many other clichés on the spot. THE END!
Thank you all for joining me for this list of My Top 10 Worst Character Clichés. It was cathartic ripping into these tropes and airing out frustration by converting it into work. For your convenience, these individual submissions will be staying up, but tomorrow, I’ll convert them into 1 HUGE journal entry. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, here’s to a better 2018, and here’s to better character traits. Good night and goodbye.
