Butt Monkey/Playing With

Basic Trope: A character who is constantly put through hell for laughs.

• Straight: Bevis T. Monkey's day was unlucky: He got hit in the groin and was stung by bees.
• Exaggerated:
  • Bevis T. Monkey's day was unlucky: He got mugged and was stabbed.
  • Generally, Iron Butt Monkey.
  • Poor Bevis T. Monkey was hit on the groin by bees.
• Justified:
  • God likes to make Bevis T. Monkey's life miserable for kicks.
  • Or for Bevis being a Jerkass to everyone, it was karmic retribution.
• Inverted:
  • Bevis T. Monkey's day was very lucky: He got a million dollars and was treated as a king soon afterward.
  • Arguably, Mary Sue and God Mode Sue could be considered the polar opposite(s) of a Butt Monkey.
  • Invincible Hero.
  • Karma Houdini.
• Subverted: A truck was about to hit Bevis T. Monkey when he was crossing the street but stopped at the last minute...
• Double Subverted: It was the bus next to the truck that ran Bevis over.
• Parodied: Pretty much everything Bevis T. Monkey does fails spectacularly. And his life is a seemingly endless chain of Disaster Dominoes and Humiliation Conga. He's got to have sanity (or faith) made of iron if he's not screaming Smite Me Oh Mighty Smiter by now.
• Deconstructed:
  • The constant unluckiness kept bothering Bevis with increasing levels of misfortune to the point of breakage.
  • One day, Bevis gets a shotgun and, without hesitating, starts to chase the people who makes his life hell, killing them mercilessy.
  • All the abuse Bevis goes through causes him to become very bitter and cynical to the point where he's afraid of being happy lest something bad happens as a result. Whenever anything goes his way, he becomes paranoid that its merely a set up for him to be knocked down in an exceptionally cruel way.
• Reconstructed:
  • Even after the breakage, the unluckiness kept happening.
  • Alternatively, in spite of all his bad luck, Bevis is The Stoic or manages to keep a Stiff Upper Lip. Due to this mentality, he never sees his bad luck as anything more than a bother or annoyance (even if logic says he really should). His low key reaction to the bad stuff that happens to him only serves to enhance the comedy.
• Zig Zagged: Bevis almost gets hit by a car, but the car stops. What does hit him is the baseball that rolls off the roof of a nearby building. But it turns it to be autographed, and worth thousands of dollars! Then he trips and falls down a hill. Into a river. But he finds a gold ring in the bottom of the stream! So he goes to the pawn shop... and gets mauled by a bear on the way.
• Averted: Bevis T. Monkey is not particularly unlucky, nor is he especially lucky.
• Enforced: The creators needed comedy relief so they created Bevis
• Lampshaded: “Why do these bad things keep happening to me?”
• Invoked: "I'm bored let's go pick on Bevis T. Monkey because that's always good for a laugh."
• Defied: "Mock me will you? I'll kill you! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"
• Discussed: "Is it just me or does God seem to hate Bevis T. Monkey?"
• Conversed: "Maybe we should cut Monkey some slack." Beat "Naaaaaahhhh..."
• Played For Laughs: The Chew Toy
• Played For Drama: The Woobie

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Back to Butt Monkey, if God doesn't smite me first...