< Butt Monkey
Butt Monkey/Web Comics
- Jake from PK Comic is a prime example of a Butt Monkey
- Syphile from Drowtales. Also crosses into Woobie territory for some readers, since at least at the beginning comparatively little of it was her fault, while some of her later failures (and eventually her death) were more due to her own malevolence or stupidity, especially her actions towards her own adopted sister.
- Almost the entire cast of the webcomic Eight Bit Theater takes turns being the Butt Monkey. Black Mage takes center stage (Brian has even flat-out said "everything that happens, happens to hurt Black Mage"), but Fighter is being stabbed by him almost constantly. Red Mage gets his fair share of pain. White Mage is emotionally tortured by the utter lack of interest the chosen warriors have in their quest and the frequency with which they kill innocents or each other. Garland, the first boss, started as this before becoming just incompetent. The recurring Onion Kid character only even exists to have his new foster families casually slaughtered. Thief has to deal with Berserker attacking him at sight and being torched by Bahamut, and Black Belt got near-slaughtered by several encounters including Black Mage, until he eventually died. In a mild subversion, Black Mage actually deserves Butt Monkey status.
- Also, recently, Sarda has revealed that he too is a Butt Monkey in a roundabout way -- he's the Onion Kid, all growed up and looking to exact vengeance upon the ruffians that repeatedly ruined his life. Not only that, he's his own Butt Monkey, because as Red Mage points out, all the bad things that happened to the Onion Kid, almost without exception, happened because Sarda sent the Light Warriors on their quest in the first place.
- Davan of Something*Positive. Within the last three years, his long-time girlfriend left him to pursue her dream job, his mother died, his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, he's had a paternity scare (which the author admitted he almost made Davan the father just to spite some of his critics), and his acting career is a string of roles as rapists and psychos. All this doesn't even include the casual cruelties heaped upon him by his (so-called) friends.
- Some might argue Mike is a bigger Butt Monkey, but it's clear that most of the stuff that happens to him is both deserved and self-inflicted.
- And don't forget Kharisma, who was burned and disfigured and is currently serving a life sentence in prison for a murder that, ironically, she didn't even commit. Why is that ironic you ask? Because she was actively trying to kill the person whose murder sent her to jail.
- The entire line of Boxbots from Gunnerkrigg Court. After only two appearances, it's become clear that nobody, not even the Cast Page, likes Boxbot.
- And then there's this: an entire strip of nothing but Boxbot being a Butt Monkey.
- In contrast, everyone loves Robox. Must be the legs.
- The character Head-leg (a head on a leg, go figure) from Irritability was literally made by Evil Genius Exoth to be tortured and die in horrifying ways over and over again. Exoth just doesn't like poor Head-leg.
- Hannelore from Questionable Content, with elements of The Woobie.
- To a certain extent, Vaarsuvius from Order of the Stick, who in the recent arc keeps getting screwed over by the plot in painful and imaginative ways.
- To an extent, the entire Order of the Stick. To quote V, "It is troubling that we can now recognize our failures by immediate auditory familiarity."
- Riku in Ansem Retort is the target of countless acts of violence that should have killed him by now. He's been cut in half God knows how many times, burnt, blown up, electrocuted, stabbed, violated, tortured, and even had his heart removed. While he found a girlfriend in season 5, for the most part, even the comparatively friendly characters in the comic go out of their way to hate Riku.
- Sometimes Marluxia fills in, as does Sora, who forgets it quickly.
- Myrith McRain from Mortifer. It starts with Joey capturing him, chaining him to a desk near the breakroom, and forcing him to do hacking work to find black market kingpins. But the crowning moment of this has to be when Alyce, who is revealed to have known him from childhood, finds out he's there... And, well, just look.
- In the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Fan Web Comic by Q-Ice, being one of Nanoha's befriended ones automatically lands you in this role. Just ask Fate, Vita, and Teana.
- Nodwick; one of the many Butt Monkeys to adopt the Deadpan Snarker path to make up for it. Even when he isn't shown "onscreen" to be suffering from fates ranging from being eaten by an ogre to being actively disintegrated by evil adventurers, well... the page quote is a pretty good indicator of the kind of things his employers put him through for a quick laugh. And then there's the henchapult....
- Sore Thumbs: Fairbanks, the Strawman Political Republican, who at this point is even starting to actually resemble a monkey. (It's all about the ears and facial expressions!)
- Jyrras Gianna from Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures never seems to get a break. He's frequently harassed by his family, choked by girls, teased by Abel, written into an embarrassing novel, and finally, cursed by The Fair Folk shortly after having a nervous breakdown when discovering his feelings for his best friend and, as a result of the Fae meddling, has been declared "Bachelor of the Year" by a major woman's magazine, which sounds great until you remember he hates people calling him cute, is painfully shy and, oh, that said best friend is a guy. Good Lord!
- He is also The Woobie for some fans.
- Twokinds: Poor, poor Keith...
- Subverted in Tales of the Questor where the lead character, Quentyn, is the apparent Butt Monkey of the story. He is a runt, bullied and put down by many of his peers, the governing counsel of his town largely doesn't take him seriously, and he is unable to use the Lux power around him like almost everyone else. However, when he finally makes the big sacrifice that gets him hailed as a hero in his hometown, the chief bully, Rahan, drunkenly complains about how Quentyn actually has an unfair advantage. Rahan wails that since Quentyn is seems to be such a Butt Monkey to everyone, they always feel sorry for him and thus he has gotten away with a variety of antics that would have had anyone else run out of town. Quentyn comes close to believing that, but his friend Kestrel reminds him forcefully that he deserved that sympathy and he never abused it.
- Doug from Fletcher Apts, but only when Bill is involved.
- In Misfile Rumisiel started out as a Butt Monkey, however as he has become (marginally) more competent, the job of Butt Monkey has fallen more and more to resident Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Cassiel who has sunk to the point where she has been defeated by a caterer.
- A Game of Fools: Neeg. Poor, poor Neeg.
- And, to a lesser degree, Joey.
- Penny Arcade's Safety Monkey. Don't tell me you don't have one.
- Also count Tycho, one of the core characters. Among other mishaps, gets abused by his "friend" and fellow main character Gabe. Questionable, though. He gives Gabe as good as he gets.
- Nothing ever goes right for Miles. And if something actually does, it will likely end up backfiring horribly for him, and amusingly for the readers.
- Mike in Bittersweet Candy Bowl. There are times even Charlie Brown would feel sorry for him.
- Dr. Schtein in String Theory - although, he is a Jerk Ass most of the time, so it evens out.
- Matt from Murphy's Law.
- Quine from Starslip.
- The Dreamer: Poor Nathan. He gets beat up when trying to apologize to Alan, has to escort Bea back to Boston, his Colonel doesn't think he's competent enough, and he's never even been in a single battle.
- Pembroke from Femmegasm fits this trope perfectly. He's had his hand cut off accidentally, lives in a cardboard box, and been date raped all for laughs. Poor guy.
- Moloch Von Zinzer from Girl Genius. He does start by bringing it on himself, what with helping his brother steal Agatha's locket but given his brother dies, getting taken prisoner by Baron Wulfenbach under the misaprehension he's a Spark, getting sent to Castle Heterodyne when it's discovered he's not, winding up as Agatha's rather unwilling minion, having the Castle near-miss him with death traps for shits and giggles, and having two and possible three girls, all of whom are potentially dangerous and at least two of whom know how to kill while the third is definitely a potential Axe Crazy where her rivals are concerned, all as romantic interests seems like somewhat disproportionate retribution by the universe.
- Conrad. The author herself has stated that her favorite pairing is Conrad/Misery.
- Lenny from Our Little Adventure. He's the one who has to lug the group's treasure swag around, and Angelika and Rocky are often pretty mean to him. Some of their treatment towards Lenny might be due to his passive nature.
- A-san from Overlord Academy.
- Gary in Ménage à 3.
- Although he does have his small victories such as Lita (Zii's cat, who hates everyone) seeming to prefer his company over anyone else, and Yuki is slowly starting to like him, even giving him a kiss on the cheek after he does her a favor (though right after that, she left him as soon as she saw Zii before convincing her to have "her pearl polished" and screaming for a good part of the night, making it impossible for Gary and Dillon to sleep).
- Luke from Freak Angels. He was recently healed after a bullet through the head, and had a penis drawn over the spot of new, whole flesh on his forehead where the bullet entered, chemically castrated by the doctor without his knowledge, and know people are considering wiping his memory. Granted, he is a psychic rapist...
- In El Goonish Shive, Amanda is this as the eternal victim of Dr Germahn's experiments.
- Label Buddy of Comic Shorts was created for the sole purpose of being "the stupid character that gets hurt and/or dies all the time."
- Jock ff My Two Cents Plus Taxhttp://mtcpt.smackjeeves.com/
- Zoe from Sluggy Freelance is this in a mountain of spades. One has to wonder, being that several characters in the series are based on people the author knows, if Zoe is based off some one he hates.
- On Zoe's first appearance, very first panel in fact, she got locked out of her car with the engine running and then (two panels later) promptly ignored by the people she was asking for help in favor a chick with a pair of three-of-the-letter-that-comes-after-Cs. Shortly after she gets her arm twisted by the same guys because of an armada of other multiply-barely-passing-grade-letter endowed women. A few minutes later she meets Bun-Bun... 'nuff said. Then, minutes later as she is sitting, minding her own business, recovering from her previous wounds, she gets hit in the head by a frisbee thrown by one of the previously mentioned improperly-counter-weighted women... then immediately trampled by torg, riff, and the entire Keeping-the-Plastic-Surgeons-in-Business Association... And then immediately trampled again... and then, just to ice the cake with a layer of frozen Zoe blood, she get's meated by Bun-Bun again... as her INTRODUCTION!
- But that's not even the worst of it. Since then she has been cursed, had said curse abused for laughs, chased by a psycho unkillable mind controlled gymnastic super assassin that wants to kill her over a love triangle Zoe has no active part in, had her best friend be possessed by a demon, had her first romantic interest in the comic gorily killed by devil-cats right in front of her, oh yeah... had to run for her life from said devil-cats, teleported back in time and forced to act out a prophecy to kill aforementioned demon, is now hunted by demons world wide, kidnapped to be experimented on, given the mother of all meddling mothers, nearly loses her family to keep her job, ostracized by her friends also because of job, other-dimension widowed, other-dimension killed by a different set of demons, kidnapped by Russian mobsters (who thought she was a camel), and (because the author apparently wasn't satisfied with everything up to that point) burned to death in roughly a billion different dimensions at the same time. I'm sure I missed a few... dozen.
- At which point, when it was revealed that she was actually alive but worse than brain dead... it was somehow still an improvement.
- Rick from Basic Instructions almost borders on Cosmic Plaything, the way the universe and everyone has it in to make sure he's never happy. Even his best friend insults him quite often.
- Greg from Greg, has had it so bad, that he considers stepping on dog poop a considerable improvement over the events that occur in his life.
- Igor in Vinigortonio. If something bad's gonna happen, it's bound to happen to him, and it becomes even worse when he finds out the leader of an evil organization needs to destroy his building in order to conquer the world.
- Estonia from Scandinavia and The World
- Efengi from The Snail Factory is constantly put through various types of torment and nearly fatal disfigurement. He may also be considered a chew toy, depending on how you look at it.
- Cucumber in Cucumber Quest will never have his way.
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