We Want Our Jerk Back/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A Jerkass decides to act nice, but for whatever reason, their jerkassery is needed.

  • Straight: Bob, a Grade-A Jerkass, decides to start acting nicer to people after someone calls him on it. However, when people start to take advantage of him, he decides to start acting like a jerk again.
  • Exaggerated: Bob's almost pure evil, with zero redeeming qualities. He almost becomes The Messiah overnight, then decides to go back because someone was being mean to him.
  • Justified: Bob's nice-guy persona was as insufferable as his jackass persona - but at least when someone's a jackass, you can hate him for what he does...
    • Or, Bob is a Poisonous Friend or Token Evil Teammate, but in the episode where he tries being nice, there's someone that Bob's friends really need Bob to be mean to
    • Bob is clearly pretending to be nice, they would rather have him honest.
  • Inverted: Bob's a Nice Guy who becomes a jerk temporarily, then changes back when he decides it's not for him.
  • Subverted: Alice comments that she missed the nicer Bob.
  • Double Subverted: Carol reminds Alice of how annoying Bob was when he turned nice.
  • Parodied: Bob becomes incredibly nice, doing such things as lavishing people with incredible gifts "just because". Still, people can't wait until he becomes a jerk again.
  • Deconstructed: Bob is distraught that his genuine attempt to change didn't take, and it causes him mental anguish.
    • Bob realizes that his friends trying to get him to change back are no good for him; after all, what kind of friends would want you to go back to being The Alcoholic Jerkass if it ruined any relationship outside of this circle of friends? Bob calls them out and then abandons them. Bob moves on to a better life while still they're wasting their lives and repulsing bystanders with their immaturity.
  • Reconstructed: Bob remembers how much fun he had being a jerk, and starts to enjoy it again.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice misses the nicer Bob until she remembers how annoying he was. But a Flash Back tells us she remembered wrong.
  • Averted: Bob doesn't become nice again.
    • Or Bob turns nice, and everyone is happy with the "new" Bob.
  • Enforced: "Ah, geez, our writers are tired of writing lines for Bob now that he's nice! Can't we make him a jerk again?"
  • Lampshaded: "I miss you when you insulted my appearance and gave me a look of contempt. Why can't we have that Bob back?"
  • Invoked: Alice decides to set in motion a chain of events that reminds Bob how much fun he had being rude to people.
  • Defied: Bob decides that he's just staying nice - whether people like it or not.
  • Discussed: "Don't worry, they'll be beggin' for you to change back to your Jerkass ways any minute now!"
  • Conversed: ???

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