Jerk with a Heart of Gold/Western Animation

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • This is the main concept behind the Care Bear character of Grumpy Bear. The original idea was to show children that it's okay to be in a bad mood sometimes, despite what other cartoons would have you believe.
  • Squidward Tentacles from SpongeBob SquarePants fits this mold at times.
    • Almost every Spongebob character does qualify at some point, including Spongebob himself.
  • Moe from The Simpsons, especially in the earlier seasons. In particular one instance when he was Homer's boxing coach, and he gave up a big money deal to save Homer from the heavyweight champion.
    • The ending credits are then set over him traveling the world via powered paraglider-he saves an explorer from quicksand, and an Indian woman and her child from floods.
      • He also delivered aid to African villagers, and fought a forest fire with a fire extinguisher.
      • As revealed in "Homer Loves Flanders" he reads to sick children in hospitals, but he doesn't want people to know about it.
    • Having said that, Homer himself may qualify. While he has become the Trope Namer of Jerkass, he really does love and care for his family, as he gets really upset when they're mad at him. He also goes to unbelievably insane lenghs to help his friends out.
      • Remember that a lot of his Jerkass tendencies are the result of Flanderization and the writers' need to compete with Peter Griffin.
    • Also Bart Simpson, who is well-known for the mayhem he causes in Springfield, although this is mostly done to drive authority figures crazy, rather than cause any real harm. He gets a number of Pet the Dog moments in helping people he'd normally antagonize, like when he noticed how his teacher Mrs. Krabappel was lonely and depressed. He cheered her up by nominating her for a prestigious teaching award, stating that she deserved to win because she'd managed to survive teaching him. The judges are shocked to realize that Bart is real (being so infamous that many teachers think he's just an Urban Legend), and declaring that if Mrs. Krabappel's managed to "dance with the devil in the blue shorts and live", she's a shoo-in for the award. Mrs. Krabappel is very happy.
    • Yet another example is Nelson Muntz the bully, who's beaten Bart up for arguably noble reasons, including "wasting Teacher's valuable time", "besmirching an innocent girl's name" and "taking credit for other people's work". Even if Bart was Misblamed on all three occasions, it's the thought that counts.
      • On a slightly less skewed sense, he has been shown to have an on-off friendship with most of his "victims" and even helps out Bart on a few occasions. There are some occasional implications that he merely plays a bully as a Jerkass Facade.
  • Patty Smith, the Huge Schoolgirl Gonk of Hey Arnold!
    • Helga too. She's generally rather rude and obnoxious, but we regularly see her go above and beyond for the general good (in secret - after all, she's got a reputation to uphold). Granted, this is usually just to help Arnold, but there are episodes where she does the same for her sister, Phoebe, and even Lila too. In general she's a lot nicer a person than she'll let herself let on (her reluctance to do so often makes her her own worse enemy, however).
    • Harold under similar conditions evolved from a childish bully to a troubled Kiddie Kid with a transparent Jerkass Facade. This reached a point he actually gained a crush on fellow Jerk with a Heart of Gold Patty, and if you have a problem with that, he'll pound you so hard it won't even be FUNNYYYYYY!!!!
  • Z, from All Grown Up!, as shown in "Bad Kimi" and "It's Cupid, Stupid".
  • Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender (especially in the first two seasons, before his Heel Face Turn). Toph Bei Fong sometimes acts like one, too.
  • Coach McGuirk, Home Movies
  • Parodied on Family Guy with the one-shot character of "Kenneth, the badass mail clerk with the heart of gold", who gives half his paycheck to "orphans with diseases", cue the touching music as Peter gives a heartfelt, approving nod.
    • Peter Griffin used to be this until he turned into a complete Jerkass.
    • Now Quagmire seems to be stepping in to fill that void.
      • Perhaps the best example of Quagmire's taking over this role is his relationship with Meg Griffin. He seems to be one of the very few people on the show who actually sincerely cares for her, occasionally helping her out with her problems. She's also the only woman he's demonstrated an extremely uncharacteristic willingness to have a Jail Bait Wait for. In addition to that, he volunteers at a soup kitchen and became a surprisingly good father to his Door Step Baby.
  • Rattrap of Transformers: Beast Wars. Little more jerk and a little less heart of gold than usual, maybe a borderline case, but he's made good enough to be noteworthy.
    • Totally. Despite being a whingeing snarker who constantly questions authority and practically refuses to follow orders on the basis of excessive personal danger (his Catch Phrase is a long-suffering "We're all gonna die...", usually provoking anyone else in the vicinity to reply "Shut up, Rattrap!")... and yet frequently risks his life to save his friends and is visibly upset by cases of their real or apparent demise... AND is even an ultra-competent soldier, spy and saboteur to boot, revealing his "coward" image to be really that of a crusty refusal to play to heroic stereotypes.
    • Dinobot in this series is one of these as well. Sure, he may be a backstabbing brutish Proud Warrior Race Guy, who regularly expresses his disapproval of Optimus not finishing off his opponents, but everyone knows where he stands (up wind of Rattrap, by preference) and his death defending Proto-man is generally considered the Crowning Moment of Awesome for the entire Transformers Franchise.
      • Due to the nature of the characters, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a heart of literal gold. You know, if they didn't have those swirling blue glowy things.
      • Sparks are souls, not hearts. So technically, they could still have a literal one.
  • Gordon The Big Engine in the early seasons of Thomas the Tank Engine. A pompous buffoon, full of his own importance and constanly reminds everyone what a "Large and splendid engine" he is and has a pretty nasty temper. He also cheerfully comes to the rescue when Thomas or Percy is in trouble and is prone to making up with the others after being humiliated. It was also his suggestion to let Henry out of the tunnel in Edward, Gordon, & Henry, despite the fact that Henry had laughed at him for bursting his safety valve. He also had a few good moments like in season 8. He didn't get any lines in Thomas & The Fireworks display but he was notely concerned when James was missing in action. The episode Squeak, Rattle and Roll gave probably his most over the top Pet the Dog moment. He developed a squeak and thought that if the Fat Controller found out, he'd be scrapped, so he had to go slow to avoid making too much noise. However if he went slow, the children would miss their boat. He was willing to sacrifice his life just so some kids wouldn't be late home, for goodness sake!
    • Thomas himself was this in the original books and early episodes of the series. He was something an egotistical Bratty Half-Pint, who often heckled the other engines and moaned of his own importance. Neverless he was insistant on being "really useful" and came through to help others when they got in trouble. In later seasons he became more friendly and laid back.
  • Sissi of Code Lyoko. She and Ulrich apparently got along somewhat better before she betrayed the secret of Lyoko... an event she has absolutely no memory of. To his credit, he's the one who initiates her into his group of friends in the series finale.
    • Jim also qualifies, at first seeming to be just a Drill Sergeant Nasty gym teacher, he ultimately shows that he cares alot more for the school's students than he lets on, and even nearly pulls a Heroic Sacrifice for their sake.
  • Charlie from All Dogs Go to Heaven—despite his criminal nature and love of being a con artist, he is shown giving pizza to a family of hungry pups.
  • Ioz from Pirates of Dark Water. "Did I hear a compliment, Ioz?" "Eh, must have been the wind."
  • Cornelia Hale from WITCH counts, although in the eyes of some fans of the comic she came off as too much of a pure Jerkass due to an alleged attempt to make her more similar to the stereotypical spoiled rich girl.
    • Even in the comics, she had some pretty strong Badass Anti-Hero tendencies-- robbing an armored car for the sake of the man you love is pretty hardcore--although it took place in an Alternate Timeline.
      • And while on the subject of the comics, Orube could also be seen as a Jerkass, Jerk with a Heart of Gold, or Badass Anti-Hero. An extreme good character, she is very loyal to the other guardians, to the point of beating the shit out of anybody who might get in the way of her helping them, including the police.
  • Brock Samson from the The Venture Brothers is a Sociopathic Hero with a heart of gold. After OSI wiped Billy's memories, Brock took him to Pete White, so White could help take care of Billy. He also deeply cares for the Venture Brothers.
    • Brock's heart of gold wasn't hidden quite as well as Rusty's. It took four seasons for it to finally show itself.
  • Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks is shown comforting Jasmine at the of the episode "A Huey Freeman Christmas", after she had been told multiple times that Santa Claus didn't exist.
  • Eddy from Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy was this before being reduced to a selfish jerk who cared more for money than for his friends. That said, he still had some Pet the Dog moments, and his Jerk with a Heart of Gold status is restored in The Movie.
    • Sarah is usually an irritable, annoying and violent jerk towards the Eds (and downright abusive towards her brother Ed), yet she's very kind and caring to Jimmy, gets along well with Nazz, has a bit of a crush on Double D, and rare moments show she does care about her brother, even giving him a hug at the end of The Movie.
    • Kevin is usually an asshat towards the Eds, but he's nicer to the other kids and even protects them from the Eds' antics. He's also pretty generous when it comes to his jawbreakers, it's shown to get along with Edd and he finally accepts the Eds as his friends at the end of The Movie.
    • Even the Kanker Sisters can fit this trope in rare occassions. May is the most sympathetic of the trio, as seen in the Valentine's Special. They become a straight example in The Movie, doing everything they can to help the Eds for once.
  • Iago from the Aladdin series retains his Jerkass personality from the first movie, but he always comes through for the heroes when needed.

Iago: I'm just hiding my true compassion behind a facade of selfishness. Really.

  • Mushu in Mulan as his original intentions was to obtain a high position among the guardians. Over the course of the film, he becomes protective and supportive of Mulan. In Mulan 2, he even tries to destroy Mulan's relationship with Shang only to be the one to rescue Mulan from an unwanted marriage and prevent an upscale war.
  • Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh.
  • Archimedes, Merlin's owl in The Sword in the Stone could qualify for this. For most of the movie he's eternally grouchy and berates both Merlin and Arthur alike; after he ends up saving Arthur (transformed into a fish) from a pike in the castle moat, however, he has moments showing that he's slowly warming up to the boy.
  • Timon is shown more as a Jerkass in The Lion King and the Timon and Pumbaa series. However in The Lion King 1 1/2 it is implied that Timon had a caring parent-child relationship with Simba when he was a cub being both a protector and a source of comfort.
    • He even shows this in the first movie:

Timon: Well, Simba, if it's important to you, we're with you to the end.

  • Sparky from Beethoven the Animated Series often acts sarcastic and tough but deeply cares for his friends and goes as far as to set a bunch of strays free from the pound.
  • Sharky the shark dog from Eek! The Cat has shown his soft side before. He even hugged Eek in one episode.
  • Fanon tends to paint Mr. Grumpy of The Mr. Men Show in this light. He exchanges his eternal frown for a look of surprise/concern when witnessing one of the Chew Toys get beaten, and he's generally polite and civil to people even if he IS rather brusque and defensive of his opinions.
    • You could say the same thing about all the negative personality characters (like Mr Rude and Miss Scary).
  • Raphael and Casey Jones of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (at least in the 2003 series).
    • Pretty much also true in the 2012 series.
  • Slappy Squirrel from Animaniacs could count as this.
    • In Pinky and The Brain, there's The Brain himself. He's acerbic, demeaning and cruel to Pinky at the best of times, but as Pinky describes him in the Christmas Special, "He is honest and very hardworking, and only wants what's best for the world", and in some occasions shows that he cares about Pinky enough to sacrifice his attempts at world domination for his sake.
    • The Warners, who combine genuine affection for those they care about with a ruthless dedication to making the lives of assholes around the world a living hell.
  • In Taz-Mania, the normally selfish Digeri Dingo has a "noble dog" side to him and Jerkass Bushwacker Bob once saved Taz's life from a haunted hotel.
  • Fred Flintstone; he's rude, quick to anger, and tends to do stupid things that get him in trouble, but he genuinely loves his wife, daughter, and friends. Oftentimes, the stupid things he does are for their benefit.
  • Lucky Piquel and Skunky Skunk from Bonkers.
  • Garfield has several examples of this, but the whole "Here Comes Garfield" story pretty much sums it up.
    • "Garfield in the Rough" even more so. Garfield actually ambushes and attacks A BLACK PANTHER in order to save Jon and Odie.
    • The Garfield Show especially amps this trope up. He's still a gluttonous snarker, but he bullies Jon and Odie a lot less and actually goes out of his way to help others with sometimes little or no self-benefit.
  • Cotton Hill of King of the Hill is a jerk and a sexist most of the time but he does show that he has a good side such as when he took the blame for Bobby burning down the church by accident, got a job to support his second wife and infant son, and even though he doesn't like her he helped Peggy to walk again after she broke her spine. Also while he rarely has a single nice thing to say to his oldest son, Hank, he doesn't wish the worst for him, "not yet" anyway.
    • Dale Gribble. Shallow, selfish, tactless, cowardly, unethical and quick to blame everybody and anybody else for whatever problem he caused. However, to say he "loves" his wife and son is a huge understatement. He dotes on his son Joseph, even though he isn't even Dale's biological son, putting him before everything else in the universe and defending him with his life despite his cowardly nature. He worships the ground his wife walks on and treats her like royalty, which she does not even deserve, having cheated on him for fourteen years. Also, on numerous occasions, he risks his life and/or sacrifices himself for Hank. For example, secretly switching Hank's low-running oxygen tank for his own full one before going to put out a fire.
    • Also, Khan Souphanousinphone. He may be a nasty, sharp-tongued elitist whose main purpose in life is to mock and look down on his neighbors as a bunch of hillbillies, but he has a very, very fierce integrity to his values, a deep sense of duty, and doesn't take injustice from anybody. Ever.
  • Eric Duckman of Duckman comes off as an ass and a sexist most of the time, but he is shown to have a good side, as he will do anything to protect his children if something is bothering them, or if they're in danger, even if he doesn't always pay attention to them. And, as revealed in a flashback, he didn't always used to be a jerk.
  • In Justice League, Cute Bruiser Hawk Girl sometimes comes across this way.
  • Bender, from Futurama. He's an immoral, foul-mouthed, obnoxious, bad-mannered, rude, selfish, self-important, self-serving, self-obsessed, self-everything else, greedy, criminal, insensitive, incredibly arrogant, uncaring, politically incorrect, mean, cruel, nasty, sharp-tongued, vindictive, malicious, sadistic, hilarious son of a bitch. He would also kill, or die, for his friends (and Zoidberg); never, ever abandons them in the face of serious danger; (he once threw himself on a grenade to save his platoon) and has a barely contained, quietly desperate protectiveness of Fry that is almost uncomfortable to watch — like someone whose pet dog is the most important thing in the world to them.
    • In the episode where Bender meets God (or a satellite that collided with God), and the civilization develops on his body, he seemed to feel genuine sadness when they had a nuclear holocaust and wiped themselves out.
    • In the sixth-season episode The Mutants Are Revolting, Fry apparently willingly mutates himself to a ludicrous extent, becoming unbelievably repulsive, after an argument with Leela about how he doesn't understand mutants. Leela cannot bear to touch him, and everybody else either just screams or calls him a freak to his face. The first time Bender sees him, on the other hand, he shrugs, says "Aw, what the heck," and hugs Fry almost immediately in a definitive CMOH.
  • Timmy Turner in The Fairly OddParents may have become a jerkass in recent seasons, but he's still a nice guy. In fact, it's clear in the "Wishology" trilogy that he's the Chosen One not because he's strong, but because he's kind.
  • Wally/Numbuh Four on Codename: Kids Next Door. He likes fighting, is insensitive, has an extremely short temper, and has a history of bullying. Yet it's clear he's undyingly loyal to his team, is very protective towards his baby brother, and loves Kuki/Numbuh Three with all his heart despite her being his total opposite. To boot, he's agreed to sing a mushy song he despised, faced his fear of water, and ran into the heat of battle all for his friends. It's even stated he took Numbuh One joining the Galactic KND in the finale the hardest.
    • Nigel/Numbuh One also fits, though he's lesser on the "Jerk" part. As Numbuh 362 states at one point, he's reckless, stubborn, hot-tempered and can come across as aloof and insensitive due to his No Social Skills and extreme devotion to his job. He's a very kind and heroic person regardless, genuinely wants to help others and see justice be done, and always, always, puts his friends above himself.
    • Fanny/Numbuh 86 turned from a Straw Feminist into this. Despite her Jerkass Alpha Bitch behavior, she's very committed to the job and does genuinely care for others. She also softens up once someone is nice to her, like Numbuh Three.
    • Kuki's father Kani is an incredibly short-tempered Drama King who flips out at the drop of a hat, yet he dearly loves his family.
    • Even villains can be this trope, though due to their alignments their hearts are well-hidden. The most obvious one is Stickybeard, a Noble Demon who genuinely sees his rival Numbuh Five as his Friendly Enemy.
  • Duncan from Total Drama Island.
  • Buttercup from The Powerpuff Girls. She may act like a bully most of the time (teasing Bubbles, fighting with Blossom and what not) but at the end of the day she really does care about her sisters. It's generally not a good idea to mess with them while she's around.
  • Kirby from The Brave Little Toaster. He acts like the only person he cares about is the Master, but when his friends fall down a waterfall, he jumps right in after them.
  • Top Cat, who is very close to his friends despite his sarcastic attitude.
  • Link of The Legend of Zelda.
  • Larry, Loopy's brother on KaBlam!'s "Life with Loopy" shorts seems to always constantly tease his little sister, but it's shown that he has a big heart and really cares for her (messing with Loopy's his Berserk Button).
    • June, from the Henry and June bits. She frequently picks on and sometimes even injures Henry, her best friend and co-host, and (starting in Season 2) is very prone to deadpan, snarky remarks. However, she cares about him a lot (to the point of having a crush on him), can't stand to be away from him for a long amount of time, and almost always makes him feel better when he's feeling down.
  • Gunther from Jane and the Dragon. Gunther is obnoxious to Jane (and occasionally the other denizens of the castle) and often uses underhanded tactics to get his way. However, he has also gone out of his way to right his meddling father's wrongs and usually ends up doing the right thing by the end of the episode.
  • Although Roger from Doug usually seems more like a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, according to the show's writers, he is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold (he does have rare genuine moments however, and is arguably humanized more in the Disney revival).
  • Baloo of Disney's adaption of The Jungle Book is a slothenly and obnoxious "bum", but cares for Mowgli more than anything. Played straight even more in Anthropomorphic Shift series Tale Spin where Baloo is an egotistical Ace Pilot that has an occasionally unhealthy obsession with his plane, the Sea Duck. It's made clear from the pilot episode however that he'd sacrifice it in an instant to save his friends and surrogate family (especially Kit).
    • Rebecca of the latter series also fits this trope for the most part, a pompous Control Freak that has nothing against using her ownership of the Sea Duck to exploit labour from Baloo for her cargo company. She is also a class-A Mama Bear (literally) to her daughter Molly and is shown to make equal sacrifices as Baloo to protect her employee and best friend.
  • Lucy Van Pelt is somewhat of a Jerkass in almost all of the Peanuts specials and comics, but occasionally, she has shown to care for others. For example, in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown when Linus does not return home from the pumpkin patch by 4:00 A.M., Lucy gets out of bed, walks out to the pumpkin patch, leads her Linus home and puts him to bed. Furthermore, it was her who named Charlie Brown the pageant director in A Charlie Brown Christmas with no apparent ulterior motive. And the fact that it's her who utters the titular line at the end of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is just one big Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
  • Pretty much any recurring jerk on Phineas and Ferb turns out to be this, but Buford may be the clearest example. He was a genuine bully in his first appearance, but "Raging Bully" gave him his own odd honor code, "Voyage to the Bottom of Buford" showed him to be incredibly lonely, and after that he basically became a cross between Punch Clock Villain and Token Occasionally Nasty Teammate. Becomes downright heartwarming in the Christmas Episode (he's Christmas wish is simply that his friends think of him as a nice person) and "Summer Belongs to You" (he purposely loses his own bet to help the group get home in time).
  • Stella and Riven from Winx Club.
  • South Park, despite being a Crapsack World, has some of these.
    • The main quartet has Stan and Kyle, serving as the middle ground between the perverted yet sweet Kenny and the thoroughly irredeemable Cartman. They're cynical and rude to the point of verging on Kids Are Cruel at times (especially Kyle), but they're deep down decent kids who serve as the voice of reason to a crazy town full of useless adults.
    • In recent years, the quartet's classmate Craig has drifted into this territory. He's cold, uncaring and generally unpleasant to be around; but he shows a sweet, deeply loving side to his beloved boyfriend Tweek and his guinea pig Stripe.
    • Randy Marsh, similar to Homer Simpson above, is an irresponsible drunk who gets caught in more trouble than he can afford, but he genuinely cares for his family.
    • PC Principal was introduced as a completely unlikable Hate Sink, but has recently softened into this. As extreme as he is, he genuinely has good intentions in mind and is repulsed by things like using social issues to score with women. Him entering a relationship with Strong Woman only has reinforced his positive qualities.
  • X-Men: Evolution has Lance. He moves in with the Brotherhood and in his first appearance thinks nothing of manipulating Kitty Pride into stealing test answers for him. However, He became a saint in Season two. In season 3 he returned to being a thug, or a 'hood' as Kitty put it. But in the season four episode "No Good Deed", he saved an old woman from a train crash and later cleaned up Pietro's mess, showing that, after being all over the place, he has gained some sense of right or wrong.
    • Gambit was amoral, narcistic, and quite sarcastic; even kidnapping Rogue and threatening to blow up a train when she tried to escape. However, he later took her to Marti Gras to cheer her up, talked to her about her adopted Mother and compared it to his relationship with his father (And makes it clear how much he hates said father). It was revealed he only did this to manipulate her, but only to save said adoptive father and got rather defensive when his father showed an interest in Rogue's power.
    • Magneto formed and then abandoned the Brotherhood, had a rather blunt vision of 'Survival of the Fittest', locked his daughter up in a mental institute and abandoned his son (As well as Mind Rape to his daughter to make her forget about it all), and revealed mutants to the world. But he spared Logan, Kurt, and Rogue when he was about to kill them as a thank you for Kurt allowing him to restore his youth and to Logan for saving him from the Holocaust during WWII, and then devoted his efforts to, instead of wiping out mankind, stopping Apocalypse and showed at least some care for his Acolytes and children.
    • Toad was a thief, a jerk, a narcisist, and an all around ass who once ruined Kurt's first impression to his Girlfriend's parents by stealing his Imgae inducer, and had a few moments of almost stalker-ish attraction to Wanda, not to mention his Kick the Dog moments of attacking Nightcrawler and trying to leave him trapped in another dimension, but he did honestly care for Wanda, and only stole Kurt's image inducer so she would actually give him a chance and was deeply upset by her constant rejection, not to mention his Butt Monkey status.
  • Wheeler from Captain Planet.
  • Red X from Teen Titans has moments where it's clear that as much as he's a thief who unabashedly enjoys committing crime, he's not a villain in the superhero-world sense of the word. He's mocking, sarcastic, selfish, and a jerkass... yet he chose to save Robin's life and help him protect Jump City from being disintegrated rather than make a clean getaway, and deliberately made enemies out of a bunch of villains of the week for Robin's sake. So maybe not a heart of gold, but at least tarnished silver.
    • Robin himself qualifies at first, but matures into a more level-headed person over the course of the series.
    • Raven could be a hyperabrasive snarker who hands out the verbal abuse, but nobody would question her desire to do the right thing.
  • Rocko's Modern Life: In the Season 2 episode: "Crusin", it was revealed that Grandpa Wolfe's full name was Hiram Willy Wolfe. When the ship was stuck in the Bermuda Triangle and when Rocko drowned in the ocean, Grandpa Wolfe finally found his conscience he at last rescued Rocko, after getting off the ship, they both decided whether to become friends or simply just go about their separate ways.
  • Heloise from Jimmy Two-Shoes. It has been hinted that, somewhere underneath all that evil, there's a sweet girl... really deep down.
  • Cyril Sneer from The Raccoons is generally a business tycoon who will do anything to get what he wants, but there are times where he is shown to have a soft side like when he convinced Lisa to quit smoking and Bentley to not run away from home and he does care for his son.
  • The whole premise behind Megamind
  • The Mouse King from The Nutcracker Prince may also qualify for the hint when he returns Clara's slipper after arriving to her room the next night, despite his grudge on her.
  • Rallo Tubbs from The Cleveland Show has shades of this, showing care for animals.
  • Danny Dingo from Blinky Bill has shown signs of this like in Blinky And The Magician where he gets a horrified look on his face as the kids fake their own torture. Also, Blinky himself counts as one.
  • Angelica Pickles, resident Spoiled Brat of Rugrats. While she's the primary antagonist most of the time, she has alot of nice moments—such as when she admits she'll miss Tommy when he almost moves away, or apologizing to Suzie via a hand-made card. In the sequel series All Grown Up!, she's downright Spoiled Sweet most of the time.
  • Daria is often a textbook example. Despite her endless snarking and being incredibly rude to most characters on the show, she clearly never tried to ever hurt someone even if she made jokes about a gruesome death for them. This is quite frequent with Quinn who she ended up bailing out and teaming up with on a few occasions.
    • This was even apparent on Beavis and Butthead. Despite being mocked by the titular duo she tolerated them far more than any other character besides Van Driessan, and it was sometimes implied that while he never ceased in his mocking that she was the only person Butthead had any level of respect for.
  • Ruby of Trollz fits the mold; while being a spoiled brat at times and too stubborn for her own good, she has her friends' well-being at heart and if something is seriously wrong, she'll apologize and try to help.
  • Rigby from Regular Show.
    • Muscle Man is like this at times, but he's ALWAYS got a heart of gold towards women.
    • Benson could also be used as an example, because in multiple episodes he has either helped save the day, or was willing to sacrifice himself.
      • He also happens to be those with a Hidden Heart of Gold, and apparently, he hides it very, very well with a lot of security.
  • Vinnie from Biker Mice From Mars may be an egomaniac, but he would never leave his friends in trouble.
  • A number of characters from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic qualify:
    • Rainbow Dash has a large ego, and can be brash and seemingly self-centered, but her intentions are good, and she is loyal to her friends no matter the circumstances.
    • Spike is a bit of a slacker and has quite a bit of attitude, but is a good guy underneath it all.
    • Fluttershy's bunny companion Angel is frequently pushy and obnoxious, going so far as to act like a spoiled child in "Putting Your Hoof Down", but it's been shown he does care for Fluttershy, doing things like reminding her of her appointment in "A Bird in the Hoof" and comforting her in "Hurricane Fluttershy".
    • Iron Will from "Putting Your Hoof Down" seems like a stereotypical loud and boisterous self-help guru who preaches "aggressiveness as assertiveness", and he seems more than willing to threaten Fluttershy with violence for not paying for the assertiveness seminar she attended. However, when Fluttershy invokes Will's promise of "satisfaction guaranteed or it's free", he eventually gives up and leaves without a fuss.
    • As of "Family Appreciation Day", this seemed to be Silver Spoon's characterization. She's only pressured into bullying by the real Jerkass, Diamond Tiara. Silver Spoon was the first to applaud to Granny Smith's story and did not join Diamond Tiara when the latter continued being a bitch.
    • Rarity is a moderate example, she can be extremely vain, and is rather materialistic. Being the Element of Genorosity, she gives as much as she takes in that area however and is one of the more consistantly friendly and sociable of the main ponies.
  • Bleak in Lite Sprites seems like she doesn't care about the other sprites, finding their ideas of fun to be lame, but when her friends are in trouble, she instantly leaps into action.
  • Spinelli from Recess is hot-tempered and sarcastic, but will always stand up for her friends
    • Miss Finster, as revealed after season one
  • The Ice King from Adventure Time is a Psychopathic Manchild who cares about little beyond kidnapping princesses to force them to marry him... but he'll still save the protagonists lives from time to time, and occasionally bemoan that he can't figure out how to be their friend,[1] sometimes to the extent that it looks like that for all his needless cruelty and compulsive villainy, he's really just lonely. Must be his past as Simon Petrikov shining through.
  • Invader Zim has the whole Membrane family entering this trope by the TV movie Enter the Florpus.
  • Stan Smith of American Dad is a self righteous, bigoted, borderline Comedic Sociopath, however his callous antics are almost always with good intentions, and ultimately he does care dearly about his family. In fact, he seems to work better in comparison to Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin because he's expected to be a jerk from the start, isn't a constant Karma Houdini and in most occassions does learn a lesson at the end of the episode (with some of the lessons actually sticking).
  • Lucky from 101 Dalmatians: The Series. He can be very selfish and bullheaded but he truly cares about his family and friends.
  • Darius, the Abomination Coven head in The Owl House. He initially comes off as rude, arrogant, and egotistical - these qualities do not change when he is revealed to be Good All Along and a member of La Résistance.
  1. ↑ The Cosmic Owl tells him outright that its because he's a sociopath, but this seems to fly over his head
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