This Loser Is You: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:you suck.jpg|link=The Simpsons (animation)|frame|[[America's Funniest Home Videos|America, America, this is you.]]]]

 

You can't spell ''sympathetic'' without ''pathetic''!

 

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

* The basis for more commercials than can probably be counted. As counterintuitive as it may seem, ads depicting the intended consumers of the company's product as [[Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket|drooling imbeciles]] are becoming more and more popular, to the point that it would be folly to point out all but the most egregious offenders here.

** And going by these ads, you are almost certainly a local mom who knows absolutely ''everything!'' It's really amazing, how these local moms are always figuring out $5 miracle cures in their spare time that not even Pfizer can come up with. All kidding aside, though: the only web ads that actually show any respect for the viewer's intelligence are the ones that '''do not exist'''.

* Jack Link's has an advertising campaign entitled "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR-at8V5cvI Messin' With Sasquatch]," which features a number of Jack Links-loving hikers playing various cruel jokes on Sasquatch, only to be beaten up by him. Because apparently people who eat Jack Link's Jerky are moronic little twits who take sadistic pleasure in tormenting someone who had done nothing to them, and who get the crap justifiably beaten out of them on a regular basis.

* The commercials for esurance.com have the company's sales representative helping its customers, who are depicted as being really dumb. The first guy is trying to break up the street with a baseball bat. She hands him a jackhammer. The next guy is painting a wall by throwing the paint onto the wall. She gives him a brush. The third guy is trying to send a message by using smoke signals. She gives him a cell phone. The intended message is that signing up for their insurance is really easy. The perceived message is that their customers are really dumb.

** While everyone seems to love Progressive's bubbly mascot Flo, few notice that the people she helps are often amazingly dorky and uncool (one wears a [[The European Carry All|man purse]] and another is implied to [[Acceptable Lifestyle Targets|still live with mom at age 40]]).

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* The title character of ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]'' gets terrible grades, constantly screws up spells, is an athletic failure, is greedy and self-centered, and just is an all-around [[The Ditz|Ditz]]. So naturally the Queen entrusts her with ''the newborn next heir to the witch kingdom''. In contrast, her five-year-old sister is [[Wise Beyond Their Years|prodigiously competent and mature]], and her friends include a [[Yamato Nadeshiko|lovable]], [[The Ojou|rich]] [[The Smart Guy|genius]], an [[Action Girl|athletic prodigy]], and an [[Idol Singer]].

* This is the entire point of ''[[Doraemon]]''. Doraemon is sent back in time to change Nobita's life—namely, he turns out to be such a loser that his entire family tree is ruined because of it. Contrast with his good friend Shizuka, [[Yamato Nadeshiko|who is a smart and kind young girl]]; Takeshi, while a bully, never hesitates to help Nobita out when he's in trouble; and Suneo, who while overly proud of himself, is a genuinely talented artist and designer, as well as being fairly good at science. And then there's Dekisugi, who is really good at science (for his age) and is the future husband of Shizuka—if [[Time Travel]] isn't included in the equation.

** While [[Spider-Man]] is considered an archetypal Everyman superhero, he was originally not an example of this trope (having above-average intelligence and just enough luck with girls to get caught in [[Love Triangle]]s). [[It Got Worse|But that emphasis is on]] ''[[It Got Worse|was]]''. The ''[[One More Day]]'' storyline infamously tried to make him more appealing to a younger audience by having his marriage magically annulled and [[Basement Dweller|moving him back into Aunt May's basement]], even though he's no longer the fifteen-year-old he was when he started. Editor [[Joe Quesada]] even said an ideal Spidey story would involve him trying to download porn without Aunt May finding out.

*** Of course, he said this while noting that it ''was something a comic fan could relate to doing''. Cue massive [[Internet Backdraft]] from offended fans.

* The series ''[[Wanted (Comic Book)|Wanted]]'' has Wesley Gibson, an [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|Eminem look-a-like]] who is saddled with a dead end job, and an annoying, cheating girlfriend, bullied by assorted townfolk, and in general is shown to be practically spineless in regards to his life. Of course, afterward he [[No Fourth Wall|breaks the fourth wall]] to tell you that [[Take That, Audience!|you suck even more than he does]]. The idea is that Gibson is one of the people making life ''actively worse'' for anyone who isn't a super-villain - and yet the structure of the story encourages you to root for him as the underdog hero. He's reminding you, metatextually, that he's the bad guy.

* Captain Haddock of ''[[Tintin]]'' fame is an overly verbose, recovering alcoholic, amazingly clumsy disaster magnet. ''The Castafiore Emerald'' in particular seems to be Herge running through the many ways he can possibly torment him. More than anything, he represents how everyday people suck- and the readers love him for it.

* It has been debated whether or not [[Scott Pilgrim]] can be considered a loser. On the one hand, he's a jobless college dropout who lives in a windowless hole in the wall where he has to share a bed with his gay roommate. On the other hand, he plays bass in a [[Garage Band]], hooks up with girls who are out of his league, and he's fairly proficient at kicking ass. Some argue that the story is about Scott putting his loser tendencies behind him and learning to be an adult, while others charge that he's just a semi-delinquent hipster.

* [[Donald Duck]] is adored in Finland to the point many children (and adults) distinctly remember learning to read from the Donald Duck comics, which remains the most read weekly magazine in the country. [[Mickey Mouse]] doesn't get much fandom because of his goody-goodiness, Donald is loved precisely for his utter loser status and for his guts that rarely allow him to give up.

 

== Film ==

== Professional Wrestling ==

* Former [[Ring of Honor]] World Champion Nigel McGuinness invoked this trope, making "acne-riddled fat boy" Kevin Steen the audience surrogate en route to Steen's three title shots against McGuinness.

* Dusty Rhodes was always a far more positive portrayal of the archetype.

* WWE has also in the past had background characters who were supposed to represent the average wrestling fan, ranging from the irksome Charlie Minn (hyperactive excitable fanboy) to the loathsome Jameson (greasy, repugnant, socially inept nerd)

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'''s Raiden. While he is beautiful rather than ugly, this is a side-effect of him being made deliberately androgynous so that [[Multiple Demographic Appeal|both sexes identify with him]]. While he is fairly book-smart, he lacks common sense and does everything extremely by-the-book. He is routinely humiliated, [[Butt Monkey|mocked]], and has a great sense of smallness and lack of control against the huge [[Government Conspiracy]] plot. The [[Older and Wiser|coolest man on the planet]] develops a liking for him, but, even so, [[You Didn't Ask|hides information from him]] and says things deliberately to rile him up and humiliate him. His [[Voice with an Internet Connection|CO]] patronises him, his girlfriend nags him, and he experiences all manner of humiliating circumstance, such as slipping on bird droppings or getting urinated on by a guard. [[Word of God]] has it that all this was designed to make the player identify more with him. Naturally, [[The Scrappy|everyone hated him]]. One blogger even went so far as to call him [http://users.livejournal.com/_dahne_/104748.html Robo-Shinji].

** Raiden did EVERYTHING, {{spoiler|it's a plot point}}, Snake did with more emotional baggage. He also had to go through more crap, from being pissed on to {{spoiler|watching a young girl die, finding out his enemy is his godfather, discovering his dark past that haunts his PTSD-fueled nightmares, discovering his support team were all AI, he was being manipulated all along, his girlfriend may be faking her love for him, NOTHING MAY BE REAL. He and you, the player end up on the receiving end of an epic [[Mind Screw]].}} They even spell it out for you at the end, when {{spoiler|Raiden looks at the dog tags he was wearing for the whole game, notices that they say ''your name'' on them, and throws them to the ground.}}

{{quote|''Otacon was named after the nutty computer in ''2001''. He was seduced by his stepmother, which made his father kill himself. He [[For Science!|accidentally designed Metal Gear Rex]] as a tool of the apocalypse. His stepsister died hating him. He named himself after an anime convention. He peed himself in terror when he first met Snake. He wondered aloud if love could bloom on the battlefield. Worst of all, [[Hideo Kojima]] designed Otacon as someone that you, the player, could relate to. You are the real loser.''}}

** His sister didn't die hating him, quite the opposite {{spoiler|It was implied she was attracted to him. Hence "Look at me as a woman, not your sister."}}

* Despite being a [[Heroic Mime]], Link from ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' semi-qualifies in ''[[The Wind Waker]]'' and ''[[Phantom Hourglass]]'' due to how the games cutscene-humor tends to abuse him. (At least until he gets [[Badass]] ). It is very easy to picture him scoring 10% on a math test, despite being able to take on the most complicated dungeons and puzzles known to man. His often very, very clueless expressions really don't help.

** To quote [[The Obi-Wan|King of Red Lions]]: "You are... surprisingly dull witted..."

** Generally speaking, though, passing up optional characters and taking only the cream of the required ones (using the rest as cannon fodder) will spare you the replacements.

* ''[[Forum Warz]]'' [[Zig-Zagging Trope|can't quite make up its mind]]. On the one hand, you're fat and living in a basement, and you spend most of your time either [[Troll]]ing message boards or masturbating to bizarre pornography. On the other hand, you're the [[Only Sane Man]] in a [[Crapsack World|spectacularly messed-up world]].

{{quote|'''Paul:''' It is refreshing, though. This is the game ''literally'' explaining the combat mechanics to you as if you were a child.}}

* Possibly the oldest examples of this in video gaming are [[Space Quest|Roger Wilco]] and [[Leisure Suit Larry|Larry Laffer]].

* Done unintentionally in [[CRFH]]. Dave was meant to be unsympathetic and [[Red Shirt|expendable]] but the fandom found him easier to identify with then the rest of the cast.

** Although he's not nearly as much of a loser as most of the characters he's listed alongside. Kind of a [[Butt Monkey]], but not overwhelmingly terrible or anything.