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The Bully

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The Bully (trope)
"Every skool hav a resident buly who is fat and roll about the place clouting everybode."
nigel molesworth

The Super-Trope of Jerk Jock, Alpha Bitch, and other bully characters. This is the Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up in his heyday. The guy who gave you wedgies and tied you to a flag-pole. The girl who humiliated you in front of the entire school and broke your self-confidence on your first day in. In Western media, it is required by law for the bully to refer to his victims by last name only, because, well... you're not exactly their friend. Like dangerous creature predators, it’s not always the case that bullies are villains; they typically just act antagonistic, and are often considered neutral characters.

A bully is simply defined on Wiktionary as "A person who is cruel to others, especially those who are weaker or have less power." This sums this character up in a nutshell. They will target anyone who is less popular than they are, those who are unable to fight back, or anyone who won't fight back. Comes in different flavours as listed below.

Because Adults Are Useless, frequently students have to take matters into their own hands to deal with these characters, leading to a Bully Hunter. Alternatively, the bully may not get his comeuppance from his victims or their protectors, instead running afoul of a bigger villain, and having to be rescued by the very people he used to torment. Can lead to a Reformed Bully, if the bully is willing to admit to it. Otherwise the status quo returns to normal despite past events.

Particularly thick bullies will often try picking on the (currently) pacifist superpowered or extremely strong kid who simply isn't very sociable. This is called Bullying a Dragon, and it always ends badly, unless the dragon ends up saving the bullies and thus shutting the bully right up. This doesn't always happen.


Tropes:

Types of bullies, bullying victims, and related characters

Related bullying tropes


Examples in media:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 

  • Bleach: This is discussed when Ichigo expresses concern that Ichika has wandered away from her parents without their knowledge, Rukia tells him not to worry because a Soul Reaper has nothing to fear from human opponents. This merely increases Ichigo's worry because he interprets Rukia's words to mean that Ichika likes bullying helpless humans.
  • Candy♡Candy:
    • Because they are extremely spoiled and arrogant, Eliza and Neil's hobbies are punching down on those less fortunate to them. Candy, being an innocent and vulnerable little girl, is their perfect target.
    • At first, Terry mocked Candy for her unconventional appearance (to be specific, her freckles) and insulted her friends for following the rules and not being delinquents like him.
  • The Daichis - Earth's Defense Family: While Tatsuo's bullying in his viewpoint is justified, the main problem is that he does not know about Dai's personal life.
    • In episode 7, he bullies Dai for being late to school since kids should go to school on time and kicked him for telling him to shut up which resulted in Dai being kicked onto the wet dirt while its raining with no umbrella.
      Tatsuo: Damn, I thought I was going to get one day without looking at your dirty face.
      Tatsuo: There you are, you little shit head! Ellen, leave this guy alone, and come with me.
      Tatsuo's friend: Daichi! How dare you show up so late!
      Yutaka: Maybe you were stuck in the toilet!
      Tatsuo: Hey! Don't you ignore us! Daichi, the shit head!
      Dai: Just shut up, you moron.
      Tatsuo:What?! It's your fault, you little shit!
      Tatsuo and his friends: Daichi, the shit head! (x3)
    • In episode 10, he uses the pool's water hose to get rid of the Ice Cream that Ellen gave to Dai since he didn't participate for the pool cleaning that he's supposed to do, but Dai is forced to do the contractually obligated Earth Defense Mission during that time (shown before the title card of this episode)and was not doing what Tatsuo and his friend was assuming.
      Tatsuo's friend: We'll have to punish him when we see him.
      Dai: Earth Defense...
      Ejima: Now, now. Let's not pick on him.
      Dai: Who said I didn't want it?! Thanks a bunch!
      Dai: Why you, Tatsuo! I want my damn ice cream!
      Tatsuo: Shut up! You didn't even show up!
  • In Daily Lives of High School Boys, Habara, known as the Archdemon, was the menace of all boys eight years before the current events. She needed ten Bully Hunters to barely make a draw with her, which forced her into retirement.
  • Takeshi "Gian" Goda (or, in the Bang Zoom! dub, Big G) from Doraemon is probably the most well-known bully character in anime and Japanese society. His victims are every boy in his neighborhood, though he picks on Nobita the most. Suneo (or, also in the aforementioned dub, Sneech) is another one of Gian's main targets; although, he, too, enjoys bullying Nobita and will just as often help Gian with making Nobita's life miserable.
  • The kids at the orphanage who torment a young Lucy in Elfen Lied. It ends badly. Very badly.
  • Fist of the North Star's Kenshiro deals a lot with vicious bullies and evil warlords of the wastelands, who use their strength and superpowered martial arts to make the innocent suffer. Kenshiro is a Friend to All Children and a quintessential Bully Hunter, and when such bullies go too far, Kenshiro shows no mercy upon them.
  • Lady!!: Thomas and Mary Waverly physically and emotionally antagonize Lynn, from insults, hitting her, and breaking her things. They laugh when Lynn cries for the first time, and try to make her cry again.
  • Mazinger Z has Onimaru, a secondary character who attended Shiro's high school and was a Jerkass who bullied weak kids who could not defend themselves. He picked on Mitsuo, a nerdy, weak, shy kid, and tormented him frequently, insulting him, beating him and making him a fool of himself. It did not end up well for him, though, and he started to reconsider his attitude.
  • My Hero Academia: Bakugo Katsuki, The Rival to The Hero Izuku Midoriya, was his personal bully for ten years as of the time the story starts, and he was allowed to bully Izuku because our hero (at least at the beginning) was Quirkless while approximately 80 to 90 percent of humanity has a Quirk and Fantastic Racism is a result, as well as Bakugo being The Ace of the class, and in the very first chapter Bakugo even dares Izuku to kill himself. When they get to U.A., however, Character Development ensues, and Bakugo goes from being his bully to eventually becoming his Secret-Keeper in regards to One For All, to Taking the Bullet for him in the Paranormal Liberation War arc. It eventually culminates into him apologizing to Izuku for everything in the Deku vs. Class 1-A arc, in order to help convince Izuku to return to U.A. and allow the class to help him in his Final Battle with All For One.
  • In My New Devil Wife, all the other mercenaries Theo, a 12-year-old orphan, had to work with, at first were grateful they had a willing porter, who would happily carry their luggage and dismantle the monsters they kill so they could focus on hunting, but quickly started seeing him as a burden, ignored or insulted his efforts, and his now dead adoptive "grandparents", beat him around, and literally kicked him out of the party so often he's lost count, over 2 long and difficult years. It culminates and ends in chapter 3 with the worst of the bunch, Carl, cornering Theo at the receptionist's counter and demanding that Theo share his wife like she's a common whore, or face a beating. To his credit, Theo loudly refuses, and the expected beating never comes, because Theo's wife is a devil, took offense, and broke Carl's arm, and when he goes after her, a Death Glare and a credible death threat had the coward running for the hills.
  • Being a deconstruction of the Fighting Series, Ramen Fighter Miki offers a deconstruction of The Bully by Miki and Megumi’s relationship:
  • Rosario + Vampire: For all his talk about "honor" and "justice," Kuyou is basically nothing more than a superpowered schoolyard bully who goes around taking people's lunch money. Unfortunately, the consequences for those that don't comply are far more grievous than the simple beating such thugs usually dish out, as the previous Newspaper Club can easily attest. He continues this behavior after becoming a Fairy Tale top enforcer, and utterly fails to comprehend why almost nobody shows him any respect.
  • Sailor Moon: Rei is an example in the first season of the 90s anime, towards Usagi and Ami. Rei constantly goaded Ami into snubbing Usagi along with her. And in an episode where Ami shyly suggests that Usagi might be suited for the role of leader, Rei pinches her leg, forcing Ami to reconsider. While she mellows out a bit throughout subsequent seasons, she still take chances to belittle Usagi
  • Shadow Star has Aki Honda and her Girl Posse, who torment the main character's friend in horrifying ways. When she snaps and releases her Bond Creature, they die in even more horrifying ways.
  • Ishida Shouya, protagonist of A Silent Voice, bullied a young deaf girl in his class constantly, usually alongside his fellow classmates. When they are finally forced to deal with it, the whole class, including the teacher use him as a scapegoat and shift all blame onto him, from then on tormenting and ostracizing him. After five years, the situation and the extremely guilty conscience he still holds for his actions have left him near suicidal. He decides to befriend Shouko before killing himself, though after befriending her he decides not to commit suicide.
  • Doi from Wandering Son, and Oka to a more mild extent. They both bully Nitori for being feminine.

    Comic Books 
  • Alena: Filippa sets out to bully Alena with extreme cruelty from the moment she comes to her school, because she's poor and supposedly a "psycho", never letting up.
  • The entire premise of Bully Wars is that bullies compete in a tournament to determine who is the biggest bully of them all.
  • Calico (2020): Flashbacks to Hector's childhood show that back when he lived in San Francisco De Macoris, he had to put up with a kid named Guillermito, who was a rich kid. Guillermito's first scene has him crushing Hector's toy car, and his hand, under his foot, before pushing his friends over.
  • The Cardboard Kingdom: Roy has a habit of picking on other kids in the neighbourhood, and the other kids don't like him very much as a result. At first it seems like he thinks the other kids are acting immature for dressing up in costumes and playing, but he actually only acts this way to impress the other teenagers. He secretly enjoys creating stuff out of cardboard himself as well.
  • In the second Catstronauts book, Captain Meowser reveals that he spent some time with the Cosmocats as part of an exchange program, and that they were apparently pretty mean to him. In reality, Meowser was the bully, and a hot-headed one. The Cosmocats were hard on him back in the day because they wanted him to get better as an astronaut.
  • In one DC Super Hero Girls comic, Harley Quinn mentions being bullied by a green-haired boy in kindergarten.
  • Juice Squeezers: There's a kid named Stampo who loves giving the Juice Squeezers grief in school... even if he doesn't know they're Juice Squeezers.
  • Kid Sherlock: One of Sherlock's and Watson's classmates really likes giving the two a hard time.
  • Bosse in Kunskapens Korridorer will use black-mail against his class-mates some times. Karma will bite him in the behind though in a most satisfying way.
  • The Lost Boy: Back when Walter lived in the town, there was a kid named Curly Bill who lead a gang of these. What few appearances he had in the comic showed that he was indeed a pretty cruel kid, attacking Tom Button, and chasing Walter into the Kingdom and leaving him to the creatures residing there.
  • A short comic book released by Nintendo Power shows that Wario's grudge against Mario is because Mario acted like this towards him when they were kids, although that's not how Mario remembers it.
  • The Okay Witch: Moth has two of them, who are dressed as zombies for Halloween and knock Moth's book out of her hand on their bikes on the way to school. They also pick on her in history class. Her accidental first act of magic is when, while they mock her and call her a freak, she thinks "shut up" and fuses their mouths shut and into the palms of her hands.
  • In Robin (1993), there's a pair of bullies at Tim's school that target kids they see as weak nerds and Tim mostly leaves them be in order to protect his secret identity. They eventually kill one of their most frequent targets and the next time Tim comes across a school bully he does not allow them to get away with their behavior for a minute.
  • Spider-Man:
  • Supergirl has had to deal with several bullies during her long career:
    • In the Silver Age, Nasthalthia 'Nasty' Luthor is an Alpha Bitch who enrolls at Stanhope University as a student and begins a campaign of bullying students, hoping to lure Supergirl out. Later on, both she and Linda Danvers (Supergirl's Secret Identity) work as rival photographers in KSF-TV news, and 'Nasty' constantly disparages Linda and picks on her. In Demon Spawn:
      Linda: Perhaps you're right! Nasty is a rather good news photographer! [thinking] Though I hate to admit it!
      Nasty: Rather good? Compared to you, I'm the whole Galaxy Broadcasting Service News staff rolled into one person!
      Linda: Come off it, big mouth! I'm nearly as good a photog as you!
      Nasty: Perhaps! But nobody really knows, since you're never around when a big story breaks!
    • Belinda Zee is Linda Lee's schoolmate in Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade — she is popular, smug, petty, manipulative, and loves making life miserable for Linda/Supergirl.
  • X-Men:
    • Sabretooth loves making life miserable for Wolverine. Killing Logan's loved ones, eating food he just ordered, stalking him on his birthday and beating the crap out of him, manipulating Logan into killing his own son... it's all fun and games to Victor Creed.
    • Hellion from New X-Men: Academy X, though he mellowed out considerably in the wake of Stryker's attacks on the school following M-Day, after many of his friends were killed.

    Comic Strips 
  • Moe of Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin sometimes takes advantage of his lack of intelligence, though, with mixed results.
    Calvin: Many years from now, when I am successful and he is in prison, I hope I'm not too mature to gloat.
  • Funky Winkerbean: During the pre-first time jump era, "Bull" Bushka, who mercilessly tormented Les Moore. Bull softened by the end of the pre-first time jump, becoming friends with Les (after he stood up to Bull), and although he still has his feisty personality he — as a teacher at Westview High — has absolutely no tolerance for bullying.

    Fan Works 
  • From Apartnement Gensokyo, we have Yume Ni, otherwise known as "Yu", and she is aptly called "Yu the Bully", especially the case chapter 59 and the kids were terrified of her. Sakuya also noted that she is comparatively worse than Reimu.
  • The Boys: Real Justice: This is pretty much what Homelander is at his core as he relishes in the fear that he instills in those who can't fight back against him to compensate for his own insecurities of his failings and his strength, while sulking whenever people aren't afraid of him and call him out for the immature manchild that he is like Stan and Batman. This is precisely why the Justice League doesn't take his attitude seriously despite considering him a threat. Batman and John Stewart are both unimpressed by him, and Superman even refers to him as nothing more than a school-yard bully compared to the threats he faces on a daily basis.
  • Cat-Ra: Lonnie was a horrible one to Catra in their childhood. Catra naturally is thrilled at the opportunity to pay her back after turning against the Horde, though her reaction to being left in the dark is so horrifying that Catra can't bring herself to do it. Lonnie later explains she didn't actually want to do any of it, and it was Shadow Weaver's influence.
  • Dermabrasion: When she was in school, the teachers forced Fuyumi to sit next to an incredibly misbehaved kid named Rin in hopes of "being a positive influence". Rin cheated off Fuyumi for tests, stole or destroyed her stuff and even cut her hair in class. After that, her brother Touya went and beat the crap out of him, though he denies doing so to this day.
  • Has a Type (2022): Jermaine's old classmate Tim teases him for hanging out with "nerds" and also says that Jermaine is only doing so because they wear glasses.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: A teen who wore an incredibly grotesque mask popped out of nowhere just to scare Italy. He looked down upon Italy for being beaten and nearly raped. Germany and Japan did not take this well.
  • In Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox, Rokusho Aoi (a filler villain from the Naruto anime) uses his position as the chief hall monitor of Konoha High School to bully weaker students as he pleases.
  • In The Lion King Adventures, Anti-Haiba serves as this to Simba in The Love Triangle. He even beats him up.
  • In the Lucky Star fanfic The Day Everything Changed, the main antagonist of the story, Sakura Takahashi, is a particularly nasty and surprisingly realistic example of this, particularly towards Kagami.
  • In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, Punk is this; he even bullies ProtoMan.
  • In My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic, Sombra was first seen as a bully named Dusk Shine, who enjoyed mocking Celesto for having three horns.
  • Rick and Morty New Drama Adventures:
    • Duncan is the Jerk Jock of the story, physically stronger and more threatening than Morty. He is shown bullying Morty and his friends, especially Harold in Chapter 1 when he corners him in the hallway to verbally abuse and physically intimidate the redhead.
    • Courtney, who is Duncan’s on-again off-again girlfriend, picks up his attitude towards Morty and his group of friends.
  • In the RWBY Fanfic Various Vytal Ventures chapter 'Hike and Camp' the individual members of Team CRDL, all bullies, are on a camping trip with Team RWBY. During the night, individual talks between the two teams explore some of the reasoning and mentality behind CRDL's bullying.
  • Too Much Too Much: Giovanni is a cruel and arrogant young boy who likes to torment Luca and to play pranks on him.

    Films — Animation 
  • An Angel for Christmas: The unnamed boy with a duo of friends who are introduced when they try to attack Wilfred and Angela with snowballs. He is even referred to as "the town bully".
  • Foxy Loxy from Chicken Little (2005). She takes sadistic joy in things like making sure Chicken Little misses the bus, gets humiliated every chance she gets, faking out a high five when offering them, and even siding with his dad when he fails to expose the aliens to the townsfolk.
  • Brent from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs used to bully Flint in school, mocking him for his flawed inventions. Later in the movie he's a Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up, riding on his fame as being the mascot for the local sardine cannery when he was a baby.
  • As a preadolescent, Greenie from Leafie, a Hen into the Wild was bulled by other ducklings for being adopted by a hen.
  • Alvin from ParaNorman is your typical school bully, but it's shown that his bullying is him lashing out because he's a loser who's barely above Norman on the social totem pole.
  • In Turning Red, Tyler is frequently antagonistic and insulting towards Mei. His first scene has him calling her an "overachieving dork-narc" before chasing her when she accidentally pops his basketball. He then deliberately draws attention towards her during the Daisy Mart incident and posts her drawings of Devon all over the school the next day.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Alena: Filippa sets out to bully Alena with extreme cruelty from the moment she comes to her school, because she's poor and supposedly a "psycho", never letting up.
  • Gabara from All Monsters Attack is the kaiju equivalent of one — a big, ugly cat-toad-ogre who likes to beat on Godzilla's son because the little guy can't fight back and he's too much of a Dirty Coward to take on the Big G himself.
  • Biff Tannen of Back to the Future. Also a Jerk Jock. His favourite victim was Marty's dad, who in the original timeline he continued bullying into adulthood. He also lusted after Marty's mom, and married her in the second movie's Bad Future where he killed George.
  • Big Brother (2018): The rich kids at Tak Chi Secondary School bully the "poor" kids (Jack, Denan, Zufa, Bruce and Chris) and use their connections to get away with it. Their leader is the Captain of the Basketball team. When he trips Bruce, Jack is enraged and they get into a scuffle, but the school only punishes Jack and his friends.
  • Blame (2017): Melissa leads the other kids in mocking Abigail over her mental illness, including writing cruel graffiti on Abigail's locker.
  • The Bloody Man: Near the start of the movie, Perry is established as being a bully towards Sam, laughing at him for missing the bus, mocking his report topic, and throwing Sam's mom's comic in the garbage. We find out at the end of the movie that the reason for this is because his family are as nasty as he is. Sadly, when Perry walks off, The Bloody Man is seen looking at him from behind a tree and smiling.
  • The unseen antagonists discussed in Bully, the critically acclaimed 2012 documentary film that became a rare box office hit of the genre. The five subjects of the film — including those who had revealed themselves as homosexuals, or had Asperger's — were all severely tormented by bullies. (The alleged bullies were not interviewed for this film.)
  • Glazer in The Burning, but only to Alfred. Other campers are certainly not scared of poking fun at him (although careful to far enough away from him when they do so that they can run).
  • In Cyberbu//y (2011), a girl named Lindsay, believing the protagonist Taylor subtly insulted her during a health class discussion, goes after Taylor with unbelievable viciousness. Although Lindsay is not the only cause of Taylor's problems (one of the perpetrators turns out to be Taylor's own best friend), she is the most consistently vicious, and when Taylor nearly commits suicide because of the teasing, Lindsay shows no remorse whatsoever.
  • A Girl Like Her: An unsettlingly realistic portrayal in the form of Alpha Bitch Avery, who relentlessly torments protagonist Jessica until she is Driven to Suicide, which she survives. Only after Avery is confronted with a video compilation of her abuse does she admit to her own misdeeds.
  • A Haunting at Silver Falls: Robbie is a powerful boy who "gets away with murder" because his father is the police sheriff. He starts out the movie seeming relatively charming, but proves to be a jerk when he attacks Larry at lunch and is later called "the type of guy who believes "no" means "yes"."
  • Heaven Knows What: When Harley is sent to a Bedlam House during the opening credits, she's almost immediately accosted by a another female patient who taunts her and then physically attacks her. She's credited as "Psych Ward Bully." Because there is no dialogue during this sequence, we don't hear what she's saying.
  • Holidays: Heidi is constantly mocking Maxine, and shoves her into the pool off the diving board when she hesitates over jumping. She even stoops to mocking Maxine's dad's suicide.
  • Invisible Mom: Johnny Thomas teases Josh when the latter is trying to talk a girl he likes. He ends up breking his nose, and then tells the girl (as well as her friend) to come with him. Over the course of the movie, Johnny continues mistreating Josh with verbal and physical abuse, but at one point Laura (Josh's mom, and turned invisible) gives him comeuppance.
  • In Key Largo, there is a grown-up example. Rocco is this way to everyone, even to his own mooks and alcoholic girlfriend Gaye.
  • In Kingsman: The Secret Service, Charlie comes across as a fairly standard one towards Eggsy, looking down on Eggsy's lower-class background in comparison to him and his elitist friends.
  • Loving Annabelle: Katherine, especially towards Colins. Annabelle defends Colins as best she can.
  • M3GAN film series:
    • M3GAN: Brandon is one big sociopathic Hate Sink in a preteen's body — disrespecting his mother (who just enables him thinking he's high potential) without repercussion, forcefully jamming a spiky horse chestnut seed case into Cady's palm and stealing M3GAN to do heinous things to her. He had it coming when M3GAN tears his ear off and chases him, causing him to be hit by a car.
    • M3GAN 2.0: Sapphire, an Alpha Bitch who tries to bully Cady because Cady's aunt Gemma successfully lobbied to have cellphones forbidden in schools. Unfortunately for Sapphire, Cady practices aikido now, and Cady nearly breaks her arm as a result.
  • My Bodyguard: A scrawny kid hires a hulking classmate to protect him from his relentless bully.
  • Napoleon Dynamite features a somewhat-odd bully who always starts out by offering to trade something to other kids in exchange for letting him have or use something of theirs that he wants. Whenever they refuse, he switches into full-on bully mode and makes them comply.
  • Now You See It... (2005): Producer Hunter and his contestant Brandon treat Danny with open contempt, mocking his attempts to preform on stage and even convince the judges to knock off points at the end of his turn, based on a technicality. However, They aren't all bad, and end up befriending Danny after realizing he's a skilled and clever magician.
  • Manny from Relative Fear force-feeds Adam dirt, then tells Adam's mother, "I kept telling him not to put that dirt in his mouth, but he wouldn't listen!"
  • Joe and Jake from Song of the South are Big Brother Bullies to little sister Ginny, but they also antagonize Johnny. Notably, Joe and Jake's personalities are analogous to Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear, the antagonists of Uncle Remus's Br'er Rabbit stories.
  • Visual Comedy: A common trait of physical comedian is having no consideration for others. As an example, Kevin takes a small girl's doll away, and gives her a garden hose. He then turns it on, so that she gets a faceful of water, and weeps.
  • Of all of the popular kids in When Evil Calls, Kirsty seems to be the worst bully. She is both physically and verbally abusive to those below her in the school pecking order, and every scene of hers that isn't her alone with Molly features her tormenting people. Her cruelty is the direct cause of several students making wishes that destroy their lives.
  • The Whole Truth (2021): Fame. His first scene in the movie has him playing video games with Putt in his house, suggesting they're friends. Of course, after he gets caught peeping on Pim, Fame then starts threatening Putt to help him get with Putt's sister. If he doesn't, Fame will distribute a clip of Pim showering to everyone at school.
  • In X2: X-Men United, Mitchell Laurio uses what little authority he has to screw with his prisoner(s).

    Jokes 
  • This one captures the essence of bullying, so to speak.
    Fox: Bear, I'm bored.
    Bear: Yeah, me too.
    Fox: I've got an idea! We beat up the hare!
    Bear: Yeah, great idea!
    Fox: But we can't beat him up for nothing, we need a reason... I've got it: If he wears a cap, we tell him 'You have a stupid cap', and if he has no cap, we tell him 'Why don't you wear a cap, you want to get a cold?'
    Bear: Yeah, great idea!
    (They go, meet the hare, he has no cap, they beat him up. Continue next day:)
    Fox: Bear, I'm bored.
    Bear: Yeah, me too... can we beat up the hare again?
    Fox: Yeah, but we need a reason... I've got it: We ask him for a cigarette. If he offers us one with filter, we tell him 'Don't you know the filter kills the taste?', and if he offers us one without, we tell him 'Do you want to poison us?'
    (They go, meet the hare.)
    Fox: Hey, do you have a cigarette for us?
    Hare: With or without filter?
    Fox: Bear, have you noticed he still doesn't wear a cap?

    Literature 
  • Even the Academy of Mr. Kleks, the nicest Boarding School you could ask for, has one in Alojzy, who breaks things, torments other boys and pulls feathers off Mateusz the starling's tail - because he hates everybody. Mr. Kleks can't get rid of him, as Alojzy's creator finances the school. In later books, the grown-up Alojzy acts less rude and more cunning, but is still a petty, selfish prick.
  • In Michael C. Bailey's Action Figures - Issue One: Secret Origins, some exist so that Stuart can tell them to cut it out. Until their victim is the bully who had accidentally kill Stuart's little brother. It takes Stuart some time to rise to the challenge then.
  • Alan Alone: Bob, a pudgy and larger student, often picks on Alan despite Teacher Takara's warnings, from stealing his water bottle to knocking him over and also getting others to laugh at him.
  • Angela Nicely: Tiffany Charmers and the Payne twins both like to give Angela and her friends a hard time, Tiffany by showboating and berating Angela, and the Payne twins by doing things like stealing her lunch.
  • Animal Inn: Sparky, when first introduced in book 4, who's lashing out partly in reaction to suddenly moving to a new town and being angry at the local kids for not even giving her a chance. She stops after she gets to know Teddy and joins his circle of friends.
  • Bazil Broketail:
    • Helena of Roth is constantly trying to get Lagdalen into trouble while they're both Senior Novices at the Temple in Marneri, tattling about anything wrong she does no matter how minor. It's immensely satisfying to see an attempt blow up in her face.
    • Smilgax enjoys picking on those weaker than him, even his own dragonboy.
  • Judy Blume's Blubber features an Alpha Bitch named Wendy, who decides to bully overweight classmate Linda (psychologically and physically) on a whim and gets everyone in her class - including Jill, the narrator of the novel - to join in. Then, when Jill dares to challenge Wendy's authority, Wendy gets the class to bully Jill in exactly the same ways.
  • In A Boy Named Queen, of the kids who make fun of the titular character's name, Connor and Parker are the worst.
  • In Cape, the first book of the "The League Of Secret Heroes" series, has Toby Hunter and his friends, who like mocking Josie and her brothers. One of his first actions in the series is stealing their bikes. And since he's the son of their landlord, she feels she can't stand up to him, or he'll go to his dad about how SHE'S bullying HIM, and get his dad to evict her family from their apartment.
  • Edmund Pevensie, in the first book of The Chronicles of Narnia, liked to bully and torment his younger sister, Lucy.
  • Eric, or Little by Little: When Eric first starts attending Roslyn School, the worst bully of the lower forms is Barker, who expresses his jealousy of smarter boys by harassing and picking fights with them. His previous favourite target was Owen, who eventually told the headmaster, Dr Rowlands, about Barker's behaviour. Dr Rowlands gave Barker a public caning, which stopped the bullying at the expense of Owen's standing with the other boys. When Eric starts school, Barker starts bullying him. It doesn't stop until Eric's father happens to be walking by the schoolyard when he sees Barker beating Eric and his best friend Russell. Eric's father beats Barker with a riding whip and threatens to beat him even worse if he ever hurts Eric again. Barker is later expelled for trying to frame Eric for writing an insulting note to a teacher.
  • Fangbone! Third Grade Barbarian: Duncan MacDuff menaces Bill and his classmates in all three books, picking on them and mocking them whenever he can. He also tries to do the same to Fangbone, but Fangbone considers him a non-threat and refuses to take him seriously, to his frustration. Of course, when Fangbone's got monsters and evil wizards to deal with, a schoolyard bully is the least of his worries.
  • Flashman was originally the school bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays, until he was given his own series by George MacDonald Fraser. Arguably he's a case of Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up then.
  • Flawed: After becoming Flawed, Celestine is harassed by kids at school, especially Logan and Natasha. Logan even goes so far as to pretend to be her friend, inviting her to his "18th birthday party", only to kidnap her along with Natasha, as well as their friend Gavin and her ex-friend Colleen. They spend the night abusing her and taunting her, and even strip her, before locking her in a thread overnight.
  • Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen! has Coach K's son Kyle, who seems to have a huge problem with an autistic girl playing on his baseball team. He does everything he can to try to drive her off the team, both verbal and physical.
  • Glasses Stories:
    • "Glass Action" is about all of the times that Jermaine's bespectacled classmates and friends had their glasses stolen (and, in one case, broken) by bullies.
    • "Glass Struggle" is about all of the times Jermaine's classmates and friends wore other people's glasses just to bully or tease him.
    • During December 2012, Jermaine watched an anti-bullying commercial that depicted a bespectacled brunette being bullied by two other girls.
    • Jermaine once had a dream about his little sister Jasmine being bullied by another girl. Part of the bullying included said girl stealing Jasmine's glasses.
  • Glasses Stories Redux: "Glass Action Redux" is about bullies stealing and wearing Jermaine's glasses.
  • Good Omens has "Greasy" Johnson, Tadfield's local bully and Adam's sometime rival. The narration says he's only a bully as a defense mechanism, as otherwise people would pick on him for being large and clumsy.
  • Goosebumps is prone to have these types of characters in at least one book. Special mention, of course, goes to Conan Barber from the Monster Blood series (who routinely beats up Evan for minor offenses and even for things that weren't even Evan's fault), Judith from Be Careful What You Wish For (who constantly taunts Samantha), Chuck and Steve from The Haunted Mask (who take every opportunity to scare the living hell out of Carly Beth), and Wart, Jared, David, and Brenda from Calling All Creeps (who are the main students who pick on Ricky and do whatever they can to make him as miserable as possible).
  • Harry Potter:
    • Harry's cousin Dudley, at least until his Heel–Face Turn.
    • Harry's knife tongued rival Draco Malfoy is perhaps an iconic example in the world of YA literature. He likes to spend his free time picking on Harry for his fame, Ron for being poor (and a blood traitor) and Hermione for being a muggleborn (the kind his own parents believe don't deserve to exist). He is also very savvy about finding Berserk Buttons of hot-headed Gryffindors and pressing it to get a rise of out his opponents.
    • Harry is disappointed to find out that his father and godfather relentlessly bullied his least favorite teacher, Severus Snape.
    • Snape himself is a horrible bully to his students, Harry and Neville in particular. JK Rowling even says she considers this his worst trait. However, unlike many bullies, Snape is no coward and when push comes to shove he will protect his students with his life no matter how much he may dislike them.
    • When he was younger, Tom Riddle bullied other students, although he was mostly seen as a good student by his teachers, with the exception of Dumbledore. Tom got worse. Much, much worse.
  • Her Spell That Binds Me: Ksenia takes every possible opportunity to bully Iona just for kicks, even after Ariadne orders her not to. She only stops when Iona hits back and humiliates her in front of other students.
  • House of Robots has Cooper Elliot, who singles out Sammy (whom he calls "Dweebiac") and Trip for the brunt of his abuse.
    • Jacob Gorski becomes Sammy's new bully in the sequel after Cooper Elliot got expelled for abducting and dismantling E in the previous book with the help of his brothers.
  • I'm Ok (2018) has Asa Banks, who's first interaction with Ok in the book is to call him "Okie Dorkie", and essentially talk down to him. It changes later on, when Asa asks Ok to start tutoring him on how to read.
  • Insect Inside: Mila bullies Aubrey by calling her a nerd, snatching her glasses off her face, putting them on, and running off with them. Theo bullies Jermaine by grabbing him by the shirt and punching him to the floor, leaving him with a black eye. Sadie bullies Aubrey by insulting and messing with her frizzy hair; knocking her books and papers out of her hands; stepping on said books and papers; ripping her glasses off her face; telling her nobody likes her; and grabbing her cheeks.
  • Henry Bowers of It. Later becomes a Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up.
  • Llama Llama and the Bully Goat from Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama picture book series is about Llama Llama and his friends having to deal with a bully named Gilroy Goat. In the Animated Adaptation, this issue will come up on the show as well. Promotional material states that deep down Gilroy wants to have friends but doesn't quite know how to go about it.
  • In Robert Westall's The Machine Gunners this role is filled by Boddser Brown, the Garmouth Grammar School bully and Chas McGill's most avid rival in the great game of collecting war souvenirs.
  • Mage Errant: Rhodes bullies Hugh mercilessly at school along with his gang starting out. This only starts to stop when Hugh becomes friends with Talia and Sabae, who take his side protectively.
  • The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family: On Caroline Finkel's first day of middle school, her classmate Marissa smashes the zebra she was making out of clay. Micah Perkowski tells Caroline that Marissa was just as bad in elementary school, that she made half the kids in fifth grade cry at some point, and that she spread a rumor that Micah peed his pants so people would call him Micah Pee.
  • As seen in the page quote, Nigel molesworth is more than happy to share his "grate thorts" on the subject with his readers. He goes on to explain that bullies come in two varieties: fat bullies who can run, who are trouble, and fat bullies who "can't run for tofee", who may safely be taunted from a distance. Sadly Grabber of st. custards is of the former type.
  • "The New Kid on the Block" from Jack Prelutsky's poetry collection of the same name. The speaker describes a very mean girl who is twice the speaker's size and routinely harasses everyone, even the speaker.
  • In The Night Gardener, Alastair Windsor spends most of the book picking on his little sister. Near the end, he throws Kip's crutch — the only thing he has from his now-dead father — into the river. Luckily, he changes for the better not long after.
  • The cyberpunk novel Otherland could be interpreted as something of a Space Whale Aesop about bullying. The antagonists are all bullies of one sort or another; the most developed of whom, Corrupt Corporate Executive Felix Jongleur, describes a upbringing in a Boarding School of Horrors where he was the victim of the resident Gang of Bullies. In revenge, he became a bully himself, meting out vicious summary punishment to anyone who dares offend him. His use of pain to control his subordinates comes full circle when Psycho for Hire Dread pulls an Eviler than Thou on him and the Other, his quasi-AI computer system, finally snaps under the constant torture and tries to kill him.
  • The Other Side of Truth (2000): Marcia is the gangster variant. The most popular girl in the class, she leads a group of boys and girls who control everything their peers do through the use of threats. Many other kids look up to her and want to impress her, and when she starts bullying Sade they all join in.
  • Officer Felix of Outsourced is very much bullying Isaac Fisher. His introduction to the reader is him absently aiming his gun at Isaac, before asking him some questions.
  • Penrod: Eleven-year-old Penrod Schofield himself has some tendencies in this direction, as do nearly all of the boys in the story (excepting Georgie Bassett), being very willing to insult or ostracize boys who are perceived as being "outsiders" and given to a regular (though nearly always purely verbal) belligerence in his relations with his peers, even his close friends. Rupe Collins, however, is a pure example of the type. A physically larger boy (somewhat older — "twelve or thirteen" — who nonetheless chooses to associate for a time with eleven-year-old Penrod) from a different school who turns up in Penrod's neighborhood, Collins is much giving to sneering, bragging, mean-spirited jokes and sarcasm, and unprovoked acts of physical violence against other boys. As is often the case with bullies, Collins also turns out to be a bit of a coward; when confronted with serious opposition to his bullying, Collins turns tail and runs, never to be seen again.
  • A Place For Us: Amar is bullied by two classmates, Grant and his former friend Mark, who sling vicious racist abuse at him for being a Muslim. Mark claiming that Amar's father is a terrorist pushes Amar past his Rage Breaking Point, and he beats Mark to a pulp.
  • Race to the Sun has Mac, Nizhoni's younger brother, who is constantly bullied at school by Adrien Cuttlebush and his pals. Adrien beats Mac up and destroys his art supplies, which for Mac is even worse than beating. And then Mac discovers his water powers and gets even.
  • Ratburger has Tina Trotts who (at least until the end) slobbers on, teases, and hits Zoe.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Many, many knights are basically thugs with a sword and a massive sense of entitlement. One of the major examples is Ser Meryn Trant, who is perfectly happy to beat the crap out of a helpless teenage girl and laughs in Barristan Selmy's face when Joffrey kicks him out of the Kingsguard.
    • Joffrey himself, and Ramsay Snow are basically what would happen if you took a vicious teenage bully and gave them command of a group of soldiers and total protection from consequences.
    • Gregor Clegane was a vicious bully even as a child, burning and nearly killing his younger brother Sandor for playing with a toy Gregor had already discarded. He got even worse as he grew up, becoming one of the aforementioned "thugs with a sword and a massive sense of entitlement". It really doesn't help that he's always angry due to chronic migraines and is always looking for someone to lash out against. He's also the World's Strongest Man and leads a posse of other vicious bullies. Like a lot of bullies, his favorite targets are people who can't possibly put up a real fight against him, such as unarmed women and children — pillaging the smallfolk is a hobby of his. Fighting against people who can actually challenge and hurt him on the other hand makes him upset and causes him to lose what little self control he still has, much like a Spoiled Brat whining when things don't go his way.
  • Space Brat: Appus Meko starts as one (and is at his absolute worst in books 2 and 3, though he gets scared straight partway through the latter), but eventually undergoes character development and comes to be one of Blork's True Companions.
  • T*A*C*K: Red Jameson, the meanest kid at Monroe Elementary School. He often makes life miserable for the Sandy Harbor kids when they are grouped together for occasions like spelling bees and field days. He even broke Will's leg by "accident."
  • Sonny Singer and Heck Bast in The Talisman.
  • Tortall Universe
    • Ralon in Song of the Lioness enjoyed picking on and beating up Alanna and other smaller boys in his classes, even breaking Alanna's arm at one point while getting away with it. Alanna put up a good fight and eventually beat him at his own game.
    • Joren and his crew in the first two Protector of the Small books, using the excuse of routine hazing to pick on first-years relentlessly. Keladry and her friends eventually get them to stop entirely through force of numbers.
  • There are a fair few bullies in Tough Magic, with the three that stand out the most being Nist, Brath and Rungar.
  • The Tribe: The first book, "Homeroom Headhunters", has Riley Callahan, who takes joy in making Spencer's life in school miserable. He also has history with some members of the Tribe.
  • Unbelievably Boring Bart: Bartholomew Bean has had to deal with three bullies since he moved to Rancho Verdugo, California.
    • Giselle "The Golem", who seems to go out of her way to make sure she bumps into Bart in the hallway.
    • Nick "The Mimic", who likes to sit behind Bart in class, and constantly poke him to get him to speak out in class.
    • Tigran "The Tyrant", who likes "borrowing" whatever he can from Bart and never returning it.
  • Willow Valley: Rothwell is a vicious mouse who is portrayed as the bully of fellow mouse Riley's class. In the book The Big Bike Race, he organises a bicycle race to make fun of Riley, who finds cycling very tricky.
  • The Witch of Knightcharm is set at an evil Wizarding School whose incoming class has a gang of these. The gang is led by Lily, a witch who claims to be descended from Merlin. Lily and her gang ruthlessly bully the other students, even assaulting them with curses on occasion.
  • Worm has Taylor gain her superpowers due to the incredibly vicious bullying she suffers at school. She tries to become a superhero (but ends up becoming a frighteningly competent supervillain,) mostly out of a need to escape her hell of a school. The serial spends a lot of time looking at bullying in its different forms, motivations, what enables it, and consequences; Taylor believes there is a very real chance she would have been Driven to Suicide without her double-life to escape to, and her tendency to lash out viciously against those she perceives (often, but not always, correctly) as trying to bully her or others is a direct cause of many of her more ruthless and brutal actions.
  • The Worst Thing About My Sister has three mean girls named Alicia, Ingrid, and Katie who tease Marty the protagonist and call her "Bluebottle".
  • Nate from You Look Different in Real Life was bullied in fifth grade by Aidan and Tony, two boys who tormented him over his devotion to his rabbit Nimbus. Things got so bad that Nate's grandfather visited Aidan's parents to rip them a new one. But the boys denied the bullying, and there wasn't enough proof, so neither was ever punished.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Boys: Behind his Physical God status, Homelander's pretty much a grown-up bully that revels in the fear and suffering of others and is impotent in the face of those he can't intimidate or kill. He ramps it up hard in season 3.
    • After Edgar makes Annie co-captain, he takes it out on A-Train, fat shaming him and then threatening him when he replies fuck you under his breath
    • After finding out Stormfront killed herself, he forces a suicidal young woman he was supposed to rescue to kill herself even after she changes her mind.
    • He re-recruits the Deep as a power move on Annie then forces her to pretend to be his girlfriend.
    • He welcomes the Deep back by having a seafood dinner and then forcing him to eat his friend Timothy the Octopus alive, knowing full well the Deep can hear him talk and beg for mercy.
  • Cobra Kai: Good God, where do we begin?:
    • Season 1 introduces Kyler and his gang who relentlessly harass Miguel by calling him 'rhea (after seeing him a bottle of Pepto-Bismol that he bought for his grandma) in addition to picking on less popular kids like Eli and Demetri. If that's not all, Yasmine and her clique are also shown making fun of Aisha for her weight. It gets to the point where Johnny Lawrence's (the original bully from the Karate Kid) Cobra Kai becomes a safe haven for bullied kills, and even their top students (Hawk, Aisha, Miguel) eventually become bullies themselves.
    • Season 2 subverts Miguel in which he learns his lesson after attacking Robby's injured shoulder in the All-Valley finals. However, Hawk begins to fully embrace his bully mindset by attacking Demetri (after he posts a bad review of the Cobra Kai dojo on Yelp), vandalizing Miyagi-Do (and stealing Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor in the process), and escalating the All Valley School Brawl. This season also introduces Tory, who makes Sam her biggest target (due to the latter's privileged background and previous relationship with Miguel). Oh, and John Kreese returns, ready to turn Cobra Kai into the thug dojo it was in the Karate Kid trilogy, and successfully does so after making a deal with Armand to take it from Johnny.
    • Throughout Season 3, the entire Cobra Kai dojo is fully established as this (with Kreese as the top dog, and Hawk and Tory as its biggest thugs). This season also reintroduces the despicable Kyler and Brucks (the latter of which gets a well-deserved no-holds-barred-beatdown by Hawk), with the former becoming a member of the Cobra Kai dojo after beating up Mitch during a sparring. Shawn Payne becomes this to Robby during his time in juvie, ruthlessly tormenting him (until Robby manages to nearly beat him using Kreese's strike-first philosophy). Hawk eventually redeems himself after realizing how far he's gone as a person.
  • Control Z: Gerry and his buddies never leave Luis be, picking on him brutally every day.
  • Come Dine With Me: It comes off on some of the contestants. Sometimes it mostly seems like editing, sometimes it is genuinely real, and sometimes it has led the show to considerable controversy.
    • Kathryn, of Blackpool made an "ugly" contestant wear a paper bag for the evening while bragging about her own looks, and gave fellow contestants nasty nicknames like "Septic Peg", "Bifocal Bob" and "Garden Gnome". Kathryn tried to pass this off as her "Northern brand of humour" but viewers had none of it; she received violent threats on the internet for the stunt, and was also roundly criticized by the other contestants.
    • Christian, of Walsall, a self-professed "carnivore" clashed with vegetarian beautician Georgina over a controversial episode. Saying he did not consider vegetarians "normal", he gave Georgina a raw tomato to eat (and made a joke that since it was a beef tomato, she could not eat it), a pasta bake made with canned soup topped with parmesan (a cheese made from rennet, so vegetarians cannot eat it), and potatoes cooked in goose fat. Christian then called the girl rude and disrespectful for refusing everything he was offering her. He later admitted to sharing the episode with his mates, who apparently found him hilarious.
  • First Day: Isabella, a girl from Hannah's former school who knew her pre-transition and thus knows her previous name, bullies Hannah using this knowledge. However, over time she warms up to Hannah (who's very kind to her in spite of this, as she sees Isabella has suffered abuse due to bruises on her arms), and stops it.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Ser Alliser Thorne bullies his recruits and encourages bullying among them, though he claims this is necessary to toughen them up.
    • Rast bullies Sam at the Wall, then later on he ironically gets bullied by Karl once Karl kills Jeor Mormont.
    • Lommy and Hot Pie try to bully Arya, but are mostly just putting on a tough front. After an initial altercation, they all get along fairly well.
    • Joffrey Baratheon gets his kicks tormenting others.
      • Joffrey is a Deconstruction: He is The Bully with actual power and status, and adults who normally have little to fear from this stock character are in as much if not more danger from him. As Ned Stark can testify.
    • Cersei Lannister gets a kick out of throwing her weight around and making underlings squirm. Pycelle is probably her favorite punching bag.
    • Lord Tywin Lannister hides it well, but underneath all his intelligence and practicality and his insistence that everything he's doing is for his family, it's ultimately revealed that he's nothing but a bully who likes to abuse the people that he believes are beneath him. Tywin insists that every ruthless action he takes is to protect his family, that he grew up with a weak father, and that others took a vantage of his father's weakness, so he grew up cold and ruthless to protect his family. While he may have had good intentions when he was younger, it's clear that he is a bully now, and while he may act sophisticated and practical every time he has power against someone weaker than him, he would abuse the person. Whenever it looks like he's not as bad as he acts, he reveals his cruel side to the person he showed kindness to, even if he seems to enjoy the person's company generally. While his least favorite son, Tyrion, gets the brunt of his cruelty, even his favorite children, Jaime and Cersei, get his cruelty when they displease him. It's made clear that at the end of his life, Tywin's nothing but a cruel Lord who likes to bully the people he views below him and for all his hatred of Joffrey and Cersei for their stupidity and pettiness, his grandson and daughter's stupidity and pettiness came from him. The fact he'd rather shout at his offspring than patiently explain why they should follow him says it all about his bullying nature under the civil surface.
    • Gregor's idea of a good time is raping and killing people — especially those who can't feasibly fight back. A woman and her baby in the backstory, his own little brother when they were both children, a surprised Loras Tyrell who had nothing but a wooden shield while he was swinging a huge sword, a bunch of helpless unarmed prisoners...and it's mentioned that he regularly goes raping and pillaging the smallfolk. Facing an actually challenging opponent like his brother Sandor and Oberyn Martell just makes him even angrier.
    • The Waif takes a lot of glee in bullying Arya whenever she can. Unlike Lommy and Hot Pie, she is a legitimate threat, and her bullying only escalates when Jaqen is not present.
  • Bullying was a central theme in Glee. Most of the football players and cheerleaders bullied the original Glee Club kids (especially Kurt and Rachel), even those who later became part of the Glee Club. David Karofsky is somewhat of a leader of the jock posse, and in season 2 he's the main antagonist who bullies Kurt to the point of sexual harassment and death threats.
    • Later he's redeemed and becomes the victim of bullying himself.
  • As a Long Runner set in a British high school, Grange Hill has had its fair share of bullies. The most iconic of these is arguably Norman 'Gripper' Stebson, who was feared by teachers as well as students, and had a penchant for extortion and racism.
  • Hutch was this to Kip in the original season of The Joe Schmo Show, messing up his photo album, teasing him about not wanting to go in the pool and threatening to shove him in the pool and such. Part of the appeal of Matt was him standing up for Kip and saying that he understands about phobias and such.
  • Parodied in a Key & Peele skit, with a bully who openly spouts various generic Freudian Excuses used by TV bullies all the while still acting like a schoolyard bully.
  • Malcolm in the Middle: In early seasons Reese often tortures his younger brothers and is a violent, feared bully even at school. It becomes a plot point in the episode "Bully" when he temporarily decides to become nicer, but without Reese as the "head bully", the school descends into total anarachy and results in dozens of wannabe bullies jockeying for his position.
  • Mohawk Girls: Iostha is the leader of some bullying women in Kahnawake who police how others act and lead roudy protests against Mohawks in relationships with white people.
  • Motherland: Fort Salem: When Cadet Cortez innocently asks why the Mothertongue class has been canceled, Jarrett interrupts Professor Grafton's explanation in a brusque manner with his own rant about witches having their own secret language. His body language and dominating tone when he asks if she has further questions silence her.
  • My World… and Welcome to It: Lydia is asked by two boys to a school dance in "The Mating Dance." She agrees to go with the uncouth Leonard, but it turns out his brainy rival Elbert backed off from pursuing Lydia because Leonard bullied him to stay away from her. John encourages Elbert to stand up to Leonard, telling him a story about how his grandfather bested three members of a bullying family. But things backfire when Elbert stands up for himself and punches Leonard — the latter backs down crying and Lydia feels sorry for him.
  • Sandra was one of these in her youth New Tricks to the point that when she attended a school reunion in one episode, her class picture had been defaced to give her devil horns and a goatee. It is implied she was also one in her police academy days too.
  • Once Upon a Time: Peter Pan is essentially a school bully in a fantasy setting. Pan frequently displays a bullying, mocking, and defiant attitude, always displaying an air of superiority toward others whenever possible.
  • Kubiak in Parker Lewis Can't Lose is presented as such at first, especially due to his giantic size and menacing personality, but later episodes showed that he was actually a Gentle Giant only doing what society expected from him.
  • Bulk and Skull from the early seasons of Power Rangers are particularly mild examples of this trope, though as Linkara points out, they "weren't particularly good bullies since it was obvious any ONE of the rangers was capable of kicking their asses". However, they acted more like comic relief by cracking jokes than anything. They were more or less on friendly terms with the Rangers (in their own way) and Skull even had an obvious crush on Kimberly. And when real bullies showed up they fled in terror. However, by season three they'd grown out of the bully/class clown persona and became junior police officers and would hold down various jobs in later seasons. Each had major Pet the Dog moments beginning in season two.
  • Grayson the School Bully from the Ripping Yarns' instalment "Tompkinson's Schooldays"'' is another parody of the Flashman character from the Tom Brown's Schooldays.
    "In return for not hitting any of the masters, the Head had allowed Grayson certain privileges, such as having unmarried Filipino women in his room, smoking opium, and having a sauna instead of prayers.
  • Sesame Street: Several classic Street stories and skits:
    • In episodes aired in 1973 and 1974, a character named Bad Barney came to the street to bully Big Bird around. In his first appearance, he spray-painted his initials ("B.B.") on several buildings and windows and threatens to pin the blame on Big Bird if he opens his mouth. The adults almost immediately catch on and help the Bird stand up to Barney before he is given his walking papers. In the second skit, Barney returns, looking for a patsy to do his chores, his homework, etc., and threatens to blame him for a theft from vegetable vendor Willy's cart. Big Bird follows through with the theft but then admits later what he had done when Barney continues to accellerate his threats; when Big Bird rats him out, Barney flees ... right into a cop, who takes him away. The latter skit was remade in 1985, with Telly as Barney's mark.
    • In 1975, a Gangsters' skit is made with Lefty – not the salesman, but a Fat Blue character as a scared kid – intimidated by a pair of gangsters. He's told to remember the "secret knock" (three knocks) and that he'd better answer the door when he hears the knock or else. Lefty eventually decides he doesn't want to be bullied anymore and leaves through a back door, leaving the gangsters stranded outside (and – as the skit ends beforehand – likely easy targets for arrest by the police, who have been searching for them).
    • A 2011 episode, “The Good Birds Club,” puts bullying in a modern context, when Big Bird is invited (by paper invitation) to a new club. There, the pigeons convince Big Bird that he’s not good enough because of various attributes, covertly bullying him in the process. In the end, Chris, Elmo and Abby get the Bird to realize he’s being bullied, and Big Bird eventually tells the lead pigeon to shove it. The other two members of the Good Birds Club follow Big Bird’s lead and join a new club, the “Happy To Be Me” club, where everyone is welcome.
  • Whitney Fordman in the first season of Smallville. Slowly gained some Character Development over the season, and when he left to join the army, he and Clark had a grudging respect for each other, and he even asks Clark to keep Lana safe for him. Then he is pretty quickly revealed to have been KIA.
  • The brother on Strangers with Candy. To be fair, he bullies his sister, who at times can be something of a bully herself.
  • Played straight, then Inverted in an episode of Supernatural. One episode had Dean and Sam return to one of several High Schools they'd attended while travelling cross-country with their father. Sam has Flashbacks to a boy who had bullied him for being small, until Sam turned the tables by beating the tar out of him. They moved again shortly afterwards, and in the present, Sam discovers that after the beating, the rest of the school started to bully the bully, to the point that his ghost became a vengeful spirit that killed other bullies.

    Music 

    Pinballs 
  • The Big Shot on Dr. Dude, who constantly taunts the player. Naturally, hitting him yields big points.

    Podcasts 
  • Each candidate in the Plumbing the Death Star episode "Which Smash Bros. Character Would Make the Best Stepdad?" is measured by how they would handle it if they found out a stereotypical bully was hassling their kid. By the end of the episode, the bully has to deal with a mute kleptomaniac, magical deadbeat Italians, and actual wild animals who all come down on him with extreme force. After getting eaten and spit back out by the final stepfather, the bully doesn't even want to associate with his victim and just wants to stay away from his terrifying family members.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Nick Busick (a state law enforcement officer from Georgia) used a "bully" gimmick as a heel in both Georgia Championship Wrestling and later, the WWF. His 1991 WWF run was his best known, where he was known as simply "The Bully." To sell the gimmick, he'd commit various acts such as hassling ring announcer Mike McGuirk when she got his name wrong, or popping a child's balloon with a pin. After bullying several jobbers, he moved to the mid-card and had moderate success against wrestlers like "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka and "The Texas Tornado" Kerry Von Erich, but never got higher as – after a well-publicized match where he was completely squashed by Sid Justice – the "bully" gimmick was effectively destroyed and Busick left shortly after that match.

    Theater 
  • Cyrano de Bergerac: This play is not placed in High School, but uses — and deconstructs this trope:
  • In Street Scene, Vincent Jones harasses Rose on the street. When Sam tries to intervene, Vincent calls him a "little kike bastard" and hits him, then protests that he has a weak heart. Rose tries to tell Sam that "he's nothing but a loafer... ten years from now, he'll still be driving a taxi," but Sam is in his usual despair.

    Video Games 
  • Spider from The Adventures of Willy Beamish. Want to make it past him unscathed? Give Him Your Inventory Item.
  • Nebulax from Astro Bot (2024) is described as such (even by his Boss Subtitles!), and every interlude that plays when entering a new galaxy has him bullying the mothership's processor in some way, such as drawing on its face and scaring it with a dangerous flower bouquet as part of a childish prank.
  • The aptly-named It's A Bully from Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning, naturally. This big jerk will stand in a hallway, block you from passing unless you surrender an item to him, and is immune to BSODA or the Grappling Hook. You can fight back, in a sense, by letting Principal Of The Thing see him bully you, which will get him sent to detention for 90 seconds.
  • Bully (2006), as you might have guessed, centers around these. In fact, the first clique that the main character has to fight and take over is made up entirely of bullies, ironically making them pushovers for most of the game and allowing the player to have a blast putting them through the same torment they've been unleashing on the weaker students at Bullworth Academy.
  • In The Classroom Trilogy, you play as Alex, a bully who cheat on a geek to get good grade in the first and third game. In the second game though, someone force you to copy on him.
  • Dustborn: One of Pax's peers from Liberty, Fred, states that she used to push other kids around in her childhood. One cutscene shows she even went as far as using Vox to push her sister Ziggy around. That said, she did make sure to defend her peers and sister from other bullies. Whether or not she has truly grown beyond this mindset depends on how tactfully the game's dialogue choices are handled, since it's possible for Pax to become a more empathetic person, a Jerkass manipulator who still abuses Vox, or anywhere in-between.
  • Fable I and Fable II both have the hero encounter a young bully and their victim early on, such as a boy who had stolen his little sister's beloved teddy bear. As a light taste of the Karma Meter, you can rescue the victim or join in the bullying.
  • Sean in Hewitt. He keeps stealing Hewitt's food until he can find a way to get rid of him.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • Mido from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time bullies Link because he doesn't have a fairy and because he's best friends with the girl Mido likes, Saria. To a lesser extent, he's mean to the other Kokiri, particularly one boy he forces to mow Saria's lawn, something Mido offered to do as a favor for Saria. Of course, seven years later, after Saria accepts her destiny as a Sage, Mido admits that he was a jerk and asks the adult version of Link (whom he doesn't recognize) to apologize to Link on his behalf.
    • Groose from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It ultimately turns out he's not that bad at heart and when the chips are down, he Gets Dangerous and helps save the day.
  • Little Nightmares II features Bullies as a type of enemy in The School. Apparently made of porcelain, they are fierce and feral and spend every waking moment either causing trouble or trying to kill you. The only time they behave is when told to by The Teacher, who has no qualms about chaining them up, beating them, or outright killing them if she catches any slight infraction of the rules. To quote the game itself:
    Proof that all children don't get to be innocent, The Bullies aren't tragic figures, no cruel parents to blame, and don't secretly crave your friendship. They are Bullies, and they will get you if you don't get them first.
  • Lost Judgment has bullying and its fallout as a major plot point, and some of the earliest antagonists Yagami has to face in his investigation. And yes, this does mean pounding them into the pavement with martial arts. Takes a darker turn when the main villain is revealed to be a murderous Bully Hunter who tracks down and kills former bullies who appear to have gotten away with their crimes.
  • Every single enemy in Ninja Pizza Girl acts out this trope to a T. Partly they are just doing their job in trying to sabotage their boss' competition by making Gemma late on her pizza runs, they are also clearly enjoying their jobs a little too much and seem to take a savage delight in putting her through petty abuses and trying to break her spirit.
  • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has Team Star, a gang of teenage delinquents plaguing the region's Academy of Adventure who initially formed to protect themselves from bullies but ended up becoming bullies themselves as they pressure other kids to join up with them. Part of the game's story revolves around the Player Character becoming a Bully Hunter and forcing them to disband. At the end of the storyline it's revealed that while some of the grunts could be pushy, Team Star never actually bullied anyone and it was all just rumors stemming from the leaders' former bullies dropping out in fear of them.
  • The Prince of Landis: Jason is established as Evan's bully in the first cutscene. He calls Evan a mean name, insults his father, and then beats him up. Dustin's father says it's because Evan's own father used to beat Jason's father up when they were kids.
    • Jason is also seen making fun of Tommy for his back.
  • Bobby Zilch of Psychonauts. Not a very effective one though.
  • Bisco from Robopon, who even holds sway over teachers.
  • Saturday Morning RPG: Episode 2 introduces Billy, the boyfriend of Marty's crush who also likes to pick on Marty. He cuts Marty off on his way to his locker, claims it as his own, and then takes Marty outside, intending to beat him to a pulp in front of the school. However, by then, Marty already has his notebook, and quickly turns the tables on Billy (though he accidentally prematurely activates Commander Hood's giant cannon in the process).
  • Carson Moss in Splinter Cell: Double Agent is this to the rest of the members of the JBA, going out of his way to be a massive swinging dick to everyone below him for no reason whatsoever than he's a sadistic asshole. He finds reasons to be a jerk to Sam even if your trust with the JBA is 100% and you've excelled at everything you've ever done, if you're in the right place at the right time you can catch an argument between him and Jamie spurred by Moss being an asshole for no good reason, and you'll frequently overhear JBA Mooks griping about how he treats all of them. According to his NSA profile, he's been this way since his youth where he was implicated in a series of racially-motivated beatings but never arrested. You finally get to give this guy what-for if you manage to get the best ending in the game, where he serves as the true Final Boss and you get to snap his neck aboard a stolen Coast Guard ship.
  • w0rd 0N 7h3 S7R337: Earl, a big thuggish boy who harasses your friend at the beginning of the game (regardless of your character's gender). If you play as a boy, he’s threatening to beat up your friend Jeff, and if you play as a girl, he’s trying to get your friend Jen to go out with him.

    Web Animation 
  • Ability No. X: Kanzaki was a former bully who used her ability to steal vision from a classmate, blinding her. The classmate later died due to an accident on her way home.
  • Camp Camp: Nurf fits this role stereotypically at first glance, being a large delinquent who picks on the other kids and has even the camp counselors scared of him thanks to his raw strength. During his first time in the spotlight, Nurf proves to be a Punch-Clock Villain who only bullies when he deems it appropriate, a Politically Correct Villain who doesn't engage in intolerance, and a Genius Bruiser capable of screwing with people psychologically. Max, David, and Gwen are left bewildered by trying to figure him out.
  • Dayum: “Types of People on the School Bus Portrayed by Minecraft” features a bully named Bryce, who steals snacks and demands to be allowed to drive.
  • Etra chan saw it!:
    • Akamatsu and Tachibana are a duo of bullies who pushed Kuroki into a train to be "spirited away", fortunately, a train conductor was able to open the door for him before the train leaves. When Kuroki transferred to another school, Akamatsu and Tachibana switched their attention to Karin for standing up to him and started bullying her. On the graduation day, Akamatsu and Tachibana steal Karin's diploma in an attempt to lure her into a train to be "spirited away". However, Akamatsu and Tachibana become confused after Karin doesn't follow them, nobody else is inside the train, being given weird looks by other bystanders, and the doors of the train eventually close, trapping them inside, causing them to beg Karin to help them. Karin then tells them they are going to be the ones to be "spirited away" and the train eventually leaves with them trapped inside, which is revealed to be an out-of-service train going back to the garage. Because of this incident, Akamatsu and Tachibana are scolded by their respective parents and Karin was given her diploma back.
    • Akane is this towards Yuzuriha just because her crush preferring someone like Yuzuriha over her, causing her and her friends to bully Yuzuriha for several times. Yuzuriha tries to tell a teacher about the bullying, but she gets ignored by her. Akane eventually crosses the line by burning Yuzuriha's school uniform, forcing her to take her shirt off in front of her classmates, Akane and her friends then continue to insult Yuzuriha for taking her shirt off in the classroom. Feeling embarrassed by this, Yuzuriha runs away from her classroom and falls down the stairs, causing her to be admitted into a hospital. Eventually, the school finds out about the bullying, Akane and her friends get transferred to a different school and the teacher who ignored Yuzuriha's complaint also gets fired for ignoring the bullying.
    • Akane bullies her employee, Yuzuriha, after she was witnessing her affair with one of her employees, Akamatsu. She eventually fires Yuzuriha to humiliate her furthermore. It comes to bite Akane in the ass when Yuzuriha turns out to be her superior in the nursing home she is working at, and eventually her photos of the affair are spread through her workplace, causing her to be fired.
    • Hiiragi turned out to be a big bully since middle school. His bullying was really severe, it caused some students to stop coming to school. He also pretended to be a model student to hide his real personality.
    • Akamatsu ruined Tachibana, Hiiragi and Akane's lives during middle school. He and his minions attempted to rape Akane and also took a picture of her in her underwear, they framed Hiiragi to prevent him from enrolling at the high school of his choice, and they also blackmailed Tachibana to be their slave. Even after years have passed, Akamatsu continues harassing Tachibana by coming to his ramen store and also harassing a female regular who often visits the store. The trio eventually works together to make Akamatsu pay for the consequences, which ends up in his arrest and imprisonment.
    • Hiiragi bullies Kuroki for being an introvert, later Akamatsu joins in as well. Kuroki's teacher Akane also ignores the bullying because she thinks bullying is just another form of friendship. One day, they force Kuroki to visit a Yakuza house so they will stop bullying him for one week. The duo and Akane end up getting scolded by the gang for their actions. In the end, Hiiragi and Akamatsu completely stop bullying Kuroki.
    • Yuzuriha, Akamatsu and Tachibana physically bullied Hiiragi when they were in middle school. Years later, Hiiragi decides to plan a revenge against them by going after Akamatsu and Tachibana first before targetting Yuzuriha, the main culprit of his misery.
  • The Most Epic Story Ever Told in All of Human History: Ridiculously Epic in his more petty moments. He even lampshades this in “The Most Epically Inspirational Sports Movie Ever”, with the line “Nothing like antagonizing random teenagers for no reason!”
  • RWBY:
    • Cardin Winchester and his team's Establishing Character Moment is them bullying Velvet, where Cardin enjoys yanking her rabbit ears. He also ruthlessly bullies Jaune and blackmails him into being his skivvy once he learns his secret. When Pyrrha shows up Cardin is crass, he seeks revenge by forcing Jaune to collect a box full of rapier wasps as part of an elaborate plan to attack her. He only stops bullying Jaune when he saves him from a giant Ursa.
    • Underneath her charisma and manipulative nature, Cinder Fall is a smug, sadistic bully who enjoys flaunting her power and superiority over those she feels are inferior or weak, she desires to be feared and hates being made to feel helpless. After being permanently maimed by Ruby, she develops an obsessive hatred for her. When fighting Jaune, she toys with him until he almost succeeds in injuring her, whereupon she flies into a rage and fatally injures Weiss in a replay of Pyrrha's death just to spite him. Made a Slave during her childhood by a cruel hotelier and her daughters, she is frequently abused and tortured until she eventually kills them all. Since then, Cinder has treated others the same way she was treated.
    • Tyrian Callows enjoys toying with other's emotions and childishly mocking those who can't fight back. When Cinder returns badly wounded from Ruby's silver-eye powers, Tyrian repeatedly laughs at her and promises to take Ruby's eye out the same way Ruby's powers did to Cinder's, while pointing at his own eye for added mockery. When Hazel returns with Emerald and Mercury after the failed attack on Haven Academy, Tyrian immediately comments on Cinder's disappearance and laughs when Emerald begins to freeze up in anger before mockingly asking her if something happened to Cinder. When Emerald threatens to "cut off more than [Tyrian's] tail" in response, Tyrian immediately gets up in Emerald's face while warning her that Cinder isn't there protect her, scaring her until Mercury tells him to back off. He later spies on Emerald and Mercury while the latter is venting to her about his abusive upbringing and how it ties into his reasons for working with Salem, mocks his motives and assaults Mercury when he retaliates physically. He then tells them that they're in the wrong field if they aren't working for Salem because they want to and not for personal gain, but at the same time they can't leave Salem. He then tells, or rather begs them to do what makes them feel happy, while brandishing his new stinger at them in a manner that implies he'll be happy to hunt them down if they decide to leave.
  • SHARE MY STORY: Brandon seems like a cool guy, but in reality, he is a Jerkass who picks on weaker students.
  • Shishihara: Shuto bullies many people in the football team and brags about his supposed past as a leader of a delinquent gang to them so he can threaten them to do what he wants. His luck runs out when he runs into Sota and Yurika.
  • Terrible Writing Advice criticizes the use of this trope in its "Magic Schools" video by pointing out how bullies are either one-dimensional Straw Characters with no redeeming qualities, or a caricature of someone the writer knows in real life.

    Webcomics 
  • Aisopos: Kollos is this to Aesop and Bri (although his treatment towards them has some psychopathic tendecies, as he beats them frequently and one time, he even tried to murder the protagonist).
  • The Angel with Black Wings: Danilo Tamaraw and Leina Kaye Tenor are the biggest bullies in Ray's school life.
  • Annyseed: Charlotte Peechi decided from the moment she first met Anny that she would forever be her inconvenience.
  • Bastard: Manny Kim, Pann Han, and Beau Park are a trio of bullies ranking from most to least powerful with Beau being a bully victim himself. Manny eventually grows out of this.
  • The Bully's Bully is all about the heroine dealing with bullies although in a variation, she's usually helping others and not merely defending herself from bullies.
  • Briar in Finding Your Roots demeans anyone she perceives as weaker, which is pretty much everyone, even her own teammates.
  • Homestuck: Vriska and Cronus could be seen as this in different ways. Vriska is basically a 13 year old Serial Killer with a bad case of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder who paralyzes Tavros and later on puts him in a house full of stairs while making him try to "apologize for being a cripple". Cronus on the other hand, hits on Mituna (who is brain damaged and Hates Being Touched), takes advantage of him, and openly insults him.
  • Skeeter in Minion Comics forces new minions to play one of two games: Stab-Twist-Gurgle or Mama Bird.
  • Ragnar: The Prelude to Nixvir: A group of them torment Ragnar because of his status as The Quiet One. Erik defends him by using the I refute it thus technique. From that point on, Erik and Ragnar become friends.
  • Selkie: Jeremy Trunchbull bullies the eponymous heroine relentlessly. His father refuses to see his son as a bully and has successfully strong-armed several schools in the past to drop all punishments.
  • Sleepless Domain: Undine first meets Zoe while the latter is being bullied by a fellow Magical Girl for being too afraid to fight monsters. When Undine (who had just lost her entire team less than a week prior, and yet had already returned to the nightly patrol) tries to intervene, the unnamed bully proceeds to use her as an example to make Zoe feel even worse about herself. Undine has no patience for this.
  • What, Were You Raised By Wolves?: On the wild girl's first day of school, two other children immediately look gleeful at the prospect of getting to beat her up. One panel later, they are running to the teacher while sobbing and with their arms covered in bite marks.
  • Wizard School: Gavin Gothicus mocks Graham's magical tattoo and brags about all his father's numerous possessions. Too bad he's up against a bigger Jerkass...

    Web Original 
  • Hilariously parodied with the "AcountaBully" series on Tik Tok, where the bully always corners the POV character in the hallway between classes to give them a hard time about... not accepting trans people, refusing to vote, Slut-Shaming female classmates, and other harmful behaviors. He's aggressive and rude, but comes off as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, since while he bullies the POV character, he's actively standing up for others at school. He also never actually punches the POV character despite often threatening to, since the bell always conveneintly goes off right when he's about to do it. This leads some commenters to speculate that he times it that way on purpose, allowing him to maintain a "tough guy" front without actually hurting anyone. He also backs off in one video where he realizes the POV character is struggling with depression. The series blew up both for the actor's glorious parody of a stereotypical high school bully, and because the character proved to be oddly endearing.
  • Heavily discussed by Doug Walker in his Top 10 Worst Cliches list where "The Bully" takes the #1 slot because he finds them to be unfunny, uninteresting, undeveloped "characters" with no real backstory or motivation being being a dick to the protagonist to spur the story forward. He brings up bullies like Nelson Muntz, Shooter McGavin, and Jack Black as the bully in Airborne and The Neverending Story III as rare positive examples of The Bully, explaining that these characters are written as funny, entertaining characters who are actually motivated by their own amusement and are played in a self-aware way, unlike most that are just "cardboard cutouts of stereotypes".
  • Sameer Bhavnani: In "Kid Copies GTA 6 (GTA VI)... Learns A Lesson", Tommy beats up another kid and steals his prized toy as he was influenced by video games to behave badly.
  • Viral Texts: Liza bullied Jenny in high school and even when they grew up, she threatened Jenny and even went as far as to steal her husband. When Jenny and her husband divorced, he lost his job and Liza is forced to work three jobs to provide for him.
  • Ukinojoe:
    • In Great: The Show 5, the opening segment, "Meme High School", has Pizza Frank, who gives the main character- also named Frank, incidentally- a hearty punch in the face for seemingly trying to steal his likeness.
    • A segment from Great: The Show 8, titled "Replacement Bully", has a subversion of this trope: the title character "bullies" another student at school by unknowingly "replacing" his possessions (such as his #2 pencil with a mechanical one and his lunch pizza with a vegan grandma pizza). This gradually escalates further until he eventually replaces the kid's sidewalk with a conveyor belt and eventually literally replaces his dad with himself.



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Toot receives a devastating wedgie from the popular girls while at a fat camp.

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