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Future Loser

437 statements
79 feature instances
68 referencing feature instances

Future Loser	type	FeatureClass
Future Loser	label	Future Loser
Future Loser	page	FutureLoser
Future Loser	comment	The Big Jerk on Campus who makes The Protagonist's life impossible presumes that his popularity and success in the academic world will translate into success in business, sports, and politics, and everyone else will be there to lick his boots. Irony says otherwise. Through the magical agency of Time Travel, prophetic dreams or a nearby example of Retirony, we (and occasionally he) find out they'll become a broken shell of a man whose life has been reduced to menial jobs and is the target of constant derision or, worse, being forgotten. Often he endlessly laments his Glory Days because, for once, high school really was the Best Years of Your Life. If this leads to an epiphany, expect it to be short-lived, since We Want Our Jerk Back!, regardless of how doomed it will make his future. If it sticks, expect a gradual shift into Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Usually The Protagonist will be the one to get the epiphany, and try to sympathize with or treat the Jerk Jock better (this doesn't last long either, but may lead to an Odd Friendship or understanding). If any Character Development happens, expect it to be subtle and far-reaching. Sometimes given a twist with the character who seems to have it all made and be on the fast track academically becoming the loser. (This is an Inverted Trope, Not a Subversion.) If taken to extremes, the writer may be working out issues or giving a Take That! against Dumb Is Good. A sub-trope of Future Foil. See also Fallen Princess, Humiliation Conga, Jaded Washout, Odd Friendship, and Retirony. Contrast Future Badass and Ridiculously Successful Future Self.
Future Loser	fetched	2024-04-05T18:17:35Z
Future Loser	parsed	2024-04-05T18:17:36Z
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to AbneyPark: Not an Item - IGNORE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to AgentMulder: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to AlphaBitch: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to AvrilLavigne: Not an Item - IGNORE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to BigManOnCampus: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to BroughtDownToNormal: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to BruceSpringsteen: Not an Item - IGNORE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to ClassReunion: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to CloneDegeneration: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to DelayedRippleEffect: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to DumbJock: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to Gorillaz: Not an Item - IGNORE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to HeroicBSOD: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to IAmNumberFour: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to Jerkass: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to LilyAllen: Not an Item - IGNORE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to NiceGuy: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to PaperGirls: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to Paramore: Not an Item - IGNORE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to PlayedForLaughs: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to RichBitch: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to ScareEmStraight: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to SmallNameBigEgo: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to TagalongKid: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy: Not an Item - IGNORE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to TobyKeith: Not an Item - IGNORE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to TrickedIntoSigning: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to WhiteSheep: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to WokenFuries: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to kickthedog: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingComment	Dropped link to likefatherlikeson: Not an Item - FEATURE
Future Loser	processingUnknown	IAmNumberFour
Future Loser	processingUnknown	WokenFuries
Future Loser	processingUnknown	PaperGirls
Future Loser	isPartOf	DBTropes
Future Loser / int_104a71a	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_104a71a	comment	In Central Intelligence, Calvin was king of the school and voted "Most Likely to Succeed." He grows up to be a mid-level accountant and considers his life a disappointment, though his (smoking hot) wife tries to assure him that he's doing pretty well (and is a little insulted to boot).
Future Loser / int_104a71a	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_104a71a	featureConfidence	1.0
Central Intelligence	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_104a71a
Future Loser / int_11b7db91	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_11b7db91	comment	Extremely sad version in Adventure Time. Simon Petrikov was a certified badass when he was human, but centuries of being mentally warped by an Artifact of Doom have left him a pathetic, crazy old man who barely even knows how to function anymore. It's pretty obviously meant to parallel the effects of dementia. Which makes for a pair of relatively heart breaking episodes where its revealed (and then flashed back to) how he basically had an adopted daughter, Marceline, but doesn't remember their time together because he sacrificed his sanity bit by bit using the Artifact of Doom to keep her safe.
Future Loser / int_11b7db91	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_11b7db91	featureConfidence	1.0
Adventure Time	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_11b7db91
Future Loser / int_1925916d	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_1925916d	comment	Dimension20 Fantasy High: Fabian's nightmare in Leviathan is him in the future becoming a loser who never managed to make a name for himself outside of his father's shadow, with a demeanor markedly similar to Gilear, his mom's incredibly pathetic boyfriend (and his friend Fig's step-dad).
Future Loser / int_1925916d	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_1925916d	featureConfidence	1.0
Dimension 20 (Web Video)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_1925916d
Future Loser / int_1b5246c	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_1b5246c	comment	The protagonist of John Mayer's No Such Thing just can't wait to confront the Future Losers with his anticipated success.
Future Loser / int_1b5246c	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_1b5246c	featureConfidence	1.0
John Mayer (Music)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_1b5246c
Future Loser / int_1beda93b	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_1beda93b	comment	In Sluggy Freelance some information from the future convinces Torg that he goes on to become a world famous professor. Turns out he actually plays the Professor in a theatrical rendition of Gilligan's Island that a demon forces people to watch as a form of torture. Riff just didn't have the heart to tell him the truth.
Future Loser / int_1beda93b	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_1beda93b	featureConfidence	1.0
Sluggy Freelance (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_1beda93b
Future Loser / int_22fa3400	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_22fa3400	comment	Empowered: The series has this in a kind of Imagine Spot, where kid Emp meets her future superheroine self.
Future Loser / int_22fa3400	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_22fa3400	featureConfidence	1.0
Empowered (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_22fa3400
Future Loser / int_24ffd341	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_24ffd341	comment	It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Dennis Reynolds was apparently very popular in high school, and went by "the Golden God," but even his sister claims he peaked there — nowadays, he tends a dive bar and mooches off his dad's money while hanging out with even bigger lowlives. Later subverted, when we see the gang go to a high school reunion, and nobody recognizes him. The actual former popular kids have to explain to Dennis that nobody but himself called him "the Golden God," and all he did in high school was call people his "minions" and then hang out under the bleachers with Mac and Charlie. Essentially, he just took the same warped perspective with which he views everyday life and applied it to his memories as well. Bill Ponderosa is a more conventional case — in high school, he was fit, popular, and attractive. But in the present day, he's an obese Jerkass divorcee who spends his time alternating between various addictions.
Future Loser / int_24ffd341	featureApplicability	-0.3
Future Loser / int_24ffd341	featureConfidence	1.0
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_24ffd341
Future Loser / int_261c8d3f	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_261c8d3f	comment	The Simpsons: Every future episode has Bart Simpson (who is a popular class clown and skater boy archetype in the present) as an aimless but upbeat Future Loser. In "Lisa's Wedding" (which looks furthest into the futurenote August 1, 2010...wait a minute!!), Bart works as a wrecking ball operator and also in a car junkyard, is divorced two times, and hits Moe's tavern and strip clubs. Though he also plans to go to law school later, which honestly sounds delusional. This could have also been a Continuity Nod to the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" which ended with a Flash Forward that revealed that Bart will eventually become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Another future episode had Lisa as the President of USA, so she could have appointed Bart... According to an episode, the Simpsons are plagued with a "Simpson's Gene" that doom the men of the family to become pathetic losers in the future (though it doesn't stop the show from depicting Bart as crafty). In the episode "Holidays Of Future Passed", Bart lives in a slum, is barely able to hold down a minimum wage job, and following a bitter divorce his sons heavily imply that they would rather spend Christmas with their mom and new stepfather than him.
Future Loser / int_261c8d3f	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_261c8d3f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Simpsons	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_261c8d3f
Future Loser / int_2bbcacd9	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_2bbcacd9	comment	Looney Tunes, "The Old Grey Hare": Even in the year 2000 Elmer Fudd is still easily fooled by Bugs Bunny.
Future Loser / int_2bbcacd9	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_2bbcacd9	featureConfidence	1.0
Looney Tunes	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_2bbcacd9
Future Loser / int_2cee002d	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_2cee002d	comment	In Meet the Robinsons, Bowler Hat Guy is set up as a Straw Loser without his Hypercompetent Sidekick, Dor-15. He turns out to be Lewis' roommate, Goob, who let his life fall apart because he wouldn't let go of his grudge.
Future Loser / int_2cee002d	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_2cee002d	featureConfidence	1.0
Meet the Robinsons	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_2cee002d
Future Loser / int_2dec4b1c	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_2dec4b1c	comment	Happens repeatedly in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion: Billy Christiansen takes the gold: going from popular hunky jock dating the popular girl in school, to a slobby failure who nails drywall for a living and whose wife is pregnant with (he suspects) another man's kid. And he still thinks he can bed Romy since she had a crush on him back in high school—and this is despite the fact that the last time he saw Romy, he had publicly humiliated her for a laugh. His wife Christie deserves a mention too. She carried on her spiteful Alpha Bitch ways 10 years beyond highschool, retaining her Girl Posse who copy her every move, so she never grew out of her teenage bullying - but the reunion reveals her life is a pathetic shell of her past glories. She's an unfulfilled housewife with an unhappy marriage to an unfaithful sleazy loser, her only outlet in life is having baby after baby (which she pretends to be thrilled about), she never got the career she wanted, and to add insult to injury, all the people she tormented in high school are happy and fulfilled, and the minion she used to boss around has a high flying career in fashion.
Future Loser / int_2dec4b1c	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_2dec4b1c	featureConfidence	1.0
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_2dec4b1c
Future Loser / int_2e2efbf9	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_2e2efbf9	comment	In the first movie, Biff in has gone from George McFly's bullying supervisor to waxing George's car, after Marty goes back in time and teaches his dad to stand up to Biff. It sort of works out for everyone, since Biff now has a little humility and runs his own detailing business. Of course he isn't fantastically rich, but at least he doesn't own the world.
Future Loser / int_2e2efbf9	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_2e2efbf9	featureConfidence	1.0
Back to the Future	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_2e2efbf9
Future Loser / int_309df9ea	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_309df9ea	comment	Atop the Fourth Wall: When Linkara is briefly hurled into the year 2039, he discovers that his future self still lives in his parents' house, still hasn't published issue 3 of his comic, and doesn't even have his trademark brown fedora anymore. Seeing this, Linkara resolves to buckle down and change his life for the better. After he returns to the present and the Delayed Ripple Effect kicks in, Future Linkara is exactly the same as he was before — except now he has his hat back. For extra amusement, the Future Linkara was played by his father.
Future Loser / int_309df9ea	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_309df9ea	featureConfidence	1.0
Atop the Fourth Wall (Web Video)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_309df9ea
Future Loser / int_33529ef3	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_33529ef3	comment	Code:Breaker: #6 is a total badass... and a mass murderer whose motto is "making the world a better place, one purge at a time!" His past self calls him a loser for justifying his superpowers with selfish and shallow motives.
Future Loser / int_33529ef3	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_33529ef3	featureConfidence	1.0
Code:Breaker (Manga)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_33529ef3
Future Loser / int_362b3118	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_362b3118	comment	The very first episode of the series, not counting the pilot shorts, portrayed Timmy himself as this when he wished to become a grown-up. Not only does he become bald, fat and middle-aged rather than the cool, muscular adult he imagined growing up into, every attempt at living his idealized adult life backfires, to the point where he ends up in jail. Though as Channel Chasers revealed, in his actual adulthood, Timmy actually resembles his ideal self quite a bit, not to mention he is now Happily Married with two kids, so it's possible his Future Loser self was a result of not growing up naturally, since he still had the mind of a child and never matured properly.
Future Loser / int_362b3118	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_362b3118	featureConfidence	1.0
Channel Chasers	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_362b3118
Future Loser / int_3790ae45	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_3790ae45	comment	Eventually defied by the protagonist of Double Homework, who either starts a business, gets a decent job, or goes to college. This depends on the epilogue (he even gets engaged if he chooses Lauren).
Future Loser / int_3790ae45	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_3790ae45	featureConfidence	1.0
Double Homework (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_3790ae45
Future Loser / int_3a770ffb	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_3a770ffb	comment	In Nighttime Is My Time, Laura is on the verge of becoming this. She was considered one of the most beautiful and popular students at Stonecroft Academy, but twenty years on she's struggling both professionally and personally. She went through two divorces - the second of which was extremely messy - is rumored to have struggled with alcoholism, and the IRS is about to seize her house for unpaid taxes. Her acting career is tanking; her biggest role was starring as a ditzy blonde in a popular sitcom, which was cancelled a few years ago, and she's barely worked since; not only is she widely regarded as a one-note actress but she's also nearly forty - while she can pass for thirty it's pointed out she's still considered 'old' by Hollywood standards so there are less roles offered to her. Laura is still honored as a "distinguished alumna" at the reunion, though some think she's the least deserving.
Future Loser / int_3a770ffb	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_3a770ffb	featureConfidence	1.0
Nighttime Is My Time	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_3a770ffb
Future Loser / int_3fe0a130	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_3fe0a130	comment	Lindsay Lohan's character on Ugly Betty is a down-on-her-luck former Alpha Bitch whom Betty knew in High School.
Future Loser / int_3fe0a130	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_3fe0a130	featureConfidence	1.0
Ugly Betty	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_3fe0a130
Future Loser / int_43041cff	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_43041cff	comment	The Made-for-TV Movie Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip has Dexter traveling to the future, and discovering he became a craven man who is also submissive to his former rival/current boss Mandark. Although as the duo travels forward in time, a Future Badass Dexter recalls it happened because Mandark gained power in their company by stealing Dexter's ideas.
Future Loser / int_43041cff	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_43041cff	featureConfidence	1.0
Made-for-TV Movie	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_43041cff
Future Loser / int_43576f5	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_43576f5	comment	Supernatural: Sam returns to an old school where, after multiple encounters, he laid a beat down on the school bully. Years later, Sam discovers how lousy his life was and how after being beaten, he was bullied even worse, eventually dying from drug addiction. Sam feels guilty, although most wouldn't, as the bully made life for one student so hard that he committed suicide. In "The End" Dean encounters a future Castiel who has been stripped of his powers, and is now a junkie, an alcoholic, and running a cult of the enlightenment-through-sex variety.
Future Loser / int_43576f5	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_43576f5	featureConfidence	1.0
Supernatural	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_43576f5
Future Loser / int_4522fd1	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_4522fd1	comment	In the Whateley Universe, Phase calls out a group of Alpha flunkies, telling them that they've attached themselves to a group of thugs and losers who'll be nothing in a few years, and that their future prospects aren't looking good: all the devisers and gadgeteers will have filed for patents and thus become rich; the Capes will have real superhero jobs; and the Golden Kids will inherit their parents' wealth and go into their businesses. He tells the flunkies to start seriously reconsidering their lives, because their future prospects are very grim. None of them really have a response.
Future Loser / int_4522fd1	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_4522fd1	featureConfidence	1.0
Whateley Universe	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_4522fd1
Future Loser / int_455e3038	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_455e3038	comment	Bill Dauterive from King of the Hill. He was once a tall, muscular athlete with long, flowing hair and was popular with both the guys and the girls. However, getting cheated on and dumped by his wife Lenore pretty much destroyed his self-esteem, turning poor Bill into a fat, balding sad sack. A few episodes show that his rut is self-inflicted, and he could get out of it if he only had the willpower to stick with it. It didn't help that Bill was unknowingly part of a Government Conspiracy to turn soldiers into Arctic commandos to repel a potential Soviet invasion across the Arctic Circle (known as Operation: Infinite Walrus), which turned him into the man he is now (though it turns out Bill was the control group, meaning his current state is self-inflicted, though Dale doesn't bother telling him this until after Bill got drunk and stole a tank from his army base.).
Future Loser / int_455e3038	featureApplicability	1.0
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King of the Hill	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_455e3038
Future Loser / int_4617a9f2	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_4617a9f2	comment	Married... with Children: Al Bundy, whose proudest moment in his life is scoring four touchdowns in a single game while in high school. Played straight AND subverted with the Darcy's. Both Marcy and Steve have become fairly successful white collar workers in adulthood, but are shown several times as never having moved on from their loser-ish personalities from their high school years, they merely disguise them with a veneer of professionalism. Both are completely psychologically dominated by the various torments they endured as teenagers.
Future Loser / int_4617a9f2	featureApplicability	-0.3
Future Loser / int_4617a9f2	featureConfidence	1.0
Married... with Children	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_4617a9f2
Future Loser / int_4d8e5ec	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_4d8e5ec	comment	Jon Stewart used this in his standup in response to school shootings. He figures the best way to convince kids not to shoot up high schools is to convince them that it ends. So what he proposes is taking them on a time travel field trip to their twenty anniversary high school reunion.
Future Loser / int_4d8e5ec	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_4d8e5ec	featureConfidence	1.0
The Daily Show	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_4d8e5ec
Future Loser / int_4f115950	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_4f115950	comment	Robin: When a jock who is usually pretty mellow picks up a geeky kid and says he's gonna go give him a swirly in response to some of his peers goading Tim points out that the nerd is the type of person the jock in question is likely to work for in the future and the jock takes that as an excuse not to go through with it.
Future Loser / int_4f115950	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_4f115950	featureConfidence	1.0
Robin (1993) (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_4f115950
Future Loser / int_4f27410b	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_4f27410b	comment	At the end of Can't Hardly Wait itâ€™s revealed Mike Dexter's future includes losing his football scholarship after drinking too much, being forty pounds overweight, and losing his job at a car wash when incriminating Polaroids surface.
Future Loser / int_4f27410b	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_4f27410b	featureConfidence	1.0
Can't Hardly Wait	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_4f27410b
Future Loser / int_53a0bd8b	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_53a0bd8b	comment	The Twilight Zone (1985): In "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty", an angry middle-aged man named Gus finds himself transported back in time where he meets his child self. After an incident with a bully, Gus tries to get his past life together by convincing his younger self (who doesn't know heâ€™s his older self) to have a better relationship with his father (who died as he grew up). Gus then returns to his own time, and hails a cab whose driver happens to be one of the kids that used to bully him.
Future Loser / int_53a0bd8b	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_53a0bd8b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Twilight Zone (1985)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_53a0bd8b
Future Loser / int_5aa392c7	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_5aa392c7	comment	In "The Walk In" episode of Ghost Whisperer, the ghost is the former captain of a football team that after leaving High School became an utter loser— he dropped out of college after two years when he couldn't keep up, was unable to forge a solid relationship with any woman and switched from low-paid job for another each three or six months. Eventually he committed suicide a few days before a reunion of former students because he was too ashamed to attend... and it became even more pathetic when another ghost stole his body and decided to go to the party as a zombie. Yikes. Especially sad since unlike most examples of this trope, he had actually been a Nice Guy and the Class Valedictorian instead of the typical Jerk Jock/Dumb Jock, so this couldn't even be considered Laser-Guided Karma. The other ghost who stole his body had done so because he'd idolized him back in those days and was sorely disappointed in how he'd screwed up his life.
Future Loser / int_5aa392c7	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_5aa392c7	featureConfidence	1.0
Ghost Whisperer	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_5aa392c7
Future Loser / int_60f02ddb	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_60f02ddb	comment	American Dad!: Snot is already a loser but his visiting future self in "The Unincludeds" (who was originally successful until their bully went back to Make Wrong What Once Went Right) gets progressively worse as a loser starting with Steve indirectly doing cool things with the party guests and going From Bad to Worse whenever Snot tries to make sure he becomes just as cool. Somehow, this reaches a point where his future self becomes a turtle mutant. Stan Smith himself is kind of a weird inversion. Stan was a complete loser in high school, but in college he reinvented himself as an athlete and acoustic musician (he also lost his hair thanks to an experimental acne treatment but he covered it with a wig). As an adult he has a nice home, a beautiful wife, a cool job as a CIA agent and, although he's shown to be a little flabby with his shirt off, is in great shape and a certified badass. Apart from conflicts with his hippy daughter and nerd son, annoying alien friend and talking East German fish, he basically has the perfect life. However, he is still seriously hung up on his high school years. At a high school reunion for a school he never even attended, he ditches Francine for the former homecoming queen (now an overweight, depressed alcoholic), expecting to be treated like a cool stud, only for the alumni to mock him for thinking that it would still matter twenty years later.
Future Loser / int_60f02ddb	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_60f02ddb	featureConfidence	1.0
American Dad!	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_60f02ddb
Future Loser / int_66be8ed0	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_66be8ed0	comment	In Peter Parker: Foreign Exchange Student, Peter is dismayed at his older counterpart from Amazing Fantasy, who is homeless, divorced, and overweight. He says that meeting him is like "the Ghost of Christmas Future but so much worse!"
Future Loser / int_66be8ed0	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_66be8ed0	featureConfidence	1.0
Peter Parker: Foreign Exchange Student (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_66be8ed0
Future Loser / int_69b0b659	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_69b0b659	comment	Sabrina: The Animated Series: Inverted in the episode "Generation Hex", where all-around Rich Bitch Gem Stone grows up to be the head of a corporation while Sabrina is her lackey who had to sell her magic powers as part of a merger. Played straight in the same episode with Pi, Harvey, and Salem the cat. Pi becomes a monorail driver whose monorails are outdated, Harvey gets a job curling pigtails (on real pigs) after failing the entrance exam to his dream school (a hospital-cum-law school where the students study to be doctor-lawyers), and Salem is still a cat (due to an incident in which he used the Witches' Council's favorite golf course as a public toilet after Sabrina spent all of his kitty litter allowance money), only he's now homeless and walking dogs to pay off his debts. There was also a Christmas Carol style episode in which Sabrina tried to get Gem to reform her selfish ways by showing Gem's future. Gem ends up dying unloved and alone, with her servant actually kicking Gem's tomb and cheering in glee. Subverted in that present Gem couldn't see the problem with this.
Future Loser / int_69b0b659	featureApplicability	-0.3
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Sabrina: The Animated Series	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_69b0b659
Future Loser / int_71a07a47	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_71a07a47	comment	Paper Girls: When the future version of Erin meets her younger self, she worries she'll be seen as this, due to being overweight, single, and stuck at the same job for nearly 30 years. Her past self, however, doesn't care about her weight, enjoys her new job, and thinks boys are gross anyway. Conversely, Erin's clone from the far future isn't pleased with the older Erin's figure.
Future Loser / int_71a07a47	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_71a07a47	featureConfidence	1.0
Paper Girls (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_71a07a47
Future Loser / int_7310357c	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_7310357c	comment	Young Adult: Former prom queen Mavis doesn't seem like a loser at first, she's got a nice job as a writer of Young Adult fiction and she has a nice condo in the city. But it's a total front; in actuality she's an alcoholic wreck constantly on the verge of being fired and secretly pines for high school, and those who see past the facade tend to pity her.
Future Loser / int_7310357c	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_7310357c	featureConfidence	1.0
Young Adult	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_7310357c
Future Loser / int_751cea2d	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_751cea2d	comment	Biff in Death of a Salesman. He was a the all-start football player with a football scholarship to a good university, "built like Adonis", and his father believed Biff would be a successful salesman because he was well liked, while his bookish neighbor Bernard would not be successful because he wasn't as gorgeous or popular. Instead, Bernard ended up a successful lawyer, and Biff became a farm hand out west who made next to no money. Unlike his father, Biff is sufficiently self-aware to belatedly recognize that he's on a path to nowhere. An important part of the play is that Biff could have had a successful life as well if he did not sabotage his future as an overreaction to finding out what a Jerkass his father was. He could have still flamed out later in life but he never even tried. Willy is a non-school example. In the beginning he treated Charlie and Bernard with disdain but in the end they ended up highly successful and Willy ended up broke with two sons who turned out to be complete failures.
Future Loser / int_751cea2d	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_751cea2d	featureConfidence	1.0
Death of a Salesman (Theatre)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_751cea2d
Future Loser / int_7a4375df	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_7a4375df	comment	In an episode of 21 Jump Street Doug is bullied by a kid while undercover as a nerd prompting all the detectives to each tell a story of a bully they had when they were younger. Doug recalls painful memories of a bully who made his life hell throughout high school culminating in ruining his prom night with his dream girl when the bully drove off with her in Doug's new car the minute they arrive. Even though he's an adult now Doug can't get over it and decides to finally get some closure by going to where the bully now lives and punching him when he comes to the door. However when the guy opens the door he doesn't recognize him and Doug realizes he's become a poor and bitter loser, unhappily married to a nagging "cow". Doug leaves without taking his revenge on the guy, because life already did.
Future Loser / int_7a4375df	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_7a4375df	featureConfidence	1.0
21 Jump Street	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_7a4375df
Future Loser / int_7cf5a07	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_7cf5a07	comment	The Flash: The Reverse Flash, a villain from the future, taunts Eddie Thawne by showing him that he lived his life without having accomplished anything major and failed to marry his girlfriend Iris West, to the point that he is considered a laughingstock by the future Thawne family, all of whom are successful businessmen, politicians, scientists, etc. This backfires in a big way. Eddie decides to kill himself to erase Reverse Flash from existence, as Eddie was his ancestor. Eobard Thawne himself is an example. He was once a major Flash fanboy who suffered a breakdown due to time travel, and is a childish man out to kill the Flash for extremely petty reasons. This is retconned later, although the reasons are no less petty. After gaining superspeed, he planned to unveil himself in a grand way to become the new Flash. But then Barry showed up, chasing a criminal into Thawne's time and saving the day, getting the accolades Thawne desired. So now Thawne can't forgive Barry for accidentally ruining his chance of becoming a famous hero.
Future Loser / int_7cf5a07	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_7cf5a07	featureConfidence	1.0
The Flash (2014)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_7cf5a07
Future Loser / int_7fcd5a6a	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_7fcd5a6a	comment	On Earth X, Peter is an overweight, middle-aged loser who's become stiflingly overprotective towards his daughter after MJ's death, but at least here he's not alone; both Wolverine and Jean Grey are just as washed-up and pathetic as he is.
Future Loser / int_7fcd5a6a	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_7fcd5a6a	featureConfidence	1.0
Earth X / Comicbook	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_7fcd5a6a
Future Loser / int_87e00d8e	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_87e00d8e	comment	In the Teen Titans (2003) episode "How Long Is Forever?", Starfire is sent into a future timeline, so she ceases to exist for 20 years. Cyborg is broken down and forced to stay connected to the Titan Tower's power grid, Raven is institutionalized, Beast Boy is a balding, paunchy circus attraction, and Robin has become Nightwing, and now works alone. Though with his all-black suit, gruffer voice, and long hair, Robin's unquestionably a Future Badass.
Future Loser / int_87e00d8e	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_87e00d8e	featureConfidence	1.0
Teen Titans (2003)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_87e00d8e
Future Loser / int_89f2031	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_89f2031	comment	In the present day, Takemichi from Tokyo Revengers is a 26-year-old virgin without any direction in life who lives in a small, messy apartment and works in a DVD store with a manager younger than he is. Him being well-aware of his future as a lonely loser motivates Takemichi to try his best to change his life and save others during his time in the past.
Future Loser / int_89f2031	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_89f2031	featureConfidence	1.0
Tokyo Revengers (Manga)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_89f2031
Future Loser / int_8a3a1edd	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_8a3a1edd	comment	Saved by the Bell: Had the dream version happen to Slater (not a jerk, but definitely a jock), seeing himself as a beer-bellied drunk in a class reunion, forcing him to rethink his life and his "comfort zone" as a jock. It gets downplayed in the sequel series where despite maintaining his physique and being Bayside's football coach, he "supposedly" lives in his car, while all of his other friends have gone on to do bigger and better things, including his ex-girlfriend, Jessie, who's now the school's guidance counselor. At one point, Screech even points out the trope in a tape intended for future students at Bayside.
Future Loser / int_8a3a1edd	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_8a3a1edd	featureConfidence	1.0
Saved by the Bell	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_8a3a1edd
Future Loser / int_8b8730f0	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_8b8730f0	comment	Played with in the film Anger Management. The schoolyard bully that made Adam Sandler's character's life miserable grew up to be... a Buddhist monk. Who, despite being a monk, still thinks that Adam Sandler's childhood humiliation was hilarious. Adam Sandler ends up getting his revenge the old fashioned way — by beating the crap out of the former schoolyard bully.
Future Loser / int_8b8730f0	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_8b8730f0	featureConfidence	1.0
Anger Management	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_8b8730f0
Future Loser / int_8c371d03	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_8c371d03	comment	In The World's End, Gary King, the self-professed king of his hometown, grew up into an aimless alcoholic whom his friends find irritating. Unusually for this trope, he's the protagonist of the film.
Future Loser / int_8c371d03	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_8c371d03	featureConfidence	1.0
The World's End	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_8c371d03
Future Loser / int_8d7f29ec	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_8d7f29ec	comment	One of the Glee cast's original songs, "Loser Like Me" is about how the Glee kids, who are considered losers now, will become successful in the future, while the bullies won't. Finn's verse fits this trope especially well:
Future Loser / int_8d7f29ec	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_8d7f29ec	featureConfidence	1.0
Glee	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_8d7f29ec
Future Loser / int_8e193f0b	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_8e193f0b	comment	Boy Meets World: Harley Keiner constantly harassed Cory in the beginning of the series. In the sequel series, Girl Meets World, which takes place when Cory and Topangaâ€™s firstborn is in junior high, heâ€™s now working as a janitor at the very same school Cory teaches, a job that, ironically, Cory helped him get. A whole episode focused on this trope, on how getting your way with cruel words and brute force is not the best way to live, and might bite you back in your adult years.
Future Loser / int_8e193f0b	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_8e193f0b	featureConfidence	1.0
Boy Meets World	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_8e193f0b
Future Loser / int_8f4ee60f	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_8f4ee60f	comment	Back to the Future: In the first movie, Biff in has gone from George McFly's bullying supervisor to waxing George's car, after Marty goes back in time and teaches his dad to stand up to Biff. It sort of works out for everyone, since Biff now has a little humility and runs his own detailing business. Of course he isn't fantastically rich, but at least he doesn't own the world. Biff is still hiding some deep resentment for George and his family, though, because his elderly future self in Part II steals the DeLorean and changes history much to George's detriment. Though, by Word of God, not as much as he would have thought. The Future Loser Biff is still shown to be a much better person than the Rich Bad Future Biff, who is cruel, corrupt, vindictive, and a murderer. They also mention in the Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy featurette that the chest pains and collapse he goes through after returning to 2015 are possibly the result of Lorraine shooting him dead sometime in the early '90s — either because she was sick of his abuse or she found out that he murdered George. In any event, regular Biff may be a loser by 2015, but rich Biff, for all his money and power, ends up dead by then. Marty's first fear when Doc appears at the end of the first film, insisting that he come to the future and fix things? That he and Jennifer will grow up to be, if not losers, then at least "assholes". That turns out to be the truth (at least until they fix things). Marty is provoked into a car race in which he hits another car. The owner sues, Marty breaks his hand, he gives up on his music, and Jennifer only marries him out of pity. By 2015 he ends up with both kids in jail or he gets fired, or both. The ending of the third film, in which Marty rejects the race and the "You're fired" evidence vanishes, implies that things will turn out better now that Marty's learned some humility.
Future Loser / int_8f4ee60f	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_8f4ee60f	featureConfidence	1.0
Back to the Future (Franchise)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_8f4ee60f
Future Loser / int_903cdd59	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_903cdd59	comment	Had the dream version happen to Slater (not a jerk, but definitely a jock), seeing himself as a beer-bellied drunk in a class reunion, forcing him to rethink his life and his "comfort zone" as a jock. It gets downplayed in the sequel series where despite maintaining his physique and being Bayside's football coach, he "supposedly" lives in his car, while all of his other friends have gone on to do bigger and better things, including his ex-girlfriend, Jessie, who's now the school's guidance counselor.
Future Loser / int_903cdd59	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_903cdd59	featureConfidence	1.0
Saved by the Bell (2020)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_903cdd59
Future Loser / int_9535dfe4	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_9535dfe4	comment	Grosse Pointe Blank: Martin Blank's high school bully tries to reignite their bully-victim relationship at their 10 year reunion. Blank brushes him off and finds the attempt to be a pathetic indication of what the bully has going on in his life. Later, the bully returns and tries to read his sad, terrible poetry to Blank. There's a heavy ironical subtext; the bully seems to be trying, however half-assedly, to be a better person — it's implied he wrote his dreadful poetry as part of some sort of recovery program — despite all the mean things he did in high school. Meanwhile, Martin has been doing far worse things, for far longer, and is only now really beginning to question whether killing people for money is really the best he can do.
Future Loser / int_9535dfe4	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_9535dfe4	featureConfidence	1.0
Grosse Pointe Blank	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_9535dfe4
Future Loser / int_95a46db4	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_95a46db4	comment	Doctor Slump, being a Gag Series, has this trope overlapping with Self-Deprecation and Played for Laughs: Tori-bot, Author Avatar of Akira Toriyama, employs Time Travel to visit Penguin Village (where the series take place) a decade in the future in a chapter. He decides to find out what becomes of him in the future and starts looking around the village for signs of his future self near the end of said chapter, only to find out, to his horror, that his future self is a BEGGAR.
Future Loser / int_95a46db4	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_95a46db4	featureConfidence	1.0
Doctor Slump (Manga)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_95a46db4
Future Loser / int_97abe183	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_97abe183	comment	The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Carl accidentally screws up the future by giving the local Jive Turkey a megalomania complex. When Jimmy, Carl and Sheen travel to the future and find out, they find that Carl's a convicted felon, Sheen's a garbage diver, and Jimmy's become a dumbed-down idiot who has to constantly do work on his mother-in-law's feet (as he'd married Cindy), instead of the ridiculously successful future selves that they should have turned into.
Future Loser / int_97abe183	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_97abe183	featureConfidence	1.0
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_97abe183
Future Loser / int_98fb7440	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_98fb7440	comment	Beautiful Girls: Tommy, a former hockey star who was popular back in high school, now works a dead-end job as a snowplow driver and cheats on his girlfriend with the girl he used to date in high school, who's stuck in an unhappy marriage and is just as miserable as he is.
Future Loser / int_98fb7440	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_98fb7440	featureConfidence	1.0
Beautiful Girls	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_98fb7440
Future Loser / int_a3faa3d1	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_a3faa3d1	comment	Less harsh example in form of Jim O'Connor in The Glass Menagerie—a successful high school football player now stuck in a dead end job as a clerk at a shoe factory. He's a nice guy and he is trying to get out of the rut but he seems to be going nowhere fast, though. Plus, he winds up being an Innocently Insensitive jerk to Laura towards the end of the play. Though in his defense, it probably wouldn't have happened if he knew he was being set up on a blind date.
Future Loser / int_a3faa3d1	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_a3faa3d1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Glass Menagerie (Theatre)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_a3faa3d1
Future Loser / int_a4420d22	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_a4420d22	comment	The Venture Bros.: This is the defining character trait of Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, the former naive Tagalong Kid for his super-scientist Gentleman Adventurer father (much like one Jonny Quest) who grew up into a bitter fraud trying to fill his dad's shoes while exploiting his legacy — badly. It's revealed later that many of Rusty's hang-ups can be traced back to the horrible lifestyle his father forced him to lead, and the expectations others placed upon him. Subverted by sorta-brother Jonas Venture Jr... Well, he would possibly be a subversion, as he is ridiculously successful; but being as he didn't even EXIST for a significant period of time, a case could be made that he's just Like Father, Like Son and not a subversion. In a later episode, Orpheus' Master implies that this is what Dean will inevitably become if he and Triana Orpheus get together (at least at that point in their lives), though Clone Degeneration would also play a role. Then again he might also be messing with her like he does with her father. They might fare better if they got together later (after they both grow up some), but Dean may have totally blown that in the following season finale.
Future Loser / int_a4420d22	featureApplicability	-0.3
Future Loser / int_a4420d22	featureConfidence	1.0
The Venture Bros.	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_a4420d22
Future Loser / int_a8729c90	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_a8729c90	comment	The Fairly OddParents!: Luthor Lex, a fairy that bullied Cosmo. He was a jock and ended up being a ballet dancer. Timmy actually causes Crocker to become the nerd version of this, and turn into an Agent Mulder who's fairy-obsessed. Cosmo was going to be the one to mess up Crocker's life, but Timmy ended up doing it anyway. The very first episode of the series, not counting the pilot shorts, portrayed Timmy himself as this when he wished to become a grown-up. Not only does he become bald, fat and middle-aged rather than the cool, muscular adult he imagined growing up into, every attempt at living his idealized adult life backfires, to the point where he ends up in jail. Though as Channel Chasers revealed, in his actual adulthood, Timmy actually resembles his ideal self quite a bit, not to mention he is now Happily Married with two kids, so it's possible his Future Loser self was a result of not growing up naturally, since he still had the mind of a child and never matured properly.
Future Loser / int_a8729c90	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_a8729c90	featureConfidence	1.0
The Fairly OddParents!	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_a8729c90
Future Loser / int_aeb84363	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_aeb84363	comment	A Christmas Carol is all about this. Ebenezer Scrooge Used to Be a Sweet Kid until a number of hardships warped his soul and made him grow up to be a grouchy, reclusive miser hated and feared by nearly everybody. Scrooge's counterpart in the Bad Future is even more of a loser, as in addition to being dead, he's not looked at fondly by anyone: his servants are robbing his now-empty home, his debtors are celebrating his death, and his fellow businessmen are cracking wise at his expense and only contemplated attending his funeral for a free lunch.
Future Loser / int_aeb84363	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_aeb84363	featureConfidence	1.0
A Christmas Carol	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_aeb84363
Future Loser / int_b0bb89d8	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_b0bb89d8	comment	Brad Wilson from Superman: The Movie is a Jerk Jock who bullied Clark in high school and rivaled him for Lana Lang's affections. By Superman III, he's now a pathetic drunk working a security job (which he's terrible at) who tries, and fails, to rekindle a relationship with Lana. Instead, she leaves for Metropolis after Clark gets her a job at the Daily Planet. He also tries to get physical with Clark a couple of times through the film because he does not like Kent coming back to townâ€¦ yeah, good luck with that.
Future Loser / int_b0bb89d8	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_b0bb89d8	featureConfidence	1.0
Superman: The Movie	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_b0bb89d8
Future Loser / int_b24f49ab	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_b24f49ab	comment	Biff is still hiding some deep resentment for George and his family, though, because his elderly future self in Part II steals the DeLorean and changes history much to George's detriment. Though, by Word of God, not as much as he would have thought. The Future Loser Biff is still shown to be a much better person than the Rich Bad Future Biff, who is cruel, corrupt, vindictive, and a murderer.
Future Loser / int_b24f49ab	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_b24f49ab	featureConfidence	1.0
Back to the Future Part II	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_b24f49ab
Future Loser / int_b4996199	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_b4996199	comment	Spider-Man: The infamous and despised One More Day had this as part of the plot, showing Peter two versions of himself from worlds where he never became Spider-Man. One was a fat, nerdy software developer who had "turned his anger inwards", while the other was a rich, successful but also bitter and resentful businessman who had "turned his anger outwards". On Earth X, Peter is an overweight, middle-aged loser who's become stiflingly overprotective towards his daughter after MJ's death, but at least here he's not alone; both Wolverine and Jean Grey are just as washed-up and pathetic as he is.
Future Loser / int_b4996199	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_b4996199	featureConfidence	1.0
Spider-Man (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_b4996199
Future Loser / int_b69cc838	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_b69cc838	comment	Cee Lo Green's song "Fuck You" is about a girl, implied to be popular, who the singer had a crush on when he was young, and was spurned because he was a dork. The music video for the song takes place over several decades, showing his attempts to impress her and her laughing at him. The last part of the video has him as an adult, now becoming The Casanova. He drives past her in a flashy car, while she sweeps up outside the diner he used to see her at.
Future Loser / int_b69cc838	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_b69cc838	featureConfidence	1.0
Cee Lo Green (Music)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_b69cc838
Future Loser / int_b7db5642	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_b7db5642	comment	Stranger Things: Steve Harringtonâ€™s situation in Season 3 both plays this straight and also deconstructs this trope: Heâ€™s working at Scoops Ahoy due to not being able to get into any of the colleges he applied at. But heâ€™s still very handsome and Adorkable....But almost everyone else in his life sees him as this trope, from his dad to the girls who he used to go to school with. It leaves him with self esteem issues at the beginning of the season.
Future Loser / int_b7db5642	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_b7db5642	featureConfidence	1.0
Stranger Things	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_b7db5642
Future Loser / int_bb3fde3d	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_bb3fde3d	comment	Quoted above is Dash Baxter, from Danny Phantom, a popular Jerk Jock who shows a surprising amount of self-awareness. He perfectly knows that high school is the peak of his life and that it will go downhill from here. Which is why he terrorizes nerds (especially Danny) as hard as he does — he wants to get his kicks in while he still can.
Future Loser / int_bb3fde3d	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_bb3fde3d	featureConfidence	1.0
Danny Phantom	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_bb3fde3d
Future Loser / int_cc313fca	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_cc313fca	comment	13 Going on 30: After she body-switches to the future, the 13-year-old main character discovers that the super hunky jock she desperately wanted to date in the past is now a fat, balding taxi driver, played by Jim Gaffigan. "Call me!" The main character herself is a variant on this trope: though in many ways a success, and having everything she wanted in her life when she was 13, she's miserable and has lost track of what's really important in life. The movie ends with her realizing she hates who she becomes in this timeline, and finding a way to return to her youth and try it all again, living a much better life and avoiding the mistakes of the other timeline. Meanwhile, the best friend who has a crush on her and whom she's always ignored has grown up to look like Mark Ruffalo.
Future Loser / int_cc313fca	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_cc313fca	featureConfidence	1.0
13 Going on 30	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_cc313fca
Future Loser / int_ccc80720	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_ccc80720	comment	My Life as a Teenage Robot: Towards the end of the episode "The Price of Love", popular kids Brit, Tiff, Pteresa, and Sebastian are seen walking past Sheldon's house. Pteresa exclaims that popular people always win in the end. Cut to twenty years later, where Pteresa, her future son with Sebastian, Brit, and Tiff are going to bail Sebastian out of jail (again). Pteresa, Brit, and Tiff are now ugly, with Pteresa wearing oversized glasses and curlers, Brit being obese, and Tiff missing half her hair. The Crust Cousins tell Pteresa that she should have married Sheldon, who is apparently now a billionaire.
Future Loser / int_ccc80720	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_ccc80720	featureConfidence	1.0
My Life as a Teenage Robot	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_ccc80720
Future Loser / int_cd662714	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_cd662714	comment	An episode of the 1998 revival of Fantasy Island has a semi-successful journalist come to the island regretting not being more successful as a pro football player and not getting the popular girl he was pining over in high school. Mr. Roark switches him with the star quarterback on the high school football team, and the now-teen experiences short-lived glory and the girl's attention. Then the events fast-forward to modern times with the guy coming to his high school reunion in the same football jersey. He acts like a bigshot, only for everyone else to look at him like a loser. It turns out that he suffered a career-ending injury during his first pro game and now works as a retail clerk, living in a mobile home with his wife (the former popular girl), who resents him. And, apparently, he also has trouble getting it up (yet another point of contention between them). Naturally, he learns his lesson and goes back to that night in high school as himself, telling the quarterback that he intends to make sure that the other teen goes to college.
Future Loser / int_cd662714	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_cd662714	featureConfidence	1.0
Fantasy Island	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_cd662714
Future Loser / int_ce258cf2	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_ce258cf2	comment	Jimmy and Christine, two of the main characters from Yes, Dear are this — very popular in high school, attended college but dropped out soon afterward, and, for the most of the series' run, lived (along with their children) in a guest house belonging to Christine's sister and her successful husband.
Future Loser / int_ce258cf2	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_ce258cf2	featureConfidence	1.0
Yes, Dear	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_ce258cf2
Future Loser / int_ce78cacf	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_ce78cacf	comment	Central in Saruman of Many Devices shows Saruman the (canonical) future where he ends up as this — his army destroyed and he himself stabbed by his former minion while attempting to take over the Shire out of vengeance — as a means to get him to go along with his plans for progress.
Future Loser / int_ce78cacf	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_ce78cacf	featureConfidence	1.0
Saruman of Many Devices / Fan Fic	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_ce78cacf
Future Loser / int_d148f51d	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_d148f51d	comment	The Looney Tunes Show: Averted in the Class Reunion episode with Daffy Duck. At first, he remembers himself in high school as the Big Man on Campus, and believes that he has fallen from his pedestal since then. But in a twist, itâ€™s revealed that he was actually the least popular guy in school, and his memories of super-popularity were fabricated by himself to block out the trauma. Heâ€™s just as much as a loser now as he was back then. Played straight with Porky Pig, as seen in the trope image. In high school, he was the Big Man on Campus Jerk Jock who picked on dorky Daffy. Fast-forward fifteen or twenty years later, heâ€™s now an average Joe Extreme Doormat who is constantly manipulated and taken advantage of by Daffy.
Future Loser / int_d148f51d	featureApplicability	-1.0
Future Loser / int_d148f51d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Looney Tunes Show	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_d148f51d
Future Loser / int_d9c602eb	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_d9c602eb	comment	South Park: There's an episode where Stan meets his future self: a lazy stoner who is going nowhere in life. They're forced to live together to the tune of a fake sitcom theme. Then it turns out that some of the other kids met their future selves too, and they're all lazy stoners who are going nowhere in life. These turn out to be actors hired by the kids' parents to scare them away from doing drugs. Inverted at the end of the episode, when Cartman says that he learned An Aesop from the experience, and resolves to turn his life around, lose weight, and be nicer to people. He is then approached by a handsome man in a nice suit, who claims to be Cartman's future self, and congratulates Cartman on making this positive decision, because this was the moment that set him down the path to becoming the rich and successful owner of his own time travel business. Cartman assumes that this is just another actor and tells him that he now resolves to act even worse than he did before, just to spite him. After he leaves, the businessman turns into a fat mechanic. Turns out he really was Cartman's future self after all. The Post-COVID special shows Stan Marsh as a 50-year old alcoholic loner whose wife is a sentient Amazon Alexa that he's constantly having fights with. This is in contrast with the other kids who have all grown up to be largely functional adults. In "Return of Covid", Eric Cartman has become one in the revised timeline as he ends up a homeless alcoholic bum who shouts obscenities at people. Even Stan and Kyle feel bad for him, but (understandably) not Butters.
Future Loser / int_d9c602eb	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_d9c602eb	featureConfidence	1.0
South Park	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_d9c602eb
Future Loser / int_dfee4401	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_dfee4401	comment	On Unforgettable, Carrie reluctantly goes to her high-school reunion since back in high school she was "Scary Carrie" and did not have any friends. The trope seems initially averted since most of her classmates have done well for themselves. The quarterback is a successful real estate developer and the class stoner actually became a rock star. However, the trope is played straight when she encounters the quarterback's popular best friend who touts himself as a successful family man but Carrie easily sees through the Blatant Lies. After the guy is murdered she discovers that he is divorced, completely broke and trying to blackmail one of his former classmates. As she digs deeper, she discovers that not all of her classmates had happy lives after graduation. She even exploits the trope by making it look like another classmate was also lying about his success and thus is a prime suspect. The killer then tries to frame the guy for the crime not realizing that it is a trap.
Future Loser / int_dfee4401	featureApplicability	-1.0
Future Loser / int_dfee4401	featureConfidence	1.0
Unforgettable	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_dfee4401
Future Loser / int_e293455a	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_e293455a	comment	In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Seeing Red", Warren, after gaining incredible powers, runs into an old school bully and beats the crap out of him. It also provides insight into what made Warren so horrible ("Remember how I couldn't stop crying?")
Future Loser / int_e293455a	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_e293455a	featureConfidence	1.0
Buffy the Vampire Slayer	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_e293455a
Future Loser / int_e4a82515	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_e4a82515	comment	Subverted in Least I Could Do, Rayne is actually rather happy with the future that is shown him.
Future Loser / int_e4a82515	featureApplicability	-0.3
Future Loser / int_e4a82515	featureConfidence	1.0
Least I Could Do (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_e4a82515
Future Loser / int_eb7431cd	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_eb7431cd	comment	Disney's The Kid (2000) has a young boy encounter his future self. After running through everything his future self got wrong, the boy shouts, "I grow up to be a loser!" Played for irony, since the future self is wealthy, successful and respected (and a huge asshole), while the kid is chubby and unpopular with low self-esteem. The joke is that his priorities as an adult were very different from what they were as a child. And then subverted in the end, when they both encounter their older self, who now embodies both of their ideals: still successful, but now also happily married, with a dog and a pilot's license.
Future Loser / int_eb7431cd	featureApplicability	-0.3
Future Loser / int_eb7431cd	featureConfidence	1.0
The Kid (2000)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_eb7431cd
Future Loser / int_eddbdd81	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_eddbdd81	comment	In Fucking Ã…mÃ¥l aka Show Me Love, Agnes' father tries to comfort her in this way. He tells her he recently went to a class reunion, and all the bullies had turned into nobodies, while the former nobodies had quite decent lives and careers.
Future Loser / int_eddbdd81	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_eddbdd81	featureConfidence	1.0
Show Me Love	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_eddbdd81
Future Loser / int_f0a86c12	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_f0a86c12	comment	How I Met Your Mother: Robin's ex-boyfriend comes to town (played by James Van Der Beek). Instead of the teen heartthrob she remembers, he's balding and pot-bellied, still lives with his parents, and works a menial job. Good luck getting her to see that, though.... Robin herself used to be a (Canadian) rock star; sheâ€™s now an early morning news reporter. She later ends up a reporter for 24 hour network WWN.
Future Loser / int_f0a86c12	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_f0a86c12	featureConfidence	1.0
How I Met Your Mother	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_f0a86c12
Future Loser / int_f4a6ae8	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_f4a6ae8	comment	Neighbors: Teddy is well aware of the fact that he's on the road to becoming this.
Future Loser / int_f4a6ae8	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_f4a6ae8	featureConfidence	1.0
Neighbors (2014)	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_f4a6ae8
Future Loser / int_f6c05e8e	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_f6c05e8e	comment	A similar case in Friends, where Formerly Fat Monica got a chance to date a bad boy she had known from high school who was a jerk to her. When she does date him, she realizes that heâ€™s immature, lives with his parents and never grew up from his high school days.
Future Loser / int_f6c05e8e	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_f6c05e8e	featureConfidence	1.0
Friends	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_f6c05e8e
Future Loser / int_f6fd2ee	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_f6fd2ee	comment	Bottoms: Discussed by Josie, who describes her preferred getting-together-with-Isabel scenario thusly: Josie shows up to their Class Reunion, sees that the once-popular Jeff and Isabel are now both washed up, and sweeps Isabel off her feet.
Future Loser / int_f6fd2ee	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_f6fd2ee	featureConfidence	1.0
Bottoms	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_f6fd2ee
Future Loser / int_ff2165b	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_ff2165b	comment	Used with relish in nearly every episode of Cold Case, the usual example being the former High School Mean Girl who's been married twice and extremely bitter. In the episode "Spiders", this is both played straight and subverted. A gorgeous blond girl who was devoted to a white supremacist leader, who was seen years later as overweight in the present; on the other hand, she's overcome her racism (admitting that she had done "stupid things") and has had children with a black man.
Future Loser / int_ff2165b	featureApplicability	-0.3
Future Loser / int_ff2165b	featureConfidence	1.0
Cold Case	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_ff2165b
Future Loser / int_ff9ab17f	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_ff9ab17f	comment	On Star Trek: The Next Generation Picard dies during an operation due to an old injury from an incident from his rebellious youth of counter-cheating in sports ending in a stab to the heart. Q offers him a second chance if he can avoid said incident by reliving that period of his life. After he succeeds, Q sends him back to the point in his life where the injury would have killed him only to discover that heâ€™s a Lieutenant Junior Grade (between Ensign and Lieutenant) instead of a famous starship captain. Q explains that the injury gave Picard a sense of his own mortality which, possibly unknown to Picard himself, motivated him to make his mark on the Universe. The alternate Picard never lived that experience, and as such drifted thought his career, never getting noticed by anyone. Picard then begs Q that he has learned his lesson, is given a second second chance, condemns himself to death after a worthy life... and awakens from his death to discover that Q was just jerking his chain again (or might have actually saved his life). With Q, you never know if it was really All Just a Dream or if he actually sent you back in time. He was almost certainly lying about being God, however.
Future Loser / int_ff9ab17f	featureApplicability	1.0
Future Loser / int_ff9ab17f	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: The Next Generation	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_ff9ab17f
Future Loser / int_ffb43795	type	Future Loser
Future Loser / int_ffb43795	comment	Cobra Kai features a Perspective Flip of the The Karate Kid franchise with Johnny Lawrence from the Thug Dojo depicted as an out-of-luck, washed-up former teen karate star frequently drowning himself in alcohol. This is Played for Drama, with Johnny shown to have endured a rough family life and joined the Cobra Kai to get away from it, and resolves to get his life back on track by rebuilding his former dojo, mentoring several teenagers and even making (short-lived) amends with his former rival Daniel LaRusso, who is more successful than Johnny in middle age but has his own personal faults as well.
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Future Loser / int_ffb43795	featureConfidence	1.0
Cobra Kai	hasFeature	Future Loser / int_ffb43795

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Future Loser	processingCategory2	Characters as Device
Future Loser	processingCategory2	Loser Archetype
Future Loser	processingCategory2	The Bully
Future Loser	processingCategory2	Time Travel Tropes
Future Loser	processingCategory2	We Will Not Use an Index in the Future
Dial H for Hero (Comic Book) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Empowered (Comic Book) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Paper Girls (Comic Book) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
The Eltingville Club (Comic Book) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
The Very Secret Diary / Fan Fic / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
A Bad Week at the Wizengamot (Fanfic) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
After the Jungle Series (Fanfic) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Build Yourself Up (Don't Let Them Break You Down) (Fanfic) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Calvin & Hobbes: The Series (Fanfic) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
It's a Wonderful Christmas, Carole (Fanfic) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Long Lost Loud (Fanfic) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
The Many Dates of Danny Fenton (Fanfic) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
About Schmidt / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Back to the Future Part II / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Bill & Ted Face the Music / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Bottoms / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Central Intelligence / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
It's a Boy Girl Thing / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Neighbors (2014) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Peggy Sue Got Married / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Slaughter High / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Stand by Me / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Superman III / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
The Canary Season / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Young Adult / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
The Dark Id (Lets Play) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
A Christmas Carol / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Ironweed / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
molesworth / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
The TTYL Series / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
The Virgin Suicides / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Welcome to the NHK / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
JerkAssWoobie	seeAlso	Future Loser
TheGiz	seeAlso	Future Loser
Tokyo Revengers (Manga) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Cee Lo Green (Music) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Everything Everything (Music) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Mean (Music) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Caitlin's Way / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Cold Case / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Girl Meets World / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Good Luck Charlie / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Modern Family / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Saved by the Bell / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Death of a Salesman (Theatre) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
The Iceman Cometh (Theatre) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Bully (Video Game) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Pokémon Zeta and Omicron (Video Game) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Double Homework (Visual Novel) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
5 Second Films (Web Video) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
In Service Of Nothing (Web Video) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Girls of the Wild's (Webcomic) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Least I Could Do (Webcomic) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
The Onion (Website) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
South Park: Post Covid / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Teen Titans / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Teen Titans (2003) / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
The Old Grey Hare / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser
Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story / int_5a33cf5	type	Future Loser

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