Jerks are heroes (or occasional anti-heroes) who very often behave in a vulgar, mean, cocky, arrogant, rude or unpleasant fashion. While a jerk is mean at times if not almost always, they don't normally mean to cause serious harm to others and they may be mistaken as an evil villain (especially by those that never did anything bad to them). For the purpose of this wiki, however, in order to qualify what causes a character to act this way should be in what's known as an "Obstacle"—otherwise it is not valid. However, it isn't always the case. Some of these characters still have many positive qualities and can cooperate well with their allies and comrades when given the chance; thus this character is called a "Jerk with a Heart of Gold". Also, do not place someone who only shows jerkish qualities, they must at least have a few positive qualities.

Good examples of this are Jin Kisaragi, Jotaro Kujo, Katsuki Bakugo, Kokichi Oma, Huey Freeman, Severus Snape, Clarence Wendle, Gumball Watterson, Bloo, Neru Mikamo, Grizzly Bear, Duncan, Mina Majikina, Garfield, Lightning McQueen, Eddie Valiant, and all main members of both the Griffin, Simpson and Smith families overall.

They are the opposite of Affably Evil who are villains that are polite and friendly.

Important: Do not confuse Extremist characters for jerk characters, as they have different qualities.

Pure Goods would NEVER fall under this category as they would never act rude, mean, vulgar, and/or unpleasant to anyone. This counts as a corrupting quality as Pure Goods are always kind, friendly, selfless, and incorruptible. If a Pure Good does show some hostility to someone, it's usually due to annoyance, provocation by others, heating-up periods, not being reasonable with them or due to insecurity on the part of the hero. These outbursts are very rare and often are resolved peacefully with the hero reverting to their usual friendliness. In these cases, they should go under Wrathful, Insecure, Antagonists, Mischievous, Tricksters, Misguided, Disciplinarians, and/or False Antagonist instead (e.g. Kiara, Fox McCloud, Edge, Buzz Lightyear, Spider-Man (Raimiverse), Hercules (Disney), Carl Fredricksen, Captain Phoebus, Mirabel Madrigal, James P. Sullivan, King Clawthorne, Shifu, Mario (The Super Mario Bros. Movie), Eleven, Lucas Sinclair, Tadashi Hamada, Abby Schmidt, Anne Boonchuy, Blu, Raya, Miguel Rivera, Tigress, Athena, and Fluttershy).

Also, do not add characters to this category whose jerkish moments are merely heating-up periods and/or who subvert their jerkiness by the end of the story, even if they are not Pure Good.