History Main / Dismotivation

* In [[LightNovel/YahariOreNoSeishunLoveComeWaMachigatteiru Oregairu]], the trope fits Hachiman to a T. Among the usual reasons for example he doesn't want to be hurt again, he has an uncommon but somewhat logical argument. Hachiman, after being accused by Yukino of running away because of his dismotivation, makes his point of view clear:

* As the page quote indicates, Peter [=LaFleur=], the main character of ''[[Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory Dodgeball]]'', is one of these, contrasted with his antagonist White, who takes "you should not be satisfied with yourself" to unhealthy extremes.

* Unsurprisingly, ''ClerksII''.
** In the original ''Clerks'' [[spoiler:it applies to Randal (who even says as much), and possibly to Jay and Bob]]. In the second film [[spoiler:Dante comes around to the same point of view]].

* At the beginning of ''MusicAndLyrics'', former eighties pop star Alex Fletcher, if not exactly happy, is at least comfortably resigned to his life of comfortable relative obscurity as a 'happy has-been'. Curiously, his love interest Sophie also never really demonstrates much desire to improve herself either, but in her case it's more out of a lack of self-confidence: a cruel novel written by a vindictive ex-lover which portrayed her as talentless and derivative and which went on to be a bestseller pretty much destroyed her faith in her ability to write. Both are prompted throughout the movie to get out their respective ruts and start yearning for more things than theme-park gigs and watering plants.

* The premise of ''Film/FightClub'', in the sense that a great number of men became so dissastified with their corporate aspirations and material achievements, that dingy underground fight clubs, dilapidated shacks, and random acts of mayhem become attractive.

* Kyon in ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'', which makes up a great part of his personality. He's also cynic and [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]]. Probably the main reason why he's so [[ObfuscatingStupidity obfuscating stupid]] is that he doesn't care about anything. Most likely also the reason why he sucks at school, despite being ''very'' knowledgeable and aware of other people's intentions. He shows how an AlmightyJanitor looks like as a kid.

* Morgan Grimes on ''{{Chuck}}''.

* Dave Lister, from ''Series/RedDwarf'', is basically an AlmightyJanitor in because of this. While partly due to the fact he hates his job pre-apocalypse (in the novels, he only signed on with Red Dwarf because he somehow got so plastered that he wound up on Mimas, a moon of Jupiter, when he'd been getting drunk ''on Earth'' and it was the quickest way to get back to Earth), and post-apocalypse he's millions of years of non-stop travel away from Earth, he just doesn't have any major ambitions outside of trying to get home and open up a hot dog stand on Fiji.

* ''{{Firefly}}'' example: This turns out to be Mal's motivation in ''Better Days'', realizing that he is genuinely happier in his small ship running dangerous jobs all around the galaxy, then actually getting a big score and being able to retire.

* In Music/DavidByrne's song "Lazy", The narrator claims to be a LazyBum, but he gives a surprisingly long list of activities he does in a lazy way. He comes across less like a genuinely lazy guy and more like one who works really hard to convince everyone how cool and lazy he is.

{{Dismotivation}}; noun. This is when a character ''actively'' avoids doing anything that might get them ahead in a relationship, on the job, or in life. They feel that working at maintaining the personal [[StatusQuoIsGod status quo]] is much better than working at getting somewhere, whether because of risk-aversion, simple laziness, or CelebrityIsOverrated. Of course, they just may be genuinely happy where they are, and see no reason to change a life that they are satisfied with.

* In [[LightNovel/YahariOreNoSeishunLoveComeWaMachigatteiru Oregairu]], the trope fits Hachiman to a T. Among the usual reasons for example he doesn't want to be hurt again, he has an uncommon but somewhat logical argument. Hachiman, after being accused by Yukino of running away because of his {{dismotivation}}, makes his point of view clear:

* Shikamaru of ''{{Naruto}}''. [[CatchPhrase What a drag.]] He gets promoted anyway, in large part ''because'' he wisely chose to give up, and is the first in his class to become a Chunin.

* Every high school graduate has at least heard of the term "Senioritis." Basically, by their second and last semester, a high school senior has all the credits they need, has gotten their college acceptances, and is working on their financial aid, so they think "Why do I need to do any more work?" Unfortunately, particularly bad cases of this have resulted in the patients having their college acceptances revoked.

* Twimble's song "The Company Way" in ''Theatre/{{How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying}}' talks about how he's spent the last 25 years in the mailroom, avoiding promotion to avoid risk.

* Referenced in the ''ChappellesShow'' skit "Knee-High Park" with Stinky (an [[Series/SesameStreet Oscar the Grouch]] analogue) expounding on the evils of materialism and the pointlessness of working to improve your life.

* [[KingdomHearts Demyx]] would like nothing better than to just sit around the Castle that Never Was and write songs. He actually bribes you to do his missions in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days.]]''

** He gets CharacterDevelopment regarding this after the events of Disappearance (the 4th novel later made into TheMovie). Feeling personally responsible for these events since he believes they mostly happened because he didn't step up and usually was lazy and saying how he wanted everything to just be normal. Kyon after this is very good at getting things done...but still [[ObfuscatingStupidity plays dumb]] like nobody's business and hates being jerked around into doing more than he has to. He even supports Haruhi's leadership to trick her into doing some of the annoying bits for him. He may lead from the shadows when there's trouble, but he honestly seems to have no motivation other maintaining his spot as the lowest-ranked member of the brigade.

** He actually gets CharacterDevelopment regarding this after the events of Disappearance (the 4th novel later made into TheMovie). He actually feels personally responsible for these events since he believe it mostly happened because he didn't step up and usually was lazy and saying how he wanted everything to just be normal. Kyon after this is very good at getting things done...but still [[ObfuscatingStupidity plays dumb]] like nobody's business and hates being jerked around into doing more than he has to. He even supports Haruhi's leadership to trick her into doing some of the annoying bits for him. He may lead from the shadows when there's trouble, but he honestly seems to have no motivation other maintaining his spot as the lowest-ranked member of the brigade.

** Yumichika Ayasegawa declines to use the full power of his shikai for the same reason, and also because the 11th division views kidou-based ability as evidence of cowardice which would therefore disgrace him. He also prefers the number four spot when he should really be number three. He just likes four [[FourIsDeath for some reason...]]

* ''{{Hyouka}}'': [[{{Protagonist}} Houtarou]] has two rules he lives his life by: "One: Never do anything you don't have to. Two: If you have to do something, do it quickly." [[spoiler:Satoshi]] is also an example. [[spoiler:He's content with being a JackOfAllTrades, MasterOfNone because he realizes that there's AlwaysSomeoneBetter.]]

** Yumichika Ayasegawa declines to use the full power of his shikai for the same reason, and also because the 11th division views kidou-based ability as evidence of cowardice which would therefore disgrace him.