History Main / IronButtMonkey

* Sid on ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' went into anaphylactic shock from an allergic reaction to something he ate, got radiation poisoning from a victim he was performing an autopsy on, has to autopsy an ex-colleague's wife and in the same episode [[spoiler: finds out that said ex-colleague stole organs from victims who were junkies when working at the ME's office and used them to make drugs]] got almost blinded by an exploding bullet when trying to remove it from a victim's head, and in the final season not too long after [[spoiler: becoming a millionaire]], [[spoiler: gets diagnosed with cancer]]. And he still carries on working at the ME's office.

* Nathan from ''Series/{{Misfits}}'' is a pretty literal example of this, [[spoiler: considering he's immortal.]] Plus, in more mundane terms, he's virtually impossible to insult or embarrass.

* Kimihito Kurusu of ''Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl'' is a regular guy, stuck in the same house as a very strong Lamia, a Centaur, a dippy Harpy, an enthusiastic Slime, an... eccentric... Mermaid, and a jaded Arachne. He takes a hell of a lot of abuse, but he's always up a few pages later. [[spoiler: Noteably, Kimihito is confirmed to ''actually die'' on a regular basis. He just keeps coming back through sheer willpower. Also, people actually notice and comment on the injuries he takes- at one point he went to a hospital and the doctors were outright alarmed that the injuries that sent him there had spontaneously disappeared when by all rights he should have needed weeks to heal from them]].
* Mamoru Onodera of ''Manga/DeadlineSummonner'' frequently suffers [[BenevolentBoss for the sake of]] [[BattleHarem his girls.]] While he does end up in the hospital, most of his injuries should have ''killed him outright.'' It doesn't help that his most powerful ability is a DesperationAttack.

* Kimihito Kurusu of ''Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl'' is a regular guy, stuck in the same house as a very strong Lamia, a Centaur, a dippy Harpy, an enthusiastic Slime, an... eccentric... Mermaid, and a jaded Arachne. He takes a hell of a lot of abuse, but he's always up a few pages later. [[spoiler: Noteably, Kimihito is confirmed to ''actually die'' on a regular basis. He just keeps coming back through sheer willpower]].

* Kimihito Kurusu of ''Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl'' is a regular guy, stuck in the same house as a very strong Lamia, a Centaur, a dippy Harpy, an enthusiastic Slime, an... eccentric... Mermaid, and a jaded Arachne. He takes a hell of a lot of abuse, but he's always up a few pages later.

* ProfessionalWrestling is crammed with such. One need only mention [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Entertainment]] Superstar Colin Delaney, who repeatedly got [[CurbStompBattle squashed by wrestlers a great deal bigger than he was]], only to [[{{Determinator}} be back to wrestle the next week with increasingly more bandages covering his body]]. Perhaps the most notorious example is former United States Women's Champion Wrestling/MaeYoung, especially at the start of her WWE career in the late 1990s. Already well into her seventies by that point, Mae's initial gimmick was that she was an Iron Buttmonkey senior citizen who constantly took "bumps" on behalf of her best friend, The Fabulous Moolah. (She once even was smashed through a conference table by Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys!) As if that weren't demeaning enough, Mae was also made into an AbhorrentAdmirer / ChristmasCake stereotype who (among other exploits) [[spoiler: almost]] gave birth to Wrestling/MarkHenry's baby, French-kissed Vince [=McMahon=], and was revealed as the object of Jerry Springer's (reluctant) lust on an unforgettable episode of ''Monday Night Raw''. The sad thing, really, is that Mae was actually an accomplished wrestler back in the day (starting her career during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII when many male wrestlers went off to Europe or Japan), but that younger viewers watching WWE programming are likely to think she's just some repellent old lady that's kept around backstage purely for comedy purposes.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': The Protagonist (You) end up becoming this. Due to being the Master of a [[StoneWall Mash Kyrielight]] makes them significantly hardier to physical and mystical injury than most mages. Buuutt... this mindset encourages their other Servants to drag them into ''all'' sorts of dangerous scenarios or shenanigans without paying any sort of attention to their safety (emphasis on all). So as long as they remember to shanghai Mash, they can cut loose without fear. ...or pain.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys from ''Film/HomeAlone'' should have died several times over from Kevin's traps. A movie for kids manages to go further than a [[Film/StrawDogs Sam Peckinpah film]] when it comes to makeshift household protection.

* [[TheDitz Ratbag]] [[LovableCoward the Coward]] from ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'' is characterized by his lack of friends, stupidity, and sheer ineptitude. His last scene in the game involves him getting BlownAcrossTheRoom, courtesy of a blow from [[HyperspaceMallet Sauron's own mace]] (albeit not wielded by Sauron himself, but one of his underlings). In the sequel, ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar,'' it's revealed that [[spoiler: not only did Ratbag survive, but the mace did nothing more than knock him senseless for a while (he had a headache upon waking up, but that's hardly complaint-worthy). In the meantime, he's taken up the job of Overlord for the first fortress that Talion and co. encounter.]]

[[folder:Religion And Mythology]]

* Bowser from ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros '', at least in the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' and ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series. If there's any otherwise likely death inducing humiliation in those series, it's probably going to happen to him, and he keeps on going. Castle about to explode? Bowser wakes up just in time for it to come crashing down on him. Volcano erupts? He flies straight out the top of it. VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory is basically this the game, with Bowser having to do every stupid thing possible to progress and getting flattened by every castle, robot and train in the kingdom.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Waspinator of ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}: WesternAnimation/BeastWars''. It helps that, being a Transformer, he's made of metal. Once the writers saw the pattern they'd made, they kicked it UpToEleven, having poor Waspy blown up, ripped apart, or shredded in nearly every episode ever. He ''always'' survives. In fact, he is one of the ''three'' [[spoiler: characters introduced in the first episode of WesternAnimation/BeastWars to survive to the end of WesternAnimation/BeastMachines.]] Yeah, it's [[AnyoneCanDie that kinda show]].
** Kind of. Waspinator's manner of speaking frustrated the writers in the first season. Since he had to make an appearance in every episode, they took to him making those appearances ''[[WriterRevolt in pieces]]''. This had the effect of making him [[EnsembleDarkhorse a favorite with the fans]]. Once the writers caught onto this, Waspinator gets scrapped in increasingly hilarious ways.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', we have Usopp, a character who, despite being practically useless, survived a Gastanet attack from Ceaser Clown, an attack that destroyed a good bit of '''''AN ISLAND''''', and nearly killed the rest of the crew and the marines at Punk Hazard. Note that he not only has the second lowest (No, not counting that reindeer called Chopper because that's an error made by the marines) bounty, he is also shown to have the least fighting power of them all. That said, Gastanets are similar to to ''Nuclear bombs'' in power, but not in range.

* Therry from ''Webcomic/TheRedac'' has been stabbed many times, got hit on the head with his own guitar, and Matt even sent him to an icy exoplanet without any kind of protection. He's always back for the next page, or even the next panel. Of course, it [[{{Slapstick}} helps]] that the comic doesn't take over-the-top violence too seriously.

[[folder: Professional Wrestling]]

So, you've got a funny character in a {{Slapstick}}, just lining up a wave of truly incredibly bad and unlucky physical traumas for the character to wade through for your audience's [[ComedicSociopathy twisted amusement]]. Just one problem. The things your character is about to go through would kill any normal being. Enter the Iron ButtMonkey, who can render lethal trauma into mere AmusingInjuries

** The second movie features even deadlier traps, including an explosion that ''destroys an entire floor of the house'' yet somehow leaves the bad guys largely unscathed.

So, you've got a funny character in a {{Slapstick}}, just lining up a wave of truly incredibly bad and unlucky physical traumas for the character to wade through for your audience's [[ComedicSociopathy twisted amusement]]. Just one problem. The things your character is about to go through would kill any normal being. Enter the Iron ButtMonkey.

* Phil from ''Webcomic/{{Yosh}}'' is initially this, but after the series GrewTheBeard, this ability got [[CerebusRetcon expanded]] to include all forms of harm, [[MageKiller especially]] [[AntiMagic magic]].

* Iago the parrot took a ''lot'' of damage in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}''. The only time it was ''not'' played for laughs was near the end of the sequel, when he's just destroyed Jafar's lamp and Aladdin is mystified because he seems to be dead, but Genies can't kill anyone. [[IronicEcho You'd be surprised what you can live through]].

** Not to mention that Meg's suffered such indignities as having her hair set on fire, having a piano fall on her (something that also befell Peter) and been shot full of poison darts. Really, the only family member who has ''not'' been an Iron [=Butt Monkey=] is Chris. Go figure.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]
* In ''Series/FatherTed'', every time Ted calls Father Larry Duff's mobile phone, the distraction always causes Larry to suffer a horrible misfortune, often taking the form of an accident that would kill a normal person.

A relation of ButtMonkey, MadeOfIron, and {{Slapstick}}. See also TheyKilledKennyAgain, when the comedy buttmonkey is not immortal but merely gets revived ready to get killed again like something from Valhalla. Where this is used on characters who in-canon have explicit superhealing, see GoodThingYouCanHeal and ImmortalityHurts. Unrelated to the IronWoobie, although they can overlap at times.

[[caption-width-right:335:Not flames nor falls nor [[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe phinicky fysics]] shall stay this coyote from his chosen hunt.]]

* ''Machinima/FreemansMind'' presents Gordon Freeman as this, as he desperately tries to navigate his way out of Black Mesa, while being nailed with every hazard in the game and complaining hilariously about it. [[DoorToBefore Dead ends]], [[NoOSHACompliance fragile catwalks]], toxic waste, aliens trying to kill him, soldiers trying to kill him, the building trying to kill him, being trapped on an alien planet with no way out... there is really no end to Freeman's suffering. [[UnsypatheticComedyProtagonist It's a good thing he deserves it.]]