History Main / SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp

* ''WesternAnimation/AlfredJKwak'': This trope is taken UpToEleven with Dolf, who is initially just your typical schoolyard bully. He grows up to become [[spoiler:a fascist, Hitler-like dictator]].

* Gideon from ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' bullies Judy in the [[AMinorKidroduction Minor Kidroduction]]. Though the first thing he does upon seeing Judy as an adult is to apologize for bullying her.

* In ''Film/YouAgain'', the protagonist Marni finds out to her horror that her brother is getting married to her former high school bully Joanna, who herself keeps brushing off every cruel thing she did to Marnie in the belief that they should just leave it all behind it in the past and start over. However, it turns out Joanna [[ReformedBully really did turn over a new leaf]] in the years since and part of the reason why she refused to acknowledge any of her actions was that she felt genuinely [[IHatePastMe ashamed of her past behavior]].

* Used a lot in ''Series/ColdCase''. Naturally, the bullies tend to become [[FutureLoser Future Losers]].

* The TvLand reality show "Series/HighSchoolReunion" had really hyped up how one of the guys on the show was going to confront the man who bullied him in school all those years ago. Only for this to fall flat on his face when the bully turns out to be rather apathetic about the whole thing, saying "That was more than ten years ago. I don't care."

* {{Literature/Flashman}}, the bully from ''Literature/TomBrownsSchooldays'', gets his own series where he is, unusually for this trope, the protagonist. In the early books he's a bullying VillainProtagonist and a DirtyCoward, but after karma catches up to him enough for it, he eventually grows up into a [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic]] and [[LovableCoward charming]] AntiHero.

* {{Literature/Flashman}}, the bully from ''Literature/TomBrownsSchooldays'', gets his own series where he is, unusually for this trope, the protagonist.

** The crime? Mocking Drakken's freaky robot 'dates'. Granted, this one is more personal because the three guys, including Dr. Mr. Possible, were all ''friends'' with Drakken. It wasn't just the laughing at him, but feeling backstabbed by his former friends.

%% * [[Series/MarriedWithChildren Al Bundy]] is a rare protagonist example.

* ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' Will returns to his hometown, Philadelphia, where he's mocked by the owner of an eatery for being a coward and running away to Bel Air to get away from a bully ("the dude who be spinnin' me over his head" in the opening, [[BreakingTheFourthWall as Will identifies him]]). Will decides to finally get even and trains for a confrontation. However, when Will meets the bully, he's reformed his ways and is even acting as a Big Brother mentor. Ironically Will comes off looking like the fool when he tries to provoke the man into a fight who berates him for his immaturity.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'' revealed that when Dog was a pup, he was beaten down by a paperboy who was too fast for him. When a new mailman appeared and Dog was unable to catch him, he went into a deep depression until Cat snapped him out of it. During the final showdown with the mailman, it was revealed he was the same paperboy. In the end, Dog took a chunk out of his pants, regaining his drive and settling his childhood trauma.

For the heroic counterpart, see KidHeroAllGrownUp. May intersect with ButForMeItWasTuesday, where the bully doesn't recognise or even remember TheHero. Not to be confused with the other type of [[SheIsAllGrownUp all grown up now]]. See also KidsAreCruel.

[[quoteright:323:[[Film/BackToTheFuture https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bifffuturebully_6567.png]]]]

[[caption-width-right:323:"HELLOOO!!! HELLOOO!!! Anybody home?!?! You thought things would change after 30 years? Think, [=McFly=], think!"]]

-> ''"It's fun to laugh at the nerds. That's how I spent most of my time in high school!"''

* ''Film/{{Benchwarmers}}'': Subverted by Rob Schneider, as it turns out he was a schoolyard bully that used stinging insults (rather than fists) to torment other kids. That's why he's standing up against bullies as an adult; he hates who he was and what he did, and thinks that if there is any karma in the world, his own kid will be either picked on mercilessly or an even worse bully than he was, unless he can make up for some of what he did by helping out against bullies now.
* In ''Film/BigBully'', the bully Roscoe Bigger, a.k.a. Fang (played by Tom Arnold), thinks he and his victim David Leary (played by Creator/RickMoranis) were friends back in school. Roscoe returns to bullying him after David becomes a teacher at their old school (and where Roscoe teaches shop class). [[spoiler:Ironically, their sons are in exactly reversed positions.]]

[[quoteright:325:[[Film/BackToTheFuture https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bifffuturebully_6567.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:325:"HELLOOO!!! HELLOOO!!! Anybody home?!?! You thought things would change after 30 years? Think, [=McFly=], think!"]]

* There's an episode of ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy'' where an old school friend of Ren's comes to visit him. However, over the course of a few flashbacks, it's revealed the "friend" humiliated him at every opportunity and made him miserable.

* A bullied man confronted his alleged childhood bully 35 years later, according to [[https://abc13.com/3239268/ this story]] by ABC13 Houston, and [[https://www.dallasnews.com/news/watchdog/2020/02/27/after-the-allen-isd-superintendent-left-to-lead-his-hometown-district-the-wheels-came-off-his-career/ here]] by the Dallas Morning News. Following this, more witnesses came to testify about the event. Later news emerged that the superintendent had plagiarized his doctoral dissertation forced the man to resign.
* Creator/{{NBC}} [=CEO=] Jeff Zucker is perhaps the prime person responsible for screwing Creator/ConanOBrien out of ''Series/TheTonightShow''. Zucker and O'Brien headed up rival school newspapers when they went to Harvard together. [[http://www.vanityfair.com/online/culture/2010/01/13/is-conan-the-victim-of-harvards-crimsonlampoon-rivalry.html No joke]].

* [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=1788 In Smbc-Comics, we find out what's worse than being murdered.]]

The Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up comes along when that character who made your life hell when you were in school grows up into a more formidable adult antagonist. If you were in grade school with him, then he was the MouthyKid. If you were in high school with him, then he was probably the JerkJock. If he is a "she", then she was the AlphaBitch. Either way, the character hasn't matured one iota, but can now do a lot worse damage.

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': An episode has Frasier and Niles' two bullies from high school show up as plumbers. The first one turns out to be a [[ReformedBully pretty normal, decent guy]]. He's now a successful business owner and family man. Niles makes him confront his past actions ends up giving him free therapy and finding out ''[[FreudianExcuse why]]'' he was a bully. The second one, however, begins fondly reminiscing about all the horrible things he used to do to his victims in school, not realizing that his victims are right in front of him. Eventually Frasier can't take it anymore and gives him a swirly in his toilet.

* Don Price, from Burton's ''Film/BigFish'', was consistently overshadowed by Edward Bloom during their childhood. When Edward comes to win Sandra Tempelton's heart, he has to duke it out with Don... who beats the living crud out of Edward (out of Sandra's request that Bloom not hurt him). Although while the stories in the film are true, the much-older Bloom embellishes them when he tells them, so it's possible Price wasn't as bad a person as he appeared.

* ''Info Quake'': In this science fiction novel, Brone goes to a futuristic boarding school with Natch, the protagonist. Years later, Brone invites Natch into his office, uses virtual reality to play mind games with Natch, then brags about how he's not holding any grudges because he's forgiven him because he's so morally superior, and asks Natch to cooperate with him in an important business matter.

* In Franchise/TheDCU, Cliff Carmichael was the intellectual tormenter of Ronnie Raymond (the teenager who would become the hero ComicBook/{{Firestorm}}). Carmichael eventually became the supervillain the New Thinker.

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/{{PvP}}'' when Francis [[http://pvponline.com/comic/2015/08/05/old-friends-new-again encounters his old bully]] at a high school reunion. He goes over to give the guy a piece of his mind and isn't pleased when Teezo can't even remember him. Then it turns out that while he doesn't remember Francis specifically, he knows what a jerk he was and only came to the reunion to apologise to people.

* A ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' case had one about a man who killed the now grown-up guy who bullied his son into suicide. It is, however, more complicated -- the man was a child psychologist by trade and was originally quite willing to not hold any grudge over the said bully. So, when the said ex-bully went to college and happened to live close with the said man, they were originally quite friendly. It was ''only'' after noticing this trope has been played straight that he decided to kill the ex-bully.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'' had a variation; none of the people he had originally tormented were there when it happened, but crossing three series of the entire franchise, Tetsu Ushio from the original (the upper-classman hall monitor who bullied Honda and Jonouchi and tried to extort money from Yugi) appeared as an adult in ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', now a member of Sector Security (what they called the police force) and hardly changed a bit at first, now bullying the poverty-stricken underclass of Satellite under his jurisdiction. (As said, no-one from the original series was there, but WordOfGod confirmed eventually that he was, indeed, the same person.) However, Ushio did start to change slowly after several meetings with [[TheHero Yusei]] (the fact that [[BigBad Godwin]] treated him like garbage helped a lot) and he eventually turned to a reluctant ally of the heroes, before finally making a full HeelFaceTurn.

* ''ComicBook/ReidFlemingWorldsToughestMilkman'' is a rare case where the ''protagonist'' is a schoolyard bully all grown up. The author actually based Reid on a schoolyard bully from his childhood, re-imagined as an adult. Now he terrorizes his customers, and anyone else he feels like.

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': An episode has Fasier and Niles' two bullies from high school show up as plumbers. The first one turns out to be a [[ReformedBully pretty normal, decent guy]]. He's now a successful business owner and family man. Niles makes him confront his past actions ends up giving him free therapy and finding out ''[[FreudianExcuse why]]'' he was a bully. The second one, however, begins fondly reminiscing about all the horrible things he used to do to his victims in school, not realizing that his victims are right in front of him. Eventually Frasier can't take it anymore and gives him a swirly in his toilet.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo,'' Johnny gets a visit from Mr. T, who's visiting to answer a letter Johnny sent him when he was a kid to help stop a bully who was picking on him. Mr. T helps Johnny toughen up and goes to confront the bully, who turned out grew up to become Richard Simmons.

** Actually, Trent was already a known troublemaker, given the teacher asking what did he do now.. The offense was more than the boys wanted to play fireman so they asked Trent Boyett to light something on fire and the boys tried to pee on it to put it out. While it was an accident, the boys did play the whole thing as it was his whole fault (and to be fair, he did ultimately start the fire). He became much worse out of juvie given his rampage. Furthermore, he probably would've gone back to juvie for getting his revenge (given he gave Butters, the only other kid who knew what happened as a bystander, a trip to the hospital.)

* A ''WesternAnimation/BackAtTheBarnyard'' episode sees Otis dreading the arrival of an old bully. The bully turns out to be a duck ([[ActorAllusion voiced by Tom]] [[Film/BackToTheFuture "Biff"]] [[ActorAllusion Wilson]]), but he still terrifies Otis. When the other characters attempt to gang up on him in defense, the duck beats them all silly. Then the duck simply says that he has had therapy and just wanted to do was apologize to Otis for bullying him.

* Sam Hess in ''Series/{{Fargo}}'' is a particularly nasty example, still acting like the JerkJock he was in high school and continues to bully and humiliate Lester every chance he gets, even breaking his nose. This last act is what ultimately gets him killed.

* A bullied man confronted his alleged childhood bully 35 years later, according to [[https://abc13.com/3239268/ this story]] by ABC13 Houston.