"I resent being an artist, in that respect, I resent performing for fucking idiots who don't know anything. They can't feel. I'm the one that’s feeling, because I'm the one that is expressing."
— John Lennon
Show Business is his bread and butter... whether he likes it or not.
He's been in the business for years and has become absolutely jaded (especially if he started out as a Wide-Eyed Idealist). And he's not going to let anyone forget it. The things that come out of his mouth would never make it on the air in Real Life... unless that is, he was unaware that the microphone was still on.
But there is the fact that deep in his heart, he does love his work. It's just that he rarely gets the opportunity to do it the way he feels it should be done. It's just he's often forced to do crap just to pay the bills.
Such a character was known in older movies as "The Ole Soft Shoe".
A specific case of a Jaded Professional. Compare Nice Character, Mean Actor, The Last DJ, Classically-Trained Extra, I Was Young and Needed the Money, Jaded Washout, The Prima Donna, Fame Through Infamy (when you may not like doing something infamous in and of itself, but you like the "limelight" it gives), No Such Thing as Bad Publicity, White-Dwarf Starlet, Former Child Star, Japandering, Peer-Pressured Bully.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Yumemi Yumemite from Kakegurui is a very popular up-and-coming Idol Singer who secretly hates being an idol and detests her legions of male fans, seeing them as disgusting and perverted. However, she's willing to put up with it since she's using her idol career as a stepping stone to fulfill her true goal of becoming a Hollywood actress. Even after losing her composure and exposing her true colors during a game against Yumeko, her fans continue supporting her.
- Akira in the Lucky Channel segments of Lucky Star is revealed to be very cynical and jaded about the entertainment industry when she isn't putting on a Genki Girl act for the camera, much to the chagrin of Shiraishi. The funny thing is she's not that old (she's fourteen), but started out as a child star (at three years old!) and has been a Deliberately Cute Child ever since then. Despite her cynicism, she still loves the attention she gets as an idol and admits that she wouldn't be where she is today without her Otaku fanbase.
- In Saki Shinohayu -dawn of age-, Kanna Ishitobi hates mahjong, as a game seemingly based solely on luck. The reason she plays it, though, is so that she can defeat Hayari Mizuhara — the one person who has ever defeated her at a game.
Comic Books
- Loony Leo from the comic book Astro City is a strange example. He's a cartoon lion that was accidentally brought to life in the real world. He's spent his time as a "live-action" actor, a penniless vagabond, a supervillain, and was involved in the scandalous death of a 14-year-old girl by drug overdose before he eventually leaves everything behind and settles down as the host of a novelty restaurant. After telling his whole depressing life story to a young executive who wanted to recruit him for a few local commercials, he scolds the kid for thinking he'd want to return to the spotlight after all he's been through. Then, at the last second, he changes his mind.
Loony Leo: Aw, hell, it's show business, right? Where do I sign?
- DC One Million gives us a superhero version: The future Starman hates being a hero, but loves the attention.
- Binky the clown from Garfield. He wanted to be an actor originally but they told him he was too short, apparently. So he both loves and hates his clown image.
Fan Works
- The Calvin, Hobbes, and Paine Show reframes the original comic strip as a TV show that went downhill after the original writer left, being Retooled into a Variety Show. Over the years, Calvin has become a deeply embittered actor who despises everything the series has become, yet can't bring himself to quit.
- Scarlet Lady: As the titular Nominal Heroine, Chloé absolutely hates fighting akuma or dealing with any of the other responsibilities that being a superheroine entails... but she absolutely loves being praised and adored by the people of Paris. So she forces Chat Noir to handle all the hard work as her "sidekick" while Stealing the Credit.
- The Victors Project: District 5 Victor Matty Fletcher openly admits that he doesn't like mentoring, due to the furusturations of mentoring for one of the unluckiest Districts in Panem and how he rarely connects with the tributes in a positive manner. That being said, he does relish the media attention he gets on the rare occasions when a District 5 tribute makes it to the Final 8.
Films — Animated
- Mommy Fortuna in The Last Unicorn. She keeps a dangerous harpy in her circus that she knows will kill her one day, but she doesn't care because she only wants to be remembered, which tormenting an immortal harpy will accomplish. When the unicorn suggests that the harpy be set free, Mommy interjects, "I'd quit show business first!"
Films — Live-Action
- Airheads: Ian "The Shark", the DJ of KPPX "Rebel Radio" doesn't like '90s rock, telling Chazz "I stick to the classics. Rock'n'roll's been all downhill since Lennon died." However, seeing how passionate '90s rock musicians like Chazz and his friends are, he changes his mind.
- In the film The Aristocrats, many of the interviewed comedians argue that this is the essence of The Aristocrats joke since it's about a family that will sink to any depravity to be part of the glamour of showbiz. Sarah Silverman's version of the joke, in particular, runs thick with this trope.
- Margo from Flashdance confides to protagonist Alex that she used to be so proud to be a pole dancer at Mawby's, and would routinely buy glamorous outfits for that purpose. As time went on, however, Margo stopped buying fancy outfits and continues at Mawby's as a workaday job. This adds one more reason for Alex to audition at the Pittsburgh Repertoire Conservatory, rather than "pissing it all away."
- Galaxy Quest: Alan Rickman's character, Alexander Dane, was once a serious Shakespearean actor. Ever since having starred in the titular television show, his career has been reduced to appearing at sci-fi conventions and opening electronics stores.
- The Menu features an Inversion in Chef Julian Slowik. While he absolutely loves cooking, he despises how fame has taken over his life to the point that his only customers are rich snobs who appreciate his reputation more than they do his actual work. He even found Happiness in Minimum Wage, keeping a picture of the time he spent working as a line cook at a small burger joint as a reminder of better times.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit has Baby Herman, a Toon who's fifty-three years old and hasn't visibly aged a day, stuck in the body of a infant. He absolutely despises how he's unable to grow up, and that he'll always be typecast as a wide-eyed Straying Baby... but at the same time, he still enjoys that his work has remained fairly popular.
Jokes
- There's a very old joke about a man who walks into a bar smelling of filth. He complains to the bartender that he hates his job, cleaning up after the elephants in the circus. He shovels elephant droppings all day long and can't get the smell off of himself no matter how he tries. The bartender asks why he doesn't just quit his job. The man looks back, unbelieving: "And quit show business?!"
Literature
- Zig-zagged with Ciaphas Cain. He seems to enjoy his job as a Commissar and he is actually pretty good at it. Furthermore, he would be happy to live a quiet life out of harm's way. Unfortunately for him, his status as a celebrity means he is repeatedly thrown into situations he would rather stay out of and he is too unwilling to forego the luxuries that being in the limelight offers him.
- In the Discworld book Soul Music, when a band shows major promise and is recruited by Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler, he appoints a somewhat flattened (and smelly) troll named Asphault to carry their equipment. In homage to the joke, he cleaned up after elephants, but they often sat on him. (One of the characters commented: "Only sat?") When asked why he didn't leave, Asphault said: "Show business is in me soul."
- Played With in Tom Clancy's Executive Orders: Jack Ryan is giving his first public speech as President, and despite his disdain for the formalities cannot help but feel the allure when the audience wildly praises him. He compares it to a narcotic.
- In Oreimo, Kanako Kurusu, one of Kirino's school friends, is tricked by Ayase, another of Kirino's friends, into a cosplay contest, where she dresses up as the main character of Stardust Witch Meruru, an in-universe Magical Girl anime. Although offstage she gripes about it, while she's performing on the stage, she seems to give herself entirely to the act as she sings and wows the audience. Kanako does such an excellent job that Kirino, who was in the audience, doesn't recognize that it's her friend cosplaying as Meruru.
Live Action TV
- Andy Kaufman's Excited Kids' Show Host-style stage persona was almost invariably revealed to be this at some point in the show, carrying over into some of his TV specials.
- Angel: Inverted with Lorne. As head of the W&H Entertainment Division, he is bogged down with so much work that he has to surgically remove his sleep — and even then he still can't catch up. It becomes clear that it's Lorne's way of assuming his old Caritas role and bringing people together, even at great self-sacrifice.
- Doctor Who: Charles Dickens had shades of this in "The Unquiet Dead", since he had come to hate his tour of reading A Christmas Carol to packed houses. It takes the Doctor, who gushes about another work, The Signalman, and a visit from the Gelth to rouse him out of this. By the end of the episode, he's got a new lease on life.
- This is Andy's entire character arc on Extras (and applies to some of the guest stars/minor characters as well).
- House had a character like this in the season 4 episode Living the Dream. The patient of the week was the star on a daytime medical soap but felt ultimately unfulfilled with his job.
- The titular character of Father Ted is described like this by the show's creators. He's not a pious man and he both hates being a priest and hates the backwater island he was assigned to. However, he loves the respect and perks that comes from being a priest and he loves the relative easiness of the job.
- A particularly dark example: Mr. Jelly, the ill-tempered, one-handed clown on Psychoville.
- M*A*S*H: Major Charles Emerson Winchester, who was sent to the 4077th by a Colonel whom he always bested at cribbage. While nobody liked being in the southeast Asian theater, Charles detested it but was an admitted showoff at the operating table. Hawkeye dresses him down once, telling Charles that "without an audience, a patient means nothing to you."
- Johnny Fever in WKRP in Cincinnati starts out like this, but he's not as grouchy after Andy, the new program director, lets him play the music he wants to play (and say "booger".)
Music
- Jonathan Coulton's song "Bozo's Lament" is about a clown who hates and resents his job but doesn't know what else to do. "It sucks to be a clown."
Professional Wrestling
- Jesse Ventura would end editions of "The Body Shop" with "The pleasure was all yours."
Theatre
- Patience: Bunthorne is an aesthetic poet who secretly dislikes poetry and aestheticism (when alone he sings a song mocking the latter's ridiculousness), but maintains his persona because he likes the admiration it gets him from women.
- Something Rotten!: Shakespeare, who is portrayed as rock star-esque, laments that he enjoys fun but still finds writing difficult in the song, "It's Hard to be the Bard".
Video Games
- No Straight Roads: DJ Subatomic Supernova downplays this trope. While he clearly enjoys being the center of attention, he doesn't hate making music (it's his music, after all). However, the reason he signed on with NSR was to further inflate his oversized head, despite knowing full-well he'll only be relevant for a generation or two.
- One potential fate of Tex Murphy in The Pandora Directive involves Tex leaving the P.I. business and becoming a clown. Needless to say, his reasons for doing so render him quite jaded.
Visual Novels
- In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, the Ultimate Baseball Star Leon Kuwata exemplifies beat-for-beat a sports version of this trope. Leon does enjoy playing baseball at heart, and he loves the attention, female fans, and the free-ride scholarship that baseball has given him. He just hates and resents having to do it constantly, until all the joy is gone and only the drudgery of endless pointless practice and games is left. The fact that he's a Brilliant, but Lazy bum at heart and so stupidly talented that he doesn't find much challenge in the game or see why anyone would need to practice at it doesn't help.
Web Animation
- Inverted with Fizzarolli in Helluva Boss. As revealed in the season 2 episode "MAMMON'S MAGNIFICENT MUSICAL MID-SEASON SPECIAL (ft Fizzarolli)", he loves his job as a clown, he loves performing, and he even loves the occasional sincere fan — especially children. But he hates the limelight. He hates that his Bad Boss, Mammon, has commercialized him. And he hates the Groupies, the Loony Fans, and the Paparazzis.
Web Comics
- Sven Bianchi in Questionable Content has a remarkable talent for writing country-western songs that are trite, sappy, and incredibly corny... but also incredibly marketable.
"Your eyes were as brown as a bottle of beer...." You can't sell this!
I already did.
What.
Or rather, my lawyer is attempting to mediate in the bidding war. I'm thinking of buying a house.
Western Animation
- Baby Doll in Batman: The Animated Series starts out this way... and then goes waaaay further.
- Mother Maggie, a children's TV host from Family Guy, hates children.
- One episode of Fillmore! involved a case with a rather over-obsessive fan of a book series. After Filmore and Ingrid crack the case and clear up the matter. Said fan meets the author of the series..who had planned to kill off her character because, unlike her fans, she just saw her book series as nothing more than a job and source of income rather than for any genuine passion, likewise thinking her fans (who are grade school kids mind you) are a bit too wrapped in the series for her taste. Said fan calls her out for her callousness.
- Rugrats: Miss Carol, host of a Show Within a Show in the episode "Word of the Day", secretly hates kids and is only in it for the money. Hilarity Ensues when Angelica overhears her and assumes the more vulgar version of her TV catchphrase was the real one.
- The Simpsons:
- Krusty the Klown, whose stage name is a hint at this. How much it actually applies to him varies Depending on the Writer. Sometimes he's depicted as a hack who's just in it for the money, at other times he laments the crappy material he has to work with. In one episode, he claimed that he'd need a "shoebox full of blow" to go through with producing a particular sketch. "The Last Temptation Of Krust" plays with both aspects: after noticing his humor is out of step with modern comedy, he quits his job and reinvents himself as an anti-establishment stand-up comedian with great success. Then he accepts a huge endorsement from Canyonero SUVs which causes his new career to tank and him to go back to his old job, which he doesn't mind since he realized his true talent was never comedy but selling out.
- This trope is also the ultimate reason for Sideshow Bob's descent from TV sidekick to a homicidal maniac. Bob originally accepted Krusty's offer to be his sidekick because he thought he could both entertain and enlighten the children who would be watching, but his talents were utterly wasted by the lowbrow shenanigans Krusty subjected him to, which in Bob's own words "destroyed more young minds than pinball and syphilis combined!" Finally, Bob snapped and framed Krusty for armed robbery, taking over the show after Krusty was arrested. He immediately turned it into the kind of show he originally wanted to do, one that was educational, entertaining, and uplifting all at once. And then Bart Simpson pegged him as the guy who framed Krusty and he went to jail. Suffice to say that it got worse from there.
- An episode of South Park depicted Mickey Mouse like this.
- Nom Nom the Koala from We Bare Bears loves the money and fame that comes from being a viral video star, but hates dealing with his fans (especially the Bears, and especially Grizzly).
Real Life
- Italian singer Cristina D'Avena is said to feel this way, as she does exclusively cartoon theme songs, children shows, and nothing else. Publically at least, she claims to be happy with her career.
- Marjoe Gortner, an evangelist preacher in the '60s (who later became an actor in movies such as Starcrash), explained in his documentary that he didn't believe what he preached but loved the attention and money - going so far as to say if he'd had a different background he'd probably have been a rock star.
- Despite the public perception that anyone in a mascot/animal/robot costume absolutely hates their job, this tropes is mostly averted by character performers. Many actually love their job and take pride in their level of skill. Especially sports mascots.
- Fred Schneider of The B-52s has on more than one occasion implied that he only tours for the money. He refuses to do new recordings nor change up the setlists significantly by playing rarer material. In interviews discussing the band's history he comes across as bored and forgetful compared to Cindy and Kate. It's evident in the way his vocal style has changed too, for much of the band's existence he was intense and varied (hitting a particular apex on his solo album Just Fred), but in recent years has resorted to effectively speaking over the music. He still does guest appearances and work with his solo group The Superions, but it is not considered to hold a candle to earlier work nor the solo albums of his bandmates Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson. The B-52's still put on a good show and has a loyal fanbase, but are somewhat of a legacy act.
- Former WWE Diva Sable... sorry Rena Lesnar has outright admitted that she never gave a shit about wrestling and only used it to get famous. In hindsight, it's no surprise since she couldn't wrestle, refused to take bumps, and was reportedly a huge bitch to her co-workers.
- The same mostly holds true (except for the "being a huge bitch" part) for Stacy Keibler, who has made it no secret she never cared for the business and considered it nothing more than "a stepping stone" to get to Hollywood to launch her acting career. Supposedly, she erased all traces of WWE and WCW from the bio on her website when she got there and, save for one-shot appearances on Tough Enough and inducting her friend, Torrie Wilson, into the WWE Hall Of Fame (and then being inducted herself in 2023), has had nothing to do with the wrestling business since.
- Politicians can fall into this, where they have little interest in accomplishing policy changes, but stay in their positions because they love the attention. US President Dwight Eisenhower is sometimes regarded this way.
- An extremely disturbing example occurred with O. J. Simpson, crossing over with White-Dwarf Starlet, after his legal and civil trials from 1994-1997. After a successful pro football career in the early 1970s, Simpson went on to be the spokesperson for Hertz rental cars, and from there he had a decently successful acting career through the 1980s - one of the first big examples of a pro-sports figure successfully adapting his fame into commercial success as a spokesperson/actor. He lived in upscale Brentwood, California, and regularly played golf with all of the upscale citizens of the community, including famous actors, judges, etc. Overall, he was held up as a major example of a respected and successful former pro-footballer who had settled into a comfortable life of fame. However, the nationwide scandal of his double-murder trial (in 1994) and then civil trial (in 1997), utterly ruined his public persona. He lost all of his money in the civil suit, including his Brentwood home of 20 years, and had pariah status in the national eye. People who knew Simpson, however, said that he'd spent his whole life since high school being treated as special, because of his athletic talents - a major example of celebrity culture in America, he was never treated as if the rules applied to him. Whether or not you think Simpson was actually guilty, he was so utterly addicted to his celebrity status that after the trials, he couldn't really mentally process that he wasn't part of the limelight anymore. In the early 2000s, Simpson totally deteriorated, with no limits to how far he would debase himself just to be in the limelight again. This culminated in 2006 when he released a prank-based reality TV show, "Juiced", consisting of him making practical jokes on unwitting bystanders with hidden cameras. It was a ripoff of shows like 2003's "Punk'd"...starring O.J. Simpson (if you want to look up clips of "Juiced", brace yourself to see just how far someone can abandon his last shreds of human dignity out of an addiction to fame). Even his close remaining friends desperately tried to convince him that he was only humiliating himself, as well as his children. Problem is...Simpson had fallen so low that he genuinely didn't seem to care - it didn't matter what he was doing, so long as the cameras were pointed at him and people were talking about him.
- There's an old quotation about writing (sometimes attributed to Mark Twain, but so's everything) that basically sums this up: "Everyone wants to have written, but nobody wants to write." Writing something good enough to be published is often a matter of tiresome rewriting and editing as well as just sitting down to write something as often as you can, which many of the people who would like the limelight of having written don't have the time, or the discipline, to do.
- Tom Lehrer was and is an inversion, while he loved doing music and comedy, he was aggressively indifferent to his celebrity status. The best example is how he kept all his master tapes in a shoebox in his attic, and later gave the tapes to a fan on a whim.
- While Jason Donovan was uncomfortable with being a late '80s-early '90s heartthrob pop singer, he still looks back at it fondly and enjoys the publicity and nostalgia his singing career gave him. Nowadays, you can basically hear him say more positive things about his PWL era than his early Polydor era.
- Andre Agassi revealed in his autobiography that "I play tennis for a living even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion and always have." While discussing this quote
, The Guardian found a bigger case of the trope in Olympic cycling champion Chris Boardman, who once said he was not fond of cycling, only of winning.
- Michael Jackson openly admitted he hated touring; both because of the stress it caused, and because it was a record label requirement. However, he did love getting to interact with and entertain fans because of it, as well as getting to see different countries around the world.
- Ken Penders, a former writer for Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna series, openly admits he cares little about the Sonic franchise outside of his work on it and that he only stayed on the book for 12 years because his son was a fan of the franchise and because his editors gave him a lot of creative freedom.
