The Eeyore

"Sorry for being on this page..."

Gamal: How's it going?
Jeriah: Not too good — still alive.

— Men in Hats

This character exists solely to bring everybody down, but not in the Deadpan Snarker sense; they are defined entirely by their complete inability to be happy for more than a few seconds at a time, an emotional state that usually arises from their only occasionally justified suspicion that they are the Butt-Monkey of the entire universe. They are the walking Anthropomorphic Personification of clinical depression. However, the few moments that they are happy can be a Heartwarming Moment.

Sometimes overlaps with Sour Supporter, but not often; they are generally too unhappy to be effective or active.

When upset, the Eeyore may as well become Cute and Psycho. Being an Eeyore could easily be interchangeable with Emo when their angst comes from over-sensitivity and introspection. A stereotypical Goth will adopt such behaviour out of a more cerebral, nihilistic view of humanity. An Eeyore with artistic talent will use it to express his overwhelming angst.

If written a certain way, The Eeyore can easily become a Woobie. Some versions may be Prone to Tears, while others may just be perpetually dour. In a Four-Temperament Ensemble, this character is almost always Melancholic.

The Pollyanna is the polar opposite of this trope.

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Example subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Video Games
• Western Animation

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Other Examples:

Asian Animation

• In Happy Heroes, Sad S. has it right in her name that she's quite morose and is not only very Prone to Tears, but weaponizes her Ocular Gushers.

Arts

• Raphael Rooms: Among the brightly colored geniuses of "The School of Athens" sharing their knowledge in excitement, the pessimist philosopher Heraclitus bends over a piece of marble, covering his face in shadow, as he looks away from the writing he seems to get no joy from contemplating.

Comic Strips

• The Boondocks protagonist Huey Freeman is a cynical, pessimistic young boy who often rants about whatever (real or perceived) life's problems are on his mind. In one strip, Huey's Granddad asks him how making himself miserable all the time will help, to which he replies:
  Huey: I hate wisdom.
• Charlie Brown from Peanuts is frequently, though thankfully not always, like this.
• Porky Pine from Pogo. His most famous line is probably, "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent."
• Ted's mom from Sally Forth: She's always worrying and complaining even if nothing's wrong; Sally implies that her mother-in-law enjoys complaining:
  Ted's Mom: Was the flight dreadful?
  Ted: Actually it was pretty smooth.
  Ted's Mom: Yeah, air travel is always a nightmare.
  • Ted's tween daughter Hilary was like this when she met her boyfriend Jon. To be fair, her knowledge of relationships comes from "bad television":
    Hilary: So I guess we're going to make a lot of mistakes then, huh?
    Jon: Or we'll have a great time together.
    Hilary: Oh. Right. I like your way of thinking much better.

Fan Works

• Sarahva Boor from The 61st Annual Hunger Games is always depressed and doesn't consider herself worthy of allying with anybody. She's a kind character, but she doesn't really open up to anyone and has a pessimistic worldview.

Films — Animation

• Manny from Ice Age fits this description, especially in the original movie, when he is morose and grieving over the loss of his family.
• Sadness from Inside Out definitely qualifies. Every memory she touches turns sad too (though it's noted that this is a recent development). When Joy asks her to think of something happy, Sadness thinks of rain and the ending to Old Yeller. Eventually, the other emotions learn how to use her in positive ways.

• Toy Story 3: Chuckles the Clown is a subversion: he acts much like Eeyore, to the point of sharing a voice actor, but then you hear his backstory...
• Trolls: The Bergens are an entire race of Eeyores. They're perpetually depressed and grouchy, with a Bergen being shown hardheartedly burying himself alive. Eating Trolls is the only way a Bergen can feel happiness, and they only do that once a year. Eventually the Trolls convince the Bergens that they can feel happiness on their own, thanks to a little bit of the Power of Love for the king.

Films — Live-Action

• In Canyon Passage, Logan's clerk Clenchfield is constantly predicting ruin and disaster. In the end, he is proved right (but Logan doesn't care as it just means he gets to start all over again).
• Ringo Starr in A Hard Day's Night. Apparently, he had shades of this in reality as well, but it did bother him when the press began referring to him as "the Sad Beatle" after the movie came out; he claimed that he was perfectly happy, but didn't have a naturally smiley face.
• How To Blow Up A Pipeline: Michael is continually dour for most of the film, and even implied to be a death seeker at one point.
• "The Prophet" from Operation Petticoat, who does things like singing "You can't win, my friend, you can't win...", at least until he survives an attempted strafing.
• In the World War II movie A Walk in the Sun, Private Archimbeau gripes constantly (right up to his Last Words) that they're stuck in a Forever War and will be fighting all the way to Tibet.

Music

• Spanish singer Álex Ubago is popularly stereotyped as being both depressive and depression-inducing, due to the content heavy in sadness and melancholy of his songs.

Podcasts

• Johann of The Adventure Zone: Balance is always sad and speaks in a droopy voice. Given that he's best bard to have ever lived but his job ensures that no one will ever hear his compositions, it's hard to blame him.
• Hope from the internet comedy podcast Hope Is Emo is, well... emo.

Radio

• The Happy Postman, played by Mel Blanc on The Burns and Allen Show. His catchphrase, always done in a sobbing voice of deep despair: "Well, good-bye, Mrs. Burns. And remember: Keep smiling!"
  • Blanc uses the Happy Postman voice (and catchphrase) for a Jerkass Woobie Easter Bunny in the Looney Tunes "Easter Yeggs''.
• Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978). According to the biography of Douglas Adams written by Neil Gaiman, Marvin was originally based on a friend of his, a manic-depressive named Marshall who could only ever be cheered up by his long-suffering wife; he changed the name from "Marshall" to "Marvin" out of kindness. However, after talking about this in an interview, Adams was called by his mother, who claimed that he was totally wrong - Marvin was Eeyore. Adams went to look at some older copies of Winnie the Pooh, "...and blow me down, so he was!" Adams also said that the story he based Marvin on Andrew Marshall was one he'd told so often he no longer remembered if it was true or not. Marshall, he claimed, really was like that, but this proved nothing because all comedy writers are Eeyores.
  • Andrew Marshall co-wrote The Burkiss Way, the big radio rival to h2g2. His persona as "Marvin" was part of a running rivalry between the two hit shows, although people who met him in pubs could confirm he really was a gloomy pessimist hovering on the brink of depression. He responded by writing an impenetrably boring genius called Different Adams into his radio show. He went on to write 2point4Children and the TV series, later movie, about WW3, Whoops Apocalypse.
  • Incidentally, Marvin's original voice actor was later cast as the Trope Namer in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the original AA Milne stories.

Roleplay

• Harriet from Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues. After her parents died, something that she blames herself for, her previous personality as an enthusiastic child performer did a complete 180 into a gloomy girl who thoroughly hates herself and always assumes the worst of others.

Theatre

• In L'Orfeo, Orpheus is said to have treated sighs and weeping as food and drink before he met Eurydice, and falls right back into this after her death, lamenting that he's still alive while she's dead. He becomes this again after he causes her second death, but Apollo snaps him out of it.
• George Washington in 1776. He never actually appears on stage, but his dispatches from the field (read to the Congress) are gloomy to the point of despair. As delegate Thomas McKean puts it, "Och! The man would depress a hyena!"

Web Animation

• Angry Little Girls: Xyla, the gloomy girl.

• Strong Sad from Homestar Runner; notable in so far as he really is the Butt-Monkey of the entire universe... or at least his brothers' most readily available punching bag. It's implied he actually has depression, as a few episodes (like the Strong Bad Email "funny" and the short "No Hands on Deck!") imply he's taking some kind of medication for it.
  • However, some Character Development has turned him from what the fans call "Depressing Strong Sad" into "Whiney Strong Sad", and is now liked more by the fandom than when he had his old personality.
    I don't like food anymore!
  • His 1936 counterpart, Sickly Sam, is like this trope times two, being a chronically-ill bum who lives in an old box and speaks in a sad, wheezy voice.
• In If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, one of the Inquisitors accompanying Karamazov turns into a besaddened doomsday prophet when they're sent into the Warp.
• Dreamscape: Pita often says really twisted and dark things as if he is trying way too hard to be edgy.

Webcomics

• Petitus in 1/0, especially in his earliest days. Tailsteak directly tells him in a later strip that he was created to be The Eeyore of the series.
• The Bird Feeder has Lewis, who is a crow, and who is definitely quite the downer. At the very least, he always looks sad. When any of the other characters become sad or morose, they are assumed to have been hanging around Lewis too much.

• Follower: Geedy is this at the beginning of the comic due to his isolation. He's slowly improving after meeting Dia.
• Aradia of Homestuck is okay with a lot of things, including the Trolls' unavoidable failure and the destruction of their universe. Which she likes to remind the others of constantly. The sheer depressing nature of her conversations is probably one of the reasons why she's not very popular in the fandom at large.
  • Until she resurrected into the God Tiers and lost the Eeyore-ness.
• Piro of MegaTokyo could be accused of being this when he's not caught up in the middle of somebody else's drama, though never so much as Author Avatar source Fred Gallagher himself.

• Greyview the worg in The Order of the Stick is always ready to respond to anything from the most negative perspective possible. ("Do you even have fruit in the arctic?" Greyview: "Have bitter fruit of eternal despair.") He also has a very cynical view of his relationship with his master Oona: "Is futile to argue. Nod. Get treat. Only certainty in life: When icy jaws of death come, you will not have had enough treats."

• Siv Västerström from Stand Still, Stay Silent is definitely one of these. She always looks like a Nervous Wreck, can list why any given course of action will go horribly wrong without having to think hard about it and can only challenge people in a passive-aggressive way that makes her easy to override, even after she's plucked up enough gumption to do it (she's not wrong, just too quietly melodramatic). This also makes her a bit of an Extreme Doormat who can't (or won't) fight her corner, particularly when trying to deal with her Genki Guy husband, Torbjörn. What seals the deal? She only kind of brightens up a little when he starts to frazzle — it confirms she was right to be down!
• Vampire Girl: Levana has an extensive list of grievances of what she dislikes being a vampire, and even tells Laura that because of that, she's sick and tired of always being depressed over who and what she is.

Web Original

• Critical Role has Caleb Widogast, who perpetually sounds sad and sullen and rarely smiles or laughs. Given his Dark and Troubled Past, it's pretty warranted.
  Caleb: (after No Selling Twiggy's Hideous Laughter spell) Ja, I am not a happy guy.
• There's a color dedicated to this trope in Neopets, and it's gray. The Gray Faerie usually is portrayed with a cloud over her head, and never, ever says anything cheerful. Fandom has determined that both the faerie, pets and items are just all emo, as there's no reason to do so in such a utopic setting.
• The Real-Time Fandub take on Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) portrays Silver the Hedgehog as a Butt-Monkey who is almost always wallowing in depression, whining, and making self-deprecating comments while being given little to no respect by any of the other characters.
  Amy: Aw, dammit, I missed my opportunity on Sonic's next album! This is your fault, silver boy! I'm gonna pluck you up, melt you down, and make a fucking necklace!
  Silver: Yeah, I probably deserve it...
  Amy: Oh, wait... Shit. You don't make this fun 'cause you're sad!
  Silver: I'm always sad. That's just my thing... I... I'm sorry I'm sad. I can't- that's just how I be.
  Amy: Well, now I just feel bad. Dammit.
• Reddit has its cheerful little subreddit r/2meirl4meirl, which is mostly reposting suicidal, extremely self-loathing, and nihilistic reposts from Tumblr and elsewhere, mixed in with pleas to kill them. It's like Shinji Ikari, Marvin the Paranoid Android, and Eeyore ruining all your favorite tumblr posts.
• Vinesauce gives us the "long-lost third Mario brother" Sponge, who possesses the power to absorb the sadness of those around him. Unfortunately, this only forces him to feel that sadness instead. Even aside from this, he hasn't exactly lived the happiest life — a fan-created ROM hack has him trying to rescue his own princess, only to find that she died waiting for him, because he couldn't reach her fast enough. No wonder he refuses to smile.

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