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The Jeeves

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"Ever notice a lot of butlers are named Jeeves? You know, I think when you name a baby 'Jeeves'... you've pretty much mapped out his future, wouldn't you say? Not much chance he's gonna be a hitman, I think, after that. 'Terribly sorry, sir, but I'm going to have to whack you.'"
Seinfeld, "The Pilot Pt. 2"

The Jeeves is the perfect British butler, valet, or manservant. Always well-dressed, unfailingly polite, devoted to his employer... and usually much smarter or more level-headed than his employer, too. Usually can manipulate him so subtly that he does not even have to speak With Due Respect to achieve his ends. And you will only know him by his last name.

The canonical example is Jeeves himself, from the Jeeves and Wooster short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse and the Jeeves and Wooster TV series based on them. The original Jeeves, just for the record, is a valet, not a butler — that is, he's a personal manservant, not a chief of domestic staff; as a bachelor living in a flat, Wooster doesn't have the kind of staff to warrant a butler. (Though all that said, if the call comes, Reginald Jeeves can buttle with the best of them.) The same is true of many examples of this trope, as the two roles are commonly confused.

A somewhat common inversion, which began while Wodehouse was still writing, is to have the butler as a brutish thug (and possibly a Battle Butler). Both the original and the inversion are examples of an actually useful kind of valet taken to the logical extreme. After all, if an aristocrat is in fact foolish and incompetent, then a competent valet is an urgent necessity if they are to survive everyday life. Conversely, an aristocrat may find it useful to have a brutish thug on retainer to deal with certain... inconvenient problems.

Note that The Jeeves, even if a valet, is not prone to the No Hero to His Valet plot, generally having a clear view of his master's faults and virtues, though he may, on occasion, allow his view of the former to jaundice his view of the latter. Usually a Hypercompetent Sidekick and often a Servile Snarker (the original was both). Complete opposite of the Bumbling Sidekick.

If the Jeeves should appear in a work of Mystery Fiction, expect copious Lampshade Hanging on the idea that The Butler Did It.


Examples:

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    Advertisement 
  • Many commercials for the drink mix Tang feature a butler serving a rich family, who calls him to serve something to their thirsty son. The butler serves the kid some Tang, while internally thinking "He does not deserve it".

    Anime & Manga 
  • Bakugan has Kato, the butler of Marucho. In fact, his unfailing politeness is what ticks Shun off on an impostor Hal-G attempting to misdirect the team. What did Shun notice? The Kato on the radio once referred to Marucho by his name alone, as opposed to "Master Marucho"
  • Count Cain: Riffael Raffit is an ex-medical-student, beyond competent, devoted to a fault, and always turns up right when his master needs him. Until it turns out he's even more mentally unstable than Cain is, at least.
  • Dr. STONE has Francois, Ryusui's ambiguously gendered, Crazy-Prepared butler. Their first act upon being depetrified (and getting properly dressed) is to walk towards Ryusui's location in a straight line for two days without rest, without so much as a drop of sweat in their face, after which they promptly demonstrate their hypercompetence by preparing enough preserved food to last for a voyage across the ocean. According to Ryusui, "not possible" is not part of Francois' vocabulary.
  • Nurse Angel Ririka SOS has Shion, the faultlessly loyal butler to Princely Young Man Nozomu Kanou. He's always level-headed; the only time his composure breaks is when Kanou collapses from exhaustion. The man is even calm after being mortally wounded.
  • Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: Tokita, the Itoshiki family butler. He's ultra-competent and seems more sensible than his employers, although since this is a World Gone Mad, he has his own quirks.
  • Wild Rose: Mikhail's butler Bernt is utterly unflappable and appears like a phantom the moment Kiri slacks off in his work.

    Comic Books 
  • Archie Comics: Veronica's father, billionaire Mr. Lodge, has had a butler named Smithers. Some earlier issues had similar-looking servants with different names, including Jeeves. One thing all his butlers had in common — they seemed to enjoy literally throwing Archie (or less often, other boys) out of the house for behaving unruly, or sometimes in Archie's case, for destroying a priceless antique.
  • The Avengers: Jarvis is considerably more level-headed than his employer, Tony Stark — which one of them, after all, is the alcoholic?
  • Batman: Alfred Pennyworth. And yes, given the title used for a military officer's personal assistant, that makes him Batman's batman. He's also a Battle Butler in several incarnations, with British military and/or espionage training. Keeps Batman from either giving up, or going too far into Knight Templar territory. While he isn't more intelligent or deductive than Batman (though he has his moments), he's certainly wiser than he is.

    This has changed over the years. When first introduced, Alfred was primarily there for comic relief, particularly in the role of a self-styled detective who either had to be rescued from the danger his bungling efforts got him into, or who triumphed by sheer luck and/or slapstick humour. Later, the detective angle was dropped, but one thing that remained that exemplifies this trope is that Alfred turned up at the door of Wayne Manor one day, announced to a startled Bruce and Dick that he had come to take up the role of butler to the household (which was news to them!) walked in, took up his self-appointed duties and never left. More recent versions of the character have him employed by the Waynes before the murder of Bruce's parents and make him a substitute father to the young orphan. Once the comic aspect was toned down, he's been the perfect gentleman's gentleman — that is, extremely competent at everything he does, with the possible exception of getting Bruce to look after himself — with a touch of razor-sharp wit that comes out in occasional glimpses of him as a Deadpan Snarker.
  • XIII: An odd combination of the brutish thug and unflappable manservant appears in Irina's employ, a bald, one-eyed and scarred mercenary who informs sir (XIII) that dinner will be served soon, that sir will find a tuxedo tailored to his measurements on the bed, and that XIII shouldn't try to escape, as he has been warned of sir's violent tendencies. He later also serves as sommelier.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animated 
  • Big Hero 6: Fred's family butler Heathcliff remains completely stoic and unruffled even as the team practices and tests their weapons with him as the target.
  • Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes has Tom in this role, as the dedicated, and somewhat aloof manservant to Holmes's client. He proves to be a reliable presence throughout the investigation (notably, the film features him and Jerry at perhaps their least antagonistic).

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Film: 5 Fingers (1952): Subverted, with more than a hint of Fridge Horror, by Agent Cicero. Diello plays the part of a loyal gentleman's personal gentleman to perfection but is inwardly consumed by resentment at his low social status. If you have ever wondered what Jeeves would turn into should he start to dwell on why a person as intelligent and cultured as he is should be a mere servant, the answer is Diello.
  • The Admirable Crichton is about the eponymous butler doing his level best to keep this role up even when his Upper-Class Twit employers and a handful of staff are stranded on a desert island, and doing a pretty damn good job at it considering the resources available. When they take too many liberties in expecting an impossible level of luxury, he's forced to resign and start his own camp on the other side of the island... which they soon come crawling over to join, entirely unable to fend for themselves.
  • Clue: Wadsworth is a more scheming variant on this. In the third ending, it's revealed that he's the real Mister Boddy and "Mister Boddy" was actually his butler.
  • Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus: Rami Malek plays one. He is the very educated and proper Seneschal Higginbottom, manservant to pseudo vampiric Dr. Hess Green. (Although he can be a bit catty with Ganja, Green's new lover and loses his temper dealing with her, but only once. Jealousy is a probable cause of this).
  • Django Unchained: Stephen provides a very interesting subversion. He isn't British and he isn't a gentleman. He is, however, a genius butler who can fix anything for his idiotic master — with both him and his master being pure evil.
  • Harry and the Butler: Fabricius is a very proper and upright butler, a typical Jeeves. The joke is the he has been hired by Harry, a poor man who lives in a shack in a junkyard. Harry is old and lonely, and after he comes into an Unexpected Inheritance he decides to indulge in an old fantasy, and hire a valet to serve and pamper him for 11 weeks, which is when the money Harry inherited will run out.
  • Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears: Absolutely nothing seems to faze Crippins, the Lofthouse family butler: from Phryne asking for Lord Lofthouse's car keys in the middle of the night, to Lord Lofthouse and his brother almost coming to blows in the ballroom, to Lord Lofthouse being arrested for murder. Part of the reason for this equanimity is that The Butler Did It.
  • The Parent Trap (1998): Martin is the devoted butler to Annie (the British twin) and her mother. After they reunite with Hallie (the American twin)and the father, he finds romance with their housekeeper, Chessy.
  • Ruggles of Red Gap, in which the proper, stuffy Ruggles suffers from a lot of culture shock when he's gambled away to a couple of loudmouthed Americans and winds up working in Red Gap, Washington.

    Literature 
  • Artemis Fowl: Butler, the Battle Butler, has some resemblance to the subversion, but is well-spoken enough to resemble The Jeeves.
  • Isaac Asimov's Black Widowers stories: "Northwestward"
    • Henry is as unobtrusive as ever, deftly serving baked Alaska and solving the mystery for Mr Wayne.
    • Cecil Pennyworth is the butler to Mr Wayne, and nephew of Alfred Pennyworth. His elliptical manner of mentioning his flight plan causes the mystery of the plot.
  • The meaningfully-named Jock Strapp of the Charlie Mortdecai series is written as the subversion type, and is actually described as the anti-Jeeves. He's crude Dumb Muscle and completely loyal to his cunning employer, the eponymous Villain Protagonist (or anti-hero on a good day).
  • Vimes' butler Willikins in the Discworld books encompasses both this trope and its subversion: normally, he is the perfect Jeeves (minus the subtle manipulation of a wayward master), but in his childhood or when the situation demands, he was and can become again a thug.
    • Indeed, in Jingo he switches from one to the other in mid-sentence. "Let 'em 'ave it right up the... oh, is that you, Sir Samuel?"
    • In Thud!, he keeps acting like the perfect Jeeves even after personally eliminating half of a dwarf commando squad attacking the Vimes home, and then hosing down their invasion tunnel with a flame-thrower.
      • Also in the same book, Willikins admits to having been a street gang member (in a gang even Vimes, a gang kid and possibly the Disc's dirtiest fighter, describes as a tough, mean lot) in his youth, favoring a cap-brim lined with sharpened penny coins. We also see him assisting the Watch as a volunteer reservist later. Vimes marvels at the difference in Willikins' working-class background and his current highbrow butler status.
    • In Snuff, Vimes insists that Willikins come with the family to the country manor. Willikins acts as personal manservant, preparing drinks and getting the manor's staff to respect their new master, and bodyguard, heavy on the latter. While the examples above could fall into service or self-defence, some of Willikins' actions are very shady, things Vimes may want to but won't order, such as shooting at an old lady while making a gang think one of their own did it, making them definitely in the wrong and giving the police an opening; and killing the Psycho for Hire when he escapes for a second time, rather than delivering him to the police.
    • The Igors are pretty much this for the Mad Scientist type. Although they are willing to work for non-mad scientist types.
  • Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry series has Flandry's valet, Chives, who is a clear Shout-Out to Jeeves. Even if he is not human. (And starts out as a slave.)
  • Hercule Poirot: Poirot's valet Georges is an exemplar of British Stuffiness and reliability. Poirot occasionally uses him in his investigations or as a sounding board when Hastings is unavailable, to which Georges responds admirably.
    "We are going into the country, Georges," said Hercule Poirot to his valet.
    "Indeed, sir?" said the imperturbable George.
    "And the purpose of our journey is to destroy a monster with nine heads."
    "Really, sir? Something after the style of the Loch Ness Monster?"
    "Less tangible than that. I did not refer to a flesh and blood animal, Georges."
    "I misunderstood you, sir."
    "It would be easier if it were one. There is nothing so intangible, so difficult to pin down, as the source of a rumour."
    "Oh yes, indeed, sir. It's difficult to know how a thing starts sometimes."
  • Because he apparently hated butlers (going so far as to say they had their own circle of hell, where kitchen-maids and journalists could watch their torments from Heaven), Hilaire Belloc wrote a different kind of subversion in The Emerald of Catherine the Great. The butler acts like The Jeeves around his master (except his schemes don't work), but is thuggish to the other servants. He even switches between posh dialect and Cockney, depending on whether there are toffs around or not.
  • Honor Harrington: Most of the stewards of the Royal Manticoran Navy. Not so much the part about being smarter or more level-headed, but definitely the part about manipulating the captains, commodores and admirals they serve into being properly dressed and fed, and at providing proper hospitality even at the most awkward times or when the most unusual and unexpected guests show up.
  • In Death: Summerset, a butler who is naturally British. However, he doesn't seem interested in manipulating his employer Roarke very much.
  • The Jeeves and Wooster series of short stories and novels by P. G. Wodehouse, later adapted into the popular Jeeves and Wooster TV series.
    • Jeeves is the Trope Namer, of course, albeit with a few shades of Unbuilt Trope. Jeeves is a consummate professional on the clock, and since his boss Bertie is the POV character that is where we usually see him. However, it is mentioned, often in throwaway lines, that Jeeves has a wider circle of friends than Bertie, several clubs and at least one on-and-off girlfriend. Jeeves is also a very skilled card player, and will occasionally hustle his betters at whist or bridge when asked to be the fourth player in a game. Finally, Jeeves is well-acquainted with violence, capable of silently incapacitating a police officer, and a highly skilled shotgun marksman. Not quite what you picture when you think "Jeeves", wot?
    • Sebastian Beach, the butler supreme of Blandings Castle. Beach doesn't have quite the same level of dignity as Jeeves, being a nervous, sweaty fat man. While Jeeves is the mastermind behind whatever Zany Scheme is afoot, Beach is usually reluctantly roped in, usually by Galahad Threepwood, his employer's roguish younger brother.
    • Subverted with Voules, Reggie Pepper's manservant. Reggie Pepper was a scatterbrained aristocrat who was later Expied into Bertie Wooster, and Voules at first appears to be a cool, calm forerunner of Jeeves... until he turns out to be an angry, drunken Jerkass who betrays his master. Characterization Marches On, what?
    • Also subverted with Brinkley, whom Bertie hires while Jeeves is temporarily working for someone else. Brinkley turns out to be an incompetent, violently alcoholic Communist who ends up setting fire to the house.
  • From The Kingdoms of Evil, Mr. Skree
  • Jeeves the eponymous robotic Battle Butler for Clan Korval in the Liaden Universe, a rehabilitated decommissioned war machine who it turns out actually adopted his name and manner specifically from certain ancient novels after having suffered at the hands of a character who is entirely coincidentally named Roderick Spode.
  • Lord Peter Wimsey's valet Bunter is not, in fact, smarter than his amateur-detective employer, but he does have a number of useful skills that his boss doesn't — like knowing how to develop a photograph.
  • Played with every which way in George MacDonald Fraser's McAuslan story "The Servant Problem": zigzagged by MacNeill's grandmother, who intimidates her employers; played straight by John, footman to a baronet who is the perfect manservant; and completely, utterly defied by every one of Lt. MacNeill's successive batmen, not to mention MacNeill himself.
  • At the start of the short story collection Partners in Crime, Albert is attempting to be the sort of butler he sees at the pictures, much to Tommy's embarassment (he's had to stop him taking cards in on a silver platter). He grows into the role in later books.
  • Mr. Butler from the Phryne Fisher novels. He keeps Phryne's eccentric household running like clockwork and is never put out by any request, no matter how odd.
  • In Robert Asprin's Phule's Company books we have Beeker, the batman of Willard J. Phule. Whilst his insanely rich employer is busy inspiring his Ragtag Bunch of Misfits troops (and he does — no Upper-Class Twit here), he's the one who frequently has to pull his arse out of the line of fire.
  • Stevens in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day is a deconstruction of this, what with all the realising that his life has been meaningless and the Nazis and everything.
  • Ruggles Of Red Gap which was also made into a play and a movie.
  • Saturnin in the eponymous Czech book is very resourceful and skillful and relishes helping his employer in unconventional ways while maintaining perfect polite demeanour.
  • Sacred Monster: Jack employs an unflappable British manservant and scrounger named Hoskins. Jack keeps trying to get him to play the part even more thoroughly, ordering him to say, "You bellowed, sir?" whenever Jack yells for him.
  • Rall, in the Spaceforce (2012) novels, is Jay's discreet and perfectly mannered personal servant. It turns out that he's reporting Jay's every move back to his commander, but this doesn't affect the fact that he's otherwise a perfect servant - and he does warn Ashlenn to flee, before she's arrested by the Taysans for eloping with Jay.
  • Miss Feng in Charles Stross' short story "Trunk And Disorderly," which is a pastiche of the Jeeves novels relocated to an indeterminate future.
  • Konstantin Bothari from the Vorkosigan Saga fits as one of the tropes' subversions. He plays batman to Aral Vorkosigan in the Barrayaran army, and later young Miles Vorkosigan after his release from service, but his primary qualities are his loyalty to the Vorkosigans, love of his daughter, and his martial abilities as a body guard. Later Miles acquires the suave and Jeeves-like Armsman Pym, who more closely embodies the original trope. Both Bothari and Pym are examples of the Battle Butler.
    • Pym's replacement is Armsman Roic, who started out as a local cop, caught the Vorkosigans' attention by saving the day from a mass shooter (while unarmed), and often feels inadequate because all the more senior armsmen have Imperial Security and/or military backgrounds. Like Bothari, he came from humble beginnings, but not quite as humble.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Acapulco: Even though he lives in Malibu, Maximo has an impeccable and full-suited British butler. He even lampshades that his butler is pure white to his nephew.
  • Lurch in The Addams Family fit in every single characteristic other than been British (as far as we know).
  • Massively defied by Edmund Blackadder in Blackadder the Third, who constantly manipulates his self-confessed "thick as a whale omelette" employer for his own ends. Interestingly, his employer is portrayed by Hugh Laurie, who also played Wooster.
  • Carson from Downton Abbey. Only World War I can stop him from running the house perfectly.
    • Also, Spratt, the Dowanger Countess' butler.
  • In an episode of Even Stevens. Louis comes into enough money to hire his own Jeeves, called Chives, for a week. This is likely a parody of this trope.
  • Mr. French from Family Affair.
  • Geoffrey from the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
    • And his spiritual ancestor, Benson DuBois of Soap.
  • Frasier hires one of these in one episode of the show named for him, although he only plays up the British Stuffiness when on the clock, and is happy to discuss Man Utd with Daphne in the kitchen.
  • There is Frik from the mini-series Merlin. He is the polite and well-mannered servant to Queen Mab who horribly mistreats him. He often tries to serve as the voice of reason only to be ignored and is often the one to actually carry out her plots. He leaves her employ/is fired when Mab kills the woman he loves. He then helps Merlin destroy her.
    • He defines his role and the trope perfectly when Merlin meets him at the end saying: "There will always be a need for the perfect gentleman's gentleman, and I was and always will be one of the best."
  • The basic premise of the sitcom Mr. Belvedere is this, serving for an American Middle class family.
  • The Nanny
    • Niles. Well, sort of. Niles mostly fits the Trope. He's British, polite, sophisticated, and loyal to his employer... For the most part. Eventually, however, he becomes somewhat of a Deadpan Snarker and the Only Sane Man in the cast, thinking Maxwell somewhat stubborn for his reluctance to admit his true feelings to Fran. Eventually, in a late season, he gains enough backbone to finally tell his boss off and speak his true mind about it, and this finally convinces Maxwell to propose to Fran, and it sticks.
    • In the Foreign Remake La Niñera the Hispanic version of the character also fits the profile; Fidel in the Argentinian remake and Nicolás in the Mexican.
  • The Phil Silvers Show: Martin from "Bilko's Double Life" is an American version. He acts as the more grounded valet and confidant of neurotic Blue Blood Herbert Penfield III and tries to help his employer relax more.
  • Spencer from Power Rangers Operation Overdrive. At some point, he got hired by Overdrive's team mentor Andrew Hartford prior to the latter building his son Mack around 2004-2005ish. Like some mentioned on this page, he also has the role of Servile Snarker down pat.
  • Kryten of Red Dwarf is named after the Admirable Crichton, although he's The Woobie as much as The Jeeves.
  • Hudson from Upstairs Downstairs, who often puts duty and rectitude before compassion or flexibility, or even his own selfish needs. In one story, he panics when he is seen by Sir Richard at a restaurant entertaining relatives from Australia because he thinks he is aping his betters and thus deserves to be sacked. He is quite shocked when Bellamy doesn't get rid of him, though Bellamy's brother makes him squirm quite a bit.

    Theatre 

    Video Games 
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Haskill. It's telling that, when his master is the god of madness, and he lives in a dimension where everyone is insane, he's the Only Sane Man.
  • Fallout:
    • Mr. Handies, a type of pre-war robots designed to serve as robotic butlers, valets and household aides, have this kind of personality, with variable levels of competence (and sanity) depending on their model and programming. They've also been successfully used as mechanics, lab assistants and doctors, although most models retain the British accent and fussy good manners.
    • Fallout 3: When you get a house (either in Megaton or Tenpenny Tower), you are given a Mr. Handy to help explain the house's functions, give you fresh water, and tell you jokes. Both possible butlers speak with a British accent and have remarkable manners (when they're not muttering sotto voce about not wanting to serve you, anyway).
    • Fallout: New Vegas: The Sink's Central Intelligence Unit is an unfailingly polite and amicable computer in your apartment in Big MT, able to repair and trade goods for you and always ready with a compliment or a wine recommendation.
    • Fallout 4 allows you to recover your pre-War Mr. Handy, Codsworth, and take him as a companion on your adventures.
  • Halo Infinite allows the player to give their Spartan-IV their own personal AI, with one of them having a butler-esque personality who is appropriately named BUTLR.
  • Luigi's Mansion has Shivers, one of the portrait ghosts. He wanders the mansion looking for his master's will, hoping that he's included in it.
  • Pokémon:
    • In Pokemon Platinum (and Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver), Darach is this to Caitlin. Just look at him His title is Castle Valet, and he battles you in place of Caitlin, who is implied to have tantrums when she loses. Darach is polite and proper, and he also says En garde! Caitlin is also a powerful Psychic who can't control her powers, so you can see why she doesn't battle. Doesn't stop her from Taking a Level in Badass and becoming an Elite Four member in Black and White.
    • Pokémon Sword and Shield introduces Indeedee, a species of Psychic/Normal-type Pokémon patterned off of domestic help. The male variant specifically invokes the classic Jeeves appearance with its design, and its Sword Pokédex entry claims it makes an excellent valet.
  • World of Warcraft: Engineers can craft a device that requests the presence of Jeeves, the perfect gentleman robot butler, who will attend to your needs for 10 min. Jeeves allows players to repair their armor and weapons, sell unwanted items, buy reagents for spells and grants bank access to skilled engineers. Truly a gaming gentleman's gentleman. The Jeeves robot, however, has the look of a clockwork gnome and lacks the British stuffiness of a true Jeeves. A closer approximation to The Jeeves in-game is the raid boss Moroes inside Karazhan. He's in charge of the grand dining hall, and is unflaggingly polite to you even when he's trying to kill you. Even when you kill him, he maintains his stuffy cool, saying only "How terribly clumsy of me."

    Visual Novels 
  • Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem: The player character is assigned a personal butler, Jasper, for the duration of the Summit. He's there to help manage your schedule, run errands, assist with planning and setting up any events you decide to host, keep you apprised of relevant information, and generally in all ways assist you in your efforts to successfully navigate the Summit and achieve your goals there. Jasper is extremely poised and professional and very competent at what he does - as well as being very mysterious and suspiciously well-informed.

    Webcomics 
  • Girl Genius: Gilgamesh Wulfenbach's assistant Wooster, named after the employer of the original Jeeves, is a complete aversion of this trope, considering that he works for British Intelligence. Gil knows about this. Despite being a spy with his own agenda and a university friend rather than someone hired as a professional manservant, he does seem to be good at his cover job. And given who his employer was, having a batman with non-traditional talents probably came in handy.
  • Homestuck: Equius' lusus, Aurthour, is a magnificently mustached centaur who serves as a live-in manservant for his charge, always ready to dart in at his side with a fresh towel or glass of milk. Equius' commentary notes that he's simply the best there is at being a butler.
  • Jeeves and Wooster is part of the canon of the crossover webcomic And Shine Heaven Now meaning that Jeeves himself (along with Bertie) appears in the series. As it turns out, everything Walter knows, whether about being a butler or being a vampire hunter, he learned from Jeeves.
  • No Rest for the Wicked: Perrault effectively runs his master's life. Until he decides he's bored; and even then setting guidelines for continued success while he's gone.
  • PvP: After he won the lottery, Robbie hires a butler named Butler who plays this to the hilt and can solve any problem the other characters have if they ask him to... and apparently LolBat in his spare time.
  • Tower of God: Alumik Edroch, father of Evan Edroch, the butler of Princess Jaina Repelista Jahad. He's got the dress code right and generally is more mature than all the Princesses we meet. Also, he knows many of these Princesses so well that he knows exactly what they want.

    Web Original 
  • In the Show Within a Show Caleb Rentpayer from the Homestar Runner cartoons, Caleb is a young slacker who somehow came into a lot of money. From the brief snippets of the show we've heard, his hapless butler Tuxworth seems to be half Jeeves, half Butt-Monkey.
    Caleb: You throw like a girl, Tucksworth.
    Tuxworth: Caleb, that suitcase was heavy!
  • Mr. Deeds of SCP-662.

    Websites 
  • The search engine Ask.com was formerly known as "Ask Jeeves" and their mascot was a valet named Jeeves who fit this trope to a T, though he was eventually phased out after the website was rebranded to simply "Ask.com".

    Western Animation 
  • In Adventure Time, Princess Bubblegum has Peppermint Butler. Like many examples of this trope, he's got plenty of Hidden Depths—he's even friends with Death.
  • Archer has a butler named Woodhouse (get it?) who is definitely more down-to-earth than his employer. Unusually, in contrast to the norm wherein The Jeeves is the one "really in charge", Archer treats Woodhouse like shit (although we frequently get hints that the valet has his own little ways of getting revenge).
  • Around the World with Willy Fog: Mr Fog's manservant Rigodon note  is a very competent manservant to Mr Fog. He's stellar at his job, despite being French and not British, as is typical for this trope. Mr Fog is dissatisfied with one thing only — he may not be absolutely punctual. We're talking minutes and seconds.
  • In Batman cartoons, this trope extends as far as other characters making jibes at Alfred Pennyworth, calling him "Jeeves". Particularly Harvey Bullock calls him this in Batman: The Animated Series in the episode "Over the Edge" when Alfred jumps on Commissioner Gordon to knock him off balance to keep him from shooting Batman.
  • Hovis from Catscratch, who acts as the Deadpan Snarker Only Sane Man towards the cats' antics.
  • An episode of Danny Phantom had Danny getting rich and getting a butler named Hobson.
  • Duckworth from DuckTales (1987).
    • In the 2017 reboot, Duckworth doesn't initially appear, but is revealed to have been Scrooge's beloved former butler, now deceased, and joins the cast as a benevolent ghost.
  • One episode of The Fairly Oddparents had Timmy getting a butler named Jensen. There didn't seem to be a problem with him seeing Cosmo and Wanda, but that might be because they magically made him.
  • In the Family Guy episode "Road to Rupert", Stewie has an English butler named Crone who serves him while he's in the middle of a ski race.
  • In Gargoyles, Xanatos' secretary/butler/manservant/majordomo/whatever Owen Burnett (who chose this life over... Nah, that would be telling).
    • And Preston Vogel, whom Owen modeled his personality and current form on.
  • George of the Jungle: Super Chicken's enemy the Noodle has a butler named Beastly, who, despite his name, is a pretty straight example of this trope.
  • Get Ace: Hugo is a holographic assistant version, a British Servile Snarker who helps Ace and allows him to access the various functions of his high-tech braces.
  • Butley from Jimmy Two-Shoes, whose debut episode sees him being used by Beezy for everything to the point of living out Beezy's life. He's also the subject of a Running Gag where Jimmy and Beezy snicker whenever they hear his name. An unnamed one also appears as Lucius' butler, though he's replaced by Butley in later episodes.
  • Monster Loving Maniacs: Randall is Arthur Van Alten's butler. He's a lot more than just a stiff-lipped British gentleman though, often serving as Mission Control on his monster-hunting ventures while also dispensing advice for Arthur's grandkids and being something of an Honorary Uncle to them
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Randolph, to Diamond Tiara. Despite his apparent age, he is at least a skilled acrobat, capable of backflips, spins, juggling, and ball balancing, all of which his young employer was "too tired" to do.
  • Charles from Neo Yokio is in charge of Kaz's schedule as well as tasks like packing, getting articles of clothing repaired, taking calls, and transporting Kaz around the city with his rocket boots. He also reads to Kaz in the bath and accompanies him on missions. Oh, and he's also a robot.
  • Daphne's butler Jenkins in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. Dawson, who responds to Daphne's call when Jenkins isn't available, also counts.
    • Jenkins' services seems to extend to Daphne's friends as well. He responded when Velma accidentally called him in one episode.
  • Baileywick in Sofia the First serves as the castle steward and is always at the royal family's beck and call, even during his day-off.
  • James is this to Arktos in Tabaluga. He is a very elegant penguin with a monocle on his eye and he is much smarter than Arktos who always claims that all James's ideas were his ideas. However, James sometimes seems to be a bit too concerned about his master's welfare.
  • Tiny Toon Adventures Montana Max has his butler Grovely.
  • One of Gromit's many household roles in Wallace & Gromit. Usually the cause of his misfortune.


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Alternative Title(s): Quintessential British Butler, Quintessential British Valet, Quintessential British Manservant

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Butler Jean

Mayor Bourgeois's butler, who leads Cat Noir to the royal suite and brings him Camembert.

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