• Crayon Shin-chan: Shinosuke Nohara is a shameless, outspoken, and insensitive 5-year-old boy who likes to flirt with young women, read adult magazines, and make his mother mad. However, he's ultimately a good kid at heart, willing to do the right thing for his friends and even save the world occasionally.
• Doraemon: Nobita often uses Doraemon's gadgets to either cheat through life or play pranks on his bullies. However, he is ultimately a good kid at heart who recognizes when things go too far and tries to solve any problems.
• Naruto:The titular protagonist was presented as this at the beginning. He starts off as aClass Clown who pulls pranks on others and places graffiti on the Hokage Faces. This is a result of growing up as a social outcast due to being a host of a fox demon that nearly destroyed the Hidden Leaf Village.Subverted, as he grows as a ninja to the point of becoming the village hero, he grew out of his tendency to cause mischief.
• One Piece: Being a pirate,Monkey D. Luffy is anIdiot Hero who gets into zany antics and causes silly trouble in the process yet, in the end, he saves several countries from more serious threats.
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt:The Anarchy Sisters are the heroes, yet somehow they get into trouble with the law constantly, even more so than theDemon Sisters.
• YuYu Hakusho: Yusuke Urameshi is a 14-year-old delinquent who pulls pranks on his classmates and teachers, skips school and gets into street-fights on a regular basis. However, as he sacrificed himself to save a little boy from being hit by a car, he eventually undergoesCharacter Development, going from an aggressive street-punk to a caring and protective hero.

• Big Nate: A big part of the titular character's personality is to play pranks on his friends, family, bullies, and the principal. However, he is a good kid at heart and is willing to stand up for his friends and family against bullies.
• Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin spends his time annoying his parents, his babysitter, his teacher, and his neighbors. However, he is aJerk with a Heart of Gold who usually stops his troublemaking behavior in serious moments.
• Dennis the Menace (US): The titular character usually spends his time causing trouble, sometimes unintentionally due to his curiosity or intentionally due to disliking something others are trying to make him do. However, he is generally a good kid at heart, and is willing to help out his friends and family.
• Little Lulu: The titular character spends her time pranking friends and family either for her own amusement or to make life easier for her. However, she ultimately is willing to help her friends and family as well.
• Peanuts: Snoopy tends to play tricks on the other kids to annoy them, like stealing Linus' blanket, kissing Lucy, and annoying Charlie Brown with his eccentricities. However, he is also willing to help them out when it really matters for them, like supporting Charlie Brown.

• Lilo & Stitch (2002): Both title characters fall into this trope.
  • Lilo often causes trouble by fighting the other kids and causing trouble for her sister Nani by locking her out of the house. However, she is a good kid at heart and is still willing to help Nani, and later Stitch out. This characterization carries on into the sequels and the TV series.
  • Stitch was created as a destructive force of evil, but after hisCharacter Development by meeting Lilo, he falls into this trope. He often likes causing trouble by playing pranks on others, but is still willing to help his friends out.
• Peter Pan (Disney): The title character has a tendency to tease his enemies, particularly Captain Hook, to the point of cutting off the latter's hand and feeding it to a crocodile. However, that doesn't stop him from protecting the innocent people of Neverland.
• Treasure Planet: Jim Hawkins, the film's main protagonist, is a rebellious and moody teenage delinquent (due to hisrough childhood where his father abandoned him) who gets in constant trouble all the time. Nonetheless, withCharacter Development, his sense for adventure in the mission to the namesake planet turned him into a hero. Especially when he aided the RSS Legacy out of the planet's destruction.
• Zootopia: Nick Wilde is a con artist who does a daily scheme of buying a giant popsicle, melting it into smaller ones, selling all of the little ones, then selling the used popsicle sticks to construction mice. However, he only does those schemes to get by (as Judy later finds him living under a bridge) and he's able to use his fast-talking and skills as a con artist to get Judy (and himself) out of trouble.

• Ace Ventura: Pet Detective: The title character often likes making rude jokes and annoying his coworkers, but he is anAnimal Lover who is willing to take on the case and save the day.
• Big Fat Liar: Jason Shepherd is a 14-year old chronic liar who often lies to get out of trouble. However, his heroic deed is when he pulls off the caper of the century, and takes down a big-shot producer named Marty Wolf in Los Angeles to get his report (by pulling pranks on him and tricking him into confessing) and win back the truth and trust from his parents.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley counts as one, as just like hisbook counterpart, he tends to lie as well as prank his friends, which sometimes leads to consequences. However,unlike his book counterpart, Greg actually goes throughCharacter Development and seeks to improve his relationships with his friends.
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Ferris Bueller is a manipulative jackass, but he'snever mean about it. He's just trying to live his best life and sincerely wants the same for the people he cares about, particularly his best friend Cameron. The one time he is truly mean to someone (thesnooty Maitré D at the fancy restaurant), he's just paying him back for having been mean first. And the two times he goes too far with Cameron, he immediately apologizes and tries to make up for it.
• Max Keeble's Big Move: Max Keeble is a bullied junior high school student who pulls pranks on his enemies for tormenting him before he moves to Chicago. However, when his actions result in the bad guys targeting his friends and other students, he goes out of his way to set things right and manages to save an animal shelter from being destroyed by hisEvil Principal.

• Anne of Green Gables is like this, especially in the first book, getting herself into catastrophes all the time. Some of her antics are accidental, such as jumping on a bed in which a very rich and important lady was sleeping. She is usually willing to apologise for her antics, with little or no fear of doing so.
• The Book That Almost Rhymed: The protagonist's sister causes trouble bychanging up the protagonist's intended rhymes and making the story completely random and nonsensical. However,it turned out she was trying to come up with her own rhymes to impress the protagonist, who realizes this and decides to work with her to finish the story.
• The Cat in the Hat: The titular cat causes trouble for the kids by barging in and messing up the house. However, he was only trying to entertain the kids on a rainy day, and not only stops when he goes too far, but even cleans up the house.
• Curious George: The titular monkey often creates chaos due to his curiosity getting the better of him, yet he has a good heart and often doesn't mean the harm he does and makes up for them.
• Middle School: Rafe's main goal in the first book is to break every single rule in the school's rulebook. However, he is ultimately a good kid at heart, and even makes a rule for himself stating that no one else should be hurt by his rule-breaking behavior.
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: The titular character usually spends his time picking fights with other kids or pranking his friends and family. However, he is a good kid at heart and over the course of the story, is able to make more heroic choices.
• Uncle Remus His Songs And His Sayings: Br'er Rabbit alternates between this trope andVillain Protagonist. His main personality is playing pranks on the other animals, though in some stories, he takes on heroic roles to protect other prey animals from getting eaten by various predators, or helping the other animals solve whatever problem is troubling them all.

• M*A*S*H: Captain Hawkeye Pierce is a prankster, a womanizer, and a general pain in the ass who likes thumbing his nose at Army life in general. He manages to get away with it by being a brilliant surgeon who saves countless lives, while also being a genuinely decent man who never misses a chance to confront an injustice or do something kind for his friends and patients.

• The King of Fighters: Kyo Kusanagi, one of the protagonists of the franchise. A high school student and heir to the Kusanagi clan known for having a cocky, rebellious delinquent-like attitude. Despite having the inability to study or neglect training sessions, he's a skilled and talented martial artist in his own right, while also having a sense of justice.
• Need for Speed: Many of its installments often puts thePlayer Character to cause trouble around the city, getting the attention with the police.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: The title character is a mischievous, cocky, snarky and rebellious hedgehog who uses his super speed to taunt his enemies while protecting the innocent.

• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: The titular hero is an 11-year-old inventor who uses his inventions for selfish reasons, which often leads to unintentional disasters. Nonetheless, he is highly capable of solving problems, has saved the world countless times and is loyal to his friends and family.
• Amphibia: Anne falls into this trope, as she tends to slack on work and sometimes disrespect authority figures like Hop Pop or her teachers back on Earth. However, she is ultimately a good kid at heart and is willing to save her friends from danger. It helps that she went throughCharacter Development throughout the series.
• Animaniacs: Yakko, Wakko, and Dot fall into this trope, as they usually spend their time pranking and annoying various people, but are usually well-meaning. They usually tend to deliverLaser-Guided Karma to antagonistic characters, end up helping the people they spend their time annoying, or stop when it's clear their annoying habits are going too far.
• Ben 10: In the first season, thetitular character occasionally uses his alien powers to play pranks on others or get something for himself. However, he genuinely likes helping people and uses his powers to save the day. He gradually grows out of this in the following seasons, becoming more selfless.
• Big City Greens: Cricket Green is impulsive and reckless, and has a habit of causing trouble around Big City. However, he is still a good person at heart who cares about his family and friends, and he knows how to get himself and his family out of problems.
• Classic Disney Shorts:
  • Donald Duck tends to fall into this trope, as he often plays pranks on his nephews as well as non-anthropomorphic animals likePluto andChip 'n Dale. However, he is aJerk with a Heart of Gold that is willing to protect his nephews from harm and sometimes stop if he goes too far.
  • Mickey Mouse: Early versions of Mickey Mouse fall into this trope, as he had a tendency to sometimes prankMinnie Mouse and enemies like Pete. However, he is ultimately good at heart and takes on heroic roles in many cartoons, and evenTook a Level in Kindness in later shorts. Some works likeMickey Mouse Works andEpic Mickeytry to bring back his earlier, mischievous characterization.
• The Fairly OddParents!: On occasion, the main protagonist Timmy Turner can be this, as he uses his fairy godparents to grant wishes for selfish and occasionally dangerous wishes. However, he is good at heart, and tries to set things right whenever things go too far.
• Gravity Falls: Stan Pines is a professional con man who takes joy in scamming gullible tourists. That said, he's alsoprotective of Dipper and Mabel,spent thirty years trying to save his brother, will admit if he's made a mistake, and isn't afraid to step up and do the right thing when it counts. He's also able to give fairly good advice...sometimes.
• Johnny Test: The title character's tendency to create chaos for his own thrills are what drives much of the series, yet he often sets things right when things go overboard and occasionally saves the world from more dangerous threats.
• Looney Tunes: Occasionally,Bugs Bunny falls into this trope. While he is usually aGuile Hero that ends up playing pranks on others in all his cartoons, in cartoons where he's pitted against outright villainous characters likeYosemite Sam and Marvin The Martian, he takes on a heroic role to save the day, while his trickster personality remains the same.
• The Mask: Animated Series: Stanley Ipkiss is aNice Guy, but wearing the Mask makes him uninhibited. While he uses his powers to be a hero, he also pulls pranks on people and gives peoplewedgies (though he’s usually aKarmic Trickster who only targets people who messed with him first), and acts on any impulse he feels. In "Mr. Mask Goes to Washington", he even destroys the Washington Monument just because it was blocking the view of the new nightclub he built, and he admits at the end of the episode that he’s "alittle bit of a crook".
• Megas XLR: The main hero, Coop, is aNice Guy who uses his giant robot to be a hero, but he’s also an impulsiveIdiot Hero whoaccidentally creates a lot of destruction, and some of the threats he stops werecausedby his bumbling. For example, in "Breakout", he finds a device that’s used as a virtual prison for holding evil monsters and robots, mistakes it for a video game console, and accidentally frees all the inmates trapped inside. In "Bad Guy", asuperhero team from space even believes Coop is an evil villain after seeing video footage of all the chaos he (accidentally) causes.
• The Owl House: All three main characters count as this:
  • Luz Noceda is a sweet and friendly girl who hasno idea what is or isn't socially acceptable behavior (as her antics include letting spiders loose in the art room, scaring the cheerleading squad by turning her eyelids inside out, using raw meat as fake guts while auditioning to beJuliet, and bringing live snakes to school). While in the Boiling Isles, Luz's troublemaking is only encouraged by her temporary caretaker, Eda, leading to her getting banned (temporarily) from Hexside (among other things). However, herCharacter Development leads her to start thinking more about the concerns of others and not always putting her interests first.
  • Eda Clawthorne is a wanted criminal at the start of the series, and regularly commits cons or crimes throughout the show. However, the biggest crime she's committed is the fact that she's the only adult witch in Bonesborough who hasn't joined a coven, preferring to use all forms of magic and not limit herself. She's also a responsible caretaker who keeps Luz and King out of trouble and goes out of her way to make sure her human's needs are met.
  • King is the youngest member of the trio and isn't above causing trouble or chaos for the sake of it. Part of this is because he's a child who doesn't fully understand the consequences of his actions, and the other part is because he's the self-proclaimed "King of Demons"although the eventual reveal that he's a baby Titan makes thistechnically true. He regularly starts fights on the playground with other kids, tries to train his stuffed animals and various real animals to be his army, and isn't above convincing Luz to take the easy/irresponsible way out of her problems (Luz alludes to this at one point by calling him "the demon on my shoulder").
• The Replacements: Todd Daring is a ten-year-old con artist in the making who likes to cause trouble for the sake oflaughs or to avoid things he hates. The fact that he has the ability a la Fleem Co to replace any adult in his life with someone more "capable" gives him an edge on this. However, when he inevitably gets into trouble due to his shenanigans (often because his replacementisn't who he thought they'd be), he works to fix it.
• The Simpsons:Bart Simpson is known for his penchant for pulling pranks, which often leads to him creating chaotic situations. However, he is a good kid and is capable of heroic acts.
• Spirit Rangers: Coyote falls into this trope, as while he likes playing pranks on the humans and other spirits, he is ultimately a good character who helps them out. This separates him from the other tricksters, who tend to play more dangerous tricks.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003):
    • Raphael has aHair-Trigger Temper that often gets him into trouble. As angry and violent as he can get, though, he still has a good heart and cares deeply for his family.
    • Michelangelo isThe Gadfly in his family, often doing things to get on his brothers' nerves. However, he's an incredible ninja and a very friendly, kind person.
    • Casey Jones is aVigilante Man with a temper as short as Raphael's, and he spends his nights roaming the streets of New York so he can beat up Purple Dragons. As Raph discovers in his debut episode, though,Casey's not a bad guy and he reallydoes take the safety of New York seriously. The Turtles' influence helps Casey become a better man over the course of the series... Though he still likes to beatMooks with his hockey stick on occasion.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): Michelangelo is aCloudcuckoolander who can/will break the rules for the sake of having fun. However, he's easily the most empathetic of his brothers (Leatherhead is the family's ally all because of Mikey's kindness) and he's more than willing to fight to defend New York.
  • Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Leonardo isThe Gadfly who loves to play practical jokes, tease his brothers, or send him and his brothers on missions for trivial reasons. However, he's as dedicated to protecting his family and city as the rest of his family, and will do whatever it takes if it means both things are safe.
• Tom and Jerry: Both title characters occasionally fall into this trope. In most of the cartoons, they spend their time pranking and inflicting violence against each other. However, some cartoons likeThe Night Before Christmas (1941) andOld Rockin Chair Tom show that the duo secretly care for each other and is willing to save the other. Jerry more often than not falls into this trope when trying to save another animal like Nibbles or Little Quacker from getting eaten by Tom.
• Woody Woodpecker: Sometimes, Woody falls into this trope. Woody is usually aVillain Protagonist who spends his time pranking other people either for fun or to get free food from them. However, whenever he's pitted against more evil characters like Buzz Buzzard or Denver Dapper Dooley, he tends to take on a more heroic role to stop them. This characterization is more common in recent revivals of the character that tone down his negative qualities while still maintaining his prankster personality.

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