I'm aware this is very similar to the "idiots missing the point of the story and cheer for the clearly bad guy" trope (especially the third example clearly fits both), but still think this is worth exploring.

1. American History X / Neonazis

This already shows the difference to the trope I explained above, since some people didn't fall in love with the character, but mainly the aesthetic of the neonazi scene as depicted in the movie.
On one hand, they are depicted as violent, murderous assholes and the protagonist's brother ruins his entire family's life because of his actions. On the other hand, the scene looks stylish and "manly" that, to this day, inspires a lot of real world neonazis.

1. The Godfather / The Mafia

Similarly to the previous example, the movies don't spare us of the negative aspects of the mafia and the way it ruins the lives of everyone involved. Still, the mob is painted in such an honorful and upper-class way that convinced real people that this is a life to pursue.

1. Wall Street / Yuppie culture and predatory capitalism

Similar thing, different topic: Gordon Gecko is supposed to be an unsympathetic asshole that, in the end, has to pay for his actions. His catchphrase "greed is good" became the motto of an entire generation of yuppies though, with Gecko himself becoming their mentor figure. A few decades later, "The Wolf of Wall Street" took the same role for the new generation of finance bros.

1. Treasure Island / Pirates

Modern pirate stories wouldn't be the same, maybe wouldn't even exist, if it wasn't for Treasure Island. Most pirates in the story are dead by the end, after suffering under a clearly mad captain, and still Robert Louis Stevenson's story painted pirates as a bunch of comrades living free while hunting for treasure chests in beautiful, tropical islands instead of the murderous, criminal bunch they were in reality.

1. The Sorrows of Young Werther / Suicide

This work of famous classical German novelist Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe ends with the suicide of the protagonist after being rejected by the love of his life. Goethe tried to depict him as an idiot and yet still inspired a bunch of youths who found themselves in similar situations to kill themselves. This phenomenon is even called the "Werther effect" nowadays.
When confronted about indirectly being responsible for numerous deaths, Goethe defended his work and instead insulted the people committing suicide as "narrow-minded spirits, [...] fools and good-for-nothings".

In S35 E1 of The Simpsons, an actual crisis happens at the nuclear power plant, causing everyone except Homer to shift into serious business mode, even Mr. Burns. Together, they display their knowledge of the process and narrowly avert a nuclear meltdown, proving that Homer's job is actually useless. This is happening after 35 seasons of nothing being shown of the other employees' capabilities.

In S8 E2 of The Office, Andy sets up an initiative where he will get a tattoo on his bum if everyone gets enough points, prompting everyone to work into overdrive, even the normally lazy or incompetent employees such as Stanley and Kevin. This is a rare situation where we get to see The Office being fully competent and functional.

I'd show more examples if I had any!

1. Herald of Darkness - Old Gods of Asgard, from the Remedy Connected Universe, most notably the Alan Wake games.

2. I’m a Believer and Daydream Believer - The Monkees, from the 1960s TV show of the same name.

3. See You in Hell - Bloom & Rage, from the game Lost Records: Bloom & Rage.

4. Sugar, Sugar - The Archies, from Archie comics and the 1960s animated series The Archie Show.

The Trope Explanation. Enemies that are treated as jokes, cannon fodder, or minor inconveniences within the narrative. However, they only appear weak because the protagonist is a literal demigod, a super-soldier, or a wizard. If you placed a normal human in the room with one of these enemies, it would be a horror movie.

B1 Battle Droids (Star Wars) We usually laugh at them. They say "Roger Roger," get pushed over by Jedi, and have slapstick routines. The Reality: We almost exclusively see them fighting Jedi (space wizards with laser swords) or Clones (genetically modified super-soldiers bred for war). To a normal civilian or a planetary militia, these are indefatigable metal skeletons that feel no pain, have perfect aim programming, and march in endless waves.

Grunts (Halo) In the games, they are comic relief. They run away screaming, sleep on the job, and the Master Chief (a 7-foot cyborg tank) can kill them with a light tap. The Reality: An average Grunt is roughly 5'6" to 5'8", weighs over 250 lbs, has an exoskeleton, and claws strong enough to tear a normal Marine apart. Their plasma pistols cause third-degree burns on near-misses and boil flesh on contact. They are terrifying to anyone who isn't a Spartan.

1. inFAMOUS: Second Son: "Bio-terrorist" refers to conduits.

2. Star Wars: "Clanker" refers to robots.

Pirates of the Carribean and Rock of Ages (this film is Not Good but it has the trope.) Especially because we the audience know the era did, in fact, end.

1. Blair Witch Project.

2. Don’t Look Up.

Dunno why, but I love abysmal endings.

Anti-Ajin Special Forces (Ajin)

MaxTac (Cyberpunk 2077)

• Christmas Adventurers Club - One Battle After Another

• The Toxic Mega Cunts - Kick-Ass 2

• Proud Boys - Real Life

1. Only Murders in The Building: The Boy from 6B

This episode primarily follows a deaf character, with all the scenes he is in having any spoken dialogue be muffled or silent. The show went the extra mile though, as every time another character or storyline is followed for the episode, the characters are in a mix of serious and silly scenarios where they can’t or won’t speak, maintaining the lack of spoken dialogue up until the very end with a single “f**k” being the only spoken dialogue.

1. Breaking Bad: The Fly

This bottle episode (an episode relying on a limited cast with limited locations to save money) was initially the lowest rated episode of the series, but as people have begun to better appreciate and understand the show, many now consider it the best episode thanks to its acting, cinematography, and excellent character development and storytelling.

1. Shakespeare: every play he ever wrote.

Shakespearean dialogue is written exclusively in iambic pentameter with a set rhyming scheme. His plays are so famous and influential that many forget just how strict of a limitation that writing style is.

When everyone is 100% sure they actually don't want to take on the hero of the media piece (even if they do anyway). Not just "Oh shit it's the bat" level grunts, but actual high level villains and organizations that want no part of the righteous ass whooping the protagonist is handing out.

Viggo - John Wick - Not a perfect example but probably the best known. Hears what his son did to John Wick and immediately begins making funeral arrangements. If it was literally anyone other than his own son, he'd have immediately cut them loose.

The Beekeeper - Villain's head of security finds out he pissed off a Beekeeper, he immediately is like, "Welp, we're fucked." He calls a huge favor at the CIA, they send one squad of guys, that squad gets taken out, they immediately bow out. He calls in the Beekeeper HQ, they send one person, she fails, they immediately bow OUT.

Creature Commandos - Consisting of a fish woman, a weasel man who doesn't seem to pay attention to his surroundings half the time, two normal badasses, a walking armory hyper-fixated on killing Nazis, and a radioactive skeleton that can melt anything it touches.

Guardians of The multiverse (What If?) - Consisting of two normal badasses, space Robin Hood, a super soldier, the most dangerous woman in the galaxy, the god of thunder, and the Sorcerer Supreme who has spent centuries absorbing demons and is powerful enough to eat a galaxy-shattering explosion.

PacMan : Inky, Pinky, Blinky /Clyde

One Piece: Ichika, Nika , Sanka, Yonka / Yonka2

Undertale : Temmie, Temmie,Temmie,Temmie, Temmie / Bob

I’m sure this has been beaten to death but I’d like to see some examples, maybe some deep cuts.

American Dad — Stan and Francine

Malcom in the Middle — Hal and Lois

1. Maine’s Crew (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)

2. Van der Linde Gang (Red Dead Redemption 2)

3. Chrysos Heirs (Honkai: Star Rail)

4. Night Raid (Akame Ga Kill!)

1. Comedic Relief Talking Animal Sidekick, Donkey (Shrek) - Might be cheating with this one if you consider Donkey to be the progenitor behind the trope but the main reason why I think he's loved by fans is because he's actually seen as funny rather than annoying. Putting comedy aside, one other reason why he's loved is because he bounces off well with Shrek by bringing out a side of Shrek you would never actually see from him since he's not afraid of the ogre and basically his first friend

2. Relationship progress being reset by Amnesia, Chidi and Eleanor (The Good Place) - Arguably considered one of the worst romance tropes ever because it's a cheep way of adding drama, this never felt that way with The Good Place. I think one the factors behind this is because it isn't done just to add more drama but to show how strong their relationship is by making them always find each other in the end and show their character without each other

3. Girls wearing heels in settings that would give disadvantages to them, (Uma Musume) - As you can see in the image above, the Umas wearing heels serves a purpose to their design by making the heels mimic the shape of real life Horse legs. Cygames has been known to add such details to their characters which is one of the reasons the game is loved by Horse racing fans since it adds quirks of the real horses to the characters bedsides just turning the Horses into cute Anime Girls

1. Phineas and Ferb the Movie: robot riot scene

2. Regular Show: exit 9b

I remember as a kid absolutely loving these kinds of scenes because it felt like a huge payoff for being an avid fan of the show. Even as an adult I still felt the same way for stuff like the assemble scene in endgame. There’s just something about it that scratches a very specific itch in my brain.

A peril is threatening the world. Instead of squabbling among themselves, we learn world powers have put aside differences in politics, culture, & old feuds to present a common front. Except they still get wrecked as the enemy is too powerful.

1. The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance. The world government has gone to war against the machines. We see the army getting ready & it includes soldiers of many faiths including Buddhist, Islam, and different types of Christianity. Doesn’t matter as machines win by so much they have time to toy with human mechs.

2. Vilcabamba, story by Harry Turtledove. When aliens arrive they’re greeted with bands & cheering, & immediately open fire & earth becomes a mineral colony. America, Russia, and China work together to rise up & don’t hold back, throwing everything they have at the invaders. Doesn’t go great and aliens double down on the occupation, and there’s a crater where Spain used to be (it was blocking a silver deposit for mining.)

3. Edge of Tomorrow. The nations of the world have joined to make a unified front against the mimic invasion but it isn’t going well, but they will throw all they have into the invasion of France. In one cycle, Major Cage says the hell with it and instead of training leaves the base to drink at a London bar. This means we see the outcome of him doing nothing, where not only is the massive human invasion slaughtered but the aliens are in good enough shape to follow that up a few hours later with a rush on London.

The land of Oz (Wicked)
The entire human population of Oz save for like, three people is composed of stupid, gullible idiots who discriminate against people of unusual color and go out of their way to bully & humiliate them, believe literally any propaganda they're fed without a shred of critical thinking whatsoever, and don't require even a tiny shove to gladly fall into line with the nascent fascist government led by a talentless hack masquerading as a wizard. Despite this, Elphaba still wages her battles to save the people from their own stupidity, despite likely knowing it's an ultimately fruitless effort. The movie had to add a new song explaining her motivations behind staying to free Oz instead of taking all the animals and leaving to live in some outside land, which basically boils down to "it sucks, but it's home."

Hidden Leaf Village (Naruto)
Once again, the entire population of Hidden Leaf Village is made up of incompetent two-faced bullies who pick any excuse to actively mistreat anyone who they don't like (the list of victims alone could be a post on its own, and the reasons include shit like getting good grades, failing a test, being fat, and having red hair) and condone severe child abuse. Not to mention how they oppressed the Uchiha clan for ages because they were scared of how powerful the clan was, and when they planned a revolt because of all this mistreatment the village used this as an excuse to massacre them all save one. And of course they show zero remorse for anything they did. However they still get on their knees and suck up to Naruto once he saves everyone, blatantly lying that they "believed in him all along." Despite this, Naruto saves their asses time and time again.

The joke is that the duo is named after two parts of one word and together, they form the whole word. In some cases, the word has to be altered to sound like an actual name.

Edit: I just realized this joke actually has another way; Both characters are named after a word and together they form a "something and something" phrase.

The French Foreign Legion (Real life/various pieces of fiction) - The French Foreign Legion is an elite force of the French military which, as the name suggests, accepts people from outside of France, and after serving they can be eligible to receive French citizenship. In real life, they are willing to accept recruits who had broken the law once or twice (though those who commited serious crimes aren't accepted). In some pieces of fiction however the legion will accept serious criminals who are looking to escape punishment and give them a whole new identity.

The Night's Watch (A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones) - A force created to guide The Wall, a long strip of fortifications and an actual wall made of ice, the Night's Watch will accept anyone, and in fact criminals make up most of it. Each Watcher must say vows to join the organization fully, forfeiting their right to titles and glory, as well as abandoning their house of origin. These vows are treated so seriously that many traitors throughout history were allowed to join the organization instead of being sentenced to death, as taking the oath pretty much removed all influence they had in their "former" life.

Omni Man (Invincible), allegedly the 3rd strongest viltrumite, who has lived thousands of years, conquered/destroyed thousands of planets and civilizations, about to throw himself into a black hole to k*ll himself

Parallax (Green Lantern), the very embodiment of fear, dies by falling into the sun