Why do all of Ash's rivals have to be complete jackasses?

Gary and Ash are friends. Paul and Ash gained respect for each other after their last battle. And Trip isn't that bad. So they aren't complete jerks, they stopped fighting in the end.

If Ash's rivals were all nice to him, that wouldn't make the rivalry interesting. Rivals are supposed to make Ash do better, and they all did that. Because Gary and Paul were so hard on him, he trained harder to beat them. If he had nice rivals, it wouldn't be enjoyable and it wouldn't push Ash to be better. You need them to push him to do his best. Isn't that what rivals are for?

rivals arent suppose to nice...all of ashs rivals want to make him a better trainer....so they find out what makes him try harder so they cud help him......all his rivals have a real reason to push him...gary was his best friend...so of course he acted like a jerk bcuz he ash hated that.....paul said he reminded him of his brother....wen ash beat him despite such a ready plan (sinnoh league) he found respect 4 ash bcuz he kept trying until he beat him.......trip wants ash to learn from his mistakes in order to bcum a better trainer......all of ashs rivals arent jerks....they r all trying to make ash sucessful!

Well wasn't there Hiroshi-san/Ritchie too? he treated Satoshi-kun/Ash nicely,but in the end with Shigeru/Gary he became friends with him,Shinji/Paul gained more respect for him as a trainer,Shooty..well he's still getting to know him,probably by the end he'll gain more respect for him. and besides rivals are supposed to push one to their full potential,if every rival was nice..they would be considered friends not rivals,well you can be nice and still be rivals,however in the end it usually works out.