Badass Mustache



"I grew this mustache through sheer force of will, don't tell me I'm not ready."

- Gordito Delgado (age 12), The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

"A moustache can tell you a lot about a man. When properly administered, it can say, "this man has commanded spacecraft", "this man escorted Soviet bombers out of Canadian airspace", or "this man lived in a research vessel at the bottom of the ocean." These can be tall orders to live up to – having a moustache is a big responsibility."

- An Astronaut’s Guide To Col. Chris Hadfield

Few things say Badass the way a well groomed handlebar mustache does. Well, unless you're a woman. There's just something about a man who has almost half of his body weight compiled on his upper lip that screams "I'm all outta gum". A 'stache also works as an easy and quick way for an established character to Take a Level In Badass. It may also turn them into a Chick Magnet.

Not to be confused with the Beard of Evil, although a Badass Beard may also be present. The Badass Mustache is smaller and more defined and does not inherently bring with it villainous intent.

Not all mustaches are Badass; there is a fine line between this and the Porn Stache. A toothbrush mustache—also known as a Hitler mustache—just looks silly (there's a reason Charlie Chaplin used it before Hitler).

Related to Good Hair, Evil Hair.

Anime and Manga

 * Black Cat Detective - Black Cat has Badass Whiskers. When Hei Mao twists his whisker like a pimp, you know shit is about to go down. It is an allegorical mustache.
 * Whitebeard from One Piece has a stache so badass many fans assume he'll use it as a sword.
 * His mustache is so badass it counts as a beard.
 * Actually this is due to a translation, where beard and mustache are the same word in Japanese.
 * There's also the late Pirate King Gold Roger. And Vista of the Whitebeard pirates. And Zeff, Sanji's mentor. In fact it seems like a disproportionately high number of high level pirates have badass mustaches.
 * Fullmetal Alchemist - Fuhrer King Bradley, Major Alex Louis Armstrong, Brigadier General Basque Grand, Lieutenant General Grumman, Fu, Heinkel and Joliot Comanche. Golden age of the mustache indeed.
 * THIS BADASS MUSTACHE HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN THE ARMSTRONG LINE FOR GENERATIONS!!!
 * Captain Bucaneer has a Badass Fu Manchu.
 * Prof. Yumi from Mazinger Z and Prof. Kabuto from Great Mazinger sported badass-looking moustaches both of them.
 * From Galaxy Angel, Colonel Volcott O. Huey is a usually even-tempered and complacent commander. But tell him his mustache doesn't suit him, and he'll revert to his combat days as the "White Wolf" and proceed to destroy everything in his path to defend his mustache's honor.
 * Detective Conan - Conan. Richard Moore/Kogorou Mouri also has a neatly-trimmed mustache. His "badass" status tends to come in sporadic bursts, granted, but it does happen. Also: Inspector Joseph Meguire/Juzo Megure and Dr. Agasa.
 * Paul Moriyama in Keroro Gunsou. The 'stache is particularly touched upon in the English dub, but even in the original form, his Badass status was apparent.
 * Dragonball Z - While the mustached Hercule/Mr. Satan is far less powerful than the main cast, he is still absurdly strong for an ordinary human. Vegeta also grows a mustache for a little while as well, but most people tend to think he is more badass without it.
 * Soichiro Yagami from Death Note.
 * Kabapu from Excel Saga, though (in the anime at least) his mustache is actually fake. Space Butler too, and his 'stache is real.
 * Porco Rosso, a mustachioed pig who flies a plane.
 * School Rumble: Harima before he grows his beard, and then shaves everything off.
 * Tenchi Muyo!: Katsuhito Masaki/Yosho is an old mustached man who can still kick ass. Nobuyuki Masaki, while less combat-savvy, is also mustached and does help out with the occasional threat as well. Not surprisingly, future Tenchi continues the tradition by growing a mustache himself.
 * Badass facial hair is a longstanding tradition of Jurai royalty: his great-grandfather Azusa sports an epic Badass Beard in addition to his 'stache, as does the latter's father-in-law, Utsutsumi Kamiki Jurai.
 * Prospector from Martian Successor Nadesico, a surprisingly battle-savvy accountant aboard the ship.
 * Speed Racer: Lionel "Pops" Racer.
 * The Big O: Norman has one, along with a cool eyepatch.
 * Miami Guns: Chief Amano has a mustache and a huge afro.
 * Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: James Shiba, who also supports it with an Eyepatch of Power. Ma Kensei's mustache might count as well.
 * In a rare show of vanity, Kouetsuji-sensei is convinced that his own is more than a match for Shiba's. But we know better.
 * Gundam
 * G Gundam - Just like everything else about him, Master Asia's mustache is completely awesome. Subverted with Gentle Chapman, who used to be badass but is plagued by illnesses and old age when we get to see him.
 * Mobile Suit Gundam 00 - Sergei Smirnov.
 * Mobile Suit Gundam - Ramba Ral.
 * Turn a Gundam: Fans (and detractors), and even people in the series, often attribute this to the eponymous mecha itself, and considering how it's the strongest of all Gundams, it fits the "Badass" part pretty well.
 * The Turn A was designed by the famous American mecha designer Syd Mead, and represented a major break with the Gundam design traditions, which is why it was controversial in the first place. One of the key differences is that the characteristic Gundam's "V-fins", that officially house the various antennas and comm equipment and are usually placed on a forehead crest, were moved much lower by Mead, resembling the enormous pointed 'stache a la Salvador Dali.
 * Gundam AGE - Flit Asuno (Second Generation onwards).
 * Cromartie High School - Freddie practically defines badass in a very unusual way.
 * Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - Old Master Yupa has quite a big bushy mustache.
 * Ren from Himechan no Ribon has one wonderful mustache though he's a Non Action Badass.
 * Bleach - Captain-General Yamamoto. Possibly the strongest human in the series, and his moustache blows in the wind whenever he releases his zanpaku-to. Bad. Ass.
 * Shunsaku Ban imitator Dr. Reichwein from Monster is another example.
 * Hellsing - When Alucard has his final release state activated, it causes his appearance to revert to his original form as Vlad Tepes, complete with mustache (see Real Life examples). Seras finds herself unable to focus on anything else.
 * The Familiar of Zero - Although minor characters, both Louise's father and General Poitier have quite the mustaches. Louise's father's mustache is reminiscent of Kabapu's from Excel Saga.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh! - Gozaburo Kaiba has a nice 'stash, to go with his Hotblooded Sideburns and Big Ol' Eyebrows.
 * Makarov from Fairy Tail.

Art

 * Often appears in Indian art, especially that of Raja Ravi Varma. See examples here and here. Considering that both of these are depictions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, this could arguably make the trope Older Than Feudalism.

Comic Books
"Detective Crowe: "People don't trust a mustache anymore. It's just a cultural thing. Don't ask me to explain it." Sarge Davies: "What about Teddy Roosevelt? He had a handlebar mustache." Crowe: "Different era, Sarge. You telling me you'd vote for some guy with a handlebar mustache in this day and age?" Sarge: "Hell, yes. Anyone puts that kind of attention into a 'stache has just got class. I don't care what year it is.""
 * Nikolai from Assassin's Creed: The Fall sports a particularly glorious mustache. He's also a very skilled assassin.
 * From Batman, both Commissioner Gordon and Alfred apply. Hell, even Batman had one (albeit briefly) in The Dark Knight Returns.
 * Green Arrow sports one fairly often. Of the moustache-and-goatee variety. It is magnificent.
 * The Comedian from Watchmen.
 * The Corinthian gets one of these briefly in The Sandman spinoff Death In Venice. It makes him look like a Badass, verging on making him look ridiculous.
 * Demon from Justice Machine.
 * Omni-Man in Invincible, who comes from an entire race of mustachio'd supermen. Apparently they don't even grow beards, just mustaches. One in-disguise Viltrumite reveals himself by pulling off a fake beard (but the mustache was real).
 * Asterix - Asterix has a fantastic mustache, yellow, droopy, and above all badass. This could apply to all the Britons from 'Asterix in Britanny' : they all have beautiful mustaches and are all badasses. Most of the Gauls have mustaches. Of course, most of the Gauls are badasses. There's their huge, muscular blacksmith, their chief who rarely travels on foot but instead on shield, their bard, who can, as of recent books, summon rain and storms by striking only a few chords... it's easier to count the folks who don't have these.
 * Sinestro - Sinestro has a pencil thin evil Mustache reminiscent of David Niven.
 * Iron Man: Tony Stark, all the way. Later evolved into a Badass Van Dyke. Anthony Edward Stark.
 * In X-Men Cyclops' father, Corsair, is a badass Space Pirate with a seriously badass mustache. Cyclops worked out that Corsair was his father when he had to go without shaving for a couple of weeks, and realized that his new moustache was exactly as badass as Corsair's.
 * Mack "Clownface" Delgado from Body Bags has one, only seen when he removes his clownface mask.
 * In Gotham Central, Sergeant "Sarge" Davies has a nice, thick mustache, and is very proud of it and all relevant facial hair.


 * Captain Hunter from the Atari Force second series had one.
 * Doctor Strange, mustached "Master of the Mystic (and Martial) Arts". The style varies, and he sometimes pairs it with a goatee, but he always has the 'stache.

Film

 * Rod of the film Hot Rod wears a fake mustache when performing stunts in order to make himself manlier. He claims to have some kind of hormonal imbalance that prevents him from growing a real one, but.
 * The Addams Family - Gomez Addams. His mustache is a harbinger of boundless badassery.
 * Bill The Butcher from Gangs of New York. He could have kicked Leonardo Di Caprio's ass with his oily, sweaty mustache alone.
 * There Will Be Blood: Daniel Plainview.
 * Kurt Russell's Wyatt Earp in Tombstone. Man, everyone in Tombstone. Just look at the poster on the page.
 * Lt. Aldo Raine in Inglourious Basterds.
 * Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction.
 * Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story. Doesn't leave home without it.
 * Colour Sergeant Bourne from Zulu, who's 'tashe and sideburn combo is so awesome is simultaneously Badass Mustache and Badass Beard!
 * John Mallory in A Fistful of Dynamite.
 * Bennett from Commando exudes this trope from every pore.
 * Nai Chan Nuad Khe, the Thai resistance leader in Bang Rajan.
 * Charles Bronson, at least in Death Wish.
 * Captain Gordon from ''Godzilla: Final Wars.
 * Manos: The Hands of Fate - The Master.
 * The unnamed blacksmith from Army of Darkness
 * Black Dynamite
 * The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie - Dennis, the bad guy/fish. "This is what a real moustache looks like!"
 * Lee Van Cleef as both Colonel Mortimer and Angel Eyes.
 * Finn McMissile from Cars 2 has a grille resembling a mustache.
 * Jason uses a badass mustache as part of his gentleman disguise in Mystery Team.
 * In Bunraku, Nicola shaves his Badass Moustache (and beard) in preparation against The Drifter.
 * Inspector Jacques Clouseau and most of his cartoon incarnations have one.

Literature

 * Many characters in Alatriste, including the eponymous, for historical reasons: 17th-century Spaniards fashioned mustaches in general, and more than a few of the characters are badass, ambiguous, mercenaries. Beard of Evil is more common in clearly evil characters.
 * Vlad Taltos.
 * Sherlock Holmes - Dr. John H. Watson.
 * In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Imperial officers with facial hair are pretty rare. One who does have some is Captain (later Supreme Commander) Pellaeon. He's old, but damn is he awesome.
 * Hercule Poirot, Belgian detective.
 * Dragonlance - The Knights of Solamnia are known for their distinctive mustaches, and are all badasses.
 * Time Scout: Kit Carson's mustache is a bit more Errol Flynn than Dan McNinja, but it counts.
 * Faye Kellerman's Peter Decker is a tough, cool police detective with a ginger mustache (which eventually turns gray).
 * Erast Fandorin
 * Dracula, in Stoker's original novel.
 * Ironically, despite having a style of moustache named after him due to depictions in movie adaptations, comic books, cartoons and even novel cover illustrations, Fu Manchu had no moustache; he was explicitly described as clean shaven in the original novels, which was necessary for the makeup he used as a Master of Disguise.

Live-Action TV

 * The seventh season of 24 sees the return of seemingly dead and notably more Badass for it Tony Almeida sporting a mustache.
 * Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of Doctor Who, who sports a badass mustache in most of his appearances.
 * Magnum, P.I..
 * Delahoy from The Unusuals counts. He once leapt from the roof of one building onto the balcony of another to break up an assault. Of course, his darker personality also contributed to the jump...
 * LazyTown - Sportacus is a subversion of the long, pointy, "villainous" mustache, as he is a hero, and an all-around good guy. Robbie Rotten suspects his mustache is the reason everyone listens to him in the episode "Sportafake."
 * Richard on Friends. Chandler in particular seems to resent this and makes fun of it whenever possible. He's been accused of doing so because he's proven unable to grow a good mustache.
 * MythBusters - Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. Jamie also combines this with Bald of Awesome to great effect.
 * Star Trek: The Next Generation: While his beard may get more press, Commander Riker's moustache is pretty badass.
 * Battlestar Galactica: In a slight subversion, Bill Adama from grew a mustache after the Fleet settled on New Caprica, pointedly to show off how lax and laid-back he'd gotten. However, he retained the mustache while leading the extremely badass assault on New Caprica to rescue humanity from Cylon occupation, so perhaps it was more in the vein of an extremely long-lived playoff beard.
 * In a recent Top Gear episode, Clarkson, after spending some time in a "mood room" and deciding True Art Is Incomprehensible, decided their prototype eco-car "Geoff" needed a huge moustache. He duly got one.
 * Firefly - Though Shepherd Book's hair is the stuff of legends, his mustache is undeniably badass, as well. Simon jokes about growing the villainous equivalent after the events of "Ariel", but sadly the series ended before we could find out what he'd look like if he went through with it. Wash's own 'stache, as seen in flashback, was probably trying for this, but he couldn't pull it off.
 * Walter White of Breaking Bad is bald from chemo, save his awesome mustache.
 * Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation.
 * Deadwood - While several of the denizens of the town of Deadwood are fond of facial hair, Seth Bullock's is the nicest. He is also the most likely to deliver a richly deserved beating to someone.
 * General Melchett from the fourth season of Blackadder has a magnificent mustache, to go with his Upper Class Twit persona.
 * In The Good Guys, detective Dan Stark (played by Bradley Whitford) has one of these, which he addresses as "Stache" in an early episode. When he talks to his former partner at the end of a later episode, he asks him, since he's retired, "why you still got that bitchin' stache?"
 * Italian Spiderman from the webseries of the same name has a detachable, explosive mustache.
 * In Danger 5, Stalin's moustache is so badass entire women can fit inside it. Yep.

Music

 * Doug Fetterman of The Protomen had a sweet handlebar mustache that was accentuated by facepaint.
 * James Hetfield of Metallica alternates between a Badass Beard and a Badass Mustache.
 * Freddie Mercury in the 80s.
 * RON MAEL of Sparks. The only man who could rock the toothbrush moustache since Chaplin.
 * John Bonham had one.
 * All four Beatles had one at at least one point, though George and Ringo's are the most memorable.
 * Nick Cave has recently adopted this since Grinderman, perhaps to compensate for a receding hairline. Does not disappoint.
 * Frank Zappa
 * Lemmy Kilmister
 * Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello. The band even sells t-shirts that show a picture of Eugene under the words "This Mustache Kills Fascists."
 * The song by the Mexican composer of songs for children, Cri-Cri, "El Abejorro Mostachon" (The Mustached Bumblebee).
 * Frank Beard is, ironically, the one member of ZZ Top without a beard, because he has a mustache instead.
 * Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath.

Newspaper Comics

 * Jon attempts to grow one in a series of Garfield strips; being Jon, he, of course, fails miserably.

Toys

 * Johnny Thunder, LEGO's long-running Australian moustachioed Expy of Indiana Jones. His foes, Sam Sinister and Baron von Barron (later Retconed into Sam Sinster) bear the evil variant.

Video Games

 * Mario and his brother Luigi are perhaps the most iconic mustached heroes of all time.
 * The lightning bolt-shaped mustache of Wario precedes his over-the-top badass persona. Waluigi has a distinguished pointy mustache as well.
 * Wario's friends Jimmy T., his double Jimmy P., and Dr. Crygor also sport huge mustaches. One of his enemies, Count Cannoli, has a mustache as well.
 * Mustaches actually seem to be status symbols, and signs of literal badassery in the Mario universe. The mustache-bearing bosses of Super Mario 64 DS pride themselves on their mustaches, and the "Stache" stat from the Mario and Luigi games earns store discounts.
 * The Stache stat also affects your chances of scoring a Lucky (read:critical) hit. Essentially, better mustache = occasional power boost for Mario and Luigi.
 * While it can never be as iconic as the Mario Bros.'s, Admiral Bobbery's mustache is easily in the running for the most badass in the series.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog - Dr. Eggman's signature 'stache. So does his psychotic double Eggman Nega, and even his elderly grandfather Professor Gerald Robotnik has a droopy grey one. Mustaches, like baldness and insanity, seem to run in the Robotnik family.
 * Interestingly enough, Maria is the only member of the Robotnik family so far seen to possess NONE of those traits!
 * Mega Man - Dr. Wily, who plays a similar role (with a similar mustache) to Eggman's.
 * General Donald Morden in Metal Slug.
 * Andrew Ryan from BioShock (series).
 * The Handymen of BioShock Infinite also sport fine molded mustaches.
 * Blaine from Pokémon Red and Blue, who compliments the look with some Cool Shades. Lampshaded in the Pokémon Special manga, where Blaine's mustache is a fake, because apparently he singed his real mustache completely off.
 * Alakazam also has one.
 * Male Jellicent sport a fantastic white Monopoly Guy moustache.
 * Samurott also sports quite a wonderful 'stache.
 * Kricketune sport a long, curly mustache. An impressive feat for an insect.
 * No love for Stoutland here??
 * Call of Duty: Captain Price, whose Porn Stache is the thing of legends. It is also hilariously old-fashioned, even when the series was set in World War II.
 * From Modern Warfare 2 we have General Shepherd, who manages to single-handedly take on two highly-trained opponents in unarmed combat (and very nearly win), as well as
 * Super Robot Wars - Kai Kitamura is your only pilot with facial hair in the games he appears in, and an epitome of Badass Normal. There's also Axel Almer's Soulgain, which sports a steel mustache. In fact, when it stranded into the OG world for the first time, it's nicknamed Mustache Man. And yes, Axel and Soulgain are just about as Badass as they get.
 * Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete - Toyed with and gender-reversed(!) very briefly in During the anime cutscene where the girls are changing Lucia's outfit, one of the costumes has a gigantic, fantastic mustache. It is markedly more badass than the other costumes Lucia tries on during the sequence, but the mustache falls off. Lucia may have been more Badass with the mustache on, but the actual chosen outfit was probably for the better.
 * The King of Fighters - Cillain Rugal Bernstein. Also, Clone Zero from KOF 2000.
 * Von Kaiser from Punch-Out!!. Soda Popinski, too, to a lesser extent. Also Bald Bull.
 * Solid Snake in MetalGearSolid 4. A Badass Mustache is part and parcel of the "Big Boss" heritage, as demonstrated previously by the original (of course) and Solidus. Liquid didn't have one because he wasn't a true Boss. Revolver Ocelot isn't eligible for Bosshood, but he has one anyway, because he's just that awesome.
 * Cid from Final Fantasy Tactics A2. Not to mention he's large with big muscles.
 * Cyan in Final Fantasy VI. It makes him kind of look like Frank Zappa. Or Sean Connery as Ramirez from Highlander. Or some unlikely offspring of the two.
 * Oda Nobunaga in pretty much any game series he's been in, ever. Which, since he had one in Real Life, makes sense.
 * In Battalion Wars 2, a handlebar mustache is a matter of regulation among Anglo Isles veteran infantry, and by gum do they wear it with pride (though it's noted that a bazooka veteran should be careful to not grow his mustache longer than 4 1/4 inches or it's likely to be singed by his weapon's exhaust).
 * Victor "Sully" Sullivan from Uncharted 2. His moustache is so badass that protagonist Nathan Drake rates it in his journal's list of scary things.
 * Dudley from the Street Fighter series: his Badass Moustache is a rare example of non-villainous twirly moustache.
 * Ragnar McRyan and Torneko Taloon in Dragon Quest IV. Pankraz in Dragon Quest V.
 * Team Fortress 2 - Saxton Hale, while unfortunately not a playable character outside of mods, demonstrates his mastery of the Badass Mustache.
 * Pretty much everyone from Australia sports the 'stache. Including the women.
 * Radigan Conagher (the BLU Engineer's grandfather) also has an epic mustache + muttonchops combo.
 * The Soldier gained a miscellaneous item that gives him a similar 'stache with chops.
 * Fire Emblem has several examples, such as Tauroneo and Moulder. Oifey, his mustache is the reason he's the first Jeigan character to actually still be a good character at the end of the game making all future generations of Jeigans follow his example. And as Phee shows its popular with the ladies.
 * Mike Haggar of Final Fight. Mayor of Metro City, who personally wipes out the entire criminal element with his fists, dropkicks, suplexes, and Spinning Pile Drivers. He is said to weigh over 120 kg, and over half of it is estimated to be body hair.
 * Red Dead Redemption is jam-packed with impressive mustaches. Let's see: We've got Landon Ricketts, Drew MacFarlane, Edgar Ross, Dutch Van Der Linde, the American Army captain,, and many, many more.
 * Fable The third offering in particular. The various protagonists almost all boast some truly magnificent specimens. Major Swift comes to mind, as does Boulder and the indefatigable Sir Walter Beck. The Prince can as well, should you desire him too. When you sign the agreement to make Major Swift the army commander in the future, it actually says, "With a mustache like that on your side? How can you lose?".
 * Yang grew a fantastic one in the 17-year gap between Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.
 * Henry Hatsworth, the Quintessential British Gentleman from the puzzle/platformer hybrid for the DS.
 * Golden Sun fans had mixed reactions to Garet's new 'stache in Dark Dawn, but there's little denying his badassery, since he was previously a player character who helped save the world and all.

Webcomics
"Social Worker: I'm so sorry... here you are... sir."
 * In the world of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, a good mustache seems to instantly command fear and respect.
 * Dan McNinja had his mustache revealed in a fight to determine who would be the next leader of the Ninja Guild. Even though he needed his son's help to win the fight, and he made it clear that he intended to kill his opponent, which was against the rules, he was instantly made new guild leader, and cut a hole in his mask so that his mustache would always be on display.
 * In the case of Gordito Delgado, badassery actually caused mustache growth: he grew a thick, stereotypical bandito mustache, fully waxed, at age 12, in seconds, through sheer force of will, when a social worker threatened to take away his father's guns. Naturally, the social worker backed down.


 * Frans Rayner is apparently incapable of growing any facial hair above the jawline, but he believes so strongly in this trope that he is convinced that lack of mustache is the only thing keeping him from taking over America, and therefore tries to steal Dan's, and later Gordito's.
 * Bruno Bunkleyutz's stache is shown to defeat Chaos itself.
 * Axe Cop - The Cop himself. Now with powers of its own, it is literally a Badass Mustache.
 * The Las Vegas Tsunami from The Dugs features a GM with a mustache. It has been seen to curl when he gets angry.
 * Dr. Nonami: Dr. Alfred Mechano has a magnificent handlebar mustache.
 * 8BitTheater's Wizard Who Did It Sarda has one. Notably, he grew it as a means to pass time when he stranded himself in the beginning of the universe. He killed a few weeks with it (Only several billion years to go...)
 * Mr. Verres of El Goonish Shive has one.
 * The Word Weary subverts this trope, featuring a character named Harry the Hipster, who, though having an epic handlebar mustache, is still clingy and whiny.
 * Thanh the paladin from Order of the Stick has a thick blue mustache.
 * In Voodoo Walrus Grymm has been known to grow a particularly badass mustache on a couple of occasions.

Web Originals

 * Italian Spiderman
 * In Homestar Runner, Strong Bad's #1 fan, Fabrosi, is probably out ladying with that fake moustache he's always wearing.
 * Weebl's song "Moustaches" is all about this.
 * Angry Joe sports one. In fact, it is so badass that, when ripped off, it immediately grows back.
 * Paw Dugan had one in his earlier videos.
 * Captain Marcus Gray from The Gungan Council sports one awesome mustache.

Western Animation

 * This excerpt from The Tick (animation) (as quoted above).
 * Johnny Test gets himself a mustache using one of his sisters' inventions. Bling-Bling Boy gets one, too much.
 * Though it's also villainous, the mustache of Snidely Whiplash is one of the most iconic in western animation.
 * The same can be said for Dick Dastardly.
 * Haru from Avatar: The Last Airbender gets one. It has been continuously parodied/praised by the fandom.
 * Family Guy parodied this with Peter trying to invoke the trope by growing a mustache. Naturally, at least some innate badassness is required for the stache to actually work, and Peter does manage to rescue a guy from a burning building while wearing it. It gets burnt off in the attempt. While mourning his loss of facial hair, he ate so many hamburgers that he had a stroke.
 * In Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, Commander Joseph Walsh has a badass handlebar moustache, in keeping with the series' Space Western theme. One of the Rangers, Walter "Doc" Hartford, has a more conventional moustache.
 * In The Animals of Farthing Wood, Sinuous. If there's any way you can work a moustache onto a snake's schnozzle, there you go!
 * Chef Mung Daal in Chowder, pretty much played straight there as he always boasts about how it helps him with the ladies. In one episode, he claims "This mustache proves I'm great!"
 * In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Mindy convinces SpongeBob and Patrick that they are men by giving them seaweed moustaches. They spend half a minute admiring them before setting on their way, only to run into paid assassin Dennis, who rips off the fake moustaches and shows them what a "real" moustache looks like by willing one to grow instantly on his face.
 * David Xanatos from Gargoyles.
 * Duke Phillips from The Critic.
 * An entire episode of Jimmy Two-Shoes centered around Jimmy wanting to grow a mustache because of this group. The Colonel Gnoman wears one normally.
 * In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Twilight magics a big-ol' mustache onto Spike's face in "Boast Busters". He thinks it makes him look pretty cool, and can't wait to show it off to Rarity... who, it turns out, isn't impressed.
 * A later episode, "Call of the Cutie", features a briefly shown male pony with not only very manly chest hair but also one of the most epic mustache/sideburn combos ever to be shown in a cartoon.
 * In the "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" episode a duo of cider-making ponies known as the "Flim Flam Brothers" appear in Ponyville, one of which (most likely Flam) has exponentially more swagger due to the presence of a mighty red moustache.
 * That is indeed Flam who has the mustache.
 * Raul, Manny's sentient mustache in El Tigre.
 * ThunderCats (2011) has several
 * Catfolk King Claudus and his Court Mage Jaga pair long mustaches with a Badass Beard and a Wizard Beard respectively.
 * Lilliputian Plant Person Emrick has a dashing little Errol Flynn pencil mustache to go with the tiny twig sword he wields.
 * Rubber Forehead Alien Master Swordsman the Duelist sports a very long, pencil thin handlebar that advertises his villainous nature.
 * Man-At-Arms/Duncan from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The original action figure showed him without one; it was added to the cartoon to make him look like a tougher, older veteran, and it certainly did the job.

Real Life

 * George Orwell
 * Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard (ret.)
 * Josef Stalin
 * Salvador Dali
 * Walt Disney
 * Burt Reynolds
 * Voltaire has a goatee, which is also one of the traits he's best known for. So much so, in fact, that it was once given away as a special item on Adventure Quest.
 * Quite common in pro wrestlers back in the days when it was actually a real competitive sport. Examples: Martin "Farmer" Burns, The Great Gama
 * Lee Van Cleef, the man who was bad ass enough to inspire the appearances of two Metal Gear characters.
 * Whatever did not kill Friedrich Nietzsche instantly became part of his mustache.
 * Kaiser Wilhelm II lead Germany through a Golden Age (well, until September 1914 ...) and was incredibly popular (well, until September 1914 ...), so much that a lot of German men copied his mustache.
 * Magnificent Bastard Otto Von Bismarck had a particularly big 'stache, coupled with a Bald of Awesome.
 * Teddy Roosevelt.
 * Mark Spitz won seven Olympic golds while sporting a mustache worthy of Tom Selleck.
 * Powers Boothe used to sport one of these.
 * Guus Hiddink: compare this picture of him at the height of his mustache days with this picture of his strangely incomplete looking face.
 * This man has the manliest mustache ever seen.
 * Heiner Brand, coach for the German national handball team.
 * Many Celts, especially the early ones, had mustaches, often David Crosby esque walrus types, rather than full beards. And they were undoubtedly badass.
 * In the British military forces, a moustache is normal for senior NCO ranks, it's sometimes called the 'fourth stripe'. Firemen, policemen and so on also use moustaches as a sign of time served.
 * Numerous Iranian peoples, especially during the Parthian and Sassanian era, wore either long luxurious beards or mustaches. And considering their empire went toe to toe with Rome, and often won (and never were conquered by them), not to mention pretty much inventing the concept of heavy cavalry, they certainly count.
 * Chinggis Khan, hands down. Though all artwork depicting him was created after his death, most agree on his mustache, a pretty much ubiquitous trait of nomads, especially the Mongols. He was so badass he even makes this look awesome.
 * Perhaps the best known trait of several Baseball Hall of Fame relief pitchers, including Dennis Eckersly, Rollie Fingers, and Goose Gossage.
 * Tom Selleck.
 * Sam Elliott.
 * Steve Prefontaine
 * Lord Kitchener has the archetypal WWI officer mustache, made famous though this popular British WWI recruitment poster
 * Cracked.com's topic page about Poland shows that the entire history of Poland is made of Badass Moustache.
 * Vlad Tepes has a really cool moustache, although it's rare that media portrayals of him remember the 'stache.
 * Alex Trebek, until he shaved it off.
 * 5-time Jeopardy! champion Frank Spangenberg, who was at one point, the show's biggest 1-day winner, as well as the biggest money winner, and this was before the dollar values was doubled. In fact, when his winnings are adjusted to present values, he's still the show's biggest winner.
 * Howard Bellamy of The Bellamy Brothers (the guy on the left).
 * Howard Hughes.
 * Don Frye is quite possibly the manliest MMA fighter there has ever been, and that's saying a lot. His mustache has been speculated to gain him an extra two points per round for just being awesome.
 * Frank Zappa, imitating bandleader Johnny Otis.
 * John Oates
 * Tycho Brahe (Not that one).
 * Powers Boothe.
 * Albert Einstein.
 * When musicians as awesome as both Lemmy Kilmister and Duane Allman sport friendly muttonchops, you know it's a rockin' 'stache.
 * Mark Twain
 * Jim Croce
 * Bertrand Russel as a fairly young philosopher and heartbreaker.
 * George Parros. Not only is he an enforcer, but he's a Genius Bruiser to boot.
 * Cossacks are often thought of as having mustaches.
 * Hironobu Sakaguchi. This man created Final Fantasy. When he left Squaresoft, their financial capital decreased. Just check out his stache.
 * Mexican Revolutionaries Emiliano Zapata and Doroteo Arango aka Francisco "Pancho" Villa. The latter one has been mentioned in Badass of the Week.
 * Anil Kapoor: Indeed, when you see him WITHOUT said moustache, babies begin to cry. Loudly.
 * Jack Broughton. A Cracked.com writer writes in a caption: "That mustache is fist-proof."
 * Napoleon III, to a degree.
 * Jamie Hyneman from MythBusters.
 * Cheech Marin
 * Robin Olds, Vietnam War fighting ace, had an seriously awesome 'stache. Unfortunately, he was forced to shave upon returning to the US.
 * Olds is famous in the Air Force for being the seriously old school style of Badass fighter pilot, being a triple ace, that is to say, he scored enough kills to become an ace three times, the first two times in World War Two and becoming an ace for the third time while leading the Eighth Tactical Fighter Wing in Vietnam.
 * In modern times, American airmen honor Robin Olds by growing mustaches during Mustache March, to whatever extent their superiors (and more importantly, their wives and girlfriends) will let them get away with it.
 * Dallas Stoudenmire, El Paso city marshal, had a rockin mustache.
 * Hulk Hogan has the greatest handle bar mustache in the world. It's a "horseshoe" mustache.
 * Joe Nameth had a great mustache before he shaved it for a commercial.
 * Da Coach himself, Mike Ditka. Ditka could wear pink hair and a tutu and make it look totally badass.
 * Polish General and Dictator Józef Piłsudski And in his younger days, too.
 * Freddy Mercury
 * Vincent Price
 * Pro wrestling great Ox Baker ... with some badass eyebrows to boot.
 * Vercingetorix, the Gaulish chieftain who briefly united the many tribes of Gaul in one last attempt to thwart Caesar's invasion. Badass enough to surrender by riding right up on his horse to where Caesar was, facing the end with dignity. If Julius Caesar is to be believed, all of the Britons had mustaches. Given that in the work that he mentions this he's also trying to portray them as a nation of Barbarian Heros to make himself look all the more badass for defeating them, this probably counts as this trope.
 * Stan Lee
 * Greg Norton of Husker Du sports quite a jaunty handlebar mustache.
 * In medieval Japan warlords and generals often grew a moustache to look more fierce and badass. Many of them (including Toyotomi Hideyoshi) wore fake moustaches if their own facial hair wasn't impressive enough.
 * NHL Hall of Famer Lanny McDonald.
 * Legendary French chef Pierre Troisgros.
 * Prussian Hussar General Hans Joachim von Zieten and Field Marshal Prince Blücher of Wahlstatt.
 * Danny Trejo.
 * Jack Layton, even after a cancer his first hair grown back? Stache Of Authority!!!
 * Former Minnesota governor Jessie Ventura. Also former professional wrestler and Navy SEAL.
 * Terry Clark and Brian and Les Kane. Terry was also a real life example of Beard of Evil.
 * And also THIS fine British man, who invented the martial art of Bartitsu. The montage on the right just says it all, really.
 * Emperor Franz Josef
 * Ernest Thompson Seton, founder of the Boy Scouts of America, had a particularly notable mustache.
 * Chuck Norris had one before growing his Badass Beard.
 * Sergio Aragones
 * Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
 * Policemen in most Arab countries attempt to invoke this trope by having "mustaches an eagle could perch on" in order to look intimidating. Results vary.
 * Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello sports a gypsy-style handlebar mustache.
 * Ernest Hemingway in his somewhat younger years. He later went the whole hog and grew a Badass Beard.
 * Hulk Hogan's iconic blonde fu manchu. Transformed into a Beard of Evil when he turned heel.
 * Magnum TA, one of NWA Mid-Atlantic's most over faces, before he was forced into early retirement by a car crash, also sported a fu manchu.
 * Soviet general Ivan Bagramyan combined Badass Mustache with Bald of Awesome and Chest of Medals to look like the classic military badass he was.