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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Why do girls always prefer the distant, aloof, handsome, dangerous dudes instead of [[Plucky Comic Relief|cheerful chaps]] like me?"''
|'''[[Roger Ebert]]''', ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID{{=}}/20081119/REVIEWS/811199997 review].}}
Maybe Hollywood is tapping into the supposed ancestral female animal instinct to choose [[All Amazons Want Hercules|the mightiest, strongest, toughest genes]] for their offspring. Maybe they're tapping into teenaged rebellion: girls are most likely to like the boys [[Dating What Daddy Hates|their parents are most likely to hate]]. Maybe it's because the more tanned, muscular, and scarred the actor, the better the [[Shirtless Scene|shirtless scenes]]. Maybe the trend originated in a time when leather jackets, sunglasses, and motorcycles were in fashion. Maybe it's the [[In Harm's Way|thrill of danger]] being mistaken for love. Maybe it's just because [[Evil Is Sexy]]. Maybe "good girl and great guy get along great and are perfect for each other" is [[Rule of Drama|really boring]]. Maybe the writers are just bitter about the girls ''they'' [[Write What You Know|didn't get]]. Whatever the reason, sorry, good
The "bad boy" targets the strongest womanly instincts: [[The Quiet One|the stoic, silent guy]] is a mystery waiting to be solved; the [[Troubled but Cute]] youth with a [[Dark and Troubled Past|tragic past]] is a [[The Woobie|woobie]] needing comfort; he's tough enough to be a girl's [[Bodyguard Crush|protector]], but vulnerable enough to need [[Love Martyr|her to redeem him]] as well. Add to that the fact that [[Evil Is Cool]] and [[Good Is Dumb]], and the [[Anti-Hero]] ranks as Bachelor of the Month - even more often than he ranks [[Ensemble Darkhorse]].
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All this, of course, glosses over the fact that [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|bad boys are]] ''[[Captain Obvious|bad]]'', meaning dangerous, [[Jerkass|not good as friends]], [[Sanity Has Advantages|probably not too mentally stable]], potentially abusive/physically violent, and/or more interested in the physical (read:sexual) aspect of a relationship than anything else. He's also probably not going to be that concerned with fidelity, either. So what if he can't be trusted? It's an honor for girls in media to be chosen by him, to walk into prom night with him on her arm, to ride on the back of his motorcycle with her arms around his waist, to stick her tongue out at the [[Alpha Bitch]] from the passenger's seat of his stolen convertible. Depending on the nature of the Bad Boy and whether he's redeemed (or even redeemable) or not, use of this trope may give cause for the viewer to question the character's sense or intelligence, particularly if it's immediately obvious to everyone from the outset of the relationship that the man is a thoroughly nasty piece of work. Don't count on [[Reformed Rakes]].
Interestingly, the younger the women, the more prevalent this trope will be. More mature, wiser women (meaning 35 and older) seem to be much more [[Genre Savvy]], thus much less receptive to "bad boy" vibes (or, at the very least, have learnt their lesson through painful experience), although there are always exceptions. Of course, sometimes this occurs when the actual badness is an [[Informed Attribute]], such as with the [[Loveable Rogue]]. If the main girl [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man|gets]] the [[Dogged Nice Guy]] or [[The White Prince]] in the end,
Counterpart trope to [[All Guys Want Cheerleaders]]
Compare with [[The Vamp]] and the [[Femme Fatale]] - ''bad girls'' that the boys all want. When it goes to the extreme (either intentionally or not), the Girl may find herself becoming a [[Love Martyr]]. The girls may also go to the other end in what they're looking for and seek out the [[Nice Guy]] because [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man]]
See [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man]] for a typical inversion. A popular subversion is to make the guy ''look'' like a bad guy but revealing himself as a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]] with litte to no criminal record.
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It is commonly and [[Internet Backdraft|quite hotly]] debated whether this is [[Truth in Television]] or not. If you ''must'' add Real Life examples, use the [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement]].
{{examples}}▼
{{noreallife|This is All The Tropes, not Tropes After Dark.}}
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' originally avoids this in the manga, where Mamoru is more or less a hot nerd, but the anime plays this straight any chance it could (such as giving him a motorcycle or changing him from a high-schooler to a college student). However, this still may be a subversion, since he was a snarky jerk to Usagi for a long time (in the manga, he was merely aloof when interacting with her), and she ''didn't'' want him at all until he shaped up.
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** In a gender-inversion, Krillin, an all-around good guy, married Android No.18, a killer cyborg and someone who stated she wanted to kill his best friend, simply for giving him a kiss on the cheek. Justified by the fact that 18 and her brother were [[Anti-Villain]] [[Friendly Enemy]] types rather than the cold-blooded killers of Future Trunks' time. Otherwise, he and the other Z-Fighters would all be dead. And, [[Gentle Giant|16]] aside (who would later change his tune anyway), they didn't take the Goku hunt all too seriously.
* ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' parodied this in a chapter where otaku fangirl Renge attacked nearly every club member for not being angsty enough, and declared that filming all of them wallowing in some form of angst would increase their appeal. She was crazy but apparently right, as evidenced by the huge demand for the video.
* Tomoya from ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'' is a bad boy who is often outright nasty towards the girls he meets, confronting them with his sarcastic attitude and making snide remarks at their expense. He also loves to play pranks on them (especially on Fuko), but that doesn't stop most of the girls from swooning over him toward the end of the series. He ends up with the good girl, Nagisa.
* ''[[Lovely Complex]]'': Koizumi's love interest, Otani, has a real attitude problem and Koizumi often has to endure quite a bit of verbal abuse. It doesn't prevent her from [[Dogged Nice Girl|pursuing him relentlessly]], competing with the other girls who like
* ''[[The Castle of Cagliostro|The Castleof Cagliostro]]'' concludes that [[Lupin III]], [[Gentleman Thief]] that he is, has stolen the heroine's heart.
* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', every female in the class swoons over cigarette-smoking, dynamite-throwing, foul-mouthed juvenile delinquent Gokudera Hayato, including main love interest [[Yamato Nadeshiko|Sasagawa Kyoko]]
* Played with in ''[[Princess Tutu]]''. When {{spoiler|Mytho, former [[Extreme Doormat]]}}, goes through a [[Face Heel Turn]] in the second season, he picks up a new girl almost every episode, but it's because he's casting a spell on them so he can manipulate them into being a sacrifice for the [[Big Bad]], not because they're suddenly attracted to him now that he's a Bad Boy.
* ''[[Paradise Kiss]]'': this is Hiroyuki Tokumori's curse. When he was a kid, {{spoiler|Miwako chose Arashi instead of him}}. Series heroine Yukari was in love with him for who knows how long, until she met [[Jerkass|George]] and fell for him on the spot. {{spoiler|In the end, it's subverted when Yukari ends up marrying him, since both she ''and'' George realized that [[The Masochism Tango|their relationship wasn't going anywhere]].}}
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* In the "Cupid's Day" episode of ''[[Code Geass]]'', Shirley says that it is her duty to [[I Can Change My Beloved|"reform" Lelouch]] because she believes that he's "a failure as a person".
* In ''[[Nichijou]]'', Weboshi admits to liking Nakanojou, the boy with the mohawk. What she doesn't know, nor believes when told, is that Nakanojou is actually a very sweet guy. His mohawk is simply his natural hairstyle.
* Christie from ''[[Drama Con]]'' falls for [[Tall, Dark and Snarky|Matt]]. A subversion, as he's really not a bad guy at
** It's more or less the same deal in ''[[Fruits Basket]]'', when Tohru falls in love with
* Gender flipped in ''[[Seirei no Moribito]]'', when softhearted healer Tanda pines after fierce female bodyguard Balsa. And she likes him too!
== Comic Books ==
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** Cyclops, while a boy scout in general, definitely fits the 'troubled aloof stoic' bad boy criteria, and is the first to point out he's dangerous to be around. Even before his recent descent into [[Anti-Hero]] badassery, he's had a steady stream of women pursuing him, including Jean Grey, Madelyn Pryor, Psylocke, and Emma Frost.
** Averted with Colossus. Kitty Pryde has pursued him pretty much from day one, and he's [[Nice Guy|as good]] [[Gentle Giant|a boy]] [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|as can be found.]]
* In the ''[[
** Many female characters have shown some form of attraction towards Shadow the Hedgehog by now, even if he hasn't had a real girlfriend.
* In ''[[Superman]]'', the gender-flipped version applies. Laid-back Clark Kent is head-over-heels for sharp-tongued, moody army brat Lois Lane and ignores cheerful, flirtatious blonde Cat Grant and sweet, caring [[Girl Next Door]] Lana Lang. Of course, Lois's [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|heart of gold]] turns out to be far sweeter than those of either of the other two, so Clark's probably just very perceptive.
* Parodied in ''[[Widgey Q Butterfluff]]'', where the closest the comic's [[Sugar Bowl]] setting has to a bad boy is [[Poke the Poodle|poodle-poking]], [[Badbutt|overgrown juvenile delinquent]] Buster, and Widgey still finds herself inexplicably attracted to him.
== Fan Works ==
* The BBC documentary ''The Human Animal'' proposes a reason this trope exists in simple biological terms. The short of it is that the dangerous aspects of the target are sexual advertisements. According to the documentary, on a biological level, women are looking for signs of protective prowess (IE: who will help protect and rear offspring). Displays of aggressive behavior are then read as signs of this prowess (cultural signs of this vary greatly, but the intended messages are the same). Once partnered up, however, the female will actively work to prevent the male from displaying further (the 'redeeming' aspect of this trope), so as to prevent the male from gathering further attention from the opposite sex. There's a lot more to human courtship, of course, mostly because, unlike other primates alive today, sex among humans lasts more than 8 seconds.▼
* ''[[Demon of Justice]]'' Zigzags and plays with this trope. Rami pines after the scary handsome demon and gets dressed up to say goodbye to him...because it's just like what's in the stories. She doesn't mind that he's going, though, because she can't picture him settling down and having kids with her. Wufei is just thankful to get away from her, and is, in fact, prone to hiding in Nantaku until he left the village.
* ''[[For Good]]'', a [[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]] series, is perhaps best known for the romance between Erin, the protagonist, and Warp Darkmatter, the Evil Emperor's right-hand man. In the introductory fic, ''Breakaway'', their relationship actually begins innocently enough, at least on Erin's part. Warp comes off as less of a villain and more as a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]].
* In ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', several nameless girls and [[OC Stand
* ''[[Shinji and Warhammer40K
==
* Lampshaded in song in ''[[Lady and the Tramp]]'':
{{quote|''He's a tramp
''He's a rounder
''He's a scoundrel
''He's a cad
''He's a tramp
''But I love him ... }}
* Kiara with Kovu from ''[[The Lion King|The Lion King 2]]''. Justified, since she isn't aware that he's bad, {{spoiler|and he eventually has a [[Heel Realization]], thanks to [[Love Redeems|his love for her]].}}
* In the ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'' movie, Cindy has the hots for local skateboarder Nick Dean...that is, until he encounters Poultra and [[Screams Like a Little Girl]].
* ''[[Days Of Being Wild]]'': The main character Yuddy/York played by [[Leslie Cheung]]▼
▲* [[Days Of Being Wild]]: The main character Yuddy/York played by [[Leslie Cheung]]
* ''[[Bachelor Party]]'' ([[Tom Hanks]]). The band they get for the party sings the song, "Why Do Good Girls Like Bad Boys?"
* In the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy, Leia goes for Han Solo (a near-perfect storm of bad-boy beauty) over Luke Skywalker. Then, of course, we find out the true nature of Luke and Leia's relationship, and breathe a collective sigh about the [[Twincest|"ewww" moment]] from which this trope has saved us. She still kissed him, though.
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* In the classic 80s teen movie ''[[The Breakfast Club]]'', popular 'princess' Claire falls for rebellious 'criminal' Bender.
* ''[[Repo! The Genetic Opera]]''. Amber Sweet has resolved sexual tension with Grave-Robber and unresolved sexual tension with [[Brother-Sister Incest|Luigi]], who is also [[Knife Nut|undeniably]] [[Psychopathic Manchild|bad]]. {{spoiler|Shilo isn't immune to Grave-Robber's bad-boy charms either. It's implied in [[Cut Song|Needle Through A Bug]] that he's grooming her to be his protege.}}
* Gender-inverted in ''Crazy/Beautiful.'' In this film, it's the poor Latino kid who's the responsible one with the promising future, and the wealthy Anglo girl who has the bad drug habit and truckload of emotional problems. Every adult in the film warns the former to stay away from the
* Jenny from ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' is a rather blatant example of this. For much of the movie, she keeps moving from one abusive lowlife to another, before returning to [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|the protagonist]].
* ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' series:
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* ''[[Dead Poets Society]]'': Pitts remarks on this trope to try and get Knox to forget Chris: "All the good ones go for jerks. You know that."
* The cops in ''[[Superbad]]'' "arrest" McLovin after the party, remarking, "That's gonna get you so much ass!"
== Literature ==
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* ''[[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]]'': Helen Huntingdon (Graham), the heroine of Anne Bronte's novel, marries the libertine Arthur Huntingdon, in part because she believes that she can save him from himself. She quickly discovers otherwise. In the process, Bronte makes some pointed jabs at both [[Wuthering Heights (novel)|Heathcliff]] and [[Jane Eyre|Mr. Rochester]].
* Zachary Gray, the thinking woman's Bad Boy, turns up in multiple [[Madeleine L'Engle]] novels.
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'': Harry Dresden is very disappointed to find out his friend, Karrin Murphy, is like this when she becomes attracted to mercenary Kincaid in ''[[The Dresden Files]]: Blood Rites'', and it continues into the next book ''Dead Beat''. Harry also realizes that Molly, his best friend's daughter, has these feelings for
* [[Hand of Mercy]]'s Clemael's temper allows him to backhand a semi-disabled woman into the nearest wall, but said woman is oddly ambivalent as to whether she'll end up with him.
* In the short story collection ''[[The Bloody Chamber]]'' by Angela Carter, [[Genre Savvy]] Puss-in-Boots is well-aware of this trope and suggests that the best way to woo an unattainable woman is to: "convince her her orifice will be your salvation, and she's yours!"
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* At the end of ''[[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]'', Katrina van Tassel (the girl schoolteacher Ichabod Crane falls in love with) ends up marrying hunter Brom Bones (who constantly made fun of Ichabod) after Ichabod was mysteriously carried off by the Headless Horseman one night.
* I flinch to bring it up, but Edward is this for Bella in ''Twilight''. However soft he is as avampire, he is still a brooding predator who could kill her in seconds - and often wants to. She prefers him to the good ol' boy Jacob, until he takes a change for the dangerous and then she's conflicted.
== Live-Action TV ==
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** [[Gender Flip]] in ''iMake Sam Girlier''. Sam asks Carly to teach her how to behave like a real girl to catch the attention of her eye-candy, Pete. While Sam does a good job in behaving "girly", Carly gets attacked by a bully, which triggered Sam's [[Unstoppable Rage]]. Unfortunately, Pete saw how Sam wrestled with the bully, but it turns out he likes a girl "who kisses well and kicks butt as well".
* The Good Doctor Sara Tancredi of [[Prison Break]] is the poster girl for this trope, both in-series and in her back story.
* Parodied in a sketch on ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'' featuring a 'wacky' popular historian whose wife wishes he would be more like the "angry, edgy young historian" he was in his youth. After a brief flashback, in which we see the younger version of the historian in all his [[
* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "Space Seed". Ship's Historian Lieutenant Marla McGivers falls in love with the charismatic and forceful former dictator Khan Noonien Singh, even though he mistreats and uses her.
** ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'': Garak was [[Retired Monster|ruthless]], [[Magnificent Bastard|dangerous]], a [[Consummate Liar]] with a [[Mysterious Past]], his alliances were [[Double Reverse Quadruple Agent|hard to keep track of]], and he wasn't the type to [[Combat Pragmatist|fight fair]]. He was also Gul Dukat's [[Arch Enemy|most hated enemy]]. Despite all this, Dukat's daughter [[Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid|Ziyal]] still fell in love with him. Against the odds, he never once mistreated her or took advantage of her feelings for him.
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* The women on ''[[The Sopranos]]'' have a bad-boy compulsion that's virtually suicidal, {{spoiler|especially for Tracee and Adriana}}.
* Barney Stinson of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' consciously plays with this trope so much.
* A ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20111225051852/http://www.hulu.com/watch/19590/saturday-night-live-the-phil-donahue-show sketch parodied] the Phil Donahue Show, with all the guests as women with abusive boyfriends. The sketch ends with a nice man in the audience telling them they should find a man who truly appreciates them, but they tell him to sit down because they're more interested in the [[Jerkass]] behind him who's berating his girlfriend. When he grabs the mic and starts bad-mouthing them, they immediately fall for him, including the lesbian guest, who asks if he has any sisters like himself.
** During the sketch Phil, lists all the wrongs one woman's boyfriend committed. She still defends him:
{{quote|'''Phil Donahue:''' Now, your last boyfriend... [reads cards] ....got drunk, totaled your car, with you in it! Which left you in intensive care for over a year and... [Phyllis starts to cry] ...during your painful convalescence he never visited you, he withdrew your life savings, spent the money on other women! Held orgies in your apartment, got you evicted... [lifts his head, stares effortlessly and shakes it in disgust] ...and yet I understand you still live with this man.
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* In ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]'', Cassandra claims that she doesn't like that Rodney drinks and is violent. She is quickly seen through and smiles when asked if she fancies Rodney.
** In an earlier episode, Del Boy manages to convince Rodney that the [[Girl of the Week]] likes bad boys, so he dresses like [[Happy Days|the Fonz]] and acts like [[James Dean]] on their date, only to terrify her to the point of tears when they get chased in the van.
* Invoked in ''[[Secret Girlfriend]]'' by Chad, the current boyfriend of Jessica, the titular character. His [[Jerkass]] behavior turns out to be a [[Jerkass Facade]] that he doesn't like putting up, but thinks he needs to because of this trope. Apparently, it's working, or at least not
* This is a major story arc in the UK version of ''[[The Office]]'', as well as the first couple seasons of the US version, with Dawn engaged to Lee and Pam engaged to Roy.
** In Pam's case, it's less this trope than her simply believing she doesn't deserve anyone or anything better for herself.
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** In [[Community/Recap/S2/E18 Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy|Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy]], she has a brief fling with a guy who turns out to be a Balkan war criminal. Subverted, however, in that even for Britta this is going a bit too far.
** "Competitive Wine Tasting" sees her begin to develop urges towards Troy after he makes up a story about being molested by his uncle to avoid feeling left out in drama class ([[It Makes Sense in Context|long story]]).
** [[Deconstruction|Deconstructed]] in "Origins of Vampire Mythology", where
*** Also deconstructed with the boyfriend,
* ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' - [[Kidanova]] Shawn has a troubled home life and and somewhat of a "bad boy" image. However, the bad boy aspect of his character became less prevelent as the series went on, and was basically dropped by the time he gets a steady girlfriend in season five. There are also several times when Cory tries to impress girls by acting "dangerous", usually failing at it.
* ''I Married A Mobster'' deconstructs this '''hard''' as the future wife starts off relatively ok (more or less) before being swept off her feet by the bad boy mobster to effectively live the "Push It To The Limit" montage from [[Scarface]] [[It Got Worse|then]] [[Reality Ensues|the mobster is caught, sent to jail for life or close to it, leaving his spouse with a mountain of debt, bad rep and having to actually ''work'' again after years of living in a mansion with fast cars, parties, etc. to support herself and remaining family.]]
=== Documentaries ===
▲* The BBC documentary ''The Human Animal'' proposes a reason this trope exists in simple biological terms. The short of it is that the dangerous aspects of the target are sexual advertisements. According to the documentary, on a biological level, women are looking for signs of protective prowess (IE: who will help protect and rear offspring). Displays of aggressive behavior are then read as signs of this prowess (cultural signs of this vary greatly, but the intended messages are the same). Once partnered up, however, the female will actively work to prevent the male from displaying further (the 'redeeming' aspect of this trope), so as to prevent the male from gathering further attention from the opposite sex. There's a lot more to human courtship, of course, mostly because, unlike other primates alive today, sex among humans lasts more than 8 seconds.
== Music ==
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** Cobra Starship also has "Good girls go bad"
* The [[Cheer Up, Charlie Daniels|Cheer Up Charlie Daniels]] song "Too Damn Rock and Roll" plays with the trope. The girl ''wants'' him, but she won't follow through.
* [[Ludo]]'s Roxy has a theme like this, although it's more like "All Girls Want [[Jerkass
{{quote|''Oh Roxy, why won't you love me?''
''Is it because I'm American?''
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* "Biker Like An Icon" by [[Paul McCartney]] is about a girl who's infatuated with a rough-and-tough biker and follows him around, hoping to meet him. It's deconstructed, however, since "the biker doesn't like her", and when they finally meet up, it's implied he [[Downer Ending|rapes and murders her]].
* ''Rule Breaker'' by Ashlee Simpson is this.
* ''Judas'' by Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga admitted this was about her then-exboyfriend, a notorious bad boy. The video is also clearly about the bad
* ''Mr.Wrong'' by Mary J. Blige. In the song, she gets along with her "bad boy" boyfriend good but he hurts her a lot. She tries to leave but can't get herself to do it because she loves him. This can be interpreted either as a love song or sad song.
* [[Gender Flip
== Newspaper Comics ==▼
* Played with in [http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/1997-05-28/ these] [http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/1997-05-29/ two] ''[[Dilbert]]'' comics.▼
* ''[[Ink Pen]]'''s Scrappy Lad spends a week trying go bad to win over Moxie. He and Hammock [http://www.gocomics.com/inkpen/2008/06/26 discuss the trope.]▼
== Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends ==
* In [[Classical Mythology]], Aphrodite's passionate (and lasting) affair with the dangerous, bloodthirsty war-god Ares makes this trope [[Older Than Feudalism]]. Though the fact that her husband Hephaestus was hella ugly and the marriage wasn't even her idea probably helped too.
* Loki (yes, the guy who tricked a blind god into killing his own brother) is married to the giantess Sigyn. For his crime, he was bound with the entrails of his sons to three rocks, and a snake constantly drops venom in his eyes. But Sigyn still stands by him and catches the venom in a bowl. Sometimes, she has to empty it, then we get earthquakes. Doesn't that sound like a hybristophile following her object of affection into prison?
** Kind of, but not really. It's more like the wife of a rebel trying to ease her husband's pain when he gets sentenced to an eternity of punishment by the "evil" state.
▲== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* Played with in [http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/1997-05-28/ these] [http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/1997-05-29/ two] ''[[Dilbert]]'' comics.
▲* ''[[Ink Pen]]'''s Scrappy Lad spends a week trying go bad to win over Moxie. He and Hammock [http://www.gocomics.com/inkpen/2008/06/26 discuss the trope.]
== Professional Wrestling ==
* If a woman in ''[[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]'' ever undergoes a [[Face Heel Turn]], there are good odds that this is how she'll do it. Examples include:
** [[Stephanie McMahon]], who turned heel after marrying [[Triple H]]. In her post-heel-turn promo, she admitted that she was always attracted to him, but her feelings were only spurred on by her desire to spite [[Vince McMahon|her father]].
** Tori, when she ditched [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]] for X-Pac.
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** Subverted, though, by Molly Holly's heel turn in 2001. Despite the fact that it showed all the qualities of the above angles, the fact that she left Spike Dudley for ''The Hurricane'' undermines the "bad boy" aspect since he's...well, a superhero. It didn't help that neither of them really did anything heelish at all beyond disapproving of The APA drinking beer, and immediately turned out-and-out face after the WCW/ECW Invasion angle ended. A much more definitive heel turn occurred for Molly the following year, with no bad boy in sight.
== Recorded and Stand Up Comedy ==▼
▲== Stand Up Comedy ==
* [[Jeff Foxworthy]] mocked and Deconstructed this trope at the same time. He said that when women say they want a "dangerous" guy, they're usually thinking of some [[James Bond]]-type of dude, but if a woman ''did'' end up with a "dangerous" man, then the likeliest outcome would have them on an episode of ''Cops'' with her hanging out of the trailer in a tube top, screaming ''"Lock his ass up!"''
* [[Bill Hicks]] has a routine about this trope in which the "bad boy" is Satan and the woman believes [[I Can Change My Beloved]]. He has also recorded a song about it:
== Theatre ==
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* "Mack The Knife" Macheath in Kurt Weills ''[[The Threepenny Opera]]'' is an all-out sociopathic criminal. But that does not stop at least ''four'' girls from going crazy over him.
* ''[[Zombie Prom]]'' sort of parodies this with [[The Hero]], Jonny Warner. He has a motorcycle (like many bad boys), but the most rebellious thing he does is take the "h" out of his name, then tell Miss Strict he'd prefer to keep it out. Miss Strict and Toffee's parents still insist she break up with him. When she does, he is [[Driven to Suicide]], then comes back as a zombie. Interestingly, once he does, it is ''suggested'' that he might have been a bit more rebellious than we thought (telling Miss Strict that he "used to hate [her]" and "could not be reached"), but, as a zombie, all he wants to do is return to school and take Toffee to the prom.
== Video Games ==
* Parodied in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', when the [[Evilutionary Biologist|evil]] [[Mad Scientist|scientist]] Hojo is surrounded by women at the beach. Played straight when you are told the reasons Sephiroth and Vincent exist.
* Karen in ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'' explicitly states this trope.
* In the original ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (anime)|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' [[The Anime of the Game|mini-scenario]] that was included in the ''[[Triangle Heart 3 ～sweet songs forever～]]'' fandisc, Chrono played the role of the villain and Nanoha [[Official Couple|eventually ended up with him]].
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (video game)|Knights of the Old Republic]]'': Bastila in the first game will fall for the male [[Player Character]] regardless of alignment, and has some comments before the kiss about how attractive his strength (of personalty, we assume) is.
* This trope accounts for at least some of [[Jerkass Facade|Squall]]'s appeal to [[Rebellious Princess|Rinoa]] in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', although a lot of it also has to do with the fact that Squall is profoundly ''broken'' and Rinoa is strongly motivated to help people. Rinoa also dated [[The Rival|Seifer]] in the game's backstory, but considering Seifer's aspirations to heroism and the fact that Rinoa herself was a member of [[La Résistance]], he may not necessarily have come across as a bad boy at the time.
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** The trope is [[Discussed Trope|discussed]] in a conversation between [[Nice Guy|Alistair]] and Leliana, where Alistair ponders why [[Anything That Moves|Zevran]] is so successful with the ladies.
{{quote|'''Alistair''': Do women go for that sort of thing?
'''Leliana''': [[Evil Is Sexy|Where I come from they do, oh yes]].
'''Alistair''': Huh. Really? I see. }}
** In the expansion, ''[[Dragon Age Origins Awakening]]'', Oghren comments that Nathaniel Howe's tall, dark, and broody appearance must make him very popular with women.
** Oghren himself confides in the player that the Berserker habit of 'standing still and looking mysteriously angry' goes down well with the ladies
* Lampshaded in [[Dragon Age 2]]. Hawke of either gender can comment on Anders' "sexy, tortured look", upon learning about his experiences with the spirit of Justice. Varric tells Fenris that if he looked any more broody, women would swoon at his feet.
* ''[[Yo-Jin-Bo]]'' has [[Blood Knight|Tatsunami Ittosai]] as one of your possible options. He actually {{spoiler|betrays the heroine to the villains, becoming [[The Mole]] for a substantial section of the game}}, but can be [[Love Redeems|redeemed]] courtesy of the [[The Power of Trust]], and has some of the most emotional endings in the game.
* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', [[Player Character|Shepard]] can invoke this trope to explain why [[Bridge Bunnies|Kelly]] finds [[Hitman with a Heart|Thane]] alluring. If Shepard is male, Kelly says that that's a dirty stereotype, which just happens to be true in her case. If Shepard is female, Kelly asked if that includes her. [[Fan Nickname|Femshep]] can reply that dangerous men fit right into her dangerous life.
** It can be gender reversed with a Paragon male Shepard romancing Jack.
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*** Of course, this is [[Anything That Moves|Kelly Chambers]] we're talking about. [[Anything That Moves|It's not like she's picky]]
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', mook types known as Skulls are often shown with girlfriends who you can't attack, however, if you initiate combat with the Skulls, the girlfriend will almost immediately dump them.
* Avoided entirely in the female route of ''[[Persona 3]] [[Updated Rerelease|Portable]]''. Of the men the female protagonist can romance, [[The Big Guy|Akihiko Sanada]]'s [[Aloof Big Brother|aloof]] nature has caused him to be pegged as a Bad Boy with plenty of fangirls, while he is, in fact, a generally all-around nice guy (as well as being [[Adorkable|hopelessly awkward when it comes to girls]]), Ken is [[Token
* In ''[[Guilty Party]],'' both dialogue and cutscenes seem to suggest that nefarious Mr. Valentine, the "Shakespeare of Crime", does not lack for feminine affection. He even seduces one female culprit into working for him! Several others seem to have crushes on him.
* [[Fallout: New Vegas]] opens with Benny shooting the [[Player Character]] in the head. Later on, they can give this trope as an excuse while seducing him. It should be noted that he is (understandably) [[Squick
* Deconstructed in ''[[Last Window]]''. {{spoiler|Margaret}} fell in love with {{spoiler|her husband George}} knowing fully that he was an evil man. Eventually, {{spoiler|he became a criminal and the only thing keeping them together was their shared guilt of his crimes. When he murdered a friend of theirs, she decided she'd had enough and planned to kill him, only to be beaten to the punch. Her knowledge of his crimes and the fact she allowed them to happen haunts her to this day.}} At one point, she describes herself as alternately loving and loathing him.
* Marin from ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening|The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening]]'' seems to be this. If the player attacks a Cucco enough times while she's with you, she will scream out different remarks such as "Yes! Kill the chicken! Hit it! Do it MOOOOREEE!!!!" and "I love seeing cuccos in PAIN!! as if she's orgasaming over Link's badness.
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== Web Comics ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110417175101/http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/13 This strip] of ''[[Loserz]]''.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20101213145502/http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/130 And this one] offers something of an explanation.
* Used in a gay sort of way with ''[http://abe_kroenen.livejournal.com Abe & Kroenen]'', because, while Kroenen's not that mean of a guy, he's still an undead Nazi assassin.
* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'': Belkar kisses a girl, in the middle of massacring her party. End result: she's lying among dead bodies, saying, "My name's Jenny! ... Just in case you ever ... you know" Later, they do...[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0622.html you know.] A possible justification is that she ''is'' a member of the Thief's Guild.
** Inverted and lampshaded [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0794.html here], along with [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man]]. [[Horny Devils|Sabine]] explains why demons are attracted to heroes.
* [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1100/fv01089.htm This strip] of ''[[Freefall]]'' proposes a brilliant theory that not only explains this trope, but explains why there are so many of the jerks prowling the planet in the first place.
* Discussed and subverted on [
** Interestingly, another storyline has Davan learn that same lesson himself in a [[Flash Back]].
* Used in a gender-reversed form in ''[[Digger]]''. {{spoiler|The first-born of Ed and his 'wife' Blood-eyes dies, as is normal for hyenas (go look them up on Wikipedia and you'll see why). However, Ed had himself been a rare surviving first-born, and had been encouraging hope in her. Afterward, she started beating him, while he refused to flee from the situation (as was his right) because he ''still loved her''. It gets worse, though. Eventually, she and Ed conceive again; this child is born successfully, but she starts beating it, as well. Ed is now thoroughly exhausted, and rips Blood-eyes' throat out while she sleeps, leading to the destruction of his previous name and exile from the tribe.}}
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* After working for [[Narbonic]] Labs for a while, Dave is [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic_plus/series.php?view=archive&chapter=48473&name=narbonic_plus#strip3 starting to have this effect] on some ladies. (It helps that he has a special bond with computers, and he's talking to an A.I.)
* Ashley in ''[[Soul Symphony]]'' has a thing for local bad boy metalheads Charlie and Tom.
* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [
== Web Original ==
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* In ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', Rosa Fiametta's attraction to JJ Sturn, despite the fact that he's pretty much an asshat (whilst they're dating, at least). This backfires on her in a major way.
* [http://www.cracked.com/video_15814_the-being-jerk-method.html The Being a Jerk Method] of picking up women.
* [http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1945481 This] parody from College Humor, showing what [[The Legend of Zelda|Zelda]] and [[Super Mario
** And again in [http://www.collegehumor.com/video/5664104/adam-and-eve-in-the-friend-zone this] video with Adam, Eve, and the Snake.
* In one [[Whateley Universe]] story, Loophole's student advisor warns her about Kodiak, pointing out that, no matter how romantic the bad boys seem, they're still bad, and it takes more than one girl's love to make them good - so if she's trying to change him, she needs to be bloody careful (especially considering that Kodiak is one of the most dangerous people at Whateley, at least among the student population). Loophole takes it to heart and later informs Kodiak that she knows he only really respects people who can stand up to him - and she proceeds to fight him and (almost) win so he'll ''really'' respect her. It works.
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* The whole point of websites like ''[http://www.hotchickswithdouchebags.com Hot Chicks with Douchebags]''.
* The website ''Art Of Manliness'' debunks this in a few articles and podcasts, explaining that women tend to go for confident guys and, often times, bad boys are more confident. It also mentions that those same bad boys don't last long and that a confident, yet well-mannered man is something for the guys to strive for. The site also critisizes the supposed [[Dogged Nice Guy]] for not being nearly as nice as he claims.
== Western Animation ==
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* This trope is inverted in ''[[Futurama]]'', where Amy is in love with the sensitive Kif. Her parents disapprove of the fact that Kif isn't "manly enough" and try to hook her up with the more stereotypical bad boys. After failing to impress Amy's parents, Amy assures Kif that it's a ''good'' thing that Amy's parents don't like him, which raises the question, is it the trope that's inverted, or the meaning of 'bad'?
** In "Proposition Infinity", it turns out that Amy still can't keep her eyes off of bad boys or flirting with them. This causes Kif to break up with her and Amy starts a "robosexual" affair with the biggest bad boy she knows, '''Bender'''.
* Gender inverted in ''[[
* Jazz in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' fell for the motorcycling Rebel-Without-A-Cause type Johnny 13 after he rescued her, the results of which had her acting rebellious as well. {{spoiler|Of course, he's really a ghost planning to entrap his equally dead girlfriend in Jazz's body. Creepy.}}
* There's an episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' where Buttercup develops a crush on Ace from the Gangreen Gang who, naturally, upon noticing, decides to suck up to her to get her on his side while the rest of his gang try to kill her sisters.
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'''Blossom and Buttercup''' (''excited'')''':''' We know! }}
* In ''[[Total Drama Island]]'', Courtney {{spoiler|and Gwen}} both dig Duncan.
* ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]'':
{{quote|'''Wonder Woman:''' No. No dating for the Batman. It might cut into your brooding time.
'''Batman:''' One: dating within the team always leads to disaster. Two: you're a princess from a society of immortal warriors; I'm a rich kid with issues... lots of issues... }}
** Partially Subverted in the Wonder Woman/Batman [[Romance Arc]] that begins around the time Diana meets an [[Adorkable]], [[Clark Kenting|flustered Bruce Wayne]] and gets a glimpse of his vulnerable side.
** [[Green Lantern]] falling for [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] Hawkgirl, however, is nearly a [[Gender
* Rather extreme example: [[Canon Immigrant|Harley Quinn]] in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'' is [[Mad Love|crazy in love]] with ''[[The Joker]]''. Even before he slowly takes her sanity, Dr Harleen Quinzel is attracted to the Joker. It's hard to get more "Bad Boy" than a sociopathic, mass-murdering clown...
* [[Discussed Trope]] in ''[[Family Guy]]'' when Quagmire (who is only a [[Chivalrous Pervert]] towards [[Butt Monkey|Meg]] and is an implied rapist otherwise) explains that the more a woman is treated like crap, the more interested she'll be in you.
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* The ending of ''The Barn Dance''. Poor [[Mickey Mouse]].
* On ''[[The Looney Tunes Show]]'', when Bugs tried to find a way to break up with [[Stalker with a Crush|Lola Bunny]], he disguised himself as a woman warning Lola to break up with him or have her heart broken. It ended up not working because she then thought Bugs was a bad boy.
* Ensign Mariner from ''[[Star Trek: Lower Decks]]'', by her own admission, but also admits she has [[Bi the Way|dated bad girls]], bad aliens, and ''really'' bad aliens, including many bad typically-genderless Bynars. She's also a pretty bad girl herself, actually.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Love Tropes]]
[[Category:Evil Is Sexy]]
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[[Category:Double Standard]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
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