Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* Part of the Team Rocket trio's original motto from the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime mentions they want to "denounce the evils of truth and love".

 

== Comic Books ==

* [[Superman]]'s enemy Bizarro does this, but not on purpose. It's pathological for him.

 

* [[Fanfic]] writers (particularly the less talented ones) are known for this, though whether the good guys actually ''are'' [[Ron the Death Eater|smug, hypocritical tyrants]] and the bad guys [[Draco in Leather Pants|brooding revolutionary thinkers]] in-canon could be [[Sturgeon's Law|bad writing]] or just seen that way by the [[Fan Dumb]].

 

* Mad Madam Mim in ''[[The Sword in the Stone]]''. According to her [[Villain Song]], she "take(s) delight in the gruesome and grim", and she tries to kill Arthur because Merlin "sees something good in you...and in my book that's bad!" After she loses the Wizard's Duel and is laid up sick, Merlin recomends lots of rest and sunshine, and Mim complains, "I hate horrible, wholesome sunshine!"

* The Blue Meanies in ''[[Yellow Submarine]]''. They even say "no" instead of "yes". [[Fridge Logic|Try not to think too hard about that..]]

{{quote|'''Sally:''' Jack, I just had the most horrible vision!

'''Jack [misunderstanding]:''' Wonderful! }}

* ''[[Time Bandits]]''

{{quote|'''Evil:''' Suddenly, I feel very, very good.

** Rugen takes delight in torture and imprisonment; while he's [[The Dragon]] instead of the villain, he's a far, far more vile character for his open and brutal sadism. [[Even Evil Has Standards|Even he, though, is repulsed by the concept of draining fifty years out of Wesley]] - unless it's only that now he doesn't have a subject for his torture experiments.

* In Steno's much underrated comedy ''Dottor Jekyll e Gentile Signora'' the title character, a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], is terrified about his recurring fits of good-heartedness, and is willing to drink the serum of his grandfather - the famous Dr. Jekyll - to become even more evil, than he already is. The whole management of the [[Evil, Inc.]] in which he works proudly display titles of "rogue" "scoundrel" "son of a bitch" and the likes on the plates with their names (Btw. that's where the running gag from the Fantozzi series originates from - it first appeared in the third Fantozzi movie, realised a year after this one; the titles of Piermatteo Barambani are only a slight variation of the ones used in "Dottor Jekyll").

 

== Literature ==

* [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] describes those who consider pity good and power and success bad as slave moralists; he believes this to be an anti-human mentality.

** This is pretty much a summary of [[Ayn Rand]]'s philosophies too.

* A variation occurs in the second ''Archives of Anthropos'' book, when Pan forces Eleanor to dance and sing in her sleep, "Lunacy, lunacy, madness is sanity, truth is profanity . . ."

* A one-off joke in ''[[Good Omens]]'', where the demon Crowley 'blesses' under his breath when frustrated.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* In the ''[[Series/Wizards Of Waverly Place|Wizards Of Waverly Place]]'' episode "Don't Rain on Justin's Parade--Earth," [[Heroic Sociopath|Alex Russo]] becomes increasingly distressed at the realization that she is becoming good under the tutelage of Mr. Laritate. She is pleased and relieved at the end of the episode when he calls her an evil genius.

* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', bad guys often celebrate evil as though it were a religion. Spike once makes a reference to helping Giles "out of the evilness of his heart".

{{quote|'''Lexi:''' Paisley, you ''really'' need to work on your bad sportsmanship. }}

* Villains in ''[[Charmed]]'' can harbor this attitude at times. For example, during one of Cole's attempts to get Phoebe back in his mad downfall period Piper once asked him how he could be so evil. His reply?

* Gittle the [[Cute Witch]] on the 1970s educational show ''Curiosity Shop'' would sometimes exclaim, "Oh my badness!" (She was actually about as evil as [[Winnie the Pooh]]).

* A cat food commercial showed a [[Hot Witch]] who, every time she said something about how her [[Familiar]] cat loved this particular food, would pause to add, "I hate that word 'love'."

 

== Music ==

* [[They Might Be Giants|John Linnell's]] "Maine" from ''State Songs'', is like this for the viewpoint character - "Th Hell from above" and "The Heaven below" in different choruses.

 

* The witches in ''[[Macbeth]]'': "Fair is foul and foul is fair."

* The musical ''Dracula, Baby'' has the song "It's Good to be Bad".

** ''"Bad is good and good is bad! Sacred is profane, and it's wiser to be mad - in a world that's gone insane!"''

 

* Demons in ''[[Disgaea]]'' do this; it's mostly [[Poke the Poodle|played for comedy]].

* Eddie Riggs does this while trying to control some sort of demon-walker-thing in ''[[Brutal Legend]]''.

* ''[[Dungeon Keeper]]'' basks in this trope, adopting "It's good to be bad" as it's motto and having your counsellor sneer and loathe at [[Tastes Like Diabetes|the abominably cheerful and benevolent]] settlements your army is about to ravage and then glorify the desolation and despair it inflicted.

 

* The Dimension of Pain demons from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' are like this big time. They can't stand the scent of flowers, consider relaxing massages a form of torture, and will refuse to use anything they deem too "efficient and functional."

* A long defunct webcomic called ''[[Bards Tale]]'' featured a god of evil and his daughter, who invariably spoke like this.

* ''[[Evil Diva (webcomic)|Evil Diva]]'': The title character's parents sometimes slip up and tell her to be good—that is, obedient to their directions to be bad.

* Sabine and Nale in [http://www.GiantITP.com/comics/oots0794.html this] strip of ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' have the standard [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]] vs. [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man]] conversation, but entirely flipped. ("Sure, women like me swoon for a hero, but that's only because deep down, we think we can change them.")

* In ''[[Pibgorn]]'', when Pibgorn tells Drusilla she learned from the best—she hastily corrects to the very worst.

 

== Western Animation ==

* The Shushu of ''[[Wakfu]]'' run on this being an [[Exclusively Evil]] demonic race that lives for destruction. Words like "despicable" are considered compliments and cute things are abhorred.

* Hydia, the big bad of ''[[My Little Pony]] the Movie'' was a wicked witch who was always berating her daughters Reeka and Draggle for not being wicked enough. At one point, she threatened to force-feed them banana splits if they didn't tell her what had gone wrong with the Smooze.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Villains]]