Bad Santa: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

You can't spell "Santa" without "Satan".

Sometimes, the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of a beloved holiday just can't take the stress anymore. This may simply lead to shameful behavior, or it might end in a full-blown violent rampage. Alternately, there may be an [[Saving Christmas|impostor bringing shame to the red suit]]. Or maybe an ordinary [[Mall Santa]] is just a [[Jerkass]]. Either way, we have a Bad [[Santa Claus]] on our hands.

 

 

 

 

* In ''[[Majokko Tsukune-chan]]'', Santa is first bombed, then sniped by Devil Santa, who wants to deliver the presents himself. Santa is then reincarnated as [[Humongous Mecha|Mecha Santa]], who proceeds to battle Devil Santa.

* In ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'', Hayate's work ethic is represented by an obnoxious, sarcastic Santa Claus.

* The horror manga ''[[Presents]]'' portrays Santa Claus as being able to see how the future will be affected by giving what a child most wants on Christmas. The scenarios we see all involve the children growing up to be criminals, horribly negligent gold-diggers, or (in one case) {{spoiler|instigators for nuclear holocaust.}} Santa responds to these cases by gruesomely killing the then-totally innocent children with their own presents to prevent those futures from happening. Unlike some other examples here, this Santa is sometimes doubtful if he did the right thing. It does nothing to lessen the horror.

* In ''[[The Big O]]'' there is an episode with a crazed man in a Santa suit that unleashes a giant, evil Christmas tree on the city.

 

* The first volume of Alan Moore's ''[[Top Ten]]'' features a "Santa" who turns out to be a delusional class two psychokinetic - kidnapped reindeer from the zoo and everything.

* A [http://joysweeper.livejournal.com/53460.html Christmas issue] of ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'' had a disturbed, possibly [[Mad Scientist]] with a childhood Christmas fixation attempting to create a robotic Santa Claus to make the myth into reality. But she used an Ultron robot as the basis, and as all [[Marvel Comics]] fans know, Ultron is one of those genocidal kill-all-humans robots. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** For one, they wind up stopping him by {{spoiler|giving him a Santa cookie with explosives inside.}}

Merry Christmas. Neural disruption for all. }}

** Then there was the time the Illuminati let Santa use the ''Infinity Gauntlet''...

* In fact, Batman has fought crooks dressed as Santa several times.

** It was made into a [[Christmas Episode]] of the cartoon show. His ability to clone himself comes from electricity, leading the Tick to believe he killed him when he first gains his power. Worse, he keeps believing he's the real Santa until the actual Santa Claus (complete with elves) shows up. This has the side effect of restoring Arthur's faith on Christmas. At the end, since the Tick can't bring himself to fight even a villain who resembles Santa, he shakes him, which causes all his copies to disappear. Giving the Santas noogies makes them disappear.

* ''[[Lobo]]'s Paramilitary Christmas Special'' featured Lobo being hired by the Easter Bunny to whack Santa Claus, and a [[Badass Santa]] getting into a machete fight with the alien bounty hunter.

** Comic writer Denny O'Neil seems to have some issues with Santa. (He's written several of these stories.)

* The ''[[Hitman (Comic Book)|Hitman]] Christmas Special'' involves the titular Hitman hunting down a radioactive murderer in a Santa suit on Christmas eve in Gotham, all with surreal narration meant to resemble "Twas the Night Before Christmas."

* In ''[[Hack Slash|Hack/Slash: Entry Wound]]'', one of the holiday-themed villains Cassie mentions she and Vlad had recently disposed of was "Rudolph" - a creepy-looking Santa-esque man with [[Black Eyes of Evil]].

* The swedish comic ''Herman Hedning'' have perhaps one of the sickest subversions of this trope. In a christmas edition featuring a parody of ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' with Herman as Scrooge. In the end, Santa Claus gives him what he wished for. A giant meatgrinder that grinds in a truly sadistic fashion. [[Karmic Death|Santa then proceds to throw Herman in it giving everyone what they had been wishing for the last several years]] all while sporting the best murder face in the series.

 

 

* ''[[Bad Santa (film)|Bad Santa]]'' stars Billy Bob Thornton as a [[Child-Hater|child-hating]] [[Mall Santa]] who robs the stores afterwards. [[Heel Face Turn|He gets better though.]] [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|Somewhat.]]

* ''[[Jacob's Ladder]]'': A street Santa robs an injured Jacob Singer of his wallet. Jacob vows revenge.

* ''[[Silent Night, Deadly Night]]'' and at least some of its sequels feature an [[Ax Crazy]] serial killer dressed as Santa Claus.

* ''[[Trading Places]]'' has Winthorpe, at his wits' end due to being the victim of a cruel prank, show up as a drunken Santa with a gun.

** And in the third film of the series, Jack Frost manages to take over the role and enslave the elves.

* And, lest we forget, there's the demented ''[[Santa Claus (film)|Santa Claus]]'' movie featured in the episode of "[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]" which gave the [[Nightmare Fuel]] trope its name...

* Nicholas Angel's recovering hand wound at the beginning of ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' came at the hands of a maniac dressed as Father Christmas (and played by [[Peter Jackson]]).

* French film ''[[The City of Lost Children]]'' begins with dozens of Santas invading a child's house while he's in bed. The kid goes from thrilled to confused to frightened as the Santas grow from one to two to many.

* ''[[Jingle All the Way]]'' featured a scene of a warehouse full of mall Santas and elves who turned out to be scamming imposters. Or, as Arnold put it, "sleazy con men in red suits."

* The ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei69bYwwCvc Rare] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkyqODDF-LU Exports]'' shorts. Just...watch them. But not in the presence of children. There's also a full length film version revealing {{spoiler|that the original Santa Claus is a giant horned monster frozen in a man made mountain.}}

** The 1994 remake retained the "drunk" Santa who also got fired for mooning the audience and losing his pants on the job. The movie later showed a bar of drunk Santas off shift, and the original Kole's Santa took the place in the plot of the psychologist as an antagonist.

* The [[Exploitation Film]] ''[[The Sinful Dwarf]]'' features a drug dealer who goes by the name Santa Claus. He uses a toy store as a front for his illegal operations.

* ''Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater: Present'' is a live-action Asian take on this concept, being neatly summed up by one review as "''Silent Night, Deadly Night''... [[Recycled in Space|IN JAPAN!]]".

 

'''Death''': {{smallcaps|That will be an important lesson.}} }}

* In Orson Scott Card's [[Ender's Game|Enderverse]] novella ''War of Gifts'', a fundamentalist preacher gives a sermon denouncing the commercialization of Christmas in which he declares that "SANTA is really SATAN!"

* In F. Paul Wilson's [[Repairman Jack]] novel ''Legacies'', Jack dresses up as Santa and beats up a thief that stole toys from a children's hospital. He then tied the thief to the front of the truck containing the toys, put antlers on him, and drove him through traffic. After the police found the abandoned truck in front of the hospital with the thief still tied to it, the only thing the thief could tell them was "Santa did it!"

* The title character in Ogden Nash's poem "The Boy Who Laughed At Santa Claus" finds out what happens when Santa turns the tables and declares he doesn't believe in him.

* ''Don't Put Mustard in the Custard'', a book of children's poetry by Michael Rosen, includes the poem "Christmas Eve, Christmas Day":

While I'm fast asleep, he might come and grab me! }}

* [[Tom Holt]]'s ''Grailblazers'', features Klaus and Radulf, actually [[Norse Mythology|Odin and Sleipnir]]. Both have become extremely vengeful, having been cursed to spend eternity providing gifts nobody wants.

* Not exactly bad, but in the [[Neil Gaiman]] (very) short story "Nicholas Was..." the titular character is an ancient man forced to perform his duties by strange dwarfish creatures from the Arctic who [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|will never let him die]].

 

* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Anya mentions in passing that Santa Claus does exist - but that he's really a demon that disembowels children.

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' Christmas specials "The Christmas Invasion" and "The Runaway Bride" featured killer robot Santas.

* The final episode of ''[[Woops]]!'' featured a Santa who caused the deaths of Mrs. Claus and the elves when he locked them out of his bomb shelter.

* For a good portion of the 2007 ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' Christmas story "A Very Supernatural Christmas," the brothers consider the possibility that the [[Monster of the Week]] is an "anti-Claus," although it later turns out to be something else. When they realize they may have made a mistake, they call a more experienced hunter for advice:

'''Sam:''' Well, first off, he said we're idiots. }}

* ''[[Super Sentai|Gaoranger]]'' had an episode with a Christmas Org. The footage somehow didn't make it to the corresponding series of ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]''.

* Another X-mas themed monster appeared briefly in ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]]'' called Rude Elf, a reindeer/mulberry mutant dressed like Santa Claus (the Rangers all were having [[Phlebotinum]]-induced nightmares, and Conner had Christmas shopping on his mind).

* ''[[Sisters]]'' had the kids interested in the ''Santacide'' movies, about people being killed by Santa.