Bad Santa: Difference between revisions

You can't spell "Santa" without "Satan"... wait, what?

* A sketch on ''[[Alexei Sayles Stuff|Alexei Sayle's Stuff]]'' parodying historical documentaries such as ''The World At War'' has Santa as brutal Stalinist dictator, who has a network of spies and informants betraying their comrades to him ("He knows when you are sleeping..."), orders naughty children shipped as slave workers to his toy factories in the Arctic where they are quietly 'disappeared', and has his former allies (such as Frosty the Snowman) arrested and executed without trial. He dresses all in red, he has a beard (like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara), he has no concept of money, he is not affiliated with any country, and he tries to take the religion out of Christmas. Hmmm...

* [[WWE]] RAW, of all things, parodied this trope during one of its annual "Christmas in the Middle East" excursions, with a "[[Bad Santa]]" dressed in a desert-camo version of the traditional suit coming out and chewing out the troops, only to be confronted by a "Good Santa" wearing the regular red uniform. The two ended up having an impromptu No-Holds-Barred match, with Good Santa (Mick Foley) defeating Bad Santa (who turned out to be JBL, then a Smackdown! Superstar).

*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaHnD3KxwQo This wasn't Foley's first match with Santa].

** Many years earlier, there was actually a wrestler named Xanta Klaus, whose gimmick was that he was Santa's evil brother who lived at the ''South'' Pole and ''stole'' gifts from kids on Christmas Eve. He wore the traditional costume, but black with red trim, instead of red with white trim. Shockingly, it didn't last long.

* ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'' gave a particularly traumatizing [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFwUY0CpkZY example.]

* ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' had a Christmas episode where Steed suffered from disturbing dreams featuring a creepy ''[[Father Christmas]]''.

* A sketch on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' featured John Goodman (who also voiced [[Futurama|Robot Santa]]) as Santa Claus in the post-holiday season, depicted as a drunken jerk-ass. An [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76jsantiwrap.phtml earlier fake commercial] had Santi-Wrap, protection against germs from the likes of John Belushi's homeless, alcoholic mall Santa.

* ''[[Designing Women]]'' had a [[Christmas Episode]] in which Suzanne hires a mall Santa to sneak into Mary Jo's house at night so her son could "catch" Santa in the act. As was perhaps inevitable, he robs the place instead.

* In his [[Monty Python|pre-Python]] days, [[Terry Gilliam]] did a Christmas animation for ''[[Do Not Adjust Your Set]]'' that involved, among other things, a Santa stealing toys and kidnapping children. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUCPC63zSdk Linky.]

* One episode of ''[[That 70s Show|That 70's Show]]'' had Donna fall asleep while running a fundraiser. In her dream Santa appears and claims he has all the money she needs for the library she was raising funds for. After Donna mentions to Santa that some people don't believe in him, he becomes enraged and asks who these people are. Donna later wakes up screaming "No Santa, please don't kill them!"

* ''[[Leverage]]'', "The Ho Ho Ho Job": A group of criminals are hired as mall Santas as part of a plan to rob a bank.

* In ''[[Round the Twist]]'', one Santa (there are revealed to be a whole squadron of them) attacks a [[Mall Santa|pillowbelly]] for being a fake Santa. She's an old woman. He's fairly cheerful and serious about his job, but something of a jerk.

* The ''[[Tales from the Crypt]]'' [[Christmas Episode]] (yes, there was one), "And All Through the House", featured an escaped mental patient/axe murderer, whose schtick was dressing as Santa Claus, menacing a woman who has just murdered her husband on [[Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday|Christmas Eve.]]

== Music ==

* [["Weird Al" Yankovic|Weird Al's]] song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTGlUMvbhSw "The Night Santa Went Crazy."]

* There's the philandering Santa from [[They Might Be Giants]]'s song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSXd3D-YfTs "Santa's Beard."] The song also has the classic line "Thrilling Christmas, trembling fear."

** John Flansburgh's other band, Mono Puff, have a song called "Careless Santa" in which he's an incompetent bank robber.

* The song "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" chronicles what was ''probably'' just a tragic accident...

* The Arrogant Worms, a Canadian comedy band, have an entire of subversive songs about the sucktacularity of the holiday season, including at least two about a Bad Santa: "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbVCODrdBaE Santa's Gonna Kick Your Ass]" and "Santa Got Arrested."

* Ray Stevens also has "Santa Claus is Watching You," which does indeed declare that ''"he's the secret head of the CIA!"'' and that he's got Rudolph ''"on a stakeout at'' your ''house!"'', among other things.

* The Killers' ''Don't Shoot Me, Santa'' envisions St. Nick as a deranged serial killer, living in a trailer in the Mojave desert, who kidnaps and intends to murder singer Brandon Flowers.

* Jonathan Coulton's "Chiron Beta Prime" describes the holiday season as celebrated on an asteroid prison colony run by merciless robots. It includes the lyric:

{{quote| On every corner there's a giant metal Santa Claus<br />

Who watches over us with glowing red eyes.<br />

They carry weapons and they know if you've been bad or good.<br />

Not everybody's good but everyone tries. }}

* In a somewhat different example, ''Elf's Lament'' by the [[Barenaked Ladies]] is from the point of view of one of Santa's elves, who complains about terrible working conditions and ends up forming a union and drafting a labour agreement.

* Cheech and Chong's ''Santa Claus and His Old Lady'' depicts Santa as a bit of a stoner.

{{quote| '''Chong:''' Hey, just a minute, man. Now, how'd he do that, man?<br />

'''Cheech:''' Oh, well, man, he took da freeway. How else, man?<br />

'''Chong:''' No, man. No, man, how'd he do all that other stuff, man? Like, how'd he make himself small, man. And, how'd he, like, how'd he get the reindeer off the ground, man?<br />

'''Cheech:''' Oh, well, man, he had some magic dust, man.<br />

'''Chong:''' Some magic dust?<br />

'''Cheech:''' Yeah, magic dust, y'know? He used ta give a little bit to da reindeer, a little bit to Santa Claus, a little bit more for Santa Claus, a little bit more... }}

* [[Ear Worm|"He sees you when you're sleeping, he KNOWS when you're awake...HE KNOWS if you've been bad or good, so BE GOOD..."]]

== Mythology and Legend ==

* Related to the ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' example in the Live Action Television section above: In some parts of Europe, Saint Nicholas, the prototype of Santa Claus, was said to be accompanied by a little demon or dark elf known by several names, among them Black Peter or the Krampus. While St. Nick doled out the goodies to the good little tykes, his sidekick either put sticks/rocks/coal in the stockings of the ones on the naughty list, or in some cases, spanked them with a broom.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0s6WNL80Hw Just watch it.]

** In French-speaking regions, he is known as P? Fouettard (Father Whipper) and, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|as his name implies,]] gives ''whip lashes'' to the most unruly children. Sometimes he kidnaps the worst ones, who are never seen again (and implied to be taken straight to Hell or eaten).

** One of the tales goes that the children kidnapped by the Black Peters were taken away to become the next generation of Black Peters.

** Looking a little deeper, the "bad" kids are getting sticks and coal (and in some places, potatoes)? The "bad" kids are the poor kids. They're probably overjoyed to get all that fuel and food.

* In Sweden Santa Claus predecessor Julbocken (christmas buck) a creature in fur and with a goat-bucks head that gave presents to nice kids and butted naughty once with its horns.

* Related to the above version, in the Nordic countries there's a legend of the Knut Goat (with a variety of spellings and names) which precedes St. Nicholas and possibly even Christmas. He was represented by chosen people wearing a goat mask and a fur coat wrong way round, travelling from house to another after the midwinter festival, demanding remains of the feast foods as an offering, or risk bad luck the following year, and scare bad children with all sorts of dreadful punishments. As Santa Claus became introduced in the North, these two characters often intersected; a goat-headed scary Santa wasn't an uncommon sight, and later on Knut Goat was perceived more as his evil twin. The custom is struggling, but still not quite dead in some regions of Finland and Sweden.

== Newspaper Comics ==

* The Dutch newspaper comic ''[[Dirkjan]]'' features a series of World War I themed comics. The protagonists Dirkjan and Bert are flying in their plane when they suddenly encounter a red plane. They fear it is the Red Baron, but it appears to be Santa Claus in his sledge. Then Santa suddenly pulls out a minigun and downs their plane...

* In addition to the "kindly old elf or CIA spook" line above, [[Calvin and Hobbes|Calvin]] once wondered about an [[Evil Counterpart|"evil Santa"]] who brings you dangerous and annoying toys if you're bad, and socks and underwear if you're good. Similarly, another time he had a dream that Santa had reversed his moralities and was bringing all the presents to naughty children.

== Radio ==

* A Christmas campaign in a Radio Station from Costa Rica stars the Christmas Superheroes (representing Costarrican Christmas traditions) fighting to protect our Christmas from the evil Legion of the North, composed by the terrible Santa Claus, and his gang of Elves and Ninja Reindeers.

== Tabletop Games ==

* One supplement for the original ''[[Little Fears]]'' documented a [[Bad Santa]] called Santa Claws.

* The sample campaign in ''[[Nobilis]]'' 2nd edition features Grommet Claus, the creation of the Power of Holidays in a duel with the Power of Strife in the PC's [[Hyperspace Base|Chancel]]. His gifts for the good children are all "monkey's paw" type mixed blessings, and he feeds the naughty children to giant wasps.

{{quote| "He wears a white-trimmed red, does Grommet Claus. A leather hood shields his face. One hand holds a wicked awl. The other holds the bag of toys slung over his back. He rids a sled drawn by twelve coal-black wasps. He knows the heart of every mortal. He can turn himself sideways to fit down the smallest chimney or through the smallest crack. The love of children sustains him -- he cannot die while nearby children hold to Christmas in their hearts."}}

== Videogames ==

* One of the bosses in the ''[[Carn Evil]]'' arcade game is Krampus, a warped, horned, green-clad version of Santa, who attacks by clawing the player or pelting them with presents and flaming coal while taunting you with phrases such as "Have a nice lump a' coal!" and "I'll stuff your stocking!"

** It's worth noting that [[wikipedia:Pre-Christian Alpine traditions#Krampus|Krampus]] exists in Alpine tradition as one of Santa's companions who punishes naughty children. Krampus was also mentioned in [http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp12052004.shtml this] Something Positive strip.

** The Krampus also appears in ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' episode "A Very Venture Christmas"-- and ends up punishing Dr. Venture {{spoiler|by dry-humping him, among other indignities.}}

** He also appeared as a [[Take That]] to the "War On Christmas" nuts on [[The Colbert Report]]

* One of the villains in the third and final ''Clayfighter'' game was Sumo Santa, an evil sumo Santa Claus who attacked by throwing his belly at his opponent.

* In ''[[World of Mana|Secret of Mana]]'', the heroes have to battle Santa Claus after he becomes [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] and turns into the Frost Gigas. After they win, he returns to normal.

* The little-remembered videogame ''[[Daze Before Christmas]]'', which featured Santa Claus rescuing toys and elves from an evil snowman. By drinking a cup of coffee, Santa would turn into his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]], ''Anti-Claus'', who was a blue-suit wearing demonic, horned, devil Santa with super strength.

* Santa Claus in the roguelike game ''[http://thangorodrim.angband.org/zangband.html Zangband]'' is only one of many monsters [[Everything Trying to Kill You|trying to kill you]] in the game, though he drops better presents than most.

* The first episode of ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police|Sam and Max: Season 2]]'', "Ice Station Santa," has the Freelance Police trying to subdue a deranged Santa Claus.

** But he was just possessed by a demon who was supposed to go to [[Satan]], but was mixed in mail.

*** Even when not possessed by a demon, he's shown as being far from jolly.

* Father Crimbo (the game's version of Santa Claus) of ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' had a heart attack one year and was replaced by his no-good alcoholic brother. However, Crimbo 2007 had the Borg bringing Father Crimbo [[Back From the Dead]]; and getting assimilated by ''him'' in turn, becoming the Crimborg.

** And in 2008, Uncle Crimbo was replaced with Don Pygoscelis, ''head of the'' (penguin) ''Mafia.''

** Don Pygoscelis was eventually beaten in 2009, replaced by the seemingly-reformed mutant known as the Crimbomination... then in 2010, the Crimbomination became a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] who turned Crimbo Town into a soulless corporation, CRIMBCO.

* There's a chain of missions in ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]: [[Updated Rerelease|Scholarship Edition]]'' where the main character must help a drunken, down-on-his-luck Santa run the good one out of town and get revenge on the kids who tease him.

* The fangame ''[[Ragnarok Online|Ragnarok]] Battle Offline'' has a stage where you're helping a good Santa, who later reveals himself as one Bad Santa then sends his pet reindeer to fight you (actually the stage boss Stormy Knight) and when you beat it, he storms off uttering "Fuck you!" many times.

* One of the monsters in ''[[Monster Rancher]] 2'' is a [[Demonic Doll]] monster dressed as Santa. Appropriately enough, it's called "Satan Claus."

* In one of the levels of ''[[Hitman]]: Blood Money'', you get the opportunity to be a Bad Santa yourself, by dressing up as him in a Christmas party to carry out your latest hits.

* The little-seen sequel to ''[[Bad Dudes]]'', titled ''Two Crude Dudes'', featured a creepy Kringle who would shout "Psycho Santa! Ho ho ho!" as he attacked the steroid-popping heroes.

* In ''[[Gex]]: Deep Cover Gecko'', one of the goals of the Xmas-themed mission is to defeat an evil Santa by hitting back the presents he's throwing at Gex.

* In the little known shooter ''[http://www.vazcomics.org/mamend/B/boog_1.htm Boogie Wings]'' one of the bosses is a giant robotic Santa who turns evil and is called "Satan Claus."

* There's a Japanese [[Game Mod|mod]] for ''[[Doom]]'' which, after 20-something maps filled with enemies from every 2.5D shooter in existence, suddenly jumps to the frozen north, puts on some Christmas music, and pits you against a rocket-launching Santa.

* One level in ''[[Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ]]'' is Santa's toy factory. At the end you fight the man himself, turned into a zombie, riding a flying mechanical sleigh and shooting presents.

* Embodied by Satan Claws in ''[[Death Smiles]] II''

* ''[[Killing Floor]]'' had the Christmas event which had several Bad Santas. The bloats and the patriarch were both re-skinned into evil santas trying to kill your group. There was also the heroic "Baddest Santa Ever" unlockable player skin.

== Webcomics ==

* Bun-bun, the psychopathic [[Killer Rabbit]] of ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', has a long-running feud with Santa (that may, due to [[Time Travel]] complications, date back thousands of years, possibly long before Christmas as we know it); every year they do their level best to kill one another. This drove the fat man far around the bend, leading to black ops elves, a killer cyborg Easter Bunny, and an extraterrestrial exile during which Santa contracted [[The Virus]]. And [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=001224 then things got REALLY strange...]

* The main protagonist O in the [[Life Embellished]] webcomic ''[http://www.commissionedcomic.com/index.php Commissioned]'' has [http://www.commissionedcomic.com/index.php?strip=301 an ongoing feud] with the evil Jolly Red Roof Lurker.

* In webcomic ''[http://www.pvponline.com/index.php PVP]'', Scratch Fury: Destroyer of Worlds wages war with Santa every Christmas holiday.

* [http://www.vgcats.com/anime/?strip_id=7 This strip] of ''[[VG Cats]]'' has Santa writing the people from his "bad list"... ''in the [[Death Note]]''.

** ''[[Boxer Hockey]]'' picked up on the [http://boxerhockey.fireball20xl.com/example.php?id=008_christmas_again.jpg same idea.]

* ''[[Breakpoint City]]'' featured [http://www.breakpointcity.com/archives/2005/12/17/rhyming-is-hard/ an arc] where Santa does everything in his power to sabotage Christmas and stop the [[Saving Christmas|adorable critter from saving it.]] Mid-way through January, he somehow manages to (unwillingly) make his run on time anyway.

* A non-canonical ''[[Narbonic]]'' [[Christmas Special]] features Santa Claus' [[Evil Twin]], [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic/series.php?view=archive&chapter=9897&mpe=1&fromwhich=1&direction=f 'Insanity' Klaus], who gives out cool and evil toys to naughty kids. Which [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic/series.php?view=archive&chapter=9897&mpe=1&fromwhich=12&direction=f saves Dave's christmas], after Helen and Mell manage to pin their wholesale rampage on him...

* The aptly named villain Bad Santa from ''[[Axe Cop]]'' whose abilities include the Power of Christmas and a guitar that hurts peoples' ears.

** And, when Sockarang gets Bad Santa's [[Applied Phlebotinum|blood on him]], he becomes Good Bat Santa.

{{quote| Sockarang: "I have the power of Christmas!"}}

* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' gives [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=33#comic this].

** ... and [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=633#comic this].

* ''[[Far Out There]]'' featured a particularly [http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1090298/bridget-and-alphonses-horrifying-christmas-page-10/ gruesome example].

== Web Original ==

* ''[[The Guild]]'''s second [[Christmas Special]] featured the Knights of Good singing a parody of The Night Before Christmas, about their encounter with a [[Bad Santa]] enemy in the MMORPG they're playing.

* In ''The [[Doctor Steel|Dr. Steel]] Christmas Special'', the Jolly Old Elf gives a little girl a Polly Pukes-A-Lot™ doll from [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|World Domination Toys]].

** To be fair, it's what she wanted...

*** Of course, he didn't have to ''sit'' on it...

* In ''[[Eddsworld]]'': Zanta Claws is coming to town.

* Parodied in the [[Tobuscus]] video, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=KfesQVww8kU Paranormal Nativity.]

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Futurama]]'', gave us an iconic example where Santa Claus is a recurring homicidal robot villain with [[Knight Templar|nigh-unachievable standards for "nice"]]. For example, mafia thugs beating up a shopkeeper for protection money? That's naughty. But a shopkeeper refusing to pay mobsters protection money? ''[[All Crimes Are Equal|Equally]]'' naughty.

{{quote| Santa: Your mistletoe is no match for my ''TOW-Missile!''}}

** The only person shown judged "Nice" was Dr. Zoidberg.

{{quote| "A pogo stick! Hurray!"}}

* More of a [[Badass Santa]] than simply a [[Bad Santa]], an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' featured a video game commercial around Christmas time: Two children are bored playing a bloodless knock-off of [[Mortal Kombat]], when Santa's sleigh (pulled by two snarling reindeer) bursts through their living room wall. Santa is bulging with muscles and is heavily armed. "YOU WANT EXCITEMENT?!?! STICK '''THIS''' UP YOUR STOCKING!!!" He fires a video game cartridge via RPG into their port. It is an incredibly bloody [[Beat'Em Up]] and the children (and Bart) are instantly enthralled. He closes the commerical saying "TELL YOUR PARENTS TO BUY YOU '''BONESTORM''', OR GO TO HELL!!!"

* Subverted by [[League of Super Evil]] with Kinder Kreep, the gift giver of an Anti-Christmas for villains, Chaos-mas, where you receive gifts for being naughty.

* Mrs. Claus in ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'' is a vampire, and turns her husband every twenty years or so.

** She does it because it's the only way she can get a couple of days off. Santa spends all his time checking his list, while she spends 364 days doing all the other work.

* In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InHHjjo5Uu0 this] animated sketch on ''[[Mad TV]]'' parodying ''[[Cops (series)]]'' and the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials, Santa Claus is revealed to be drug dealer using his toys to smuggle cocaine into Cuba and ends up beaten and put in the backseat of a police car. This troper still remembers his rant to the cops:

{{quote| "You '''''BASTARDS'''''! You rat bast--oooh! You're not getting ''anything'' in your stocking! I ''know'' you! I know where you live! I will take you out! And I don't mean on a date, you [*bleep*][*bleep*]! You bastards! Lemme outta here! Gemme outta here! Call my elf!"}}

* ''[[Robot Chicken]]'', meanwhile, had "A Very Dangerous [[Dragonball Z]] Christmas," where Goku and Gohan fight a Mrs. Claus who turns into a hideous giant tentacle monster a la Tetsuo from ''Akira''.

** There was also Composite Santa Claus, who's one-half Santa Claus and one-half Frosty the Snowman. When questioned as to CSC's powers, Goku replies, "I don't know, but he freaks me right the f[[Sound Effect Bleep|** ]]k out."

* The title character of ''[[Invader Zim]]'' ends up turning Santa into a hideous mutant cyborg in "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever."

** "Bow down, bow down before the power of Santa or be crushed, be crushed byyyyyyyyyy his jolly boots of doom!"

* In ''Shrek the Halls'', Gingy tells of his encounter with a [[Godzilla]]-like Santa who [[Let's Meet the Meat|eats his girlfriend]].

* While not evil ''per se'', the Santa in ''Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer'' is a pretty serious [[Jerkass]], with elements of [[Fantastic Racism]] as well. Of course, he does apologize. Eventually.

* [http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=b8db0a0ddc10779c1c06360535410c74 "Because I'm not the Santa you know!"]

* Not necessarily evil, but antagonistic from the point of view of the heroes, one of the users in ''[[Re Boot]]'' was a Santa Claus.

* Robotnikclaus from ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]''.

** Koopa Klaus in ''[[Super Mario Bros Super Show|The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!]]''

* [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]], but not actually used, in ''[[Rugrats]]'', when [[Cowardly Sidekick|Chuckie Finster]] explains why he's afraid of Santa Claus:

{{quote| '''Chuckie:''' He ''sees you when you're sleeping''. He ''knows when you're awake''...}}

** While the real Santa is portrayed as the traditional, jolly version, the episode actually features ''two'' Bad Santas. First, Angelica has a nightmare in which a [[The Faceless|faceless]] Santa with a booming, sinister voice tauntingly gifts her with coal--and then ''buries'' her with it. Later in the episode, Drew hires a Santa impersonator who is revealed to be a lazy schlub, canceling his appearance at the last minute (claiming he has car trouble) so he can stay home and eat junk food in front of the TV.

* The Santa in ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' Christmas special is bad not in the sense that he's evil or mean, but in the sense that he's a total moron, [[Crapsack World|just like pretty much everyone else]]. He actually believed [[Devil in Plain Sight|Princess]] was the only nice kid in the world after she changed the naughty and nice lists.

* In the ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' "New North Pole" arc, Boris Badenov tried weighing down the North Pole with extra ice, in order to tip the world over to turn a tropical island he had taken over into the New North Pole. He then planned to use his new power-base to replace Santa Claus, so he could drop down people's chimneys on Christmas Eve and clean out their homes.

* ''[[Mucha Lucha]]'' - In "A Mucha Mucha Christmas," Santa Claus's evil brother, Rudo Claus, and his team of chubacabras try to take over Christmas by giving only those who have been bad gifts.

* When [[Flap Jack]] finds out that a mysterious figure leaves combs in a small bowl near the port every time its filled with candy during the night, he dreams of a Santa Claus-like figure whose helpers distribute combs across the world. His dream becomes a nightmare when comb-Santa tells Flapjack he needs the comb he gave him to get the bugs out of his hair in a deep, hellish voice, revealing numerous insects crawling on Flapjack's head. Flapjack vainly tries to comb out the bugs in his hair while comb-santa laughs maniacally with visible sharpened teeth. This shocks Flapjack out of his nightmare.

* ''[[King of the Hill]]'' - Bill dresses up like Santa and turns his yard into an open-to-the-public North Pole play land. At Christmastime it's sweet and endearing; by mid-February it's pretty damn creepy.

* [[Bill Plympton]] did a short called ''Santa: The Fascist Years''. Exactly what is sounds like, complete with Santa making deals with Hitler.

* ''[[The Tick]]'' animated series had a Christmas episode in which the Tick and Arthur first tangle with a bank robber disguised as Santa, and accidentally knock him into a neon sigh in the process -- but instead of killing him, the electricity CLONES him. The real Santa shows up to help the Tick stop the clones from reaching the local hydroelectric plant, where they can get enough juice to make unlimited clones and take over the world. The episode contains one glorious pun, when the Tick sees the growing mass of Santa clones and exclaims, "It's a Yule TIDE!"

* In an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'' ("Road to the North Pole"), there are two. A mall Santa who gives Stewie the brush-off when he finally gets to the front of the line because his shift is over, and the real Santa (who he goes to kill), who is worn out by the overload of Christmas commercialization and wants to be put out of his misery.

** When Stewie first learns of Santa, he has a nightmare of him [[Bullet Catch|catching lasers]] à la [[The Empire Strikes Back|Darth Vader]], after which Stewie is lobotomized and put to work in Santa's workshop.

* [[Seth MacFarlane]] must love this trope. A [[Christmas Episode]] of ''[[American Dad]]'' has the Smiths accidentally kill Santa, only for him to be [[Not Quite Dead|resurrected by his elves]] to carry out a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] on the family. Stan and the family hole up with a [[Mountain Man]] and slaughter [[Zerg Rush|wave after wave]] of elf assassins. Santa returns to the North Pole, vowing to finish the job next year.

* ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animation)|How the Grinch Stole Christmas]]'' and the titular character who dresses as Santa to steal the Whos' Christmas.

* In one of the original ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]] [[Oh Yeah Cartoons]]'' shorts, Santa was depicted as an [[Affably Evil]] slave driver. The Santa in the main series is nice.

== Real Life ==

* On Christmas 2008, there was [[wikipedia:Covina massacre|Bruce Jeffrey Pardo]], who came to a house dressed as Santa to shoot people down before setting it on fire with a homemade flamethrower hidden in a present and committing suicide.

** And now there's his successor, Aziz Yazdanpanah, who shot several of his relatives to death as they were opening presents under the tree, then killed himself.

* [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1237917/Its-ho-ho-hold-Armed-bank-robber-dressed-Santa-demands-money-pay-elves.html Robber Dressed as Santa Robs Bank]. And here's another real life fake Santa criminal example, this time robbing a bank while saying the money was [[Crowning Moment of Funny|'to pay for his elves']].

* ''He sees you when you're sleeping/ He knows when you're awake/ He knows if you've been bad or good...'' Think about it. Fred Rogers used to say he would like to remove that song from the Christmas playlist because the idea that Santa spies on you is an invasion of privacy which scares the bejeezus out of little kids.

* Father Christmas can be a pretty damned scary figure in some places in Europe. Traditionally, he appears at Christmas Eve parties and tells bitsy kids he can see their souls. He has actual naughty and nice lists (actually provided by the mothers, of course) and reads these off in front of everybody. So basically a total stranger is telling the whole world things you didn't think ''anybody'' knew. Often the kids end up so scared they can't participate in the rest of the ceremony. [http://books.google.com/books?id=zxm--aRPUOgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22The+child%27s+song%22&hl=en&ei=q1GfTb6vAaLfiALrpZWGAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Saint%20Nicholas&f=false This is supposed to be a cute, funny event].

* A [[Mall Santa]] in Lake Forest Park, WA, ironically named Ronald McDonald, was convicted of child rape in 1997; his crimes went back nearly 26 years.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Subverted Innocence]]

[[Category:Christmas Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]

[[Category:Plots]]

[[Category:Bad Santa]]