Bald of Evil: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|''Hair are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos and transmit them directly into the brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight.''

 

In fiction, baldness often equates with lack of moral fortitude. Many, many villains are recognised as such by the audience by their shiny, shaven noggins. It might be the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] in a political thriller, the sinister evil sorcerer, unholy priest, cult leader, or [[Evil Overlord]] in sword-and-sorcery, or a thuggish [[Giant Mook]] readying to crack the hero in two. However, it is most commonly applied to the [[Evil Chancellor]] and the [[Mad Scientist]].

* In the Phantom, many baddies sport bald pates. In General Tara's case, it is possible that the baldness is a choice to indicate virility, since he augments his intimidating dome with a large bushy handlebar moustache (gleamingly waxed, of course) and matching goatee. To indicate his self-indulgent lifestyle, the fat buffoons in the Phantom strips (Tara included) always carry an extra bulge of flab at the base of their shiny skulls.

* Marvel's [[Everyone Hates Hades| version of Pluto]] - occasional foe of Hercules and [[The Mighty Thor]] - is bald.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Nero in [[Star Trek (film)|the new Trek movie]] pulls this off superbly, combining it with a variant of [[Tattooed Crook]].

* How do you make [[Dracula]] creepier? Give him rat-teeth, long spidery fingernails, bald him up, and call it ''[[Nosferatu]]''. "Graf Orlok" is so distinctive and has been [[Vampire: The Requiem|aped]] [[30 Days of Night|so]] [['Salem's Lot|many]], [[Deadlands|many]] [[Blade (film)|times]] that the [[Our Vampires Are Different|Nosferatu-type]] vampire is [[Looks Like Orlok|a trope unto itself]].

* The two main antagonists in ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'', as fate would have it, are both bald. Reportedly, Jeff Bridges leaped at the opportunity to shave his head.

** As if to make up for this, it has two ''good'' bald characters.

* Voldemort in ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'', to play up the whole [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|reptile angle]].

** To be fair, in his case, Voldemort was so far gone from anything remotely human that having hair at all would have been an accomplishment.

* Lord Tywin Lannister and Varys the Spider are this in [[A Song of Ice and Fire]]. Tywin combines his with enormous mutton chops to make a [[Bald of Awesome|bald of extremely awesome.]]

* Something of a subversion: [[Matilda (novel)|Matilda]]'s father (who has plenty of hair and happens to be unscrupulous) believes that smart people have good, strong hair and that, therefore, bald people are dumb. (Matilda points out that [[William Shakespeare]] was bald.)

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' plays to this in its 2nd Edition art; the "Ultraviolet-Clearance" section contains pictures of a "typical GM", an evil-looking robed fellow who is usually seen cutting up the rules or cracking a whip and is, of course, completely bald.

* Artwork of various Chaos leaders, especially sorcerers, in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' usually portrays them as bald, with various Chaos symbols worn on the scalp.

 

** Minor example from that game, [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"| "Gatling Guy"]] (as the Wiki calls him), a [[Scary Black Man]] with a chaingun whom you have to deal with a couple of times.

* Both [[Gonk|Earthquake and Gen-An Shiranui]] in ''[[Samurai Shodown]]''. Granted, Gen-An has two or three hairs, but he's still an overall baldie. (See also: [[The Simpsons (animation)|Simpson, Homer]].)

* ''Portrait of Ruin'' has Brauner, who seems to be an Orlok double. Still second fiddle to Dracula, though.

* Neff, the main bad guy from ''[[Altered Beast]]''.

* Patches from ''[[Demon's Souls]]'' and ''[[Dark Souls]]''.

* Bald Bull from ''[[Punch Out]]'' is a bad guy ''built'' on this Trope. One of his mid-fight quotes is, "My barber didn't know when to quit, do you?"

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

** [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Deviled ham]], surely?

** Anton was a carnie and a showman first, and his books on Satanism gave detailed instructions on invoking tropes of evil for fun and profit.

* [[Benito Mussolini]].

* Hideki Tojo.

* Heston Blumenthal.{{who}} Have you ''seen'' him?

* Steve Ballmer, though he's more of a [[Designated Villain]].

* [[wikipedia:File:Jared Loughner USMS.jpg|Jared Loughner]].

* Norwegian [[Right-Wing Militia Fanatic|right-wing terrorist]] [http://petchary.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/pg-8-breivik-rex_628594s.jpg Anders Behring Breivik], who is also a [[Blond Guys Are Evil|blond]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Expository Hairstyles]]

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Hair Colors]]

[[Category:Personal Appearance Tropes]]