Beard of Evil: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Dave''': How can you have a goatee without shaving? Does it just materialize?

 

[[Rhymes on a Dime|A man with a beard is a man to be feared.]]

Note that this generally applies to small, well-groomed beards, especially goatees. Having a [[Beard of Barbarism|huge bushy beard]] turns one into a [[Nature Hero]], [[Seadog Beard|sailor]], grizzled old prospector or [[Boisterous Bruiser]]. Except, of course, for the beards recommended by certain religions that are in the public focus at the moment.

 

 

The Beard of Evil has a long history of being associated most closely with the [[Evil Twin]] or [[Evil Counterpart]], and you [[Mirror Universe|probably already]] [[Star Trek: The Original Series|know why]]. It also scores extra evil points if [[Bald of Evil|combined with a shaven head]]. (Anybody with a bald head and a beard is pretty much guaranteed to be a card-carrying villain unless they are [[Bald Black Leader Guy|black]] or East Asian. Blame [[Flash Gordon (comic strip)|Alex Raymond]] and Anton LaVey.)

 

{{examples}}

 

* Gendo Ikari from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has a beard in pretty much the same configuration as [[Gargoyles|Xanatos]] and [[Doctor Who|The Master]]. That particular style seems to be a favorite of [[Magnificent Bastard]]s. In the spoof [[Fan Video]] ''Evangelion: [[Re Death]]'', he proudly announces he spent millions in research on [[Kavorka Man|the ultimate pimp beard]].

* "That Man" from ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' is a [[Yakuza]] thug with a beard, the only recurring character with facial hair {{spoiler|and the real leader of ACROSS, making him the closest thing the show had to a [[Big Bad]]}}.

* In episode 12 of ''[[Dennou Coil]]'' beards start appearing on the (pre-adolescent) main characters. These beards are actually Illegals, virus programs that occasionally cross over into reality and are generally antagonistic. These particular Illegals are sentient, forming their own mini-civilizations on each person's face and revere the person they exist on as gods. They then go on to launch missiles and wage civil war on each other and, once that's stopped, "interplanetary" war. After realizing the futility of war, the Illegal beards leave their hosts to find their Promised Land.

* Lordgenome is about the only human on ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' with any significant amount of facial hair. He's the main villain of the first half. (And it seems to be fireproof, given that it isn't too badly damaged when he gets serious and his head ''bursts into flames''.)

** His beard also gets significantly larger and begins to curl at the ends as he gets angrier (most notably when his head bursts into flames).

* That first enemy that appears in ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' wanting to take over the Kamiya dojo and claiming to be the Battousai.

* The Count of Monte Cristo in ''[[Gankutsuou]]'' sports a sharp, blue goatee to complete his Byronic character. He isn't exactly pure evil, but definitely counts as a [[Manipulative Bastard]] willing to get innocents mixed to his pursuit of vengeance.

 

* While the titular hero himself might sport a trim goatee, ''[[Iron Man]]'' also plays it straight with Stane, who has a full beard and a [[Bald of Evil|bald head]].

** It's debatable whether this was deliberate on the part of the writers and artists, but Tony finally grew a goatee (after decades of having just a mustache) around the same time that he became much more morally ambiguous than he'd ever been before—first by becoming Marvel's poster child for [[No Transhumanism Allowed|transhumanism]] and incorporating elaborate upgrades into his body which may have [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|distanced him from his humanity,]] and then by becoming a virtual fascist in the ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]''.

* Serial killer/rapist Mr. Gone from ''[[The Maxx]]'' combines [[Bald of Evil]] with a wild Beard of Evil. After a [[Time Skip]] during which he does a [[Heel Face Turn]], he no longer has any facial hair.

* Rasputin in ''[[Hellboy (comics)|Hellboy]]'' has a Beard of Evil and [[Bald of Evil]], as contrasted with Hellboy himself, who combines Topknot-but-[[Bald of Awesome]] with a Soul-Patch-and-Muttonchops Combination of Moral Ambiguity.

* Marvel's [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]] old time villains Count Nefaria and Graviton.

* Similar to the ''[[Star Trek]]'' example, in the ''[[Transformers]]'' [[Mirror Universe]] ''[[Transformers: Shattered Glass|Shattered Glass]]'', Rodimus has a goatee. [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:Rodimus_goatee.jpg See.] Said universe also provides an example with {{spoiler|the evil Alpha Trion, although the [[Transformers Generation 1|regular Alpha Trion]] has similar facial hair}}

* Referenced in a universe-hopping arc of ''[[Cable]] & [[Deadpool]]''. "How do I know you're not the anti-Siryn? Then again, you're not sporting the alternate-universe mandated evil goatee.."

* Minor [[Superman]] villain Amalak the [[Space Pirate]] was originally a rather forgettable-looking clean shaven guy with a red haired crew cut. In his final appearance, though, he had let his hair and beard [[Growing the Beard|grow out]] all scraggly, and it made him ten times scarier-looking than he had ever been before. Sadly, he got [[Killed Off for Real]] at the end of that story, and took his cool creepy beard with him.

** A [[Post-Crisis]] version of Amalak was introduced a couple of years ago. With the cool beard, naturally.

 

 

* In ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|Batman Begins]]'', Ra's al Ghul's and Henri Ducard's fu manchus are our first clue that the League of Shadows is [[Knight Templar|evil]]. (Well, the first clue for those who hadn't read the comic books.) Bruce Wayne also sports a rather scraggly beard at the beginning of the film, but it's gone by the time he [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|disavows killing]] and severs ties with the League.

* [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate|Doctor]] Smith in [[The Film of the Series]] ''[[Lost in Space]]'' gave away his role as villain this way.

** Scar, Simba's evil uncle from ''[[The Lion King]]'' has a tuft of scraggly black fur on his chin reminiscent of a goatee.

** Jafar in ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' deserves a mention. Not-evil men like the sultan and captain of the guard also have beards in the movie, but Jafar's is not only a goatee, but ''twisted''.

** Hugo Drax of ''[[Moonraker]]'' plans to [[Utopia Justifies the Means|remake the world to make it a better place to have an evil beard in]].

** From ''[[For Your Eyes Only (film)|For Your Eyes Only]]'', {{spoiler|Kristatos}}.

* In ''[[Die Hard]]'', [[Alan Rickman]] as Hans Gruber sported one, contrasting a beardless [[Bruce Willis]].

* Averted in ''[[Once Upon a Time in the West]]''. Henry Fonda planned to grow a beard as well as wear brown contact lenses to play the film's [[Complete Monster]] villain, but director [[Sergio Leone]] talked him out of it, since Fonda having his usual appearance in a role so different from his usual humble and noble characters would make it all the more shocking.

* The title character of ''[[Blacula]]'' grows some seriously wild sideburns every time he decides to drink someone's blood.

* Fouché sports one in ''[[The Duellists]]''. He was clean-shaven in real life.

* The [[Big Bad]] McComb sports an evil beard in ''[[Time Cop]]''.

** {{spoiler|Doubly appropriate as he's voiced by [[Leonard Nimoy|the page image]] - though his appearance is based on [[Sean Connery]].}}

* Although technically not a beard, [[Edward Norton]]'s character in [[The Italian Job (2003 film)]] sports a rather evil-looking moustache.

* Christo and Shabal from ''[[Act of Valor]]''. Averted with Senior Chief who is bearded but good.

 

* ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'': Galbatorix has a beard in the film adaption. During ''Brisingr'', Eragon seems to assume that Galbatorix has a beard when he mentions him.

* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' universe:

** Lord Vetinari is commonly depicted with a tidy goatee.

*** He's not that evil, though. He does, however, have a 'menacing elegance'. Oh, yes, and he's ''[[Magnificent Bastard|awesome]]''.

* In ''[[The Corellian Trilogy]]'' the chief feature distinguishing Han Solo from his evil cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo is the latter's beard.

* The eponymous character of ''[[Bluebeard]]''.

* ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' has [[No Name Given|the man with a beard but no hair]], who's apparently so evil that Lemony Snicket won't even tell us his name.

 

* The mirror universe of ''[[Star Trek]]'' more or less gave us the cliché of the [[Evil Twin]] with a Beard of Evil, as evil Mr. Spock has a goatee. Ironically, Evil Mr. Spock is far and away the ''least'' evil person in the mirror universe.

*** While, for obvious reasons, Mirror T'Pol couldn't have a beard, she did have long flowing locks of hair to distinguish her from her closely-cropped regular counterpart.

*** This seems to have been the fashion among ''commanding'' Vulcans. Mirror Spock's personal guard didn't have a beard, and neither did either of the Vulcans Mirror T'Pol enlisted to help her retake the ISS Enterprise from Archer. [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Mirror Tuvok from the Terran Rebellion]] was also clean-shaven.

*** However, he wasn't really evil.

* On ''[[Knight Rider]]'', Michael Knight's [[Evil Twin]], Garthe Knight, sports a Beard of Evil.

* One of the themes in ''[[Breaking Bad]]'' is Walter's physical and mental transformation from nerdy teacher to [[Badass]] drug dealer. First he [[Bald of Awesome|went bald]], ostensibly due to chemotherapy, then he grew a rather sinister goatee.

* In ''[[The Middleman]]'''s [[Mirror Universe]], every single male character is bearded; most but not all are more evil than their clean-shaven counterparts.

* ''[[The Collector (TV series)|The Collector]]'': While meeting the younger Morgan in flashbacks, the Devil [[The Nth Doctor|takes the form]] of a goateed Colin Cunningham, his most consistent avatar in the series by far.

* On ''[[Community]]'', Alternate Universe [[Meta Guy|Abed]], [[Medium Awareness|deducing that he and his remaining friends inhabited the darkest of the alternate timelines]], decided that they should embrace the darkness and become evil. He therefore prepared false goatees for everyone until the men could grow theirs in properly. (Like so many things with ''Community,'' [[It Makes Sense in Context|it makes more sense in context]].)

 

 

* ''[[Gaia Online]]'' has both mocked this and played this straight. (But mostly mocks it)

** On the serious side: Vladmir Von Helson, the arguably most evil character in the story line, had a particularly sinister goatee before he was ashed.

* [http://i41.tinypic.com/24vmlqe.jpg This] motivational poster, created during Mirrorverse Week on [http://community.livejournal.com/ontd_startrek/ ONTD_STARTREK]

 

* Ming The Merciless in ''[[Flash Gordon (comic strip)|Flash Gordon]]'', perhaps unsurprisingly, sports what is known as a Fu Manchu.

** And Dr Chaotica in ''[[Voyager]]'''s [[Show Within a Show]] homage ''The Adventures of Captain Proton!''

* In the comic strip ''[[Mark Trail]]'', ''Beard of Evil'' is played straight but ''[[Bald of Evil]]'' is subverted: Story-arc-specific male characters have a full-on [[Good Hair, Evil Hair|inverse relationship between levels of evil, and levels of hair on head and face.]] One arc featured an immoral bearded man (and another, with mutton chops), a very moral completely bald man (so moral, he was keeping his construction company from leveling a field because of a family of ducks he found), and a morally conflicted balding man.

 

* Following his [[Face Heel Turn]], the cleanshaven space around [[Hulk Hogan]]'s iconic blonde fu manchu was filled in by a black five-o'clock shadow.

* [[Daniel Bryan]]'s [http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/images/photos/001/578/400/whc_daniel_bryan_by_windows8osx-d4jmgpp_original.jpg?1329708118 has to be seen to be believed, following his] [[Face Heel Turn]]. Compare his current appearance to the completely clean-shaven image on his Trope page and marvel at the difference.

 

 

* Inverted in the ''[[Warcraft]]'' universe: male facial hair is directly proportional to goodness. Although the fairly unpleasant Blood Elves do tend towards goatees of the classic villain variety. It goes with their [[Evil Laugh|laugh]].

* ''[[Command & Conquer]]'':

* The Prowler "La Lupo" from ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood]]'' has a soul patch and close-cropped goatee, contrasting with Ezio's full beard-and-'stache. Cesare, Rodrigo, and the Engineer also have beards.

* The [[Obviously Evil]] Ser Alrik in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' sports one.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Edvard de Santigo from ''[[Supernormal Step]]'' has a [http://supernormalstep.com/62/ very malicious-looking goatee].

** Elan's [[Evil Twin]] brother Nale has a blond beard to serve as his distinguishing villainous mark.

** As Vaarsuvius pointed out [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0596.html after dealing with Kubota], "that mustache did not do him any favors" when trying to determine whether Kubota was to be considered an enemy of the Order.

* ''[[Darths and Droids]]'':

** Jim, Qui-Gon's player, suspects Sio Bibble (or [[My Name Is Not Durwood|"Bubble"]], as he calls him) of being evil due to his beard and position as Amidala's [[Evil Chancellor|trusted adviser]]. It's not true, but despite his bit-part in it, Bibble is one of the few campaign details Jim never needs to be reminded of.

** This is also mentioned in a later comic with Bail Organa.

*** Flat out lampshaded in the GM's notes for the campaign that took place in between the first and second movie (based on ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]''). In his notes on Count Rugen, he notes "Has a goatee! Should be fun when others don't believe Jim that he's evil."

{{quote|'''Phil:''' "I learned enough not to trust men like Trotsky, Castro, and Blackbeard! Men with ''beards!''"

'''El Teen Gringo:''' "But what of Lincoln? Moses? Zeus? You're blinded by your dangerous obsession! Bah! You'll never understand. Taste some ''Teen Gringo Justice'' -- Fist Style!" }}

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15S0g8pG6HU Pedophile Beards]

* [[Mirror Universe|Enforcers]] [[Protectors of the Plot Continuum|of the Plot Continuum]] Makes-Things had a beard, probably inspired by Emperor Spock's (see page image). In the prime multiverse, the Mysterious Somebody had a beard, as an [[Expy]]-cum-clone of [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Joruus C'baoth]].

 

* Pastiched on ''[[South Park]]'': in their mirror universe, ''everyone'' has a goatee, including the "Evil" Cartman, who, as the opposite of the "real world" Cartman, is polite, helpful, and a genuinely good person. The unbearded Cartman rips off his beard (as a unit...) after he finds out that Stan and Kyle want to send him to the alternative universe and keep the "evil Cartman."

* David Xanatos, the [[Anti-Villain]] of ''[[Gargoyles]]'' fame [[Xanatos Gambit|well known for his convoluted plans]] sported such a beard. He bore more than a passing resemblance to his actor, who played [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Commander Will Riker]] and whose beard was notable for [[Growing the Beard|another reason]].

* ''[[Transformers]]'':

** Unicron the [[Planet Eater|giant, planet-eating, robotic, chaos god]] had a mustache and goatee. He also gave one to his minion Scourge, along with a lovely set of pink fingernails.

{{quote|'''Jim Rage:''' "You don't understand, man... The Russians were already working on a beard... ''[[Doctor Strangelove|We had a facial hair gap!]]''"}}

* Parodied with Chad Ghostal, Space Ghost's [[Evil Twin]] brother on ''[[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]]''. His facial hair is different every time he's on screen.

* Fire Lord Ozai in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', along with several other villains, including Long Feng and Combustion Man.

* The Villain on the ''[[Jimmy Timmy Power Hour]] 3''.

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension]]'' has Alternate Doofenshmirtz who sports an eviler than thou goatee. Hilariously commented upon between Jeff Swampy Marsh and Dan Povenmire (the voice of Heinz Doofenshmirtz) during the comic-con 2011 Phineas and Ferb panel, pointing out this particular trope... and the fact that Dan sports a goatee as well.

* Lampshaded {{spoiler|and played straight}} with {{spoiler|Cesar Salazar}} in ''[[Generator Rex]]'' after a six month [[Time Skip]].

* Here's how you tell the male heroes apart from the male villains in ''[[Visionaries]]'': If he's got a full beard, he's either a bad guy or he's [[Mysterious Backer| a wizard]], and wizards tend to be morally ambiguous at best. Good guys are usually clean-shaven, except Leoric, who has a [[Badass Mustache]].

 

* Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, grew a diabolical goatee to go along with his [[Bald of Evil]] and to fit in the part.

* Attila the Hun, the notoriously cruel barbarian warrior known (in Western history) as the "Scourge of God," reportedly wore a beard.

* Averted by many, many, many real-life, movie, and comic book stage magicians, only some of whom are evil.

* [[Adolf Hitler]], the size of his mustache being inversely proportional to his evilness! It also greatly reduced the number of [[Good Hair, Evil Hair|toothbrush mustaches]] among the world's population after WWII.

* The prolific serial killer [[wikipedia:Pedro López (serial killer)|Pedro Lopez]] (a.k.a. the "Monster of the Andes") wore a straggly beard and mustache at the time of his arrest. Frighteningly, he may still be alive and walking the streets today...

* [[wikipedia:Charles Manson|Charles Manson]], whose beard (and appearance) has only become more unkempt and sinister with the passage of time.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Always Male]]

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Hair Tropes]]