Beard of Evil: Difference between revisions

What is it about bad guys and facial hair? For some reason, we often take being clean-shaven as an indicator of being strait-laced and, under more traditional morality, a good person, pure of spirit. In older, simpler days, a traditional hero would not even have five o'clock shadow, even if he's been on the run and well away from his shaving mirror for a week.

 

 

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.

[[Satan]] is also frequently depicted with a goatee (which probably came from depictions of [[Faust|Goethe's Mephistopheles]] as a 16th-century gallant).

 

 

{{examples}}

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* "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).

== Comic Books ==

* 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]].

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

* [[Empowered|Willy Pete]], as a fire elemental, has a beard made of flame. [[Complete Monster|"Evil" is rather understating it.]]

* 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.."

** 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]]''.

** And now, {{spoiler|the 2009 Christmas specials feature John Simm's Master with a Stubble of Evil.}}

* Though he [[Heel Face Turn|later redeems himself]], Captain Bialar Crais of ''[[Farscape]]'' keeps his beard.

* In Tom's first two appearances, in ''[[Lost]]'', he has a beard and is very scary. Then we see him without the beard, and learn that it's fake, and he becomes much less scary.

* Played straight in an episode of ''The Jamie Foxx Show'' in which Foxx's character is accidentally forced to switch places with a criminal look-alike who is physically identical in all ways except for a scrawny beard.

* ''[[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.

* The tabletop game ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' has a home brew version called "Brighthammer 40k," where the endless ''GRIMDARK'' of the Warhammer universe is flipped on its head into NOBLEBRIGHT, and everyone is a generally pleasant, good group of people to be around. The Emperor of this NOBLEBRIGHT (yes, spelled like that every time) universe inverts the idea of a Beard of Evil- he wears a Goatee of Good, and is something like a million times more upstanding and noble than his Warhammer counterpart. He's also not dead and stuck in a chair, which counts for something, certainly.

* [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!''

 

 

** That crazy adviser of Romanov in Red Alert 2 also has a evil beard. And, like Kane, [[Bald of Evil|Yuri lacks hair on the head]]

** ''[[Command & Conquer]] Red Alert 3'' tops even that; it doesn't have a Beard of Evil, it has [[Tim Curry|THE Beard of Evil!]]

* Lampshaded in ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'', where a skit involves Anise spinning a tale to [[The Ojou|Natalia]] how the [[Big Bad]]'s beard is a source of his evil powers. Just ''one'' source, mind you: You ''don't'' want to know what his ponytail does.

** Not to mention his ''eyebrows'' having the ability to tell him where his enemies are.

** 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]]'':

** 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."

== Western Animation ==

* 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."

* ''[[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''.

** Evil Buzz Lightyear from the [[Alternate Universe]].

* The [[Affably Evil]] Hank Scorpio from ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''.

** Gargamel did sport a fake Beard Of Evil when he was masquerading as the dream date wizard Harlequin in order to get his hands on Hogatha's "magic whistle," which was really her bird call. However, during a kiss, the fake beard attached itself to Hogatha's face, revealing her dream date to be Gargamel, yet Hogatha doesn't notice it until after Gargamel is gone when she looks at herself in the mirror and says, "I have charm, I have beauty, I have a beard...A BEARD?!?"

** Gargamel's godfather Lord Balthazar sports one.

* [[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.

* [[Rasputin the Mad Monk]], though it was more a Beard of Crazy.

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

* [[wikipedia:Ted Kaczynski|Ted Kaczynski]], aka the "Unabomber".