Beware the Silly Ones/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A Big Bad (or other villain) who seems to be comical and harmless is actually highly capable and dangerous despite outward appearances.

  • Straight: The villain looks like a big goofball, but then he aims a ballistic missile at a largely populated area.
  • Exaggerated: The villain appears to be utterly and completely helpless. He turns out to be an Omnicidal Maniac
  • Justified:
    • The villain intentionally invokes Obfuscating Stupidity to make him appear less of a threat.
    • He's a Bunny Ears Lawyer. His silliness has nothing to do with his evilness.
    • The villain has superpowers and access to advanced technology. He's just always too busy goofing around to use any of that to full advantage.
    • His oddball way of doing and looking at things is the root of his success.
  • Inverted: The hero looks like a big goof, but can actually defeat the strongest of all villains.
  • Subverted: The heroes bust into the seemingly-idiotic Big Bad's fortress, expecting to sabotage his Doomsday Device...except it appears that all his recent scheming and suspicious activity has gone towards building a kiddie pool. An evil kiddie pool that will help him take over the world!...but still a kiddie pool.
  • Double Subverted: The heroes bust into the seemingly-idiotic Big Bad's fortress, expecting to sabotage his Doomsday Device...except it appears that all his recent scheming and suspicious activity has gone towards building a kiddie pool. The heroes leave, flustered and embarrassed...and then while their back is turned, the kiddie pool moves aside to reveal the Doomsday Device the Big Bad has been constructing in secret.
  • Parodied: The villain is such a goofball that the heroes even consider themselves best friends with him, even though he's scheming behind their backs to kill them all and take over the world. However, the oblivious heroes manage to disrupt his plans in comedic fashion with their very presence.
  • Deconstructed: The villain suffers from a physical and/or mental condition that makes him look or act ridiculous, and being brutally teased as a child led him to withdraw from the world, retreat to a hidden island fortress and change his name to something frightening so that no one would bother him ever again. Then the heroes come calling, with exactly the wrong idea...
  • Reconstructed: The villain suffers from a physical and/or mental condition that makes him look or act ridiculous, and being brutally teased as a child led him to seek revenge against the world and learn how to use his disability to his advantage.
  • Zig Zagged: The heroes bust into the seemingly-idiotic Big Bad's fortress, expecting to sabotage his Doomsday Device...except it appears that all his recent scheming and suspicious activity has gone towards building a kiddie pool. The heroes leave, flustered and embarrassed...and then while their back is turned, the kiddie pool moves aside to reveal the Doomsday Device the Big Bad has been constructing in secret. But wait! The Doomsday Device is a dud! No! It's not a giant laser cannon to blow up the moon; it's really a giant laser drill to punch a hole through the Earth's core! Whoops! The villain forgot to pay his electric bill and the drill shuts down! Another Shocking Swerve! The drill has its own built-in power source!...
  • Averted: The villian is not silly, we know he is dangerous.
  • Enforced: The writer created the villain wanting to trick the viewers into thinking the villain is harmless.
  • Lampshaded: "Have you ever noticed how it's always the stupid ones you have to look out for?"
  • Invoked: "Oh, come on! Does anyone really believe a guy who calls himself Dr. Mephistophitler spends his days playing with puppies and playing video games with the local law enforcement? What about that shipment of 5,000 metric tons of Unobtainium he had shipped to his hidden volcano base just yesterday, huh? Or that tanker full of Explodium that vanished in the Pacific less than 10 miles from his Island Resort Of Doom?"
  • Defied: The villain acts serious wanting to be taken seriously.
  • Discussed: "You have to wonder about The Greasepainter. I mean, sure, now he's making silly faces and balloon animals for the kids, and he hasn't pulled off one of his crazy world domination schemes in months, but what about last week, when we spotted him less than a block from that armed car robbery? Or the stuff he does in the basement with those cats and that Tesla coil? And I could swear I heard him muttering "kill 'em all" under his breath. Something tells me we should keep an eye on him."
  • Conversed: "Have you ever met a guy who looked and acted really stupid, but whenever you looked into his eyes, it was as if he was...plotting something? Like, something evil?"

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