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See Also: [[Fake Real Turn]] where a business that is serving as a front operation for a criminal activity or organization becomes so successful in its own right that characters decide to pursue it as a legitimate business. And [[You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good]].
Compare [[Recruiting the Criminal]], [[Reed Richards Is Useless]], [[Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers]], and [[Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat]]. Contrast [[Visionary Villain]] and [[Pragmatic Villainy]]. See also [[Science-Related Memetic Disorder]] and [[Sanity Has Advantages]] for the possible [[Justified Trope|justifications of this trope]]. Can end up leading to [[Boxed Crook]] when put into practice.
{{examples}}
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* Averted with ''[[Wildstorm]]'' Universe villain Kaizen Gammora, who sells battle-droids and pleasure robots to finance his country's terrorism.
* Third-rate [[Spider-Man]] villain the White Rabbit defies this. A [[Trophy Wife]] who inherited a fortune from her deceased billionaire husband, she hardly needs to commit crimes for money and only does so for fun, seeing as her whole life has been that of a bored socialite. In fact, given her absurd Wonderland themes, it is implied she can only convince [[mook]]s to work for her because she pays them a thousand dollars a week, and this is stated in a story from 1972.<ref>A little more than $6.2K in 2021 dollars.</ref>
* Third-rate [[Fantastic Four]] villain Diablo (notice how a ''lot'' of these villains are third rate?) tried doing this in his earliest appearances. He seemed to be [[Only in It For the Money]] selling his alchemical concoctions to make profit, but failed at that because most of his potions wore off in a few weeks at most. Maybe... lowering the price of his youth serums and fertility suppliments and putting a disclaimer on the bottles would have helped?
===
* Played straight and subverted in the first ''[[Austin Powers]]'' film, when Number Two grows furious with Dr. Evil for engaging in world-threatening schemes when their front companies were already making billions a year ''legally''.
* In [[Ridley Scott]]'s ''[[Robin Hood (2010 film)|Robin Hood]]'', Godfrey conspires with the King of France to undermine England from the inside. However, Godfrey is best buddies with King John of England, who quickly promotes him to his second-in-command. Godfrey is already more powerful than Philip would ever make him, yet he follows through with the betrayal.
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* From the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' series we have the [[Mega Corp]] Umbrella Corporation, which had enough legitimate profit as the world's leading pharmaceutical company to not be dabbling in bio-weapons. And on top of that, when you consider what they are able to accomplish with their research, they'd probably make much, much more money pursuing something legitimate and marketable, as opposed to selling mutants and skinless dogs on the black market.
** What makes it even more sad is that all the money that was invested in making these biological weapons could have vastly improved the lives of the civilian world. All these villains could have helped people had they wanted to and still have made a huge profit off of it.
** Resident Evil 5 revealed that Oswald Spencer's ultimate goal with Umbrella was to mutate a virus he'd discovered into something that would make him godlike and immortal. All the zombies, skinless dogs and mutants were byproducts of this research. Of course, Spencer still crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]] by trying to weaponize them and not giving a damn about any of his employees'
* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'': Blutarch and Redmond Mann have hired teams of elite mercenaries to fight over lumbermills, granaries, and barren scraps of land in the middle of Death Valley - even though, according to the timeline, they ''literally own half the world''. Possibly subverted, as they hold a deep grudge against each other, and their father's hatred of their own stupidity led him to [[Inadequate Inheritor|force them into cooperation by giving them a split share of the company's land in his will.]]
* Many members of the Mad Gear gang from ''[[Final Fight]]'' managed to find legitimate ways to earn money later. Hugo figured out that pro wrestling paid better than street brawling, while Poison transitioned to an even ''more'' evil role - [[Sarcasm Mode|his manager.]] Later they actually become this reality's version of Vince and Linda McMahon, forming their own pro-wrestling franchise, the HWA. (Huge Wrestling Army)<ref>If that sounds weird, don't forget, the game originated in Japan, and Japan has a franchise called ''Wrestle and Romance'', [[Widget Series| because, well, it's Japan]].</ref> Abigail, J, Axl, and Roxy opened an autobody shop, but unfortunately, Abigail's rotten temper got him - and them - into more trouble during the events of ''[[Street Fighter V]]''.
=== Western Animation ===
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* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'': [[Mad Scientist|Dr.]] [[Big Bad|Hell]] is wealthy and intelligent enough to build dozens of [[Humongous Mecha|gigantic]] [[Robeast|war machines]], Doomsday weapons, squads of cyborgs, several HQ, [[Cool Airship|aircrafts]], [[Cool Ship|submarines]]... It was kind of [[Justified Trope|justified]] in one of [[Alternate Continuity|the different manga continuities]] when Dr. Hell revealed {{spoiler|shortly after finding the old Mykene's [[Humongous Mecha|mechanical warriors]], [[Psycho Supporter|Count]] [[Co-Dragons|Brocken]] took over several ancient European [[The Mafia|Mafia]] in order to earn cash for Hell.}} However he will not use his talents for legitimate -and less frustration-inducing- gain because he sees himself like [[The Woobie]] and wants making the whole humankind paying for all humilliations and hurt he suffered in the past. He NEEDS enslaving everybody and making them [[Kneel Before Zod|bowing down to him]].
** Which is not necessarily true in [[Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen]], where most of his reasons to hate the world don't apply. If anything, it would make even more sense for that version of Dr. Hell to go legit.
*** Double subverted when ''[[Super Robot Wars Z]]'' adapted this version of Dr. Hell. While he still could legit turn his knowledge towards legitimate means, this version of him found a good reason not to care. {{spoiler|A multiverse destroying threat that would make that meaningless}}. Of course, he could of course achieve the goal of preventing this threat by working WITH the good guys, but [[Insufferable Genius|he's convinced he's the only one wise enough to know what to do with his knowledge regardless]].
* ''[[Pumpkin Scissors]]''. This trope is almost the premise of the series—this is a world where rather than building safer tanks or devices to protect people from chemical weapons, they engineer people who can withstand tank-fire and chemical weapons. Lampshaded in the interlude where a lab assistant finds a report about the protective fluid that the Flamethrower Troopers use and mentions that they could be used to help burn victims. Her superior replies to that by telling her to throw it out because he doesn't need it anymore.
* Sunred points this out to his [[Friendly Enemy]] General Vamp in ''[[Tentai Senshi Sunred]]''. Vamp is such a good homemaker that Sunred tells him, "You oughta give up the world domination thing and open a restaurant."
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** Averted with Dr. Octopus in most of his incarnations: He was a scientist who invented and used his arms for legitimate research purposes. It took a lab accident fusing the arms to his body and driving him insane to turn him into a supervillain. The ''[[Ultimate Marvel]]'' version subverts this further, with S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist Henry Pym [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|alowing Otto's post-explosion condition to deteriorate to the point where his arms couldn't be removed]]. Ock went on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] against the man he blamed for the explosion until he was captured; he later escaped from prison twice, both times attempting to continue his revenge spree - first against S.H.I.E.L.D., and then his ex-wife, who was trying to profit off of his story. Upon subsequents arrest and running out of people to get revenge on, Ock made a deal with the FBI to use his knowledge of Spider-Man's DNA to produce Spider-Man clones for the agency. In the end it's played straight in a fight with Spider-Man, as Ock realizes that he ''likes'' being a supervillain, even if it's stupid and doesn't work out for him.
** In the ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]''/''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novel ''Time's Arrow: The Present'', written by [[Adam Troy-Castro]], Spidey muses on "the guys who spend six million dollars building robot suits so they can rob banks". He compares this with his own initial decision to make money as a masked wrestler/novelty act, rather than sell his webbing formula to an adhesives company, and concludes that neither case was really about the money - it's about proving something to everyone who ever laughed at them.
* [[Superdickery.com]] riffs on [https://web.archive.org/web/20180707040857/http://www.superdickery.com/honestly-its-probably-what-i-would-do-too/ another case] involving ''X-Men'' villain Sauron:
{{quote|"But I don't ''want'' to cure cancer. I want to turn people into dinosaurs."}}
* ''[[Batman]]''
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=== Literature ===
* ''[[Discworld]]''
** In ''[[
** This is also lampshaded in ''[[
** In ''[[
* A much simpler device, made of coat hangers, was used in the novel ''[[Who Ran My Underwear up the Flagpole?]]'' by Jerry Spinelli. The character in question is assigned to write a hundred lines on the board, while the teacher stepped out for a coffee. When he gets back, there are 120 lines on the board and the student is gone. Once the teacher finds out what the kid's done, he's so impressed that he doesn't even punish him. The same kid also has a custom skateboard, and it is implied he'll be some sort of inventor when he grows up.
* A comment is offered in ''[[Vanity Fair]]'' about one character who is a stingy and sly aristocrat. The author notes that if he had been born in obscurity, he could have become a wealthy [[Amoral Attorney]], but as a baronet, he does things like being so stingy his crops fail and engaging in constant law suits - which, while profitable when he wins, are more frequently a financial drain.
* In the Paul Jennings short story ''The Strap Box Flier'', an inventor goes from town to town selling his amazing glue, which bonds instantly with a grip like steel in demonstrations. He then gets as far away as possible, before the townsfolk figure out the glue comes undone after four hours. Apparently it never occurred to him that a glue which allowed you to fix something immovably into place for a predictable amount of time - after which it would come undone of its own accord - would be worth an incredible fortune.
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* Eventually averted by [[Artemis Fowl]], who ''does'' use his genius to make money in more legitimate ways. Among others, he has several patents and won a competition to design a new opera house in Dublin.
* One telling of ''[[Hansel and Gretel]]'' outright states that the witch built her gingerbread house just to lure in children to eat. Apparently, it never occurred to her that being able to produce enough sweets to build a house from them ''in the middle of a famine'' could be a mighty profitable skill.
==== Print Media ====▼
* ''[[Mad]]'' once had a article that said that your laziness factor factored in the amount of work you're willing to go through to get out of doing work.▼
=== Live-Action TV ===
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=== Newspaper Comics ===
* ''[[FoxTrot]]'' has Jason Fox, who tries several ludicrous schemes to make money (including thousand-dollar ''snow dinosaurs'' that would ineviablty melt in the srping); despite the fact that he has effortlessly built machines and coded programs that could have made him MILLIONS had he simply sold them. He once tried to form a one-man corporation, but all he had to show investors was "a dinky little program I wrote for fun". Unfortunately for him and them, the Darth Jason virus did not just "kill off interest", it "killed off the Internet". Justified in that, while genius at some things, Jason is still a child and thus doesn't always have the best common sense.
▲=== Print Media ===
▲* ''[[Mad]]'' once had a article that said that your laziness factor factored in the amount of work you're willing to go through to get out of doing work.
=== Tabletop Games ===
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=== Web Comics ===
* ''[[Antihero for Hire]]'' lampshades it in [
* ''[[Freefall]]'': [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1100/fv01006.htm Sam lampshades this dilemma.]
* Averting this trope is the driving force behind ''[[Evil Inc.]]'', a comic about a supervillain who starts a legitimate company to cater to other supervillains. When a traditionalist complains he is losing sight of what evil is, he just shows him the legitimate profit margins and smiles. An often repeated motto in the strip is, "You can do more evil if you do it legally."
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** Mr. Freeze's appearance averts this. It's mentioned that he is wealthy and puts his fortune towards making amends to the families who were hurt by his villainous actions in the past.
** Zig-zagged with this version of Spellbinder, a psychologist who uses sophisticated [[Mind Control]] devices to hypnotize people into stealing for him. Aside from the fact that he's invented all this hypnotic equipment but can't think of anything better to do with it than trick people into stealing for him, he probably doesn't even make a profit on his crimes. However, in his introductory episode Spellbinder goes on a rant which indicates that this may be more about revenge than greed. It took another turn when Spellbinder got wiser and began marketing his equipment as virtual reality generators [[Lotus Eater Machine|that allowed people to live out their fantasies]]. Of course, he "marketed" it like a drug pusher and got taken down by Batman for it.
** A rather tragic example was Shriek, originally Walter Shreeve. He was formerly the head of a firm that was acquired by [[Big Bad|Derek Powers]], but his attempts to convince Powers that his sonic technology had potential for demolitions didn't impress Powers. ("Dynamite is cheaper", said Powers.) Powers suggested he turn the device into a weapon to assassinate Bruce Wayne (well, it was either that or lose his funding) and the resulting failure drove Shreeve insane, and also deaf. Ironically, what later happened cost Powers far more money than it ever could have saved him.
* In ''[[Wacky Races]]'', Dick Dastardly's Mean Machine is obviously the fastest car in the races and he ''always'' manages to get ahead of everyone else. If he wasn't so [[Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat|adamant in cheating]] and causing the other racers to get ''further'' behind of his considerable lead, he could have easily won every single race.
** Given a massive [[Lampshade Hanging]] in the new ''[[Wacky Races]]'' pilot where he tells Muttley that [[Card-Carrying Villain|as villains they have to cheat]]. They were three feet from the finish line and napping for an indeterminate time beforehand.
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* Averted on ''[[Johnny Test]]''. Brainfreezer wishes he was less evil so he could just use his ice based technology for a legit business. After Johnny helps him, [[Heel Face Turn|he does just that.]]
* One episode of ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' is motivated by this. [[Mad Scientist]] Prof. Nimnul has built a lightning generator whose power supply is the static electricity you get from rubbing several hundred fuzzy cats. In his [[Motive Rant]], he claims to have tried selling it to a power company, but the design was so silly that they wouldn't take him seriously. His response is to blast them with the lightning.
** Even worse was the time he tried to go legitimate by plugging his new aging ray (which used prunes as fuel) to a dairy company, under the assumption it would instantly transform milk into aged cheese. However, after a [[Disastrous Demonstration]] (his fault; he ate too many of the prunes and it ran out of power) in which he accidentally flooded the dairy convention hall with sour milk and ended up being blackballed, he decided [[Then Let Me Be Evil|to stick to being a villain]]. As shame, really, as the heroes discovered that using plums to fuel it had the opposite effect - Nimnul [[Fridge Logic| had actually discovered a way to grant to eternal youth!]]
* The ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E15 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000|The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000]]" gives us the Flim Flam brothers, who have a machine that can produce apple cider at a rate faster than the Apple Family can. Had the two brothers not tried to drive the Apples out of business, not been such a pair of [[Jerkass]]es to the Apples, or heck, even tried to cut a fair deal with them instead of giving them an obviously bad one, they'd have ended up being filthy rich off the shared profits. Instead, they're hit with [[Laser-Guided Karma]] after they become so focused on beating the Apple Family that they [[Pyrrhic Villainy|turn off the quality control on their machine, this winning the contest but making cider so awful that no one will buy it]].
** A popular fan theory is that the machine requires sufficient maintenance that it is not cost-effective to work for long periods, thus reducing the Flim-Flam brothers to a business model of 'show it off quick, then use the intimidation factor it produces to force people into unequitable contracts, then take the money and run'. Some support for this exists in the fact that in order to sustain a high production rate for any period of time the machine needs to be operated in a very unsafe manner, hence the quality control problem.
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