Harmless Villain: Difference between revisions

Villains are vile, ruthless, merciless, and bloodthirsty; any pretension of civility is just a smokescreen to hide a ''really'' twisted [[Big Bad]]. Not exactly kid-friendly, is it? So what are kids shows and movies supposed to do, if the original source's baddy eats babies? Why, [[Disneyfication|make them]] a [[Harmless Villain]] of course!

A [[Harmless Villain]] will never [[Kick the Dog]], much less [[Moral Event Horizon|cross the depravity line]]. However, they ''will'' [[Poke the Poodle]]...a ''LOT''.

Keep in mind, though, that sometimes they become a [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]] later on. Even [[Team Rocket Wins]] every once in a while.

== Anime and Manga ==

** Similarly, depending on whether you think ACROSS is right or not (and given the [[Crapsack World]] that ''Excel Saga'' takes place in, it's hard to argue that they're wrong about the world being corrupt), Kabapu's group is very bad at what they do as well, especially Iwata who, ironically, is the one who takes his job the most seriously.

** They've always been blunderers, but they ''did'' provide genuine conflict in the early episodes. By Johto, they'd gone through complete [[Villain Decay]] and reached their current status as comic relief. The original creator of the characters, Takeshi Shudo, had, by that point, lost control of them, and [[Creator Backlash|stated his dissatisfaction with how the characters have devolved]] on his blog.

** {{spoiler|In the new series, however, they've risen up to levels that make them seem more fearsome than when they first appeared, making them [[Not-So-Harmless Villain|Not So Harmless Villains]].}}

** ''How I Became a Pokemon Card'', a manga full of one-shots, has a protagonist named Hiroshi. He's a kid who wants to be a part of Team Rocket, but he's always accidentally doing good things. Team Rocket, in that manga, is also this, though they're depicted as being a menace for some reason.

** To put it in perspective, Florsheim's "[[Big Bad]]", Vamp, favours a special brand of imported detergent for cleaning, because it's made from ecological coconut oil and is completely biodegradable. He's so harmless, he won't even resort to ''littering''.

** Of course, when a new evil group comes to town, Sunred tells them to wipe out Florsheim if they want the job. He has full confidence in Florsheim being [[Not So Harmless]], and it turns out he's completely right. Just because he curbstomps them every since time they fight, doesn't mean they aren't strong on their own. Cut to Florsheim completely wiping the floor with the new enemy like they're weaklings.

* The pirates in ''[[Porco Rosso]]'' are positively polite:

{{quote| "Do you really want to take all fifteen of them hostage?"<br />

"Of course I do! It wouldn't be nice to separate them from their friends." }}

* He may be more malicious in the anime than in the games, but King Dedede is still pretty much as harmless in ''[[Kirby Right Back At Ya]]'' as he is in the game franchise. The only time he does threaten to hurt someone (other than Kirby or Whispy Woods) is when he orders the [[Monster of the Week|Dedede Stone]] to stomp Tiff - which would've resulted in her death if it weren't for her knight in shining armor, [[Magnificent Bastard|Meta Knight]], coming to her rescue.

** Speaking of Meta Knight, some of Dedede's Demon Beasts / monsters actually managed to hurt him - which was not what Dedede wanted.

== Comics ==

** Doctor Devil, who has been stealing random bits of machinery from work with the intention of building "some kind of gun" that he will call The Devil Ray.

** Crime Biker, who has mapped out the best possible escape routes to take after snatching purses.

** Thief of Hearts, who has seduced at least four rich guys...one of them is bound to die, eventually.

** Doctor Spy, who has completed his x-ray telescope, and, after he finds an apartment across from the girl's dorm, intends to put it to good use.

* ''[[Spider-Man]]'' has his share, though given that he's got the largest [[Rogues Gallery]] in Marvel, you'd expect as much. From the 80s British punk and punctuation-themed Typeface to the even more pathetic [[Grammar Nazi]] Spellcheck to ditzy [[Playboy Bunny]] the White Rabbit, who's so stupid that she had to hire ''actors'' to ''pretend'' to work for her, because nobody would for real. The Walrus is also pretty notable here: Spider-Man actually almost got his ass kicked by him because he couldn't stop laughing.

** The Walrus is a subversion actually. He's a deadly killer, but his costume and MO is so lame that people constantly think he's this. So he's more a [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]].

** Though a special prize has to go to Spidey villain the Spot, until he got a revamp to make him a major threat. During his first appearances, he was so pathetic that Spidey couldn't even be bothered to fight him, and instead, he falls over laughing at the mere sight of him.

** The Gladiator got turned into a [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]] when they started playing his early ramblings and characterization, which by more modern and mature standards sound silly and slightly delusional, very seriously and turned him into a violently unbalanced crazy person with an unhealthy love of buzz saws and ancient Roman culture.

* Bafflerog Rumplewhisker of "The Wizard's Tale" is the latest in a long line of really unpleasant people serving the forces of evil that keep their world in a state of permanent twilight (because they haven't yet found the [[MacGuffin]] to make it permanent night). Unfortunately, Bafflerog's spells tend to be much less evil than he intends, such as trying to call up a huge storm and getting a pleasant rain that breaks the drought on the town, summoning a hail of locusts and getting a shower of roast chickens instead, and making friends with the creature he's supposed to be torturing for the location of the [[MacGuffin]]. He also phrases his spells in the form of limericks.

*** Unlike some, he actually stresses out over this, frustrated with how he is ''compelled'' to give Batman clues due to his neuroses -- and is kept from revealing Batman's secret identity (which he managed to puzzle out) by the fact that a riddle everyone knows the answer to isn't a very good riddle at all.

**** Recently though, the Riddler, due to a year long coma, has lost his compulsion, and gone into business for himself as an extremely successful (if not always correct) private detective.

** The Joker is notable for occasionally playing with this, likely for his own amusement. On any given day, you don't know if the Joker that Batman is facing is a sadistic [[Monster Clown]] who'll hold the city ransom and threaten to burn down the whole place, or a loony who concocts an elaborate (*ahem*) [[Batman Gambit]] just to hit Batman in the face with a pie.

*** Like everything else about him, this just adds to the Joker's disturbing qualities. He's the only villain listed in every villain trope page who could GENUINELY be all those at once. He's just that friggin' bonkers. [[Deadpool]] comes close to being Marvel's answer, however. If you read some of Deadpool's best fights, while turning to [[Big No|THAT IMAGE]] of him [[Squick|WEARING JEAN GREY'S OLD COSTUME]], you readily see it.

* One of the villains mentioned in ''[[Watchmen]]'' is "Captain Carnage", who pretended to be a super-villain because he got pleasure from being beaten up. This backfires ''badly'' when he tries it with [[Heroic Sociopath|Rorschach]]...who {{spoiler|dropped him down an elevator shaft.}}

* Marvel's alternate-universe ''[[Squadron Supreme]]'' has Pinball, a guy whose power consisted of inflating his green jumpsuit into a ball and rolling into people.

* Back in the 80's, ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'' had occasional skirmishes with Fabian Stankowicz, AKA The Mechano-Marauder, a lottery winner turned power-suit-wearing supervillain. From the very beginning, the Avengers never took him seriously: in his first assault, [[Iron Man]] considered him so low a threat that he ''turned down'' several offers of assistance from the other Avengers. However, Fabian's definitive low point was when he attacked them during a taping of ''Late Night With David Letterman'' and briefly managed to gain the upper hand...only to be knocked out ''[http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/avengers2.jpg by Letterman himself.]'' Eventually, [[Captain America]] offered him a spot on the Avengers support crew, mostly to keep him from endangering himself further.

* Jarvis Poker, the British Joker in ''Knight & Squire'', is a [[Harmless Villain]] to the extent that he doesn't really qualify as a villain. He appreciates and duplicates his American counterpart's sense of style, but finds actually committing crimes to be terribly gauche. However, the Knight does have [[Beware the Silly Ones|genuine (if silly-seeming) villains]] to deal with, such as Morris Major and his Nazi Morris Dancers, and the Bad Kings of England.

* Baby Face Finlayson from ''[[The Beano]]'' was originally a harmless villain, with his uselessness being [[Played for Laughs]], but his later appearances in Kev F Sutherland's strips were as a [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]].

== Film - Live-Action ==

** And Luigi and Pavi aren't much better, given that Luigi, despite his claims that only he's got brains enough, comes across as a simple minded [[Knife Nut]] and Pavi spends most of his time staring at his own face in the mirror he forever carries with him. That being said, Luigi is quite effective in the "stabbing people for no good reason" compartment, which makes him the least harmless of the Largo siblings.

* Doctor Evil from ''[[Austin Powers]]''. "Here's the plan: we get the warhead, and hold the world ransom for...ONE MILLION DOLLARS!"

** On the other hand, he does win several ransoms and come pretty close to destroying the world. He's even killed people, including {{spoiler|Felicity...at first}}.

{{quote| '''Dr Evil:''' ''(while talking down to Scott)'' You're the diet coke of evil. Just one calorie. Not evil enough!}}

*** Regarding Scott, it's probably not so much a lack of villainousness that prevents him from fitting in as a lack of [[Contractual Genre Blindness]].

* In ''[[Zombie Blood Bath]]'', the zombies seem to be relatively harmless so long as you don't just stand there and let them kill you. In one scene, they had to get pass an army of zombies on a staircase, and they did this by...just gently shoving them aside. The zombies groaned and flailed their arms, but didn't seem to pay much attention to them.

* {{spoiler|William Bludworth}} in the ''[[Final Destination]]'' films only serves two functions: to play the part of Death's own personal janitor, and to give the protagonists cryptic clues on how to evade death for as long as they can. Even when {{spoiler|Peter}} takes his advice to "kill or be killed" way too far, that's a matter of responsibility on the part of he who hears the advice, and the other two who use the "kill or be killed" tip aren't nearly as monstrous as {{spoiler|Peter}} was: {{spoiler|Nathan}} uses the advice completely by accident when {{spoiler|Roy gets impaled by a hook during a confrontation over a rude remark directed at the former}}, and Sam uses Bludworth's words responsibly by {{spoiler|killing Peter to prevent him from murdering Molly}}.

== Live-Action TV ==

** Oddly, this is why minor villains from the comics were resurrected (Clock King, a Green Arrow villain, was actually made more competent on the TV show, and the Riddler only had two appearances in the comics, over a decade before the show). Characters from the comics were either too high budget to replicate (the comic having long since taken on sci-fi elements), or else were still too legitimately frightening to be turned camp, like Clayface and Two-Face. The bulk of the show's villains were created expressly for it.

** Somewhat subverted by, of all people, the Penguin! The Penguin was one of the few Batman villains more closely resembling mob bosses in the [[Dick Tracy]] style than murderous psychopaths of pulp era, and writers had been writing such characters for decades on television despite the limits of violence allowed. The Penguin's crimes were still over the top, but he was usually the ringleader in stories with multiple villains, and his crimes, while still campy, were typically more threatening than his fellows', like stealing a nuclear sub or engaging in brainwashing and blackmail. It's telling that the [[Dark Age]] [[Tim Burton]] appearance of the character surprised so many people, as many fans thought the Penguin needed little such change.

* Harmony from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', so much so that Buffy outright laughed her ass off when told that Harmony could be a threat to her. ("Harmony has MINIONS?")

** Warren and his fellow members of the Trio started out this way. They were [[Big Bad Wannabe|Big Bad Wannabes]] that Buffy didn't take all that seriously. Warren's evolution into a genuine villain (so much so that he's now a sinister [[Mad Scientist]] type working for the government in the canonical season 8 comics) was a major part of his character arc, while Jonathan remained this trope perfectly and Andrew wound up carrying out a [[Heel Face Turn]] (though he was never really all that much of a heel to begin with. It was more of a case of [[Love Makes You Evil]] as he was obviously in love with Warren).

* After being demoted to producer in ''[[News Radio]]'', Dave decides to become, in his own words, "pure evil", and ruthlessly work his way back up to the top. But not by getting his replacement Lisa fired - oh, no, that would be wrong. His diabolical scheme involves letting Bill make a fool of himself on the air and thus getting himself fired, get Lisa discredited, and have himself put back on as news director. Unfortunately, [[Springtime for Hitler|Bill's antics garner the station's best ratings ever]], and Evil Dave was foiled forever.

* Josh Koscheck was all set to be the villain of ''[[The Ultimate Fighter]]'''s Season 12, having graduated the first season as a [[Jerkass]] who'd defeated the sympathetic Chris Leben and remained perpetually at the top echelon of his division (despite stinging losses to Georges St-Pierre and Paulo Thiago), and even openly admitted that he was playing the villain to hype the eventual title fight with St-Pierre...only to appear as one of the show's worst-ever coaches, gullible enough to abandon his intended first draft pick [[What an Idiot!|because he saw another fighter atop GSP's "draft list" in big bold letters]], an advocate of "mindless training", unable to impart his own winning ways onto his roster, encouraging his team to behave disrespectfully (culminating in the team banging on the wall separating the teams to taunt the losing Team GSP fighter), and whose attempted insults or pranks were almost always effortlessly brushed off, leaving Koscheck either looking like an inept high school jock stereotype or [[Foe Yay|oddly fixated on GSP's tight short-shorts and body, and wanting to get his hands on GSP's sixth-picked fighter]]. So much for [[Older and Wiser]]...

== Video Games ==

* The Clockwork King in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' is probably the closest it gets to [[Harmless Villain]]. The worst he might do to normal civilians is send his minions to steal a watch and some scrap metal, or make a mechanic work on his robots. He hates heroes, but given that a hero smacked him around so hard that he turned into a brain in a jar, that's probably justified. Turned slightly to the [[Heel Face Turn|side of good]] with the Faultline revamp and his protection and assistance of some civilians, although the crazy kinda gets in the way of helping, too.

* Pete, as characterized in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', is a bumbling oaf who never inflicts any lasting harm on either the characters or the worlds they fight to save, as opposed to Maleficent, who, in the first game, {{spoiler|turned the main character and his best friend against one another and led them all down the path that would separate them and the girl they were fighting over for several years}}, and was likely responsible for the destruction of several worlds. This is also in contrast to his characterization as the Ghost of Christmas Future in "A Disney Christmas Carol", over a decade earlier, where he laughed diabolically as he unmasked himself and sent Scrooge falling into the fiery pits of hell.

** The tougher Pete is more or less the original concept of Pete, who's often as tough as ever when battling Mickey, Goofy, and others in the comics (even today). He clearly thinks nothing of trying to kill our heroes with swords, guns, clubs, and other weapons, and often is only stopped by dumb luck.

* Murray, the Mighty Demonic Skull from ''[[Monkey Island]]''. Since Guybrush sort-of-accidentally smashed his body with a cannonball, he's stuck as an immobile skull with a great desire for evil and absolutely no capacity whatsoever to indulge it. He's kinda bitter.

* {{spoiler|[[Goldfish Poop Gang|Mysterio]]}}, the ''Spider-Man 2'' game version. Sure, he's got like a million robots and can successfully kill people from time to time, but ''man,'' what a friggin' ''loser.'' And he's got a glass jaw.

* While ''[[Touhou]]'' [[Good All Along|"villains"]] aren't exactly the ambitious sort, and their plots, if any, are silly at best (with the notable exceptions of [[Jerkass|Tenshi]] and [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|Utsuho]]), they are legitimately powerful and highly menacing when they want to be. The [[Terrible Trio|Three Mischievous Fairies]], however, don't seem to realise that they are dead last in the hierarchy of Gensoukyou, with even the [[Puny Humans|mostly powerless humans]] dismissing them, and their [[Poke the Poodle|laughably harmless schemes]] fail far more often than they succeed.

* In ''[[Starcraft]] II'', Donny Vermillion likes to fancy himself as the face of Emperor Mengsk's unstoppable propaganda machine. In truth, he's laughably incompetent at his job; the fact that his star reporter either isn't in on the plan or actually ''likes'' Raynor doesn't help. Supposedly, the media is a major weapon for Mengsk, so it's possible Raynor only watches Donny's show because the others are actually good at it.

== Web Comics ==

* The Dark Warriors in ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|8-Bit Theater]]''. Ostensibly the greatest adversaries to the cast, they are considerably less threatening than the Fiends, who have consistently proven themselves to be dangerous, or the Light Warriors, who are probably one of the worst things to befall their world (with the possible exception of King Steve).

** King Steve is a scourge to his citizens and the nations he goes to war with, but the Light Warriors? ''No one is safe from them.''

** Well, under non-harmless villains there's [[Physical God|Eternion]] and...uh...Argent's more of an anti-hero, so...just Eternion?

* Demon-Jame in ''[[Terror Island]]'', at least in his first series of appearances:

** Completely undone in his second appearance, though. When he first shows up again, he spends a moment thinking about what evil plots he could do. Aorist jokingly suggests that he blight his weeds again, so Demon-Jame ''rips him in half.''

* The Minion Master from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' isn't really interested in doing anything bad; he tends to view making people his minions as a way of helping them escape their old lives, more than anything else. And he doesn't even ''get'' any minions until Torg and Co. join him, at which point, they promptly start using his resources to ''battle'' evil, placating their "Master" by explaining that, as the big picture guy, he doesn't need to know the specifics, or anything at all, about what his minions are actually doing.

* Lee Phillips of ''[[Kate Modern]]'' attempts to take revenge on Gavin and Tariq by...forcing them to play a treasure hunt game to retrieve their stolen software. He still manages to be a serious threat because there are other, decidedly less harmless villains who are also after the software.

* Dr. Poque from ''[[Mega 64]]'' is arguably this, while he did kidnap and lock Rocko, Derek, and Sean in his basement, he's to much of a [[Butt Monkey]] to be a real threat. Episode six of Version 2 amps this up to [[Woobie]] status.

* Although having a villainous outer appearance, [[Doctor Steel]]'s goals are really very positive and even kid-friendly. He just wants to make the world a better place (for himself).

** During his first appearances in the Marik's Evil Council Videos, Dartz manages to be even more pathetic. Then, he suddenly becomes an [[Expy]] of [[Perfect Hair Forever|Coiffio]] whose [[The Unintelligible|unfortunate accent]] causes both his henchmen and the audience to not be sure of whether his plans are the standard card game shenanigans or [[Squick|something much worse]].

* The Goths at [[Super-Hero School]] Whateley Academy in the [[Whateley Universe]]. Despite serious attempts at summoning [[Cosmic Horror|Cosmic Horrors]] and other evil acts, what they mainly manage to do is get their leader dumped into a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] and re-uniting Carmilla with her father (who ''is'' a [[Cosmic Horror]]). They also attack Phase... and get a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] because they have no idea what they're facing.

** There was also the [[Christmas Special]], where Dora and Boots took a trip to bring a present for Santa. Along the way, Swiper swipes it, but does a [[Heel Face Turn]] and returns it when he's told what he had taken.

** Under the theory he is only harrassing Dora [[It Amused Me|for fun]] and [[My God, What Have I Done?|becomes repetant whenever he actually does something]] [[Even Evil Has Standards|truly callous]], Swiper could perhaps be considered more a [[Screwy Squirrel]] than an outright villain.

* The Monarch in ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' almost qualifies. When he isn't psychologically damaged, being pushed around by the higher-ups in the Guild of Calamitous Intent, and being inept at commanding his henchmen, he can, in fact, be quite deadly. The trouble is, he's so bad at arching that his nemesis, Dr. Venture, doesn't even consider him a real threat. Later seasons show, however, that The Monarch can, indeed, be a very threatening villain, if he bothered to extend his goals beyond being a pain in the ass to Dr. Venture.

** In Season 3, Sergeant Hatred better qualifies for this trope. He signs up to be Dr. Venture's arch, but then resorts to extremely minor acts of villainy, such as lighting his front-yard shrubbery on fire. By the end of the season, he even lives on the Venture Compound and acts as an {{spoiler|ad hoc bodyguard in the absence of Brock Samson, who is working for an undercover vigilante society.}} Of course, {{spoiler|he only did it to piss off The Monarch, who stole tech from him once}}.

'''Torrid''': Save my place in the queue. There's something I feel I must do. Something...torrid.<br />

After the commercial break, it's revealed that Torrid really meant using the bathroom. }}

* Duke Igthorn in ''[[Adventures of the Gummi Bears]]'' was mostly cartoonishly harmless. At one point, he had captured Granni Bear, and was trying to extract the recipe for the [[Super Serum|Gummi Berry Juice]] from her. Rather than torture, he actually ''tickles her with feathers'' until she gives in. Thankfully, it was an incorrect recipe, proving that the [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]] (with feathers) is still useless. However, if one looks deeper, one can gain some respect for the man; he seems to keep a legion of superstrong ogres twice his size in line by mere force of personality, is never seen not wearing a suit of chainmail (which is HEAVY), and, at one point, knocks out two armed guards with his bare hands.

* The Box Ghost ("Beware!") from ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' certainly qualifies as the resident [[Harmless Villain]], who gets little to no respect from Danny and the other evil ghosts alike. However, his threat level mainly depends on what the boxes he uses to fight with contain.

** Hilariously, the "Keep off the grass" thing turned into one of the most serious threats in the show's run. The Amoeba Boys stayed on the grass all night, through a storm, and got colds. As they are gigantic germ...''things'', this mutated into a disease that could have killed off ''all of Townsville'' if the Girls hadn't managed to find the Amoeba Boys and convince them to let a vaccine be extracted. Of course, absolutely ''none'' of this was intentional, but hey.

** Also, the villains of the same name in ''[[Powerpuff Girls Z]]''.

*** He also went back in time and rewrote Agrabah's entire history in one episode so that he could be Sultan.

** Aladdin also occasionally had to deal with an inept thief named Amin Damoola (nicknamed 'Butterfingers'). The only time Butterfingers was a serious threat was once, when was using magical artifacts supplied by Mozenrath, who had essentially replaced Jafar as Aladdin's main nemesis.

** He is also viewed this way in [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|the comics]] up until ''[[Identity Crisis]]'', where he [[Took a Level In Badass]] (one that required blatant ignoring of established canon to happen). The same happened to Cat-Man.

** He doesn't come across as all that harmless so long as Raven isn't around; in his introduction, he's actually winning against the Titans and usually puts up a pretty good fight until Raven talks to him and he falls apart. If she wasn't around, he'd be anything but harmless.

** Like others on this list, he becomes a [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]] in an alternate future. Without Omi messing up his game, Spicer steals all the Shen Gong Wu, traps the other [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] in humiliating circumstances, and conquers the world. His Jack-bots are upgraded to [[Humongous Mecha]] and he himself uses [[Powered Armor]] that incorporates at least two Shen Gong Wu in its design. Before Omi is able to go back in time to fix things, Spicer actually ''kills'' the other Xiaolin Warriors, albeit offscreen.

* The villain Killface from ''[[Frisky Dingo]]'' is a good example. He builds a machine that can destroy Earth but freaks out and tries to stop it when someone activates it. Killface also shows some love for Earth, especially its pre-Colombian pottery and literature (but not the hip-hop). Killface becomes best friends with his worst enemy (who is disguised) and refuses to kill him, even after finding out his true identity. Killface has no problem brutally killing his "employees", though. The hero, Xander Crews, actually does more evil and harmful things than Killface.

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' has the completely harmless Dr. Doofenshmirtz. The closest he came to actually harming anyone was building an invention that would destroy anyone who couldn't make up their minds.

** The man was once defeated by a potted plant he hung up because Perry was busy. It doesn't '''get''' any more harmless than that!

** He also once developed a device for insulting whales ([[Freudian Excuse|because, years earlier, a whale stole his girlfriend]]). Perry actually ''left'', which caused Doofenshmirtz to chase him around, demanding that his plot be foiled.

* [[Looney Tunes|Elmer Fudd]], who was so ineffectual that [[Bugs Bunny]] [[Designated Hero|sometimes came off as a bully when beating him]]. Because of this, Yosemite Sam was introduced as a [[Knight of Cerebus|more threatening and less sympathetic foe]]. Though [[Jerkass|less sympathetic]], Sam wasn't that much more threatening after a [[Villain Decay|few cartoons]]. Following this, Marvin the Martian was created, who, despite having super advanced planet obliterating technology at his will, was only ''slightly'' more formidable.

* ''[[League of Super Evil]].'' They not only [[Poke the Poodle]] figuratively, they might do so literally, claiming it to be a villainous deed. Which, considering that their previous plots include Voltar using a giant mech so he could play in a dunk contest, rigging a pet show to win, and selling Turnip-ade under the guise of lemonade, might be a step up for them.

* ''[[Strawberry Shortcake]]'''s [[Added Alliterative Appeal|Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak]]. In the first two animated specials in the first generation line, he floods Strawberryland to demand its berries as ransom, and cheats to win a bake-off in which the prize is a ''gazebo''. With his associate Sour Grapes, their crimes in the subsequent four shows are: framing Strawberry for taking a bribe as a pet show judge and being complicit in their cheating, stealing a box of recipes, capturing a friendly monster with the intent of selling it to a circus, and trying to use the Berrykins to create a super-perfume. Sometimes, the ''real'' dangers to the heroes are unintentional on the villains' part: Lem and Ada are hiding in the recipe box, and the perfume mixing results in a smelly cloud that threatens to stink up Strawberryland. Also, as far as weaknesses go...in the third special, he crumbles under the heroine's threat to annoy him endlessly with her "berry talk".

** In all fairness, you shouldn't underestimate the potential of a [http://www.duke.edu/web/DRAGO/humor/gazebo.html Gazebo].

* The Copper Cranium in ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' is defeated so easily, the narrator lampshades it.

* Lucius Heinous VII on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' is pretty much an incompetent version of [[Satan]]. Though, while he's largely ineffective, the fact that he keeps people like [[Enfante Terrible|Heloise]] and [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|Molotov]] under his thumb is probably a sign that he's doing something right.

** Mostly because they were just as bad at being good as they were at being bad.

** [[Word of God]] is that the writers felt sorry for him, so they started writing stories where he'd team-up with He-Man against some outside threat, just so he could win occasionally and not look like a complete tool all the time.

* Mister Smarty Smarts of ''[[Spliced]]'', though there have been a few times that he has been a genuine threat to the other inhabitants of the Island.

** Subverted in ''Mad Love'' where Batman actually admits that Harley Quinn was closer to killing him than the Joker ever was. Considering that this is the Joker, that says a lot!

* In ''[[Word Girl]]'', pretty much all of the villains qualify...but ''especially'' Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy. I mean, just look at his name!

** At least Chuck was always thiiiis close to possibly killing her, but, of course, not doing so. The Amazing Rope Guy, despite his name, can't even use the rope to his advantage. He even TIES HIMSELF UP when he was trying to get Wordgirl. That's just lame.

{{quote| "Plankton. One percent evil. Ninety-nine percent hot gas."}}

* The Urpneys of ''[[The Dreamstone]]''. It takes a rather incompetant bunch of mooks to make a [[Sugar Bowl]] world like The Land Of Dreams come off as unneccessarily rough on them. Even the times they [[Not-So-Harmless Villain|do actually prove formidable]], they are [[Contrived Coincidence|constant victims of circumstance]], fate always unraveling their schemes in [[The Fool|the heroes' favor]].

** {{spoiler|Of course, Spike ''does'' become a [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]] during [[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S2 E10 Secret of My Excess|his next dip into temporary villlainy]].}}