Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Belkar:''' So, I did what I always do--murder people horribly--but because I killed the people everyone else wanted me to kill, I get presents instead of prison time?<br />

'''Roy:''' Uh, well, it's a lot more complicated than that, but--<br />

 

The Heroic Comedic Sociopath is a very ''special'' sort of comic relief who works toward a positive, morally affirming goal whilst being as evil as possible along the way. He differs from most [[Anti-Hero]] archetypes in that he's never ineffectual or angsty - he loves what he does for a living. His punishment, at worst, is that he may be on the receiving end of some [[Comedic Sociopathy]]. Far more often he's dealing out [[Comedic Sociopathy]] and [[Crosses the Line Twice|Crossing the Line Twice]] at such a rate that he quickly becomes a [[Ensemble Darkhorse|fan favorite]]. (Note that it is nearly always a ''he''; female Heroic Sociopaths are rare.)

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* Kogarashi from ''[[Kamen no Maid Guy]]'' is a seven-foot musclebound monster of a ''[[Meido|maid]]'' (and a male one, at that) with a permanent [[Slasher Smile]], more wacky superpowers than you can shake a stick at (including 37 senses), an extremely perverted and sadistic streak and with absolutely no respect whatsoever for his erstwhile 'master' -- the only way his master keeps him under control is by frequent beatings in the skull with a nail bat, which is only effective for a few minutes at a time.

* Barry the Chopper from the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga. Not so much in the anime, where's just a [[Butt Monkey]] and a [[Psycho for Hire]].

** All in the presence of the rest of the cast, all female, who proceed to get freaking pissed, but everybody's crazy in this manga.

* In ''[[Full Metal Panic]]'', Sagara Sousuke is a heroic commando soldier with [[No Social Skills]] due to his military upbringing. The anime's second season, ''Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu'', is a full-fledged high school romantic comedy rather than an action series, and Sousuke's behavior is accordingly escalated into a case of full-blown [[Comedic Sociopathy]] that brings him under the auspices of this trope by doing things like ''completely [[Break the Cutie|breaking]]'' his school's [[Nice Guy]] rugby team with [[The Spartan Way]], interpreting standing model for an art project '[[Comically Missing the Point|hide in a forest and booby-trap it to be on the safe side]]', scaring down some hostage-taking [[Delinquents]] by [[Such a Lovely Noun|threatening their friends and family members]], and opening fire on a light gun game using a real gun because the alternative -- [[Juggling Loaded Guns|pointing the light gun outside the screen]] -- [[Hypocritical Humor|'would be horribly unsafe']].

** To a lesser degree, Eve also counts for this trope, but she seems more scatter-brained and oblivious and not to mention gets beaten a lot more than Adam does.

* The eponymous [[Gokudo]]: Swordsman Extraordinaire.

** Another example is (possibly) Kafuka, whose role as living in-universe [[Nightmare Fuel]] is mostly [[Played for Laughs]].

* [[Slayers|Lina Inverse]] takes on this role. In the comedic parts of the series she has accidentally released a dragon onto a village and refused to help the village until paid for her services as well as rescue a captive from pirates...then sell her (a fishwoman) to a chef for money.

* Thorkell The Tall from ''[[Vinland Saga]]''. Imagine a good-natured and enthusiastic [[Adult Child]] who literally bubbles with ''joie de vivre'' and throws himself into life with single-minded glee and delight. Good. Now, imagine him as [[Boisterous Bruiser|an eight foot tall viking]], [[Dual-Wielding]] [[An Axe to Grind|axes]], who [[Blood Knight|lives for fighting people]] and ''really'' isn't particular about who he picks a fight with as long as they've got the promise of a good fight in them. You have Thorkell. Other people in the series comments on how easily likeable he is for a man prone to [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]], pillaging, scaring the water out of people merely by getting psyched, and who casually smashes the skull of one of his own subordinates for mocking a [[Worthy Opponent]] of his. It should be noted he started out as a [[Psycho for Hire]], only to join the main characters when he realized the [[Big Bad]] would be funnier to fight.

* Hamel from [[Violinist of Hameln]] is a pretty stunning example. From the very first pages, we see him playing a violin to call some birds nearby...and kill them by brutally bashing them with his huge violin. It just gets better from there. He always charge extorbitant amounts for his monster-fighting services (turning an entire small town into his personal playground/harem to settle their debt at one point), has no qualms selling his prospective love interest into slavery or abusing her and his other friends in hilarious ways to make money, and you don't want to know about how he [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|treats his enemies...]] He gets kinder after a certain plot development, but gets subverted almost immediately when he's shown making steaks out of a smiling cow he just rode on happily...

 

{{quote| '''Johnny:''' On a crowded street, I could drain a flower vendor of all his blood, and not get caught! People would scream and vomit, and yet, somehow, I would walk away unscathed. I could do that!... Oh, wait... I ''did'' do that!}}

* The slightly cracked, catchphrase spouting, ever-shameless [[Deadpool]]. He's also [[Axe Crazy]], loves to make people go [[What the Hell, Hero?]], is [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]], and is the [[Trope Codifier]] of a few other tropes.

*** Considering that he's an absolute fruitcake, there is absolutely nothing preventing both those interpretations from being true, depending not so much upon the writer as on the state of Deadpool's brain-pan.

* ''[[Sam and Max]]: Freelance Police'', in most of their media appearances, are a Heroic Sociopath duo. The dynamic being that Max is ''much'' more sociopathic than Sam, who is mostly of the "apathetic towards anyone I don't personally know" variety. Sam basically keeps Max from blowing up the world by being several times larger than him. Also, did we mention that Max is the [[President Evil|President of the United States]], following the decapitation of the robot that the previous president turned out to be?

** In Season Two of the games, it's revealed that they even {{spoiler|have a wing of Hell dedicated to them.}}

* Sebastion O. from the comics of same name is a complete [[The Dandy|dandy]] and more interested in filling the void of a dull life (and getting revenge on the people who put him in Bedlam) than any form of kindness. Also one of his best friends is a pederast.

* Princess Lucinda, of her own comic and the second volume of ''[[Witch Girls Tales]]'', on those occasions when she's not being played as an outright [[Villain Protagonist]]. Yes, she actually ''is'' being played for laughs, despite what some might tell you -- the ''Witch Girls'' franchise has tended toward [[Black Comedy]].

* Several main characters of ''[[Sin City]]'' can come across as this, especially Marv: A lot of the quite horrible things he performs with his usual boyish enthusiasm seems to be played for (somewhat reluctant) laughs.

* The scarab from ''[[Blue Beetle]]'' is quick to [[Murder Is the Best Solution|propose the murder]] of whatever obstacle Jaime has to deal with. {{spoiler|Jaime eventually influences it enough to give it a full [[Heel Face Turn]], but that doesn't stop it from occasionally proposing solutions so overkill that they have "theological implications."}}

* [[The Creeper]] is basically a heroic version of [[The Joker]]. There have even been instances where the latter found him too unstable.

 

== Fanfic ==

{{quote| "[[Pre-Mortem One-Liner|Tell the coroner I said hi]]!"}}

** They're actually quite surprised to hear that he doesn't consider himself or his [[BFS]] evil.

 

== Films -- Live Action ==

* A good portion of protagonists from [[Quentin Tarantino]] films, such as The Bride from ''[[Kill Bill]] Vol. 1/2'' could qualify as this trope. And then there's ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'', which is completely based around the trope.

** It also helps that so many of the characters who get picked on by The Mask are [[Asshole Victim|Asshole Victims]]. In fact, in the movie it often seems as if Edge City is ''swarming'' with all kinds of pests, weirdos, bullies, and all-around [[Jerkass|Jerk Asses]] whose only purpose in life is to drive Stanley to impossible levels of madness and inspire him to wreak creatively ghoulish destruction as The Mask. Fittingly enough, it is eventually revealed that the titular mask is an Old Norse archaeological find in which is trapped the spirit of the mischievous demon Loki.

** Among Stanley's most outrageous actions as The Mask:

* Lancelot from ''[[Monty Python and The Holy Grail]]''. When he receives a note via arrow that someone is being forced to marry against their will, he rushes to the poor (presumed) princess' aid... and slaughters not only every unresisting guard in his way, but about half of the party guests as well, including brides' maids and elderly folks.

** Afterwards, he sincerely apologizes for the misunderstanding.

* Although the description of the trope refers to wicked characters, Tom Cruise's protagonist Roy Milner in ''[[Knight and Day]]'' still comes across this way despite having elements of [[The Cape]]. He racks up a massive amount of property damage over the course of the film and a body count to match while maintaining a totally nonchalant attitude as a humorous contract. At one point, the villains try to persuade the heroine that Roy is actually a psychopathic pathological liar, and that is a surprisingly believable explanation. The effect is helped by [[Meta Casting]] / [[Reality Subtext]] which thinks of Cruise as mentally unstable. For a representative exchange:

{{quote| '''June''': The pilots are dead?<br />

* [[wikipedia:Max and Moritz|Max and Moritz]], the two no-good urchin tricksters in [[Wilhelm Busch]]'s children's novel. They finally {{spoiler|are ground alive into flour and the miller's geese eat them.}}

* Carnival of the ''[[Deepgate Codex]]'' series is about as [[Ax Crazy]] as [[Ax Crazy]] gets (and has a [[Hair-Trigger Temper]]), but she's just [[Moe Moe|so damn cute]] that her insanity winds up being part of her appeal.

* Meursault in ''[[The Stranger]]'', if you go for the [[Alternate Character Interpretation]].

 

* Jayne Cobb from ''[[Firefly]]'' does this a lot, as he manages to knock some decent giggles out of the audience by being an amoral, violent and intimidating bastard.

* Joy Merryweather, who is referenced on the ''[[Drop the Dead Donkey]]'' page.

* [[Almighty Janitor|The Janitor]] from ''[[Scrubs]]'' approaches this on occasion.

* Nathan from ''[[Misfits]]'' certainly borders on this. Other characters do occasionally suggest that he probably has some kind of mental illness (usually when they're trying to explain his bizarre behavior to baffled and offended strangers) but it's still played exclusively for laughs.

{{quote| '''Molly Hooper:''' I was wondering if you’d like to have coffee?<br />

'''Sherlock:''' Black, two sugars please. I’ll be upstairs.<br />

 

== Video Games ==

* Thanks to the [[Karma Meter]], your character could be like this in the ''[[Fable]]'' games. An NPC example would be Reaver, the Hero of Skill from ''Fable II''. He's a smug and egotistical pirate who is seen trying three times to immortalize his likeness in art, only to shoot the artist for some slight error in their work, and tricks you into {{spoiler|sacrificing your youth (or that of an NPC, if you're playing an evil character) to the Shadow Court in order to prolong his life.}}

** Of those artists that are killed, the first two maybe, ''maybe'' deserved it for screwing up the work. The third? {{spoiler|It's everyone's favorite photography dude, Barnum, who happily takes the picture and promises to deliver it in three months when it's "developified". Which, according to Reaver, is too long and a ''murderable offense''}}.

*** He just becomes a regular Jerkass in III, though. Not lovable at all.

* ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'''s Steven Heck has, during the course of the game (if you play your cards right):

** Tied up and "interrogated" (he threatened to pour dry-cleaning solution down his throat) someone just to find out where he left his keys.

** Killed an agent of the papacy by choking him on communion waifers.

*** And despite all this, if you get him on your side, he's a genuinely good support character, doing everything he does out of loyalty to his friends and country.

* [[Cute Witch|Marisa Kirisame]] from ''[[Touhou]]''.

* Shantotto of ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' is a good-aligned character, but she has no qualms blasting random poor adventurers with her magic if they irritate her, and she'll deliver her trademark [[Noblewoman's Laugh]] after. Carries into her appearance in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' where she's far more bloodthirsty than the other characters, but she's just so ''funny'' about it.

* Riki from ''[[Bangai-O]]'' seems to qualify, to an extent. While he has the noble goal of using the titular mech to defeat the Cosmo Gang, he doesn't hesitate to blast anyone that stands in his way ([[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|no matter how sympathetic they are]]).

* Sergeant Viktor Reznov in the Russian/Soviet campaign of ''[[Call of Duty]]: World at War'' seems to enjoy killing Germans a little too much. He even twice encouraged the [[Player Character]] to kill helpless German soldiers (first was when they surrendered, second was when they lay dying).

* The ''[[Saints Row]]'' protagonist is somewhat a bit heroic (but still on the looser side of sanity) in the first, considerably even more insane in the sequel, and gets a healthy boost in both categories in the third entry of the series. Pretty much anyone who's in the Saints also counts.

* Though most [[Grand Theft Auto|GTA]] protagonists fit the bill for this, Luis Lopez of ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' openly admits to being this. The only people he shows any attachment to are his mother, who he doesn't even particularly like while she frequently shows contempt towards him; his friends, with whom he has probably the healthiest relationship; and his benefactor Tony, who is a father figure to him, but who also uses Luis specifically because the only qualms he has about doing anything are purely practical ones. When asked by Brucie about him having a softer side, Luis replies with a flat "Not really, I like killing people for money."

* Travis Touchdown of the ''[[No More Heroes]]'' series, at least in the first game. [[Character Development]] in the sequel makes him much less of one.

* ''[[Bayonetta]]'' is a witch with dark powers who, despite being [[Dark Is Not Evil|good]], is casually sadistic to the angels that she kills and she apparently [[Loves the Sound of Screaming|loves the sound of them screaming]].

* ''[[Fear Effect]]''. Hana, Glas, and Deke are very much in this category. Rain doesn't seem to qualify as one.

* The [[Angry Birds]], who laugh while massacring their pig enemies.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Richard from ''[[Looking for Group]]'' is an undead warlock spellcaster of immense power who likes to slaughter innocent peasants and [[Eats Babies|"eat babies"]] as well as having [[Cloudcuckoolander]] tendencies. His catchphrase is a variation on a line spoken in this comic: "You all saw it! That orphanage attacked me!" with the burning building in the background. He is (as mentioned before) undead, meaning he can take normally fatal injuries (such as being impaled through the stomach or getting an axe in the forehead) and joke about it, and is capable of destroying pretty much anything with his ice and fire spells (at the cost of needing to rest after exerting himself). His "partner" is the somewhat naive elf Cale'Anon Vatay, who wishes to be good and noble even though present-time elves are feared as brutal and callous after having wiped out the last remaining nation of their noble kindred in the past. Richard's excuse for traveling with the other characters is that he simply "likes killing things" and gets bored easily. Richard treats Cale like an amusing pet, but he "respects his [Cale's] willingness to kill" whenever Cale is confronted with obvious Bad Guys.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcbazH6aE2g&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Elfgcomic%2Ecom%2Fvideo%2FfcbazH6aE2g&feature=player_embedded This] really says all there is to say about Richard.

** Recently it's come to light that Fuzzy merely took someone's advice about acting in a certain way. Couple this with his apparent {{spoiler|amnesia}} and there's no telling what behaviors of his are genuine, and what aren't, as even Sam himself has noted.

* In the [[Ciem Webcomic Series]], Dolly Malestrom was all set to become one of these. The Earwig helmet brought out her more sociopathic tendencies, allowing her to [[Flanderization|go from]] just [[Badass]] in general to flat-out [[Ax Crazy]].

** Schlock has been known to refer to his "random act of violence fix for the day".

** And then there's [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20070629.html Lieutenant Piebald], for whom sociopathy would be the least of his conditions.

*** ''[[Girl Genius]]'': even the buildings can be psychopaths.

** Then there are the Jaegers. Their loyalty to House Heterodyne comes first, and (for most of them) their loyalty to the baron comes second, but their third biggest motivation is sheer bloodlust. They are self-proclaimed "killing machines" who regard the evil Heterodynes as "the fun ones". They always charge into battle with great enthusiasm and laugh at the grisly deaths of their enemies. Nevertheless, so long as Lady Heterodyne is on the side of light, so are they, and most effective at it.

** And his female rival-turned-girlfriend, who has no nickname. [http://xkcd.com/481/ Not a typical malware author...]

* Psycho Mantis from ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]''. The webcomic also gives an excellent insight into the differences between this trope (Mantis) and the [[Magnificent Bastard]] (Ocelot) - anyone who tangles with the latter on an intellectual level is going ''down'', but it is hard to engage in intellectual battle when your opponent just sets you on fire with his mind instead.

* Most of the characters from ''[[Charby the Vampirate]]'' fit this trope given how little they value human life (though the titular character eventually decides to stop killing people for the sake of his friendship with resident [[Badass Longcoat]] demon hunter Vic, the other characters continue to maim, [http://www.drunkduck.com/Charby_the_Vampirate/4786993/ kill], [http://www.drunkduck.com/Charby_the_Vampirate/4787235/ slaughter] and [http://www.drunkduck.com/Charby_the_Vampirate/5172207/ eat] whomever the want, whenever they feel like it).

* [http://thecobradays.net/view.php?date=2006-01-18 The Fear], [http://thecobradays.net/view.php?date=2006-02-08 The Pain], and [http://thecobradays.net/view.php?date=2006-02-20 The Fury] from ''[[The Cobra Days]]''. When they're not fighting agents of the Axis powers, they spend a lot of their time violently bickering with each other or picking on [[The Woobie|The Sorrow.]]

* Rocky from ''[[Lackadaisy Cats]]'', while being a fairly well-meaning guy overall, has very little grasp of what's socially acceptable and scares most "normal" cats he talks to. When carrying out rumrunning duties, he is completely unaverse to revenge and forcibly putting other "establishments" out of business... and he does. Oh, and he's a pyromaniac. Yet, his childlike enthusiasm, general clumsiness and ineptitude, and lyrical ability make him pretty endearing to the reader.

* ''[[Chicanery]]'' has Ness, Pokey, Jeff and Mr. Saturn from ''[[Earthbound]]''. The gang have saved the world on more than one occasion - but are just as likely to steal, cheat and murder indiscriminately to get what they want.

* Skoll of ''[[Cry Havoc]]'' qualifies. She is a good guy... but only because the people she mutilates and kills are slightly worse, or at least less skilled, than her.

* Doctor Hubris from [http://www.theappleofdiscord.com The Apple of Discord] (and later [http://www.drunkduck.com/Apple_Valley Apple Valley]) is usually responsible for whatever horrible things are going on in the comic, including {{spoiler|inventing the technology that created Gayzilla}} and creating a highly contagious form of "robot cancer". It's been implied several times that he hired Doyle just to kill him, and that the superheroes of Apple Valley classify him as a supervillain. It's even been implied that {{spoiler|he is the one who actually broke the barrier separating reality, not Arthur}} which has been more-or-less confirmed by [[Word of God]].

* In ''[[Scandinavia and The World]]'', Finland. Drunken, mute, ax-wielding, sniggers-at-your-misfortune Finland. Only Sister Sweden gets the better of him for long.

* Mr. Popo from ''[[Dragon Ball Abridged]]''. He is able to control an ancient Namekian starship just by saying his name to it -- not because of any programming, but because ''it knows better''.

* Near the end of V3 of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', Dominica Shapiro [[Heel Realization|realizes that she has become this]] {{spoiler|just before she throws herself at the terrorists guns a-blazing in a bid to keep the escaping students safe, and to have some fun in the meanwhile.}}

* Glorion from [[Journey Quest]]. Just imagine the page image with Belkar replaced by a [[Glory Seeker|glory seeking]] knight. "You killed every single orc to cross our path, and some that were nowhere near our path".

* [[Half Life|Gordon Freeman]], once you [[Freemans Mind|listen to his thoughts]] during the whole Black Mesa Incident.

'''Stewie''' (offhandedly); I've killed seven... }}

* Gaz from ''[[Invader Zim]]''.

** She did once erase every living thing from existence except herself but, probably because the [[Crapsack World]] the show is set in is so surreal, it didn't last.

* Brock Samson from ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' is a scientist's bodyguard whose main priority (at least in the beginning) is to brutally murder his enemies while having sex with as many women as possible. His college football career (and scholarship) ended when he accidentally killed another player, so he joined the army. He wound up as a government agent with his own license to kill, which he's been known to take advantage of if a bartender makes fun of his mullet.

* Captain Hero from ''[[Drawn Together]]'' is ostensibly a superhero, but has almost no regard for human life whatsoever (although he may simply be too stupid to know what he's doing). An example of his sociopathy is throwing an entire planet (which happens to be his ''home planet'') and everything living on it into a star to prove he's "heroic".

** And his clever use of human shields.

** It should be noted that very rarely is Dethklok the ''direct'' cause of the violence around them, and even when they are, it's not always intentional. Not that they necessarily care about a few thousand casualties, of course. Until it starts to affect their record sales.

*** And then there's their manager...

{{quote| "I came here with a simple dream... a dream of killing all humans. And this is how it must end? Who's the real 7 billion ton robot monster here? Not I... Not I..."}}

* Killface (real name Evelyn) from ''[[Frisky Dingo]]''. His goal for much of the series is to use his [[Weapon of Mass Destruction|Annihilatrix]] to propel Earth into the sun for no apparent reason, and he kills and mains people at the drop of the hat. In the pilot episode he kills a man and uses the corpse to stage an impromptu ventriloquist act (oblivious to how appallingly lame his jokes are). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr7n6tQhB-w Watch some choice moments.]

*** And yet he's still more sympathetic than Xander Crews. Proving, forever, that it's better to be a sociopath than a douchebag.

{{quote| '''Izzy:''' You'll never get me alive! AHAHAHAHAHA!!}}

* Heloise from ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' is this. She works for Misery Inc. as [[Mad Scientist|top inventor]] to make hazardous products and she also like to [[Enfante Terrible|destroy things for fun]]. However, she likes to hangs out with [[Morality Pet|Jimmy due to her crush on him]].

* Possibly Rico from ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]].'' He's described at least once in universe as a "world-class psychopath," and he especially likes blowing stuff up and causing other characters bodily harm. That said, is there anybody out there who doesn't absolutely love Rico? I doubt it.

* [[Gorillaz|Murdoc Niccals]], big time. His rap sheet includes fraud, kidnapping, extortion, [[Organ Theft]], tons and tons of assault and possibly homicide. Despite this, he's still technically a protagonist, and maintains a [[Kavorka Man|sizable fanbase]] as such.

* {{spoiler|Cesar Salazar}} of ''[[Generator Rex]]'' is a subversion of this. He is described as "kooky" and "kinda off" and appears for a while to just be a wacky inventor, but pretty normal otherwise. But as time goes on, he begins to display a marked lack of concern for people (including his own ''brother'') or ethics. It seems he has no moral code of his own, even.

* [[Bugs Bunny]] alternates between this and a [[Karmic Trickster]]. In his earliest shorts he was actually much worse, attacking for no good reason, but [[Tex Avery]] and [[Bob Clampett]] soon established a moral code for the character that, for the most part, he followed for the next five or six decades.