It Amused Me: Difference between revisions

As you may have noticed, the line dividing [[For the Evulz]] and [[It Amused Me]] is something of an academic distinction. It is often hard to tell from a single act whether a character enjoys evil actions solely for the amusement value of the acts ([[It Amused Me]]) or whether they also/mostly enjoy the thrill of acting evilly ([[For the Evulz]]). Generally, a character who truly does things [[For the Evulz]] will do things that aren't fun or interesting in the name of evil, which they seek at every opportunity -- a character who does things because It Amused Them wouldn't bother because if it's not fun or interesting, why do it? [[It Amused Me]] -- motivated characters are not necessarily without a sense of morality, as they have been known to minimize the collateral damage of their schemes, for example, or even to ''stop'' what they're doing if they think they're harming the 'wrong' person or people. Someone motivated by [[For the Evulz]] would never do this, unless it hindered their ability to commit further acts of evil -- [[Stupid Evil|and sometimes]] [[Chaotic Stupid|not even then]].

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

*** L's selective behaviour is imitated by Near and Mello.

* This is arguably why [[Magic Kaito|Kaito Kid]] does things like tie-die people's underpants while they're still wearing them, use blinding pink sleeping-gas, and flip Aoko's skirt.

* Why Izaya does ''anything'' in ''[[Durarara]]''.

* [[Trickster Mentor|Urahara]] from ''[[Bleach]]'' also has a tendency to screw with people just for the hell of it. When beginning training, he gives Ichigo a helmet and claims that Ichigo needs to yell "Take this! The power of justice! Justice armor! Justice hachimaki! Attack!" When Ichigo does so almost instantly, Urahara mutters, "Wow! I can't believe he actually said that!"

* The Prince of Dogra from ''[[Level E]]''. He's the kind of guy who <s>can</s> will ''buy a planet'' and hand out advanced military tech just to play a (potentially deadly) prank on five random grade-schoolers and his second-in-command. Because he thinks it's funny.

* {{spoiler|Ronnie Suchiart}} of ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano]]'' cites this as the motivation for most of his actions. Very old and very powerful [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] tend to also get very ''bored''.

* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'': {{spoiler|When he discovers he's actually part-[[Youkai]], and thus one of the most powerful beings to exist}}, Yusuke promptly tells [[A God Am I|everyone to "KNEEL BEFORE ME, YOU INSECTS!"]]... before he immediately [[Deadpan Snarker|wonders why anyone would do that]], and has a good laugh at [[Oh Crap|his friends' faces]].

* ''[[Saiyuki]]'' has numerous examples. Heaven is unchanging, and therefore said to be MINDNUMBINGLY DULL, which provides the motivation for the "merciful goddess" Kanzeon to do all sorts of things, from saddling her notoriously dull nephew with the heretic monkey-like Goku in Gaiden, just for the lolz, to forcing Sanzo and his party to take the physical road to India instead of the heavenly one, which would get there infinitely faster. She says the latter is cause they need to grow over the journey, but also admits it's also because it's much more interesting that way.

== Theatre ==

* In ''[[The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)|The Merchant of Venice]]'', Launcelot Gobbo runs into his blind father, who doesn't recognize him. Instead of explaining who he is, Launcelot continues to pretend to be a stranger... and informs him that his son is dead, just to see what will happen.

* [[Peter Pan]] is prone to this trope, because he's a little kid and doesn't think seriously about the consequences of what he does.

 

* Coyote from ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]''. Comes with being a [[Trickster God]], as mentioned above under Mythology.

* King Radical from ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (Webcomic)|The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]''. His two goals in life seem to be making Cumberland a more ''radical'' place, and messing with Dr McNinja's head. Why? For fun.

** [[Actually Pretty Funny|"Heh. That was funny, wasn't it."]]

* Some of the stuff that Belkar does in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' is [[For the Evulz]], and some of it is this. He particularly likes messing with other people's heads in harmless but disturbing ways. Often, he'll do something that people don't expect from him just because it will confuse them. See [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0620.html here].

* Similar to Bart, Peter in ''[[Family Guy]]'' will cause random shenanigans just for a quick giggle, no matter what the outcome of it is.

* Roger of ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'' similarly utilizes this to an occasionally sociopathic extreme.

* A lot of what Chris [[Mc Lean]] does in [[Total Drama Island]] is for his own amusement. He admits to putting a quicksand trap in one challenge for no particular reason, among other things. And while he does get crueler and more apathic in later seasons, his main motivation for his deeds is either pumping more drama out of the show, or getting a few good laughs.

 

[[Category:Motivation Index]]

[[Category:It Amused Me]]