|
[[File:cobra-commander-kicks-a-puppy.jpg|link=G.I. Joe|frame|Would-be [[Take Over the World|Dictator]]. Murderer. Kidnapper. Terrorist. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|Puppy punter]].]]
{{quote|''"I'm getting five hundred phone calls a day asking what the hell is going on, that our police force is brutalizing women and misplacing children. Christ, [[Discussed Trope|all this picture needs now is for someone to kick a puppy for the cameras]]."''|'''Mayor Cryer''', ''[[Changeling (Filmfilm)|Changeling]]''}}
A character performs an act so casually cruel or evil that you know that they are scum, incompatible with the [[Karmic Protection|moral rules]] of the series that they're in. This is a signal to the audience that it's okay to dislike the character. In short, dog-kicking is a sure sign that the writers want the audience to be wary of this character, even if he is [[Moral Dissonance|nominally]] one of the [[Anti-Hero|good guys]].
This trope is common in horror-based [[Monster of the Week]] shows, often to set up the [[Asshole Victim]] for the [[Karmic Twist Ending]]. Anthologies are especially prone to this, as they have to set up their villains really quickly, since they only have one episode to tell their story. This can be played up by having the very same kick of cruelty be [[Laser-Guided Karma|the cause of their downfall.]] At the very least, it is designed to let you know who is going to lose at the end. The opposite of [[Karma Houdini]].
In cartoons, [[Asshole Victim|someone who does this]] can be [[Karmic Protection|legally harassed]] by [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]], Daffy Duck, [[Animaniacs (Animation)|the Warner Brothers and their Sister Dot]], etc. The [[Screwy Squirrel]], however, doesn't need one of these.
One possible origin of the trope name comes from Westerns, where three bandits would ride into the town, one would shoot the Sheriff, one would shoot the Deputy, and one, just to prove he was also a bad guy, would [['''Kick the Dog]]'''.
If what is supposed to be a character's [['''Kick the Dog]]''' moment is excessively horrible, cruel, or otherwise despicable enough to make an audience lose all sympathy for him, then he's crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]], rather than kicking the dog if he's not [[Complete Monster|on the other side of it already]]. If the Dog in question is someone the character cares about and discovers [[Being Evil Sucks]], then they've [[Kick the Wrong Dog|Kicked The Wrong Dog]] and ''might'' be in time to avoid a [[Face Heel Turn]]. If the dog belonged to a minion, expect it to help cause a [[Mook Face Turn]] because [[Even Mooks Have Loved Ones]]. On occasions, if karma works in the dog's favor, [[The Dog Bites Back|he'll manage to get a last laugh]]. On even rarer occasions, after being pushed around too many times, the dog may decide to [[The Starscream|plan against the Big Bad for his own ambitions]], because [[Being Tortured Makes You Evil]]. When the dog-kicking is done in a way that (usually inadvertently) increases sympathy for the villain, it becomes [[Straw Man Has a Point]].
A more benign, and more comedic, form of this shows the immorality of the villain by [[Poke the Poodle|having them cheat at Solitaire]].
Compare with [[Can't Get Away Withwith Nuthin']], [[And Your Little Dog, Too]], [[Kick Them While They Are Down]], [[The Dog Bites Back]], [[Threw My Bike Onon the Roof]], [[I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure]]. See "[[If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten]]" for when bad guys do a [['''Kick the Dog]]''' test to make sure undercover heroes are really evil.
Contrast [[Pet the Dog]] (proving you're good) and [[Adopt the Dog]] (going from [[Character Alignment|Neutral to Good]]).
Not to be confused with [[Shoot the Dog]]. (That's what you do when Old Yeller gets rabies.)
See [[Kick the Son of Aa Bitch]] for when it's less of a dog and more of a, well, [[Complete Monster|you know]].
{{examples on subpages}}
'''[[No Real Life Examples, Please]]'''
{{tropelist}}
{{noreallife|calling real people "evil" [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|is not a good idea]].}}
* [[Kick the Dog/Anime And Manga|Anime And Manga]]
* [[Kick the Dog/Comic Books|Comic Books]]
* [[Kick the Dog/Film|Film]]
* [[Kick the Dog/Literature|Literature]]
* [[Kick the Dog/Live Action TV|Live Action TV]]
* [[Kick the Dog/Video Games|Video Games]]
* [[Kick the Dog/Web Comics|Web Comics]]
* [[Kick the Dog/Western Animation|Western Animation]]
== Advertisement ==
* Obviously, PSAs against abandoning or abusing pets are going to invoke this. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVrkDGQGKFA One example] involves an owner throwing a ball into the forest, and then {{spoiler|driving off while the dog is looking for the ball}}.
** This nasty little stunt is [[Played for Laughs]] in the [[Looney Tunes]] ''Often An Orphan'' (1949).
== Fan Fic ==
* The ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' ''[[All He Ever Wanted]]'' has Prussia, Hungary and several others punting puppies with ridiculous ease to show off how [[Darker and Edgier]] it is compared top the original source.
* In the ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' Fanfic ''[[The Adventures of Captain Soap (Fanfic)|The Adventures of Captain Soap]]'', the evil [[Rouge Angles of Satin|General Shephhard]] kills a family while he and Soap are fighting each other in the Burger King. The reason? [[For the Evulz|We don't know]]. The official explanation is [[Captain Obvious|"because he's evil"]].
* In ''[[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons (Fanfic)|Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]]'', Taliana twice kills large crowds of people with lightning for no specific reason.
* In the [[Kingdom Hearts the Short And Honest Version (Fanfic)|Kingdom Hearts the Short And Honest Version]] (found in the [[Kingdom Hearts (Franchise)/Fanfic Recs|fanfic recs/ page]]) Clayton from [[Tarzan|Deep Jungle]] mentions "punting a few puppies off a cliff".
* In ''[[Ace Combat the Equestrian War (Fanfic)|Ace Combat: The Equestrian War]]'', {{spoiler|Black Star}}, a soldier of the Griffin Kingdom, was ordered to {{spoiler|kill Firefly's parents, as they were suspected for trying to stage a mutiny against the kingdom}}. When he learns that {{spoiler|the accusations were false}}, he just {{spoiler|[[I Did What I Had to Do|shrugs it off]] in the [[Berserker Tears|young]] [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|pegasus' face.]] }}
* In ''[[Nobody Dies]]'', Claire Makinami calls Mari, her own daughter who was already going through identity/morality issues due to the fact that {{spoiler|the second Ramiel fight has made her half-angel}}, a monster to her face.
* In [http://pastebin.com/XmFGbHzZ this] [[Katawa Shoujo]] fic, Lilly's father makes fun of Hanako's scars. This is even worse than it sounds; in the game, it is revealed that {{spoiler|Hanako's parents died in the fire that gave her the scars, and her mother sacrificed herself protecting her, and she was bullied for her appearances}}. His doing so ''in spite of being forewarned by Akira'' causes Hanako to have a breakdown.
== Literature ==
* You can tell that someone inthe ''[[Chalet School]]'' series is a true dogkicker when they do something to hurt Joey's [[Morality Pet]], the Robin. For example, Betty Wynne-Davies takes a snarky comment from Fiona McDonald ''very'' badly in ''The Highland Twins at the Chalet School'' and resolves to get back at her by ''[[Disproportionate Retribution|selling the school out to the Nazis]]''. As the twins are living with Joey at the time, and the Robin is Joey's ward, anything that hurts the McDonald sisters will hurt her and Daisy Venables too. Betty knows this, but doesn't care.
== Music ==
* [[Neil Young]] lets you know just how evil the FBI agents are in ''[[Greendale]]''. When they break into the Greens' home looking for "evidence" after Sun's arrest, Sun's ''kitten'' scratches one of the men, who promptly shoots it dead and leaves it at the foot of Sun's bed.
== Newspaper Comics ==
* The would-be-governor villain of the season from [http://joshreads.com/?p=8363 this] [[Mark Trail]] storyline decided to cement his evilness by kicking the proverbial pet deer.
* ''[[Little Orphan Annie (Comic Strip)|Little Orphan Annie]]'': While it wasn't the first sign that she was no good, the fact that {{spoiler|Trixie Tinkle}} kicked Sandy established that she didn't actually like Annie.
== Professional Wrestling ==
* A very common [[Heel]] tactic is to draw heat by either ambushing the [[Face]] during a match, during interviews or non-wrestling ringside appearances when the [[Face]] often has his or her guard down. [[Chris Jericho]], [[Randy Orton]] and a couple others have made a career out of doing this tactic.
* '''[[Triple H]]''' from [[WWE]] ''Monday Night Raw'' joked about this trope saying, "I'm gonna beat [[Batista]] like a bag of puppies."
** Trips is quite good at forcing [[Heel Face Turn|Heel Face Turns]] doing this, especially if it looks like he'd become a good guy himself. However, [[Genre Savvy]] [[Batista]] didn't suffer the same fate as [[Randy Orton]] (and a year later, [[Ric Flair]]) did.
* Authority figures in [[Professional Wrestling]] often [[Kick the Dog]] by placing commentators, referees, valets, and other non-wrestlers into wrestling matches with particularly brutal heels (villains), who then proceed to [[Squash Match|demolish the hapless non-wrestler with glee]]. This is a sort of double-dog-kick, as it serves as a kick-the-dog moment for both the authority figure and the wrestler who does his dirty work.
** An example of a wrestler bullying a commentator was used to kick off [[The Undertaker]]'s [[Face Heel Turn]] in late 2001, when [[The Undertaker]] forced [[Jim Ross]] to join [[Vince McMahon]]'s Kiss My Ass club. Also, when the WWF was desperate for [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] to be considered a heel and not be cheered after Wrestlemania X-Seven, he crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]] by beating up J.R. Basically, if you need your wrestler to be a hated heel, have him beat up the guy with Ball's Palsy who's the most kick-ass commentator in the business.
** Ross has also been involved in matches against [[Triple H]], including a no-holds barred match on WWE Raw where then-blatant heel commentator [[Jerry Lawler|Jerry "the King" Lawler]] was so disgusted by [[Triple H]]'s brutality (he had a bloodied Ross pinned several times, only he pulled him up repeatedly to continue punishing him) that it began a slow [[Heel Face Turn]] in his commentary style. (Batista, with whom [[Triple H]] was feuding, eventually ran in for the save, knocking out [[Triple H]] and draping an unconscious Ross over top.)
*** Taker's first [[Heel Face Turn]] was brought about by then-partner Jake "the Snake" Roberts trying to take a steel chair to Miss Elizabeth, the wife and manager of "Macho Man" [[Randy Savage]], with whom he had a serious feud.
* During his Iraqi-sympathizer heel run in 1991, Sgt. Slaugther once kicked and beat a ring paramedic with his swagger stick after Slaughter had already pummeled his hapless opponent (a jobber) so badly he "required medical attention," helping to push Slaughter as a [[Monster Heel]].
* More literal, when [[Chris Jericho]] needed to make a [[Face Heel Turn]] before his WrestleMania match against HHH, he was given the responsibility of watching over HHH's dog. His negligence of the dog led to its [[Off Camera Death]].
** A [[Real Life]] example for Jericho: after years of being denied a push in [[WCW]], a gift from his girlfriend (action figure set of him and [[Kayfabe]] rival Dean Malenko) showed up on his receipt as [[Hulk Hogan]] and [[Wrestler/Sting|Sting]], meaning that Hogan and Sting got all the residuals from selling Jericho and Malenko toys.
* Another method for this involves a tag team or stable splitting with one member pulling a [[Face Heel Turn]] and absolutely brutalizing his partner for whatever petty reason the new villain has been stewing over. Examples include [[Edge]] and [[Christian]], [[Shawn Michaels]] and Marty Jenetty, the Hardys (at least twice), Jericho and the WWE team during Survivor Series 2001, [[Rey Mysterio Jr]] / [[Eddie Guerrero]] (again, at least twice), [[Rey Mysterio Jr]] / Chavo Guerrero, [[Rey Mysterio Jr]] / Spike Dudley...
** Let's not even go into how many of these Rey's gotten. [[The Big Show]] slamming him into the turnbuckle while in a stretcher, [[Eddie Guerrero]]'s brutal [[Face Heel Turn]]...really sucks to be the smallest fish in a tank full of piranhas, especially when the Cruiserweight Title's been dropped.
* [[Randy Orton]] from 2006 onwards. Talk about a [[Generation Xerox]]...and he takes it one step further by having a punt as his other [[Finishing Move]].
* [[Matt Hardy]] turned on his brother [[Jeff Hardy|Jeff]] by knocking him in the head and costing him his first-ever WWE Championship against their mortal enemy, [[Edge]]. Jeff refused to fight him. Matt verbally assaulted and berated Jeff for two weeks and beat up a mutual friend mercilessly. Jeff refused to fight him. Matt called Jeff out and backhanded him to the ground. Jeff refused to fight him. Matt cost Jeff a chance to be in the Money In The Bank Ladder Match at Wrestlemania 25. Jeff STILL refused to fight him. Then Matt came out, carrying the burnt collar of Jeff's dead dog, and admitted he was the one who had killed Jeff's dog (and burnt his house and tried to kill him several times, but it was mostly about the dog here). At this point, Jeff finally snaps and proceeds to open the proverbial can of whoopass.
** He diddn't ''actually'' kill the dog, or set the house on fire, that was faulty wiring, but he did [[Kayfabe|find the dog after it had died & stole its collar]]. Matt's character was an Ass but he wasn't a [[Complete Monster]].
* John Laurinaitis ''[[Moral Event Horizon|big time]]'' on the 12/05/2011 episode of ''Raw'' by forcing a [[Sadistic Choice]] on [[John Cena]], forcing him to choose between getting a WWE Title Shot for himself or giving his close friend [[Zack Ryder]] a chance to get a shot at the US Championship he's been hunting for a long time. When Cena chooses to give Ryder his shot, Laurinaitis puts the already tired Ryder against [[Mark Henry]] in a No-Disqualification Match, making it clear he had no intention to give Ryder a fair chance and intended to screw Cena.
** Laurinaitis is getting good at these. On the 4/6/2012 episode of Friday Night Smackdown, after winning control over both Raw and Smackdown, he offered Teddy Long a job after Teddy told him to drop dead. Not so bad, right? The dog-kicking came when he said that if he didn't accept the job, he'd cut off the college fund Teddy's grandchildren were getting. (The condition was that the college fund was controlled by the Smackdown general manager, which Laurinaitis now was.) And to add insult to injury [[Smug Snake|Laurinaitis]] made Teddy say that he (Laurinaitis) was better than him.
* There have been a few examples of women wrestlers being forced to take on male wrestlers in singles matches, usually as punishment for a minor offense and/or for the male wrestler's sadistic pleasure. One of the most famous examples of the former was when WWE Diva Maria bumped into Eric Bischoff and spilled coffee over his jacket; Bischoff immediately demanded that Maria wrestler sadistic madman Umaga, and if she refused she would be fired. Maria (predictably) was beaten to a pulp ... until John Cena ran into the ring and knocked Umaga out of the ring just before he was able to finish her off.
** During her occassional face runs, [[Stephanie McMahon]] has had to wrestle [[Brock Lesnar]] and her father, [[Vince McMahon]], the storyline always being that she was to assert her independence, and the heels (Lesnar and McMahon) accepting ... and creating match-types (usually, no holds barred) to hurt Stephanie as much as possible.
* The Divas of Doom [[Beth Phoenix]] and Natalya really enjoy hurting the [[Face]] divas especially [[The Woobie]] [[Chick Busters|AJ]], [[Kelly Kelly]] and [[Eve Torres]].
** To be more specific, Beth normally will announce "it's cry time" and lock said Diva in a painful looking submission hold while Natalya holds the microphone up to her face so the crowd can hear her scream.
* [[Ted Di Biase]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwoQ2b3k8Uo offers $500 to a small boy to dribble a basketball 15 times, then kicks it out from under him at the 14th bounce.]
== Tabletop Games ==
* This scene in the continuing examples in ''[[Bliss Stage]]'':
{{quote| [[Jerkass|Keenan]] [[Handsome Lech|Caine]]: Man, [[Moe|Sara]] is getting all girly and clingy and shit...lousy lay, too.<br />
[[Murder the Hypotenuse|Josh Preston: Fuck. That. Noise.]] }}
* Surprisingly rare in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]''. [[Kick the Dog]] barely ''begins'' to describe the treatment of choice for civilians, cute fluffy critters, and even ''entire planets'' in this [[Crapsack World|supremely fucked-up universe]]. Even [[Moral Event Horizon]] barely begins to cover it.
* In [[Magic the Gathering]]'s Weatherlight saga, Greven il-Vec threw Vhati il-Dal overboard. The set's designers admitted that they created Vhati just so Greven could kill him and show how evil he was.
* The example for [[Mind Control]] in ''[[Hero System]]'' 5th edition is a hypnotist ordering a [[Flying Brick]] to kick a puppy. Fortunately, it doesn't work.
{{quote| Mighty Man then uses his Phase to dispose of two of Hypnos’s henchmen who are bent on causing the puppy harm.}}
== Theatre ==
* [[Stephen Sondheim]]'s ''Assassins'': Sarah Jane Moore shoots her dog for barking, then stuffs the dead dog in her purse -- but it's played for laughs. As far as marking her as a credible threat goes, Sarah Jane's real [[Kick the Dog]] moment is when she turns her gun on ''her infant son'', because he wanted an ice-cream. Thankfully, she doesn't pull the trigger.
* [[Shakespeare]]'s character Iago in ''[[Othello]]'', encouraging the evil deeds of his henchman Roderigo: "...drown cats and blind puppies..."
== Toys ==
* The Piraka in ''[[Bionicle]]'' would occasionally kill animals [[For the Evulz|for fun]]. Chiara, supposedly one of the good guys, had a scene where she casually killed a lizard with her electricity powers just to make a point. Because of this trope, many fans assumed it was foreshadowing [[Psycho Electro|a darker side to her personality]], but [[Word of God]] states that this is not the case.
== Web Animation ==
* Appears on ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', in Teen Girl Squad Issue 11. So-and-So is getting chewed out by her obnoxious manager at Shirt Folding Store when the manager is suddenly punched out by an astronaut ("MEET A FIST!"). The explanation for this behavior?
{{quote| '''Astronaut:''' *ckhk* She killed my dog.<br />
'''So-and-So:''' Um... 'kay. }}
** Also referenced in the Strong Bad Email [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail193.html rated], where Strong Bad claims that some of his favorite movies have been banned in Transylvania, "where you're required by law to eat puppies for breakfast."
** Strong Bad is also known to kick The Cheat, even though he's not really a bad guy.
** In another Strong Bad Email, [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail110.html for kids], on his kids' show, Strong Bad invites children to play "Where's The Cheat?" with him:
{{quote| '''Strong Bad:''' All right, dumb children. Find The Cheat!<br />
''(The Cheat peeks out from behind a box.)''<br />
'''Kids:''' ''(half-coherent)'' He's over there. Right there.<br />
'''Strong Bad:''' Um, no, he's behind the box. No, he's not even ''behind'' the box, he's ''barely obscured'' by the box. ''(getting upset)'' Look, The Cheat is behind the freakin' ''BOX''! ''(screaming)'' HE'S BEHIND THE BOX!! I'LL KILL YA!! I'LL KILL ALL YOUR DOGS!!! }}
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcbazH6aE2g Richard kicks a dog, literally].
* Flint, [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Bunnykill]] 4'', does this big time when he {{spoiler|kills Ruby, Snowball's potential love interest.}} Oddly enough, this makes him the only [[Big Bad]] of the series to do something truly villainous onscreen.
** As of ''[[Bunnykill]] 5'', Smoke has joined the dog-kicking party. He {{spoiler|has Snowball's friend Dust injected with [[Psycho Serum]], turning him [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] and ultimately leading to Snowball's death}}. For added dick points, he also {{spoiler|betrays his partner Professor Sludge, the designer of the serum, leaving him to become Dust's first victim}}. The second half also has him {{spoiler|throwing his own mooks into Dust's way to save his own hide. Not that it helps him in the end}}.
== Web Original ==
* In the animation ''[http://www.ninjai.com/ Ninjai]'' the bad guy attacks the hero's little bird friend for no reason at all. The bird gets his own back later.
* ''[[The Saga of Tuck]]'''s Principal Nickerson has no qualms about assigning detention to students who skip class to commit suicide. Just so you know how badly he deserves the [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]].
* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]''
** '''Cody Jenson''': Raped Madeline Shiohara and bit out her neck. How did he feel? He didn't.
** '''[[Big Bad|Danya]]''': [[Establishing Character Moment]] in the first version was when he was briefing the v1 students with a very... smug tone. Then towards the end mentioned he hated punks, and ordered his minions to kill a student for wearing his hat sideways.
** '''[[Honest John's Dealership|Jeremy Franco]]''' kicking Kimberly Nguyen in her bullet wound for refusing to give him her fedora, then taking it anyway.
* In the video ''[http://www.bchealthcoalition.ca/content/view/228 The Unspeakable Deeds of Bill 42]'', it's not enough for the character representing the bill to fine people for meeting to air their grievances. He has to up the evil quotient by deliberately knocking over a woman's crutches.
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series (Web Video)|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'', Bakura mentions that he once killed a puppy. "And it was very cute."
** Seto Kaiba also gets a bit of a gem. In episode 19, Mokuba says "Big brother, whenever you smile, a puppy dies." When [[It Makes Sense in Context|Mega Ultra Chicken]] is summoned, Kaiba smiles, giving the caption "+1 DEAD PUPPIES." It continues, all the way up to "[[Memetic Mutation|+9001]] DEAD PUPPIES."
* The [[Ascended Meme]] NEDM (Not Even Doom Music) came from a literal example of this. [[Dissimile|Except]], replace "kick" with "burn," and "dog" with "cat." [[Internet Counterattack|Anonymous was not pleased]].
* ''[[Awkward]]'' has a fight between Lester and Alex culminate in Alex telling Lester to give up on his relationship with Steph because "everybody knows you're just going to mess it up like last time". [[Beware the Nice Ones|Lester doesn't take it well.]] Later we find out that Ernie dumped Karen, calling her "worthless".
* Discussed by Tanna and Elon in [http://www.earsforelves.com/archives/423 this strip] of ''[[Ears for Elves (Webcomic)|Ears for Elves]]'', though no literal puppy-kicking happens.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:No Real Life Examples Please]]
[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]
[[Category:Evil Tropes]]
[[Category:Obviously Evil]]
[[Category:Bollywood Tropes]]
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:Tear Jerker Tropes]]
[[Category:Tropey the Wonder Dog]]
[[Category:Nineteen Twenty One (Webcomic)]]
[[Category:Full Metal Jousting]]
[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:Friendly Fire Index]]
[[Category:indexThe Jerk Index]]
[[Category:Kick Thedog{{PAGENAME}}]]
|