Poke the Poodle: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

 

If a henchman is the one who can't maintain a minimum level on villainy, he's a [[Minion with an F In Evil]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Belldandy from ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' accidentally gets classified as a Demon ([[Celestial Bureaucracy|Bureaucracies Are Evil Even In Heaven]]) and has to do evil acts to keep Keiichi healthy. Some of the things she comes up with are crossing the street when the crosswalk says to stop, and writing graffiti. In chalk. On a chalkboard.

** She also [[Digital Piracy Is Evil|reads a book in a book store without paying for it]]. Luckily for Keiichi's health, it wasn't Borders. And although she's not ''trying'' to be evil, she's quite happy to let her younger sister attempt to murder her boyfriend with a chainsaw.

** Also Mara, even in her debut episode, where she knocks over some kid's ice cream cone, after which the kid and his friend kick her in the shin.

* The demon that looks like Chika from Miu's dream in the first episode of ''[[Ichigo Mashimaro]] Encore''. She shies away from what would've been expected to be done in [[Hell]], and the most she does in being "evil" was forcing Miu to do a one-person [[Boke and Tsukkomi Routine]] for her "punishment".

* Don't be fooled by the occasional act of altruism from the great demon, Prince Beelzebub. (one of the main characters from ''[[Sand Land]]'', a one shot manga by Akira Toriyama.) Sure, he may help out the occasional human, and seem really really nice at times...sure he may be one of the main protagonists, and ultimately helps save the day...but he is seriously evil! Why, he went to bed without brushing his teeth...twice!

** It should be noted that the Skypieans don't hold gold to have any notable value, the gold they were trying to steal was a few sacks worth of treasure from the belly of a giant snake, and that the gold the grateful Skypieans were about to give the crew was a massive pillar of gold that was probably at least three times the size of their ship.

* In episode 14 of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'', Keroro decides he's had enough of being pushed around by Natsumi, which prompts him to go home, and with an evil glare in his eyes... track mud all over the hall floor.

** Note she only lets him off after doing things that [[Corruption of a Minor|possibly scar him for life.]]

* A pair of minor villains try to ruin the protagonists' puppet show in ''[[Karakuri Circus]]''. Not only do they fail, the protagonists work the few attempts into the routine.

** {{spoiler|[[Too Dumb to Live|Ika-chan]] eventually manages to piss Chizuru off by commenting that "she acts almost human."}}

* Italy Romano of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' is strongly implied to get his bad attitude from being the personification of parts of Italian culture which include the Mafia. His idea of a terrible revenge on Germany is to hold up a fake moustache level with Germany's face and laugh at him, which [[Epic Fail|backfires]] when Germany points out that from where he's standing it looks like Romano has the moustache.

 

== Comic Books ==

* [[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'s second protagonist Miles Morales is captured by The Ringer. Unfortunately, that's about as much as The Ringer could possibly do to him.

{{quote|''The Ringer captures Spider-Man in his rings''

'''Spider-Man''': I really can't!! Hello!! }}

* In [[The DCU]], Dr. Light was at first able to defeat the Justice League single-handed, but after a period of [[Badass Decay]] this became his M.O.... [[Identity Crisis|until the]] [[Retcon]].

** Apparently [http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/03/lex_luthors_cake-stealing_is_official_dc_canon.php it's a true story], {{spoiler|stealing them from a bake sale in retaliation for a school not letting him enter a fission-powered toaster in a Science Fair}}.

* Sometimes, when he thinks he should be a tougher leader, [[Nightwing]] tries to ape his mentor [[Batman]]'s style by trying to act like a [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]]. He's very, very bad at it (pretending to act dickish towards his friends once made him ''cry''), which explains why he's the most widely-befriended hero in the entire DC universe, while practically no one outside of Gotham likes Batman.

 

 

== Film ==

* Jackie Chan's ''New Police Story'' has a flashback at the end where his young sidekick's past is revealed. His broke father robbed a convenience store of food to feed him and got knocked over by a vehicle during his hasty escape, dying instantly.

* Ali G of ''[[Da Ali G Show]]'' tries to act like a gangster, but his acts of hooliganism amount to flipping off cops (below the door) and street racing (at the speed limit).

 

== Literature ==

* In [[Beverly Cleary]]'s ''Ramona the Brave'', six-year-old [[Ramona Quimby]] becomes frustrated, announces she's going to say a bad word, and screams it three times in a row: {{spoiler|guts, guts, guts!}} Naturally, her family finds it hilarious.

* Styx Hades in ''[[Thursday Next]]: The Eyre Affair'' is a parody of this type of character. Though both he and his brother Acheron have [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]], Acheron is a self-confessed [[Complete Monster]] and Styx spends his time doing things like calling people to look at the used car they're selling and never showing up, stealing ballpoints, and scratching LPs in record stores. Thursday and her colleagues are not impressed.

* In ''[[Animorphs]]'', resident alien Ax thinks that juvenile delinquents pull harmless pranks, such as rearranging the shelf stock. Needless to say, [[Most Definitely Not a Villain|when he poses as one]], [[Hilarity Ensues]].

{{quote|'''Ax:''' There. I have now shamelessly destroyed the symmetry of this shelf, undoing hours of labor by underpaid store employees. If you could see me, you would be frightened.}}

* ''[[The Idiot]]''. Gavrila Ardalionovich Ivolgin.

{{quote|With his passionate desire to distinguish himself, he was sometimes ready for a most reckless leap; but when it came to the point of making the reckless leap, our hero always proved too clever to venture upon it. This was killing him. He might even have ventured, on occasion, upon an extremely base deed, so long as he achieved at least something of what he dreamed; but, as if on purpose, when it reached the limit, he always proved too honest for an extremely base deed. (On a small base deed, however, he was always ready to agree.) [...] Upon entering Epanchin's service, he immediately said to himself: "If I am to be mean, then I shall be mean to the end, so long as I win out"--and--he was almost never mean to the end.}}

 

* In [[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]] episode Lip Synchin' in the Rain, Maddie gets turned down for the role of Sharpay because she's "too nice"; she tries to defend her ability to be mean with, "Sometimes, when I give sandwiches to the poor, I don't cut off the crusts!"

* When Anya in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' gets her Vengeance Demon powers back, she isn't very good at the whole vengeance thing at first. (Turning someone French instead of into a literal frog, for example.) {{spoiler|Then she starts turning people into demon worms and tears out people's hearts. [[Must Make Amends|She does try to fix it though...]] }}

* ''[[Better Off Ted]]'': Lem and Phil's way of snubbing people they're angry with is to bring them coffee and a bagel for a few weeks, then mysteriously stop. Their "victims" generally don't even notice.

* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "Trash," Jayne helps Simon and River hide out, and when River keeps poking fun at him he gets fed up and tells them with a sneer that "I ''was'' gonna leave you a deck of cards." He then waves said deck about and seals the door. That ''villain''!

 

== Music ==

So watch out you squares / I'm an angry young man

I once showed my willy to PRIN-CESS ANNE..." }}

 

== Theater ==

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Characters trying to become dark side classes (like Darkside Marauder) in the ''[[Star Wars]] RPG: Saga Edition'' often resort to quick acts of minor evil, euphemistically called Jawa-Kicking (after the comment in the core rulebook that describes darksiders of a certain degree to be "so evil, they would kick a Jawa just because they can") to rack up Dark Side points for use in powers.

* [[Blue and Orange Morality|Path of Enlightenment]] followers in [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] are twisted creatures who live by precepts completely alien to humans, often treating death lightly and in some cases glorifying murder, soul-drinking and [[Body Horror|Vicissitude-aided "customizations"]]. The problem here is that most players are but human, and as such their understanding of inhuman morality tends to be ...flawed. This leads to things like a [[The Corrupter|Path Of Typhon]] follower simply selling drugs to everyone or a [[Your Soul Is Mine|Path Of Blood]] follower just drinking vampire blood once in a while.

 

== Video Games ==

** ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'' is likewise. Most of the so-called overlords are simply idiots at worst (except {{spoiler|Seedle, who attempted to rape Salome before she killed him in retaliation and was burned for killing him. Then they both became Overlords and he thinks this was not enough and tries to kill her}}).

* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Tanaka]] from [[Persona 3]] specialises in hilarious threats to the tune of, "If you ever betray my trust... I'll ring your doorbell at midnight."

{{quote|'''Murray''': I will hide your keys beneath the cushions of your upholstered furniture, and NEVERMORE will you be able to find socks that match!}}

{{quote|'''Captain McGillicutty''': Tell me the ritual words or you'll be sleeping with the fishes!

'''Chieftain Beluga''': That's where I sleep anyway!

'''Captain McGillicutty''': What are those ritual summoning words?!

'''Chieftain Beluga''': You'll never get me to tell! }}

* Muggit, the [[Evil Twin]] of office assistant parody Cuppit, is just as cheerfully incompetent.

* Tatara Kogasa, the umbrella-[[Youkai]] of ''[[Touhou]]'', only "attacks" people to surprise them; she doesn't mean any actual harm.

** The [[Terrible Trio|Three Mischievous Fairies]] perform such wicked tasks as getting people lost, stealing food, and planting a flag on the ruins of a house. Entirely justified, as fairies in ''Touhou'' are deeply stupid.

* In ''[[The Sims]] 3'', Sims with the "evil" trait can dabble in this, doing things like taking ''evil'' showers, or using the coffee maker to make themselves an ''evil'' latte.

** The worstest? "Donate money to undermine charity."

** "Evil" spells cast by warlocks in ''[[The Sims]] 2'' are usually mildly annoying at worst. They do things like [[Bee-Bee Gun|summon a swarm of bees]] or make a Sim vanish off your lot, but they don't cause much ''permanent'' harm to Sims.

* In the ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' town of Primm is the Vikki and Vance Hotel and Casino, celebrating the life and death of a criminal duo who started their crime spree a few days before [[Bonnie and Clyde]], without ever quite managing to reach the same level of notoriety. The casino tour guide will enthusiastically describe Vikki and Vance's multi-state campaign of shoplifting, stolen gas and bad checks, and speculate on the number of people Vance could have shot had he ever removed his gun from its packaging. Evidently the duo met their end after blundering into the middle of a police shootout with some actual bank robbers.

 

* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=301#comic throw its hat into the ring.]

* White Mage from ''[[8-Bit Theater|8-bit Theater]]'' attempts a [[Face Heel Turn]]. The most monstrous deeds she can think of are kicking Red Mage in the shin and calling Fighter dumb. Eventually she became good again when Fighter tells her that she's even worse at evil than she is at good. What's double amusing is how badly Fighter [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2007/07/07/episode-867-night-and-day/ takes it] and Red Mage [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2007/07/19/episode-872-puppet-master/ gets beaten up more], despite the hideous abuse they put each other through daily.

** Incredibly, she is then [[Disproportionate Retribution|threatened with expulsion from the Chimeric Anti-Defamation League]] because she's "giving all canine transgenics a bad name".

{{quote|'''Moustachio:''' Hello, Dr. Wilkin! You are not welcome! See, I am not doing my job! Have some undesirable popcorn!}}

* Fuzzy from ''[[Sam and Fuzzy]]'' once disobeyed a 'do not rock or tip vending machine' sign... [[Incredibly Lame Pun|By playing an electric guitar solo in front of it and then giving it a dollar]].

** ...Which is not to say he's not perfectly capable of kicking the dog too. He ''is'' a [[Heroic Sociopath]], after all.

** It's still possible he might [http://www.samandfuzzy.com/archive.php?comicID=70 lose his edge], tho' . . .

* ''[[Adventurers!]]'': Khrima, being a [[Big Bad]] [[Minion with an F In Evil|With An F In Evil]], has a lot of moments like this. He once claimed that helping an old lady cross the street was "leading her into a life of crime".

** Still, every few strips he would show after torching an entire town, so it does get confusing.

{{quote|"A good person would get up, get dressed, brush his teeth -- but not me. 'Cuz I'm EVIL! Mwa ha ha ha ha!"}}

* ''[[Misfile]]'' brings us [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|Cassiel]]'s brilliant scheme to ruin a wedding: '''[http://www.misfile.com/?page=1252 "Revenge! Sub par snacks! Deal with my wrath!"]'''

'''Manager:''' ''That's not evil!'' }}

* Robber Will from ''[[City of Reality]]'' suffers from most of his crimes ending up this way. Oh, he'll steal gold, and valuables... that are valuable to him. But while Reality does have a concept of their value, nothing he takes is the kind of thing the Realists consider ''important'', so his thefts are, at most, an annoyance, and often as not the people'd just give him the stuff if they thought it'd make him happy. The one exception of real bad caused by Will's actions wasn't on purpose and was something he'd never do if given a choice.

{{quote|'''[http://www.eeriecuties.com/d/20100310.html Doppleganger]''': Hmm. My wickedness seems a tad less abominable than once it was.}}

* In ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'', [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=39 Mirror-universe!T-rex] swapped Utahraptor's toothpaste for a competing brand of toothpaste. (He also stomped on houses and ladies and made terrible puns.)

 

== Web Original ==

* The [[Homestar Runner|Strong Bad email]] "[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail150.html alternate universe]" features 'Strong Badman', whose latest villainous scheme is renting a 'water included' apartment and leaving all the taps running, and stealing cable from his neighbors.

** Another recent Strong Bad email, "[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail197.html your edge]", has Strong Bad's edgy shenanigans including not inflating a deflated basketball, throwing feathers at people ("You said it, The Cheat: Tar ''is'' prohibitively expensive!") and spreading mayonnaise all over the living room and waiting almost half-an-hour before cleaning it up. And playing "pretend we're grandmas baking".

** Strong Bad may be the king of this trope. In the email "[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail193.html rated]", his idea of a depraved act is when the good guy in a movie steps on a rabbit and doesn't kill it - but later wishes he did.

*** The ''good guy''! That's messed up, man! You can't let kids watch that kind of thing!

* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]''. In order to beat some enemies, Caboose tries to make himself angry and say mean things. While this works ([[Beware the Nice Ones|he slaughters everyone]]), his repertoire of hurtful comments are less than impressive, such as "I will eat your unhappiness!" and "Your brain is a mountain of hatred!" Though it is unclear if this is because he's too nice to be evil, or just too stupid.

{{quote|'''Caboose''': MY NAME IS MICHAEL J. CABOOSE, AND '''''I HATE BABIES!!!'''''}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* About half of the schemes pulled by Dr. Doofenshmirtz of ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' are examples of this trope. In one case, the Doctor actually had a scheme so ridiculous that the hero came to investigate, saw the entire plan... and [[Everyone Has Standards|thought it was so stupid]] that he ''turned around and left'' without even bothering to stop it! The villain spends the rest of the episode ''chasing'' the hero, [[The Cat Came Back|popping into every place he tries to hide,]] and demanding, "Thwart me!"

{{quote|"[[It Makes Sense in Context|I just insulted the macaroni and cheese recipe]] of a ''whale''! What part of that is not evil?!"}}

*** In the episode where they ''did'' steal an orange, they evolved to stealing all oranges in town, which drove everyone sick for the lack of vitamins.

** Standing on the grass ''was'' the greatest achievement of nearly [[Spanner in the Works|any Powerpuff Girl villain ever]]. They got a cold which spread to an epidemic all across the town. If they hadn't thrown their fight against the girls, people would've ''died''. After everyone was cured, the boys were released and assumed it was because they forgot to get the orange.

* In a ''[[Mighty Mouse]]'' cartoon that takes place in the future, Pearl Pureheart switches brains with Harry the Heartless, and when trying to brag about her evil deeds, she says she kept an overdue library book.

* Timmy's father in ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]'' is once [[It Makes Sense in Context|bitten by a scarab that contains all of Vicky's evil]]. [[Hilarity Ensues]]... at least until it abandons his body and possesses the Principal and almost gets into the President of the US.

** Don't forget backing up sewers and reversing street signs.

** A lot of Jumba's earlier experiments tend to be this, like the one made out of pudding.

* The eponymous Imp from the cartoon series ''[[The Imp]]'' claims as part of his litany of (not very) evil acts to have invented the world's most annoying ringtone.

* One episode of the ''[[Superfriends]]'' has the Legion of Doom going back in time to the dinosaur era to take diamonds out of rock. And here is Jabootu.net states ''Here Our ‘Heroes’ appear, again ignoring the fact that neither of the two miscreants is engaged in anything that could be considered illegal. "You’d better put those diamonds back where they belong," Apache Chief warns. Uh, under what controlling legal authority? Who’s to say the diamonds ‘belong’ there? Some guys due to show up seventy million years from now?''

* Similarly to the ''[[Spider-Man]]'' and ''[[Superman III]]'' examples under Movies, "[[Brainwashed|cruel]]" [[Moe|Fluttershy]] (aka Flutterbitch) in the season 2 opener of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' gets up to such horrifying acts of sadism as...rudeness, tripping people, trampling the shrubbery, playing keepaway, touching things she's been told not to touch, and dropping a bucket of soapy water on Twilight Sparkle's head. She's acting like a [[Jerkass]], true, but it can only be called "cruel" by comparison to Fluttershy's [[Friend to All Living Things|normal behaviour]].

* An episode of ''[[Archer]]'' had the eponymous character become the pirate king to a group of [[Ruthless Modern Pirates|pirates]]. He took whole-heartedly to the drinking and wenching, but not so much to the plundering. The one time they did invade a ship, he pointed out that small businesses are the life-blood of the economy and, in reality, captains like the one they were attacking have razor-thin profit margins.

 

== Real Life ==

* Anybody who pretends to be evil by [[Mattress Tag Gag|tearing off the tag on their mattress]], even though the only way that could be considered illegal is if the retailer were to remove it.

* [[wikipedia:Benjamin Hornigold|Captain Benjamin Hornigold]], a pirate, once captured a ship and boarded it, then apologetically asked for the passengers' ''hats''. He explained that his own crew had got drunk the night before and thrown their own hats overboard. After receiving the hats, the pirates left the ship alone. This would happen occasionally: pirates would often pillage ships of menial supplies and such that they, as wanted criminals, couldn't easily obtain, and, if nobody started anything, they generally just left people unharmed. Blackbeard himself (or was it Henry Morgan) was known for stealing medical supplies and clothes and not hurting people during such raids. Blackbeard in particular is famous for attacking a ship, stealing nothing but medicines for syphilis and other STDs, and leaving.

* Among the ''many'' ([[Idiot Plot|idiot]]) plots by the CIA to deal with Castro was an attempt to make his hair fall out (ridding him of his iconic beard).

* A plot was hatched against Hitler where they wanted to spike his food with estrogen so they could make his mustache fall off and his voice become squeaky so he would lose support despite the fact ''that this would never work anyway'' they paid his gardener to spray the gardens which Hitler ate from with estrogen. The gardener pocketed the money and dumped the estrogen down the drain.

* Weaker forums trolls, since real life threats can lead to real life reprocussions, they usually tend to use juvenile insults, [[Insane Troll Logic]] and other [[Logical Fallacies]] to annoy people.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:No One Respects the Spanish Inquisition]]

[[Category:Tropey the Wonder Dog]]

[[Category:Villains]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]