Poke the Poodle: Difference between revisions

 

{{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.

** {{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''

** 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.

== Fan Fiction ==

* In [[X-Men]] fanfic ''[[Mutatis Mutandis]]'' by [http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2359030/Artemiss_Liege Artemis's Liege], wealthy, beautiful Jean-Paul rejects the invitation of membership to the Hellfire Club, who are a group of wealthy, beautiful male mutants. Offended by this slight, the Hellfire Club warns Jean-Paul that he's hanging out with the wrong people and tell him both he and his group of friends will regret it. And then they retaliate by putting a red shirt in the washing machine with his friend Victor's white clothes.

== Film ==

* From ''[[Repo Man]]'':

* 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 ==

* Crowley, the angel who "did not fall so much as saunter vaguely downwards" from the novel ''[[Good Omens]]'' gets ''thought'' of as doing this by his demonic companions. His evil deeds include tying up all of the phone lines in Central London at lunchtime for forty-five minutes, wiping the contact list from a girl's cell phone, inventing game shows, and designing the M25. He justifies them with the reasoning that putting hundreds of people in a state of mind in which they're more likely to sour others' moods too is more efficient than one-on-one temptation, and really, he's right. His tactics increased the general level of unpleasantness in London, probably damning a few souls in the process and making the damnation of at least a few hundred thousand people in the future a tiny bit easier; him Poking The Poodle caused others to Kick The Dog.

* ''[[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.}}

== Live Action TV ==

* 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!"

* ''[[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 ==

* The ''[["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'' song "Young, Dumb and Ugly" is about this kind of person. "We got a reputation 'round these parts / we only leave a ten percent tip / sometimes we don't return our shopping carts / stay out of our way and don't ya give us no lip".

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

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

== Theater ==

* In the [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] operetta, the protagonist of ''[[Ruddigore]]'' is compelled to commit a daily crime by a family curse. He claims such evil acts as filing a false income tax return, disinheriting his unborn son, and forging his own will. This is not to the liking of the ghosts/portraits of his ancestors, who enforce the curse.

Peaceably, without disturbing the folk, or treading on their toes!—Oh, fie!

Fie! }}

== Tabletop Games ==

* Poking the poodle is a go-to method for [[Dungeons and Dragons]] players who want to enter a prestige class that requires the character in question being evil. Acts like bullying and petty theft are used because they let the player demonstrate their evilness (and petition for an alignment change) without being so evil that it begins to effect the plot.

* 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 ==

* ''[[Disgaea]]'' [[Noble Demon|demons]] are textbook examples of this trope.

''Undercity Champion waves at Argent Confessor Paletress and goes back to his seat.'' }}

* 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.

== Webcomics ==

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

{{quote|'''Gabe:''' I did punch a baby once...in anger. In my defense, the baby was being kind of a dick.

'''Tycho:''' Yeah, I don't know what that baby's problem was. }}

== 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.

** Even though Strong Badman ''was'' building a [[Death Ray]] in his first appearance and seems to fight some genuine villains in [[Easter Egg]]s, most of them time he fights similarly ineffectual villains such as Grossman, Dry Ragamuffin, Hit-Enter-Too-Soon Man, and '''Damp Towel Man''' (!!!).

* [[Stuart Ashen]] literally pokes a poodle just to check off on his [[TV Tropes]] list.

* ''[[Project Million]]'' features [[Diamanda Hagan|The Minion]] torturing Mikey by stealing his vegetarian pizza.

== 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?!"}}

* 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 ==

* [[TV Tropes]] itself has been the poodle on occasion. Once it was hacked so that most pages were turned into an offsite redirect. Now, anyone with a cursory knowledge of internet prankery would expect the redirect to go to one of numerous shock sites, or possibly a site that displayed embarrassing images or sounds to get people into trouble at work. But nope, this prankster redirected people to a [[YouTube]] video for a Muslim charity. Even a [[Rickroll|Rick Astley video]] would have been better evil. Oh, and the date this hack took place? September ''tenth''. So close, yet so far.

* 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.