Smug Snake/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

** Except "The Unicron Trilogy", where Starscream did not act like a Smug Snake.

** Speaking of "The Unicron Trilogy", Thrust from ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' practically '''is''' this trope.

* Disney

*** Hiss's voice-actor Terry-Thomas was [[Typecasting|born to play this sort of role]].

** The Smug Snake in the book: ''Shere Khan''.

*** Though Gladstone's Smug Snake characteristics were notably more subdued in his animated incarnation than in the original comic books. The episode "Dime Enough For Luck" even goes so far as to portray him in a fairly sympathetic light.

* ''[[Shrek]]''

** Prince Charming, in ''Shrek the Third'', manipulates the other villains telling them that if they join him, they will all get their "happily ever afters" when all he really wanted was for them to help him get what he wanted, which was the throne for himself.

** Also Lord Farquaad in the first movie and Rumpelstiltskin in the fourth.

** Plankton fits this mold to a T, much to his chagrin.

** Squillum Fancyson, who is wealthy and successful, yet seems to spend most of his time finding new ways to rub it in the face of Squidward.

** And Bubble Bass.

* Phantom Limb from ''[[The Venture Bros]]''. The effect is almost certainly intentional.

** The Monarch would be this if he wasn't actually a capable threat who merely devotes himself to annoying Venture. Frankly, ''every'' villain on ''The Venture Bros.'' fits this trope, with the possible exception of the ones who don't have enough self esteem for the "smug" part, and maybe the Sovereign, who usually appears to have enough on the ball to qualify as a [[Magnificent Bastard]].

* The nudist aliens from the ''[[Futurama]]'' movie ''Bender's Big Score''. You'd think that scamming the entire Earth and forcing its population to the outskirts of the solar system would make them [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastards]], but no. Maybe if they didn't do everything, ''everything'', in the most profoundly annoying way possible (and also if they didn't look the way they do, eeuuuugh). But that's spammers for you.

** It didn't help that their plans worked only because [[Idiot Plot|the entire population of Earth seemed to willingly drop all of what IQ points they had left]] and the [[Killer Rabbit|Nibblonians]] inexplicably lost all of their competence.

** Unlike some other Smug Snakes, Slade does learn from his mistakes. After getting his butt kicked by the whole team, he makes sure that he never winds up fighting them all at once again (at least until he gets superpowers of his own) and after his manipulations of Robin failed because they hinged only on their being [[Not So Different]], he systematically deconstructed the mind of his next apprentice, {{spoiler|Terra}} (and turns her into [[People Puppets|a person puppet]] without her knowledge if that fails). Unfortunately, he's never able to lose the old [[Villain Ball]] (sometimes being a sadistic sociopath is a problem), and therefore never crawls out of full Smug Snakehood, though he does get better towards the end (see his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] against Trigon's demon warrior.)

*** Other ''Teen Titans'' main villains, such as Brother Blood from Season 3 and The Brain from Season 5, also count. Both are very threatening, but their inflated egos prove to be their undoing in the end.

** Kind of made better when you realize that you can [[Ironic Echo]] his own words at the screen as the Ocean Spirit Drags him under.

{{quote| '''Zhao:''' You should have chosen to accept your failure, your disgrace! Then, at least you could have lived!}}

* Eric Raymond from ''[[Jem and The Holograms]]''. If you could rate smugness on a scale from 1 to 10, Eric Raymond's smugness would test at 178.

* Lavor, [[The Dragon]] to [[Big Bad]] Magmion, from ''[[Gormiti the Lords of Nature Return]]''. Even his [[Image Song]] denounces him as a vain, overconfident scoundrel. He's also quite a [[Dirty Coward|coward]], and happily [[We Have Reserves|throws his men into battle with the heroes]] to get himself away from trouble and gauge his opponents' strength.

{{quote| '''Wile E.:''' Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mud!<br />

'''[[Breaking the Fourth Wall|Bugs Bunny]]''': And remember, "Mud" spelled backwards is "[[Meaningful Name|Dum.]]" }}

* Seen in an RAF [[Cold War]] instructional film warning of the dangers of HISS (Hostile Intelligence ServiceS) represented by a smug cartoon snake with a [[Fake Russian]] accent. All his dupes were naturally caught by the vigilant RAF police, but the evil HISS would just go on to the next victim.

** Unlike most of these smug snakes, Jafar graduated to a [[Magnificent Bastard]] in the second movie.

* Gibbs of ''[[Titan Maximum]]'', despite being both [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] and the [[Only Sane Man]] is this due to his incredibly smug nature and the fact that his victories are invalidated by the fact that his opposition is a team of incompetent jackasses, thus mostly succeeding more out of their own failures than anything else.

{{quote| '''Burns:''' Oh, those wheels are squeaking a bit. Perhaps I could sell him a little oil.}}

:: However he met his downfall at the fact he was too impulsive. As he later admits in the second of the two parter, nobody could touch him so he felt like he could do anything. He spots Maggie holding a lollipop and decided to act something he wanted to do earlier: steal candy from a baby. During the struggle, the gun he was holding slip out of his holster and into Maggie's hand, accidentally going off and shooting Burns.

*** Accident nothing, it is quite likely from her [[Little Miss Badass]] role in the show that Maggie did that on purpose. It would not be the only time she deliberately shot someone. It is also quite likely that it was not about his trying to steal candy from her so much as everything else she did (note her angry facial expression in the town hall meeting right after what Marge said; Maggie seemed to understand on at least some level what is going on, which would fit right into her [[Wise Beyond Their Years]] portrayal.

** Russ Cargill, the [[Big Bad]] of [[The Movie]], is quite the Smug Snake himself.

** Justin from the previous season also qualifies. He boasts about being a great, manipulative strategist but it turns out that he's [[The Brainless Beauty]] whose manipulations rely solely on his good looks. When his face gets damaged, he barely poses a threat.

* In ''[[Chalk Zone]]'', Reggie Bullnerd is ''very'' clearly stupid, but thinks he's smarter than he is anyway.

{{reflist}}