The Family for the Whole Family: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

In the 1990s, it was popular to add these characters to [[Dom Com]] movies to pad the script with villains for a ''[[Home Alone]]''-inspired climax. Just to drive home the point of them being totally superfluous to the point of the movie, they are totally absent from most trailers and summaries of the film - only existing for some B-plot slapstick gags to add an extra 20 minutes on to what would otherwise be only 1 hour of screentime.

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* The Air Pirates in ''[[Porco Rosso]]'' aren't very skilled, either. Curtis was more dangerous then the whole bunch of them.

** The pirates seem less effectual than they actually are because we only ever see them fighting Porco, who is quite possibly the most skilled ace in the Mediterranean. At the beginning of the film, the Mama Aiuto Gang manages to heist a cargo ship and take a group of schoolgirls hostage. Given, the girls proceed to walk all over them, but that illustrates their latent honorable tendencies.

** Giovanni straddles both sides of the line, actually. First off, there's especially his sinister and monomaniacal side which he showcased on the Mewtwo movies. And then...there are scenes...like...you know when... [[Fetish Fuel|That hunkahunka manloaf is covered with insect Pokemon]], and his Greek god body in general. Of course, his random bouts of Pokemon-related psychosis can also make him [[Nightmare Fuel|seem more scary to some.]] Never get between a man and his dreams...[[Berserk Button|or obsessions, after all.]]

*** The scenes mentioned were only [[Imagine Spot|Meowth's boss fantasies]]. ([[Ho Yay|Take that as you will.]]) Though who knows what Giovanni does in his spare time...

* The Oedo Family in ''[[Gokusen]]''. The town's people loves them, the grandfather utterly loves his granddaughter, and they are ready to help anyway they can. Did I mention they are one of the most powerful yakuzas in Japan?

 

 

== Films ==

** Even RJ Fletcher couldn't get them off for murder, especially considering what happens to him at the end, they were just being (rightfully) cautious and using their guns to intimidate. It's not as funny as having them be just plain incompetent though.

** By the time the goons got "Supplised!" it looked they really were ready to just shoot George and Stanley.

** By that same token, the bumbling spies from ''[[Home Alone]] 3''. Bumbling burglars are believable; but the inherent stupidity of a band of highly-trained secret agents doing anything other than simply shooting the little brat between his eyes caused most viewers to pretend this installment [[Fanon Discontinuity|never happened]].

** Actually, the ends of both Harry and Marv's appearances subvert this trope. They eventually ''do'' catch the kid, and they ''are'' planning to kill him (with [[Cold-Blooded Torture]] in the first one), and they're only stopped by the intervention of an adult.

** They still play it straight enough by falling for said traps repeatedly.

* Ma Fratelli and her sons from ''[[The Goonies]]'', in this case a ''literal'' family fit for the whole family.

* The idiot kidnappers from ''Baby's Day Out''.

* The mafia mooks in ''[[Man Of The House]]''.

* Pulled off substantially better in ''[[Flushed Away]]'': the main minions are rats, but later a frog hitman shows up, along with [[Acceptable Targets|French]] [[McNinja|ninja-frogs]]. It would be kind of mean except that their leader is voiced by French-Moroccan actor Jean Reno, who's clearly in on the joke.

* ''[[Three Ninjas]]''; an entire movie series where FREAKIN' NINJAS are effortlessly defeated by children, who realistically, would get slaughtered like helpless puppies. Particularly pathetic in the case of Tum-Tum, the youngest of the group, who looks to be about only five years old. Sure the ninjas in the films weren't exactly of the finest order (wearing black outfits in broad daylight, among other things), but still the idea that a small child can beat up legions of grown men, trained to be dangerous combatants, gets a little ridiculous really quickly. He even rated second place on [http://www.cracked.com/article_16433_6-supposed-action-heroes-you-could-probably-take-in-fight_p2.html 6 Supposed Action Heroes You Could Probably Take In A Fight].

* The movie musical ''[[Bugsy Malone]]'', with its rival gangs of kids whose Tommy guns fire custard instead of bullets.

* The Rat Pack, particularly in ''[[Robin And The Seven Hoods]]'' and the original ''Ocean's Eleven''.

* The sharks in ''[[Shark Tale]]''.

* A group of mobsters help out [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] and Vanessa Williams in ''[[Eraser]]''. They're a bit of a subversion in that they're fairly competent when they have to be (skillfully slaughtering their more evil counterparts), but they're still pretty stupid much of the time.

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Guys and Dolls]]'' has Big Jule from Chicago. Although he carries a gun, he only uses its existence to threaten people and is easily disarmed with one punch.

* While not as inept as other examples, the Mob in the ''[[Myth Adventures]]'' novels is bizarrely gullible, falling for even more elementary con games than the series' average villains.

** The Diversity Alliance, a human-hating Marxist group in Young Jedi Knights. Being a children's book, yeah.

** The Lost Tribe of the Sith, who don't seem as dark as Bane's Sith, Kun's Sith, or Lumiya's Sith. That said, they have plans to use Ben's DNA to create a master race of Sith.

 

 

 

== Video Games ==

* The ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' games have Sonny Resetti, a gangsterish mole who blows up at players who shut down without saving, but never does anything to them. Which is good, because you'll see him even if the game froze and you ''couldn't'' save.

** Probably more related to this trope (how is Resetti gangsterish?) would be "Crazy Redd", a fox who runs a furniture black market. Complete with needing a password to get in, police on the watch for him, and the occasional painting bought from him being a forgery. However, most of this is played for laughs, and if you have good insurance, you'll get refunded (at least some) for the phony paintings.

* Almost all of the [[Mooks|Grunts of various teams]] from [[Pokémon]]. They never truly pose a threat past Poisoning all of your Pokémon to a knockout with their [[Goddamn Bats|Goddamn Zubat]]. Once you get to the Commanders, Admins, and Leaders, though...

** In the games, Giovanni of Team Rocket is just plain ''bad''. The first two times you run into him, he threatens that he will make you "experience a world of pain!" Yeah, that guy threatens an eleven year old with physical violence.

 

 

** ''The Simpsons'' mafia can be consider something of a subversion, as some of the stuff they do is ridiculous and played for laughs, and other stuff is actually violent or highly illegal (like making loans and beating people when they can't pay them, or rigging sports events) yet [[Crosses the Line Twice|it's also played for laughs]].

** The robot Mafia plays this up. The entire mafia is only three robots. They act tough, but so far they haven't killed anybody onscreen. They machine gunned a robot who owed them in their first appearance, but being a robot, he just got back up. One of them mentions giving somebody [[Cement Shoes]], which he enjoyed, because they were lighter than his lead ones. They came pretty close to burning the Planet Express crew up though, and they would have killed Flexo if Bender hadn't bent the unbendable girder they dropped on him.

** [[Blatant Lies|Yes...garbage collecting]].

*** Subsequent episodes (as well as the premiere) show that yes, Big Daddy's company ''does'' do actual garbage collecting, just...with mob-like tactics and some gangster work on the side.

[[Category:Criminals]]

[[Category:Organized Crime Tropes]]