Photo credit – Pexels, cottonbro studio
by Debbie Burke
@burke_writer
Why do we love comic villains?
In a real world full of genuinely evil villains, comic villains are a welcome relief because they make us laugh.
Humor is their superpower. They literally and figuratively DIS-ARM us. As reprehensible as their actions are, we can’t be all that angry with them because we’re laughing too hard.
Comic villains are like the bratty little kid caught stealing sweets. They are more often impish than truly malicious.
Readers and movie viewers typically don’t take comic villains seriously because they’re often lousy criminals. They’re buffoons whose sloppy schemes go awry. Their supposedly clever strategies explode in their faces. Their mistakes get them knocked on their butts.
The crime they set out to accomplish rarely succeeds. When they’re caught, they try to explain their way out with silly rationalizations and hilarious justifications.
Because comic villains are so unskillful at their profession, they reassure us that bad guys will be caught and held accountable for their crimes. Yet, because they’re entertaining, we don’t wish harsh punishment on them.
American author O. Henry (1862-1910) created a pair of memorable comic villains in “The Ransom of Red Chief,” a short story first published in 1907 in the Saturday Evening Post. I wrote about it here.
Bill and Sam are two smalltime criminals who concoct a ransom scheme to earn quick, easy money. They kidnap the 10-year-old son (nicknamed “Red Chief”) of a wealthy businessman and hold the kid for $2000 ransom. But Red Chief proves to be a “forty-pound chunk of freckled wildcat” who torments his captors so viciously that they soon reduce the ransom amount.
Turns out Red Chief’s father doesn’t particularly want his son back and makes a counteroffer. Ultimately, instead of getting rich quick, Bill and Sam pay the father $250 to take the brat off their hands.
Danny_DeVito_by_Gage_Skidmore cc by sa3.0
Kidnapping plots gone awry became popular films, including Ruthless People (1986), starring Danny DeVito and Bette Midler; Raising Arizona (1987) with Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter; and Dog Eat Dog (2016), Cage again and Willem Dafoe.
Film is a natural medium to showcase comic villains because humor depends a lot on timing, facial expressions, and gestures. But skilled authors can do that on the page.
Have you ever sat next to a reader on a plane who chuckled throughout the flight? They might be reading Janet Evanovich, Carl Hiaasen, the late Tim Dorsey, or other authors who carved out niches with funny crime novels. Some of the most enjoyable book recommendations I’ve received came from seatmates.
Past and present Kill Zone contributors deliver laughs from Michelle Gagnon (what’s funnier than being the target of a serial killer?) and Elaine Viets (after working at a bridal salon, she wonders why there aren’t more murders).
The burglars in Home Alone. I watched that film all the way through this past Christmas for the first time.
Pat, great choice. Fun to watch the little boy who outsmarts the conniving adults.
Great introduction to The Villain’s Journey, Debbie. Can’t wait to get the book!
I always liked Wile E. Coyote in the Roadrunner cartoons. Coyote was always coming up with complicated schemes to catch the roadrunner, and they always backfired. Hilarious.
Kay, totally agree! Wile E. Coyote’s plans always blow up in his face:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R66Fvhx0vQ
What a fun post, Debbie! I’m very much looking forward to your book on villains.
Two of my favorite comedic villains from film:
Dr. Emilio Lizardo, played by John Lithgow, from the 1984 movie “The Adventures of Buckeroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Lizardo was a colleague of our hero Buckeroo’s father, and had a mishap with his attempt to breach the dimensional barrier and wound up having his mind being taken over by an alien megalomaniac, Lord John Worfin. The result is a pompous, sneering villain who in the best villain tradition personalizes his struggle to conquer, with some hilarious dialog delivered by Lithgow.
“May I pass along my congratulations for your great interdimensional breakthrough. I am sure, in the miserable annals of the Earth, you will be duly enshrined.”
“Laugh while you can, monkey boy!”
Then there’s the Chinese sorcerer Lo Pan, played to a tee by the great James Hong in the 1985 “Big Trouble in Little China.” He wants to break an ancient curse so he can enjoy his immortality rather than being trapped in his ancient body. He has kidnapped a green-eyed beauty to sacrifice to his god in order to break the curse. He is opposed by a lug of a long-haul trucker, Jack Burton, a legend in his own mind, played by Kurt Russell who is boggled when he discovers the ancient old guy in the wheel chair is the villain.
Jack Burton: “I don’t get this at all. I thought Lo Pan—.”
David Lo Pan: “Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!”
Jack Burton. “2000 years, he can’t find one broad to fit the bill? Come on, Dave, you must be doing something seriously wrong!
Lo Pan: “There have been others, to be sure. There are always others. But you know, Mr. Burton, the difficulties between men and women. How seldom it works out? Yet we all keep trying, like fools”
Thanks, Dale!
When Buckaroo Banzai came out, we were friends with a couple of young Navy lieutenants who were big fans. They constantly quoted from the movie and called everyone “Monkey Boy.”
Fun quotes. Lo Pan could be talking about writers, “we all keep trying, like fools.” 😉
A TV show cartoon, PHINEAS AND FERB. Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz is an evil scientist who wants to take over the Tri-state Area, defeat his nemesis Perry the Platypus, and connect with his teen daughter. He has the tragic backstory of an unwanted child whose parents forced him to dress as a gnome because they’d lost theirs among other atrocities. He does great backstory songs. I highly recommend the series for kids and adults. Extremely clever.
I’ve heard of it, Marilynn, but never saw it. Will look it up. Sounds like a hoot.