A fun type of character is the Comedy Villain. This is not a comic relief character in a more serious story; this is the Villain in a Comedic story or series. Actually, they MIGHT be the funniest character - but we'll get to that in a bit.
The legendary comedy writer Robert Smigel (famously the voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog) said that it was Mike Myers who “cracked the code” as far as the movies being written at that time - when Myers wrote Austin Powers, his masterstroke was to make the villain just as funny as the comedy hero…or even funnier, in the case of some of these villains.
In this interview, Smigel was talking about a lot of the SNL writers who were trying to write movies at the time - I thought of the comedies around that time, like Billy Madison, Dirty Work, Tommy Boy and Wayne's World. All of those comedies had funny, goofy heroes, and villains played by talented actors. But the villains were not really funny. They may have had a couple moments, but they were not funny overall.
It was Austin Powers, with his nemesis Dr. Evil, who was a revelation in a way, that the bad guy could be funny as well.
Granted, the goofy hero going up against the normal world and the serious villain - there's a place for that.
But I agree that having a comedic villain elevates a comedy.
Top Picks:
Doctor Evil (The Austin Powers trilogy)
I'll list him first because I already mentioned him. He's the main reason the Austin Powers movies work. A stodgy, awkward, clueless counterpoint to Austin Powers, Doctor Evil is also played by Mike Myers. People probably know this, but the performance is actually an impression of SNL head honcho Lorne Michaels. I can't hear Michaels talk without hearing Dr. Evil.
Biff Tannen (The Back to the Future trilogy)
I love the Biff character and performance. He's completely nasty, the ultimate bully. I always thought Thomas Wilson should have gotten a bigger career after this amazing performance as Biff (I think he does have a fine career - he's done plenty of stuff as an actor and is also a stand up comedian - but his role as Biff may have been so outstanding that it overshadowed everything else). He's actually quite threatening when he needs to be, and also very funny when needed. The humbled version of Biff in a certain timeline is actually pretty gentle (though he may be pretending…)
White Goodman (Dodgeball)
This is what gave me the idea for this article. I'd always thought of Biff as the ultimate comedic villain, but White might give him a run for his money. The corporate jerk, chauvanistic, fitness-obsessed super-alpha male, moron weirdo is so completely nasty and hysterically played by Ben Stiller. The rumors of a Dodgeball sequel don't seem too solid, and don't have me too excited - but the one upside would be getting to see this character again.
One similarity about these guys is that they're not HARMLESS, necessarily. They're pretty scary, and could do great damage. A big point of similarity is that their aggressive, strong exteriors have emotional, vulnerable jelly just under the surface.
Anyway, that's it, buttheads. Do you have a comedy villain that you're a fan of?
See you next time!
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The Comedy Villain
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 18, 2024
2 likes!
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Banes at 3:27PM, Jan. 18, 2024
MOrgan - nice pull!! A classic!
Banes at 3:26PM, Jan. 18, 2024
@PaulEberhardt - good call on Gargamel and the animated classic villain/Protagonists like Wile E. Coyote! I had trouble thinking of a female version, too. Meryl Streep played one in Death Becomes Her (as did Goldie Hawn). Maybe Pearl in MST3K, who took over Dr. Forester’s villainous role at a certain point.
Banes at 3:22PM, Jan. 18, 2024
@JohnCelestri - a classic! Hook can lean to funny and to dangerous and scary quite handily (er…so to speak).
Banes at 3:20PM, Jan. 18, 2024
@marcorossi - there is a “straight man” version villains in a lot of comedies for sure - with the goofball hero going up against the straight-laced world and the nasty, ‘normal’ villain.
Banes at 3:18PM, Jan. 18, 2024
@bravo - ah, the mention of Mel Brooks makes me think if the trio of comedy villains in Spaceballs. They definitely fit the bill for what I was getting at here!
MOrgan at 11:54AM, Jan. 18, 2024
Doctor Chaotica (Star Trek: Voyager)
PaulEberhardt at 10:27AM, Jan. 18, 2024
My first thought went to comics and animated cartoons, too, to Gargamel from "the Smurfs", for instance. Or Wile E. Coyote, or Tom the cat, even if they're villain and protagonist in one. Originally, I was going to say that a comedy villain is what you get when you try to create a classic villain, realise how ridiculous he and his schemes are (there certainly are female exceptions, but most comedy villains seem to be men for some reason) and then heroically save the plot by going all the way with that aspect - but I'm not so sure after some thought. I think the really great artistic achievement with a character like Dr Evil is that he's funny as hell but not in any way accidentally likeable because of that, like the cartoon characters I mentioned (except for Gargamel, some would say, but I can't help feeling sorry for him sometimes).
JohnCelestri at 7:12AM, Jan. 18, 2024
Coming from the animation world (and children's stage play circa 1904), I think of J. M. Barrie's Captain Hook as one of the original comedic villains.
marcorossi at 4:15AM, Jan. 18, 2024
One of my favourite comedic villain was Commissioner Dreyfus from the Pink Panther movie serie (in one of the movies he was the actual bad guy), the fun part of it was him playing straight man vs Cluseau, so this "straight man" thing is also something that can work for comedic villains.
bravo1102 at 1:05AM, Jan. 18, 2024
You forgot the greatest comedic villain of all time and the most dangerous because he is a complete psychopath. The Joker. A lot of today's comic villains almost seem like homages or tributes to the villains in the old Batman series or the nutty incompetent Nazis of Hogan's Heroes and even KAOS from Get Smart. Mel Brooks has done his share of comic villains too but then in a Mel Brooks movie nearly everyone gets a laugh line. Count De Money, Hedley Lamar? One of the greatest portrayers of comic villains will always be the great Harvey Korman.