History BadBoss / WesternAnimation

** In "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS1E7LastOfHerKind Last of Her Kind]]", Looten Plunder makes his employees pay for the vehicles Captain Planet wrecked. When one of them, Belo, [[ForcedIntoEvil asks how he'll feed his family]], Plunder flatly states that he'll probably do so poorly if he doesn't obey orders.

** [[Characters/TheSimpsonsCharlesMontgomeryBurns Mr Burns]] is a classical stereotype of the Bad Boss. In fact, he's ''such'' a Bad Boss that he's fired Smithers -- the only man who (usually) has UndyingLoyalty to him -- ''twice''. Worse, he's been known, out of sheer sadism, to drop certain of his employees down a seemingly bottomless trapdoor -- with the express intention of killing them [[DisneyDeath (although they inevitably survive)]].

* The Shredder has never been regarded as a good boss in any continuity, but [[Characters/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003TheShredder the incarnation of him]] in [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 the 2003 cartoon]] has the distinction of having minions killed offscreen. When his number one scientist Baxter Stockman (who is not replaceable) bothers him, Shredder has various body parts lopped off. [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter When a much better scientist]] named Chaplin enters the show, Stockman starts sabotaging him because he knows Shredder won't have any use for him if there is somebody around who can do his job better. Even his loyal minion Hun isn't safe from his abuse, Shredder once beating him for walking in on a meeting with the mayor. Shredder might have had a reason,[[note]]Hun was part of a known street gang and his presence could blow the lid on Shredder's criminal activities.[[/note]] but he still beat an underling who stayed loyal to him despite feeling threatened he might be replaced.

* [[Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsMrKrabs Mr. Krabs]] from ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' has become this, not caring about his employees or his customers and willing to do anything to get a buck, even poison them. And things have been worse since the titular sponge himself has become an ExtremeDoormat and YesMan to him when before he would call him out on his methods. Of course, he showed some shades of this even prior to {{Flanderization}}; as shown in "Squid on Strike," he decides to start charging [=SpongeBob=] and Squidward for ''any'' non-work activity, such as talking, breathing, and ''existing''. He even once sold his soul to the Flying Dutchman for the ability to talk to money. When the Flying Dutchman comes to claim his soul, he is told to wait in line behind 20 other demons who Mr. Krabs also sold his soul to -- including [=SpongeBob=] because he'd rather give him his soul on payday than actual money.
** In the "Krabby Caper" episode, when several false leads has not lead to finding the thief that stole the secret ingredient to the secret Krabby Patty formula, Mr. Krabs deduces that [=SpongeBob=] was the thief all along, and calls the cops on him. When it's pointed out that Mr. Krabs is holding the bottle containing the ingredient, he confesses that he planned to [[FrameUp pin the blame on SpongeBob for the theft so as not to pay the cost of the bottle, $1.99.]]
** In ''The Krabby Kronicle,'' Mr. Krabs forces [=SpongeBob=] to publish [[BlatantLies outlandish stories]] in his tabloids' newspaper that results in the reputations, and lives, destroyed of several Bikini Bottom residents. Eventually, [[TheDogBitesBack SpongeBob gets fed up with Mr. Krabs' callous attitude about everyone else]], and because [[IHaveYourWife he held SpongeBob's spatula hostage.]]

** In "Krabs vs Plankton" when Plankton sues Mr. Krabs to get the secret formula, [=SpongeBob=] brings Squidward to the witness stand. [=SpongeBob=] asks Squidward disprove that Mr. Krabs is cheap, and to prove he's generous, but Squidward agrees with and disproves the corresponding questions, and tells the court that he had to go to court and testify on his first day off in three years.

* Chief and Lok from the ''WesternAnimation/TakAndThePowerOfJuju'' animated series.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' main villain, The Shredder, has never been regarded as a good boss in any continuity, but in the ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'', [[Characters/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003TheShredder The Shredder]] qualifies by having minions killed offscreen. And when his number one scientist Baxter Stockman (who was not replaceable) bothered him, Shredder had various body parts lopped off. [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter When a much better scientist]] named Chaplin enters the show, Stockman starts sabotaging him because he knows Shredder won't have any use for him if there is somebody around who can do his job better.
** Even his loyal minion Hun isn't safe from his abuse, Shredder once beating him for walking in on a meeting with the mayor. Shredder might have had a reason [[note]]Hun was part of a known street gang and his presence could blow the lid on Shredder's criminal activities[[/note]], but he still beat an underling who stayed loyal to him despite feeling threatened he might be replaced.
** [[Characters/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012TheShredder The Shredder]] in the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 2012 cartoon]] regularly threatens to mutilate his subordinates if they don't pull through, including [[AbusiveParents his own daughter Karai]]. Of course, when compared to his [=2003=] counterpart, he's a BenevolentBoss, as despite all of his threats, he has yet to actually follow up on them.
** Krang in the first cartoon is very much this to Shredder; He's insulting, and doesn't hesitate to make Shredder's life miserable if he think he can get away with it. The second season opens with Krang sending Shredder to Earth without any weapons or soldiers, and in another episode makes him wait for supplies on a garbage barge. Shredder makes it clear that Krang's technology is the only thing making this abuse remotely worthwhile.

* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'': [[Characters/BigCityGreensChipWhistler Chip Whistler]] regularly yells at, abuses, and threatens his {{Mook}}s, Greg and Rose (eventually firing them and replacing them with bouncers), and all of his other employees. It gets worse when he becomes CEO of Wholesome Foods, as his obsession with getting back at the Greens causes him to neglect his duties; when people remind him of the work he's not doing, he whines and says getting revenge on the Greens is more important. Essentially, the company is now under the control of a spoiled little boy. A good example of his treatment towards his employees comes from "Feud Fight" after Tilly and Cricket manage to lure more people by using Tilly's cuteness, Chip yells at his employee disguised as Tomato-san that he's fired and pushes him down:

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': {{Downplayed|Trope}} with Silco. Silco does not really tolerate failure and berates or even threatens his underlings for it, displaying NoSympathy. However, he is often willing to give second chances or have his workers be useful in other ways.

** Archer treats Woodhouse like dirt, and openly steals whatever he wants from the guy. He even thought Woodhouse was a slave until the end of Season 2. Goes to massive levels of Jerkass when Woodhouse is planning on going to Vegas with his younger brother Dicky who he hadn't seen in 20 years and likely won't see for another 20 years (Keep in mind that Woodhouse is very very elderly) Archer denies him from going and instead goes to Vegas himself with Woodhouse's brother, and ends up getting Dicky arrested then just leaves him for dead in the slammer.
* Azula from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' in her first appearance threatened to kill the captain of her ship because he said that he wouldn't be able to dock as soon as she wanted because of the tide. She gets even worse after [[spoiler:[[EtTuBrute Mai and Ty Lee betray her]]]], after which accidentally leaving the pit in one of her cherries is a banishable offense. And that was her being ''lenient''!

** ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has Zaheer, who eliminates Red Lotus members who prove to be liabilities. Case in point, Zaheer throws [[spoiler:Aiwei]] into the Fog of Lost Souls, because the latter failed to make sure that Zaheer's group captured the Avatar without a hitch, not to mention that he failed to properly cover their tracks.
** Also from ''Korra'', Kuvira's approach to military discipline involves getting her troops to wear metal near their necks, so if someone -- Varrick, for example -- proves inconvenient, she can apply the [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader approach to discipline]] (non-lethally, but only because Varrick stopped trying to disagree). Kuvira is, to put it mildly, incredibly ruthless about her goals. [[spoiler:She even attempted to blow up her fiance because the most dangerous of her enemies were within the blast radius, although she did appear sad about it.]]

* Vilgax in ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' was apparently so much of a bad boss (though being TheDreaded doesn't help either) that no one is actually willing to work for him, forcing him to rely on MechaMooks as his personal army. Considering the only time mercenaries worked for him onscreen, he was willing to send his droids against them in order to test them, it probably indeed sucks working for this guy.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has Queen Chrysalis, who doesn't even bother to come off as a good leader, as she fails so much at doing so, and is obviously unpleasant to her fellow changelings. To say they instantly accepted a new ruler when Chrysalis was overthrown would be an understatement.

** Mr Burns is a classical stereotype of the Bad Boss. In fact, he's ''such'' a Bad Boss that he's fired Smithers -- the only man who (usually) has UndyingLoyalty to him -- ''twice''. Worse, he's been known, out of sheer sadism, to drop certain of his employees down a seemingly bottomless trapdoor -- with the express intention of killing them [[DisneyDeath (although they inevitably survive)]].

* Mr. Krabs from ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' has become this, not caring about his employees or his customers and willing to do anything to get a buck, even poison them. And things have been worse since the titular sponge himself has become an ExtremeDoormat and YesMan to him when before he would call him out on his methods. Of course, he showed some shades of this even prior to {{Flanderization}}; as shown in "Squid on Strike," he decides to start charging [=SpongeBob=] and Squidward for ''any'' non-work activity, such as talking, breathing, and ''existing''. He even once sold his soul to the Flying Dutchman for the ability to talk to money. When the Flying Dutchman comes to claim his soul, he is told to wait in line behind 20 other demons who Mr. Krabs also sold his soul to -- including [=SpongeBob=] because he'd rather give him his soul on payday than actual money.

* General Grievous, as shown in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', frequently exhibits this kind of behaviour. Any of the random battle droids are prone to getting their heads backhanded right off their shoulders when they screw up (which is a lot), and when his smuggler contact Gha Nachkt got a little uppity, he ''impaled him with a lightsaber''. The former is explained in the bonus material as him really hating droids, and as for the latter, well, one should know to be more polite towards a psychotic murderer of billions.
** Dooku who went on and [[ShootTheDangerousMinion tried to kill Ventress]], when his own Bad Boss, Darth Sidious ordered him to do it.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' main villain, The Shredder, has never been regarded as a good boss in any continuity, but in the ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'', he qualifies by having minions killed offscreen. And when his number one scientist Baxter Stockman (who was not replaceable) bothered him, Shredder had various body parts lopped off. [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter When a much better scientist]] named Chaplin enters the show, Stockman starts sabotaging him because he knows Shredder won't have any use for him if there is somebody around who can do his job better.

** The Shredder in the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 2012 cartoon]] regularly threatens to mutilate his subordinates if they don't pull through, including [[AbusiveParents his own daughter Karai]]. Of course, when compared to his [=2003=] counterpart, he's a BenevolentBoss, as despite all of his threats, he has yet to actually follow up on them.

** Heather's treatment of Lindsay and Beth in Island is almost criminal. In fact, she's this almost every time she takes charge of her team. In the episode "If You Can't Take The Heat...", she declares herself the Screaming Gophers' head chef for the cooking challenge, making Leshawna chop pineapples (which she's allergic to) and wasting time ordering Owen to get her makeup bag from the cabin. Leshawna gets tired of it and locks her in the freezer.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/{{Villainous}}'' with Black Hat, a GodOfEvil who runs his own EvilInc. As the AnthropomorphicPersonification of CartoonishSupervillainy, he's compelled to abuse his employees physically and emotionally in amusing ways. TheChewToy [[MadScientist Dr. Flug]] receives the brunt of it, with Black Hat doing everything from magically dismembering him to [[EvilIsPetty spoiling the finale to his favorite show]].

* The Monarch from ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' also fits this trope, and manages to look funny while doing it because he's so ''bad'' at being a villain. [[NotSoHarmlessVillain Or so it would seem...]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': The Big Bad of every season is this trope, which is why the Enforcers decide to join Jackie’s side during season 4. Though it’s played with regarding Valmont and Tarakudo, both of whom promised to reward them for their efforts in helping them.

*** In "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlanteersS1E3BeastOfTheTemple Beast of the Temple]]", Rigger grabs onto Greedly and begs him to save him after his boss provokes Gi into flooding the base. Greedly dismisses him and says he's saving himself, though he's too busy hanging on to a pipe to try to throw him off.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama''

** Heather treatment of Lindsay and Beth in Island was almost criminal. In fact, she's this almost every time she takes charge of her team. In the episode "If You Can't Take The Heat...", she declares herself the Screaming Gophers' head chef for the cooking challenge, making Leshawna chop pineapples (which she's allergic to) and wasting time ordering Owen to get her makeup bag from the cabin. Leshawna gets tired of it and locks her in the freezer.

* Buck Strickland from ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' is an uncharacteristic example: he's extremely affable, but also MrViceGuy, using company funds for his own enrichment (among other poor business decisions) and having affairs with his younger female employees. Hank [[MyMasterRightOrWrong still respects him]], but only due to a fair amount of {{Doublethink}}; Buck himself seems to realize that the company would collapse without Hank there to run it for him.

** This was humorously referenced in the "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E5TreehouseOfHorrorIV Treehouse of Horror IV]]" segment "Bart Simpson's Dracula" in which it turns out Mr. Burns is a Dracula-like vampire -- and, when Lisa tells Homer that he must stake Burns through the heart as he's sleeping in order to undo all the evil the vampires have done, Homer is pretty eager to do so -- not because Burns turned Bart into a vampire, but simply because [[AcceptableTargets he's Homer's boss]], and killing him would be "[living] out the American Dream." But it's no use: Homer does kill Burns, but just after he has appeared to die -- and literally one second before he dissolves into dust -- Burns very briefly comes back from the dead just to say "You're fired" -- drawing a "D'oh!" from Homer.