History CardCarryingVillain / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' is this for the most part. While every now and then he's shown imagining himself as a vigilante superhero, most of the time he's shown as being well aware that he's a monstrous psychopath, just one with a little more self-control than those he targets. Obviously he can't really go out and ''say'' it to anyone except those who end up on his table, however...

* Alex Russo in ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''. Whenever someone refers to her as evil, dark, or scary, she just grins and/or giggles. She actively encourages her unpopularity at school and deliberately provokes fights with her brother, Justin, because "that's how things are supposed to be".

* In ''Film/TheChristmasThatAlmostWasnt'', Prune hates compliments and kindness and enjoys being called evil.

* Alex Russo in ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''. Whenever someone refers to her as evil, dark, or scary, she just grins and/or giggles. She actively encourages her CoolLoser status at school and deliberately provokes fights with her brother, Justin, because "that's how things are supposed to be".

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' gives all its villains a few sympathetic moments or redemptive qualities, or at least some motivations beyond just evil for evil's sake, except for one: [[Literature/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians Cruella De Ville]]. She's a manipulative, hedonistic psychopath who does whatever she wants, which is usually hurting other people for giggles, and she'll straight up admit it too. When [[Literature/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]] confronts Cruella about what happened to her daughter after they both fell through a portal to Earth, Cruella casually replies "I'm a really terrible person, and I left her in the woods to die". A flashback showing her origin at first suggests she was twisted into a monster by an abusive mother who left her locked in an attic, but it's later revealed that Cruella was a monster from birth who murdered her father and her mother's two subsequent husbands just for the hell of it, and her mother was trying to keep the world safe from her.

* ''''Series/OnceUponATime'' gives all its villains a few sympathetic moments or redemptive qualities, or at least some motivations beyond just evil for evil's sake, except for one: [[Literature/OneHundredAndOmeDalmations Cruella De Ville]]. She's a manipulative, hedonistic psychopath who does whatever she wants, which is usually hurting other people for giggles, and she'll straight up admit it too. When [[Literature/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]] confronts Cruella about what happened to her daughter after they both fell through a portal to Earth, Cruella casually replies "I'm a really terrible person, and I left her in the woods to die". A flashback showing her origin at first suggests she was twisted into a monster by an abusive mother who left her locked in an attic, but it's later revealed that Cruella was a monster from birth who murdered her father and her mother's two subsequent husbands just for the hell of it, and her mother was trying to keep the world safe from her.

-->'''Literature/SherlockHolmes:''' [[YoureInsane You're]] ''[[YoureInsane insane]]''.
-->'''Moriarty:''' [[InsultBackfire You're just getting that now?]]
* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', while ComicBook/LexLuthor is usually a VillainWithGoodPublicity, when he is [[spoiler:split into good and evil sides, evil Lex]] utters the classic line.

* Doctor Chaotica from ''Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainProton'' ShowWithinAShow on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' is your typical retro sci-fi villain.
* Defied by Quark in Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine, in "The Sound of Her Voice", with the following exchange:
-->'''JAKE:''' Quark, listen. I'm working on a crime novel but I've hit a wall in my writing. It's not truthful anymore. Phony, artificial. I'm having trouble creating real, flesh and blood characters, especially nefarious ones. If you could just let me just watch and listen as you pull off whatever it is you're going to pull off, it could really help me out. You could give me insight. I could even model my lead character after you.
-->'''QUARK:''' Lesson number one. No one involved in an extralegal activity thinks of themselves as nefarious.
-->'''JAKE:''' Sorry.
-->'''QUARK:''' I'm a businessman, okay? Now, if you're interested in learning more about my business, I think that could be arranged.

* Alex Russo in ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''. Whenever someone refers to her as evil, dark, or scary, she just grins and/or giggles. She actively encourages her CoolLoser status at school and deliberately provokes fights with her brother, Justin, because "that's how things are supposed to be".
* Soap Operas in general tend to have at least one.
** The archetype of the male villain is a extremely rich man who is either the president or a high rank in a huge company of sorts. He is married to his job. When he's not working, he is either abusing his family or developing evil schemes to mess with everyone else. Whenever he appears and is about to mess with someone, ominous music will start playing. He's meant to be hated by the audience, but if he doesn't get enough attention, he might go through a life-changing event in which he becomes poor, starts wearing light-colored clothing, and becomes one of the hero or heroine's allies.
** The female archetype is a leech off of her extremely rich husband, who is either another card-carrying villain or the personification of good and completely oblivious to his wife's malice. Instead of being addicted to work, she tends to dedicate herself to manipulating and abusing everyone around her. Extremely possessive. If her husband is the stereotypical good guy, she will always be betraying him with a buff man who is as evil as herself and is there to fulfill her never-ending lust. Rarely goes through the life-changing events that might happen with the male villain, but enough disapproval of the audience might result in a TragicPast being revealed.

-->'''Crowley''': Patience is not one of my virtues. Well, I don't have any virtues, but if I did, I'm sure patience wouldn't be one.

** We see [[spoiler:where Crowley gets it from]] in "Inside Man".
-->'''Dean''': Rowena! What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? Oh, did I say "nice girl"? I meant "evil skank."\\
'''Rowena''': You say that like it's an insult.
** Lucifer was portrayed as a KnightTemplar originally, [[spoiler:but he seems to have become this some time between "Swan Song" and "The Devil In The Details", as he openly acknowledges in the latter that he's "not the good guy."]]

* The 1979 game show ''Series/{{Whew}}'' had a bonus game where a contestant had to get by ten cartoon cut-out ne'er-do-wells called the Gauntlet of Villains. Their bellies had a monitor that flashed out smart aleck insults before and after the round, and the correct answer to the questions if the contestant gets it wrong.