History HarmlessVillain / WesternAnimation

** The Toilenator is so pathetic, he can't even claim the title of Best Toilet-Based Villain. In "Operation: A.W.A.R.D.S.", he was nominated for the title in an awards ceremony held by the other villains but lost to Potty Mouth.

** The ''Anime/DemashitaPowerpuffGirlsZ'' version of the Ameoba Boys have a better grasp of how to be villains, but since they're just barely visible to the naked eye, it's impossible for anyone to take them seriously.

** Their sole appearance in WesternAnimation/TheTwistedTalesOfFelixTheCat, the episode "Attack of the Robot Rat", parodies the formula of the Joe Oriolo cartoons by taking Professor's hopelessness at defeating Felix and playing it for (rather mean-spirited) laughs[[note]]The episode [[WriterRevolt was apparently written as a]] TakeThat towards the series--most of the staff openly hated the Joe Oriolo Felix and that the second season of Twisted Tales was forced to be more like that show than the original Felix the Cat cartoons[[/note]]. Professor is now a washed up old coot living in a derelict apartment with Rock Bottom, and after he tries to defeat Felix with the eponymous giant robot, Felix, in an uncharacteristically mean moment, even takes time [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown to rub it in his face that he'll never beat him.]]
** With that said, Professor has proven in several episodes, be it as a whole or in moments, that he can be a NotSoHarmlessVillain when he gets his act together. In "Into Outer Space", he completely corners Felix in his lair [[CrazyPrepared by sealing off every possible exit (including a mousehole)]]—Felix only gets away because of a big lapse in judgement on Professor's part (namely, helplessly launching him off into outer space, which ultimately works out in Felix's favor). In "Blubberino the Whale", he sicks a killer shark after Felix and keeps him on the run. In "Captain No Kiddin", he keeps Felix on the ropes in a swordfight, successfully corners him on the bow of his pirate ship and knocks Felix's sword out of his hand. He manages to keep Felix on his guard again in "Moo Moo Island Oysters" with his Oyster Shocker. In "The Vacation Mirage", Professor has the deck completely stacked against Felix with his powerful Mirage maker, separating him from his Magic Bag in the middle of a very hot desert, and constantly tormenting him with a barrage of illusions that are so realistic, that Felix is powerless to break them—it was only by sheer dumb luck that he manages to defeat Professor (he stumbles across his lost bag and turns it into a plane, which accidentally crashes into the invisible machine).

* Freaky Fred, a oneshot villain from WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog, for the given value of villain. While he's definitely [[CloudCuckoolander eccentric]] and carries an all around creepy presence, he isn't evil and he doesn't even try to harm anyone he comes across--the only "threat" he poses is that he has a rather disturbing obsession with [[PokeThePoodle shaving all the hair off of people and animals]]. Heck, he gets defeated because he refuses to shave Courage's stubby tail, which he finds to be "weird".

* Eugene, AKA Bling-Bling Boy in ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest''. Johnny is both his archenemy and his only friend. Most of his evil ambitions are done solely for the purpose of getting a date with Susan. He eventually became much less of a villain, and stopped correcting people when they called him by his real name, Eugene.

** In season 3, Sergeant Hatred better qualifies for this trope. He signs up to be Dr. Venture's arch, but then resorts to extremely minor acts of villainy, such as lighting his front-yard shrubbery on fire. By the end of the season, he even lives on the Venture Compound and acts as an ad-hoc bodyguard in the absence of Brock Samson, who is working for an undercover vigilante society. Of course, he only did it to piss off The Monarch, who repeatedly stole tech from him.

* Duke Igthorn in ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'' was mostly cartoonishly harmless. At one point, he had captured Granni Bear, and was trying to extract the recipe for the [[SuperSerum Gummi Berry Juice]] from her. Rather than torture, he actually ''tickles her with feathers'' until she gives in. Thankfully, it was an incorrect recipe, proving that the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique (with feathers) is still useless. However, if one looks deeper, one can gain some respect for the man; he seems to keep a legion of superstrong ogres twice his size in line by mere force of personality, is never seen not wearing a suit of chainmail (which is HEAVY), and, at one point, knocks out two armed guards with his bare hands.

* The Amoeba Boys in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''. Their devious plans include crimes such as disobeying a "Keep off the grass" sign (*gasp*), jaywalking (*SHOCK*) and...dare we mention it?...''Littering'' (*DUN DUN DUN*). They only turned to such crimes after they tried, and ''failed'', to work up the courage to steal an orange from a produce stand.

** In "Supper Villain", the Girls' next-door neighbor Harold Smith gets bored with his mundane suburban life and becomes a supervillain, holding Professor Utonium hostage with a hair dryer he claimed was a raygun. He's thwarted first because his wife insists they finish dinner first, and then by a [[PieInTheFace pie fight]].

* It's pretty hard to bring oneself to hate some of the villains in the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' cartoons, because their idea of an evil scheme was to put on a monster costume and chase a bunch of hippies and dogs around. Not to mention, the motive of those in particular, is only to "scare people away" for some reason or other, and not kill like say involved in some kind of ludicrous real estate scheme where they really, really wanted to have the rights to some particular land/house, and thought the best way to do that was to put on a monster costume.

** The Toilenator is so pathetic, he can't even claim the title of Best Toilet-Based Villain. In "Operation: A.W.A.R.D.S." He was nominated for the title in an awards ceremony held by the other villains, but lost to Potty Mouth.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda'', "The Moblins Are Revolting", Ganon's minions grow tired of doing his bidding and manage to get rid of him (temporarily), then conduct their own attack on Hyrule Castle. ''Link and Zelda don't even stay to defend the castle'' because they know his minions pose no threat. The monsters wipe each other out in the process of trying to invade, and never get anywhere near the building.

* Finn, Ratso and Chow in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' should qualify. While they are, most of the time, serving the {{Big Bad}}s of each season, they serve, pretty much, as Jackie's punching bags. Even when Daolon Wong grants them demonic powers. They even had a few goes at a HeelFaceTurn, though it took the third time and the GrandFinale for it to stick (mostly because they were just as bad at being good as they were at being bad).

* Plankton from ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''. He has moments of competency, but even those don't go too well, mainly due to overconfidence or doing something so mundane, such as putting in a coin operated self-destruct mechanism, that his plans blow up in his face, figuratively and literally. This quip from Karen sums him up best:

* The Urpneys of ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone''. It takes a rather incompetant bunch of mooks to make a SugarBowl world like The Land Of Dreams come off as [[DisproportionateRetribution unneccessarily rough]] on them, and Zordrak's lazy, cowardly mooks fit that bill, spending most of their time grudgingly [[PokeThePoodle trying to give the population bad dreams]] before getting their ass handed to them by two {{Muggle|s}} Noop kids and their dogfish. Even the times they [[NotSoHarmlessVillain do actually prove formidable,]] they are [[CosmicPlaything constant victims of circumstance,]] fate always unraveling their schemes in [[BornLucky the heroes' favor.]]

** Ahuizotl, the villain of the [[ShowWithinAShow in-universe]] "Daring Do", comes off as this once it turns out he's RealAfterAll. Pretty much all of the other true villains that the Mane Six have encountered were highly dangerous -- the MadGod Discord, the love parasite Queen Chrysalis and the demonic world conqueror King Sombra. In comparison, Ahuizotl wants to use various stolen magical relics to cause an 800 year heatwave. Limited to one small, insignificant valley in an obscure pocket of Equestria... BigBad, he ain't. ZigZagged in that his arch-rival, Daring Do, treats him with all the seriousness of a real villain, but still, he most likely gets to keep up the villain schtick because he's too small-time for any Princess to deal with. [[spoiler:It's eventually subverted with the reveal that he was [[GoodAllAlong never a villain in the first place]] and merely a [[GoodIsNotNice extremely aggressive temple guardian]] thoroughly pissed off that ponies like Daring Do keep breaking into temples and stealing his stuff]].

* ''WesternAnimation/VictorAndHugo - Bunglers in Crime'' - despite being the alledged 'baddies' as their theme song suggests,they aren't exactly evil. The name of their 'No crime too small, no crime to big' company for hire is called 'Naughtiness International'. They never manage to pull off any crimes without mishap. On the rare ocassions they do, they always get arrested. Even stealing sweets from a sweet-shop was seen as a daring venture.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Olaf the emperor penguin, a MadScientist who tries to TakeOverTheWorld but never succeeds. All the heroes do is just make fun of him, and if they decide he's getting too annoying they just beat him up. In fact, there are even instances where Kaeloo, Stumpy, Quack Quack and Mr. Cat don't even do anything and he fails anyway.
* Batroc the Leaper from ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan''. The eponymous super hero points out that Batroc is such a non threat that S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't even bother to keep a profile on him. Many of his roles usually involve him getting beaten in the ColdOpen by the actual villain of the piece.

* In ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'', pretty much all of the villains qualify...but ''especially'' Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy. I mean, just look at his name!
** At least Chuck was always thiiiis close to possibly killing her, but, of course, not doing so. The Amazing Rope Guy, despite his name, can't even use the rope to his advantage. He even TIES HIMSELF UP when he was trying to get Wordgirl. That's just lame.

** Many villains on the show could seem like this. Señor Senior Senior and Señor Senior Junior probably take the cake, though, since supervillainy is just a hobby for them and they are kind of amateurish at it, being threats only because they are so ludicrously rich that they can actually afford their ill-thought out schemes. Junior doesn't even want to be a villain in the first place.

** Ahuizotl, the villain of the [[ShowWithinAShow in-universe]] "Daring Do", comes off as this once it turns out he's RealAfterAll. Pretty much all of the other true villains that the Mane Six have encountered were highly dangerous -- the MadGod Discord, the love parasite Queen Chrysalis and the demonic world conqueror King Sombra. In comparison, Ahuizotl wants to use various stolen magical relics to cause an 800 year heatwave. Limited to one small, insignificant valley in an obscure pocket of Equestria... BigBad, he ain't. ZigZagged in that his arch-rival, Daring Do, treats him with all the seriousness of a real villain, but still, he most likely gets to keep up the villain schtick because he's too small-time for any Princess to deal with.

** Under the theory he is only harrassing Dora [[ItAmusedMe for fun]] and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone becomes repentant whenever he actually does something]] [[EvenEvilHasStandards truly callous]], Swiper could perhaps be considered more a ScrewySquirrel than an outright villain.

* Kite Man in ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn'' is treated like a third rate villain. Most of his appearances are strictly comedic (even by this show's standards), nobody takes him seriously, he's rather incompetent, and Poison Ivy, despite having a crush on him, is embarrassed to be seen with him in public. Harley viewed as one through the public even though she, unlike Kite Man, is actually a considerable threat. This is largely due to her reputation as being the Joker's henchgirl and his attempts to discredit her after they broke up, and a lot of her plans to break out as her own villain backfiring.

** Dark Vegan was portrayed in his first two appearances as being a legitimate threat to life on Earth, but after getting stuck on Earth he became so pathetic that Johnny frequently defeated him without knowing he was there. It eventually got to the point where he appeared in an episode without doing anything villanous, instead just taking a movie studio tour and gorging himself on his favorite food: [[FridgeLogic buttered]] toast.

* Many antagonists from ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' are perfect examples of this trope, most notably [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner Wiley Coyote]] and WesternAnimation/ElmerFudd. Wiley is an obsessive predator, but his plans are nearly always self-defeating. He is the only one who gets hurt by his actions. Elmer is a hunter using firearms, but he is extremely naive and mild-mannered. Making it easy for the other characters to outwit, manipulate, or bully him. Subverted in a few of the shorts, where he is smarter and/or more powerful than he looks.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda'', "The Moblins Are Revolting", Ganon's minions grow tired of doing his bidding and manage to get rid of him (temporarily), then conduct their own attack on Hyrule Castle. Link and Zelda don't even stay to defend the castle because it's not in any danger; the monsters wipe each other out in the process of trying to invade, and never get anywhere near the building.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''Make 'Em Laugh'' we have the Condiment King, one of the comedians brainwashed into a villain by ComicBook/TheJoker. He fights by squirting ketchup, mustard, and hot sauce which, amazingly enough, ''does'' manage to take down one restaurant patron and intimidate the rest into ''actually handing over their priceless valuables''. Batman takes him down in one easy punch and, seeing how pathetic the guy is, ''[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments actually offers to go easy on him]]''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'', pretty much all of the villains qualify...but ''especially'' Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy. I mean, just look at his name!

** The E.V.I.L organization, which stands for [[FunWithAcronyms "Every Villain Is Lemons"]], The extent of their villainy is shining flashlights into boats at [[MakeOutPoint Makeout Reef]][[note]]Good times, goooood times...[[/note]] and making fun of the young people.

* The Urpneys of ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone''. It takes a rather incompetant bunch of mooks to make a SugarBowl world like The Land Of Dreams come off as [[DisproportionateRetribution unneccessarily rough]] on them, and Zordrak's lazy cowardly mooks fit that bill, spending most of their time grudgingly [[PokeThePoodle trying to give the population bad dreams]] before getting their ass handed to them by two {{Muggle|s}} Noop kids and their dogfish. Even the times they [[NotSoHarmlessVillain do actually prove formidable]], they are [[CosmicPlaything constant victims of circumstance]], fate always unraveling their schemes in [[BornLucky the heroes' favor]].

*** Professor Esmeralda Poofenplotz (Pinkie the Chihuahua's nemesis) is even worse; Her first appearance revolved around finding a stash of her favorite discontinued hairspray (as she felt she couldn't commit evil without good-looking hair), and the second involved a poorly thought out plan to eat enough royal jelly to ''turn herself into a queen bee''. Even ''Doofenshmirtz'' considers her to be a harmless villain (to the point where he didn't allow her to join his evil organisation L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N.).

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Owl's Well That Ends Well" involves usually-good dragon cub Spike temporarily becoming an IneffectualSympatheticVillain. Spike is obviously stooping pretty low when he tries to make it look like Owlowiscious killed a mouse, but gets caught in the act way too quickly to do any major harm.
** Of course, Spike ''does'' become a NotSoHarmlessVillain during [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E10SecretOfMyExcess his next dip into temporary villlainy]].
** The diamond dogs of "''A Dog and Pony Show''" try to enslave Rarity to work in a gem mine. She has them wrapped around her hoof in minutes, and her friends' daring rescue was likely appreciated more by the diamond dogs than by herself.
** Ahuizotl, the villain of the [[ShowWithinAShow in-universe]] Franchise/IndianaJones pastiche "Daring Do", comes off as this once it turns out he's RealAfterAll. Pretty much all of the other true villains that the Mane Six have encountered were highly dangerous -- the {{Mad God}}s Nightmare Moon and pre-reformation Discord, the love vampire Queen Chrysalis and her HordeOfAlienLocusts, the magic-eating world conqueror Tirek. In comparison, Ahuizotl wants to use various stolen magical relics to cause an 800 year heatwave. Limited to one small, insignificant valley in an obscure pocket of Equestria... yeah, BigBad, he ain't. ZigZagged in that his arch-rival, Daring Do, treats him with all the seriousness of a real villain, but still, he most likely gets to keep up the villain schtick because he's too small-time for the Princesses to deal with.

* Batroc the Leaper from ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderman''. The eponymous super hero points out that Batroc is such a non threat that S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't even bother to keep a profile on him. Many of his roles usually involve him getting beaten in the ColdOpen by the actual villain of the piece.

** Under the theory he is only harrassing Dora [[ItAmusedMe for fun]] and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone becomes repetant whenever he actually does something]] [[EvenEvilHasStandards truly callous]], Swiper could perhaps be considered more a ScrewySquirrel than an outright villain.

* Many antagonists from ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' are perfect examples of this trope, most notably Wiley Coyote and Elmer Fudd.

* In ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'', Jack Spicer pretty much fits this trope, to the point where other villains used his name as a slang term to describe this trope. Jack-Bots, indeed.
** Like others on this list, he becomes a NotSoHarmlessVillain in an alternate future. Without Omi messing up his game, Spicer steals all the Shen Gong Wu, traps the other {{Big Bad}}s in humiliating circumstances, and conquers the world. His Jack-Bots are upgraded to HumongousMecha and he himself uses PoweredArmor that incorporates at least two Shen Gong Wu in its design. Before Omi is able to go back in time to fix things, Spicer actually ''kills'' the other Xiaolin Warriors, albeit offscreen.

* "Victor & Hugo - Bunglers in Crime" - despite being the alledged 'baddies' as their theme song suggests,they aren't exactly evil. The name of their 'No crime too small, no crime to big' company for hire is called 'Naughtiness International'. They never manage to pull off any crimes without mishap. On the rare ocassions they do, they always get arrested. Even stealing sweets from a sweet-shop was seen as a daring venture.

* Hawkmoth/Papillon of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' is not actually very good at being a superpowered villain. His power set revolves around turning people into superpowered {{mooks}} under MindControl... very loose mind control, judging by the fact that he's ended up either getting caught in the crossfire or having them outright turn on him on multiple occasions. He also seems to have some targeting issues if "[[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS02E7Gigantitan Gigantitan]]" is anything to go by. He probably commits more legitimately harmful acts [[ParentalNeglect when he's out of costume.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''Make 'Em Laugh'' we have the Condiment King, one of the comedians brainwashed into a villain by ComicBook/TheJoker. He fights by squirting ketchup, mustard, and hot sauce which, amazingly enough, ''does'' manage to take down one restaurant patron and intimidate the rest into ''actually handing over their priceless valuables''. Batman takes him down in one easy punch and, seeing how pathetic the guy is, ''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny actually offers to go easy on him]]''.

** To give an idea of his power, in an alternate timeline the Ice King once [[spoiler: helped in destroying the ''world'' by causing it to freeze over after the nuke that created The Lich.]] Only his sheer idiocy and the fact he's verging on the border of a constant HeelFaceTurn because the heroes are his frenemies keeps him from being one of the show's biggest threats next to [[BigBad The Lich]]. The fact that [[spoiler: his crown ''drove him completely insane'' in addition to granting him his ice powers contributes a bit to his status as a Harmless Villain.]]''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' also lampshades it in "Conquest of Cuteness", where the villains are a race of tiny, cute creatures that can't do any harm at all. Finn and Jake feel sorry for them and pretend to be defeated.

* It's pretty hard to bring oneself to hate some of the villains in the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' cartoons, because most of the time, their idea of an evil scheme was to put on a monster costume and chase a bunch of hippies and dogs around. Not to mention, the motive of those in particular, is only to "scare people away" for some reason or other, and not kill like say involved in some kind of ludicrous real estate scheme where they really, really wanted to have the rights to some particular land/house, and thought the best way to do that was to put on a monster costume.

* It's pretty hard to bring oneself to hate any of the villains in the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' cartoons, because most of the time, their idea of an evil scheme was to put on a monster costume and chase a bunch of hippies and dogs around. Not to mention, nearly all the time, the motive is to "scare people away" for some reason or other, but never kill.

** On the original series, they weren't out to hurt anybody; almost every one of them was involved in some kind of ludicrous real estate scheme where they really, really wanted to have the rights to some particular land/house, and thought the best way to do that was to put on a monster costume.