History Main / Idiosyncrazy

* {{Invoked|Trope}} by Creator/JerrySeinfeld in ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'''s episode "[[Recap/SeinfeldS1E3TheRobbery The Robbery]]":

* Rare heroic example: All that the ''Literature/GoblinSlayer'' gives a damn about is killing goblins. All goblins must be wiped out with extreme prejudice. All goblin stragglers must be purged. All nests must be burned to the ground, flooded, gassed, whatever will get the job done. Even the slightest hint of goblins must be investigated. If a mission isn't about killing goblins, it isn't worth even a glance. Goblins today, goblins tomorrow, goblins 24/7.
* Erika from ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' is ''obsessed'' with [[SchoolIdol Kaguya]], and her spin-off series shows that just about everything she does is motivated by her desire to be just like Kaguya or get closer to her. One prime example would be when she studied really hard for the end of semester exams specifically so she could get third place and have her name listed right after Kaguya's on the score list.

* The pre-''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' Paperinik villain Inquinator makes you happy that Creator/GarthEnnis never will write Disney comics: he is a ''musophile'', obsessed with dirt, filth and garbage, and his crimes are invariably ''littering and vandalism'' [[MundaneMadeAwesome made out to be something special by the sheer scale]]. He later tried to rain black ink down on the White House.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, the Guild of Gamblers has risen up the wealth and prestige ladder and can now afford to employ its own in-house enforcers, the Dealers and Croupiers. Used as debt collectors who will call round to politely explain that a person of honour and decency does not try to evade or wriggle out of a gambling debt, sometimes they are used to perform more ''emphatic'' tasks to explain to somebody that the Guild is concerned about their behaviour. Given the unique ethos of Ankh-Morpork and to spare the City Watch an un-necessary investigation, they leave a single Caroc card next to the body so as to signal to the Watch this is a Guild matter. From the point of view of Sam Vimes, discovering the Ten of Swords next to the body means he can then call the matter a case of Attempted or Actual Suicide, and close the case. [[note]]In the real-world Tarot, the truism is that the Death card very rarely means actual death. This begs the question of which card ''does'' mean Death or at the least serious bodily injury. The Ten of Swords shows a body floating face-down in a river with ten daggers sticking out of its back. This means, broadly, "you have annoyed people and they ''really'' do not like you."[[/note]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action ]]

* Invoked but subverted in ''Film/HomeAlone1''. Every time Marv and Harry rob a house, Marv plugs a sink and leaves the water running so it floods, because he says that they need to have a sort of gimmicky calling card; he wants them to be known as the Wet Bandits. Subverted because Marv's not really crazy so much as he is just an idiot, and when Kevin's efforts lead to them being caught by the police, the officer even mentions that it's because of what Marv did that they'll be able to trace all their criminal activity. In [[Film/HomeAlone2LostInNewYork the second movie]] Marv wraps tape around his hand to try and establish a new gimmick as the Sticky Bandits; the only use he finds for this is to slightly more easily steal loose change from a charity donation bin, which Harry mocks.
* In ''Film/{{Seven}}'', the murderous John Doe has a [[HumansAreBastards low opinion about humanity]], but is specifically obsessed with the notion of the Main/SevenDeadlySins. In his own words, "We see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home, and we ''tolerate it.''" Doe specifically targets individuals who are guilty of one of the seven sins: for example, the Gluttony victim is an [[BigEater extremely fat man]], while the Greed victim is an AmoralAttorney who only cares about money.

* In ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'', the killer "U.N. Owen" ([[MeaningfulName "unknown"]]), who by their own admission is a [[TheSociopath sociopath]], becomes obsessed with the idea of committing a murder, but they've also been struck by an extreme case of BlackAndWhiteInsanity: only the guilty should be punished. Eventually, they hit upon the idea of killing people who caused various individuals to die, but [[LoopholeAbuse didn't technically commit murder.]] Examples include a [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] woman who fired and verbally abused her young housemaid after she became pregnant outside of marriage, leading the poor girl to [[DrivenToSuicide drown herself]], and a doctor who operated while drunk and inadvertently killed his patient. Notably, Owen refuses to touch or harm anyone who is genuinely innocent--their entire focus is on destroying the guilty.

* El Ecoloco (the name means Eco-Crazy in fact) in ''Series/OdiseaBurbujas'' is a garbage-obsessed villain, who dresses as a homeless man, is always dirty (his VillainSong specifically says he hates water and soap), travels in a flying garbage can and tries to pollute the world as much as possible.
* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Creator/JerrySeinfeld in ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'''s episode "The Robbery":
-->It's not like Batman, where there's three crooks in the city and everybody pretty much knows, who they are. Very few crooks even go to the trouble to come up with a theme for their careers anymore. It makes them a lot tougher to spot. Did you lose a sony? It could be the Penguin... I think we can round him up, he's dressed like a PENGUIN! We can find him, he's a PENGUIN!
* Also invoked in ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Sheldon is obsessive-compulsive, neurotic, mysophobic and other many disorders that can be easily classified as monomania, prompting Leonard to say in one episode:
-->The guy's one lab accident away from being a super villain.
* Makoto Aizen of ''Series/UltramanRB''. While not an actual villain, he is behind all of the monster attacks in Ayaka City and transforms himself into Ultraman Orb Dark (an EvilKnockoff of Series/UltramanOrb) as part of his EngineeredHeroics. [[spoiler:As we found out later on, Makoto was possessed by an alien named Cereza, whose extreme fixation on Ultraman Orb and his human form Gai Kurenai started due to being rescued by the real Ultra. Inspired by his act, Cereza created Ultraman Orb Dark as his alter ego under the notion of [[ExactWords being an Ultra just like Orb]].]]

* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'': Sho Minamimoto is obsessed with math and algebraic functions to the point where he uses them in his hints for each day's mission, but when you actually fight him... he kicks you. Over and over and over. No math except the ability to use it to create Taboo Noise, and [[spoiler:cast [[ShoutOut Level ''i'' Flare]] by reciting pi to a hundred digits.]]
* The Corwid of the Free from ''VideoGame/ZenoClash'' are a bunch of insane forest-dwellers who each have a singular obsession that they fixate on to the exclusion of all else, regardless of whether or not it hurts themselves or other people. For example, one guy wants to be invisible, and accomplishes this by reasoning that being invisible means people can't see you, [[EyeScream and people need eyes in order to see]]. Another guy just straight up [[ImAHumanitarian wants to eat people]]. The only thing that stops them from fulfilling the "criminal" aspect of this trope is that there's probably no such thing as "crime" in a lawless place like Zenozoik.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV: Shadowbringers'', the Cardinal Virtues are unique variations of sin eaters, the [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] plaguing the world of The First. Most sin eaters are base creatures obsessed with gorging on aether, while even the more powerful and intelligent ones have little drive other than to infect victims with corrupted light aether to create more sin eaters: but the Cardinal Virtues, sin eaters created from the Warriors of Light from The First, exhibit unique behaviors that set them apart from the others. [[spoiler:These behaviors are later revealed to be a form of GhostMemory, as each one's behavior is linked to their actions and deeds while living.]] These include:

* ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'': Befitting [[LivingProgram an anthropomorphized spambot]], [[HonestJohnsDealership Spamton G Spamton]] is a washed-up salesman desperate to relive his glory days; his schemes require him making a "deal" with [[PlayerCharacter Kris]] that entails them purchasing an item from him.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Podcast/RedPandaAdventures''
** The Red Panda and Flying Squirrel note eponymous themes are a common trait for "sick in the head, wannabe supervillains". It's first seen in the episode "Rabbit Season", where the Red Panda is able to set a trap for that episode's villain, Jackrabbit, after recognizing that the reason for her unusually selective thefts was because she only stole things whose value was measured in karats. He takes the theme to its logical conclusion and has a rabbit statue put on display to lure her in.
** The Mad Monkey invokes this as much as he falls prey to it. He's motivated to be a villain because he views himself as the ideal arch-nemesis to the Red Panda. To this end, he embraces the theme presented by his power to control baboons by committing monkey related crimes. When, in later appearances, the Mad Monkey is shown to have learned martial arts, the Red Panda notes he's predictable due to having focused on the Monkey Style.
* In ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'', Android 16 is obsessed with exactly two things: birds, and killing Son Goku, with the latter coming up during and after his HeelFaceTurn. It's hardwired into his programming.
* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zDkMflXhNI the Barking Glass]], a new ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' villain that [[DefiedTrope does everything in their power]] [[InvertedTrope to NOT have a theme]].
-->'''The Barking Glass:''' Let's list my crimes. One: murder by hot soup! Two: I robbed a pet store! Three: I recently pirated Creator/KellyClarkson's upcoming album, ''The Meaning Of Life'', due out October 27th, and I plan to release it several days early on October 23rd! Sensing a pattern? ''You shouldn't be!'' ''[pause for audience laughter]'' I truly don't make sense.
[[/folder]]

** The Box Ghost and boxes. At one point, he even steals PandorasBox.

* Most of the villains on ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' fit into this. There's Quackerjack, who uses toys, cinematically-inclined Tuskernini, who "directs" his crimes as if he were a movie director, Ammonia Pine, whose crimes invariably involve cleaning things up, and Splatter Phoenix, fixated on paintbrush artistry.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Kim has fought her share of Idiosyncrazy villains: Duff Killigan, the homicidal golfer; Frugal Lucre, the world's cheapest criminal; and so on.
* Spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', "Less Than Hero", with the Zookeeper, who commits crimes using a pack of highly trained animals.

%%* Most of the villains on ''WesternAnimation/CoolMcCool'' fit this mold.
* A number of ''WesternAnimation/SushiPack'' villains are like this: Oleander's various schemes are (usually) a ploy to eat the eponymous Pack, Paradoxter's crimes have an element of paradox and oxymoron to them (such as using literal jumbo shrimp as henchmen), and The Collector is always involved in collecting something when he shows up in the series, regardless of whether he's committing an actual crime.
* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' when Captain Hero convinces Xander to pose as a supervillain for him to defeat. The persona they come up with? Two Hands.
-->'''Xander:''' You'll never defeat me and my... TWO HANDS!!

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Kim has fought her share of {{Idiosyncrazy}} villains: Duff Killigan, the homicidal golfer; Frugal Lucre, the world's cheapest criminal; and so on.

* Rare heroic example: All that the ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' gives a damn about is killing goblins. All goblins must be wiped out with extreme prejudice. All goblin stragglers must be purged. All nests must be burned to the ground, flooded, gassed, whatever will get the job done. Even the slightest hint of goblins must be investigated. If a mission isn't about killing goblins, it isn't worth even a glance. Goblins today, goblins tomorrow, goblins 24/7.

* El Eco-Loco (the name means Eco-Crazy in fact) in ''Series/OdiseaBurbujas'' is a garbage-obsessed villain, who dress as a homeless man, is always dirty (his VillainSong specifically says he hates water and soap), travels in a flying garbage can and tries to pollute the world as much as possible.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Serial killers in real life often have a distinctive modus operandi that allows criminal investigators to identify them, some of them even leave clues behind to taunt the authorities.
* Some criminal organizations like TheMafia have particular styles of committing crimes, especially murders with some ritualistic traditions associated. This is often done to send the message and scare normal people and/or the police, but also to let other rival gangs know who was the author.
[[/folder]]

* Invoked but subverted in the first ''Film/HomeAlone'' movie. Every time Marv and Harry rob a house, Marv plugs a sink and leaves the water running so it floods, because he says that they need to have a sort of gimmicky calling card; he wants them to be known as the Wet Bandits. Subverted because Marv's not really crazy so much as he is just an idiot, and when Kevin's efforts lead to them being caught by the police, the officer even mentions that it's because of what Marv did that they'll be able to trace all their criminal activity. In the second movie Marv wraps tape around his hand to try and establish a new gimmick as the Sticky Bandits; the only use he finds for this is to slightly more easily steal loose change from a charity donation bin, which Harry mocks.

* The Jigsaw Killer from the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' movies is compulsive about his [[DeadlyGame sadistic torture games]], which he becomes infamous for, and his whole life seems to have revolved around them ever since he began making them. In fact, a major plot point in the later movies is being able to tell Jigsaw's {{Death Trap}}s from those of an apprentice or copycat using this trope; he ''always'' has to give the victim a means of freeing themselves from the trap (as he firmly believes he's "helping" them appreciate life by facing their sins through the games), whereas the apprentices/copycats usually make the traps inescapable.

* The villain in the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' movies is compulsive about his sadistic torture games, and becomes known and feared for them, his whole life seems to revolve around it. In fact, a major plot point in the later movies is being able to tell the real Jigsaw killer's death traps from those of a copycat using this trope; he ''always'' has to give the victim a means of freeing themselves from the death trap (as he firmly believes he's "helping" them better appreciate life by facing their sins through the game), whereas the copycats usually make the death traps inescapable.
* Invoked but also subverted in the original ''Film/HomeAlone'' movie. Every time Marv and Harry rob a house, Marv plugs a sink and leaves the water running so it floods, because he says that they need to have a sort of gimmicky calling card; he wants them to be known as the Wet Bandits. Subverted because Marv's not really crazy so much as he is just an idiot, and when Kevin's efforts lead to them being caught by the police, the officer even mentions that it's because of what Marv did that they'll be able to trace all their criminal activity. In the second movie Marv wraps tape around his hand to try and establish a new gimmick as the Sticky Bandits; the only use he finds for this is to slightly more easily steal loose change from a charity donation bin, which Harry mocks.

!!Examples

[[folder:Batman]]
''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'''s rogues' gallery has enough examples that it's probably easier to list the ones that ''aren't'' crazy.

* [[Characters/BatmanTheRiddler The Riddler]] ([[StevenUlyssesPerhero Edward Nigma]]) and [[RiddleMeThis riddles]]. It originated as a harmless theme but became DarkerAndEdgier as the years went by: Riddler suffers from SuperOCD and {{narcissist}}ic personality disorder, and ''has'' to leave puzzles [[InsufferableGenius to prove how smart he is]] (he's even been given a FreudianExcuse in the form of a father who, not understanding his son's intelligence, beat him, giving Nigma an obsession with expressing his smarts in convoluted ways). In one instance, the Riddler thinks that he's found a way around his compulsion by leaving notes instead of riddles, but Batman discovers puzzles embedded within the notes that Nigma ''didn't intentionally leave'' -- in other words, he's so mentally ill that he doesn't even realize when he's acting on his compulsions. However, he's sometimes able to make this work for him: sometimes, the ''obvious'' answer to his clue masks the ''real'' answer, which is much more difficult to figure out.
* Cluemaster, the father of Spoiler, felt a compulsion to leave clues behind at the crime scenes, but he eventually got over it and stopped -- leaving clues, not committing crimes.
* [[Characters/BatmanTwoFace Two-Face]] is usually compelled to commit crimes based on the number two, [[DualityMotif the concept of duality]], or the theme of chance. Whether or not he kills a given individual is often [[HeadsOrTails determined by the outcome of a coin toss]]. He also has a tendency to get law-court and criminal justice-themed crimes, reflecting on his origins as a former district attorney driven to criminal insanity by his deformities, but this is a much less frequent motif.
* [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]], DependingOnTheWriter, may only commit crimes based on the theme of jokes, pranks, clowns or comedy. Alternatively, the crime itself must be "funny" (albeit according to the Joker's own [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor highly warped]] sense of humor).
** [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Back in the day]], the Joker also had a compulsion to leave clues to his ''future'' crimes.
* The Film Freak only commits crimes that are re-enactments of famous movie scenes.
* The Calendar Man (real name [[StevenUlyssesPerhero Julian Gregory Day]]) commits a different crime each day, but will ''re-create that crime exactly, one year later to the day.''
** In other instances, Calendar Man is relatively sane and calm for most of the year... except on holidays, when he always commits some horrific themed crime (such as cutting a woman's brake line on April Fool's Day as a "prank" or attempting to blow up a maternity ward on ''Labor'' Day). In the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'', he tries committing crimes on more obscure holidays, both as a change of pace and perhaps to become more unpredictable to the authorities.
* The Black and White Bandit (real name [[StevenUlyssesPerhero Roscoe Chiara]]), a MadArtist who became obsessed with black and white after going colorblind. He's got a skunk stripe in his black hair, he has a Dalmatian named Domino, steals things like antique chess sets, etc.
* Joe Coyne was a failure as a criminal. Not only was he regularly caught by the police ("coppers"), his crimes only netted him pennies. Thus, to get back at "coppers and pennies", he launched a career as the Penny Plunderer. It was a very short career which Batman ended on his very first outing, but Joe's theme outlived him; he (not, as is often assumed, Two-Face) provided the giant penny that [[SuperheroTrophyShelf became a fixture of the Batcave]].
* The [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] version of the Mad Hatter -- the one with the red handlebar mustache -- centered all his crimes around [[NiceHat hats and other headgear]]. A more consistent motif for the Mad Hatter in general is theming his crimes around the works of Creator/LewisCarroll -- especially ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''. This particular focus is also shared by lesser villains Tweedledum and Tweedledee (who often work together with the Mad Hatter as a result), and by ComicBook/{{Batwoman}}'s arch-foe (and sister) Alice.
* Crazy Quilt (who's technically more of a ComicBook/{{Robin}} villain than a Batman one) was an artist who was also something of a cat burglar on the side. When an accident made him go blind, he opted for experimental surgery that restored his vision but distorted his perception of color. He then went crazy and became obsessed with color.
* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}: while she was introduced focused on cat-related loot, she dropped the fixation quite early on. She still ''likes'' to go after cat-themed valuables, but it's because she appreciates the joke, and she is much more focused on just getting anything that is sufficiently valuable and challenging.
* Also [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagged]] with [[Characters/BatmanThePenguin the Penguin]]; introduced with a fixation on committing umbrella-based or bird-based crimes, that angle was dropped, and he came to usually be portrayed as just [[WickedPretentious a portly sociopath with a high opinion of himself]].
* Maxie Zeus is a gang leader who [[AGodAmI believes himself to be the reincarnation of the Greek god Zeus]], which informs both his criminal persona and his choice of crimes, always relating back to Greek Mythology or electricity in some way. [[WrongGenreSavvy He is not]]. It's almost laughable given that the Greek Gods' existence is an established fact within the DC universe, what with [[ComicBook/WonderWoman a well-known superheroine]] tracing her origin back to [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]]. The key word being ''almost'', as he's very intelligent and resourceful despite his delusions.
* [[Characters/BatmanPoisonIvy Poison Ivy]] is typically portrayed as what happens when this trope meets up with EcoTerrorist, as many of her crimes revolving around committing extreme acts of violence or terrorism either to steal rare plants or to "avenge the suffering of plantkind" upon humanity.
* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with [[Characters/BatmanTheScarecrow the Scarecrow]], whose crimes tend to be split about 50/50 between "using [[SupernaturalFearInducer fear gas]] and other means to terrorize others to ostensibly [[MadScientist continue studying fear]]" and "steal the funds to be able to make more fear gas".
* The minor villain Magpie is a jewel thief with a particular obsession with gemstones or other valuable objects named after birds.
* The [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] villain Mirror Man was, as his moniker suggests, obsessed with mirrors and how they could be used to commit crimes.
* The first Ventriloquist, Arnold Wesker, is a variant of this; while he doesn't have a specific motif to his crimes beyond "getting rich", his entire criminal personality is built around a ''serious'' case of [[SplitPersonality dissociative identity disorder]], causing him to legitimately believe that his secondary personality, "Scarface", whom he associates with the [[DemonicDummy ventriloquist puppet]] he's always carrying around, is both the "man in charge" and an entirely separate individual. In layman's terms: he really, truly thinks that the '''puppet''' is the one giving orders. And depending on the comic, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane he may not be entirely wrong]].
* {{Downplayed|Trope}} with Basil Karlo, the first and most famous Clayface, who is sometimes portrayed as having a tendency to commit crimes themed or otherwise based around movies, especially his own movies.
* Cornelius Stirk is a {{downplayed|Trope}} example; his motif revolves exclusively around murdering victims by terrorizing them to death, then [[ImAHumanitarian eating their hearts]], as he suffers from the delusion that he must do so in order to survive.
* Similarly to Cornelius Stirk, Victor Zsasz is a murderous StrawNihilist who kills people and cuts tally marks into his skin with an obsessive-compulsive enthusiasm.
* Firefly always, ''always'' commits crimes of arson. Not just because he's an arsonist for hire, but because he's also a {{pyromaniac}} who gets off on burning things.
* Humpty Dumpty is an unusual overlap of this and TragicVillain. He always commits acts of deadly sabotage... in the name of fixing things that inconvenienced him, and that he thus believed were "broken". [[ObliviouslyEvil He didn't want to hurt anybody]], he just did a terrible job at fixing things. Even when he murdered his [[GruesomeGrandparent abusive grandmother]] and badly sewed her corpse back together, he did so because he's too mentally deficient to really understand he was doing something wrong.
* Lock-Up is a psychopathic would-be vigilant driven to crime to punish lawbreakers that he feels the government was too soft on; his crimes therefore are always done against other criminals, and revolve around capturing, [[TheJailer imprisoning]], torturing, and sometimes even killing those that he feels are guilty.
* Doodlebug is a MadArtist who murders people to use their blood to scrawl repulsive artistic murals... which are actually arcane sigils and glyphs stemming from his knowledge of BlackMagic.
* Jane Doe is what happens when you cross this trope with an identity thief. She's so obsessed with living a better life that she targets individuals at random, memorizes as much information about them as she can, learns to mimic their voice, then murders them and [[GenuineHumanHide skins their corpse to wear as a costume]] so that she can perfectly imitate them. Inevitably, she gets bored with the problems of her latest victim's life. So she goes hunting for another life to steal...
* While most of Batman's opponents who suffer from this trope debuted in the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver]] Ages, the Absence, aka Una Nemo, is an example who debuted in ''2011''! She's obsessed with leaving holes in things, and in stealing precious items, since she was driven mad by a combination of nobody caring about her absence and her surviving a [[ArtisticLicenseBiology comic-style]] case of Dandy Walker Syndrome, leaving her with ''[[WhoEvenNeedsABrain a softball-sized hole straight through her head]]''.
* Some of the villains made up for the 1966 ''Series/Batman1966'' TV series make Batman's comic book rogues gallery seem calm and subdued by comparison:
** Egghead ([[StevenUlyssesPerhero Edgar Heed]]) was a big-headed bald guy who [[InsufferableGenius considered himself "the smartest man in the world"]] despite his obsession with egg-based crimes.
** King Tut was a guy who got hit on the head and started to believe that he was an Egyptian pharaoh, and of course is obsessed with Egyptian stuff.
** False-Face ([[CanonCharacterAllAlong Basil Karlo]]) ingested a chemical formula that let him change his face any way he wanted, but at the cost of his own identity, so he started committing crimes involving forgeries and impersonation.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing The Clock King]]", Temple Fugate is TheSociopath without any emotion, whose only interest in the world is being a ScheduleFanatic, [[ClocksOfControl clocks]] and [[ClockKing time]]: he uses a TimeBomb triggered by an expensive watch, has an AbandonedWarehouse with a [[RoomFullOfCrazy room full of clocks]], and conducts a BankRobbery by messing with a time lock. [[spoiler:All these tropes are exploited to lure Batman into a trap: Fugate acknowledges his obsession, and uses it against his enemies. The real]] EvilPlan is to kill someone in a ClockTower with the clock hands.

[[/folder]]

* The pre-''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' Paperinik villain Inquinator makes you happy that Creator/GarthEnnis never will write Disney comics: he is a ''musophile'', obsessed with dirt, filth and garbage, and his crimes are invariably ''littering and vandalism'' [[MundaneMadeAwesome made out to be something special]] [[UpToEleven by the sheer scale]]. He later tried to rain black ink down on the White House.

->''"I used to be somebody in this town… now everybody's got a gimmick."''

Batman's rogues' gallery has enough examples that it's probably easier to list the ones that ''aren't'' crazy.

* ComicBook/TheRiddler (Edward Nigma) and riddles. It originated as a harmless theme, but became DarkerAndEdgier as the years went by: Riddler suffers from SuperOCD and narcissistic personality disorder, and ''has'' to leave puzzles to prove how smart he is (he's even been given a FreudianExcuse in the form of a father who, not understanding his son's intelligence, beat him, giving Nigma an obsession with expressing his smarts in convoluted ways). In one instance, Riddler thinks he's found a way around his compulsion by leaving notes instead of riddles… but Batman discovers puzzles embedded within the notes that Nigma ''didn't intentionally leave''--in other words, he's so mentally ill that he doesn't even realize when he's acting on his compulsions. However, he's sometimes able to make this work for him: sometimes, the ''obvious'' answer to his clue masks the ''real'' answer, which is much more difficult to figure out.
* Cluemaster, the father of Spoiler, felt a compulsion to leave clues behind at the crime scenes, but he eventually got over it and stopped. Leaving clues, not committing crimes.
* ComicBook/TwoFace is usually compelled to commit crimes based on the number two, the concept of duality, or the theme of chance. Whether or not he kills a given individual is often determined by the outcome of a coin toss. He also has a tendency to get law-court and criminal justice-themed crimes, reflecting on his origins as a former district attorney driven to criminal insanity by his deformities, but this is a much less frequent motif.
* ComicBook/TheJoker, DependingOnTheWriter, may only commit crimes based on the theme of jokes, pranks, clowns or comedy. Alternatively, the crime itself must be "funny" (albeit according to the Joker's own [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor highly warped]] sense of humor).
** [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Back in the day]] Joker also had a compulsion to leave clues to his ''future'' crimes.

** In other instances, Calendar Man is relatively sane and calm for most of the year… except on holidays, when he always commits some horrific themed crime (such as cutting a woman's brake line on April Fool's Day as a "prank" or attempting to blow up a maternity ward on ''Labor'' Day). In the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'' he tries committing crimes on more obscure holidays, both as a change of pace and perhaps to become more unpredictable to the authorities.

* UsefulNotes/{{The Silver Age|of Comic Books}} version of the Mad Hatter - the one with the red handlebar mustache - centered all his crimes around hats and other headgear. A more consistent motif for the Mad Hatter in general is theming his crimes around the works of Creator/LewisCarroll -- especially ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''. This particular focus is also shared by lesser villains Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who often work together with the Mad Hatter as a result.
* Crazy Quilt (who's technically more of a Robin villain than a Batman one) was an artist who was also something of a cat burglar on the side. When an accident made him go blind, he opted for experimental surgery that restored his vision but distorted his perception of color. He then went crazy and became obsessed with color.
* Zigzagged with ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}: whilst she was introduced focused on cat-related loot, she dropped the fixation quite early on. She still ''likes'' to go after cat-themed valuables, but it's because she appreciates the joke, and she is much more focused on just getting anything that is sufficiently valuable and challenging.
* Also zigzagged with ComicBook/ThePenguin; introduced with a fixation on committing umbrella-based or bird-based crimes, that angle was dropped and he came to usually be portrayed as just a portly sociopath with a high opinion of himself.
* Maxie Zeus is a gang leader who believes himself to be the reincarnation of the Greek god Zeus, which informs both his criminal persona and his choice of crimes, always relating back to Greek Mythology or electricity in some way. [[WrongGenreSavvy He is not.]] It's almost laughable given that the Greek Gods' existence is an established fact within the DC universe, what with [[Franchise/WonderWoman a well-known superheroine]] tracing her origin back to [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]]. The key word being ''almost'', as he's very intelligent and resourceful despite his delusions.
* ComicBook/PoisonIvy is typically portrayed as what happens when this trope meets up with EcoTerrorist, as many of her crimes revolving around committing extreme acts of violence or terrorism either to steal rare plants or to "avenge the suffering of plantkind" upon humanity.
* Zigzagged with ComicBook/TheScarecrow, whose crimes tend to be split about 50/50 between "using fear gas and other means to terrorize others to ostensibly continue studying fear" and "steal the funds to be able to make more fear gas".
* Minor villain Magpie is a jewel thief with a particular obsession with gemstones or other valuable objects named after birds.
* Golden Age villain Mirror Man was, as his moniker suggests, obsessed with mirrors and how they could be used to commit crimes.
* The first Ventriloquist, Arnold Wesker, is a variant of this; whilst he doesn't have a specific motif to his crimes beyond "getting rich", his entire criminal personality is built around a ''serious'' case of disassociative identity disorder, causing him to legitimately believe that his secondary personality, "Scarface", whom he associates with the ventriloquist puppet he's always carrying around, is both the "man in charge" and an entirely separate individual. In layman's terms: he really, truly thinks that the '''puppet''' is the one giving orders.
* Downplayed with Basil Karlo, the 1st and most famous Clayface, who is sometimes portrayed as having a tendency to commit crimes themed or otherwise based around movies, especially his own movies.
* Cornelius Stirk is a downplayed example; his motif revolves exclusively around murdering victims by terrorizing them to death, then eating their hearts, as he suffers from the delusion that he must do so in order to survive.
* Similarly to Cornelius Stirk, Victor Zsasz is a murderous nihilist who kills people and cuts tallymarks into his skin with an obsessive-compulsive enthusiasm.
* Firefly always, ''always'' commits crimes of arson. Not just because he's an arsonist for hire, but because he's also a pyromaniac who gets off on burning things.
* Humpty Dumpty is an unusual overlap of this and TragicVillain: he always commits acts of deadly sabotage… in the name of fixing things that inconvenienced him, and so he reasoned they were "broken". He didn't want to hurt anybody, he just… did a terrible job at fixing things. Even when he murdered his abusive grandmother and badly sewed her corpse back together, he did so because he's too mentally deficient to really understand he was doing something wrong.
* Lock-Up is a psychotic would-be vigilant driven to crime to punish lawbreakers he felt the government was too soft on; his crimes therefore are always done against other criminals, and revolve around capturing, imprisoning, torturing, and sometimes even killing those he feels are guilty.
* Doodlebug is a MadArtist who murders people to use their blood to scrawl repulsive artistic murals… which are actually arcane sigils and glyphs stemming from his knowledge of BlackMagic.
* Jane Doe is what happens when you cross this trope with an identity thief. She's so obsessed with living a better life that she targets individuals at random, memorizes as much information about them as she can, learns to mimic their voice, then ''[[FlayingAlive murders them and skins their corpse to wear as a costume]]'' so she can perfectly imitate them. Inevitably, she gets bored with the problems of her latest victim's life. So she goes hunting for another life to steal…
* While most of Batman's opponents who suffer from this trope debuted in the Golden and Silver Ages, the Absence, aka Una Nemo, is an example who debuted in ''2011''! She's obsessed with leaving holes in things, and in stealing precious items, since she was driven mad by a combination of nobody caring about her absence and her surviving a [[ArtisticLicenseBiology comic-style]] case of Dandy Walker Syndrome, leaving her with ''[[FacialHorror a softball-sized hole straight through her head]]''.

** Egghead ([[StevenUlyssesPerhero Edgar Heed]]) was a big-headed bald guy who considered himself "the smartest man in the world" despite his obsession with egg-based crimes.
** King Tut was a guy who got hit on the head and started to believe he was an Egyptian pharaoh, and of course is obsessed with Egyptian stuff.
** False-Face ([[Creator/BorisKarloff Basil Karlo]]) ingested a chemical formula that let him change his face any way he wanted, but at the cost of his own identity, so he started commiting crimes involving forgeries and impersonation.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]], Temple Fugate is TheSociopath without any emotion, whose only interest in the world is being a ScheduleFanatic, clocks and time: he uses a TimeBomb triggered by an expensive watch, has an AbandonedWarehouse with a RoomFullOfCrazy Clocks, and conducts a BankRobbery by messing with a time lock. [[spoiler: All those tropes were exploited to lure Batman into a trap: Fugate acknowledges his obsession, and uses it against his enemies. The real]] EvilPlan is to kill someone in a ClockTower with the clock hands.

* [[Franchise/TheFlash Flash]] villain Rainbow Raider (real name [[StevenUlyssesPerhero Roy G. Bivolo]]), a failed artist who became obsessed with ''colors'' as a result of his colorblindness.
* Franchise/{{Superman}}'s enemy Bizarro feels compelled to do the opposite of everything normal people do. This leads to some truly strange behavior, such as building a basement on top of his house.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Evidently hounded by her own name Tigra Tropica finds a way to use tigers in all of her crimes, no matter how much they make her schemes far more complicated and convoluted.

* The Black and White Bandit (real name [[StevenUlyssesPerhero Roscoe Chiara]]), a MadArtist who became obsessed with black and white after going colorblind. He's got a SkunkStripe in his black hair, he has a Dalmatian named Domino, steals things like antique chess sets, etc.

** [[FreakLabAccident Dr. Two-Brains]], who will only ever attempt to steal cheese due to his second brain being a mouse's. On the rare occasion that he actually steals something valuable, it's only because he plans on turning it ''into'' cheese with his TransformationRay. When his henchmen request that they have their cut of the loot ''before'' he turns it into cheese, he berates them for their lack of commitment to the whole cheese gimmick.

* UsefulNotes/{{The Silver Age|of Comic Books}} version of the Mad Hatter - the one with the red handlebar mustache - centered all his crimes around hats and other headgear. A more consistent motif for the Mad Hatter in general is theming his crimes around the works of Creator/LewisCaroll -- especially ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''. This particular focus is also shared by lesser villains Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who often work together with the Mad Hatter as a result.

** [[FreakLabAccident Dr. Two-Brains]], who will only ever attempt to steal cheese. On the rare occasion that he actually steals something valuable, it's only because he plans on turning it ''into'' cheese with his TransformationRay. When his henchmen request that they have their cut of the loot ''before'' he turns it into cheese, he berates them for their lack of commitment to the whole cheese gimmick.

[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/{{Batman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coyne_pennyplunderer_7112.jpg]]]]

-->-- '''ComicBook/TheRiddler''', ''ComicBook/BatmanHush''

->''"I used to be somebody in this town... now everybody's got a gimmick."''

* ComicBook/TheRiddler (Edward Nigma) and riddles. It originated as a harmless theme, but became DarkerAndEdgier as the years went by: Riddler suffers from SuperOCD and narcissistic personality disorder, and ''has'' to leave puzzles to prove how smart he is (he's even been given a FreudianExcuse in the form of a father who, not understanding his son's intelligence, beat him, giving Nigma an obsession with expressing his smarts in convoluted ways). In one instance, Riddler thinks he's found a way around his compulsion by leaving notes instead of riddles...but Batman discovers puzzles embedded within the notes that Nigma ''didn't intentionally leave''--in other words, he's so mentally ill that he doesn't even realize when he's acting on his compulsions. However, he's sometimes able to make this work for him: sometimes, the ''obvious'' answer to his clue masks the ''real'' answer, which is much more difficult to figure out.

** In other instances, Calendar Man is relatively sane and calm for most of the year...except on holidays, when he always commits some horrific themed crime (such as cutting a woman's brake line on April Fool's Day as a "prank" or attempting to blow up a maternity ward on ''Labor'' Day). In the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'' he tries committing crimes on more obscure holidays, both as a change of pace and perhaps to become more unpredictable to the authorities.

* Joe Coyne was a failure as a criminal. Not only was he regularly caught by the police ("coppers"), his crimes only netted him pennies. Thus, to get back at "coppers and pennies," he launched a career as the Penny Plunderer. It was a very short career which Batman ended on his very first outing, but Joe's theme outlived him; he (not, as is often assumed, Two-Face) provided the giant penny that [[SuperheroTrophyShelf became a fixture of the Batcave]].

* Humpty Dumpty is an unusual overlap of this and TragicVillain: he always commits acts of deadly sabotage... in the name of fixing things that inconvenienced him, and so he reasoned they were "broken". He didn't want to hurt anybody, he just... did a terrible job at fixing things. Even when he murdered his abusive grandmother and badly sewed her corpse back together, he did so because he's too mentally deficient to really understand he was doing something wrong.

* Doodlebug is a MadArtist who murders people to use their blood to scrawl repulsive artistic murals... which are actually arcane sigils and glyphs stemming from his knowledge of BlackMagic.
* Jane Doe is what happens when you cross this trope with an identity thief. She's so obsessed with living a better life that she targets individuals at random, memorizes as much information about them as she can, learns to mimic their voice, then ''[[FlayingAlive murders them and skins their corpse to wear as a costume]]'' so she can perfectly imitate them. Inevitably, she gets bored with the problems of her latest victim's life. So she goes hunting for another life to steal...

* Rare heroic example: All that ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' gives a damn about is killing goblins. All goblins must be wiped out with extreme prejudice. All goblin stragglers must be purged. All nests must be burned to the ground, flooded, gassed, whatever will get the job done. Even the slightest hint of goblins must be investigated. If a request isn't about killing goblins, it isn't worth even a glance. Goblins today, goblins tomorrow, goblins 24/7.

-->-- '''The Riddler''', ''ComicBook/BatmanHush''

* Invoked but also subverted in the original ''Film/HomeAlone'' movie. Every time Marv and Harry rob a house, Marv plugs a sink and leaves the water running so it floods, because he says that they need to have a sort of gimmicky calling card; he wants them to be known as the Wet Bandits. Subverted because Marv's not really crazy so much as he is just an idiot, and when Kevin's efforts lead to them being caught by the police, the officer even mentions that it's because of what Marv did that they'll be able to trace all their criminal activity.

* While most of Batman's opponents who suffer from this trope debuted in the Golden and Silver Ages, the Absence, aka Una Nemo, is an example who debuted in ''2011''! She's obsessed with leaving holes in things, and in stealing precious items, since she was driven mad by a combination of nobody caring about her absence and her surviving a [[ArtMajorBiology comic-style]] case of Dandy Walker Syndrome, leaving her with ''[[FacialHorror a softball-sized hole straight through her head]]''.