History SmugSnake / LiveActionTV

** Viserys' snide and superior attitude is totally at odds with his bratty, bullying behaviour. When Daenerys finally stands up to him, he has a VillainousBreakdown.

* *Spike was this through Season 2 up to Season 6. (and a little of S7, at times). As a villain though, particularly in Season 4, he had several bouts of incompetence, viewed by the characters as [[BigBadWannabe more of a pest than a diabolical villain]].

** Warren brags to anyone who will listen when he thinks he has killed Buffy. The vampires around him are only too happy to wipe the smug grin off his face when they tell that not only will Buffy be alive and well very soon but he just killed one of her friends and pissed her off.

* Spike was this through Season 2 up to Season 6. (and a little at of S7, at times). As a villain though, particularly in Season 4, he had several bouts of incompetence, viewed by the characters as [[BigBadWannabe more of a pest than a diabolical villain]].

* ''Series/{{DawsonsCreek}}: Abby Morgan was the series first's Smug Snake, with her wildly bitchy moments and biting remarks to even her "best friend" Jen. Dru Valentine, introduced in Season 4, replaced her role later (and well, at that).

* Spike was this through Season 2 up to Season 6. (and a little at of S7, at times). As a villain though, particularly in Season 4, he had several bouts of incompetence, viewed by characters as more of a pest than a diabolical villain.

** Until losing his sword hand, Jaime is smug and arrogant about his sword abilities. To be fair, he has more to be smug about than Cersei and Joffrey.

** The Black Adder himself, Prince "Sniveling Worm" Edmund, Duke of Edinburgh, who thinks himself quite the MagnificentBastard, while his contemporaries regard him with a mixture of pity and contempt. His [[TheStarscream various throne-usurping schemes]] either fail spectacularly, end up biting him in the ass, or both. Thankfully, his descendants gained several layers of {{Magnificent Bastard}}ry, presumably from their (unseen) matriarch.
** Edmund the butler (''Blackadder the Third'') was probably the most braggy of the subsequent Adders, in spite that he was the butler to an incredibly idiotic prince.

** Cersei is one of these most days. Her father dresses her down for it.
--> '''Tywin:''' I don't distrust you because you are a woman, I distrust you because you're not as smart as you think you are.

%%* ''Series/TwentyFour'': Almost every single villain.

** Sir Thomas More is portrayed somewhat as this. When the walls begin to close on him, he comes more as short-sightedly arrogant in not realizing how dangerous Henry's anger is and underestimating Cromwell.

* ''Series/TopGear'': Jeremy Clarkson tackles any task or challenge on the show with the attitude that it ''will'' work because he says it's going to, even if his co-presenters [[GenreSavvy warn him otherwise]]. Which makes it all the more hilarious when things [[GoneHorriblyWrong go horribly wrong]] as a result.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'': Brennen is a DangerouslyGenreSavvy InsufferableGenius who consistently aspires to {{Magnificent Bastard}}ry and fails to achieve it because, no matter how many times it backfires, he just can't resist [[VillainBall leaving Michael unattended long enough to contact his allies and/or cut a side deal with one of Brennen's own allies]].

** Genevieve Teague, BigBad of Season 4, is a competent schemer, but she's also a paranoid AbusiveMom and her grand scheme to not die ultimately [[SelfFulfillingProphecy gets her killed]]. She also lacks Lex's JerkassWoobie status, Zod's [[LargeHam presence]] and Lionel's [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy sheer panache]].

** Almost any character played by TimCurry qualifies as this.

* ''Series/HorribleHistories'': William Shakespeare is presented this way, especially in the HH Proms skits. In his case, he genuinely is a handsome, witty genius who invented plenty of beautiful new words and phrases and wrote a lot of great stories, but he also takes credit for other peoples' work if it has any similarity to anything he did (even picking on Cleopatra for telling her own story in her own way because he thinks ''AntonyAndCleopatra'' is better) and is so condescending to other people that we cheer when he gets punched.

** Ted Beneke. He's a sleazebag who has an affair with Skyler and seems to think he's smooth even though he commits tax fraud while claiming he won't be penalized.

** Rick Flag is a competent schemer (at least so far), but his fondness for ColdBloodedTorture, SociopathicSoldier status, and 1960s-ish supervillainy keep him here, especially when compared to SelfDemonstrating/LexLuthor and [[ManipulativeBastard Lionel]]. He's arrogant, viciously vile, and at least partially insane: he's a BadassNormal who's spent so much time around superheroes that he self-identifies as one. Lx-3 (Old!Lex), an AxeCrazy clone of Lex Luthor might count as well, as he has all of Lex's cunning and superiority, and none of his style.

*** For example, when his efforts to use the Republican-dominated Congress to bully budget cuts out of the Bartlet administration and dismantle their legislative agenda leads to a government shutdown, the public blames Bartlet and Haffley initially looks like he's going to come out on top... until a MomentOfAwesome when Bartlet walks to Congress to meet with Haffley, meeting with stranded tourists along the way. Haffley's unprepared for this, his SmugSnake instincts kick in, and he ends up leaving Bartlet sitting in a corridor while he tries to figure out what to do. This backfires on him, making him look arrogant, uncaring and distant in the face of Bartlet's humility, public opinion turns on him and he ends up having to eat crow and accept Bartlet's budget terms.