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| 11 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1354579471078120100 |
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| 14 | [[quoteright:300:[[Film/SilentNight2012 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_sndn_santa_3168.jpg]]]][[caption-width-right:300:[[Literature/TwasTheNightBeforeChristmas His black, soulless eyes and the cock of his head, soon gave me to know I had so much to dread.]]]] |
| 15 | ->''From his beard to his boots, he was covered with ammo\ |
| 16 | Like a big, fat, drunk, disgruntled Yuletide Rambo\ |
| 17 | And he smiled as he said, with a twinkle in his eye\ |
| 18 | "Merry Christmas to all! '''Now you're all gonna die!'''"'' |
| 19 | -->-- '''Music/WeirdAlYankovic''', [[Music/BadHairDay "The Night Santa Went Crazy"]] |
| 20 | |
| 21 | You can't spell "Santa" [[SignificantAnagram without]] "{{Satan}}"... wait, what? |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Sometimes, the AnthropomorphicPersonification of a beloved holiday just can't take the stress anymore. This may simply lead to shameful behavior, or it might end in a full-blown violent rampage. Alternately, there may be an [[SavingChristmas impostor bringing shame to the red suit]]. Or instead of cracking under stress, he was EvilAllAlong. Or maybe an ordinary MallSanta is just a {{Jerkass}}. Either way, we have a Bad SantaClaus on our hands. And remember [[Literature/TheAeneid what Laocoön said about Greeks bearing gifts]]. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | For children brought up with the "commercialized" form of Christmas, Santa Claus can be seen as something of a symbol of divine judgment as well as a jolly child-friendly icon, making the Bad Santa almost like a combination between the KnightTemplar and the MonsterClown. It isn't uncommon for the Bad Santa to herald his appearance with a twisted form of the 'naughty or nice' list -- usually with [[DisproportionateRetribution severe penalties]] for whoever is [[FelonyMisdemeanor judged "naughty"]]. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | See also TheKrampus, a trope based on a concept often confused with this one, and UsurpingSanta, when a bad person ''becomes'' Santa. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | An extreme form of ParanoiaFuel, given the disturbing nature of a killer or monster masquerading as a figure trusted and admired by children. Named after [[Film/BadSanta the movie of the same name]]. Usually runs a SantasSweatshop. If it's the real deal, it's a case of AdaptationalVillainy. If not, it usually ends up fighting the real deal, BadassSanta! To see an {{exaggerated|Trope}} version of Bad Santa, see {{Santabomination}}. Compare FallenCupid, the corruption of another holiday icon. The presence of this usually leads to AnAssKickingChristmas. |
| 30 | ---- |
| 31 | !!Examples: |
| 32 | |
| 33 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 36 | * In ''Anime/TheBigO'' there is an episode with a crazed man in a Santa suit that unleashes a giant Christmas tree on the city. |
| 37 | * In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Fremea and her classmates argue over whether or not Santa is real. While looking through textbooks, they find a reference to a version of Santa who abducts children, scaring the daylights out of them. Later, Fremea becomes brave enough to declare that if this evil Santa ever shows up, she will protect them. |
| 38 | * The "winter version" of the Shichinin Dougyou in ''Manga/GaRei''. They're a group of seven evil spirits...dressed like Santa Claus. |
| 39 | * In ''Anime/HareGuu'' Guu goes her way to portray Santa like this to the jungle kids who only remember bits of the Santa's mythos. Her portrayal includes [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]]-hockey mask and a coffin instead of a sleigh, among other things. |
| 40 | * In ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'', Hayate's work ethic is represented by an obnoxious, sarcastic Santa Claus. [[spoiler:Who is revealed to be Mikado (Nagi's Grandfather).]] He also wouldn't give Hayate any presents. |
| 41 | -->'''Young Hayate:''' Mr. Santa Claus, why do you never bring presents to my house?\ |
| 42 | '''Santa:''' Because your family is poor. |
| 43 | ** Santa Conan is also revealed to be a villain in one of the early chapters, as a parody gag, since Hayate and ''Manga/CaseClosed'' appear in [[Magazine/ShonenSunday the same publication]]. |
| 44 | * In ''Anime/MajokkoTsukuneChan'', Santa is first bombed, then sniped by Devil Santa, who wants to deliver the presents himself. Santa is then reincarnated as [[HumongousMecha Mecha Santa]], who proceeds to battle Devil Santa. |
| 45 | * ''Anime/MazingerZ'': In episode 56, set during winter, [[BigBad Dr. Hell]] proved to be TheGrinch when he unleashed a [[{{Robeast}} Mechanical Beast]] -Satan Claus P10- that resembled an evil Santa riding a jet-propelled sleigh, using a whip that fired missiles. |
| 46 | * [[spoiler:Laura]] of ''Anime/{{Mnemosyne}}'' dresses up as Santa in one episode then proceeds to blow stuff up and shoot people after saying "Ho ho ho." |
| 47 | * The horror manga ''Manga/{{Presents}}'' portrays Santa Claus as being able to see how the future will be affected by giving what a child most wants on Christmas. The scenarios we see all involve the children growing up to be criminals, horribly negligent gold-diggers, or (in one case) [[spoiler:instigators for nuclear holocaust]]. Santa responds to these cases by gruesomely killing the then-innocent children with their own presents to prevent those futures from happening. Unlike some other examples here, this Santa is sometimes doubtful if he did the right thing. It does nothing to lessen the horror. |
| 48 | * Nicholas the Renegade (that is, Saint Nick) appears as an annual optional boss in ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'' on the night of December 24th. He leaps down from his sleigh to challenge players on the ground. |
| 49 | * Episode 11 of the ''Manga/YoureUnderArrest'' first season had a crook who pretended to be Santa break into people's houses. Natsumi and Miyuki find the children distraught over what happened, cuing one of their many moments of heartwarming. |
| 50 | [[/folder]] |
| 51 | |
| 52 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 53 | * ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'': A [[https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4575552.html?thread=147616832 Christmas issue]] had a disturbed, possibly MadScientist with a childhood Christmas fixation attempting to create a robotic Santa Claus to make the myth into reality. But the robot she used as the basis was oedipus complex-driven psychopath [[Characters/MarvelComicsUltron Ultron]]. |
| 54 | ** For one, they wind up stopping him by [[spoiler:giving him a Santa cookie with explosives inside]]. |
| 55 | --->Merry Christmas to all... EXCEPT FOR THE AVENGERS, THE AVENGERS MUST DIE!!\ |
| 56 | Merry Christmas. Neural disruption for all. |
| 57 | ** Then there was [[http://imgur.com/a126D9s the time]] ComicBook/TheIlluminati let Santa use the ''Infinity Gauntlet''... |
| 58 | * The classic ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' story "Wanted: Santa Claus -- dead or alive!" Though the Bad Santa of the story (a mall Santa who was supposed to rob the store) does a HeelFaceTurn and Batman has to save him from the criminals he was working for. In fact, Batman has fought crooks dressed as Santa several times. |
| 59 | * ''ComicBook/BatmanBlackAndWhite'', "A Slaying Song Tonight": A hitman plans to get near his target by taking the place of a MallSanta hired to put in an appearance for the target's daughter. Batman figures it out in the nick of time and stops the hitman just before he reaches the house -- then puts the costume on and does the Santa appearance himself. |
| 60 | * ''ComicBook/{{Blade}}'': Blade at one point had to fight a Santa possessed by a body-jumping demon. Thanks to his [[{{Dhampyr}} unusual heritage]], he's immune to the possession, but ends up having to ShootTheDog. |
| 61 | * '70s horror anthology ''Creepy'' did a story called "Dollie" where Santa literally turns out to be Satan, handing out cursed and deadly toys. Read it [[http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2007/12/dollie.html here.]] |
| 62 | * In ''ComicBook/DayOfTheDollmaker'', Characters/{{Supergirl|TheCharacter}} punches a composite Batman/Kryptonite Man dressed as Santa Claus, created by Captain Marvel's nemesis Dr. Sivana and dressed as Santa Claus. |
| 63 | * ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'': In ''Comicbook/BornAgain'', Matt Murdock is stabbed by a thug dressed as Santa. |
| 64 | * The context is never made clear, but one issue of the ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'' comic started with Deadpool hunting down and killing a machine gun-wielding Santa Claus. |
| 65 | * The Italian branch of Creator/{{Disney}} (already known for both DarkerAndEdgier stories and series like ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'', ''ComicBook/DoubleDuck'' and ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'' and some of the craziest stories in Disney's history) gave this treatment to the ''actual'' Santa: when Santa decided that getting arrested by Casey and Rock Sassi was the last straw in [[NoRespectGuy centuries of receiving little to no respect for his job]] and decided to resign, chief O'Hara promptly pointed out he's guilty of breaking and entering, smuggling and resisting arrest and he has no documents on top of that and threw him in jail until he changed his mind. ''Then'', as Santa's elves mistake O'Hara for Santa and kidnap him, Santa adds breaking out of prison with WesternAnimation/{{Pete}}... |
| 66 | * The ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strip "Imaginary Enemies" features the TheKrampus, who rather than the goblin-like monster of legend, takes the form of a PaletteSwap of Santa (black beard, white suit, red trim -- his true form more demonic, though). In the Whoniverse he's a member of the [[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS1E7E8WhateverHappenedToSarahJane Trickster's]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft Brigade]] and exists in Santa's shadow. |
| 67 | * The comic ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'' features all the fairy-tales who are in exile on Earth. This includes Santa Claus. He gives poor amnesiac Flycatcher a gift - the restoration of his memories. Thus forcing Flycatcher to relive the horrific massacre of his entire family. Merry Christmas, eh? |
| 68 | * ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': The 109th issue of volume three has Jade confront Stan, a janitor from the orphanage she grew up in who occasionally worked as a mall Santa and had molested her and other girls. |
| 69 | * In ''[[ComicBook/HackSlash Hack/Slash: Entry Wound]]'', one of the holiday-themed villains Cassie mentions she and Vlad had recently disposed of was "Rudolph" - a creepy-looking Santa-esque man with BlackEyesOfEvil. |
| 70 | * ''ComicBook/{{Henchmen}}'': The [[ChristmasEpisode Christmas story]] "Winter Blunderland" saw [[TheProtagonist Gary]] working for Santa Claws, a SantaClaus-themed villain who's plot is to corrupt toys at a Mega Mart into his own Terror Toys(tm) to give out on Christmas. The plan is interrupted by the {{Superhero}} Retailer, who engages in a fist fight with Santa Claws. [[spoiler:Gary decides to shrink the both of them down to action figure-size and give them to his duaghter as a Christmas present.]] |
| 71 | * The Swedish comic ''Comicbook/HermanHedning'' have perhaps one of the sickest subversions of this trope. In a Christmas edition featuring a parody of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' with Herman as Scrooge. In the end, Santa Claus gives him what he wished for. A giant meat-grinder that grinds in a truly sadistic fashion. [[KarmicDeath Santa then proceeds to throw Herman in it giving everyone what they had been wishing for the last several years]] all while sporting the best murder face in the series. |
| 72 | -->'''Santa''': "Merry Christmas everyone! '''Ho ho ho'''". |
| 73 | * The ''ComicBook/{{Hitman|1993}} Christmas Special'' involves the titular Hitman hunting down a radioactive murderer in a Santa suit on Christmas eve in Gotham, all with surreal narration meant to resemble "Twas the Night Before Christmas." |
| 74 | -->'''Narrator''': 'Word', said his homie; 'I've got my nine. Now let's go bust a cap in that nuclear swine.' |
| 75 | * In ''ComicBook/{{Houppeland}}'' by Didier Tronchet, a totalitarian government imposes a state of perpetual Christmas; [[HappinessIsMandatory any unwillingness to be happy and participate in gift-giving and merriment is severely punished]]. |
| 76 | * ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': [[Characters/SpiderManCentralRoguesGallery The Rhino]] once tried to go straight by taking a job as a department-store Santa, but one too many bratty kids sent him over the edge and he went on a rampage. It took the [[Characters/MarvelComicsBruceBanner Grey Hulk]] and one crying little girl to stop him. |
| 77 | * The 28th issue of the ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' tie-in comic begins with the Justice League fighting a Santa Claus who turns out to be Clayface in disguise. |
| 78 | * TheKrampus in one comic anthology story schemed a comeback into the public consciousness by murdering Santa in front of children from an orphanage. In a shocking twist, Santa reveals a similar scheme where he murders Krampus in front of the kids, then kidnaps the naughty ones to enslave as toymakers in his workshop until they grow up, telling witnesses to spread the word that from now on, this will be the punishment for naughty children. Santa takes such heinous action partially to [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve cement belief in him]] after the world has lost faith, partially as revenge for being forgotten in the first place. |
| 79 | * It's not so much Santa as his little helpers, but in ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', a Coca-Cola representative is torn to pieces for interrupting Santa while he's high on mushrooms sending his astral self across the world to spread good cheer. |
| 80 | * ''ComicBook/TheLoboParamilitaryChristmasSpecial'' featured Lobo being hired by the Easter Bunny to whack Santa Claus, and a BadassSanta getting into a machete fight with the alien bounty hunter. Santa is also portrayed as a merciless taskmaster who has a monstrous gorilla named Kong as a pet. (The canon of this story is questionable and has never been fully addressed, seeing as Santa isn't depicted this way in DC Comic stories that happened before or since; Lobo has spoken about it, but he can be an UnreliableNarrator at times.) |
| 81 | * ''ComicBook/TheMuppetShowComicBook'': The "Winter" issue of the ''Four Seasons'' arc had a burglar dressed as Santa Claus rob Sam the Eagle while he was distracted reading a version of ''Literature/TwasTheNightBeforeChristmas''. Fortunately, the burglar gets arrested in the end with Sam the Eagle regaining his stolen property. |
| 82 | * The ''ComicBook/PocketGod'' Christmas special has [[MadScientist Red]], though he's more crazy than bad. He's a fat man in a red and green grass skirt who kidnaps [[TheDitz Nooby]] and clones him. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking He also talks to tiki statues]]. |
| 83 | * ''ComicBook/ThePunisher Silent Night'' started by showing a former criminal called Tiny Tim with [[UhOhEyes bloodshot eyes]] playing Santa. {{Subverted|Trope}} in that he was unmalicious to the children but then played straight when the Punisher himself put on a costume and started traumatizing any child who had the misfortune of running into him. The story ends with him [[WhatTheHellHero leaving the corpse of a]] NobleDemon crime lord [[JerkAss wearing the suit in front of an Orphanage.]] |
| 84 | * Comicbook/TheQuestion once fought a drunken, insane department store Santa. Comic writer Denny O'Neil seems to have some issues with Santa. (He's written several of these stories.) |
| 85 | * ''ComicBook/RedXmas'' is about SantaClaus pulling a FaceHeelTurn and becoming a child-kidnapping villain following his wife's tragic passing in a toy accident. |
| 86 | * ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7B-DzWKQB0 Santa The Barbarian]]''. You will be unsurprised to hear that Creator/RobLiefeld was the man responsible. |
| 87 | * The 54th issue of ''ComicBook/SpiderGirl'' began with Spider-Girl fighting some thugs dressed as Santa Claus. |
| 88 | * ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': In ''ComicBook/TheSpectacularSpiderMan Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' #112, Spider-Man once had to intervene when a burglar disguised as Santa broke into the apartment of his neighbor Bambi. Spidey prevents him from shooting her, then loses the burglar after he gets stopped by a someone completely off page except for his very Santa-like boots. The next day, the burglar had confessed to the police and was also distributing handmade toys. |
| 89 | * ''ComicBook/TheTick'' brought us Multiple Santa - an evil Santa impersonator who can clone himself, parodying the way children react to hearing news that Santa Claus is making personal appearances in many different places all at once throughout December. It was made into a ChristmasEpisode of [[WesternAnimation/TheTick the cartoon show]]. His ability to clone himself comes from electricity, leading the Tick to believe he killed him when he first gains his power. Worse, he keeps believing he's the real Santa until the actual Santa Claus (complete with elves) shows up. This has the side effect of restoring Arthur's faith on Christmas. At the end, since the Tick can't bring himself to fight even a villain who resembles Santa, he shakes him, which causes all his copies to disappear. Giving the Santas noogies makes them disappear. |
| 90 | * The first volume of Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/TopTen'' features a "Santa" who turns out to be a delusional class two psychokinetic - kidnapped reindeer from the zoo and everything. He also makes it snow in a subtropical climate in October. That's how powerful "class two psychokinetic" is. |
| 91 | * In the ''[[ComicBook/{{Warrior}} Ultimate Warrior]] [[http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/warrior-xmas/ Xmas Special,]]'' it seems that Warrior dresses as "Warrior Santa" and starts delivering Destrucity to children as well as apparently raping the real Santa Claus. Apparently, the intent was for it to be a SavingChristmas scenario where Warrior dresses up as Santa after he passes out drunk on Christmas Eve. The picture '''really''' looks like the aftermath of him raping Santa instead, though. |
| 92 | * Creator/ECComics' ''The Vault of Horror'' did a story called "...And All Through the House..." about a woman who kills her husband on Christmas Eve, only to be stalked by a homicidal maniac who's escaped from an asylum and is roaming the countryside dressed as Santa Claus. this story was later adapted into an episode of the ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' TV series. |
| 93 | * Creator/GahanWilson liked using Santa as subject matter, as in this creepy Film/NationalLampoon [[http://lampoon.rwinters.com/NL093-Dec1977.jpg cover]] depicting Santa Claus grinning evilly as he kidnaps a whole family. |
| 94 | [[/folder]] |
| 95 | |
| 96 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 97 | * The ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' fic ''Fanfic/ACertainCrazyChristmasSpecial'' by [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/852455/Franchise Franchise]] has an insane magician who impersonates Santa and has powerful Christmas-related magic. He goes on a rampage through town, wrecks stuff, steals presents and other belongings, and kidnaps several of the show's pretty girls. Naturally, Touma and Accelerator rescue the girls and defeat him. |
| 98 | * The ''Manga/OnePiece'' fandub/parody series "Dub Piece" painted Wapol as this, and also feuding with his ex-wife (played by Dr. Kureha). |
| 99 | * ''Fanfic/ISawGraysonKissingSantaClaus'': |
| 100 | ** Damian Wayne ''believes'' the real Santa Claus is this, and that Santa is going to kidnap his brother Dick Grayson to molest. In reality, Santa doesn't exist and his brother Jason Todd is feeding into his delusions for kicks. |
| 101 | ** At the climax of the story, Jason even dresses up as such a Santa (with devil horns, no less) to further {{troll}} Damian and the rest of their family. |
| 102 | * ''Fanfic/KnowsIfYouveBeenNaughty'': Relatively downplayed, but the fact that Santa [[spoiler: not only approves of [[TheKrampus Krampus]] brutally punishing naughty children, but also uses him to abduct those children and [[KarmicTransformation transform them into brainwashed elves]]]] makes him at the very least morally ambiguous. |
| 103 | [[/folder]] |
| 104 | |
| 105 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 106 | * Evoked in ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas''. Jack the Pumpkin King intentionally garbles up his description of "Sandy Claws" for the residents of Halloweentown, making Santa sound like a monster -- because he realizes that's the only way to get Halloween-themed critters excited about Christmas. Later on, Jack himself becomes an ''unintentional'' example of this trope as he tries to take over the role of Santa Claus, but ends up putting a terrifying Halloween spin on everything. Unlike most examples, Jack's "Bad Santa" persona is actually well-intentioned. He genuinely loves Christmas, and wants to make everyone happy -- it's just that [[TheAntiGrinch he doesn't quite "get" the meaning of the holiday]]. |
| 107 | [[/folder]] |
| 108 | |
| 109 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 110 | * Among the many zombies seen in ''Film/AnnaAndTheApocalypse'' is a zombie dressed as Santa. [[spoiler:He also provides a jump scare at the end.]] |
| 111 | * ''Film/BadSanta'' stars Creator/BillyBobThornton as a [[ChildHater child-hating]] and [[SirSwearsALot foul-mouthed]] MallSanta who robs the stores afterwards. [[HeelFaceTurn He gets better though.]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Somewhat.]] |
| 112 | * "The Fright Before Xmas" segment from ''Film/CampfireTales1991'' features a murderous Satan Claus, whose job is to punish the really naughty. He comes after the main character because he killed his mother. |
| 113 | * ''Film/CashOnDemand'': The charity Father Christmas stationed outside the bank is actually Colonel Gore Hepburn's accomplice in robbing the bank: having been keeping Fordyce and the bank under observation. |
| 114 | * ''Film/ChristmasBlood'': The villain of the movie is a psychopathic murderer who dresses up as Santa Claus and murders people on Christmas Eve. He managed to evade the police for 13 years until finally being caught in 2011. He manages to bust out of prison in 2016 and targets the protagonists in their home. |
| 115 | * ''Film/ChristmasEvil'' features a sad-sack who, as a child, sees his father dressed as Santa getting busy with his mother. Fast forward 30 years and he is a Christmas-obsessed toy store employee who loses it and ends up dressing as Santa to give presents to good boys and girls, and also to chop up his enemies with a hatchet. |
| 116 | * French film ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'' begins with dozens of Santas invading a child's house while he's in bed. The kid goes from thrilled to confused to frightened as the Santas grow from one to two to many. This turns out to be a dream that the child is having, which is being corrupted by the influence of the MadScientist villain. |
| 117 | * The basis for the 1989 French film ''Film/DialCodeSantaClaus'' where a genius kid who lives alone with his mother and grandpa is visited by a psychotic criminal dressed as Santa on Christmas night. He must defend himself and his relatives using his wits and array of various gadgets. |
| 118 | * Inverted in the horror film ''Film/DontOpenTillChristmas''. Instead of a killer Santa, it features a Santa killer. |
| 119 | * Parodied in ''Film/ErnestSavesChristmas'', where the candidate for the next Santa Claus is asked to take the lead role in a movie called ''Christmas Slay'', which features a killer alien Santa. The film was effectively {{defictionaliz|ation}}ed with ''Film/SantasSlay'' listed below. |
| 120 | * In the 1985 Australian thriller ''Film/{{Fortress|1985}}'', one of the masked criminals wears a Santa Claus mask and is dubbed 'Father Christmas' by the children he's abducted for ransom. |
| 121 | * ''[[Film/{{Friday}} Friday After Next]]'' when Craig and Day-Day are robbed by a man in a Santa Suit. |
| 122 | * In ''Film/TheHebrewHammer'', Santa's evil son kills him and takes on his position in order to eliminate all other December holidays. |
| 123 | * Nicholas Angel's recovering hand wound at the beginning of ''Film/HotFuzz'' came at the hands of a maniac dressed as Father Christmas (and played by Creator/PeterJackson). |
| 124 | * ''Film/JacobsLadder'': A street Santa robs an injured Jacob Singer of his wallet. Jacob vows revenge. |
| 125 | * ''Film/JingleAllTheWay'' featured a scene of a warehouse full of mall Santas and elves who turned out to be scamming imposters, selling counterfeit versions of popular toys. Or, as Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger's put it, "sleazy con men in red suits." One of them is also a BadassSanta, played by Wrestling/PaulWight, one of the few men who could make Arnold look small and scrawny. |
| 126 | * ''Film/KazuoUmezusHorrorTheaterPresent'' is a live-action Asian take on this concept, being neatly summed up by one review as "''Silent Night, Deadly Night''... [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace IN JAPAN!]]". |
| 127 | * While the central antagonist of ''Film/{{Krampus}}'' falls under [[TheKrampus his own trope]], he does dress and act like a parody of Santa Claus, in the familiar red fur robes with white trimming (albeit with [[HornedHumanoid gigantic curved horns]] poking out from under his hood) and even a gruesome old-man mask. He also has his own helpers in the form of a gang of sinister elves, disturbing LivingToys, and animated gingerbread people. |
| 128 | ** Played a little straighter earlier in the movie, when Sarah notices that the mall Santa in the family photo is giving her teenage daughter a very inappropriate glance. |
| 129 | * The 1942 film ''Film/LifeBeginsAtEightThirty'' begins with the main character, a washed-up alcoholic actor, losing his job as a department store Santa after showing up to work drunk on Christmas Eve. |
| 130 | * In the Christmas classic, ''Film/MiracleOnThirtyFourthStreet'', the Santa for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade is a drunk. Later, the real Santa smacks a department store psychologist with his cane for telling an impressionable young boy that he was mentally ill for wanting to do good on Christmas. This lands him in Bellevue, as part of the psychologist's petty attempt at revenge and leads to the court case at the end of the film. The 1994 remake retained the "drunk" Santa who also got fired for mooning the audience and losing his pants on the job. The movie later showed a bar of drunk Santas off shift, and the original Kole's Santa took the place in the plot of the psychologist as an antagonist. |
| 131 | * ''Film/RareExportsAChristmasTale'' reveals that [[spoiler:the original Santa Claus is a giant horned monster frozen in a man made mountain]]. |
| 132 | * The demented ''Film/SantaClaus1959'' movie featured in the episode of "Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000" falls into this trope [[AccidentalNightmareFuel entirely by accident]]. He's supposed to be a straightforward kindhearted Santa, but the movie's surreal tone and poor production value make him seem bizarrely sinister. |
| 133 | * ''Film/{{The Santa Clause|1}}'' parodies this trope with a line from Scott Calvin regarding an advertising campaign with Santa in a life size "total tank" model. |
| 134 | -->'''Scott:''' Well, kids I hope you've been good this year, because it looks like Santa just took out the Pearson Home. INCOMING!!! |
| 135 | ** ''Film/TheSantaClause2'' features a Toy Santa designed to fill in for the real one while he goes off to find a MrsClaus. While Santa's absent, [[AIIsACrapshoot Toy Santa takes over the North Pole, turns it into a fascist state, locks up all the elves, and goes off to give everyone coal]]. |
| 136 | ** And in the third film of the series, ''Film/TheSantaClause3TheEscapeClause'', JackFrost manages to take over the role. He enslaves the elves, exposes Santa to the world, and makes the North Pole into a business and fancy tourist attraction. |
| 137 | * A crazed mall Santa holds the employees of a suicide hotline hostage in the French movie ''Le Père Noël est une ordure'' aka ''Film/SantaClausIsAStinker''. It's a Christmas classic in France. [[ForeignRemake Remade]] (quite poorly) in the U.S. as ''Mixed Nuts''. |
| 138 | * In the horror/comedy ''Film/SantasSlay'', Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} plays an evil Santa who is actually the spawn of {{Satan}}, and rides a sleigh driven by his one hell-deer. He's out for revenge on the protagonist's grandfather, who, in a stop-motion flashback inspired by Christmas specials like ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'', defeated him as an angel in a curling match and sentenced him to deliver presents on Christmas for 1000 years, leaving Santa to kill again in 2005. |
| 139 | * Billy's parents in ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNight'' were killed by a robber dressed as a Santa, and years later he turns into an AxCrazy killer seeking to punish the naughty. When the movie was released, theaters showing it were actually picketed [[AudienceAlienatingPremise due to its premise.]] As this page shows, ItsBeenDone before and nobody complained! |
| 140 | ** Billy's crazier brother Ricky dresses as Santa Claus when he goes after the Mother Superior in ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNightPart2''. |
| 141 | ** Laura meets one during the opening dream segment of ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNightIIIBetterWatchOut''. What's also interesting is that one of the ''victims'' is actually dressed as Santa. |
| 142 | ** Pino (disguised as his creator, Joe) dresses like Santa when he unleashes killer toys on a pair of teenage lovers in ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNight5TheToyMaker''. |
| 143 | ** The killer, Jim, and Stein in ''Film/SilentNight2012''. |
| 144 | * ''Film/{{Sheitan}}'': In the [[ShowWithinAShow Film Within a Film]] the pumpman is watching, a man dressed as Santa attempts to sexually assault a sleeping woman. Unfortunately for him, [[MuggingTheMonster she turns out to be a vampire]]. |
| 145 | * In ''Film/TheSilentPartner'', psychopathic bank robber Reikle disguises himself as a mall Santa so he can pull off a bank robbery and case out the joint undetected. |
| 146 | * The ExploitationFilm ''Film/TheSinfulDwarf'' features a drug dealer who goes by the name Santa Claus. He uses a toy store as a front for his illegal operations. |
| 147 | * The Dutch movie ''Film/{{Sint}}'', released in 2010, contains a bad version of Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas, on which Santa is based). When it's full moon on ''Pakjesavond'' (translated ''Presents Eve'' on 5 Decembre, the night when the kids get their presents), Sinterklaas comes. Not to deliver presents, but to kill you. (Apparently it's not Sinterklaas, but Saint Niklas, a zombie. But they look EXACTLY the same, so it counts). Commercial posters have caused controversy, as they seem to scare kids. The RCC (''Reclame Code Comissie'', a Dutch organisation that decides if commercials are allowed to be shown in public) has decided that the posters can stay were they are. |
| 148 | * The 1972 ''Film/TalesFromTheCrypt'' AnthologyFilm segment "And All Through the House" featured a killer dressed as Santa Claus. It was later remade as an episode of the [[Series/TalesFromTheCrypt TV series]]. Both were inspired by a holiday-themed tale from the original comic, though the TV series episode sticks closer to the source. |
| 149 | * The early slasher movie ''Film/ToAllAGoodnight'', which has rare case of [[spoiler:''[[TwoDunIt two]]'' killers dressed as Santa, a couple, one being a police officer the other one being a woman]]. |
| 150 | * ''Film/TradingPlaces'' has Winthorpe, at his wits' end due to being the victim of a cruel prank, show up as a drunken Santa with a gun. |
| 151 | * The Santa Claus in ''Film/ViolentNight'' is a drunken KnightInSourArmor, though when called upon to be heroic, he goes BadassSanta, killing a LOT of legitimately evil people with a sledgehammer. [[spoiler:Considering that he is an immortal 1100-year old Viking named Nicomund the Red, this is very much justified. By the end of the movie, he's become a little less cynical and moved further away from this trope.]] |
| 152 | * Creator/DavidLynch's ''Film/WildAtHeart'' briefly features Lula's Santa-obsessed cousin "Jingle" Dell (Creator/CrispinGlover) who isn't so much Bad Santa as really, really creepy Santa. |
| 153 | [[/folder]] |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 156 | * The title character in Creator/OgdenNash's poem "The Boy Who Laughed At Santa Claus" finds out what happens when Santa turns the tables and declares he doesn't believe in him. |
| 157 | * Creator/RamseyCampbell's short story "Literature/TheChimney" centers around a young boy who becomes paranoid that "Father Christmas" is a malicious boogeyman living in his family's chimney that is out to get him. He dreams of numerous encounters with Father Christmas, culminating in one where he discovers it is covered in horrific burns and sports a GlasgowGrin. The narrator eventually realizes it isn't real, [[spoiler:only for him to discover his father has burned to death during a house fire caused by the chimney - and that his father's corpse is now the spitting image of Father Christmas]]. |
| 158 | * Henry Leverage's short story "Crooked Charity" (published in the PulpMagazine ''Gangster Stories'', December of 1929) is an early example of the "impostor Santa" version of this trope, with a VillainProtagonist convict who [[GreatEscape breaks out of jail]] on Christmas Eve. He wanders into a rich suburb, where he bumps into a drunken homeowner delivering toys in a Santa suit. He mugs the guy and steals the costume, seeing it as a perfect way to sneak past the cops and skip town. To keep his cover, he has to give the expensive presents in his sack to some poor inner-city kids, and the story ends with him reflecting that he actually made a surprisingly ''good'' Santa. |
| 159 | * In the {{Novelization}} of ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'', one of the evil biker gang members assaulting the mall inexplicably dresses like Santa. He's consequently known amongst his buddies as Jolly Old Saint Nick, or simply Nick for short. [[spoiler:Apart from the costume, he embodies none of the typical "evil Santa" traits and is just one of the gang members, and in fact dies a pretty uneventful death at the hands of zombies during the siege of the mall.]] |
| 160 | * ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'': |
| 161 | ** In the ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novel ''Sky Pirates!'', among the bizarre and horrifying/hilarious creatures of the System is the Snata, an animal that resembles an overweight, bearded corpse. Snatas [[EmotionEater feed on revulsion and terror]], and so, operating entirely on instinct, they make themselves bloodsoaked fur cloaks and enter houses through the chimney, ranting that the occupants have been ''very naughty''. |
| 162 | ** In the short story "The Feast", in ''Short Trips: The History of Christmas'', a group of 17th century Londoners, chafing at Cromwell's ban on Christmas, perform a ritual that they think will summon St Nicholas, but actually summons an elemental force that [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly feeds on belief]]. The Doctor has to destroy it before it drains its believers completely. |
| 163 | * ''Don't Put Mustard in the Custard'', a book of children's poetry by Michael Rosen, includes the poem "Christmas Eve, Christmas Day": |
| 164 | -->I'm afraid of Father Christmas coming down the chimney\ |
| 165 | While I'm fast asleep, he might come and grab me! |
| 166 | * While explaining the concept of summoning fairies and trapping them in magic circles in the ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Dresden Files]]'' novel ''Literature/{{Storm Front|DresdenFiles}}'', Harry Dresden makes a throwaway remark about not being suicidal enough to try summoning and entrapping Santa Claus that way: "nobody has stones that big." Given some of the things that people ''have'' tried and/or succeeded in summoning and entrapping in magic circles, this says something about the kindly old elf. There's probably a third list just for being that naughty. |
| 167 | ** In ''Literature/ColdDays'', Harry actually meets a character that looms over him (Harry is canonically somewhere around 6'6", or 195 cm tall), wears Mail armor (of something other than iron), with black boots, a large scarlet overcoat lined with white fur, and carries a large broadsword. This character introduces himself as "Kringle." and when Harry makes a comment about the character joining the Erlking's Hunt, Kringle replies along the lines of "what mortals know me as is not what I always was. Everything changes with time." |
| 168 | *** Kringle is Santa. Kringle is also [[spoiler:Odin]]. |
| 169 | * In Creator/OrsonScottCard's [[Literature/EndersGame Enderverse]] novella ''War of Gifts'', a fundamentalist preacher gives a sermon denouncing the commercialization of Christmas in which he declares that "SANTA is really SATAN!" |
| 170 | * The books ''Father Christmas'' and ''Father Christmas Takes a Holiday'' by Creator/RaymondBriggs has a -- well -- ''disgruntled'' Santa who's understandably fed up with having to do so much work just to deliver presents. Catchphrase: "Blooming Christmas!" Later made into a TV animation with the voice of Mel Smith. |
| 171 | * Creator/TomHolt's ''Literature/{{Grailblazers}}'', features Klaus and Radulf, actually [[Myth/NorseMythology Odin and Sleipnir]]. Both have become extremely vengeful, having been cursed to spend eternity providing gifts nobody wants. |
| 172 | * ''Literature/HansBrinkerOrTheSilverSkates'' has a chapter depicting the (actual) tradition of having St. Nicholas listing all the children's good and bad deeds, in detail, in front of everybody (see Myth & Religion, below). |
| 173 | * Definitely not evil, but Death in the Literature/{{Discworld}} book ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'' makes a pretty creepy stand-in for that universe's [[YouMeanXmas Santa equivalent]], who was already kind of creepy to begin with (he has tusks, his sleigh is pulled by fierce, gigantic wild boars, and he hands out blood-stained bones to bad kids). |
| 174 | -->'''Parent:''' You can't give her that! It's not safe!\ |
| 175 | '''Death:''' [[AC:It's a sword. They're not ''meant'' to be safe.]]\ |
| 176 | '''Mall Owner:''' She's a child!\ |
| 177 | '''Death:''' [[AC:It's educational.]]\ |
| 178 | '''Mall Owner:''' What if she cuts herself?\ |
| 179 | '''Death:''' [[AC:That will be an important lesson.]] |
| 180 | * ''Literature/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'': While not evil in the way of some of these examples, the Grinch started out as an ill-intentioned Santa-impersonator. |
| 181 | * Creator/CharlesStross's ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' short story [[http://www.tor.com/2009/12/22/overtime/ "Overtime"]] turns Santa into an EldritchAbomination, nicknamed by the snarky protagonist as "The Filler of Stockings, the Bringer of Gifts." The reason why a Cthuloid nasty is serving as Santa? [[spoiler:The stars are starting to come right, which means people can reach out to the Great Old Ones by belief alone. And a billion children across the world will go to bed believing Santa will come down the chimney... and ''something else'' answers.]] |
| 182 | * ''Literature/MoreAndMoreAndMoreTalesToGiveYouGoosebumps'': Santa Claus appears as the main antagonist of the story "Santa's Helpers". While not evil, he is a clear case of AdaptationalJerkass. Instead of the BenevolentBoss he is typically portrayed as, the story depicts him as a MeanBoss who overworks his elves, not allowed to leave or quit, to the point that some of them try to run away from the workshop, which has led to Santa sending more elves to recapture them. In the story, his elves mistake two children dressed in red and green winter clothes for the two latest escapees and bring them back to Santa, who puts them on 18 hour shifts for the next 5 years, noting that they can have a 2 day vacation afterward ''if they work hard enough''. He ''does'' give the kids a chance to prove they are human children, but they fail and are presumably left doing hard labor until they grow up enough for Santa to realize they are humans. |
| 183 | * Creator/DonaldWestlake's story "Literature/{{Nackles}}" is about a cruel father who invents Santa's evil counterpart to keep his children in line. Nackles, he tells them, is a black-clad tunnel-dweller in a minecart drawn by goats, who every Christmas takes the naughty away in his sack to be eaten. [[spoiler:[[GodsNeedPrayerBadly The power of belief turns Nackles real]], but the only person he takes is his creator.]] Creator/HarlanEllison adapted this story for ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'', changing the father to a bigot who terrorizes black children with tales of a Nackles who preys on them. CBS got cold feet at the last minute and shut down production of the segment, leading Ellison to quit the show in protest. ([[WhatCouldHaveBeen It would have been his directorial debut, too...]]) |
| 184 | * ''Literature/NaughtyNineTalesOfChristmasCrime'': Big Buck, the mall Santa in "I Killed Santa Claus," is a middle-aged burglar who is planning to rob the families who visit his workshop. He also smells of sweat, cigarettes, and alcohol, hates kids, sexually harasses any college girl who works as one of his elves, and [[spoiler:killed the kindly previous mall Santa to get his job]]. |
| 185 | * In the Creator/NeilGaiman (very) short story "Nicholas Was..." there's a twist on this trope where Santa himself is not the bad one, the ''elves'' are. The titular character is an ancient man forced to perform his duties by strange dwarfish creatures from the Arctic who [[WhoWantsToLiveForever will never let him die]]. |
| 186 | * ''Literature/NickVelvet'': In "The Theft of the Christmas Stocking", Nick dons a Santa outfit as part of his plan to break into an apartment to steal the stocking. |
| 187 | * In F. Paul Wilson's Literature/RepairmanJack novel ''Legacies'', Jack dresses up as Santa and beats up a thief that stole toys from a children's hospital. He then tied the thief to the front of the truck containing the toys, put antlers on him, and drove him through traffic. After the police found the abandoned truck in front of the hospital with the thief still tied to it, the only thing the thief could tell them was "Santa did it!" |
| 188 | * The children's book ''Santa's Twin'' by Creator/DeanKoontz details the attempts of two girls to rescue Santa from his sadistic and mischievous twin brother Bob Claus and stop Bob's plot to ruin Christmas by handing out nasty presents. It was followed up by ''Robot Santa'', which has Bob trying to make up for the trouble he caused last Christmas by building a robotic Santa Claus... who, unfortunately, [[AIIsACrapShoot quickly goes haywire]]. |
| 189 | * Satirist Creator/SJPerelman's "Waiting For Santy" depicts Claus as a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive hard-ass old company boss]] in the tradition of men like JP Morgan. |
| 190 | * "Literature/TheYearSantaWentModern", a humorist narrative poem by Richard Armour,[[note]]Published in "Family Circle" in 1963 and adapted into a picture book in 1964[[/note]] gives us a Santa Claus who is not so much ''evil'' as misguided, willing to dabble in utilitarianism and iconoclasm. At his foreman elf Slick's instigation to modernize the way he does things, Santa first seriously considers trading in his sleigh and reindeer for one modern vehicle or another. [[spoiler: He does give up on this idea, but only after all the alternative modes of transportation he considers appear too impractical or dangerous to him.]] Santa nonetheless decides to [[spoiler: go on a crash diet]]; Slick uses the opportunity to get the now slim jolly old elf to [[spoiler: have a very stylish business suit sewn for him]], and when this is done, easily convinces him to complete the update to his look [[spoiler: by shaving off his beard]]. But when he sees the result, Santa realizes that [[MakeoverFail the new look is antithetical to what he stands for]]. He instantly regrets the change [[spoiler: but with only a week left until Christmas, he is compelled to do his rounds that year with a false beard and a pillow under his Santa suit while his beard and belly grow back]]. |
| 191 | %%* There was a short story where the protagonist, a reporter, discovers that the red-suited burglar responsible for the increase in burglaries every December is none other than Santa Claus. Unfortunately for him, he is not remotely prepared to deal with a supernatural being.%%You need to name the example%% |
| 192 | [[/folder]] |
| 193 | |
| 194 | [[folder:Live-Action TV ]] |
| 195 | * A sketch on ''Series/AlexeiSaylesStuff'' parodying historical documentaries such as ''The World At War'' has Santa as brutal Stalinist dictator, who has a network of spies and informants betraying their comrades to him ("He knows when you are sleeping..."), orders naughty children shipped as slave workers to his toy factories in the Arctic where they are quietly 'disappeared', and has his former allies (such as Frosty the Snowman) arrested and executed without trial. He dresses all in red, he has a beard (like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara), he has no concept of money, he is not affiliated with any country, and he tries to take the religion out of Christmas. Hmmm... |
| 196 | * ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum'' has Leigh Emerson, a SerialKiller who dresses up as Santa Claus to murder his victims. |
| 197 | * ''Series/{{The Avengers|1960s}}'' had a Christmas episode where Steed suffered from disturbing dreams featuring a creepy ''Father Christmas''. |
| 198 | * In the ''Series/{{Bones}}'' episode "The Santa in the Slush", a mall Santa was murdered, and the team investigated a group of Santas, one of whom turned out to be the killer. As he is being [[PerpWalk perp-walked]] away, the other Santas start singing a dour chorus of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". |
| 199 | * ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': The plot of "[[Recap/TheBrittasEmpireCS2SurvivingChristmas Surviving Christmas]]" revolves around the staff being targeted by a Santa Claus actor driven to murderous insanity by Gordon Brittas. |
| 200 | * In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Anya mentions in passing that Santa Claus does exist, he even comes down chimneys and is pulled by reindeer -- but that he's really a demon that disembowels children. |
| 201 | * In ''Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina'''s ChristmasEpisode, the MallSanta turns out to be a demon that turns the "elves" who work for him into statues. |
| 202 | * Hitler plays this role a few times in Season 2 of ''Series/{{Danger 5}}''. After massacring a family, their son comes downstairs and asks if Hitler is Santa. Hitler agrees, leaving him a gift-wrapped hand grenade with the pin out. He also assassinates one of the heroes while they're out Christmas shopping by disguising himself as Santa. Even after he takes over the world in a BadFuture, he's still doing so. |
| 203 | * ''Series/DesigningWomen'' had a ChristmasEpisode in which Suzanne hires a mall Santa to sneak into Mary Jo's house at night so her son could "catch" Santa in the act. As was perhaps inevitable, he robs the place instead. |
| 204 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'' Christmas specials [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion "The Christmas Invasion"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride "The Runaway Bride"]] featured killer robot Santas. |
| 205 | * In his [[Creator/MontyPython pre-Python]] days, Creator/TerryGilliam did a Christmas animation for ''Series/DoNotAdjustYourSet'' that involved, among other things, a Santa stealing toys and kidnapping children. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUCPC63zSdk Linky.]] |
| 206 | * In ''Series/TheFlash2014'' Christmas episode [[Recap/TheFlash2014S2E9RunningToStandStill "Running to Stand Still"]], the Trickster disguises himself as a MallSanta and hands out 100 bombs disguised as Christmas presents to children all across Central City. |
| 207 | * An episode of ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' titled "'Twas The Nightmare Before Christmas" had the girls held hostage on Christmas Eve at the Grief Counseling Center by a man dressed as Santa Claus. |
| 208 | * One episode of ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' featured a drunk man dressed like Santa who had been taken into custody after he had threatened to jump off a building and shot his wife… [[PokeThePoodle with a water gun.]] He later escapes custody and hides in the ceiling of the Homicide squadroom until it collapses under his weight. |
| 209 | * ''Series/JakeAndTheFatman'': In "[[ChristmasEpisode Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas]]", it's Christmastime, but [=McCabe=] isn't feeling so jolly as an ambitious assistant DA helps Jake find a murderous Santa Claus. |
| 210 | %%* ''Series/TheLeagueOfGentlemen'' gave a particularly traumatizing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFwUY0CpkZY example.]] |
| 211 | * ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', "The Ho Ho Ho Job": A group of criminals are hired as mall Santas as part of a plan to rob a bank. |
| 212 | * The second ''Series/TheLibrarians2014'' ChristmasEpisode features Santa's evil brother, the Patron Saint of Thieves, who encourages his followers to steal Christmas gifts in a holiday they call "Thankstaking". (In RealLife the original St Nicholas is also patron saint of ''repentant'' thieves.) |
| 213 | * ''Series/MajorCrimes'': In "Chain Reaction", one bad Santa takes advantage of a Kris Kringle flashmob right outside to rob a bank. |
| 214 | * ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': |
| 215 | ** In an early episode, Al got into a fight with a department store Santa that worked in the mall; the guy then wouldn't let it go, and proceeded to turn every kid he spoke to against Al the next day, and ''then'' got a gang of other department store Santas to beat him up when he tried to leave work. |
| 216 | ** A later episode featured a bar full of drunk and grouchy department store Santas who hated their job, one of which was packing heat; after the bartended turned the radio to play ''Jingle Bells'', he shot it. He almost did the same to a rather cheery guy dressed like an elf, but then the bartender threw the guy out. (And insulted him by calling him short, at which point the elf got angry and said that the next Santa to do that "would be "ho-ho-hoing in soprano"; unfortunately, he [[GroinAttack makes good that threat on Al Bundy]] who walks in an does it.) |
| 217 | ** Let's not forget the drunk Santa that fell out of a helicopter and landed in the Bundys' backyard. |
| 218 | * ''Series/{{Monk}}'': |
| 219 | ** In "[[Recap/MonkS1E5MrMonkGoesToTheAsylum Mr. Monk Goes to the Asylum]]", the killer of the week dresses up as Santa Claus to look for the murder weapon so that if anybody hears about it, they'll just pass it off as a delusion of the patient who saw him (who has a Santa Claus obsession). |
| 220 | ** In the episode "[[Recap/MonkS6E10MrMonkAndTheManWhoShotSantaClaus Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa]]", Monk shoots a man dressed as Santa Claus -- he claims self-defence, but he becomes a public pariah. As it turns out, [[spoiler:the man in the Santa suit was acting as a diversion for a diamond heist]]. At the end of the episode, Monk refers to him several times as a "bad Santa." |
| 221 | * ''Series/MyWorldAndWelcomeToIt'': In "Rally Round the Flag," John meets his match when he encounters a snarky, bad-tempered bell-ringing Santa on a Manhattan sidewalk. |
| 222 | -->'''John''': Bet that beard gets scratchy, doesn't it?\ |
| 223 | '''Sidewalk Santa''': Are you taking a Santa Claus survey or somethin'?\ |
| 224 | '''John''': No -- I'm just curious.\ |
| 225 | '''Sidewalk Santa''': ''[motions to the kettle next to him]'' Yeah, well look, friend -- uh, drop somethin' in there and move on would ya, you're blockin' the pot.\ |
| 226 | '''John''': ''[drops a coin in the pot]'' Sorry. There you are -- keep the old pot boiling.\ |
| 227 | '''Sidewalk Santa''': ''[looks disparagingly into the kettle]'' I'm eternally grateful to you. Get lost. |
| 228 | * In ''Series/RoundTheTwist'', one Santa (there are revealed to be a whole squadron of them) attacks a [[MallSanta pillowbelly]] for being a fake Santa. She's an old woman. He's fairly cheerful and serious about his job, but something of a jerk. |
| 229 | * A sketch on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' featured Creator/JohnGoodman (who also voiced [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Robot Santa]]) as Santa Claus in the post-holiday season, depicted as a drunken jerk-ass. An [[http://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76jsantiwrap.phtml earlier fake commercial]] had Santi-Wrap, protection against germs from the likes of John Belushi's homeless, alcoholic mall Santa. |
| 230 | * ''Series/{{Sisters}}'' had the kids interested in the ''Santacide'' movies, about people being killed by Santa. |
| 231 | * ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' has Kramer as a Communist Santa. Your mileage may vary on whether that was bad or not. |
| 232 | * For a good portion of the 2007 ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' Christmas story "A Very Supernatural Christmas", the brothers consider the possibility that the MonsterOfTheWeek is an "anti-Claus", although it later turns out to be something else. When they realize they may have made a mistake, they call a more experienced hunter for advice: |
| 233 | -->'''Dean:''' What'd Bobby say?\ |
| 234 | '''Sam:''' Well, first off, he said we're idiots. |
| 235 | * ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers''. |
| 236 | ** ''Series/HyakujuuSentaiGaoranger'' had an episode with a Christmas Org modeled after Santa Claus riding a sleigh, it pretends to be a good reformed Org that is relentlessly attacked by his fellow Orgs for his turn to good; only to turn out to be in cahoots with his fellow Orgs all along in a scheme to deceive Gao Red. This Org was not adapted to the corresponding series of ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce''. |
| 237 | ** Reindeiasanta from ''Series/BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger'' and Rude Elf from ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder''. |
| 238 | ** The Debo Yanasanta quintuplet from ''Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger'', and their ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'' counterpart, Heximas. |
| 239 | ** In ''Series/AvataroSentaiDonbrothers'': After suffering a series of mishapes compounded by kids in the world no longer believing in him, SantaClaus became a Buddha-themed [[Series/HikariSentaiMaskman Light-type]] Hitotsu-Ki called Hikariki bent on ruining Christmas for everyone. |
| 240 | * ''Series/SueThomasFBEye'': In "[[Recap/SueThomasFBEyeS1E7SilentNight Silent Night]]", a thief hits two banks dressed in a Santa suit and makes his getaway by throwing some of his ill-gotten gains into the air, causing chaos as people grab for the money. |
| 241 | * The ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' ChristmasEpisode (yes, there was one), "And All Through the House", featured an escaped mental patient/axe murderer, whose schtick was dressing as Santa Claus, menacing a woman who has just murdered her husband on [[HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday Christmas Eve.]] Zig-zagged slightly in that he only kills the murderess woman and leaves her daughter alive. |
| 242 | * One episode of ''Series/That70sShow'' had Donna fall asleep while running a fundraiser. In her dream Santa appears and claims he has all the money she needs for the library she was raising funds for. After Donna mentions to Santa that some people don't believe in him, he becomes enraged and asks who these people are. Donna later wakes up screaming "No Santa, please don't kill them!" |
| 243 | * ''Series/TokusouExceedraft'' has, in episodes 43 and 44, a trio of child-abducting female Santas who appear to be immune to Exceedraft's weapons. [[spoiler:They're actually angels, bringing children to Mika - a female Archangel Michael - to be brought to a new world when this world ends. They join forces with Exceedraft to fight against a group of demonic Santas who try to capture the children for themselves.]] Yeah, ''Exceedraft'' got '''''weird''''' near the end. |
| 244 | * The final episode of ''Series/{{Woops}}!'' featured a Santa who caused the deaths of Mrs. Claus and the elves when he locked them out of his bomb shelter. |
| 245 | [[/folder]] |
| 246 | |
| 247 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 248 | * Music/TheArrogantWorms have subversive songs about the sucktacularity of the holiday season, including at least two about a Bad Santa: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbVCODrdBaE Santa's Gonna Kick Your Ass]]" and "Santa Got Arrested." |
| 249 | * Downplayed in ''The New Year Song'' by Diskoteka Avariya. In this song, Grandfather Frost (Santa’s Russian counterpart) isn't evil per se, just shows up very, very drunk and doesn't watch his language much at what is supposedly a children's party. |
| 250 | * In a somewhat different example, ''Elf's Lament'' by the Music/BarenakedLadies is from the point of view of one of Santa's elves, who complains about terrible working conditions and ends up forming a union and drafting a labour agreement. |
| 251 | * Creator/CheechAndChong's ''Santa Claus and His Old Lady'' depicts Santa as a bit of a stoner. |
| 252 | -->'''Chong:''' Hey, just a minute, man. Now, how'd he do that, man? |
| 253 | -->'''Cheech:''' Oh, well, man, he took da freeway. How else, man? |
| 254 | -->'''Chong:''' No, man. No, man, how'd he do all that other stuff, man? Like, how'd he make himself small, man. And, how'd he, like, how'd he get the reindeer off the ground, man? |
| 255 | -->'''Cheech:''' Oh, well, man, he had some magic dust, man. |
| 256 | -->'''Chong:''' Some magic dust? |
| 257 | -->'''Cheech:''' Yeah, magic dust, y'know? He used ta give a little bit to da reindeer, a little bit to Santa Claus, a little bit more for Santa Claus, a little bit more... |
| 258 | * Music/JonathanCoulton's "Chiron Beta Prime" describes the holiday season as celebrated on an asteroid prison colony run by merciless robots. It includes the lyric: |
| 259 | -->On every corner there's a giant metal Santa Claus |
| 260 | -->Who watches over us with glowing red eyes. |
| 261 | -->They carry weapons and they know if you've been bad or good. |
| 262 | -->Not everybody's good but everyone tries. |
| 263 | * The song "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" by Elmo & Patsy chronicles what was ''probably'' just a tragic accident... (In the [[WesternAnimation/GrandmaGotRunOverByAReindeer cartoon adaptation]], it was actually a FrameUp.) |
| 264 | * ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'': The BigBad goes by the code name 'Santa' at one point and dresses appropriately. |
| 265 | * [=Fishbone=]'s "Slick Nick You Devil You" includes the lyrics "Painting a bad finger over the fireplace/Tattoos on his hands and knees/I never thought Santa Claus could be such a sleaze" |
| 266 | * Series/TheGoodies' Christmas hit single ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC3AphnJLbE Father Christmas do Not Touch Me]]'' is about a Santa who positively ''relishes'' creeping into the bedrooms of young girls while they are sleeping. |
| 267 | -->She said ''Good grief, it's seven years since I wrote you a letter!''\ |
| 268 | He said ''I can't stand little girls - bigger ones are better!'' |
| 269 | * Music/TheKillers' ''Don't Shoot Me, Santa'' envisions St. Nick as a deranged serial killer, living in a trailer in the Mojave desert, who kidnaps and intends to murder singer Brandon Flowers. |
| 270 | * Some rather unsubtle critics (like CBS commentator Dave Ross) have actually viewed Santa as he was in the original "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" this way, pointing out that the other reindeer only stopped bullying Rudolph because "the boss liked him". (Maybe portraying the reindeer as [[ProfessionalButtKisser Professional Butt Kissers]] in the process. |
| 271 | * Music/RayStevens also has "Santa Claus is Watching You," which does indeed declare that ''"he's the secret head of the CIA!"'' and that he's got Rudolph ''"on a stakeout at'' your ''house!"'', among other things. |
| 272 | * There's the philandering Santa from Music/TheyMightBeGiants's song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSXd3D-YfTs "Santa's Beard."]] The song also has the classic line "Thrilling Christmas, trembling fear." |
| 273 | ** John Flansburgh's other band, Mono Puff, have a song called "Careless Santa" in which he's an incompetent bank robber. |
| 274 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzM-n04qLlQ Santa Claus is Satan]] by Music/{{Voltaire}}. |
| 275 | * [[Music/WeirdAlYankovic Weird Al's]] song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTGlUMvbhSw "The Night Santa Went Crazy."]] depicts [[GoingPostal an extreme case]] of the "can't take the stress anymore" version. |
| 276 | [[/folder]] |
| 277 | |
| 278 | [[folder:Myths & Religion]] |
| 279 | * Related to the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' example in the Live Action Television section above: In some parts of Europe, Saint Nicholas, the prototype of Santa Claus, was said to be accompanied by a little demon or dark elf known by several names, among them Black Peter or the Krampus. While St. Nick doled out the goodies to the good little tykes, his sidekick either put sticks/rocks/coal in the stockings of the ones on the naughty list, or in some cases, spanked them with a broom. |
| 280 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0s6WNL80Hw Just watch it.]] |
| 281 | ** In French-speaking regions, he is known as Pere Fouettard (Father Whipper) and, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as his name implies,]] gives ''whip lashes'' to the most unruly children. Sometimes he kidnaps the worst ones, who are never seen again (and implied to be taken straight to Hell or eaten). |
| 282 | ** One of the tales goes that the children kidnapped by the Black Peters were taken away to become the next generation of Black Peters. |
| 283 | ** Looking a little deeper, the "bad" kids are getting sticks and coal (and in some places, potatoes)? The "bad" kids are the poor kids. They're probably overjoyed to get all that fuel and food. |
| 284 | * TheKrampus accompanies Santa in many Germanic countries. |
| 285 | * In Sweden Santa Claus predecessor Julbocken (Christmas buck) a creature in fur and with a goat-bucks head that gave presents to nice kids and butted naughty once with its horns. |
| 286 | * Related to the above version, in the Nordic countries there's a legend of the Knut Goat (with a variety of spellings and names) which precedes St. Nicholas and possibly even Christmas. He was represented by chosen people wearing a goat mask and a fur coat wrong way round, travelling from one house to another after the midwinter festival, demanding remains of the feast foods as an offering, or risk bad luck the following year, and scaring bad children with all sorts of dreadful punishments. As Santa Claus became introduced in the North, these two characters often intersected; a goat-headed scary Santa wasn't an uncommon sight, and later on Knut Goat was perceived more as his evil twin. The custom is struggling, but still not quite dead in some regions of Finland and Sweden. |
| 287 | * Iceland has a whole family of giants who visit around Yule to give gifts or mete out punishments. |
| 288 | ** Gryla, the mother, wanders around offering to buy disobedient children from their parents, to serve for supper. |
| 289 | ** Her sons, the 13 Yule Lads, arrive one by one over the course of the 13 days before Christmas, each stealing or harrassing people in their own unique ways. They also leave good children gifts in their shoes, and leave potatoes for naughty children. |
| 290 | ** The Yule Cat, their cat, devours people who didn't receive new clothes for Christmas. |
| 291 | * In relation to the Swedish Santa traditions, in Sweden Santa Claus is referred to as Jultomten, literally the Yule Tomte. A ''tomte'' (or a Nisse) is a Scandinavian spirit dating back to pre-Christian times which was perceived as the guardian spirit or personification of a farm; the word is derived from the word tomt which means real property. It was said to punish lazy farmers and people who were cruel to the farm animals, and demanded sacrifices in the form of porridge. In Sweden, porridge is often put outside as a gift to the Yule Tomte. The tomte was known to inflict terrible vengeance on those who offended him. |
| 292 | ** Offering to the tomte was forbidden by the church due to its pagan origin. That did not kill the legend. |
| 293 | * Juovlastállu from the myths and stories of the Sámi is an evil Santa Claus with vampiric tendencies: if you don't leave out water for him in a bucket on Christmas Eve, he may drink the blood from your head instead. He travels around in a sleigh pulled by a collection of various wild animals of different sizes, with the smallest usually being a mouse and the largest a bear. If you don't keep the area around your house tidy on Christmas Eve, his sleigh may get stuck and he'll come into your house and beat you up. If children play outside on Christmas Eve, he may catch them in a bag and take them home to cook them. |
| 294 | ** Complicated by the fact that the modern US-inspired Santa Claus is also often simply called "Juovlastállu" in Sámi, although the term "Juovlanigá" is sometimes used for the good one to differentiate him from the bad one (after all, knowing the difference could save your life). |
| 295 | |
| 296 | [[/folder]] |
| 297 | |
| 298 | [[folder:Newspaper Comics]] |
| 299 | * ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks'': Besides Huey Freeman's conspiracy theories relating Santa Claus to Satan and belief that modern Christmas is a disgrace, his brother has a feud going with Santa Claus and at one point receives a letter from threatening to shoot up their street during a flyby. |
| 300 | * ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': |
| 301 | ** Played for laughs in a standalone Christmas strip: |
| 302 | --->'''Radio:''' ''He knows when you've been sleeping / He knows when you're awake / He knows when you've been bad or good / So be good for goodness' sake!''\ |
| 303 | '''Calvin:''' [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Santa Claus: Kindly old elf, or CIA spook?]] |
| 304 | ** Calvin once wondered about an [[EvilCounterpart "evil Santa"]] who brings you dangerous and annoying toys if you're bad, and socks and underwear if you're good. Similarly, another time he had a dream that Santa had reversed his moralities and was bringing all the presents to naughty children. |
| 305 | * The Dutch newspaper comic ''{{Dirkjan}}'' features a series of World War I themed comics. The protagonists Dirkjan and Bert are flying in their plane when they suddenly encounter a red plane. They fear it is the Red Baron, but it appears to be Santa Claus in his sledge. Then Santa suddenly pulls out a minigun and downs their plane... |
| 306 | * In one ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' cartoon, Santa is scolding the reindeer, saying, "I have one thing to say about all the complaints I've been hearing about lately: Venison!" A later cartoon [[BrickJoke seems to continue that theme]] where he's at a typewriter writing a book titled ''Nine Ways to Serve Venison''. |
| 307 | * Zigzagged in [[http://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2014/12/25 this]] ''ComicStrip/TheWizardOfId'' strip, where Santa gives Henry the dragon a bone for Christmas. Santa is actually pretty decent here, but he gets the bone by stealing one from a dinosaur skeleton at a museum. |
| 308 | * In a ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' comic that was published after Christmas, Jeremy has a nightmare where he's visited by Repo Claus (who looks like Santa, but meaner, and dressed in green), who takes gifts from ungrateful kids who don't appreciate them. After waking up, Jeremy feels bad about not having given his parents a sincere thank you, [[AnAesop and decides to go do so right away.]] |
| 309 | [[/folder]] |
| 310 | |
| 311 | [[folder:Pinballs]] |
| 312 | * Creator/DataEastPinball's ''Pinball/TalesFromTheCrypt'' depicts a lecherous man in a Santa suit licking a woman's cheek, no doubt referring to the "... And All Through the House!" episode mentioned in Live-Action TV above. |
| 313 | [[/folder]] |
| 314 | |
| 315 | [[folder:Pro Wrestling]] |
| 316 | * ''[=WWF=] Prime Time Wrestling'', on its December 25, 1989, broadcast (Christmas Day), saw Wrestling/BobbyHeenan made to dress as Santa Claus while co-hosting the show, this after one of Heenan's wrestlers, Wrestling/RickRude, lost to Wrestling/RoddyPiper in a match earlier in the month; another explanation is that Heenan lost a trivia contest a week earlier to Piper. Early on the Christmas broadcast, Heenan went along in the Christmas spirit, as Prime Time host Wrestling/GorillaMonsoon (at the desk) and Piper (in an auxiliary studio) encouraged him. Eventually, Heenan grew tired of having to play nice and began to openly insult and mock the tradition of Christmas and Santa Claus, all this while dressed as Santa. Piper (and Monsoon) tried in vain to get Heenan to stop his tirade, but [[TemptingFate when Heenan said that Santa Claus wasn't real and began taking off his Santa outfit]], Piper lost his temper and beat up Heenan. [[note]](At the time, there was an angle involving Piper and Heenan where Piper could not physically attack Heenan or else he would be fired as co-host of ''Prime Time'', which of course Heenan used to his fullest advantage.)[[/note]] For Piper, it was personal, as he reflected back on his own impoverished childhood and Christmases where he got nothing and vowed that Santa was real. [[note]]Even during his heel run several years earlier in the WWF, Piper considered Santa real, and a skit was even done that aired on the WWF's "Tuesday Night Titans" program.[[/note]]\ |
| 317 | \ |
| 318 | The episode did come under criticism by some because of Heenan's anti-Santa comments while dressed as St. Nick ([[ThinkOfTheChildren due to younger kids in the audience]] possibly considering this man -- even though it was clear it was Heenan -- to be ''the'' Santa), and perhaps aware of what might happen Monsoon and Piper did their best to reassure the children that this man was making comments that were completely out of line. Piper beating up Heenan (while still having his red Santa coat and pants on) when he wouldn't shut up also was a point of criticism, again because [[ThinkOfTheChildren younger children in the audience who still considered this "Santa" to be ''the'' Santa]] and the image of their favorite Christmastime character being beaten to a pulp. |
| 319 | * At ''WWF in Your House 5: Season's Beatings,'' December 17, 1995, [[Wrestling/TedDiBiase "The Million-Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase]] introduced Xanta Klaus, an evil version of Santa who lived at the ''South'' Pole, as the newest acquisition of his [[PowerStable Million Dollar Corporation]]. The gimmick lasted ''one'' match. Xanta {{Squash|Match}}ed Scott Taylor on the December 23rd (taped December 19th) ''WWF Superstars.'' Xanta, real name Jonathan Rechner, would go on to find success after going to Wrestling/{{ECW}} with a [[TheGimmick gimmick]] truer to himself, the [[ChairmanOfTheBrawl "Hardcore Chair-Swinging Freak"]] Wrestling/BallsMahoney. |
| 320 | * ''Wrestling/WWERaw'' parodied this on the December 19 (taped December 9), 2005 "Holiday with the Troops" show, with a "Bad Santa" dressed in a desert-camo version of the traditional suit coming out and insulting the troops, only to be confronted by a "Good Santa" wearing the regular red uniform. The two ended up having an impromptu No-Holds-Barred match, with Good Santa (Wrestling/MickFoley) defeating Bad Santa (who turned out to be [[Wrestling/JohnBradshawLayfield JBL]], then a ''[=Smackdown!=]'' Superstar; this was back when the division between the brands was taken seriously in {{Kayfabe}}, and the show was hosted by ''Raw''). It should be noted [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40YGwIuQYrc this wasn't Foley's first match with Santa.]] |
| 321 | * During December of 2009, Mr Niebla took on an evil Santa Claus gimmick who, instead of gifts, gave out garbage in Wrestling/{{CMLL}}. |
| 322 | * On the 2013 Christmas Edition of Wrestling/WWERaw, Wrestling/DamienSandow took on the role of "Bad Santa" in a match against Wrestling/MarkHenry, who played the role of "Good Santa." Mark Henry won. |
| 323 | [[/folder]] |
| 324 | |
| 325 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 326 | * A Christmas campaign in a Radio Station from Costa Rica stars the Christmas Superheroes (representing Costarrican Christmas traditions) fighting to protect our Christmas from the evil Legion of the North, composed by the terrible Santa Claus, and his gang of Elves and Ninja Reindeers. |
| 327 | [[/folder]] |
| 328 | |
| 329 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 330 | * One of the characters in the ZombieApocalypse game ''TabletopGame/DeadOfWinter'' is Forest Plum, an alcoholic and former MallSanta. His special, in-game ability, is that he raises the overall morale of the colony if he voluntarily leaves. |
| 331 | * One supplement for the original ''TabletopGame/LittleFears'' documented a Bad Santa called Santa Claws. |
| 332 | * The sample campaign in ''TabletopGame/{{Nobilis}}'' 2nd edition features Grommet Claus, the creation of the Power of Holidays in a duel with the Power of Strife in the PC's [[HyperspaceBase Chancel]]. His gifts for the good children are all "monkey's paw" type mixed blessings and he feeds the naughty children to the giant wasps that pull his sleigh, and he was created to plunge his awl into the Power of Strife's brain. |
| 333 | --> "He wears a white-trimmed red, does Grommet Claus. A leather hood shields his face. One hand holds a wicked awl. The other holds the bag of toys slung over his back. He rids a sled drawn by twelve coal-black wasps. He knows the heart of every mortal. He can turn himself sideways to fit down the smallest chimney or through the smallest crack. The love of children sustains him -- he cannot die while nearby children hold to Christmas in their hearts." |
| 334 | * [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Santa_Claws Santa Claws]] in the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh Card Game''. Though he has a fiendish appearance, he has the [[LightIsNotGood LIGHT attribute]]. (Note the Scores of this monster, 1,200 ATK and 2,500 DEF. A reference to December 25th, the date of Christmas.) |
| 335 | * ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'' has a bizarre example, in that Santa altogether sticks to the actual mythology around him and is generally a jolly, happy (and very industrious) man without a mean bone in his body. The problem is, he's a Mane (''the'' strongest Mane at that), and as a manifestation of pure Mania everything he makes and even ''touches'' is a massive [[PhlebotinumBreakdown Havoc]] risk whenever a mere mortal is involved. "Mere mortal" includes the children he's handing out gifts to, mind you. And anyone who attacks him gets shuttered in his workshop and made to write a few apology letters... in a place so utterly ''soaked'' with Mania Geniuses risk completely losing their shit from the excess with every minute they spend inside. Santa Claus himself has ''[[ObliviouslyEvil no idea about any of this]]'' and continues to do what he always does every Christmas, forcing Geniuses to create an entire committee to stop and kill him every year - and he comes back every time. |
| 336 | [[/folder]] |
| 337 | |
| 338 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 339 | * In the app ''VideoGame/TheBattleCats'', the Jingle Cat Bell set of levels for December features Dark Emperor Nyandam dressed up as Santa, appropriately named Dark Emperor Santa. He even has an [[UndergroundMonkey Alien variant]] named {{Satan}} Claus. |
| 340 | * In the Creator/DataEast shooter ''VideoGame/BoogieWings'' one of the bosses is a giant robotic Santa who turns evil and is called "Satan Claus." |
| 341 | * There's a chain of missions in ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}: [[UpdatedRerelease Scholarship Edition]]'' where the main character must help a drunken, down-on-his-luck Santa run the good one out of town and get revenge on the kids who tease him. |
| 342 | * One of the bosses in the ''VideoGame/CarnEvil'' UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame is Krampus, a warped, horned, green-clad version of Santa, who attacks by clawing the player or pelting them with presents and flaming coal while taunting you with phrases such as "Have a nice lump a' coal!" and "I'll stuff your stocking!" |
| 343 | * One of the villains in the third and final ''VideoGame/{{Clayfighter}}'' game was Sumo Santa, an evil sumo Santa Claus who attacked by throwing his belly at his opponent. |
| 344 | * ''VideoGame/CrudeBuster'' featured a creepy Kringle who would shout "Psycho Santa! Ho ho ho!" as he attacked the steroid-popping heroes. |
| 345 | * The little-remembered videogame ''VideoGame/DazeBeforeChristmas'', which featured Santa Claus rescuing toys and elves from an evil snowman. By drinking a cup of coffee, Santa would turn into his SuperpoweredEvilSide, ''Anti-Claus'', who was a blue-suit wearing demonic, horned, devil Santa with super strength. |
| 346 | * One of the costumes for the Clown in ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'' is a Santa Claus outfit, invoking this trope considering he is one of the killers. |
| 347 | * Embodied by Satan Claws in ''VideoGame/DeathSmiles II''. |
| 348 | * In ''[[VideoGame/DevilishHairdresser Devilish Christmas]]'', the Devil dresses up as Santa to mess with the Angel and take her presents. |
| 349 | * There's a Japanese [[GameMod mod]] for ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' which, after 20-something maps filled with enemies from every 2.5D shooter in existence, suddenly jumps to the frozen north, puts on some Christmas music, and pits you against a rocket-launching Santa. |
| 350 | * ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' has Mr Sacks, aka [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Crimson Beast of Winter"]], who appears every December. He doesn't give people gifts; the people of London are instead supposed to give gifts to ''him''. He accepts anything from abstract things like your "best regards", to fine wines, to parts of your body...or even ''you'', if you're foolish enough or don't have anything else to offer. But something of yours WILL end up in his sack. And unlike Santa, he doesn't just appear on the Christmas eve. No, Mr. Sacks visits you on each of the twelve days before Christmas. And he expects a gift with each visit. |
| 351 | ** In the SpinOff game ''VideoGame/SunlessSea'', your captain may be called upon to perform three deliveries for Mr. Sacks. [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse Refusing him is implied to be bad for your long-term well-being]]. [[MortonsFork Accepting is likely to be bad for you short-term]]. Accepting and taking too long with it is likely to be the worst (and last) idea you'll ever have. |
| 352 | * ''[[VideoGame/Frenzy1998 Frenzy!]]'' have a giant santa mech as the boss of a winter-themed stage, who can throw ''exploding'' presents at you. He also have a bunch of snowmen robots backing him up. |
| 353 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Gex}}: Deep Cover Gecko'', one of the goals of the Xmas-themed mission is to defeat an evil Santa by hitting back the presents he's throwing at Gex. |
| 354 | * In one of the levels of ''VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney'', you get the opportunity to be a Bad Santa yourself, by dressing up as him in a Christmas party to carry out your latest hits. |
| 355 | * Agent 47 can unlock a Santa disguise and use it on any map in ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'' and its sequels. |
| 356 | * ''VideoGame/KillingFloor'' had the Christmas event which had several Bad Santas. The Bloats and the Patriarch were both re-skinned into evil Santas trying to kill your group. There was also the playable Bill "Baddest Santa" Weeks, a drunk mall Santa. |
| 357 | * Father Crimbo (the game's version of Santa Claus) of ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' had a heart attack one year and was replaced by his no-good alcoholic brother. However, Crimbo 2007 had the Borg bringing Father Crimbo BackFromTheDead; and getting assimilated by ''him'' in turn, becoming the Crimborg. |
| 358 | ** And in 2008, Uncle Crimbo accidentally unleashed [[NuclearMutant a horde of mutant elves after an ill-advised attempt to use radioactive materials]] in toys. He was replaced with Don Pygoscelis, ''head of the'' (penguin) ''Mafia.'' |
| 359 | ** Don Pygoscelis was eventually beaten in 2009, replaced by the seemingly-reformed Crimbomination... then in 2010, the Crimbomination became a CorruptCorporateExecutive who turned Crimbo Town into the headquarters of a soulless corporation, CRIMBCO. |
| 360 | * One level in ''VideoGame/LittleRedRidingHoodsZombieBBQ'' is Santa's toy factory. At the end you fight the man himself, turned into a zombie, riding a flying mechanical sleigh and shooting presents. |
| 361 | * ''VideoGame/MeanSanta'': You play as SantaClaus who's decided he's going to steal gifts from kids instead of giving gifts to kids this time. |
| 362 | * One of the monsters in ''VideoGame/MonsterRancher 2'' is a DemonicDummy monster dressed as Santa. Appropriately enough, it's called "Satan Claus." |
| 363 | * In the ''VideoGame/NickelodeonClickamajigs'' game ''Nick'd'' there are four robbers dressed as the genuine article, invading a house to steal everything that isn't nailed down (they'll even steal the couch by yanking it up the chimney if you let them go long enough!) To repel them you need to throw Christmas ornaments at them. Be careful, though, because the real Santa has mixed himself in to help and if you hit him 3 times, coal for you! |
| 364 | * The bank robbers in ''VideoGame/Payday2'' can be this when they wear the Santa Claus masks. |
| 365 | * ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'' has the Fake Santa, a MookMaker who flies around with a JetPack, tossing down presents containing enemy Snowmen. Normally an InvincibleMinorMinion, the ''only'' way to get rid of him is via a [[SmartBomb super taunt]]. |
| 366 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' gives us Iron Bundle, the [[FutureBadass Paradox version]] of resident Santa-based Pokémon Delibird. While Delibird is generally friendly, Iron Bundle is an aggressive and terrifyingly powerful KillerRobot like the rest of its Paradox brethren despite sharing a [[KillerRabbit similarly cute appearance]] as its predecessor. |
| 367 | * The fangame ''VideoGame/RagnarokBattleOffline'' has a stage where you're helping a good Santa, who later reveals himself as one [[{{Pirate}} scraggly-bearded, eyepatch-wearing, hook-handed]] Bad Santa who sends his pet reindeer to fight you (actually the stage boss Stormy Knight) and when you beat it, he storms off uttering "Fuck you!" many times, whereupon the actual Santa shows up to thank you. |
| 368 | ** The original ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline'' has this Bad Santa as well, though you don't fight him directly either. It also reveals his actual name's Antonio. |
| 369 | * ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV: How the Saints Saved Christmas'', Santa Clawz was created by Zinyak's simulation as part of the real Santa's personal IronicHell. With the help of a traitorous elf, he took over the North Pole, killed Santa's reindeer and [[DecapitationPresentation put their heads on pikes]], and set the rest of the elves to work making weapons instead of toys. He's also weakened by Christmas (or other holiday) cheer. |
| 370 | * ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' The first episode of ''Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space'', "Ice Station Santa," has the Freelance Police trying to subdue a deranged Santa Claus. It turns out one of his elves was possessed by a demon who was supposed to go to {{Satan}}, but was mixed up in the mail, though it ends up posessing him as well. Even when not possessed by a demon, Santa's shown as being far from jolly; In "What's New Beelzebub?" he confesses he can't stand kids and the whole "live in a remote arctic wasteland and only go out to deliver presents once a year" set-up is so he doesn't have to deal with them. |
| 371 | * The main antagonist in ''VideoGame/SaturdayMorninMayhem'' is Saint Not!, who is an evil clone of the original Saint Nick designed by his DNA in mind and whose main goal is to destroy all heroes so he can be perceived as the only "hero" by the children of the world. |
| 372 | * ''VideoGame/SavageHalloween'' have hostile Santa Claus enemies armed with gatling guns in the winter-themed stages. |
| 373 | * In ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'', the heroes have to battle Santa Claus after he becomes BrainwashedAndCrazy and turns into the Frost Gigas. After they win, he returns to normal. |
| 374 | * The indie horror game ''VideoGame/SlayBells'' has the down on her luck stripper protagonist being chased by a mad man dress as Santa on christmas night. |
| 375 | * ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' [[WebComic/TeamFortress2 supplementary material]] features Old Nick, the "Santa" analogue of [[YouMeanXmas Australian Christmas]]. He is an ancient HumanoidAbomination who kidnaps children from across the world, brings them back to his workshop in the South Pole, and forces them to make gifts year-round, which they then give to him. In the comic "A Smissmas Story", the Spy gets a little boy to stab him to death with an icicle. |
| 376 | ** Interestingly enough, "Auld Nick" is used in Scots as another name for The Devil. Which may be coincidental, but would certainly explain a lot. |
| 377 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'', [=Santa-NK1=] is an evil Santa Claus-based {{Mecha}} boss that spawns during the Frost Moon. This is averted by the actual [[HolidayMode Santa Claus NPC]] however, who's pretty much what you'd expect from Santa Claus [[spoiler:apart from spontaneously dying once January comes along]]. |
| 378 | * ''VideoGame/VisceraCleanupDetail'' comes with a DLC called [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/265210/ Santa's rampage]], where the player cleans up Santa's workshop, which has become covered with blood and elf corpses after Santa Claus has finally snapped. |
| 379 | * Santa Claus in the roguelike game ''VideoGame/ZAngband'' is only one of many monsters [[EverythingTryingToKillYou trying to kill you]] in the game, though he drops better presents than most. Like other unique monsters, he can be wanted for crimes. |
| 380 | [[/folder]] |
| 381 | |
| 382 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 383 | * Played with in ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' regarding "Santa", who absolutely doesn't look like any depiction of Santa and simply chose the codename to match with his number 3 bracelet since 3 is pronounced as "San" in Japanese as well as that [[spoiler:he used to secretly play Santa for his sister]]. He may also recall a story about there being two Santa Clauses; [[LightIsGood one good Santa dressed in white]] and [[DarkIsEvil one bad Santa dressed in black]], whose misdeeds eventually drove the good Santa to kill the evil one and the ensuing murder stained the good Santa's clothes red. [[spoiler:In reality, he's the '[[TheDragon secretary]]' for [[BigBad Zero]] (Akane) and helped mastermind the entire second Nonary Game to get revenge on the men who planned the first game which killed Akane in the past and to make sure she could use the morphogenetic field to contact Junpei under the right conditions [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong so she could save herself]]. In the end, he manages to grant Akane's wish to live and both get away with manipulating Hongou (Ace) into killing the other three men behind the first game.]] |
| 384 | * In ''VisualNovel/AkatsukiNoGoei'' both Tsuki and Kaito hate Santa for some reason, so they decide to make a Santa horror story puppet show in which he takes away unwanted children and butchers them. |
| 385 | [[/folder]] |
| 386 | |
| 387 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 388 | * The aptly named villain Bad Santa from ''WebComic/AxeCop'' whose abilities include the Power of Christmas and a guitar that hurts peoples' ears. |
| 389 | ** And, when Sockarang gets Bad Santa's [[AppliedPhlebotinum blood on him]], he becomes Good Bad Santa. |
| 390 | --> Sockarang: "I have the power of Christmas!" |
| 391 | * [[http://www.bitercomics.com/comic/dear-santa/ This]] ''Webcomic/{{BiterComics}}'' strip features Santa contemplating harvesting organs from his elves to fulfill kids' wishes. In [[http://www.bitercomics.com/comic/claus-effect/ another strip]], Santa is portrayed as a, possibly well meaning, menace of sorts who is met with a tragic end. |
| 392 | * ''Webcomic/BreakpointCity'' featured [[http://www.breakpointcity.com/archives/2005/12/17/rhyming-is-hard/ an arc]] where Santa does everything in his power to sabotage Christmas and stop the [[SavingChristmas adorable critter from saving it.]] Mid-way through January, he somehow manages to (unwillingly) make his run on time anyway. |
| 393 | * The main protagonist O in the LifeEmbellished webcomic ''[[http://www.commissionedcomic.com/index.php Commissioned]]'' has [[http://www.commissionedcomic.com/index.php?strip=301 an ongoing feud]] with the evil Jolly Red Roof Lurker. |
| 394 | * ''Webcomic/EvilInc'' had [[http://evil-inc.com/comic/santa-villain-2/ Santa being revealed that he's a supervillain.]] |
| 395 | * ''Webcomic/FarOutThere'' featured a particularly [[http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1090298/bridget-and-alphonses-horrifying-christmas-page-10/ gruesome example]] of Santa being a murderous beast. |
| 396 | * A non-canonical ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' ChristmasSpecial features Santa Claus' EvilTwin, [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic/series.php?view=archive&chapter=9897&mpe=1&fromwhich=1&direction=f 'Insanity' Klaus]], who gives out cool and evil toys to naughty kids. Which [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic/series.php?view=archive&chapter=9897&mpe=1&fromwhich=12&direction=f saves Dave's Christmas]], after Helen and Mell manage to pin their wholesale rampage on him... |
| 397 | * In ''WebComic/PvP'', Scratch Fury: Destroyer of Worlds wages war with Santa every Christmas holiday. |
| 398 | * ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' has some examples. |
| 399 | ** One strip has Santa preparing a rifle after finding that there are too many good kids. |
| 400 | ** Another strip has a pair of children visited by a blue-clad Santa who [[{{Jerkass}} tells the children that nobody loves them and announces that he will crap on their pillows]]. |
| 401 | ** Subverted in [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2007-06-05 this one]], in a way that is actually ''more'' disturbing than what it looks like at first. Santa is whipping his elves, but he's doing it because the elves are into that sort of thing. |
| 402 | * Bun-bun, the psychopathic KillerRabbit of ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', has a long-running feud with Santa and tries to kill him every year. Though this is just Bun-bun being evil/himself and not apparently Santa's fault, it eventually drives the fat man far around the bend, leading to black ops elves, a killer cyborg Easter Bunny, and an extraterrestrial exile during which Santa contracts TheVirus. As a result, Santa eventually [[spoiler:turns into a monster based on alien DNA and intends to start an invasion of Earth but never quite manages that because he's too busy making toys]]. After some more time, Bun-bun's involvement with the holidays culminates with his [[spoiler:fighting to become the AnthropomorphicPersonification of all the holidays, in the end facing off with a giant Alien Santa. Bun-bun wins, becoming the official Santa, and prepares to use his new powers to take over the world]]. |
| 403 | --> "Well-a-ho-ho-freakin-ho. Are we in for a year of great Holiday fun or what?" |
| 404 | * ''Webcomic/SuperStupor'' had a bit involving a villain called the Holiday Special Rapist, a child molester who pretends to be Santa to earn children's trust. |
| 405 | * [[http://www.vgcats.com/anime/?strip_id=7 This strip]] of ''Webcomic/VGCats'' has Santa writing the people from his "bad list"... ''in the Manga/DeathNote''. |
| 406 | ** ''Webcomic/BoxerHockey'' picked up on the [[http://boxerhockey.fireball20xl.com/example.php?id=008_christmas_again.jpg same idea.]] |
| 407 | * According to ''Webcomic/{{Xkcd}}'', Santa has five active warrants, [[BigCreepyCrawlies is an arthropod]] that's also a vampire, and eats mostly reindeer. |
| 408 | [[/folder]] |
| 409 | |
| 410 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 411 | * In the 2007 ChristmasSpecial of ''WebVideo/ElBananero'', Santa goes to his house just to LiteralAssKicking without any explanation, just to be revealed later his attack was a RestrainedRevenge for all the millions of letters asking him a ''Muneca System'' (one of fictional products El Bananero made in his videos). |
| 412 | * ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'': |
| 413 | ** In the Christmas Special, "Christmas Tree of Might", Amond of the Turles Crusher Corps was [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation reinterpreted]] as [[DubNameChange Slay]] of the Misfit Minions, who is pretty proud of his track record as a bad mall Santa, and crosses this with JackassGenie. A kid wants a fire truck for Christmas? He drops a ''real'' fire truck on the kid's head. Another kid wants [[LittlestCancerPatient his cancer gone?]] He blows the kid up - [[ExactWords no more cancer!]] |
| 414 | --> '''Krillin:''' God, you are one of the worst mall Santas ever! Right behind those ones that molest kids.\ |
| 415 | '''Slay:''' ({{Beat}}) So I’m [[BlackComedyRape the]] ''[[BlackComedyRape worst]]'' [[BlackComedyRape mall Santa]].\ |
| 416 | '''Krillin:''' Oh, ''come on!'' |
| 417 | ** In "Plan to Eradicate Christmas", Dr. Lychee of ''Anime/DragonBallPlanToEradicateTheSaiyans'' is reimagined as Santa and he absolutely hates the entire world because of its self-destructive behaviour and holds the Z-Warriors in particular in contempt, [[ItsPersonal especially Vegeta]]. Except for Gohan -- he's actually on the Nice List. |
| 418 | * In ''The [[Music/DoctorSteel Dr. Steel]] Christmas Special'', the Jolly Old Elf gives a little girl a Polly Pukes-A-Lot™ doll from [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast World Domination Toys]]. To be fair, it's what she wanted... |
| 419 | ** He didn't have to ''sit'' on it... |
| 420 | * ''WebAnimation/ElementAnimation'' portays Santa (who is a [[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Villager]]) as a criminal who kidnaps people with his bag and steals presents from houses. |
| 421 | * In ''WebAnimation/EddsWorld'': Zanta Claws is coming to town. |
| 422 | * Creator/TerryGilliam posted [[http://cdn.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/terry-gilliam-christmas-card-500x688.jpg this drawing of a scary-looking Santa]] as a Christmas card on his Website/{{Facebook}} page. |
| 423 | * ''WebVideo/TheGuild'''s second ChristmasSpecial featured the Knights of Good singing a parody of The Night Before Christmas, about their encounter with a Bad Santa enemy in the MMORPG they're playing. |
| 424 | * The ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'' episode "[[Recap/HelluvaBossS1E4CHERUB C.H.E.R.U.B.]]" has C.H.E.R.U.B. attempt to convince Lyle not to kill himself by showing him children waiting to sit on the lap of a MallSanta. Blitzo ruins it by unmasking the mall Santa as a creep who likes ''Film/{{Cuties}}'' (a Netflix film that intended to be a commentary criticizing the sexualization of children, but received tons of backlash for its marketing coming off as very hypocritical). |
| 425 | * The ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' puppet short ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWpW623yrAU Decemberween Dangeresque]]'' has Dangeresque and Firebert menaced by a knife-wielding "robotic Santam'n" (made from a little dancing Christmas toy). They are able to easily escape it when it becomes too top-heavy and falls off balance, spinning in a circle. There's even a [[LyricalDissonance jazzy]] little song recorded by Homestar about it. |
| 426 | -->Santam'n is a blade man\ |
| 427 | He's comin' for you\ |
| 428 | To chop you in two\ |
| 429 | Santam'n is a blade man\ |
| 430 | He's comin' to town\ |
| 431 | To cut your whole family down |
| 432 | * The Website/JollyRogerTelephoneCompany is a company which provides bots to waste the time of telemarketers, with recordings of some of these calls posted on the Internet. One of these bots is Santa Claus. The Santa-bot can display shades of this if his routines play out long enough, and he has a fairly large set of routines. One of these involves him mentioning that he is one of the big-deliverers of male-enhancement pills along with them hinting that he may be taking them himself. Another involves him talking about the naughty and nice lists and mentioning that sometimes it's those who are extra-naughty he likes to visit first. |
| 433 | * ''Roleplay/NoPixel'': Right before Christmas 2020, Santa Claus' voice booms out a vague TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to all of Los Santos, then he sends all the citizens to a hell dimension filled with zombies. Just about every character puzzles over why Santa would do this. |
| 434 | * ''Literature/{{Plonqmas}}'': Plonq encounters several sinister bell-ringing storefront Santas in “A Plonqmas Tale -- 2019,” as well as another less-then-pleasant example in “A Plonqmas Tale -- 2012.” The not-so-jolly old elf himself is referenced at times: |
| 435 | ** Santa skips Plonq’s house entirely on Christmas Eve in “A Plonqmas Tale -- 1999.” |
| 436 | ** In “A Plonqmas Tale -- 2018,” it is revealed that Santa and Plonq had a reciprocal agreement not to punch each other out that year. |
| 437 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation'': |
| 438 | ** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1933 SCP-1933]] is a man in a Santa suit who is incapable of living off anything other than the basic ingredients of Irish creme and has drinkable bodily fluids that are fatal because consumption in large quantities cause the drinker's bodily fluids to become Irish creme. He might not be aware of his anomalous effects, but that doesn't make them any less deadly. |
| 439 | ** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4666 SCP-4666]] is a [[HumanoidAbomination demonic pagan god that resembles an old, skinny, naked man]]. He's also a psychopathic {{serial killer}}; every December, he targets a family living in an isolated rural community in northern Eurasia or North America, brutally torturing and murdering everyone in the household except for the youngest child; whom he kidnaps in his sack and takes them back to his lair, forcing them to work themselves to death by making toys out of human remains. It's strongly implied that he inspired the original myths of SantaClaus and TheKrampus. |
| 440 | * Parodied in the Creator/{{Tobuscus}} video, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=KfesQVww8kU Paranormal Nativity.]] |
| 441 | * The ''WebAnimation/YourFavoriteMartian'' video "Santa Hates Poor Kids" has the singer complain about Santa never giving anything to poor children, then later claims that he is an anti-semite and a pedophile. |
| 442 | * [[http://rvbomally.deviantart.com/art/Arctica-420875143 From his frozen throne of shattered swords and bones, the Frost Lich watches his icy empire.]] |
| 443 | * ''LetsPlay/MrGibbs'': In "Santa Hide and Seek", in Ledger's own words, Santa's got his new Magnum, and he's not giving out coal to the naughty children this year. |
| 444 | [[/folder]] |
| 445 | |
| 446 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 447 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' had a Christmas special called ''WesternAnimation/SonicChristmasBlast'' where Dr. Robotnik tried to take over the holiday as Robotnikclaus and force everyone to give ''him'' presents. |
| 448 | * A ChristmasEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' has the Smiths accidentally kill Santa, only for him to be [[NotQuiteDead resurrected by his elves]] to carry out a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on the family. Stan and the family hole up with a MountainMan and slaughter [[ZergRush wave after wave]] of elf assassins. Santa returns to the North Pole, vowing to finish the job next year. When he next appears Santa reveals that he's got stock in the toy companies, and gives toys to all children because it will make him rich. He [[spoiler:kills the Krampus]] because punishing children instead of rewarding them for bad behavior cuts in on his business. He doesn't care if children are naughty or nice, as long as he gets paid. |
| 449 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode "D.W. Goes to Washington", one briefly appears in a flashback showing the time D.W. convinced the family to go to "Santa's Igloo" ("Share a sundae with Santa and his friendly reindeer!") The place turned out to be a crappy tourist trap run by a surly, disheveled Santa who grumpily grouses at the Reeds for not bringing a sundae. |
| 450 | -->'''"Santa":''' Didn't you bring me a sundae? How can you share a sundae with Santa when you don't bring a sundae ''to'' Santa?! |
| 451 | * Downplayed in ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' episode "T-Shirt of the Living Dead." While he's generally a jolly fellow, he's understandably upset when he's summoned from his home in July as he was sleeping by Meatwad. Even more so when he's horrifically burned alive by a monster summoned by Meatwad, as he makes his feelings known to Frylock, afterwards. |
| 452 | * One VillainOfTheWeek in ''WesternAnimation/AxeCop'' (different from the one in the [[WebComic/AxeCop comic]]): |
| 453 | -->'''Axe Cop:''' Why are you going to heaven?\ |
| 454 | '''Bad Santa:''' To kill {{God}} and become UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, obviously. |
| 455 | * The ''WesternAnimation/BunsenIsABeast'' episode "Beast Busters" shows that one of Amanda Killman's prized possessions is a picture of her sitting on the lap of Anti-Claus, an evil Santa who presumably gives presents to naughty children. |
| 456 | * ''WesternAnimation/ChristmasInTattertown'': Muffet, an [[LivingToys evil doll]], attempts to conquer Tattertown, with the help of Sidney, a [[GiantSpider spider big enough for her to ride]]. She disguises herself as SantaClaus and Sidney as a reindeer. |
| 457 | * The ''WesternAnimation/EvilConCarne'' episode "Christmas Con Carne" had Hector Con Carne attempt to take over Santa's body so he could give the children of the world toys with mind control devices inside them. |
| 458 | * Creator/BillPlympton did a short called ''Santa: The Fascist Years''. Exactly what is sounds like, complete with Santa making deals with Hitler. |
| 459 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', while the main version of Santa is nice, two others not so much: |
| 460 | ** In one of the {{pilot}} ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons'' shorts ("The Temp"), Santa was depicted as an AffablyEvil slave driver. |
| 461 | ** In ''Film/AFairlyOddChristmas'', Santa apparently has [[spoiler:put Timmy on the naughty list for being too generous with people through his fairies, thus giving Santa nothing to do]]. Maybe not a bad Santa, per se, but a BrokenAesop Santa possibly. |
| 462 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': |
| 463 | ** In the episode "Road to the North Pole", there are two. A mall Santa who gives Stewie the brush-off when he finally gets to the front of the line because his shift is over, and the real Santa (who he goes to kill), who is worn out by the overload of Christmas commercialization and wants to be put out of his misery. |
| 464 | ** When Stewie first learns of Santa, he has a nightmare of him [[BulletCatch catching lasers]] à la [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Darth Vader]], after which Stewie is lobotomized and put to work in Santa's workshop. |
| 465 | * ''WesternAnimation/FreakyStories'': The final episode has UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper kidnapping and impersonating Santa Claus. |
| 466 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' gave us an iconic example where Santa Claus is a recurring homicidal robot villain with [[KnightTemplar nigh-unachievable standards for "nice"]]. For example, mafia thugs beating up a shopkeeper for protection money? That's naughty. But a shopkeeper refusing to pay mobsters protection money? ''[[AllCrimesAreEqual Equally]]'' naughty. Scruffy the Janitor apparently gets on the "naughty" list simply by picking his nose. |
| 467 | -->'''Santa:''' Your mistletoe is no match for my ''TOW missile!'' |
| 468 | ** The only person shown judged "Nice" was [[ButtMonkey Dr. Zoidberg]]. |
| 469 | ---> "A pogo stick! Hurray!" |
| 470 | ** Epitomized in the song at the end of that episode: |
| 471 | --->'''Amy''': He knows when you are sleeping,\ |
| 472 | '''Farnsworth''': He knows when you're on the can,\ |
| 473 | '''Leela''': He'll hunt you down and blast your ass from here to Pakistan!\ |
| 474 | '''Zoidberg''': Oh,\ |
| 475 | '''Hermes''': You better not breathe, you better not move\ |
| 476 | '''Bender''': You're better off dead, I'm telling you dude\ |
| 477 | '''Fry''': Santa Claus is gunning you down! |
| 478 | * The ''WesternAnimation/GarbagePailKidsCartoon'' episode "Chris Messin' August" featured a bratty kid named Chris Mess as the villain, who impersonated Santa Claus as part of a plan to ruin Christmas for everyone by convincing all the children that from now on they had to be bad in order to get presents. |
| 479 | * Mrs. Claus in ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' is a vampire, and turns her husband every twenty years or so. She does it because it's the only way she can get a couple of days off. Santa spends all his time checking his list, while she spends 364 days doing all the other work. |
| 480 | * ''WesternAnimation/HowMurraySavedChristmas'' has a fairly mild example, with a Santa Claus who runs the North Pole with an iron fist. The elves even have a TheVillainSucksSong about what a bad boss he is. |
| 481 | * ''WesternAnimation/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' and [[TheGrinch the titular character]] who dresses as Santa [[HowTheCharacterStoleChristmas to steal]] the Whos' Christmas. |
| 482 | * The title character of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' ends up turning Santa into a hideous mutant cyborg in "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever." |
| 483 | --> "Bow down, bow down before the power of Santa or be crushed, be crushed byyyyyyyyyy his jolly boots of doom!" |
| 484 | * ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' - Bill dresses up like Santa and turns his yard into an open-to-the-public North Pole play land. At Christmastime it's sweet and endearing; by mid-February it's pretty damn creepy. |
| 485 | * ''WesternAnimation/KoalaMan'': Australia has their own Santa Claus called Summer Santa who's a [[TheBogan drunk bogan]] and his sleigh is pulled by flying kangaroos and starts the conflict in "[[Recap/KoalaManS1E08HotChristmas Hot Christmas]]" by dropping a still lit cigarette on the ground of Dapto that would later start a wildfire. After the climax of the episode, when Kevin makes a Christmas wish to have [[spoiler:Liam wake up from his psychic coma]], Summer Santa grants his wish because it's Christmas and uses his magic to [[spoiler:wake Liam up]]. |
| 486 | * Subverted by ''WesternAnimation/LeagueOfSuperEvil'' with Kinder Kreep, the gift giver of an Anti-Christmas for villains, Chaos-mas, where you receive gifts for being naughty. |
| 487 | * ZigZaggingTrope in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots''. Santa is a horrifying monster who looks like Creator/TimBurton and Creator/HRGiger collaborated on a SpeculativeBiology project. However, he still delivers presents to good children. Although God only knows what he does to the bad ones... |
| 488 | * In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InHHjjo5Uu0 this]] animated sketch on ''Series/{{MADtv|1995}}'' parodying ''Series/{{Cops}}'' and the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials, Santa Claus is revealed to be drug dealer using his toys to smuggle cocaine into Cuba and ends up beaten and put in the backseat of a police car. His rant to the cops: |
| 489 | -->"You '''''BASTARDS'''''! You rat bast--oooh! You're not getting ''anything'' in your stocking! I ''know'' you! I know where you live! I will take you out! And I don't mean on a date, you [*bleep*][*bleep*]! You bastards! Lemme outta here! Gemme outta here! Call my elf!" |
| 490 | * When ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'' finds out that a mysterious figure leaves combs in a small bowl near the port every time its filled with candy during the night, he dreams of a Santa Claus-like figure whose helpers distribute combs across the world. His dream becomes a nightmare when comb-Santa tells Flapjack he needs the comb he gave him to get the bugs out of his hair in a deep, hellish voice, revealing numerous insects crawling on Flapjack's head. Flapjack vainly tries to comb out the bugs in his hair while comb-santa laughs maniacally with visible sharpened teeth. This shocks Flapjack out of his nightmare. |
| 491 | * The ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' ChristmasEpisode features a kindly (presumably fake) Santa who helps [[LonelyRichKid Adrien]] out after he runs away from home on Christmas Eve. However, he then gets [[BrainwashedAndCrazy akumatized]] into the [[MonsterOfTheWeek supervillain]] Santa Claws, who flies around throwing exploding boxes full of spiders and other gross creatures. However, he's still got enough of his normal personality to be lured into a trap by a Christmas present. |
| 492 | * ''WesternAnimation/MuchaLucha'' - In "A Mucha Mucha Christmas," Santa Claus's evil brother, Rudo Claus, and his team of chubacabras try to take over Christmas by giving only those who have been bad gifts. |
| 493 | * One of the ''Super Santa'' shorts on ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons'' gave Santa Claus a rival known as South Pole Joe, though he was a Bad Santa mainly due to incompetence rather than malevolence. |
| 494 | * The Santa in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|1998}}'' Christmas special is bad not in the sense that he's evil or mean, but in the sense that he's a total moron, [[CrapsackWorld just like everyone else]]. He actually believed [[DevilInPlainSight Princess]] was the only nice kid in the world after she changed the naughty and nice lists, but then, [[spoiler:Princess [[NiceJobFixingItVillain just HAD to push Santa to his limits of tolerance, insulting and demeaning him]] after the girls tried to prove Santa what Princess did, to make Santa decide he doesn't need a list of naughty and nice, and then proceeded to put her into the ''Permanent Naughty'' plaque, so Santa can remember she's naughty]]. Naturally Santa rectifies this mistake, with some help from the PPG, of course. |
| 495 | * Not necessarily evil, but antagonistic from the point of view of the heroes, one of the users in ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' was a Santa Claus. |
| 496 | * ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'': |
| 497 | ** In "A Very Dangerous Anime/DragonBallZ Christmas", Goku and Gohan fight a Mrs. Claus who turns into a hideous giant tentacle monster a la Tetsuo from ''Manga/{{Akira}}''. There was also Composite Santa Claus, who's one-half Santa Claus and one-half Frosty the Snowman. When questioned as to CSC's powers, Goku replies, "I don't know, but he freaks me right the f[[SoundEffectBleep ** ]]k out." |
| 498 | ** ''Santa's Drug Operation'' doesn't feature a bad Santa, because the starting point is Santa being murdered... but he was apparently bad before that (being a neglectful husband, running a drug peddling operation, using lawnmowers to punish disloyal employees...). |
| 499 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' "New North Pole" arc, Boris Badenov tried weighing down the North Pole with extra ice, in order to tip the world over to turn a tropical island he had taken over into the New North Pole. He then planned to use his new power-base to replace Santa Claus, so he could drop down people's chimneys on Christmas Eve and clean out their homes. |
| 500 | * {{Discussed|Trope}}, but not actually used, in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', when [[CowardlySidekick Chuckie Finster]] explains why he's afraid of Santa Claus (voiced by the late Creator/TonyJay in this special): |
| 501 | -->'''Chuckie:''' He ''sees you when you're sleeping''. He ''knows when you're awake''... |
| 502 | :: While the real Santa is portrayed as the traditional, jolly version, the episode actually features ''two'' Bad Santas. First, Angelica has a nightmare in which a [[TheFaceless faceless]] Santa with a booming, sinister voice tauntingly gifts her with coal--and then ''buries'' her with it. Later in the episode, Drew hires a Santa impersonator who is revealed to be a lazy schlub, canceling his appearance at the last minute (claiming he has car trouble) so he can stay home and eat junk food in front of the TV. |
| 503 | * In ''WesternAnimation/ShrekTheHalls'', Gingy tells of his encounter with a Franchise/{{Godzilla}}-like Santa who [[LetsMeetTheMeat eats his girlfriend]]. |
| 504 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 505 | ** In the episode "Homer's Phobia", John has a "creepy-cool robot Santa" (as Bart describes it) from Japan, that he later uses to scare off the reindeer beating up Homer. John says that he figured "reindeer would naturally be afraid of their cruel master, Santa Claus. I mean, wouldn't you be?" |
| 506 | ** In the ChristmasEpisode "The Fight Before Christmas", the parody of ''WesternAnimation/ThePolarExpress'' casts Krusty as Santa, with Krusty's usual portrayal as a cynical purveyor of shoddy merch. |
| 507 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast'' featured Bizarro Santa, who's true form is an EldritchAbomination. |
| 508 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Squidbillies}}'', Santa Claus initially appears to be an unfortunate guy who got on Early Cuyler's bad side. He gets kidnapped and tortured by the Cuylers, and the elves attempt to save him. But, the elves give up when they realize Santa has been exploiting them for free labor. This is [[TookALevelInJerkass taken up a notch]] in his second and last (major) appearance. He not only appears to be illegally smuggling weapons, but then [[MoralEventHorizon shoots his elves to death]] (and a reindeer) as they are ascending to heaven, yelling that they are his slaves. |
| 509 | * The ''WesternAnimation/SuperMansion'' Christmas special "War on Christmas" has Santa Claus made real as the result of a wish from Cooch that is granted in exchange for the freedom of a reality-warping villain named Mr. Skibumpers. Santa ends up snapping from trying to make sense of his traits that don't align with logic (such as having to deliver presents to all the children of the world in one night and somehow not needing bathroom breaks in spite of all the milk and cookies he consumes) and goes on a rampage that ends when the League of Freedom get him to enter his own magic sack. Santa later comes out of the bag and has supposedly come to his senses, but at the end worries Titanium Rex by strongly implying that the naughty will face severe punishment from him. |
| 510 | * ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'': In "Koopa Klaus", King Koopa wears a Santa outfit and calls himself Koopa Klaus. He then traps Santa's workshop in ice and abducts Santa in an attempt to ruin Christmas for everyone. |
| 511 | * Santa becomes a recurrent antagonist for Christmas specials on ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' after his first appearance where he is convinced the true meaning of Christmas is getting presents, leading him to give presents to everyone. In subsequent holiday specials he's revealed to be the BigBad behind the conflict, wanting to take over every other holiday and eventually the entire calendar year. |
| 512 | * ''WesternAnimation/TexAveryMGMCartoons'': "One Ham's Family", a sort-of sequel to "The Three Little Pigs" where the wolf disguised himself as Santa to sneak into the practical pig's brick house. Unfortunately for him, as he meets up with the pig's sack-o-hell son. |
| 513 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' animated series had a Christmas episode in which the Tick and Arthur first tangle with a bank robber disguised as Santa (which he got by mugging a street Santa), and accidentally knock him into a neon sign in the process -- but instead of killing him, the electricity CLONES him. The real Santa shows up to help the Tick stop the clones from reaching the local hydroelectric plant, where they can get enough juice to make unlimited clones and take over the world. The episode contains one glorious pun, when the Tick sees the growing mass of Santa clones and exclaims, "It's a Yule TIDE!" |
| 514 | [[/folder]] |
| 515 | |
| 516 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 517 | * Much like the EasterBunny, background checks on potential {{Mall Santa}}s are done by many (not all, unfortunately) civic groups and businesses specifically to avert this trope. The thought of "Santa" molesting a child while he/she sits on his lap -- remember, to the kids, that man '''''is''''' Santa Claus -- is unthinkable. Certainly, while very seldom has something happened, it is not unheard of. |
| 518 | ** That being said, being coerced into sitting on Santa's lap by parents may not be pleasant to touch-averse children (and a fair amount of children on the autistic spectrum) either, however well-meaning the Santa and parents are. |
| 519 | * On Christmas 2008, there was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covina_massacre Bruce Jeffrey Pardo]], who came to a house dressed as Santa to shoot people down before setting it on fire with a homemade flamethrower hidden in a present and committing suicide. |
| 520 | ** And now there's his successor, Aziz Yazdanpanah, who shot several of his relatives to death as they were opening presents under the tree, then killed himself. |
| 521 | * [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1237917/Its-ho-ho-hold-Armed-bank-robber-dressed-Santa-demands-money-pay-elves.html Robber Dressed as Santa Robs Bank]]. And here's another real life fake Santa criminal example, this time robbing a bank while saying the money was 'to pay for his elves'. |
| 522 | * ''He sees you when you're sleeping/ He knows when you're awake/ He knows if you've been bad or good...'' Think about it. Fred Rogers used to say he would like to remove that song from the Christmas playlist because [[http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/publications/newsletters/atn0106/index.html the idea that Santa spies on you]] is an invasion of privacy which scares the heck out of little kids. |
| 523 | * Father Christmas can be a pretty scary figure in some places in Europe. Traditionally, he appears at Christmas Eve parties and tells bitsy kids he can see their souls. He has actual naughty and nice lists (actually provided by the mothers) and reads these off in front of everybody. So a stranger is telling the whole world things you didn't think ''anybody'' knew. Often the kids end up so scared they can't participate in the rest of the ceremony. [[http://books.google.com/books?id=zxm--aRPUOgC&pg=PR14&dq=%22Alice+miller+relates+the+following+personal+experience%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=u81bUc2zI6n0iwLv_IDYBw&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Alice%20miller%20relates%20the%20following%20personal%20experience%22&f=false This is supposed to be a cute, funny event.]] |
| 524 | ** In Germany and other areas in Central/Eastern Europe, Saint Nicholas would often show up alongside a creature called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus Krampus,]] who is described as a devilish creature who would visit particularity naughty children and takes them away in a sack back to his lair. |
| 525 | ** Actually, in a lot of areas of Germany, instead of the Krampus, children get visited by both Nikolaus (Santa) and Knecht Ruprecht, the latter being pretty much a literal "bad santa". He is also an elderly man in a similar attire, but with the coat colors being black or dark brown and usually carrying a bunch of branches. When a child had been good, it gets a gift from Nikolaus, if it had been bad, it will get whipped by Knecht Ruprecht. Depending on how strongly this tradition exists in some towns, you can expect the children being actually more afraid then thrilled of the 5th/6th, simply for worrying about whether or not they did something worth a spanking, with small children sometimes even just starting to cry when seeing someone dressed up as Knecht Ruprecht. |
| 526 | *** This tradition is dying though, since spanking children as punishment has faced extreme opposition, thus making the figure of Knecht Ruprecht questionable. A lot of modern varieties simply have Nikolaus, with the punishment being merely that he will scold the child and have it leave without a present. |
| 527 | ** This general depiction of Santa is the basis of Creator/DavidSedaris's story "Six to Eight Black Men," about the Dutch version (who is accompanied by a number of "friends" in {{blackface}}, hence the title). He was surprised to learn from a Dutch friend that Santa, at least traditionally, would beat naughty children and/or stuff them into sacks and take them away. Some of these traits did also make it into the American version of Santa, although they're mostly {{Forgotten Trope}}s now; some older books like ''Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' mention the threat of finding a switch in your stocking instead of presents. |
| 528 | * A MallSanta in Lake Forest Park, WA, ironically named Ronald [=McDonald=], was convicted of child rape in 1997; his crimes went back nearly 26 years. |
| 529 | * On Christmas Eve, 2013, four men dressed as Santa Claus conducted an armed robbery of a jewelry shop in a mall in Tirana. |
| 530 | * [[https://web.archive.org/web/20150319140458/http://actualfunnypictures.com/a-note-to-santa/ This]] is an AlternativeCharacterInterpretation of the 'normal' Santa as this. It may or may not be a real child's letter (it probably isn't), but it's an interesting point regardless. |
| 531 | * On Christmas Eve of 1975 PresidentForLife [[TheCaligula Francisco Macías Nguema]] of Equatorial Guinea had around 150 of his opponents killed. Soldiers dressed in Santa Claus outfits executed them by shooting in a football stadium [[SoundtrackDissonance while a band played Mary Hopkin's "Those Were the Days."]] |
| 532 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul_nightclub_shooting Abdulkadir Masharipov]], an ISIS terrorist disguised himself as Santa Claus during 2017 New Year's Eve in Istanbul, Turkey, and went on a shooting spree in a nightbar killing 39 people and injuring 70. |
| 533 | * In 1913 John Duval Gluck started The Santa Claus Association charity that would answer poor children's letters to Santa. A 1927 investigation revealed that Gluck was keeping most of the money they raised for himself. |
| 534 | * In 2007, CBS aired a football game between Jacksonville and Cleveland, where they trained a camera on a guy who had all the Santa facial features and a t-shirt that read "Your ass ain't getting shit for Christmas!" |
| 535 | [[/folder]] |
| 536 | ---- |
| 537 | |
| 538 | ->''You better watch out'' |
| 539 | ->''You better watch out'' |
| 540 | ->''You better watch out'' |
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