[[ThereWillBeBlood http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/plainview.jpg]]
[[caption-width:240:There is absolutely nothing suspicious about me.]]

-> ''His needs are few, his room is bare.''\\
''He hardly uses his fancy chair.''\\
''The more he bleeds, the more he lives,''\\
''He never forgets and he never forgives.''\\
''Perhaps today you gave a nod,''\\
''To Sweeney Todd.''\\
''The demon barber of Fleet Street.''
->-- '''Stephen Sondheim''', ''The Ballad of Sweeney Todd (finale)''.

->''The devil's greatest trick was convincing the world he doesn't exist...''

Someone who is so obviously up to no good that the one character who seems ''aware'' of it is shocked [[OnlySaneMan no one else seems to notice]]. Everyone else may just consider them a little quirky and wonder what the observant character's problem is.

Less extreme than the VillainWithGoodPublicity, who is thought of highly by most people; the DevilInPlainSight is mostly met with inattentive indifference. May also be a BitchInSheepsClothing. Might also be a case of NoticeThis (for the audience only).

TooDumbToFool can be their most dangerous enemies.

Compare with ItWasHereISwear, NotSoImaginaryFriend, MistakenForAnImposter. Contrast TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse.
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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

*Light from Death Note
* Guu in ''[[JungleWaItsumoHaleNochiGuu Haré+Guu]]''.
* Hiruma from ''{{Eyeshield 21}}'' plays with this trope; he's a conniving, scheming, trigger-happy MagnificentBastard and doesn't care who knows it (his name can even be read as "[[MeaningfulName devil in broad daylight]]"). Also, he avoids repercussions for his actions not by avoiding or sucking up to authority figures, but by ''{{blackmail}}ing'' them.
* Somewhat subverted in the manga version of ''NeonGenesisEvangelion''; Asuka is always nice to all the NERV staff, but with Shinji, Rei, Toji and Kensuke she is her usual, bitchy self. She keeps up this act for a while until, during a party, she punches out Toji in front of Misato after he starts revealing all her past angry outbursts. Misato then admits that they always knew that Asuka was faking her more amiable personality, prompting her to go ballistic... on Shinji.
* Parodied in ''SayonaraZetsubouSensei'' with Mitama Mayo, who is evil, but because she also looks evil everyone who sees her decides not to prejudge and assumes she's not evil. Eventually even Itoshiki gets pulled into it, and decides there's nothing wrong with her.
* Xelloss of ''{{Slayers}}''. Even though the whole party knows he's a demon, no one seems to mind him much - and that's despite his gruesome KickTheDog record.
**Slightly adverted as, once they know he's evil, they only keep him around because he's so strong and regularly helps them out, when it overlaps with his goals/ is bored.
**Also the fact [[StoryBreakerPower he's so strong there isn't much they can do about him,]] short of risking blowing up the universe. That it's Xelloss' eventual goal and Lina can do it may be part of the reason he likes hanging with her.
* Nobody in ''{{Mai-Otome}}'' except for Chie seems to suspect anything of #2 Coral Tomoe, even though the latter's sarcastic tone of voice (and occasional smirk, even in front of the teachers) is often blatantly obvious.
* Ichimaru Gin from ''{{Bleach}}'' lays on his smiling, close-eyed, soft-spoken personality so thick that it's no wonder some people immediately figure out he's evil. [[spoiler:In a way, this actually works to distract almost everyone from the machinations of the ''true'' BigBad, Captain Aizen.]]
* Bakura is this to a huge degree in ''YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries''. His introduction scene is complete with OminousLatinChanting and when asked to show his favourite card, he whips out a picture of Sephiroth before hastily replacing it.
** And what about Alex Brisbane? Mr "I'm MostDefinitelyNotAVillain"? Fortunately he only has to trick Tristan, Tea, Joey and Yugi. Which isn't exactly difficult.
** And then there's [[strike:Marik Ishtar]] "Malik Blishtar"...
-->'''Joey''': ''[thinking]'' I still think there's something fishy about that guy...
-->'''Marik''': Wahahaha! Destroy you all!
-->'''Joey''': ''[thinking]'' Man, if I could only put my finger on it...
* Reborn and Hibari of ''KatekyoHitmanReborn''. Reborn's 'disguises' are just plain ridiculous but only Tsuna can ever seem to realise who he is. And Hibari...

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Nobody outside of people he has come in direct contact with (most of the people anyway) seem to notice that Roark Jr. from the ''SinCity'' story "That Yellow Bastard" is a psychopathic SerialKiller who has raped, tortured and killed a vast number of little girls (that may be because [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney his father is a United States Senator and no one on the force dares to try to bring him down]] -- at least until John Hartigan gets involved).
** It's implied that it was a public secret; everybody knew, nobody dared to act. Sadly, TruthInTelevision, relating to a very large number of child abusers, though the matter seems to be improving.
* The title character of JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac commits ridiculously over-the-top mass murder and even himself seems puzzled why he hasn't been caught.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* [[HarryPotter Tom Riddle]]. Professor Slughorn, please take a good close look at this kid. Now please, put [[IdiotBall the ball]] away and take another look, this time a careful one. Now you see it? Good. Then please, do the world a favor - incinerate this godless hellspawn and save us all a heap of troubles. Thank you, professor.
* Rhoda Penmark in ''Bad Seed'' personifies this trope.
* Patrick Bateman from ''AmericanPsycho'' -- despite the fact that he [[SarcasticConfession directly tells his friends]] that he is a sadistic serial killer.
* Dr. Reinhardt from ''The Black Hole''. Even though the "heroes" suspect, they don't suspect hard enough. What makes it even more jarring is Reinhardt's explicitly evil robot [[TheDragon Dragon]] Maximilian, who manages to stir up little additional suspicion. (The title of this trope is justified by this horrifically bad movie's [[GainaxEnding astonishingly bad closing sequence]], by the way.)
** YourMileageMayVary though (about the movie; the ending was pretty effed upped).
* Virtually all of the people BruceWillis' character has [[PsychicDreamsForEveryone psychic flashes]] about in ''{{Unbreakable}}'' are seemingly ordinary people who have done or are looking to do bad things. [[spoiler:The two biggest cases being a janitor who is a SerialKiller (who also doubles as a rapist), and his own BrokenPedestal mentor.]]
* The main character of ''There Will Be Blood'' is clearly one of these, complete with the MeaningfulName of Daniel Plainview.
** How much better his enemies the Sundays are is up to debate. At least [[spoiler: until the bodies begin piling up.]]
* [[TheNightOfTheHunter "Would you like to hear the story of Right Hand and Left Hand, of Love and Hate?"]]
* Simon Skinner, owner of the local supermarket in HotFuzz. He often behaves extraordinarily creepy around Sergeant Nick Angel, having a bit of a PsychoticSmirk, making puns about killing and showing up around the murder scenes. The fact that the murders committed lead Angel to believe that Skinner is responsible in order to get more land for his supermarket doesn't help either (though [[RedHerring that wasn't the true nature]]. [[spoiler:Turns out Angel's only part right.]])
** Then there's the wonderful scene where Skinner drives up to a burnt down house with a song about fire playing loudly on his card radio.
** In fact, every time Skinner turns up there's a song that's related to the murder. His drive past the scene of the "traffic collision" features Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits.
* Henry from ''{{The Good Son}}'' could be considered this, seeing his robot voice makes even his bogus innocent act seem... well, bogus. But, of course, [[ParentalObliviousness even his parents can't see this...]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Smerdyakov in ''TheBrothersKaramazov'' is really just thought of as a skullion who has airs of intellectualism about him, and who carries [[NietzscheWannabe blasphemous notions about religion.]] He's also thought of as pathetic to others because he suffers from epileptic seizures. [[spoiler:The idea of him being the murderer is absurd to everyone in town for these reasons, yet he is.]] Only the protagonist seems to have any deep misgivings about him. I mean come on, he even flashes [[PsychoticSmirk Psychotic Smirks]] whenever given the chance.
* Count Olaf of ''ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''. Though the Baudelaire orphans always see through his flimsy disguises, [[AdultsAreUseless none of the adults]] [[CassandraTruth ever believe them]].
*Reacher Gilt in ''[[{{Discworld}} Going Postal]]'' remarks on the fact that he actually [[SarcasticConfession tells people he's one of these]] and they just laugh.
* Reversed with {{Redwall}}'s Veil Sixclaw. Everyone except his foster-mother Bryony realises that he's a delinquent and guess that it was him when an Abbeydweller is nearly killed. Ironically, it's heavily implied that if they'd treated him as if he was normal, he'd have grown up okay. But then they ''are'' [[CarnivoreConfusion mice trying to raise a ferret]].
* Don Sebastiano (that's his chosen codename) of the WhateleyUniverse. I mean, he's known as 'The Don', he turned two teenagers into mindslaves last year, and he's still walking around campus as the head of the Alphas. Yet no one in the school administration seems to realize how badly he needs to be stopped.
** Actually, they DO know.... even the Headmistress is fully aware. But they're keeping him on because he is the only link they have to the real, as of yet unknown, mastermind behind his actions....
* This is [[spoiler:inverted]] in the Harry Potter novels. Harry is utterly convinced that Snape is a terrible villain, but nobody believes him except his friends. Eventually, even they stop believing him. [[spoiler:This continues until Snape kills Dumbledore, but is then subverted again when it is revealed that this was a mercy killing, agreed to well in advance, due to Dumbledore suffering under a terrible, incurable, and fatal curse.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* The iconic television [=DiPS=]: Eddie Haskell of ''LeaveItToBeaver''. Prim and polite to adults, a bullying troublemaker to everyone else. Ward Cleaver to June: "There's something odd about that boy." Beaver to Eddie: "Even Wally doesn't like you, Eddie, and he's your best friend."
** The film revealed that Mrs. Cleaver knew about Eddie all along.
* Megan on ''DrakeAndJosh'', to the point where [[DudeNotFunny it's not funny anymore]] and [[TheWesley you would feel no remorse in watching her being torn limb from limb by a pack of rabid wolves]].
* The Janitor on ''{{Scrubs}}''.
** Actually, everybody seems to know the Janitor is weird, but they let him be, either because of amusement or boredom. This trope was more true in the earlier seasons, but then again, he only picked on JD and was relatively nice to everyone else.
* ''{{Dexter}}'' stays well under everyone else's "something's not right with him" radar, except for Doakes. Dexter comments at one point about being in a room full of police officers and Doakes being the only one who has any sort of sense of something wrong about him.
** Done again in Season 3 with [[spoiler: Miguel Prada, the local DA]], who only Dexter suspects of sinister urges. It turns out that [[spoiler: Dexter underestimates the degree of his sociopathy and has to kill him.]]
* The [[TooGoodToLast one-season wonder]] '80s sitcom ''It's Your Move'' featured Jason Bateman as a manipulative [[ParkerLewisFerrisBueller teenaged con artist]] whose single mom was (initially, at least) blissfully unaware of his intrigues. The first dozen or so episodes dealt with his efforts to prevent the mother's equally devious boyfriend from exposing him. When she finally got wise to him, the show's whole comedic premise was effectively {{retool}}ed (and, arguably, ruined).
* Laurence Dominic on ''{{Dollhouse}}''. In episode 5, he tries to kill Echo. In episode 9, [[spoiler:he is revealed to be the mole. Note that at the time of the episode's airing, the [[WMG/{{Dollhouse}} Dollhouse WMG page]] had [[strike:eight different guesses]] eight guesses as to the identity of the mole, only one of which was a repeat, and yet no one had bothered to guess that it was Dominic. Because we're too GenreSavvy to fall for such an ''obvious'' RedHerring...[[SoYeah yeah.]]]]
* Oddly enough, the Devil in ''{{Reaper}}'' frequently exemplifies this trope.
* Subverted and parodied so very hard in the ''{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'' episode "General Hospital"; a German spy has infiltrated a nearby field hospital and Blackadder is assigned to find out who it is. In the field hospital, he meets a wounded man with a German accent so thick it could be spread on bread ("My name... eeeees Meeeiiiister... Smeeeeth.") who's always skulking around acting suspicious. Turns out he is a spy... a ''British'' spy, who's been undercover in Germany so long he's picked up "a teensy bit of an accent". Blackadder even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] how ludicrous it would be for the Germans to place in a British field hospital a spy with a thick German accent. This doesn't stop Darling from humiliating himself by trying to arrest him, however.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* Little brother Barry in the comic strip ''{{Curtis}}''. While the creator clearly intends for Barry to be [[BrattyHalfPint a stereotypically bratty little brother]] to Curtis, his actions are so frequently mean-spirited (and of a "because I can get away with it" bent), he ends up a [[TheScrappy Scrappy-Doo]]-flavored [=DiPS=].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Gary Smith in ''{{Bully}}''. Despite how often he's told lies in the past, everyone still takes his word for it, apart from Jimmy and Pete.
* Manfred von Karma from ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney''. The thing most characters in-game focus on when discussing him is his incredible record as a prosecutor, but... frankly, the guy may as well have 'evil' stamped across his forehead. [[http://www.court-records.net/sounds/Karma%20-%20objection.mp3 And then he talks, and it just gets worse.]]
* [[spoiler:Al-Mualim]] from ''AssassinsCreed''. [[spoiler:Despite every target telling Altair he's lying or using him and there never being any explanations for anything]], everyone pretends to be surprised when he turns out to be the Big Bad.
* [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Tanaka]] of {{Persona 3}} is much like this, particularly with the fact that he is represented as the [[TarotMotifs Devil Arcana]].
* [[spoiler:Kreia]] from Knights of the Old Republic.
** Actually both games have a whole bunch of examples. Atris also in the second game, and if the player goes evil, other characters mistake them as such. And then there's [[spoiler:the player]] in the first game, with a twist. [[spoiler:Bastila]] sort of counts too, since it's obvious going to go evil from the start, although she doesn't really qualify as she was turned later on. And Revan and Malak, back when they were Jedi (and everyone who turned with them).
* In ''WallaceAndGromit's Grand Adventures: The Last Resort'', Ms. Flit's cutesy dogs Poodgie-Woo and Tinkie-Wee are quickly revealed to be ill-tempered, mischievous mongrels with a collective mean streak twice as long as your arm.
* [[spoiler:Michelle]] in ''GrandTheftAutoIV''. From the [[spoiler:newly bought furniture]] to [[spoiler:her not really answering Niko's questions as to what she does]] to [[spoiler:her near-constant questions asking if Niko and friends are involved in crime]], it's pretty obvious that [[spoiler:she's really an undercover government agent]]...well, obvious to everyone except for the in-game characters. Although Niko does occasionally comment [[spoiler:"There's something strange about that girl..." right after they have sex.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* Miho in ''{{Megatokyo}}'' fits this trope, at least if you ask Largo.
* "Victor," a so far unknown character from ''DrMcNinja'' lampshades this trope in [[http://www.drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=21&issue=14 this comic]] [[http://www.drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=22&issue=14 and this one.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* In ''AVeryPotterMusical'', Quirrell/Voldemort are played by two people standing back-to-back in the same set of robes. Quirrel's turban covers Voldemort's head, but it looks exactly like what it is: a second head, covered by a turban. Also, the turban occasionally sneezes. Needless to say, this is played for laughs.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'': "Everyone Knows It's Bendy" revolves around a new friend, Bendy, who goes around making trouble, blaming it on others, and getting away with it by playing on the sympathies of Mr. Herriman and Frankie in a painfully melodramatic fashion.
* Zim in ''{{Invader ZIM}}''.
** {{Lampshaded}} in a sense, as Dib has apparently cried wolf so many times that the rest of the class seems to ignore the obvious signs to spite him (also because their world is full of ridiculous people like Old Kid and because everyone is remarkably stupid).
* Angelica of ''{{Rugrats}}'', though occasionally she ''did'' get caught.
* Stewie on ''FamilyGuy''. It probably helps that no one expects [[strike:a toddler]] an ''[[EnfanteTerrible infant]]'' to be an EvilOverlord wannabe.
* Joe from ''MoralOrel'' is an all around hellion and sociopath, yet nobody with the exception of the main character seems to make much of a fuss about it.
* "The Precious, Wonderful, Adorable, Loveable Duckling" from the ''CourageTheCowardlyDog'' episode of the same name.
* Suzy Johnson, Jeremy's clingy, CreepyChild little sister from ''PhineasAndFerb''.
* Ivy [=DeVil=], Cruella's niece in ''[[OneHundredAndOneDalmatians 101 Dalmatians]]''.
* Soundwave of ''TransformersAnimated'' definitely fits this troup in his premire episode. Bulkhead spends half the episode trying to convince everyone else that the robot is evil. Guess who was right.
** Shockwave/Longarm is an even better example, having risen to a high commanding position within the Autobot ranks.
*** Although given he's a shapeshifter it's arguable how much he really is in "Plain sight".
**** They are called ''Transformers'' technically, they are ALL shapeshifters!
* The anonymous bunny in the ''RubyGloom'' episode "Bad Hare Day".
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<<|{{Tricksters}}|>>
<<|{{Villains}}|>>

* Comic: "I Luv Halloween". A black comedy of the darkest kind. About a group of amoral trick-or-treaters who want their Halloween candy even in the midst of an alien invasion and zombie apocaypse. One of the characters is Devil-lad, a hooded young boy wearing a devil's mask who patiently goes along with the group's crazy hijinks. The other trick-or-treaters note he smells like sulfur. Proven in the second volume, when he nonchalently rises from a crater after being in the middle of a nuclear explosion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxDZ7DQmYwA&feature=related