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alt title(s): Evilicious 
Evil also delivers.
"Join the Dark Side - we have cookies"
T-shirt slogan
Evil doesn't just feel good, it also tastes good.
Any Evil Overlord worth his cape will often describe their past evil deeds, current plot, or last kill with taste related adjectives like "Delicious", "Sweet" or "Juicy", and their urge to do evil as a "Thirst", "Craving" or "Hunger".
The Seven Deadly Sins describe materialism and overindulging in earthly pleasures as sinful and wrong, and out of the seven deadlies Gluttony is one of the least glamorous. So when villains use taste to describe evil you just know there's something creepy and ugly about them, no matter how attractive they are. For much the same reasons Lust is why Evil Feels Good, and most villains like to describe their power in tactile and addictive terms like "Strong", "Smooth", and "Intoxicating". This might explain why some villains get Drunk On The Dark Side.
Extra points if they happen to be a cannibal, Serial Killer, vampire, werewolf, zombie, or alien. (Or all of them...)
See also: Finger Lickin Evil, Licking The Blade and A Glass Of Chianti.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- The beautiful Maestro Delphine in Last Exile luxuriated gluttony and decadence. Her egocentrism and villainy were reinforced by her pointing out a special meal she's sharing with the lead takes several thousand liters of water to grow, enough for several families to live on in their water-scarce world.
- The evil organization Florsheim in Astro Fighter Sunred, a parody of Sentai series, is made up a bunch of womanly villains and monsters who apparently read a few too many Home Living magazines...
- In Volume 4 of Monster, the Neo-Nazi gangster called "the Baby" continually compares the arson he plans to commit against the Turkish section of town to a fine meal, with the destruction of the chemical warehouse as the "main course". When it's prevented by Tenma, he sadly notes, "My main course has gone cold..."
- In the Fullmetal Alchemist anime, the homonculi gain their powers by eating "red stones" which are literally Soylent Green (i.e. made of people). Envy gives some to Wrath while Hannibal-lecturing him into a Face Heel Turn. Envy remarks on his enjoyment for the taste of them, and as he embraces evil, Wrath devours the stones ravenously.
Film
Literature
- The book Battlefield Earth actually addresses this as a way of explaining why Psychlos are Always Chaotic Evil. They have electrodes surgically implanted in their brains that stimulate their pleasure centers when they do evil deeds; thus, evil literally tastes good to them.
- In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry describes getting a heady feeling from using the Imperius Curse, stronger and more effective than firewhisky.
- In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Edmund finds his first quite literal taste of evil very good, specifically of the White Witch's
drugs Turkish delight.
- In the Thomas Harris book Black Sunday, the terrorist leader Fasil is eating a rich Swiss chocolate bar, and licking the remaining melted chocolate off his fingertips, admitting that if the Israeli Mosad ever knew of his pecadillo in how much he loved chocolate they'd probably have a means to catch him.
Real Life
- Famously, "Revenge is a dish best served cold" was first coined by Pierre Ambroise Francois Choderios de La Clos (1741-1803). He originally said it in French in his 1782 book Les Liasons Dangereuses: "La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid."
- Re-entered popular consciousness in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This particular usage has been parodied many times since, including in an episode of Freakazoid where a villain, voiced by Ricardo Montalban himself, proclaimed that "Revenge is a dish best served with pinto beans and muffins."
- At the beginning of KillBill this quote is attributed as "an old Klingon Proverb"
- Parodied on The Simpsons by Sideshow Bob: "Revenge is a dish best served family style!"
- Another variation, in the series premiere of He Man And The Masters Of The Universe:
Skeletor: Revenge is like jivare stew; it tastes best served cold.
- Yet another variation from David Gerrold's character "Solomon Short": "Revenge is a dish best served lightly browned with a side of carrots. And maybe with some fava beans and a light Chianti."
- And parodied once again at the start of chapter 21 of Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain novel The Traitors Hand:
"Revenge is a dish best served with mayonaise and those little cheesy things on sticks." Osric the Loopy, planetary governer of Corania (appointed 756 M41,removed from office by the Officio Assassinorum 764 M41)
- Parodied yet another way in Get Fuzzy, where Bucky uses this line on Satchel. To which he replies: "Like gazpacho!"
Video Games
- In Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, evil literally tastes good.
- Albedo from Xenosaga has this quote: "AHHHH, YEEEESSS… FEED ME YOUR HOSTILITY, PIERCE ME WITH YOUR HATRED!!"
- GM Yodai Higashizawa in The World Ends With You appears to have taken pointers from Fawful on food-based puns. "The pudding of your despair"?!
Tabletop Games
- Both of version of the Vampire games in the World Of Darkness game lines describe drinking blood as both sensual and delicious, the best and only rush vampires have left.
- Quite a few bits of flavour text in Magic The Gathering cards. An example.
Television
- In Stargate: Atlantis, the Wraith need to drain life energy from others in order to survive. Whether this is evil is up for debate — they have to do so in order to survive, after all. But there's no mistaking the almost-rapturous joy that the Wraith experience while draining others, as well as the incredible pain that their victims go through. (The process is so traumatic that the Wraith actually have to strengthen their victims using a special chemical in order to prevent them from dying instantly of shock.) Most Wraith are also very malicious and sadistic, so certainly this qualifies as an example of the trope.
- Worth noting is one of Todd's lines in a recent episode. While offering the Atlantis crew some food they picked up during a culling, he mentions he hopes the fruits "taste as good as the farmers who grew them."
- An early episode had an unusually droll Wraith comment that "Unfortunately, your last chef proved far more appetizing than the meals he prepared." Although he was a single episode baddie, after a season or so some of the ideas behind that character evolved into the character of Todd.
- At various points in Buffy and Angel, vampires like Drusilla would liken the taste of someone's blood to "cloves and honey", and life force draining warlocks would say it tasted "like strawberries". And Glory described a mind she had eaten as a "nummy treat". On the other hand, when asked what evil itself tasted like, Willow made a face and described it as "a little chalky."
- Sylar in Heroes occasionally describes his acquisition of powers in culinary terms, talking about his "hunger" to "consume" or "sink his teeth into" the "delicious" powers of others. There is widespread fan speculation that he steals superpowers by eating the brains of superhumans.
- Even after the whole "brain eating" thing was explicitly Jossed, the characters continue to refer to Sylar's desire for power as a "hunger" and his process of taking the powers of others as "feeding". Potential victims (the Level 5 Villains) are referred to as a "smorgasboard" and a "buffet".
- In Mike Mignola's short-lived (read: one episode) "The Amazing Screw On Head", the following exchange occurs
Emperor Zombie: You let me down. You went on and on about how sweet the candy was, then told me not to put it in my mouth and got mad at me when I did.
Screw-On Head: If by 'candy' you mean 'ancient forbidden evil' then, yes, I told you not to put it in your mouth.
Webcomics
- Sabine clearly enjoys this trope in this strip of Order of the Stick, where she drains Roy's life-energy. "Four stars! I'll have to recommend dining on you to all my fiendish friends!"
- Later parodied: Two hobgoblins tell a rookie at the granary that they whip the human slaves so that their cries of pain will make the food they're carrying taste more evil... then tell him they're just joking.
- And in this strip, the voices in V's head like the trope as well.
- If you ask Black Mage of 8-Bit Theater, the only thing better than pie is EVIL pie.
- Absurd Notions, in its earlier years, has a comic annotated with the statement that revenge, like meringue, is sweet and best served cold.
- Parodied in The Adventures of Doctor McNinja when the good doctor visits Sebastian, the vampire that runs the Red Cross in this strip:
Catering Chef: Would you like some baked ziti, sir?
Sebastian: How...innocent is the baked ziti?
Catering Chef: Very innocent, sir.
Sebastian: Yes. I will have the ziti.
- In Demonology101 a Witness comments that the food at the wedding of Issac Jenner and Madeline is delicious. Apparently evil doesn't just taste good, it makes a fine shrimp dish too.
Banai: Trust a Jenner to have the best served wedding I've been to in the last twenty years.
- Richard from LFG once drained the soul of a monk. "It tasted like chocolate," he said.
- Khrima took classes on baking evil cupcakes.
Western Animation
- Gargamel wanted to eat The Smurfs, expounding at length about their succulence, despite having never eaten one before. Or turn them to gold, he's never been all that clear on his motivation.
- Robot Chicken did a sketch in which a flashflood killed all the smurfs, who were then picked up by Gargamel. He cooked them and ate a bite with great anticipation, before realizing they tasted horrible, lamenting the years he had wasted hunting them, and ordering Chinese food.
- Invader Zim is rife with these. In all the wrong places.
- Taken literally on Teen Titans: when evil candy start attacking Cyborg, he eats them and then comments 'I never knew evil tasted so good.'
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