"This type of work can get a bit...messy, Mister Rope." "That it can, Mister Liche."
"But Mister Croup, we hurt people. We don't get hurt." Mr. Croup turned out the lights. "Oh, Mister Vandemar," he said, enjoying the sound of the words, as he enjoyed the sound of all words, "if you cut us, do we not bleed?" Mr. Vandemar pondered this for a moment, in the dark. Then he said, with perfect accuracy, "No."
Those Two Bad Guys are a pair of bad guys who not only provide bloodshed, but also exposition in the form of conversation between them; not to be confused withThose Two Guys. They are usually foils for each other; commonly Brains and Brawn, and sometimes Red Oni, Blue Oni. They probably also look different, in such ways as Fat and Skinny or Salt and Pepper. When they show up in a video game, you can usually count on the player facing them as a Dual Boss at some point.
"Mister Rope, I believe someone's reading our entry."
"Why, so it appears, Mister Liche, so it appears."
"Do you think we should explicate ourselves, Mister Rope?"
"I do, indeed, Mister Liche. Salutations, reader. I am Mister Thaddeus Rope, a man of the hatchet, as you might say, and this is my companion, Mister Clive Liche, a personal exsanguinator."
"May I continue with the expositionizing, Mister Rope?"
"You certainly may, Mister Liche."
"Alright then, reader, you may notice something familiar about us. We may talk funnywise, yes, and one of us may have a bit more smarts than the other. We're independent constricters, y'see?"
"I believe you mean contractors, Mister Liche."
"That I did, Mister Rope, thank you. Now, because of our potential, many writers use us in various forms. Don't they, Mister Rope?"
"They do indeed, Mister Liche, they do indeed. In fact, that's why we're here, because so many writers like to use us and our penchant for exposition and execution."
"And because of our killing people, right, Mister Rope?"
"That's right, Mister Liche. I believe that's all, reader. Anything you want to add, Mister Liche?"
"No, Mister Rope, I never did like maths. Sleep tight, reader."
"Yes, reader, sleep tight."
Subverted with Wekapipo and Magenta Magenta in "Steel Ball Run". Although they make a good team combat-wise, they personally despise each other and eventually Wekapipo makes a Heel Face Turn.
In Part 3, we have the Oingo Boingo Brothers and Hol Horse and J. Geil. Hol Horse and Boingo eventually team up after each of their partners is incapacitated.
Cold-hearted assassin Kieth Baker and inept robber Sam Perkins in the Western manga Miriam. While they lack the duo dynamic usually present, and they don't usually work together, they fit the mold in a lot of other ways (like the customary occasional personality clash).
In the Cowboy Bebop episode "Boogie Woogie Feng Shui", Jet is pursued by two of these guys, who also appear to be based on the Blues Brothers.
Rex Raptor/Dinosaur Ryuzaki and Weevil Underwood/Insector Haga in Yu-Gi-Oh! arguably become this as they begin to associate with one another almost exclusively.
Thorgrimm and Atli in Vinland Saga, up until Thorgrimm tries to make a play for power. Doesn't work out very well for Thorgrimm.
Mutant experiments no. 666 and 777 in Dead Leaves.
Hidan and Kakuzu. They both bicker a lot, and don't appear to really get along, but are partners nonetheless. Kakuzu being the smart one that comes up with strategy, and Hidan being the rash and loud-mouthed jerk.
Kakuzu:(having just reattached Hidan's head to his neck) Watch the stitches, they'll break if you move too much. Hidan: You know what, Kakuzu? Eat a dick.
The same is true for Itachi and Kisame and Sasori and Deidara. And then, after Sasori is killed, Deidara and Tobi.
Zetsu and... Zetsu. The left and right sides of his body have split consciousnesses and the halves communicate with each other via speech rather than thought.
In the Zanpakuto filler arc from Bleach, the role is filled by the spirits of Rangiku and Momo's weapons, Haineko and Tobiume.
You wouldn't know it from looking at them (or listening to them), at least at first, but Walker and Erika of Durarara!! are absolutelyterrifying. This is mostly because their dialogue primarily consists of anime and manga references, which would lead most people to think they're just kind of odd. Even better, their nerdy hobbies end up influencing their other hobby, so there ends up being quite a bit of dissonance between their relatively innocent love of anime and manga and their horrific threats.
Erika: We'll torture you based on the plot to one of these mangas!
The two thugs who actually pull off kidnapping Nagi, until Hayate's interference, in the beginning of Hayate the Combat Butler, show up later and kidnap Saki from Wataru's video store, until Sonia's interference, have this kind of dynamic between them.
Hazel and Cha-Cha of Gerard Way's The Umbrella Academy. They like the simple things in life. Candy, cookies, pie. And dismembering innocent people with hack saws while plotting nuclear Armageddon.
Burt Schlubb (Fat Man) and Douglas Klump (Little Boy) from Sin City aren't exactly killers, but still somewhat fit.
Fite and Maad, agents of APES, from The DCU's Young Justice. Ironically, they're much more pragmatic than some of the series' other antagonists... but their goals are often much more cruel. By the end, possibly due to intentional Villain Decay, they're the Overprotective Dad of YJ's newest member, and his wacky friend.
The Mauler Twins are like this (with the rapport and the squabbling and the being evil thing), but they're Mad Scientists, not assassins or anything like that.
Magmaniac and Tether Tyrant are a more straight example.
Spider-Man's foes Styx and Stone (they'll break your bones!) and several other Marvel Comics villains, like Knight and Fogg, Hammer and Anvil, Brother Sun and Sister Moon, and the Brothers Grimm.
The Satan Brothers in DC's Lobo; again a Blues Brothers parody.
Nightwing villains and Evil Albino twins the Pierce brothers, who, despite looking and even dressing exactly the same, do have rather distinct personalities; Barry is a megalomaniac who tends to think only in terms of himself, while Buddy is somewhat dimwitted and easily manipulated.
Rob and Don in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns blur the line between this and Those Two Guys; They're dangerous gang members, and fanatically attach themselves to the most powerful group, but they're comparatively harmless and mostly comment on other peoples' actions.
X-Men villains the Juggernaut and Black Tom Cassidy almost exclusively worked together after a while. Similarly, the Blob and Unus the Untouchable were inseperable and worked together even when not in a larger team.
Daredevil ran up against a pair of thugs named Turk and Grotto for years during and after Frank Miller's run. More recently, Ed Brubaker introduced two street level criminals named Chico and Merv who are based on Brian Posehn and Patton Oswalt.
Idget the Midget and Dangerous Dan Mc Boo in Mickey Mouse comics. Idget is slightly smarter than Dan, but they in general seem equal partners in crime — sometimes employed by others, sometimes working on their own.
DC universe enjoys the company Monsieur Mallah & brain — who take this to the extreme — one's a brain in a can, the other's a gorilla... they also really love discussing philosophy — and each other.
Arguably, Trypticon and his yes-man Wipe-out in the Transformers comics; They're both persisting menaces that are only barely affiliated with one side; Wipe-Out's primary role is just doing things for the not-exactly-mobile transforming city, and they aren't exactly equals or anything, but....
The two NSA agents played by Hank Azaria and K. Todd Freeman in Grosse Pointe Blank are sort of a marriage of this trope and the traditional Salt and Pepper buddy cop pairing. Martin Q. Blank (John Cusack) and Grocer (Dan Aykroyd) also fit somewhat, although they are rivals.
Mr. Frying Pan and Mr. Fire from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. (Their actual names aren't given, but this is what they are listed as in the credits.)
Going off of the Men In Black reference above, those characters in general have a similar dynamic as this type of character, and the Agents of The Matrix are a particularly good fit. There's three of them instead of two, but that hardly matters.
MasterBlaster, the duo who run Underworld in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome ("They are a unit; they even share the same name"). Master is a mental giant with a body like a small child's; for Blaster, the reverse is true.
4-Lom and Zuckuss in Star Wars. The pair even loses face when forced to work with a third bounty hunter in the hunt for the Yavin Vassilika.
Possible Real Life example: Burke and Hare. Their cinematic versions in 1960's The Flesh and the Fiends definitely fit (and Donald Pleasance is particularly Evilly Affable as Hare).
Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar, the Old Firm, from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. "Obstacles obliterated, nuisances eradicated, bothersome limbs removed, and tutelary dentistry." Interestingly it lampshades the Brains and Brawn nature of the pair by referring to them as "the fox and the wolf" at several points. One theory on that point is that they're actually different werewolves.
The demons (Dukes of Hell) Hastur and Ligur in Good Omens also fit pretty well.
Finney and Mudd from Tad Williams' Otherland series fit this trope extremely well... and their copies inside the Otherland network practically define it, since the network is essentially constructed out of story tropes.
Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip, the New Firm, from The Truth are based on the archtype, and contain references to other Those Two Bad Guys pairs, like Jules and Vincent. "Do you know what they call sausage-in-a-bun in Quirm?"
In The Art Of Discworld, Pratchett lays out the principle of this trope — if a gang has two members (a "gangette"), one will do the thinking and the other will "talk like dis". If there is a third, the same applies but the third guy will be called Fingers.
Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures series has Guido and Nunzio, who work for the main character Skeeve as part of his new connection to the Mafia. It ends up neither one is that bad, and Guido has a history in the theater. And a degree in business administration. Also, Nunzio worked as an elementary school (primary school, for our royal cousins) teacher in the past. Also, oddly, as an animal trainer.
Hawker and Boon, the schoolboy-suited Prefects from Jonathan Barnes' The Somnambulist. They are called into service by a greyish protagonist, but they really are not nice people.
Pex and Chips from Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code, though they are conspicuously lacking on the Brains side.
Bookend killers, bonebreakers, and all round intimidators Crask and Sadler from Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. stories fit this trope like a kidskin glove. After all, they do give people a sporting chance... if you can make it from the middle of the lake to the shore faster than them, they'll let you go, no hard feelings. Of course, did they forget to mention the 100 pounds tied to your legs? Oops...
Sean Cullen's Hamish X series has Mr. Sweet and Mr. Candy.
Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd from Ian Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever (1956), probably the Ur Example of this trope... except unlike most examples, they're explicitly a couple. Romantically. They bang.
Blue and Grey, who menace protagonist Joe Sixsmith in Reginald Hill's novel Blood Sympathy. Blue has pretensions to intelligence and is Evilly Affable; Grey is openly uncouth. Both are dangerous men.
Rosencrass and Guildenswine (their names being one of many shout-outs to Shakespeare). Usually they're just spies, but near the end of Castle Storm they commit murder on a whim and are willing to kill Sylver and his gang for money. Since they do this in a magical forest, this proves to be their downfall.
Both depicted generations of the Herk and Bare families could also fall into this category — the first pair are mercenaries, and the second pair are graverobbers.
Two of Eva Ibbotson's young adult novels — The Dragonfly Pool and Journey to the River Sea — have comically villainous duos who are hired to kidnap the hero.
Haruki Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World features "Big Boy" and "Junior", who try to extort information about the Professor's dealings from the book's protagonist midway through the book.
Mr and Mrs Cavendish in the Nightside book Nightingale's Lament. They run a nightclub where the singer Rossignol, the titular Nightingale, performs, but because they put her through a process which left her mostly dead, her voice now induces her listeners to commit suicide.
Simon R. Green also plays with this one a bit in one of his Secret Histories books: first he invokes it straight with the Russian werewolf/gangsters, the Vodyanoi brothers, and then he parodies it with a couple of Mooks who get so caught up bickering with one another that they forget they're supposed to be intimidating the hero.
Tom and Ty in Simon Spurrier's Contract, two thugs acting as disposable backup for Michael Point, a professional assassin. Tom's a frustrated New Zealander with a taste for casual ultraviolence and Speed, and Ty's a hulking Jamaican who never speaks louder than a whisper. They're also short-livedScrappies.
The Duke and the Dauphin from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are Con Artists, not killers, but they're still the lead antagonists who do the heroes the most harm. However, it should be noted they are not a villainous duo prior to their introduction in the novel, but become one shortly after meeting up.
Finney and Mudd, Felix Jongleur's hirelings in Tad Williams' doorstopper quadrilogy Otherland — not only do they oppress and sometimes torture his employees, but their online avatars wreak havoc in the titular computer network, taking on various forms including creepy versions of the Walrus and the Carpenter.
In Warbreaker, Denth and Tonk Fah may qualify, though Denth is such an Affably EvilMagnificent Bastard that we don't know that they're bad guys for about half the book.
Gotz And Meyer makes Those Two Bad Guys the focus of the story, as a teacher several decades later reads of their part in the Holocaust and tries to figure out what their motivations were. We don't quite figure it out — the research drives him insane.
Agents Myers & Franks from Monster Hunter International. Myers is the polite, educated one, and Franks is the quiet, brutal one who's quite capable of curb-stomping the hero, Owen Pitt. (Owen managed to kill a rampaging werewolf with his bare hands in the opening chapter, so that should tell you just what a badass Franks is...) Both are full-blown Knights Templar.
Bauchelain & Korbal Broach from Steven Erikson's Malazan books. One's an intelligent scholarly (and of course completely immoral) summoner/conjurer, the other's a necromancer, nearly always silent and a eunuch to boot. What a lovely pair of monsters they are.
Practicals Severard and Frost from The First Law, the personal assistants of Inquisitor Glokta. They're like secretaries. Scary, twisted secretaries.
In his days working for the Mafia-like Jhereg, Vlad Taltos had a pair of thugs working for him called Sticks and Shoen (basically "Sticks and Stone(s)"). Shoen is short for his species and more of a brute, whereas Sticks is very tall and is personable off the job.
Mr. Breughel and Mr. Mahler from the US Max Headroom series. In a later episode it was revealed that Mr. Breughel had had to (ahem) replace Mr. Mahler with a new one.
The two agents from the first episode of the second series of Spaced.
The seekers from Charmed. Suddenly the "fox and a wolf" reference on Croup and Vandemar makes more sense.
Chris Partlow and Felicia "Snoop" Pearson of The Wire.
They're not villains so much as creepy-but-essentially-neutral set dressing, but the two undertakers in the first season of Slings and Arrows otherwise fit this trope perfectly (including the personality types and manner of speech outlined in the example).
Traidy and Sorm, the two Orion Syndicate assassins in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "A Simple Investigation".
For series 3 of Merlin, Morgana and Morgause held this trope, until the latter was critically wounded and in the next season died.
Murphy and Camier, two cleaners in the Once A Thief TV series who get involved in all manner of strange jobs, including one (ep 19) where they spend much of the episode waiting for a mark whose name is not quite Godot.
The Get Smart episode "Run, Robot, Run" featured evil British agents "Snead" and "Mrs Neal"; spoofs of Steed and Mrs Peel from The Avengers who fit this trope surprisingly well.
The two unnamed Alliance agents wearing blue gloves (nicknamed the "Hands of Blue") in Firefly.
Doctor Who uses this trope occasionally, one example being Dibber and Sabalom Glitz in The Mysterious Planet.
Tony Driscoll: We entered into a business arrangement with a Russian contortionist. (beat) Danny Driscoll:Consortium.
Tabletop Games
In the prologue to the Scion sourcebook Hero, Hugin and Munin, Odin's two talking ravens, behave this way. Although they're not so much "bad" as they are not very nice at all.
Theater
The Fox and the Cat in the opera The Adventures of Pinocchio definitely qualify. Although a bit bumbling, and definitely comedic, their scenes can be intensely creepy. And also a bit something else. They might not kill anyone outright, as they're rather poor at their jobs and more tricksters than assassins, but they certainly make a good try at it. (Such as trying to lynch Pinocchio for the five gold coins he got out of sympathy from the puppet show owner.)
The First Man and Second Man from Kiss Me, Kate don't kill anyone on stage, but they are mobsters and they talk an awful lot.
The trio of nameless villains in the Kurt Weill opera Die Bürgschaft, who take dirty work where they find it.
Video Games
A bit of a subversion, but Tenta and Chuckles from Dragon Quest VIII count as this. They are actually only tentacles, given voice by the squid Khalamari.
Kariya and Uzuki from The World Ends with You. For their appropriate definition of "death", anyway.
Thanks to bad translation of Reno's wisecracking, Reno and Rude became this in the English version of Final Fantasy VII. They were originally more of a Boke and Tsukkomi duo.
Biggs and Wedge in Final Fantasy VIII. Who suffer demotions after every encounter, until they quit in late disk 3. Biggs and Wedge are your teammates in early Final Fantasy VI. Considering you were being controlled and they worked for the ones who did it....
Logos and Ormi, the co-dragons to Le Blanc in Final Fantasy X-2, with special emphasis put on the aspect of them being nearly complete opposites of each other. Logos is tall while Ormi is short, Logos is skinny while Ormi is fat, Logos is one of the smartest villains in the series to date while Ormi is one of the dumbest, Logos has a calm and collected personality while Ormi is impulsive and easily excited, Logos speaks in a low monotone and rarely raises his voice while Ormi's usual tone is screaming at the top of his lungs, Logos uses a pair of ranged weapons in battle while Ormi uses a single melee weapon, Logos favors a battle strategy of inflicting multiple status ailments to slowly wear down his enemy while Ormi favors a strategy of overwhelming his enemy with brute force. About the only things they have in common are their fanactical loyalty to Le Blanc and their willingness to do everything in their power to ensure that her plans succeed.
Slogra and Gaibon from the Castlevania Series. Debuting in Super Castlevania 4 as the first two members of a Four Is Death final boss run (with the third and fourth members being Death and Dracula) In later games the pair have been reduced to mere Elite Mooks.
Balio and Sunder from Breath of Fire III, two enforcers of the local mafia who keep harassing Ryu for a large portion of the early game.
Dom and Ed from MegaTokyo, though they are enemies.
The Caterers of Calumny, Texto Porfiria and Zuzux Uzbochs, in Unicorn Jelly. Their favorite modus operandi is rather unusual — they pose as caterers and serve poisoned food.
From the point of view of the Mary Sue victims, most PPC agent pairs are this. The agents' opinions may vary.
As of V4, Survival of the Fittest has Richards and Baines. Although the terrorists are often used as vehicles for exposition, it tends to be this pairing more than any others, particularly given their penchant for not keeping secrets too well.
Danny Phantom's Guys in White are a subversion; They don't even try to be civil and clearly dislike one another. The X-treme Ghostbreakers aren't much different.
#21: Could you sign this, boss? It's for 24, he got knifed by the Moppets. The Monarch: Which one is 24 again? #21: What?! You're kidding, right? Let me give a hint: you know how every time you talk to me, there's usually another guy next to me. That's 24. The Monarch: Right, right, right, the one that sounds like Ray Romano. I like him.
Basically just any duo voiced by Hammer and Publick might qualify for this.
Inverted by Mr. Doe and Mr. Cardholder, the OSI operatives sent to Jonas Venture, Jr. to help defeat The Monarch.
And then played straight in the Season 4 finale when it turns out they are Guild moles.
Megatron and Starscream in various incarnations would count if they'd stop insulting each other in the midst of their exposition.
Transformers: Beast Machines has Obsidian and Strika, legendary generals.
And various pairs like Rumble and Frenzy and all of the Decepticon Targetmasters, Headmasters, and Duocons, the G1 Scorponok and his partner Lord Zarak arguably being the most iconic example.
Transformers Animated also has Blitzwing and Lugnut, who tend to hang out together even when they aren't actually fighting anyone. The funny thing about that is, because of Blitzwing's near-Literal Split Personality, they can either be brains and brawn (Lugnut and "cold" Blitzwing), brawn and brawn (Lugnut and "hot" Blitzwing), or brains and WTF!? (Lugnut and random Blitzwing).
Not to mention Runabout and Runamuck, an inseparable pair of Beavis And Butthead-like delinquents.
Perhaps most emblematically, Spaceshot and Blackout, the mismatched pair who operates one of the most powerful weapons of the Decepticons' entire fighting force, the Decepticon Anti-Aircraft Base. Spaceshot is dutiful, dedicated, and heroic (yes, there are heroic Decepticons), while Blackout is a cowardly, spineless, would-be deserter. What's more, as Micromaster Combiners, they each transform into one half of a vehicle mode, with the other one turning into the other half.
Ransack and Crumplezone in Cybertron.
And every incarnation of the Dreadwing and Smokescreen molds from G2, including the originals, BB and Starscream from Beast Wars II, Gigant Bomb and Smokesniper from Robot Masters, and Smokejumper and Dreadwind from Robots in Disguise and Armada. While the various incarnations have their idiosyncracies, the constant is that they're Brains and Brawn who pal around to cover up their weakness in either area.
Similarly, the original Dreadwind and Darkwing, as well; Like Dreadwing and Smokescreen, they can also combine. (Their combined form is called Dreadwing, but isn't to be confused with the other Dreadwings. Well, not all of them, anyway.) Also, Dreadwind and Darkwing each has an organic partner who powers them up. However, they don't get along with their partners so well.
Hack and Slash of ReBoot. Or at least, they would be if they weren't so dumb.
Two-Badd in He-Man. They even have the name down. They're also a subversion, starting out (in the 2002 series, at least) as rival bounty hunters Tuvar and Baddrha hired by Skeletor to bring down He-Man... before they're turned into a two-headed monster for screwing up the mission.
Gutsman and Cutman in the Ruby-Spears Mega Man production. Shame about their IQs. Elecman and Bombman are a less frequent but definite evil duo.
In the second season of Adventures Of The Gummi Bears, Duke Igthorn is given some ogres that are different from his normal unnamed Mooks: Gad (who is purple) and Zook (who's green with orange hair). The two are always seen together and, as the series progresses, becomes much more prominent.
Invader Zim: Almighty Tallest Red and Purple. An interesting example, because they're technically the Big Bad Duumvirate, but since Zim is the main villain trying to take over the Earth they mostly just act as Mac Guffins, exposition or comic relief.
Mr. Burke and Mr. Hare, the infamous Edinburgh duo who sold their victim's bodies to an anatomist as medical cadavers, fit the trope fairly well, apart from maybe the exposition bit.
