History Main / BitPartBadguys

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' did this occasionally, in one case with Batman and Superman fighting some sports-themed villains while [[CasualDangerDialogue casually talking about Captain Marvel]]. Apparently they're so caught up in the conversation they ''forget'' what the bad guys were even after in the first place.

** Also Dr. Light was used as the punching bag to show Raven losing control of her emotions briefly. Which leads to a funny CallBack when Dr. Light shows up again:

Common varieties include [[BankRobbery Bank Robbers]], [[BadGuyBar Thuggish Bar Patrons]], Muggers, Purse Snatchers and generally StupidCrooks. Also known as the LowlyCriminal. May overlap with VeryPunchableMan, whose role is to be such a {{Slimeball}} that we'll feel justly pleased when he gets clobbered by the hero.

Common varieties include [[BankRobbery Bank Robbers]], [[BadGuyBar Thuggish Bar Patrons]], Muggers, Purse Snatchers and generally StupidCrooks. Also known as the LowlyCriminal.

* ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'': Bond travels to Beirut to retrieve a golden bullet that was kept as a charm by a belly dancer. While there, he gets into a messy brawl with a couple of criminals who are apparently wholly unrelated to Scaramanga or Hai Fat. In fact, the entire sequence is rather pointless, since Scaramanga had already sent him one of his golden bullets.

SubTrope of BitCharacter and PlotIrrelevantVillain; SuperTrope of MuggingTheMonster. Common in a BatmanColdOpen, when said ColdOpen doesn't feature a recurring villain; however, Bit Part Bad Guys can show up anywhere in the story, up to and including right before (and after) the climax.

* ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' has two scenes involving purse snatchers.

They're not the BigBad; they're too small time for that. Heck, they're not even MonsterOfTheWeek level. But they're not working for another villain, either, so they're not really {{Mooks}}. These are {{Villains}} whose duty is to show up for a single scene, maybe two if they're lucky, and cause some minor trouble before the heroes [[CurbStompBattle kick them into next week]] and move on to the ''real'' plot.

* The two muggers that try to rob the blinded Jenny soon after the first shootout of ''Film/TheKiller'', only to get beaten up by Ah Jong.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge1'': The reason that the two brontotheres Carl and Frank want to murder Sid is because he, in his characteristic clumsiness ruined a rare delicacy for them. There isn't much of an interesting plot let alone a film that can be made with such a motivation, so they fight Manny, Manny saves him, Sid latches on to him for protection and they (mostly) depart from the story.

->'''Prisoner''': You are in hell, little man. And I am the devil.\\

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': The reason that the two brontotheres Carl and Frank want to murder Sid is because he, in his characteristic clumsiness ruined a rare delicacy for them. There isn't much of an interesting plot let alone a film that can be made with such a motivation, so they fight Manny, Manny saves him, Sid latches on to him for protection and they (mostly) depart from the story.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Bomb Voyage's confrontation with Mr. Incredible is significant only in that it gives Buddy an opening to try to get recruited as a sidekick and puts the hero under enough pressure to sharpen [[StartOfDarkness the rudeness of his rejection]].

* ''Fanfic/TheVow'' has a group of bandits who kidnap Lady Lianne in hopes of a high ransom. In addition to her being rescued by Lord Shen providing action and relationship development, the [[KickTheSonOfABitch sadistic way]] Shen [[ItsPersonal personally]] executes the bandit leader Haun serves as one of the warning signs of [[ForegoneConclusion what he becomes in the future]]. Most of the other bandits die as well, and the rest aren't heard of again.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''
** Two muggers show up at the beginning of the first Tim Burton ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'' movie, robbing an innocent tourist family (with one mugger pulling a KickTheDog moment by turning his gun on the family's kid), laying down the fearsome reputation of "the bat" and then getting their asses kicked by the Batman.

** ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'', by virtue of its notoriously Biblical cast of characters, has ''two'' instances: the punk bikers whom Dick Grayson and Barbara Wilson race on motorcycles through a tunnel in the "bad" part of town; and ''another'' group of Day-Glo, tribal thugs who exist only for Bane to have somebody to beat up.

* Generally any of the petty criminals ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' deals with on a daily basis are this, particularly in one shot strips. Even in some of the Mega Epics, Dredd can be seen cracking skulls or getting into firefights with minor criminals while musing over the greater storyline.
* In a ''ComicBook/BatgirlRebirth'' crossover ''ComicBook/EscapeFromThePhantomZone'', eco-terrorist villain Red Spur shows up in the two first pages and is chased away by ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} before the beginning of the main plot.
* In ''ComicBook/ManyHappyReturns'', super-villain Rebel harasses Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} several times until the Girl of Steel gets tired of beating him up and scares him away stating he was not important. He was ''something to do'' until the real BigBad came along.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' did this occasionally, in one case with Batman and Superman fighting some sports-themed villains while [[CasualDangerDialog casually talking about Captain Marvel]]. Apparently they're so caught up in the conversation they ''forget'' what the bad guys were even after in the first place.

** ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'', by virtue of its [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters notoriously Biblical cast of characters]], has ''two'' instances: the punk bikers whom Dick Grayson and Barbara Wilson race on motorcycles through a tunnel in the "bad" part of town; and ''another'' group of Day-Glo, tribal thugs who exist only for Bane to have somebody to beat up.

Or maybe, while the Bit Part Bad Guys themselves aren't important, something that happens during the fight with them is. The hero might meet the GirlOfTheWeek by saving them from one of these villains, or maybe it's during one of these quick fights that the {{Superhero}} will discover something's wrong with their powers, or maybe, because the hero was busy taking this bad guy down, they weren't at home to stop someone from getting [[DamselInDistress kidnapped]] or [[StuffedIntoTheFridge worse]], which may even elevate them to the level of SmallRoleBigImpact.

* The Box Ghost from ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''. Until he gets his hands on ''PandorasBox'.

* In ''Manga/DragonBall'', Goku visits West City looking for Bulma and, after earning 100,000 zeni in a street fight, is accosted by some criminals thinking he's an incredibly easy mark. Little do they know that Goku is NighInvulnerable and trained with the world-famous Turtle Hermit, and after he headbutts one into a wall his buddy suggests he asks a policeman.
** Their role is [[AdaptationExpansion expanded]] in the anime where they're {{Mooks}} for Husky, thus shooting right by this trope.

* In a ''ComicBook/BatgirlRebirth'' Annual, eco-terrorist villain Red Spur shows up in the two first pages and is chased away by Comicbook/{{Batgirl}} and Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} before the beginning of the main plot.

* The trio of Sir Lee, Professor Park, and Professor Kim from ''Webcomic/WeakHero'', minor bullies who show up to fill the void that Phillip Kim leaves after he's humbled. They prove their cowardice when they hold down Rowan and Eugene in the fight against Wolf, and their cruelty when they throw rocks at a kitten.

* ''Manga/RamenFighterMiki'', being a deconstruction of the FightingSeries PlayedForLaughs, presents protagonist Miki as she encounters an unfortunate thief, minor {{Yakuza}}, and JapaneseDelinquents, all of them only there to [[MuggingTheMonster Mug the Monster]] and give her an excuse to {{curbstomp|Battle}} them, and then be forgotten.

** Other than possibly The Fiends and White Legs-who both have a loose alliance with The Legion and are genuine threat to the region-pretty much any group of raiders in the games are this.
* The general formula in the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' series is that the first two bosses will have absolutely nothing to do with the plot, and the third will actually kick the main plot off (either by being loyal to the villains or leading you to them). These bit part bosses are often quite popular (one eventually starred her own game!) and most of them are grouped together in fanworks. Exceptions to both rules exist though.
* Urbzville in ''VideoGame/TheUrbz'' is terrorized by 3 villains, Urangoo [=McBain=], Kiki Blunt and Harry Snivel, who show up once in a while to mug the local Urb and generally cause trouble. However, once the player perform the district's Power Social move on them, they'll leave for good.

* The very first monster that ''{{WesternAnimation/Hercules}}'' encounters after completing his hero training, is the River Guardian Nessus who is in the process of forcing Meg upon him. Naturally, he comes between them saving her and costing Hades a possible recruit (and leaving the river unguarded), essentially also coming between a bit-part bad guy and his chance to escalate into a {{Mook|s}} (not that this would give him much more importance seeing as how Herc dealt with most others of course).

Whatever the case may be, the Bit Part Bad Guy always gets the short end of the butt-kicking stick. They'll almost always be quite low on the SlidingScaleOfVillainThreat and, compared to the rest of the story, on the silly side of the SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness. Now it must be said that all this doesn't mean that they are necessarily [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain ineffectual]] or not a threat to a random citizen, it just means that they are small fries in a much bigger pond. They can be quite dangerous and evil on their own for non-powerful heroes and will often in fact be given KickTheDog or PoliticallyIncorrectVillain traits, if only to justify their getting a comeuppance. The best hope a Bit Part Bad Guy has is to make a strong enough impression during their brief appearance that audiences demand they be brought back again, possibly upgraded to MonsterOfTheWeek status. Only once in a scarlet moon can such a villain even dream of [[FromNobodyToNightmare becoming Big Bad material]], though. Their tendency to think small and opportunistically look for [[EvilIsPetty easy targets]] generally disqualifies them from becoming someone with grander plans or vision of any sort.