History Main / EvilIsPetty

** ''MassEffect'' tends to be one of the better implementations of a KarmaMeter, with Paragon and Renegade being more like Merciful vs. Ruthless than Good vs. Evil. However, to get all the Renegade points still requires some level of petty jerkiness such being highly xenophobic and pointlessly rude.

**** Not to mention pointlessly killing enemies who've already surrendered, shaking people down for money, and helping carry out less than honorable tasks issued by morally ambiguous individuals.

** ''{{Fable}} 2'' is much better about this: the main story quests are neither good ''or'' evil, but you get the option of committing ''decidedly'' evil acts during at least one such quest. In addition, every sidequest either has an evil path from the beginning, or culminates in a choice between good and evil by the end of it. [[EvilIsEasy It's much,]] ''[[EvilIsEasy much]]'' [[EvilIsEasy easier to go full evil and]] ''[[EvilIsEasy never]]''[[EvilIsEasy go back.]] Conversely, it's much ''harder'' to go full good and never go back.

** ''{{Fable}} 2'' is much better about this: the main story quests are neither good ''or'' evil, but you get the option of committing ''decidedly'' evil acts during at least one such quest. In addition, every sidequest either has an evil path from the beginning, or culminates in a choice between good and evil by the end of it. [[EvilIsEasy It's much, ''much'' easier to go full evil and ''never'' go back.]] Conversely, it's much ''harder'' to go full good and never go back.

* Lex Luthor has many moments where he indulges himself in petty acts of evil and cruelty.
Especially if it involves women. He once frequented a diner for a week so he could court
a particular waitress. Then he offered her a life of fame and luxury if she would be his lover. But he drove away in his limo before she could make a decision, leaving her to ponder opportunites lost. Just something to amuse himself with. He also once strangled his female martial arts instructor, just because she knocked him down during a sparring session.
Post-crisis Luthor is basically depicted as a petulant asshole who holds grudges against anyone who even slightly challenges his authority.

* In {{Durarara}}, Izaya first shows how far he'll go to troll people by kidnapping a suicidal girl to "prove" that, since she was scared, she's not really suicidally depressed and is just being a whiny EmoTeen (and then he invites her to prove him wrong by showing her a ledge to jump off of and dangling her from it). His second act of vile depravity? Breaking someone's cellphone.

* As season 5 of ''{{Supernatural}}'' goes on, more and more characters start to point out that, for all his wisdom and power, in trying to bring on the Apocalypse [[spoiler: Lucifer]] is being little more than a bratty child throwing a tantrum because he didn't get a second serve of ice cream. [[ItsAllAboutMe He doesn't listen]].

** The specific reason for this is that he is forbidden from doing any more evil things. He can't lay a hand on Ransom, for instance, unless Ransom attacks first. But he is pure evil, and there is ''nothing'' that is too petty for him. He wants to make others suffer, and has zero pride, so if all he can do is keep Ransom up at night with an annoying, childish call... he'll do it.
* Lewis' logic of the pettiness of evil is further explained in ''TheScrewtapeLetters''. It's complex, but the reasoning is actually fairly sound.

[[AC:{{Comics}}]]
* This quite often the reasoning behind [[{{Batman}} the Joker's]] less horrifying crimes. In a way, it just it makes Joker seem like even more of a CompleteMonster as he truly sees no difference between throwing cream pies, robbing a museum, and brutal, torturous mass-murder. To him, it's all just part of the joke.
* [[CompleteMonster Janus Valker]], from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat-Man_(comics) Rat-Man]] ''can't'' stay good for a single minute. It's not just killing people out of boredom, ruling a shadow corporative agency and hunting his heroic nemesi. He likes to cripple laboratory assistants, ruin careers for very slight (or immaginary) reason and ''starve homeplants''. On purpose. Now, the comic's hero has an obsessive compulsion to kill cats and cripple noisy children, but still...
* Sleeze, the [[NewGods New God]] in charge of porn is the embodiment of this trope. {{Darkseid}} banished Sleeze from Apokolips because he thought a god of porn was too petty to play any part in his schemes to conquer reality. It says something when ''Darkseid'' thinks you are too petty. The Lord of Apokolips usually plays this trope straight- examples inlude forcing his minions to murder their pets, murdering (or trying to murder) relatives of his enemies for foiling his evil schemes, executing his minions for speaking out of turn, and setting free his slaves....and putting them in charge of the next batch, just so the hero can watch them become as cruel as the old slave drivers.

* The 2010 animated film Despicable Me is just full of this trope. Gru, the "protagonist," uses a [[CallingYourAttacks freeze ray]] to incapacitate everyone ahead of him in line at a coffee shop, makes a balloon animal for a crying child only to pop it with a pin, and parallel parks in a space that had plenty of room for his car - then rams the cars ahead and behind repeatedly to make even MORE room. And this is [[TheWoobie the guy we're supposed to sympathize with]].

* In the 1967 movie {{Bedazzled}}, with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, the devil's petty pranks are a running gag. We see him at scratching new albums and putting them back on the shelf at a record store; we see him send out a pigeon to do its "doo-dahs" on a passerby.

* In ''TheGodfather'' game, you are advised against overly indulging in the VideogameCrueltyPotential.

* Sleeze, the NewGod in charge of porn is the embodiment of this trope. {{Darkseid}} banished Sleeze from Apokolips because he thought a god of porn was too petty to play any part in his schemes to conquer reality. It says something when ''Darkseid'' thinks you are too petty. The Lord of Apokolips usually plays this trope straight- examples inlude forcing his minions to murder their pets, murdering (or trying to murder) relatives of his enemies for foiling his evil schemes, executing his minions for speaking out of turn, and setting free his slaves....and putting them in charge of the next batch, just so the hero can watch them become as cruel as the old slave drivers.

* Sleeze, the new god of porn (I am not even kidding) embodied this. {{Darkseid}} banished Sleeze from Apokolips because he thought a god of porn was too petty to play any part in his schemes to conquer reality.
** It says something when ''Darkseid'' thinks you are too petty. The Lord of Apokolips usually plays this trope straight- examples inlude forcing his minions to murder their pets, murdering (or trying to murder) relatives of his enemies for foiling his evil schemes, executing his minions for speaking out of turn, and setting free his slaves....and putting them in charge of the next batch, just so the hero can watch them become as cruel as the old slave drivers.

* {{Darkseid}} banished Sleeze from Apokolips because he thought a god of porn was too petty to play a part in his schemes to conquer reality.

** ''{{Fable}} 2'' is much better about this: the main story quests are neither good ''or'' evil, but you get the option of committing ''decidedly'' evil acts during at least one such quest. In addition, every sidequest either has an evil path from the beginning, or culminates in a choice between good and evil by the end of it. It's much, ''much'' easier to go full evil and ''never'' go back. Conversely, it's much ''harder'' to go full good and never go back.