History Main / IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten

* ''Webcomic/{{Fluble}}'' parodies this in [[http://techhouse.brown.edu/cgi-bin/fluble/vault.pl?date=19980302 a scene]] where Mack The tells Fluble that [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys women will only date scum]]. When Fluble insists that he can be scum, Mack The challenges him to eat a puppy. Fluble falters, Mack The eats the puppy and is immediately [[EvilIsSexy surrounded by women]].

* In ''Manga/GunsmithCats'', bounty hunter Rally Vincent is asked to shoot a hostage with a gun with one bullet to prove she's in with the bad guys. Useing that one bullet she fires [[ImprobableAimingSkills at such an angle]] to sever the ropes holding the hostage and also hit one of the hostage-takers in the leg. Originally, the gun wasn't loaded at all, and she's such a gun expert that she knew it from the weight and called the bad guys out on it, that's when they gave her one bullet. It helped that she was not on particularly good terms with the hostage.

* ''Series/{{Alias}}'' featured a story arc in which Sydney Bristow undergoes brainwashing and takes on the identity of an assassin named Julia Thorne. As a test of her skill, she is ordered to stab a bound prisoner who is tied to a chair. She does so. Later, after regaining her personality, Sydney is disturbed by her actions, especially when she realizes that, due to conditioning, [[spoiler: she was never fully brainswashed and therefore killed the man of her own volition]].

** Borderline example: In another episode, Piper and Leo are infiltrating a group of demons who are after the innocent of the week. The pair of demons guarding the hideout asks for a password, and Piper- having no idea what it could be- blows one of them up. The other responds that that actually was the password and lets them in. It works on the same principle of ensuring anyone who enters is evil enough to kill, even if it wasn't an initiation test per say.

* In ''Series/CSIMiami'', a woman working with an undercover agent ends up murdered because 1) she refuses to take her dealer's heroin (she was pregnant) and 2) her handler refused to step in when she gave him the code phrase for "I want out".

* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'' episode [[Recap/TheFlash2014S3E7KillerFrost "Killer Frost"]], there's a rare heroic inversion. [[Comicbook/TheFlash Barry]] lets Killer Frost, [[spoiler: his friend Caitlin under the influence of her SuperPoweredEvilSide]] out of her cell and says she free to go... all she has to do is murder him first, to prove she's really Killer Frost at heart, [[spoiler: not Caitlin Snow]]. She [[spoiler: can't kill him in cold blood and Caitlin takes back control]].

* In the fourth finale of ''Series/TheMentalist'', Jane is asked to bring [[spoiler: Lisbon's dead body]] to Red John as proof of his change of heart and willingness to join him.

* An unusual example occurs in the last two episodes of ''Series/RobinOfSherwood''. Guy of Gisburne, captured by the murderous wolf cultists, accepts their invitation to join them because he's finally fed up with being the Sheriff's flunky (the last straw was when the Sheriff tried to blame Gisburne for a failure of his own, which would get him executed). Later they capture the Sheriff as well, and eventually tell Gisburne to kill him. What's unusual is that [[spoiler:he fails the test not because he's unwilling to kill the Sheriff but because [[EvenEvilHasStandards he insists on doing it cleanly with a sword rather than butchering him with an axe]]. In the end they both escape and are reconciled]].

* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'': In "Light-fingered Lady", Diana must steal [[MacGuffin plans]] for [[BigBad Caribe]] to prove her worthiness and standing as a criminal. She does so as Wonder Woman, but unbeknownst to her, Caribe sent someone else to check on Diana. Diana's plans go awry when she runs into him as Wonder Woman and is forced to lock him in a closet. [[spoiler: As Diana, she rescues the {{Mook|s}} and gets bonus points for pulling off the job right under Wonder Woman's nose!]]

* In ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'', protagonist [[TheMole Wei Shen]] is quickly singled out by the Water Street Boys' [[TheDragon Conroy]] [[DumbMuscle Wu]] as a possible undercover cop or rat for ''not'' being as immediately bloodthirsty as Conroy, and because the last guy they had like that turned out to be a cop[[note]]Then again, it could also be interpreted as a GeniusBruiser sticking out in a gang full of Dumb Muscle...[[/note]]. When their leader orders an assault against a rival gang's drug warehouse and Wei amends it to at least taking the warehouse leader alive, Conroy coerces Wei to get ''some'' blood on his hands to prove that he's not a cop. Wei ''does'' go through with this though, so afterwards Conroy apologizes to Wei, admitting that "''you showed your true colors tonight''", and fully accepts him as a member of the Water Street Boys... unaware that [[spoiler:while Wei's handler may not like it, ''his'' superior Superintendant Pendrew ''doesn[='=]t'' mind Wei killing criminals to maintain his cover, and indeed Wei's personal body count ''skyrockets'' after this]].

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' had a version where to get in to a group, a pair of undercover cops have to go with the gang to town to commit a crime. They're able to avoid causing real trouble by having a cop stop them and pretending to kill him, which is good enough.

* The [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution Revolutionary War]] film ''Film/ThePatriot'' has Captain Wilkins, a Loyalist who joins the British [[EliteMooks Green Dragoons]]. The Dragoons' commander, [[GeneralRipper Colonel Tavington]], asks Wilkins why he should trust a man who would sell out his own neighbors, and Wilkins replies "[[MyCountryRightOrWrong Those neighbors of mine who stand against England deserve to die a traitor's death]]". Tavington throws these words back at Wilkins later in the film, ordering him to burn down a church with the aforementioned neighbors inside.

[[folder:Magazines]]
* An article in ''Magazine/TheOnion'' on new regulations of the stock market mentioned requiring brokers to pass a "Kitten-and-Hammer Ethics Test".
[[/folder]]

* While not really a test of evilness, in ''7.62 High Caliber'', the first thing the rebels demand of you is to kill a captured government official. If you refuse, they ''will'' kill you (as you're heavily outnumbered and outgunned). The problem arises when you have a mission to ''save'' that same official. The solution is to [[spoiler: find out about the conveniently delivered blanks and blood packs, and use them to stage the death of the official]], thus causing both sides to like you more.

*** [[spoiler:And then, at a high-stakes poker game between Hoyt and Jason, the crime kingpin tells Jason that he knew he was along. So Jason torturing his brother was AllForNothing except [[ForTheEvulz Hoyt's sick entertainment]].]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': In a variation, during the initial mako reactor attack, Barret tells Cloud he doesn't fully trust him, and orders him to set up the bomb himself to prove he's not some undercover Shinra agent. [[spoiler:The same happens in the Remake, but in the Remake, an undercover Shinra agent [[FalseFlagOperation would have blown up the reactor all the same]].]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': In a variation, during the initial mako reactor attack, Barret tells Cloud he doesn't fully trust him, and orders him to set up the bomb himself to prove he's not some undercover Shinra agent.

* In the GrandFinale of ''Series/{{Blade}}'', Blade's sidekick/VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Shen is captured by [[MagnificentBastard Marcus]] [[BigBad van Sciver]]. Van Sciver tells [[TheMole Krista]] to torture Shen for information, given her past as a soldier in Iraq. Krista replies that she never tortured anyone, and Marcus simply says that she must have ''seen'' torture or the results of it. Shen secretly nods her to go ahead, and Krista mouths "I'm sorry" before she starts ''pulling out his fingernails''. When even that is not enough to make Shen talk, she pretends to break his finger, except she breaks her own finger, knowing it'll heal, and Shen makes a pained sound.

** An episode ''literally'' invokes this trope when Colbert asks Kentucky representative John Yarmuth his opinion \\on the topic of putting kittens in woodchippers...and Yarmuth plays straight-man in advocating the use of woodchippers in reducing the kitten overpopulation problem.

* ''Blog/BetterBonesAU'': This is part why Sol asks for sacrifices he doesn't actually need; it proves the cat working for him can be manipulated into doing anything for him. In Harry's case this involves killing literal kittens.

* In Pixar's film ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Syndrome basically tells Mr. Incredible, to paraphrase, "If you've actually been driven over the edge, go right ahead and crush my subordinate Mirage to death!" This calls Mr. Incredible's bluff and Mr. Incredible can't bring himself to do it...but Mirage is justifiably pissed off that Syndrome was ''even willing to take that chance.''

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

* Quite literally {{inverted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/XCOMChimeraSquad''. Aliens that were formerly serving ADVENT can be integrated into human society only after proving they have "capacity for compassion", and a typical method of doing so is taking care of a government-issued cat. Note that the alien members of Chimera Squad bypassed this test; Verge defected to humanity by inadvertently taking empathy lessons from the politician he was brainwashing (and for some reason cats naturally ''hate'' him), Axiom broke free from his detainment during a bug apocalypse only to save his captors and march back to the prison van, and Torque got by on nepotism (her stepmother is in XCOM high command).

Note that in RealLife this very rarely happens, since even sincere recruits would likely be turned away by such a "test." If someone's only joining a gang to [[PunchClockVillain make a living and get some allies]], as many criminals do, committing murder on the first day is probably a lot further than they're willing to go. However, it's not unheard of for those who want to rise up into the leadership of some organized crime groups, as a means to weed out possible [[TheInfiltration undercover cops]], who have some latitude to do some illegal acts to maintain their cover but are never allowed to commit murder or other serious offenses.

-> '''[[spoiler:Sephiran]]:''' Hello, King Tibarn. I thought I might see you. Only the strongest reach the top. It’s only natural that you would be among them. \\

* In the [[FillerArc Unknow Zanpakutou Tales arc]] of ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Senbonzakura is distrustful of Byakuya joining the zanpakutou side of the war, so he makes him a challenge to prove his loyalty. That challenge is [[spoiler: to murder Sode no Shirayuki, Rukia's zanpakutou, and hand the broken remains to her afterward]]. Of course, Senbonzakura [[WrongGenreSavvy wasn't expecting Byakuya to actually pull it off]]. His reaction afterward is simply ''priceless''.

* ''Series/Halo2022''. In "Homecoming", Silver Team reveal that Dr. Halsey did a variation on the puppy-killing test. During a survival exercise each trainee was given a pet animal--Kai had a puppy, Riz had a cat, while Vannak had a pig--and were formed into teams to compete against each other. The losing side had to kill their own pets to [[AnAesop learn that every failure had consequences]]. Vannak never lost, but Halsey killed his pet anyway as she only wanted the [=SPARTANs=] to bond with each other.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'' puts YOU in this position. The BigBad has captured TheLancer, and is telling you to prove your loyalty by shooting him in the head. There's a catch to this, though: the character you're playing as has killed his allies to maintain his cover, and TheLancer is one of his closest friends. You can choose to shoot the BigBad, but it doesn't work out well for you. Notably, [[spoiler: to get the GoldenEnding, you must eat the kitten, as this gets the BigBad to trust your character enough to [[SpannerInTheWorks put him in a position to majorly fuck up his plans further down the road.]]]]

* An episode of ''Series/TheCleaner'' had Arnie infiltrating a biker gang. Unfortunately for him, they force him to smoke meth, his drug of choice before he got clean, to prove he's not a cop. Things... don't end well.

* When reincarnated as his child self with no memory of his evil ways, Loki of ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' kept trying to convince the people whose help he needed to save Thor and Earth that he was still the evil manipulator who is totally on their level (and [[LampshadeHanging lampshades it to his companions]])

* Played with in one ''ComicBook/NewGods'' comic that shows the origin of Granny Goodness. She was trained alongside a dog, who she bonded with. To graduate, her trainer ordered her to kill it. Instead, she turns around and kills ''him''. {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} demands an explanation, so Granny responds that the dog was more useful, since it would obey her first, but Darkseid foremost. Darkseid commands the dog to attack her, and she kills it in self-defense. Impressed, Darkseid promotes her to her current status.

* In one issue of ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'', Shang-Chi is applying undercover for the job of the Kingpin's bodyguard. Unfortunately, he fails the 'randomly kill that guy' test.

* In the ''Manga/DeathNote'' [[AlternateUniverseFic AU]] ''FanFic/FeverDreams'' Light does this as part of his BatmanGambit when he has Rem [[LaserGuidedAmnesia wipe the memories]] of all the police officers by tricking them into accepting and giving up ownership of [[ArtifactOfDoom the notebook]]. He does this in order to ensure that none of them will keep the notebook-if any of them try to keep it Rem is to tell them that [[SecretTestOfCharacter they passed the test of bravery]] and that she had selected them to be the next Kira, and if they would just [[PaterFamilicide slaughter their families]] and fifty additional innocent people then they could have the power of Kira.

* A downplayed example occurs in ''Fanfic/ThePowerOfSeven'', when Pansy Parkinson is ordered to stab Draco Malfoy in the heart for his role in the recent failed attempt to kill Dumbledore; [[spoiler:Malfoy is protected by a ward that stops the blade actually penetrating his body, but the fact that Pansy was willing to do it is enough for Bellatrix]].

* [[spoiler:Nikolai]] in ''Film/EasternPromises'' is implied to have done a variety of nasty things to get where he is.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'' Episode VIII: ''Film/TheLastJedi'', Kylo Ren takes Rey to Supreme Leader Snoke, [[ColdBloodedTorture who tortures her]]. Then, Snoke orders Kylo to kill her to prove his loyalty to the Dark Side of the Force. [[spoiler:Instead, [[TheStarscream he kills Snoke]] and [[KlingonPromotion makes himself the new Supreme Leader]].]]
** That said, expanded universe materials make the example a different case of this: [[spoiler:Snoke was created for the sole purpose of seeing if Kylo Ren would ultimately kill him to seize power. Which he did, passing that test with flying colors.]]

* An unusual example in ''Film/Traffic2000'': a drug dealer is asked to take a hit of the cocaine she's selling to prove it's real. She refuses on the grounds that she's eight months pregnant, and walks out--the guy she's selling stops her, and takes the cocaine himself, as he thinks her refusal was quite reasonable.

* DownplayedTrope and Played for Laughs in the comedy ''Film/{{Vilaine}}'' ("Mean"), where the Woobie Doormat protagonist wants to become mean to take revenge on all of those who constantly abuse her. One step of her self-training is trying to convince herself not to buy a kitten in a pet shop, even knowing that if no one buys them they will eventually be sent to euthanasia. [[spoiler: She buys the last one, but later completes her FaceHeelTurn by tossing it in the trashcan. Don't worry, he's alive...]]
* In ''Film/XXx'', the main character shoots a cop to get into Anarchy 99. He uses a fake bullet that's essentially a tranquilizer and red dye, and the cop is his fellow agent. Unfortunately this both [[spoiler:influences that agent's FaceHeelTurn]] ''and'' delays [[spoiler:the girl's HeelFaceTurn]].

* In the ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'' book "Visser", Visser One is ordered to shoot one of "her" children (the biological children of a previous host, but she and her mate were in control when they decided to have them, so they consider them theirs) who's been infested. She stalls for time, both because she doesn't want to kill him... and to give the Animorphs, who snuck into the room while everyone is looking at the Vissers, time to finish going into battle morphs. {{Subverted}} in that apart from caring about Darwin and Madra, which is why she advocates a slow invasion instead of an open one in which there'd be a higher chance of her children getting killed, Visser One ''is'' very evil.

* In the ''{{Literature/CHERUB Series}}'', recruits are asked to kill a rabbit as part of the entrance exam, though it's really a SecretTestOfCharacter and they're not supposed to. In the second series, Ning (an orphan from rural China) calmly and professionally ''does'' kill her rabbit, then asks for a knife to gut it while discussing curing the pelt to make a hat.
* In ''Literature/ChristianNation'', the person in charge of the POW camp in the new theocratic America wants those who are "born again" to prove their status by stoning Sanjay without any reluctance.

* In a non-evil variant, an investigator in the (awful) horror novel ''Literature/{{Creepers}}'' poses as a destitute New York City tunnel-dweller. To prove his identity and grit to the head of an underground homeless enclave, he has to eat a fire-roasted rat, guts and all.
* Subverted in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos short story ''The Disciple'' by David Karr Kirtley. Those wanting to join an exclusive study program run by a DarkMessiah professor have to drown a mouse as their 'application'. It turns out to be a sting operation by Miskatonic University to get rid of potentially dangerous people, and the mouse-drowning test is just to assuage the professor's conscience, so he can tell himself the applicants are evil and deserve their FateWorseThanDeath.

* ''Literature/TheExecutioner''
** In "American Nightmare", Colonel Gaddafi hires an American mercenary for a terrorist operation in the United States. However the Libyan BigBad has doubts an American will kill other Americans, so orders him at gunpoint to kill an American hostage he's had brought from Lebanon. The American refuses -- being forced to kill will prove nothing, and he only kills for money. So Gaddafi offers him $25000. The mercenary refuses the pistol he's offered, takes out a knife and castrates, then eviscerates, the hostage. Gaddafi is entirely satisfied.

* Used in ''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs'' (of all things). Noriko denies that a string of Buddhist prayer beads belongs to her, so the other girls counter with "Then you should have no problem if they're destroyed then." Noriko balks, which makes Shimako (who lent them to her) confess that they're hers. [[spoiler:It's all a big act to make Shimako realize her 'secret' of belonging to a Buddhist family while attending a Catholic school is really not an issue.]]