History Main / Troll

* According to the spinoff book for ''TheThickOfIt'', ''The Missing [=DoSAC=] Files'', Malcolm Tucker is one. Apparently, when he can't sleep, he spends all his time thinking about how much various public figures annoy him, and vents his anger by drafting abusive emails to them, which his assistant edits down into heavily {{Bowdlerize}}d, friendly versions - such as Malcolm's suggestion to Bono that he go and contract AIDS getting turned into a 'radical new proposal to increase AIDS awareness'. However, his assistant does send his foul email to Adam Boulton without any edits, saying there's nothing wrong with it.

* In ''TheSims 3,'' Sims with certain traits, evil most notably, can troll forums, and derive fun from doing so.

* ''ForumWarz'' is an RPG where you play a troll - an [[EmoTeen Emo Kid]], a [[AttentionWhore Camwhore]], a [[TheCracker Hacker]], or a Perma-{{Noob}}. People contact you to bring down forums by "fighting" forum threads, derailing them, and posting nonsense until you "pwn" the entire forum.

* Troll Warlord in ''{{VideoGame/Dota 2}}''. His backstory parallels the internet forum kind and he is pretty much the rudest hero in the entire game. He's still on the Radiant side, commonly considered the "good" side.

* 'Eye of Adam' in ''Videogame/TheCatLady'' is a suicide cult leader who spends his time trying to [[DrivenToSuicide convince members of various internet forums to commit suicide]]; Mitzi bares a grudge against him because he talked her boyfriend into gassing himself.
* Zinyak of ''SaintsRowIV'' is, like, troll grand master. Every single thing he does is to mock and hurt others, and he loves causing misery to people, he loves rubbing salt into the wound, and he loves pulling petty stunts simply for shits and giggles.

* Higanbanna from ''Manga/HiganbanaNoSakuYoruNi'', who also loves to use dark {{Irony}} as part of it, especially to [[spoiler:Hikari]].

* In arcs where she is the one who goes insane (especially Meakashi-hen), [[spoiler:Shion Sonozaki]] from ''VisualNovel/HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' becomes a truly horrifying troll, taking sadistic pleasure in the havoc she wrecks through phone calls and misdirection. Normally she's a gad fly.

* Barring [[spoiler: Gretel]], the witches of ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' are all trolls of varying degrees of maliciousness, ranging from the capricious and amoral Lambadelta, all the way to full blown monster, as is the case with [[spoiler: Bernkastel.]] The copius amounts of trolls gave the series the FanNickName "Trolls trolling trolls trolling trolls."

* Pretty much the entirety of EdgarAllanPoe's only full-length novel, ''Literature/TheNarrativeOfArthurGordonPymOfNantucket'', is a long, mean-spirited practical joke at the expense of readers. In an age where exploration narratives were one of the most popular forms of literature, he published it without a label indicating it as fiction, made it completely unbelievable, and turned most of the plot into a series of anticlimactic moments, and the ending is infamously abrupt. First editions tend to have marginalia along the lines of "I don't believe a word of this!" and "Damned liar!"

* SelfDemonstratingArticle/LexLuthor admits to being one in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', as least during the second season, given that [[spoiler:his entire presidential campaign was a farce to get under Superman's skin]].

* In season 3 of Babylon 5, Sheridan pulls an elaborate troll move on the League of Nonaligned Worlds in order to get them to agree to let Whitestar ships patrol their space. A classic case of reverse-psychology on a group who would normally argue the toss about anything that was for their own benefit.

A [[TheGadfly gadfly]] screws with other people because [[ItAmusedMe it's amusing]]. Others do it because [[ManipulativeBastard they need their pawn to do something]]. Then there is the infamous [=Troll=]. What separates this character from a [[TheGadfly gadfly]] is that what they do is not supposed to be funny. It's just cruel. What separates a ManipulativeBastard from a [=Troll=] is that there is no real point to their manipulations beyond hurting the victim. All they want to do is see someone suffer or make a fool of themselves.

Ironically, trolling (the original kind, not the [[YouKeepUsingThatWord modern definition]]) is now on the way to becoming a DiscreditedTrope - [[GrandfatherClause although it still seems to be tolerated in football forums]].

See also ForTheEvulz. Compare and contrast TheGadfly, who is relatively harmless, but can be easily mistaken for a troll on the internet. Contrast with ManipulativeBastard as such a character has an ultimate goal more than simply making someone suffer for its own sake. A female troll is known as a ''trollette'' or a ''troll bitch''. Supernatural versions of this trope can also be a JackAssGenie.

* Higanbanna from ''Manga/HiganbanaNoSakuYoruNi'', who also loves to use dark {{Irony}} as part of it, especially to [[spoiler: Hikari]].

* In ''EndersGame'', Peter and Valentine troll message boards in order to learn from the angry responses. Step 1: Troll message boards. [[MissingStepsPlan Step 2: ???]] Step 3: [[spoiler: World domination!]]

* Wedge Antilles, in the XWingSeries, ''loves'' to give straight-faced lies to his friends and peers. (Suboordinates are mostly exempt.) Han Solo tends to fall for them, Leia generally sees right through him - "You're such a liar", she says once - and even Luke was fooled at least once - the Comicbook/MarvelStarWars story in which Wes Janson dies has been worked around into a story Wedge tells. Wes himself similarly enjoys trolling Wedge, who plays straight man for him unless a line is crossed, as in ''Solo Command'', which led to a truly amazing reversal.
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', when Katniss and Peeta meet several of the other victors, they are incredibly unnerved by their creepy and generally odd behavior towards them. [[TheCasanova Finnick seemingly tries to seduce Katniss, offering her a sugar cube and asking her to "tell him all her secrets,"]] [[NakedPeopleAreFunny Johanna strips down stark naked in front of both Katniss and Peeta]] (which she proceeds to do ''repeatedly,'' I might add) and then shares an elevator with them, chatting genially the whole way up, and [[DirtyOldMan Chaff drunkenly tries to make out with Katniss]] (which Haymitch and he find hilarious.) Why? [[ItAmusedMe They're all just having fun fucking with the newest, "purest" victors.]]
* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'': There are a lot of characters in this series who dabble in occasionally baiting others in a number of ways, some more dangerous than others. But, most manage to restrict it to extreme [[WorldOfSnark snarkery of various descriptions]] and have some reason behind it that follows other goals and motives, even if they do cross the line. But, for balls-out, pointless, verbal sparring just to be as annoying as possible expressly to get a rise out of the poor victim? You really can't really beat [[AristocratsAreEvil Lord]] [[SmallNameBigEgo Walder]] [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor Frey]]: [[HateSink he's built a reputation on it]] and manages to take a perverse pride in it. [[ItAmusedMe He even admits to it being one of the few pleasures in life he has left]] ([[DirtyOldMan well, apart from his young wife]]). [[spoiler: And, then he serves up the Red Wedding with the help of his Family and all the "style" it entailed. That's when you realise, that, although he's also being used, he's not kidding about how seriously he takes his amusements.]]

* Kaitou from ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'' is a mild example in that he only purposely trolls one particular person, but everytime he's onscreen with Tsukasa, he takes the opportunity to mess with him and try to ruin his plans, complete with a grin on his face. As the show continues, he eventually becomes a bit more friendly, [[spoiler:but then in the finale, after tearful confessions of camaraderie, he beautifully comes full circle when he unexpectedly shoots Tsukasa in the face for a season-ending cliffhanger.]]
** Best examplified by his cameo in the ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'' movie ''The Onigashima Battleship'' (where he trolls someone else for once), which is nothing more than teleporting in, siccing copies of past Riders on the [=DenLiner=] crew, and teleporting out.

* The Nigerian trickster god Edshu: In one story, he walks down the road wearing a hat that is red on one side and blue on the other. When people on one side of the road ask "Who's that going by in the red hat?", they get into fights with people on the other side who insist that the hat was blue. The god takes credit for this, saying "Spreading strife is my greatest joy."

* Akita Neru is a {{Vocaloid}} character created during a troll attack in the Japanese 2ch message board accusing the characters of being pointless moeblobs, and calling everybody who used the program a misogynistic freak who wanted the illusion of controlling women. She is now considered an AnthropomorphicPersonification of trolls.

* Warhammer40K: the Chaos god Tzeentch can be considered this, given that he's the god of scheming, magic and backstabbing. One example is a traitor governor asking a daemon for something that would break the Dark Angels' siege on his fortress. The daemon complies, giving him a teleport homer that allows Dark Angel Terminators to deep strike around him, quickly [[ExactWords ending the siege]].

*** In one short story, he ordered a particularly resilient slave [[BringHimToMe to be brought before him]]. He poured [[AGlassOfChianti a glass of wine]] for the slave, sat him down in a comfortable chair, and began to tell him the story of how [[AndManGrewProud The Fall]] happened, and [[StartOfDarkness how the Dark Eldar and their way of life came to be]]. When the slave asked why he was doing all this, Vect explained that simply he enjoyed telling the story and that everyone in his household already knew it. Vect intentionally piqued the slave's curiosity by [[NoEnding refusing to finish the story]], and sent the slave back to the torture pits, but not before informing him that the wine he just consumed is not fit for human consumption and causes them chronic stomach cramps. What a dick.

* Hazama / Terumi from ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' practically revels in trolling and taunting everyone he comes across, as shown heavily on Ragna and Rachel. By Continuum Shift, he has practically trolled the entire cast [[spoiler: because no matter what you do, even if you Astral Finish him, he ''always'' wins]]. He's even been named the [[Pantheon/{{Mentalism}} god of trolling]]!
* ''ForumWarz'' is an RPG where you play a troll - an [[EmoTeen Emo Kid]], a [[AttentionWhore Camwhore]], a [[TheCracker Hacker]] or a Perma-{{Noob}}. People contact you to bring down forums by "fighting" forum threads, derailing them and posting nonsense until you "pwn" the entire forum.

** He's often referred as a [[CounterpartComparison western equivalent]] of Terumi above for a good reason.

** Plus, with the exceptions of [[ManipulativeBastard Terezi]] and [[SmugSnake Vriska]], they're [[HairTriggerTemper all]] [[NiceGuy pretty ]] [[SarcasmBlind horrible]] at it in any case.

* Parodied in a ''Website/CollegeHumor'' sketch featuring an Internet troll living under a bridge. He blocks the road and shouts racist, sexist, homophobic or just plain inflammatory comments at people until they lose their temper, at which point they get sent flying ''[[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail Monty Python]]'' style. The only way to defeat them is to agree with everything they say until you can get them to unironically and genuinely admit vulnerability and the need for friendship, which imposes the same fate on them as their victims.

* Starscream of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime''. Often enjoys the [[HumiliationConga suffering]] of others. One of the best examples being when tried to destroy Bumblebee's T-Cog (the cybertronian equivalent to an organ) after holding it hostage, then taunting Bee about it before escaping.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': Upon his release, [[MadBomber Solf]] [[TheSociopath J.]] [[BadassInANiceSuit Kimblee]] pranked a {{Mook}} by transmuting his watch into a time bomb...that turned out to actually be a cuckoo clock toy.

* Kaitou from ''KamenRiderDecade'' is a mild example in that he only purposely trolls one particular person, but everytime he's onscreen with Tsukasa, he takes the opportunity to mess with him and try to ruin his plans, complete with a grin on his face. As the show continues, he eventually becomes a bit more friendly, [[spoiler:but then in the finale, after tearful confessions of camaraderie, he beautifully comes full circle when he unexpectedly shoots Tsukasa in the face for a season-ending cliffhanger.]]
** Best examplified by his cameo in the ''{{Kamen Rider Den-O}}'' movie ''The Onigashima Battleship'' (where he trolls someone else for once), which is nothing more than teleporting in, siccing copies of past Riders on the [=DenLiner=] crew, and teleporting out.

* The ''Letters From a Nut'' series is perhaps the ultimate example of literary trolling. Over the course of a few years in the 1990s, a nonexistent man named Ted L. Nancy sent a number of hilariously absurd letters to hotels, corporations, and even foreign royalty. A frequent gag involved Nancy writing ahead to make some bizarre accommodation request of a luxury resort. Comedians Bruce Baum and Barry Marder confessed nearly ten years later to being the co-authors of the letters.

* The ''Letters From a Nut'' series is perhaps the ultimate example of literary trolling. Over the course of a few years in the 1990s, a man named Ted L. Nancy sent a number of hilariously absurd letters to hotels, corporations, and even foreign royalty. A frequent gag involved Nancy writing ahead to make some bizarre accommodation request of a luxury resort. Comedians Bruce Baum and Barry Marder confessed nearly ten years later to being the co-authors of the letters.

* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'': There are a lot of characters in this series who dabble in occasionally baiting others in a number of ways, some more dangerous than others. But, most manage to restrict it to extreme [[WorldOfSnark snarkery of various descriptions]] and have some reason behind it you can follow to some degree or another. But, for balls-out, pointless, verbal sparring just to be as annoying as possible expressly to get a rise out of the poor victim? You really can't really beat [[AristocratsAreEvil Lord]] [[SmallNameBigEgo Walder]] [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor Frey]]: [[HateSink he's built a reputation on it]], even, and takes a perverse pride in it. [[ItAmusedMe He even admits to it being one of the few pleasures in life he has left]] ([[DirtyOldMan well, apart from his young wife]]). [[spoiler: And, then he serves up the Red Wedding and you realise, that, although he's also being used, he's not kidding about how seriously he takes his amusements.]]

* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'': There are a lot of characters in this series who dabble in occasionally baiting others in a number of ways, some more dangerous than others. But, most manage to restrict it to extreme [[WorldOfSnark snarkery of various descriptions]] and have some reason behind it you can follow to some degree or another. But, for balls-out, pointless, verbal sparring just to be as annoying as possible expressly to get a rise out of the poor victim? You really can't really beat Lord Walder Frey: he's built a reputation on it, even, and takes a perverse pride in it. [[ItAmusedMe He even admits to it being one of the few pleasures in life he has left]] ([[DirtyOldMan well, apart from his young wife]]).

* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'': There are a lot of characters who dabble in occasionally baiting others in a number of ways, some more dangerous than others. But, most manage to restrict it to extreme [[DeadpanSnarker Snakery]] of various descriptions and have some reason behind it you can follow. But, for balls-out, pointless, verbal sparring just to be as annoying as possible to get a rise out of the poor victim? You really can't really beat Lord Walder Frey. [[ItAmusedMe He even admits to it being one of the few pleasures in life he has left]] ([[DirtyOldMan well, apart from his young wife]]).

* In ''EndersGame'', Peter and Valentine troll message boards in order to learn from the angry responses. Step 1: Troll message boards. [[StepThreeProfit Step 2: ???]] Step 3: [[spoiler: World domination!]]