History Main / VileVillainLaughableLackey

** ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'': The film has a strong, GenreSavvy villain in Ratigan, but his bat lackey Fidget with a crippled wing and peg leg (while far from incapable of real villainy) isn't near as threatening by comparison.

** The catwoman sorceress, Katrina, is a vicious, violent slave driver whose overall behavior reeks of drug addiction and domestic abuse, but her lackey, Rep, is a NiceGuy who loses a fight to a filly. Meanwhile, Squirk is an immortal squid monster who wants to flood Dream Valley, and is assisted by the much less effective Crank.

** ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'': Pain and Panic are comical, slow-witted twerps and very afraid of their boss, the death god Hades whose comedic value is proportional to his wit.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[DoctorWhoS33E2DinosaursOnASpaceship "Dinosaurs On a Spaceship"]], the SpacePirate Solomon is one of the more sinister villains the Doctor has encountered, while his two robots are bungling, squabbling dimwits, whom the Doctor describes as "tantrum machines". And they're voiced by [[Creator/DennisMitchell Mitchell]] and [[Creator/RobertWebb Webb]].

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Silverhawks}}'' had Mon*Star, his gang consisting of hardened, monstrous badasses with lethal machinery and himself no exception; no, that exception would be his YesMan (actually ''named'' Yes-Man), a timid, slug-like creature who's sole purposes seems to be operating the machine that exposes the Moon Star of Limbo's energy conveniently to Mon*Star's throne, and agreeing with everything Mon*Star says.

** ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'': Jafar was a serious Evil Sorceror, but his sidekick Iago was a comical character. Being voiced by [[Creator/GilbertGottfried Gilbert Gottfried]] helped in that regard. It must be added though that Iago was one of the most intelligent, independent and competent sidekicks to a villain, he just contrasted Jafar's cold brooding with his hilarious snarking.

** ''Disney/PeterPan'': Captain Hook and Smee have this dynamic.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Snips and Snails act unintelligent and kiss up to Trixie, who is much more serious than either of them.

** Koramar, the captain of the ship at the Iron Docks, is confident in his army, even as they players slaughter them while working their way through the instance. His first mate Zoggosh is much more GenreSavvy than his captain and is thus afraid of the players. As justified as his fears are, Zoggosh's cowardice is PlayedForLaughs, giving the two of them this dynamic.

** In Season 1, the Trix act as the Serious Villain, with their ogre Knut a more comical villain who eventually underwent a HeelFaceTurn.

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'': In Season 3, the Trix are demoted to being loser lackeys against a more serious Valtor. They repeatedly lose battles immediately upon engaging the Winx, while Valtor repeatedly ruins whole planets by stealing their magic. In Season 1, the Trix themselves were the Serious Villain, with their ogre Knut a more comical villain who eventually underwent a HeelFaceTurn.

** ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'': Jafar was a serious Evil Sorceror, but his sidekick Iago was a comical character. Being voiced by [[Creator/GilbertGottfried Gilbert Gottfried]] helped in that regard.

** ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'': Pain and Panic are comical and very afraid of their boss, the death god Hades.
** ''Disney/TheLionKing'': The cunning, manipulative Scar has three stupid and constantly bickering hyena minions. Downplayed, as the hyenas, despite their stupidity, [[NotSoHarmlessVillain can pose a real threat to the protagonists]] and in the end [[spoiler: they turn against their master and kill him]].

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'': In Season 3, the Trix are demoted to being loser lakceys against a more serious Valtor. They repeatedly lose battles immediately upon engaging the Winx, while Valtor repeatedly ruins whole planets by stealing their magic. In Season 1, the Trix themselves were the Serious Villain, with their ogre Knut a more comical villain who eventually underwent a HeelFaceTurn.

* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'': While neither one is very threatening physically (what with being lab mice and all), the Brain, with his serious demeanor and great intellect, is far more of a threat than the spastic, dimwitted Pinky, [[MinionWithAnFInEvil who isn't even aware that he's a villain.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'': Sandwich Boy works for the series' main villain Gantu. While Sandwich Boy has all of Stitch's abilities, he has zero motivation and isn't serious at all.

** Maleficent from ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'' is considered one of the most (if not ''the'' most) dangerous villains in all of ''Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon''. Her lackeys however didn't even understand that babies grow up--even after sixteen years they were looking for a baby.

* [[{{Mook}} Grunts]] to villain teams in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''' games are almost always rather low-leveled and tend to have humorous dialogue.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Drakken is the apparent BigBad, but given his immaturity and tendency to go off on tangents, he's not a very serious villain. His [[TheDragon dragon]] She-Go, however, is an intelligent, competent combatant and is either a supervillainess in her own right or wields powerful fist weapons. Either way, she gives Kim Possible a real fight.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': While Team Rocket members in aren't always competent, only the TerribleTrio, and later Butch and Cassidy due to [[DiminishingVillainThreat characterization changes]], are actually [[GoldfishPoopGang goofy]]. Most members are some level of dangerous. Their boss Giovanni has a case of AdaptationalVillainy as he is more violent than in the games.

* Team Plasma's boss Cyrus in ''Manga/PokemonDiamondAndPearlAdventure'' is a KnightTemplar OmnicidalManiac. The Galactic executives - Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars - are intimidating but this ability does not extend to grunts. B-2 is a near literal ButtMonkey who is constantlygetting attacked in the butt and isn't a real threat. Subverted with some other Galactic grunts though [[spoiler:when they try to bomb a tournament]].

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'': in Numbus Land, Valentina was a scheming, seductive usurper, but she had a lazy, fat, bumbling lackey in Dodo whose size and temper were PlayedForLaughs.

** ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'': The film has a strong, GenreSavvy villain in Rattigan, but his bat lackey Fidget with a crippled wing and peg leg (while far from incapable of real villainy) isn't near as threatening by comparison.

* ''Film/TheHobbit'': The Master of Laketown was uncaring about his people, enriching himself while the people starved and became poorer. He had a more comical lackey Alfrid, who was cowardly enough to use a PaperThinDisguise, pretending to be a woman to avoid going into battle.

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters'': While we don't hear Wormwood's side of the story, he appears to be far less of a threat to human happiness and prosperity than Screwtape was (and is).
[[/folder]]