Line #64 EvilIsPetty/WesternAnimation


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7	* On ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Gunther is apparently the most evil being that [[HumanoidAbomination Hunson Abadeer]], the so-called Lord of Evil, has ever met. When he gains the power to take over Ooo in "Reign of Gunthers", all he does is force its citizens to provide him with an endless stream of glass objects for him to break. (Though his evil credentials are helped by his willingness to destroy ''sapient'' glass.)
8	* [[Characters/AmericanDadRogerSmith Roger Smith]] of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' is a self-proclaimed sociopath and as such takes this trope to its most extreme, victimizing or destroying others either for some [[DisproportionateRetribution minor slight]] or [[ItAmusedMe sheer curiosity or boredom]]. He once convinced Steve he was adopted for stealing his cookie, for example, going so far as to burn all of Steve's baby pictures, and another point tried to ''blow up the Earth'' because Stan insulted him (which itself was provoked by Roger being his usual apathetic self). He also once hunted down and killed five teenagers one by one, slasher-style, for not paying him the $20 tip he earned by driving them to the prom on a limo (collateral damage was extensive, including ''bringing down a passenger jet''), and he casually mentioned at some point nearing the end of his rampage that the week before he killed six over ''$19''. There is some slight justification as his species are in fact MadeOfEvil, and if they don't let out their "bitchiness" on a frequent basis it takes the form of poisonous bile that kills them. Since he has [[LackOfEmpathy little to no problem]] with this behavior, however, it still counts.
9	* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', almost every villain has been a small, petty, spiteful person to some extent or another. However, most of them are made no less of a threat and, in fact, are more dangerous because of it.
10	** [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderFireLordOzai Fire Lord Ozai]] is a twisted psychopath who tried to set half the world on fire and mutilated his son for speaking out of turn and is jealous of his brother.
11	** [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderPrincessAzula Princess Azula's]] primary motivations are [[WellDoneSonGuy getting approval from Daddy]] and destroying her brother because he was Mummy's favorite. On the other side of things, apart from trying to murder children, she also spends a vacation literally kicking over little kids' sandcastles.
12	** Zhao has a personal rivalry with a teenager and a 12-year-old that has driven him to hire assassins at least once.
13	** SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'':
14	*** Book 2 has Unalaq as one of the {{Big Bad}}s, and while their ultimate plan is impressively large-scale, he takes time out from it to personally screw with his older brother simply because he hates him. Also counts as holding the VillainBall. This ultimately becomes his undoing as Korra eventually finds out his true motives sooner and ends up unraveling his plans.
15	*** [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraKuvira Kuvira]], the BigBad of Book 4. Much like Unalaq, she has large-scale goals and ambitions, but she has a habit of doing petty and unnecessary things to people she's already screwed over often just to prove she can such as forcing the Governor of Yi to [[KneelBeforeZod pledge his loyalty to her]] ''after'' she forced him to sign an unfair contract reducing him to a mere figurehead or using her authority to get Prince Wu booted out of the Presidential Suite and then smugly telling him that she always gets what she wants. Unlike Unalaq, however, she's crafty enough to only do so when she knows she can get away with it.
16	* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
17	** [[Characters/DCAUJoker The Joker]] qualifies, at least for a majority of his first season appearances. His plots amount to [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE2ChristmasWithTheJoker ruining Christmas for Batman and Gotham]], [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE9BeAClown ruining the mayor's son's birthday party]], [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE22JokersFavor ruining a party in honor of Commissioner Gordon (he obsessively stalks an average guy and his family and then forcibly recruits him into the plot, all because the guy cussed at him while driving, too)]], [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE34TheLaughingFish attempting to patent something that legally cannot be patented, and then gassing the guy at the patent office who told him so]]. Which is part of what [[PlayedForHorror makes the character so scary]] -- he doesn't differentiate between grandiloquent evil and petty evil. It's all equally relevant.
18	** In "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE3ColdComfort Cold Comfort]]", Mr. Freeze spends the entire episode [[KickTheDog kicking dogs]] simply because it would make them miserable, thinking they would share the pain he feels from his wife leaving him [[spoiler:and his body having deteriorated entirely except for his head]].
19	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', Oswald Cobblepot (aka the Penguin) is a rude overbearing jerk in addition to being a villain. In his introductory scene (party-crashing a charity fund-raiser), he high-handedly orders Alfred around ([[MaliciousMisnaming addressing him as "Jeeves"]]) and gets himself slapped while hitting on a woman. On his way out he makes his donation by way of throwing a wad of cash into a fireplace forcing Alfred to stomp it out. When Alfred unwraps it, it turns out to be just a bunch of $1 bills.
20	* The Highbreed of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' consider themselves the MasterRace and want to wipe out all other species in the universe. The thing is, they ''aren't'' doing this simply because they think they're superior and everyone who isn't them needs to die (like [[ThoseWackyNazis some people]]). No, that's somehow not petty ''enough''. They're doing this because their efforts to maintain the purity of their gene pool has left them all sterile due to inbreeding, [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum and they can't stand the thought of any other species outliving them]].
21	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Castlevania\|2017}}'' a lot of the villains are like this, with ironically Dracula being the exception.
22	** The Bishop who instigates the series by burning Lisa at the stake had purely petty reasons for going after a Lisa in the first place. She was an intelligent woman and healer with wonderful inventions, the Bishop deemed her as a female trying to rise above her station and condemns her as a witch. When one of his minions compliments Lisa’s medical equipment and surreptitiously suggests during her execution the church make use of it, the Bishop snaps at him.
23	** Godbrand can’t go a few hours without drinking blood and whines like a baby while the villain team is forming plans. His turn against Dracula is purely motivated by his own hunger as Dracula intends to kill every human in the world — something that glutton like Godbrand freaks out over, because god forbid he have to drink to cattle or anything else other than a human for a change.
24	** Carmilla is easily the biggest case of this. She promotes herself as the OnlySaneWoman and TheChessmaster but everything she does is motivated by simple spite and envy as she wants to be as powerful and feared as Dracula and claims in her MotiveRant that fellow vampires rejected and refused to help her simply because she was a woman and she’ll make them pay dearly for that slight. The fact that in said rant Carmilla literally pulls curtains down like a toddler in a rage and screams that she’ll “have everything” only cements this. [[spoiler: Then there’s her fight with Isaac where she can’t stand the thought of losing to him and attempts a TakingYouWithMe and beforehand even starts another speech which she changes mid-sentence to a simple “Fuck you” when Isaac charges at her.]]
25	** [[spoiler: The show’s [[AdaptationalVillainy version]] of Death is [[AdaptationalJerkass a petty and spiteful]] skeleton bastard who indulges in insults and name calling towards his enemies like a schoolyard bully. Just see his declaration towards Trevor for being a human being daring to oppose him: “I’m going to eat your soul, shit it out and use it to [[AndYourLittleDogToo smother your fucking girlfriend to death]]”.]]
26	* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'':
27	** The birthday parties of The Delightful Children From Down The Lane involve kidnapping all the kids from the city so they can be ForcedToWatch as the Delightful Children eat an incredibly delicious birthday cake in front of everybody.
28	** A one-shot villain by the name of The Dodgeball Wizard. This is a man in his later years. His goal? To prove adults are better than children at ''dodgeball'', a task he has spent the past '''64 years of his life''' trying to prove by essentially smacking the tar out of kids with dodgeballs, going so far as to drop a giant dodgeball on a city block. Even by the standards of this show, that is ''exceptionally'' narrow-minded.
29	* The Red Guy from ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' and ''WesternAnimation/IAmWeasel''. He is supposed to be The Satan, yet he has nothing better to do than mess with the main characters.
30	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Detentionaire}}'': In one episode, [[TheHeavy The Serpent]] breaks into Lee's house to further his own mysterious agenda...but also takes the time to dunk Lee's toothbrush in the toilet.
31	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinosaucers}}'', the BigBad, Genghis Rex, decides to grab a phone book and ''prank call'' people because he is bored.
32	* ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeDinosaurs'': The Reckless Raptors want to cause global warming simply because they think the Earth presently is too cold.
33	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Dr. Farnsworth's rivalry with his SitcomArchnemesis Wernstrom began when Farnsworth gave Wernstrom's paper an A- for bad penmanship. Wernstrom swore revenge against Farnsworth and has dedicated his life to one-upping him as a result. Though Wernstrom isn't exactly ''evil''; he's just a massive {{Jerkass}}, to the point he won the Nobel Prize and had it rescinded immediately after because he was just ''that'' obnoxious.
34	* The Devil in ''WesternAnimation/GodTheDevilAndBob''. In his introductory scene, he pops a kid's balloon, kicks an old lady's cane out from under her, and keys a car.
35	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Harley Quinn\|2019}}'': Many of the supervillains, as befitting the comedic tone of the series. The Joker is a domineering egotist who constantly puts down people around him just to feel superior to them, The Queen of Fables horribly mistreats her minions (like making omelettes out of Humpty Dumpty), Bane kills people over getting quiz answers wrong or people misnaming him, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Lex Luthor refuses to validate parking]].
36	* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}''/''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' animated crossover, Hades is constantly berating Jafar for how petty his plans and schemes are, such as giving up on conquest for control over the world and the throne of the gods just for petty revenge against a single mortal who tricked him.
37	** Hades himself is a lesser example; though his plans aren't petty at all, he's ''very'' easily angered and often [[BadBoss inflicts harm on his minions]] for insignificant reasons.
38	* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}}'', J.P. Morgan is shown stealing candy from a child, then giving her a balloon in exchange, then popping the balloon as he cackles at his own evilness.
39	* On ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', [[Characters/InvaderZimZim Zim]] tends to fall into this a lot. Once, [[WordOfGod in an interview]], Creator/JhonenVasquez commented that Zim wasn't really stupid; he just had a horrible sense of priorities -- he took the episode "Megadoomer" as an example, where Zim gets a HumongousMecha and immediately decides that "beating up [[HeroAntagonist Dib]]" is its best possible use (to the exclusion of taking any time to devise a practical power source for it).
40	* [[{{Satan}} Lucius Heinous VII]] on ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' prides himself on spreading misery, so even when he's not running Misery Inc. and abusing his employees, he's still finding ways to make people around him miserable [[AbusiveParents (including his own son).]]
41	* [[Characters/SamuraiJackAku Aku]], the main antagonist of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack,'' cannot resist committing [[KickTheDog unnecessarily cruel and petty acts]] to people he's already screwed over, often to prove he can or just for a sick kick at their expense. He ends up taking it to StupidEvil levels as he ''always'' backstabs anyone he makes a deal with, just to laugh at their misfortune.
42	* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' has this with the demon Derek in the episode "Johnny's Inferno". His idea of evil amounts to petty and rather childish things, such as disobeying a "keep off the grass" sign, going into the ten-items-or-less line at the grocery store with eleven items and then paying in Canadian pennies, tampering with a "YouMustBeThisTallToRide" sign at an amusement park, and then turning off the city reservoir's filter system simply to give the water supply "a nasty, metally taste."
43	* Invoked in ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'' by the Flash, who is inhabiting [[Characters/DCAULexLuthor Lex Luthor's]] body at the time and trying to avoid discovery, as per the page quote above. Of course, this humorous pettiness goes unquestioned, because it's supported by Luthor's actual example in the previous season. His entire presidential campaign in the second season had nothing to do with his real EvilPlan [[spoiler:uploading his mind into an Amazo android]]. Luthor ran for President just to, in his own words, "tick Superman off", and he's quite successful at doing so. He even based a ''side'' plan around this, via BriarPatching ComicBook/AmandaWaller and Project Cadmus, attempting to provoke the heroes to rash behavior so the world will lose faith in them.
44	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': In addition to doing regular villainy things, Mr. Cat also stoops to low levels to do petty things just for the sake of it, such as traumatizing Quack Quack and scamming Stumpy because he wanted to steal from Stumpy the grand sum of... ''four cents''.
45	* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Several of the villains, but special mention goes to Gemeni, who created an evil organization simply because his sister signed on with Global Justice, and the two of them had never gotten along.
46	* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuDinoPosse'': When no one came to his birthday party, Skor swore to conquer the world so he could force everyone to come to his parties.
47	* The main villain of ''WesternAnimation/LittleElvisJonesAndTheTruckstoppers'', W.C. Moore, spends a surprising amount of time inflicting a minor form of ElectricTorture on his chief underling and swindling kids at games of marbles using his remote-controlled {{Unobtainium}} super-marble.
48	* ''WesternAnimation/MastersOfTheUniverseRevelation'': Skeletor finally accomplishes his goal in life, to obtain all of the Power of Castle Greyskull, and with it the capacity to bend reality on a whim, and all he wants to do with it is kill He-Man. That is literally it. And not even through some fancy way a RealityWarper would use (see ''ComicBook/EmperorJoker'' as an example -- rather appropriate with this Skeletor being portrayed by Mark Hamill), but rather just get a really shiny new sword to drive through He-Man's gut. [[spoiler:It is this lack of drive [[DisappointedByTheMotive that is one of the big stressors]] to Evil-Lyn's RageBreakingPoint, and her subsequent decision to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy all of reality]].]]
49	* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'':
50	** Often invoked by [[Characters/MiraculousLadybugHawkMoth Hawk Moth]]; in his civilian identity, he'll set up a lot of petty annoyances like firing someone for a stupid reason. [[BatmanGambit This increases the person's negative emotions, allowing Hawk Moth to akumatize them into a supervillain]]. His pragmatic reasons aside, he pretty clearly enjoys his meaningless acts of evil more than he should.
51	** Audrey Bourgeois, Chloe's mother, is the queen of the fashion world who always demands everything to be perfect and tries to fire anyone who doesn't immediately give her everything she wants (including people who don't even work for her). In her debut episode, Gabriel Agreste reserves her a seat in the second row rather than the first. This pisses her off so much that ''she gets akumatized''. Even her husband and daughter are shocked to discover she's ''that'' petty.
52	** The apple did not fell far from the tree (although how much [[FreudianExcuse Audrey is exactly to blame for Chloé's attitude]] is an exercise that [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse the heroes are no longer going to even bother to try]]). To supply just one example: "Penalteam", she willingly accepts being Akumatized by Shadow Moth and terrorize her class… because she ''hates'' football, she ''loathes'' playing with the rest of Bustier's class, and [[INeedToGoIronMyDog they saw through her crappy excuses to not play]] and insisted she play with them (obviously they expected it to become a FriendshipMoment. They were wrong).
53	** Lila Rossi is willing to throw her lot in with [[BigBad known domestic terrorist Hawk Moth]] to get {{revenge}} on [[TheHero Ladybug]] for... calling her a liar in front of the boy she liked. ''After'' she'd stolen his book. Even though she actually ''is'' a compulsive liar, she [[NeverMyFault still blames Ladybug for humiliating her]]. Her pettiness isn't limited to Ladybug, though; come Season 3, she's antagonizing Marinette (who is Ladybug, but [[SecretIdentity Lila doesn't know that]]) for no reason aside from Marinette being the only member of the class willing to call her out on her BlatantLies (it probably doesn't help that Marinette's ALSO interested in [[ChickMagnet Adrien]]).
54	** [[Characters/MiraculousLadybugFelixFathom Félix Fathom]], Adrien's cousin, is in on his mother's mission to steal back Gabriel and Emilie's wedding rings. However, posing as Adrien to send all of the latter's friends an insulting video message does not in any way relate to his goal. Later, he tries to get Hawk Moth to help him steal back the rings ([[DramaticIrony despite the fact that]] [[spoiler:Hawk Moth is secretly Gabriel, and would not help him anyway]]). In the end, his reaction to Adrien forgiving him is to [[spoiler:steal Gabriel's ring anyway]].
55	** By extension, Félix's mother Amelie also counts, as stealing the rings was her idea, and she gives Gabriel some thinly-veiled insults over him still wearing his ring, [[LackOfEmpathy even though her own husband has recently died]].
56	* Fizz from ''[[WesternAnimation/MrMagoo Mr. Magoo (2019)]]'' often tries to eliminate Magoo for constantly foiling his schemes, despite being fully aware that Magoo is blind and doing it completely by accident.
57	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
58	** [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDiscord Discord]] has godlike powers and is overall one of the most powerful characters in the show, meaning he could momentarily get rid of all his opponents if he wanted to. He prefers to play games with them instead, either ForTheEvulz or [[ItAmusedMe because it amuses him]]. After his HeelFaceTurn he sometimes tries on the role of the TricksterMentor and still engages in needlessly cruel acts, like making Twilight fight a giant worm or befriending Mane 5 just to make her feel jealous and paranoid.
59	** In "A Canterlot Wedding", a fake Princess Cadance is mostly cold towards everyone, insists on being addressed formally, and is demanding and critical about everything that will be part of the wedding, including refusing to let the groom wear something that belonged to his favorite uncle because she just doesn't like it -- even though it's actually [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicQueenChrysalis Queen Chrysalis]] the shapeshifting impostor who only cares about it all as emphasizing her triumph for some reason, who is supposed to be masquerading as a pony whose normal behavior is the exact opposite. Most characters put this down to stress, but it's a big part of why Twilight Sparkle comes to suspect her of "being evil". Makes it a case of the VillainBall, really, which ball she continues to carry in the next stage of the plot.
60	** While [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicStarlightGlimmer Starlight Glimmer]], in her evil days, didn't exactly waste time on petty [[KickTheDog dog-kicking]] and preferred to go big (after all, her ultimate goal was to make ''everypony'' equal), the very reason that had turned her into a WellIntentionedExtremist was [[spoiler:simply losing a childhood friend, Sunburst, after he got his cutie mark before she did]]. Plus, though her main motivation to travel back in time was to make sure her enemies never meet each other and form a friendship, she also did it because she simply wanted to take Twilight's friends away as Twilight did to her.
61	** In "Rarity Investigates!", [[spoiler:Wind Rider]] framed Rainbow Dash for a crime just because [[spoiler:he didn't want her to potentially break his speed record]].
62	* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'': Boxmore and his minions. Their efforts in trying (and failing) to destroy the plaza has made them enduring characters.
63	* ''WesternAnimation/OscarsOrchestra'': Thaddeus Vent became a dictator and banned all music because he was humiliated during a recital when he was six years old. He was being a selfish, lazy spoiled child.
64	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
65	** This trope appears to be [[Characters/PhineasAndFerbHeinzDoofenshmirtz Heinz Doofenshmirtz]]'s general operating guide. Almost all of his schemes revolve around him taking incredible DisproportionateRetribution against whatever minor issue happens to be bugging him at the moment. This, like everything else in the show, is often {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d by Doof himself;
66	*** Played with in "Oil on Candace", after Dr. Doofenshmirtz fails one of his schemes while trying to impress his old teacher, she tells him that you can also be evil in little ways, but then complains that he can't even do that right.
67	*** Lampshaded in the episode "Tree to Get Ready", where Dr. Doofensmirtz is planning to have trained pigeons crap on his "goody-two-shoes brother" Roger and admits the plan is "a truly petty act, brought on by my own mindless jealousy!"
68	*** There's also "Perry Lays an Egg" where Doofenshmirtz's latest scheme involved learning how to speak whale just so he could insult the one who stole away one of his ex-girlfriends. He had to [[TheCatCameBack chase Perry the Platypus down]] and demand Perry thwart his [[EvilPlan "evil" scheme]].
69	*** In "Hail Doofania!", after his brother got elected Mayor, he created a metropolis he called "Doofania", complete with its own original anthem, which included the line, "It's founded on spite!"
70	*** He also steals his neighbor's magazines from the mail, even though they're in Spanish. "You know, evil never rests." (He also [[BilingualBonus speaks Spanish]] himself in a few episodes...)
71	*** One episode also saw Doofenshmirtz try to find out where Perry lives so he could...[[DingDongDitchDistraction ring his doorbell and run away]].
72	** The evil organization [[FunWithAcronyms LOVEMUFFIN]], denied Dr. Diminutive a chance to run for leader because he's too short. They cite this trope as why they're able to get away with it.
73	** There's also [[Characters/PhineasAndFerbCandaceFlynn Candace Flynn's]] entire motivation. She's not constantly attempting to tell on Phineas and Ferb because she's worried the boys will get hurt or because she thinks what they're doing is dangerous. Her entire motivation is [[BigBrotherBully literally just to get them in trouble]] and be seen as "in charge."
74	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'':
75	** ''[[BigRedDevil Him]]'' is a huge example of this. If his powers alone in conjunction with his OneWingedAngel seen in "Speed Demon" are any indication, he could probably beat the girls handily if he really wanted to. However, for better or worse, he's more interested in inconveniencing them and just generally being a dick. Some of his plots have included sending the girls on a wild goose chase and giving them free candy so they get cavities.
76	** Marianne Smith from "Just Desserts" is a slight example of this, as she rallies her family together in that episode to destroy the Utoniums for getting her husband arrested and ruining her dinner, on top of it all, in "Supper Villain". The Girls just brush off this as being ridiculous and give them the usual villain beating.
77	** In "Pee Pee G's", the Girls have been waking up every morning to find their bed wet, but they can't tell which of them did it. It turns out to be none other than Mojo Jojo who had been sneaking in and soaking their bed at night. When the Girls finally catch him in the act, they accuse him of doing this to destabilize their teamwork and facilitate his schemes; in response, he admits it was nothing but a prank; he did it because he doesn't like them.
78	* ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'': While [[BigBad Megabyte]] has more grand ambitions, like turning Mainframe into [[{{Egopolis}} Megaframe]] and trying to infect the Super Computer, he dips into this when he returns in Season 4 as a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Trojan Horse virus]]; he disguises himself as Bob, convinces everyone that he's the original Bob and the other one is a fake, and almost manages to marry Dot just to screw with everyone in Mainframe. When he's exposed, Bob demands to know why he did it. Megabyte's response?
79	-->'''Megabyte''': [[ItAmusedMe It]] ''[[ItAmusedMe amused]]'' [[ItAmusedMe me]].
80	* VillainProtagonist [[Characters/RickAndMortyRickSanchez Rick Sanchez]] of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' is prone to this, being a [[TheHedonist hedonistic]] InsufferableGenius who constantly needs to flaunt his superiority over others and [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex overreact to minor slights]].
81	** In "Morty's Mind Blowers" we find out Rick [[LaserGuidedAmnesia removes the most traumatic of Morty's experiences]] on their many adventures to keep him from going insane, and then stores them in memory vials. However, not only does Rick remove Morty's traumatic experiences and horrifying mistakes but he also removes his own embarrassing moments from Morty's memories just to make himself look better, including incredibly minor incidents like losing a game of checkers, thinking the phrase "taken for granted" was "taken for ''granite''", and hitting a tree on a ski trip.
82	** While Rick is always extremely petty, he takes it to the next level in "The Vat of Acid Episode" episode. Rick builds a remote control device that he lets Morty believe will allow him to "reset" to a "save point" as desired (or if he dies) via real-life SaveScumming but really teleports Morty to an alternate timeline by killing the Morty in that timeline and replacing him, just to get back at Morty for making fun of Rick's plan of faking their deaths in a fake vat of acid at the beginning of the episode. Even more specifically, when the FBI and several other disgruntled parties show up in a mob in front of the house when Rick merges the timelines, Rick makes sure that the only way Morty can get out of it is by using the same "faking your death in a fake vat of acid" trick that they used at the beginning of the episode, as payback for Morty being so unimpressed with the ploy. He even forces Morty to say that the vat is good, and makes him kiss it, before jumping in.
83	** Rick's EvilDoppelganger [[PrimeTimeline Rick Prime]] was exponentially worse. When our Rick turned down his gift of interdimensional travel technology, he takes it as an insult and dedicates his life to ruining Rick's [[spoiler:by [[CrusadingWidow killing his wife]] [[DeaderThanDead across time]]]].
84	* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'': While the case can be made it's his job to report failures his teammates would really rather keep from Hordak, Imp derives way too much pleasure from the resultant punishments for it not to also be fun to him.
85	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
86	** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E25WhoShotMrBurnsPartOne Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part One]]", Mr. Burns blocks out the sun from the town, forcing everyone to use his power all the time. His desire to steal candy from a baby afterward is a sign that he's crossed the line. And a plot point, believe it or not. But Burns' pettiest moment was in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E22 Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"]]", where he was willing to kill Grampa Simpson, ''his commanding officer'' over paintings they hid away during the war. Yeah, priceless paintings, but he is plenty rich. [[spoiler: He then tries to ''kill'' [[WouldHurtAChild Bart]] for insulting him after he took away the paintings at gunpoint]].
87	*** The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E13AndMaggieMakesThree And Maggie Makes Three]]" showcases that Burns has a special door in his office for those [[CrossingTheBurntBridge coming back begging to get their jobs back]]: it is labeled "Supplicants" and it's a tiny tunnel that forces people to literally come crawling to him, covered in dirt and spider-webs. And if Burns gives them their job back, he then has it as company policy to install a plaque saying "DON'T FORGET, YOU'RE HERE FOREVER" to break what's left of their spirit.
88	*** Burns' HistoricalRapSheet includes him ordering ''[[StockUnsolvedMysteries the assassination of]] UsefulNotes/AmeliaEarhart'' -- Burns felt "that woman was getting too big for her britches".
89	** Homer Simpson's HairTriggerTemper and penchant for DisproportionateRetribution get him into this as well. He does it [[StupidEvil even when it is to his detriment to do so]], such as when he chased another motorist down the freeway for ''miles'' and threatened to club him with a baseball bat when he caught up to him -- causing the family to miss their vacation flight to Hawaii -- just because the other guy cut him off while changing lanes. Yes, the cutting-off was completely unjustified and itself a {{Jerkass}} move, but ''Homer''!
90	** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E2AllsFairInOvenWar All's Fair In Oven War]]", Marge enters a baking contest and all of the other contestants try to [[AffablyEvil blatantly sabotage her food]] (with one of them even destroying her meal, forcing her to start all over again and almost getting disqualified for running out of time). Why do they do this? because they found her entry, the dessert dogs, a threat to their own entries. Talk about petty losers... and [[WhosLaughingNow Marge eventually gets back at them]] [[LaserGuidedKarma by sabotaging their meals when nobody's looking]].
91	** Many of Sideshow Bob's plots have him attempting murder and engaging in terrorist acts to satisfy his grudges, but when he manages to rig an election and become mayor of Springfield in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E5SideshowBobRoberts Sideshow Bob Roberts]]", he just uses his power to make life as difficult for the Simpsons as possible, [[RailroadPlot directing a new highway construction straight through their house]] and getting Bart's school to bump him down from fourth grade to kindergarten ([[{{Unishment}} which Bart actually enjoys]]).
92	** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E16BrotherFromAnotherSeries Brother From Another Series]]", Bob's brother, Cecil, proves willing to flood Springfield simply because Bob got a job as Krusty's sidekick, a job he hadn't actually wanted and outright ''hated'', instead of Cecil. And he plans to frame Bob in the process.
93	* Many of the villains in ''WesternAnimation/SkylandersAcademy'' are described as being very threatening, but they do just as many petty acts of villainy as they do serious crimes.
94	** In the first episode, after Kaos has frozen every Skylander and Master Eon, he decides that the next thing he and his butler Glumshanks is gonna do is go [[ToiletPaperPrank cover their library in toilet paper]].
95	** [[spoiler:After Spyro has gotten the light inside him eaten by Strykore, he is turned over to the dark side under Dark Spyro, and the very first thing he says is that he has the urge to take up two parking spaces at once.]]
96	* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
97	** ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'':
98	*** Robotnik commits petty crimes in his spare time when he's not trying to take over Mobius. For example, one of the ways he uses his new superpowers in "Super Robotnik" is to steal candy from 4,822 babies.
99	*** Even more damning is Robotnik's StartOfDarkness -- he tried to kill a guy with a robotic snake because the girl Robotnik was in love with loved the guy instead! And when he started his conquest of Mobius, he was the first guy he locked up!
100	** While it's more subtle, Robotnik's ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' counterpart has blatant shades of this, too. He takes a lot of pleasure in the fact his industries are polluting and destroying the planet, and rather actively belittles his minions (usually Snively) or gloats over his roboticized slaves.
101	** ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'': Given the DenserAndWackier tone, most of Dr. Eggman's schemes are pretty small-time, simply amounting to just messing with Sonic and his friends or some other outlandish reason. Examples include:
102	*** In "[[Recap/SonicBoomS1E4Buster Buster]]", he creates a fireman robot at the beginning of the episode to attack the village and has the robot do things like putting a baby walrus in a burning house or putting a kitten ''in'' a tree.
103	*** In "[[Recap/SonicBoomS1E5MyFairSticksy My Fair Sticksy]]", he uses a ballot bot to stuff the ballot box with votes for him so he would win an award. When he doesn't win regardless of his cheating, he decides to have his Bee Bots attack the gala.
104	*** In "[[Recap/SonicBoomS1E6FortressOfSqualitude Fortress of Squalitude]]", he hires and later kidnaps Amy... to force her to redecorate his lair so he'd be on the cover of a magazine that features evil lairs.
105	*** "[[Recap/SonicBoomS3E45ThreeMinutesOrLess Three Minutes or Less]]" has Eggman realizing that Sonic is working at Meh Burger and comes up with a plan to make Sonic late in hopes of Eggman getting the meal for free.
106	* [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]] from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' is this trope personified. Cartman has shown that his ruthless intellect could propel him to the top as a CorruptCorporateExecutive, but he frequently sabotages his own efforts when they don't cause suffering to his designated targets. When not causing mass murder, inciting riots, trying to start another Holocaust, giving Kyle AIDS, engaging in piracy, or manipulating Cthulhu to do his bidding, etc., he will do things like toilet papering a teacher's house or giving Butters a Dirty Sanchez in his sleep. His MoralEventHorizon was murdering Scott Tenorman's parents and sticking their corpses in Scott's stew, simply to get back at Scott for cheating him out of $16.12 and to literally lick Scott's tears off his face.
107	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
108	** [[Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsMrKrabs Mr. Krabs]] comes off like this in part due to his MoneyFetish, he is willing to go to extreme lengths to get or save as much as a single penny. He will rip a man's arm off for one, sell his fry cook's soul for less than a dollar, and in "Plankton's Regular," he becomes obsessed with taking away Plankton's first (and only) customer simply because he "just can't afford" letting Plankton have any business, legitimate or otherwise, despite this meaning he wouldn't have to worry about the safety of the Krabby Patty formula anymore.
109	** In "Naughty Nautical Neighbors", [[Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsSquidwardTentacles Squidward Tentacles]] becomes antagonistic simply for being annoyed by the duo's antics behind his house, even though they otherwise weren't bothering Squidward at the time.
110	** In "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V", when Barnacle Boy briefly pulled a MistreatmentInducedBetrayal and joined up with Man Ray and the Dirty Bubble, the acts that they're shown performing on the news include blowing up a building, abducting a bank, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and ringing an old man's doorbell]] [[DingDongDitchDistraction and running off before he can answer]].
111	** In "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture", Kelp-Thing, another of the duo's villains, commits the act of parking in a certain lot at a time when doing so isn't permitted. He ends up getting towed immediately.
112	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': [[StateSec Agent Kallus]] has a few moments of this.
113	** In [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsSparkOfRebellion "Spark of Rebellion"]], after the ''Ghost'' has escaped, he irately kicks a stormtrooper off the support pillar they were both clinging to after the trooper asked him if Kanan was the first Jedi he'd ever seen.
114	** In [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E15TheHonorableOnes "The Honourable Ones"]], after losing a rematch to [[{{Archenemy}} Zeb]] at the beginning, he expresses his anger by questioning how Zeb could've beaten him if he'd lost back in their first fight.
115	* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has [[Characters/StevenUniverseYellowDiamond Yellow Diamond]], who in her first official appearance reveals herself to be arrogant and petty despite one of her underlings, Peridot, describing her as highly logical. [[spoiler:She makes it clear she wants to destroy the Earth in spite because of the rebellion despite Peridot pointing out it's more useful keeping it alive, then after Peridot insults her she attempts to kill her by detonating her communicator immediately after she cuts off communication. Though with the revelation that [[BigGood Rose Quartz]] apparently shattered Pink Diamond during the rebellion, Yellow Diamond's motivation is more justified, albeit still pretty petty.]]
116	* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'': [[BigBad Darkseid]] leaves Earth after Superman gets a HeroicSecondWind and [[ArchnemesisDad Orion]] arrives with reinforcements from New Genesis. Just as he's leaving, Darkseid decides to get one last dig in at Superman and vaporizes Dan Turpin, for no other reason than the fact Turpin (a {{Muggle}} for all means and purposes) dared stand against Darkseid. More than anything this is the event that seems to have put Superman on the course to make sure Darkseid never gets up should they meet again. When Superman confronts him again in the GrandFinale and gives Darkseid an AndThisIsFor punch, Darkseid has [[ButForMeItWasTuesday no idea who Turpin was]] but comments that if Superman was so broken up about the murder of a single human, [[KickTheDog he would have made sure to kill more]].
117	** Later on in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Darkseid [[BadBoss vaporizes his right-hand man Desaad]] for mildly [[CantTakeCriticism sassing him]]. Given that he's the AnthropomorphicPersonification [[GodOfEvil of tyranny itself]], this was more Desaad being TooDumbToLive.
118	* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'': [[Characters/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012TheShredder The Shredder]] had created a fully functional and prosperous Ninja Clan for years, but the moment he finds out that Hamato Yoshi is in New York, he packs his bags and devotes most of his efforts to having better men just to destroy Yoshi. Literally ''everything'' he does is because he's pissed that [[LoveMakesYouEvil Tang Shen chose Yoshi/Splinter over him]], and [[LaserGuidedKarma almost every loss he ever has in the series is due to prolonging the feud just so he can twist the knife further]].
119	** It's especially bad when you compare him to previous iterations of the Shredder. While the likes of the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 '87 Shredder]], [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 2003 Shredder]], and the [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1990 '90s Live-Action Shredder]] all had a hatred for Splinter and were willing to wipe out the Hamato Clan, they also had [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitions of conquest and forging an empire]]. [[CharacterExaggeration All]] ''[[CharacterExaggeration this]]'' [[CharacterExaggeration Shredder cares about is his revenge]]. Even when Karai brings the Kraang to his attention and insists that there is a bigger picture to consider, Shredder completely ignores the fact that there are alien invaders in New York because he deemed it irrelevant to his vengeance... until it's revealed that they have a common enemy in the Turtles, upon which he's perfectly willing to help the Kraang.
120	* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985'': The four Ancient Spirits of Evil [[NotSoAboveItAll aren't above]] trolling their bound servant Mumm-Ra. In "Hair of the Dog" this includes infusing the Thundercat ally Snarf with their powers. The result is a super being called Snarf-ra who proceeds to [[CurbStompBattle hand Mumm-ra his mummified ass.]]
121	* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': When [[Characters/TotalDramaMike Mal]] isn't [[MagnificentBastard manipulating the entire island, causing eliminations, and harming his other personalities]], he's usually [[KickTheDog breaking the other contestants' things]]. Special mention goes to the fact that the whole time the season is going on, he's ''literally'' destroying the alters' dreams so they're forced to have nothing but nightmares.
122	** Max from ''Pahkitew Island'', to the point that it's really [[HarmlessVillain all he ever does]] in terms of "evil". Averted with Scarlett, who's usually [[AffablyEvil polite and amicable to the other contestants]] despite being allied with Max, a supposed "villain".
123	* The villains of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' tend to be a pretty petty bunch. Candy Sweet from "The Black Widows" was turned down by the Honeybees cheerleading squad as a kid, so she kidnaps them and builds an army of robots that uses the Honeybees' moves to infiltrate an international cheerleading contest and slaughter the competition (quite literally) in the finals. Dr. Bittersweet from "Passion Patties" was kicked out of the Happy Girls for eating the cookies she was supposed to sell, so she tries to discredit them with [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood super-addictive]], [[TemporaryBulkChange super-fattening]] cookies. The titular BigBad of "Evil Ice Cream Man Much?" would prefer to turn the entirety of Los Angeles into a frozen wasteland rather than expand his ice cream line with flavors that modern teens like. And so on.
124	* The version of Starscream in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersCyberverse'' is petty even by Starscream standards. One of his chronologically earliest acts of douchiness is to attempt to sabotage a big sporting match for no reason other than boredom.
125	** Soundblaster, however, is a whole new world of pettiness. He destroyed many planets and committed brutal torture against many people, and why was he driven to such grievous villainy? Soundwave beat him in what's basically a karaoke competition.
126	* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', during the "Operation: Bumblebee" two-parter, Starscream doesn't just help MECH exploit Bumblebee's T-cog, he goes out of his way to insult Bumblebee for being unable to transform. [[spoiler:Watching him wake up without his T-cog at the end is very karmic.]]
127	-->'''Starscream:''' Time to jet, ''because I can!''
128	* [[VillainProtagonist Black Hat]] from ''WesternAnimation/VillainousCartoonNetwork'' is effectively Morgoth in this regard, being evil in all ways imaginable. The Orientation videos have him destroy planets and make mentions of killing countless heroes, but he also torments 5.0.5. just because he can, and accepts ''spoiling the ending of Doctor Flugg's favorite show'' as payment from the villain doing the spoiling. It ''cannot'' be understated just how cruel and petty he can be.
129	* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'': In the ''Phantoms'' season, Ocean Master gets so fed up of losing that he gets his hands on the Light's dossiers on the families of Justice League members and [[TargetedToHurtTheHero attempts their extermination to make the League suffer]]. The other members of the Light, who are pretty monstrous themselves, reveal that they have [[EvenEvilHasStandards some degree of standards]] by explaining that they made the plan to annihilate the families of the Justice League, but that plan is strictly a GodzillaThreshold measure because they know [[PyrrhicVictory the moment they try]], the Justice League [[ThisMeansWar will go to full war footing and stop at nothing to bring them down]]. [[spoiler:As a result of this, the Light kills Ocean Master.]]

Context EvilIsPetty / WesternAnimation