Villain Song

aka: Bad Guy Song

From the brain that brought you the Big Ben Caper,
The head that made headlines in every newspaper!

So, prepare for the coup of the century,
Be prepared for the murkiest scam!
Meticulous planning, tenacity spanning,
Decades of denial, is simply why I'll,
Be king undisputed, respected, saluted,
And seen for the wonder I am!
Yes, my teeth and ambitions are bared;
Be prepared!

— Scar, The Lion King (1994)

The Villain Song is an over-the-top, gloating cackle about their Evil Plan, philosophy of life, or why they do what they do (their leitmotive?). Said philosophy is usually that the world is there for the taking, or that the world has wronged them and they will take revenge, or that they just like hurting people and nobody is going to stop them. The villain usually gets lots of eye candy to go with their song — live performers will dance up a storm, while animated villains will get pyrotechnics all around them. If they don't get huge visuals, it better damn well be because the song itself steals the show, and trying to distract from that with a lot of flashy visuals is just asking for a chandelier to fall on someone. This song is usually delivered in a minor key and typically features dramatic evidence of the villain's evil nature, such as playful abuse of loyal minions, taunting of prisoners, or random destruction of incidental locations of the villain's secret lair, usually for the purpose of abusing minions or taunting prisoners.

The nuttier the villain is, the better the song is. The Barnum (see "Master of the House" from Les Misérables) and the Straw Nihilist (see "Epiphany" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) get particularly good ones.

This song is almost always a measure of how important the villain is. If the villain has one, they'll get equal billing with the hero, and will probably steal the show. If they don't (e.g. Dr. Carrasco in Man of La Mancha, Charlie Cowell in The Music Man), they're not very important to the plot, and nobody qualifies as the Big Bad. Villains can get other songs where they pretend to be nice, but if they don't get at least one song to strut their villainy, they're (usually) not important (the big exception being villains who successfully offer a Deal with the Devil: There, the hidden malice and seductiveness is usually the point of the song anyway).

Occasionally followed up by an Evil Laugh and/or a Fade Around the Eyes immediately, and a Dark Reprise later on.

Depending on genre, it can overlap with Creepy Jazz Music, Rotten Rock & Roll, Freaky Electronic Music, or Sinister Tango Music. It is by no means limited to these genres, though.

Compare Villain Love Song (where the villain sings about their admiration towards an object of affection, which can overlap), "The Villain Sucks" Song (which is sung about the villain by someone else), and Rock Me, Asmodeus! (the devil directly involved in rock & roll).

Contrast No Song for the Wicked. Now has its own Wiki.

Disney has had so many examples that they get their own page. All examples from media by Disney go there, while all the other pages are strictly for non-Disney examples from the media they cover.

Please note that just because a song is sung by a villain, doesn't necessarily make it a Villain Song. The Phantom of the Opera may have a showstopper in the form of "The Music of the Night", but he doesn't use it to gloat over his villainy. Villain Songs don't have to be personally sung by the villain either (see the title song from Spaceballs), though exceptions are fairly rare outside examples of "The Villain Sucks" Song.

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Examples subpages:

• Disney
• Anime & Manga
• Fan Works
• Films — Animation (Non-Disney)
• Films — Live-Action
• Live-Action TV
• Music
• Theatre
• Video Games
• Western Animation (Non-Disney)

Other Examples:

Advertising

• Louie the Fly: Starting with ads in the 1960s, Australian insect repellent brand Mortein gave a Villain Song for their Talking Pest of a mascot.
  Louie the Fly, I'm Louie the Fly, straight from rubbish-tip to you!
  Spreading disease with the greatest of ease, straight from rubbish-tip to you!
  I'm bad and mean and very unclean, afraid of no one, except the man with the can of Mortein.
  Hate that word, Mortein!
• Magic: The Gathering advertised Streets of New Capenna with a song for each of its demonic mafia crime families.

Comedy

• "Asshole" by Denis Leary is a Jerkass Song, with the narrator reveling in doing stuff like pissing on the seats of public toilets and driving a car that gets bad gas mileage because he likes to annoy people.
  "I'm an asshole, and I'm proud of it."

Comic Books

• Joker actually sings one (although we can only read the lyrics) in The Killing Joke. Best argument ever for actually animating The Killing Joke.
  • Joker's song from "The Killing Joke" covered as a cold lament of madness.
  • Oh, and in case that wasn't enough for you: Here, have The Killing Joke, METAL EDITION. You're welcome.
    • As it turns out, they did animate The Killing Joke, so there's another version covered by some dude called Mark Hamill.
• In League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1969, Terner, the would-be Humanoid Abomination, sings a version of The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" as he prepares to be possessed by Oliver Haddo.
• The Musical Episode of Nodwick has Utharr's lyric-changed version of "Enter Sandman", followed by the entire bad trio's version of "We are the Champions".
• Matthew Patel from Scott Pilgrim has the honor of singing his own song called "Slick", complete with fireballs and demon hipster chicks.
• "Carnage Rules", by Green Jelly. Don't need to tell you who this is about.
• Bowser sings one in Nintendo Power's Super Mario Adventures comic.
• V for Vendetta has "This Vicious Cabaret", in which the antihero V sings about how he's manipulating the other characters.

Literature

• The Goblins' songs in The Hobbit.
• Shows up a lot in Redwall. Triss has three ("That's The Freebootin' Way", "'Tis Nice To Be A Villain" and "Plunder, By Thunder").
  • In Rakkety Tam, the villains sing a let's-get-frenzied song, which the audio book sets to a heavy beat and bass guitar.
  • In Marlfox. "Who be death? We be death! Dis de blade wot stop your breath!"
  • There are Flinky's many songs in Loamhedge. All of them are great, but the darkest is the "Vermin Lullaby", which was a normal lullaby at first, before it suddenly got Darker and Edgier in the second chorus.
  "So hush now, lullaby, foxy close yer eyes, and you'll soon make lovely vittles, for the ants and flies". Squick.
• The Star Trek novel How Much for Just the Planet?, being a rather... different... Trek story, features "My Own Sweet Tyrannical Way", sung by Queen Janeka. Having captured Sulu, McCoy, and a pair of Klingons, she launches into a high-kicking musical number about what a pain in the ass is it to be a barbarian queen in these crazy modern times... her litany of complaints include an uncomfortable Chainmail Bikini, dodging Klingon Promotion attempts, keeping a rowdy barbarian horde under control, and paying the heating bill for the Underground Lair. Though in the end, she concludes it's totally Worth It, since the Evulz are too much fun to give up.
• The closest thing to one in the Left Behind books is Nicolae Carpathia's self-indulgent national anthem "Hail Carpathia", which gets twisted by Buck Williams into "The Villain Sucks" Song "Fail Carpathia".
• A Song of Ice and Fire: "And who are you, the proud lord said, that I must bow so low..." You know Lord Tywin Lannister is badass when, in Westeros of all places, he has his own theme tune, The Rains of Castamere. It is about how, while still a young man, he wiped out Houses Reyne and Tarbeck for rebelling against the Lannisters. When it was played to another rebellious Lord they reconsidered their position. Later it is used as the signal for the Red Wedding, when enemies of the Lannisters and thousands of their troops are massacred.
• "The Robber's Song" from the Norwegian children's book (and later play) When the Robbers came to Cardamum Town by Thorbjørn Egner is the three titular, not very villainous, robbers, Kasper, Jesper and Jonatan, singing about their nightly exploits. Due to the popularity of the book and the clever lyrics, the song is known by pretty much everyone in Norway, Denmark and Sweden:
  We sneak around on tip-toed feet
  when we are going robbing.
  We only rob whate'er we need,
  it's our way of shopping.
  Now darkness lies across the land
  the town is sleeping to a man,
  and we're going robbing with bags in our hands,
  we are Kasper and Jesper and Jonatan.
• Some of the Captain Future books have a few lines from the Space Pirates' anthem:
  From Mercury to Pluto,
  From Saturn back to Mars,
  We’ll fight and sail and blaze our trail
  In crimson through the stars!
  We’ll cram our holds with plunder
  From every world and moon...
• While more of an Anti-Hero than a straight-out villain, Zack performs a rendition of Alice Cooper's 'No More Mr. Nice Guy' while imagining all the changes he is going to implement to the prison he now has complete control over in The Mental State.
• H. P. Lovecraft wrote a poem titled "Nemesis" from the perspective of an ancient, sinister Eldritch Abomination. (Now with a musical version to the tune of Billy Joel's "Piano Man"!)

Pro Wrestling

• WWE wrestler Triple H's entrance theme, "The Game", is largely a Villain Song, sung by Motörhead from Triple H's point-of-view. It's three-and-a-half minutes of gloating about how Trips is the baddest of the bad and controls the WWE with an iron fist. Lemmy even throws in an Evil Laugh or two along the way.
• Ricky Banderas's theme: "It doesn't matter if you're black or white. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, because I am, the big brother. And I'm watching you."
• Mr. Raytings's theme: "Gate three, only evil lives here."
• Randy Orton's voices theme is an awesome Villain Song.
• The Undertaker's theme - BONG. *cue the druids, ominous Latin chanting, and one hell of a creepy Evil Laugh* Though the Limp Bizkit theme is about the only one with lyrics.
  • His theme during the Ministry gimmick mixes his original theme with hard rock.
• Shawn Michaels's theme, "Sexy Boy", though it was originally a Villain Love Song, sung by "Sensational" Sheri Martel.
• "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. (Evil laugh), MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY, "Everybody's got a price! Everybody's gonna pay!"
• A subversion: "Stand Back" was sung by Vince McMahon with the original intention to be used as André the Giant's song (and was actually used as such for a promo video and in the NES Wrestlemania game), but wound up being used for McMahon himself, who wasn't actually a villain at the time. (His on-screen persona was a face-biased announcer, nothing more) That changed a few years later when he got a new persona and a new theme:
• "'Cause you've got.... NO CHANCE!" To quote Bill Simmons:
  I'd want to come out to Vince McMahon's "No Chance" song, just so I could perform the "I have complete and utter disdain for everyone in this building, and that's why I'm walking with an exaggerated swagger and frowning" routine while 20,000 people lustily boo me. That seems like more fun than humans should be allowed.
  • Taken to the next level when the Corporate Ministry was revealed, bizarrely combining McMahon's Corporation with the Undertaker's Ministry, and likewise combining the Ministry theme with the original "No Chance In Hell", forming "No Chance In Hell (Corporate Ministry)".
• As much of a douche as The Miz is...his song fits the trope.
  • "I came to PLAY! There's a price to pay, time for you to get down on your knees and pray. Say GOODBYE to the good ole days, they're never coming back, watch your future fade.
    • His WrestleMania 27 promo song, "Hate Me Now", is even better. Here it is, with Miz's Titan Tron.
• In the early 90s The Texas Hangmen had a pretty awesome one to introduce them to the USWA it helped establish how Ax-Crazy they were.
  • "CLOTHESLINE will break your neck! The match is over and your body's a wreck. POWERSLAM will put you out! Havok and mayhem is what we're about!"
• Drew McIntyre's star may have faded, but his longest-lasting theme, "Broken Dreams" by Shaman's Harvest, fits to the T.
  What's that metronome I hear?
  Perhaps the end...is drawing near?
  You never hear the shot, that takes you down.
  Out of time...so say goodbye.
  What is yours....now is mine.
  And I DREAM BROKEN DREAMS!
  I make them come true...
  I make them for youuuu.
• The Honky Tonk Man: His 50s-styled themed entrance song, a cheerfully narcissistic self-titled ode to himself: He's cool, he's cocky, he's b-b-b-b-b-b-b-baaaaaaad.
• The Mountie: Jacques Rougeau's heel marching tune, "The Mountie." When Rougeau began teaming with Pierre Oulette as part of The Quebecers, the tune was changed to "We're Not the Mounties" but – aside from minor lyrical differences and the vocal track replaced with a duet – kept pretty much intact.
• Rougeau's previous entrance song as part of the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers was "All-American Boys", where the brothers sang a mock-Face song that subtly insulted the audience in English (by claiming to only like "All-American" things like Barry Manilow and hating rock music) and directly insulted them in French.
  "On peut pas les sentir, dans le monde ils sont les pires! On aime les faire facher quand qu'on dit ^translation We can’t stand them, they are the worst in the world. We like to anger them when we say 'We love the USA'!"
• Madison Rayne may have the most clear-cut one in TNA:
  She'll break your heart
  Tear it apart
  Just to watch you scream
  She'll never look back, you better come back
  To kill your will and your dreams
  She's a killer queen...
• He'll steal your girl, break your heart and leave you a fool. He's simply ravishing. The Dazzling Ravishing Rude!
• Combine an ominous bassline, an eerily distorted guitar, a dark piano melody, and haunting vocals and you have Live In Fear/Broken Out in Love, the perfectly sinister track that accompanies The Wyatt Family in their promos and entrance.
• God made the devil just for fun... when he wanted the real thing he made Aja Kong.
• And when your god's gone, you can believe this... I'm Kevin Steen, and fuck Ring of Honor!
• Kurt Angle's called on Sensational Sherri Martel to help him sing his own version of Shawn Michaels's theme song, called "Sexy Kurt" (he'll make your ankle hurt)
• Winter's TNA theme was titled "The Hands of the Wicked", in case there was any doubt left.
• Tazz was in the process of writing one for Ivelisse Vélez but Aces And Eights losing the TNA World Cup ensured she wouldn't be sticking around long enough for him to finish.
• AJ Styles's Bullet Club theme in New Japan. Fuck your dreams, fuck your life! Especially when compared to his ROH theme, "Demigods".
• In Progress Wrestling, Jimmy Havoc uses "I Hope You Suffer" by AFI as entrance music, and it fits his entire character so well that it might as well have been made for him.
• Arguably, Metalingus counts, as it was used to accommodate a heel turn, and with Edge using it, the lyrics come off as Ambition Is Evil. This becomes subverted as Edge mostly uses this as a face.
  • Made even more evil in March 2022 with The Other Side, also by the same band that did Metalingus: Alter Bridge. The lyrics also befit Edge in some way:
    If you believe yours is the only way
    Then you're the fool who lives to die
    Well you deserve the Hell, you're gonna pay
    On the other side
    Once you reach the other side
    There will be no paradise...
• Baron Corbin's "I Bring the Darkness (End of Days)", also counts. The lyrics even describe his gimmick.
  I bring the darkness, I am the thunder
  I come from Hell, and I'll pull you under
  I'll make you feel the wrath of my ways
  I'll make it real, I'll bring you end of days...

Web Animation

• Played for Laughs in asdfmovie12, with a nameless potted flower joyfully singing as he strolls down a road... about how he's going to eat human skin.
• Homestar Runner:
  • Strong Bad often opens his email-answering series with a brief song, usually about how great he is and/or how not-great the people who email him are.
  • Breakout Character Trogdor the Burninator has a kickass thrash metal theme song sung by Strong Bad which (attempts to) explain its backstory and detail how powerful it is. A longer and better-sounding version can be heard on the "Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits" CD mentioned below, or as an unlockable song in Guitar Hero 2.
  • Strong Bad actually released an entire CD of songs sung by him (and other characters), but out of all the tracks only "You've Got an Ugly & Stupid BUTT", "The ladies in my town all know my name", "Somebody Told Me (Now I Believe Them)", and the aforementioned "Trogdor" really qualify as Villain Songs.
  • On Trogdor's fifth anniversary, Strong Bad made a song for his original attempt at drawing a dragon, The "S is for Sucks" Dragon. Despite being vastly different in tone, the song still mentions that the dragon kills people and is feared by everyone.
• RWBY:
  • "When It Falls", the opening theme of Volume 3, is either from Cinder or Salem's perspective, and describes how the world will fall and innocents will perish in massive quantities. The singer goes on to blame the subject (likely Ozpin) for the death and destruction that will befall their people, and how division and disharmony will be rampant in this new Dystopia.
  • "I'm the One" plays during Emerald and Mercury's tournament battle against Coco and Yatsuhashi. The song is sung from the perspective of Emerald and Mercury, talking about how their pasts have placed their combat and Semblance abilities far above those of their opponents. Some of the smack-talking and boasting in the song coincide with dialogue and actions that occur during the fight. Coco and Yatsuhashi, who are considered some of Beacon Academy's star fighters, are completely curb-stomped by the villainous duo, confirming how dangerous Emerald and Mercury are to student-level fighters.
  • "Divide" first plays during the ending of the Volume 3 finale, which introduces the Big Bad, Salem. During the show's pilot episode and the final episode of Volume 3, Salem gives a long speech about the origin of legends and humanity, and how Ozpin's correct to consider humanity stronger when it unites. She boasts of her plan to divide humanity and destroy everything that Ozpin has worked for, concluding that she can't wait to watch him burn. The song "Divide" takes its lyrics from Salem's two speeches, also ending with the desire to watch him burn. From Volume 4, certain refrains from the song play in the background whenever she is on screen and scheming.
  • "Lionize" is introduced during the Volume 6 Character Short which details how Adam became a villain. The song is a self-aggrandizing boast about how a lifetime of torture and abuse at the hands of humanity creates a hero that will become immortalized as a legend for crushing and subjugating humanity. The Short is about how the Faunus elevate Adam in power and status for being the hero they've been yearning for, to fight humanity for their rights. However, the Short also ends with Adam losing everything because ego, selfishness and obsession leads to everyone who once had faith in him turning on him for becoming a monster.
  • "All Things Must Die" plays during the fight between Raven Branwen and Cinder Fall in the Vault of the Spring Maiden. Reflecting the views of both villains, the lyrics reflect the battle as they explain that all things come to an end, and that the others' life is about to be ended. As the song progresses, they urge the other to give up and surrender to death.
  • "One Thing" plays when Neo returns to the screen in Volume 6, explaining why she's decided to fight Cinder. It hints at her past, suggesting that she was alone and without purpose until Roman Torchwick changed her life and gave her a name. She blames Cinder for what happened to Roman and that she's fallen onto hard times once more since his death. The Neo that fights Cinder is wearing tattered clothing and Roman's hat, and Cinder has to directly address the death of Roman to end the fight.
  • The ironically named "Hero", which reflects the views of General James Ironwood as he swears to do anything in his power to protect his people and kingdom by any means necessary. However, after he decides that those means will require him to betray his allies, the song takes on new meaning.
  • Ok Goodnight's "Awake" is adapted into a theme for Cinder, reflecting her views as she kills her tormentors and betrays her mentor in search of identity.
  • Played for Laughs with "That's a Big Ursa!", a tuned and remixed version of some of Russel Thrush's dialogue regarding a massive Grimm. It was featured exclusively on the Volume 1 DVD.
• Camp Camp: The second season's opener has Daniel's half of "Better Than You," where Daniel finally drops his charismatic Nice Guy act and reveals the true depths of his evil, openly gloating to David about how he intends to poison and sacrifice the children of Camp Campbell whilst simultaneously sticking it to David about how he's so much greater than him, both as a person and a camp counselor.
• DEATH BATTLE!:
  • "Ultron vs Sigma" has "Infection Perfection", with the singer proclaiming the superiority of machines while declaring victory over the other.
  • "Darkseid vs Thanos" features a Boastful Rap called "Kings of Infinity", with the singer proclaiming how everything in their world is theirs to control as they see fit.
  • "Harley Quinn vs Jinx" has "Mad Laugh Riot", performed by Futakuchi Mana, about the character(s) proclaiming their insanity and inability to be reasoned with.
  • "Omni-Man vs Homelander" has "Diabolical Invisible Me", where the singer boasts about their might and how their opponent will perish.
• Hazbin Hotel has Alastor's Dark Reprise of Charlie's earlier Inside Every Demon is a Rainbow, where he uses her tune to sing about how sinners can't actually be redeemed and Charlie's endeavor is pointless.
  • Once the show officially released in 2024, it got many other songs that could be contenders for this trope. Such as Adam's "Hell is Forever" where the leader of the Exorcists mocks Charlie's idea, "Stayed Gone" is a Quarreling Song between Vox and Alastor with the TV Demon trying, and failing, to outdo the latter, and "Respectless" is Velvette talking herself up while putting the rest of Hell's Overlord's down for their supposed cowardice.
• Ollie & Scoops: In "Old Crumplecranks," the titular character sings a jazz number introducing himself to Poopsie and Rudy, with lyrics about how dangerous he is, and how he plans to kill the two cats.
• Parodied in Beauty and the Beast (Phelous).
  • Wabuu plays the role of Gaston from Disney's Beauty and the Beast, so at one point some characters in the tavern attempt to sing the song "Gaston" but with Wabuu's name. Due to their grating voices and lack of musical accompaniment, it sounds terrible, and the "song" is over after just a few seconds. Wabuu is not pleased.
  Wabuu: That was it? That song was soooo lame!
  • A few minutes later, Wuschel is singing the song again, but Wabuu tells him it's too late now and shoots him.
  Wabuu: It's too late to suck up through song now, Wuschel!
• V-Tubers:
  • Though not technically a villain, there's a few songs that fit in this category from Mori Calliope of hololive, who assumes the role of Death herself. Excuse My Rudeness, But Could You Please RIP is a Boastful Rap about how Calliope is the best in the business when it comes to human erasure. In a similar fashion, DEAD BEATS is about how she'll effectively eliminate the enemies of her fans as perks for being buddy-buddy with her. Fortunately, the audience doesn't have to worry about a thing, as Calli is actually a friendly Reaper, and is on hiatus for the most part.
    • On the "Your Mori" EP, she gives us "Bully", which portrays the feelings of an abuser who doesn't understand why the person they care about still stays even after they continue to hurt them.
    • Calli returns to to the antagonistic portrayal of Death she started with in "Dead on Arrival", where she sings a bouncy Electro Swing song about how useless trying to fight the inevitability of death is because she's puppeteering and scripting everything from the shadows anyways. She takes the role of a gambling "death dealer" who fixes every game and toys with those she's playing against, selling the souls she wins to the highest bidder. They don't call her the Queen of Sayonara for nothing.
    • "NEZUMI Scheme" is this for Calli's Alternate Universe Super-Deformed self, "Nezumori". This version of Calli is depicted as vain, selfish, and uncaring of her Dead Beats, using them in the video to cause a rampage all across the Underworld, and the song reflects this in its lyrics, demanding that they praise her like a god.
  • Amanda Lee's villainous V-Tuber persona, Multiverse Monarch, released an album in 2022, Rise of the Monarch, which has the titular villainess telling her story over the course of the eight songs: the songs and accompanying music videos reveal that the Multiverse Monarch was once a genuine hero until she was betrayed by someone she trusted and now relishes in her villainy.
    • The aptly named song "Villain Vibes" features the aforementioned Mori Calliope.
  • Holo X's Takane Lui gets a chance to shine in her song "Overd", where she sings about her role as a leader in Secret Society HoloX and their goal to Take Over the World.
• While he's really just a lackey to the Big Bad, Geodude in Starter Squad gets "Rock Smasher", a heavy metal number he belts out while beating the crap out of Villain Protagonist Charmander.
• The Sun's Tear: Kaa gets one in the form of "You'll Be Mine", a devious lullaby performed by Kaa as she finalizes her control over Sanaya's mind and gloats about it.
• Epithet Erased has a few:
  • “Great at Crime,” the first ending theme, is styled as one for Giovanni and his crew of Card Carrying Villains. But given Giovanni’s (poorly) Hidden Heart of Gold and his minions’ collective F in Evil, it comes off as an anti-villain song about their poorly executed Poke the Poodle antics.
  • For the second ending, Zora turns the same melody into “Great at Cowboy,” a chilling song about her status as a terrifying bounty hunter. “Countdown” follows up by describing the ways she’s toyed with her previous marks.
  • Discussed when Giovanni is explaining what he thinks makes a good villain in Epithet Erased: Prison of Plastic, where he makes sure to mention that as the bad guy, "you get the coolest song".
• Ratboy Genius: Little King John sings two in RBG Dreams Minecraft:
  • After kidnapping Summer, he sings the creepy Potato Knishes song, although it's more about the things he makes in his factory than about how evil he is.
  • However, he later got another one in the first Interlude, largely about stealing Happyman's factory for himself.
• FilmCow's "Make Me Smile", sung by a psychotic anthropomorphic ferret definitely counts. It's a cheerful, jaunty tune that features holocaust denial, a pro eugenics attitude, molestation, murder and cannibalism. It's absolutely hilarious.
• The extended version of The Electric Cheese YouTube Poop Robotnik gives Sally the AIDs adds the songs "Still Monitor His Every Move" and "Make Sure He's Finished", both performed by Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) Robotnik by way of a Voice Clip Song.
• Dr. Strangeglove's Music Video from the online networking site, Moshi Monsters.

Webcomics

• In the webcomic Narbonic, mad scientist Dr. Lupin "Wolf" Madblood and his 15,000 robot duplicates spend a week of strips singing the "Madblood Battle Anthem".
• Richard from Looking for Group has a very... touching song from the upcoming animated movie.
  • Two, if you count his duet with Cale.
• In an in-comic example, Jason of Something*Positive asks Davan to play Judas Iscariot in his deliberately provocative play, Nailed! Davan's big musical number is called "You're The Son Of God, But I'm A Son Of A Bitch".
• Played with in DMFA: Fa'lina goes into song and dance about how she's literally invincible in her university since she's a Physical God (with no followers) and has complete predictive power of whatever goes on in school grounds. Unfortunately we don't get to witness the hysterical song, but it ends with Fa'lina in some kind of top hat.
• The main villain of Homestuck's Show Within a Show Squiddles!, Skipper Plumbthroat, gets Catchyegrabber and Plumbthroat Gives Chase in the Squiddles! album.
  • Although mostly lyric-less, Homestuck's main villain proper, Jack Noir, has the very catchy and uptempo theme song - Black, which starts off slow and simple, then builds into a grand production.
    • Jack also gets The Ballad of Jack Noir, the main version of which is a simple chiptune, but there exists a scrapped version with lyrics.
  • There's also a whole album of Villain Songs in the form of The Felt, for the resident time-travelling Gang of Hats. Special mention must go to the baroque, atmospheric Scratch (for Doc Scratch) and the tense, slow-burning majesty of English (for Lord English), which later appeared in the comic itself as part of The Reveal.
    • Caliborn, Lord English's younger self, gets The Lordling, and the terrifyingly "vast" track Eternity Served Cold.
  • The entire Midnight Crew also has a cover of I'm a Member of the Midnight Crew by Eddie Morton as their theme, a sample of which was used in the afformentioned song Black.
  • Meenah and her counterpart The Condesce get a non-vocal one called "Hate You". While there are no lyrics, it has a nice beat and even ends with the two of them laughing evilly!
  • Eridan's Leitmotif has lyrics written for it, and he becomes a minor villain alongside Gamzee in ACT 5 ACT 2.
• Brawl in the Family has "A Simple Request", sung by Ganondorf about what he wants for Christmas: the Triforce.
  • There's also "The Minion Song", sung by Bowser Koopa, lamenting the many deaths of various videogame common enemies and chastising the heroes for their slaughtering them wholesale.
• The Good Witch has "Things Will be Different." This is a rather unusual Villain Song in that it is both very upbeat and sung by the comic's protagonist. (Justified since she's a Villain Protagonist.) The song focuses on Angel's happiness that she is free from her previous life as a transsexual male who was ostracized by everyone in the town, and how great life will be now that she has infinite power. Which is to say, great for her, as she is also ruining the lives of everyone else. Throughout the song, she carelessly transforms innocent bystanders into random and bizarre things, and hypnotizes the others into singing with her. Ultimately, it foreshadows the selfish and arrogant bitch she'll eventually become.
• Evil Plan has a theme for Mad Scientist Kinesis, by Andrew of Songs To Wearpants To.
• Fraud from A Loonatic's Tale gets one in the chapter "Fraud's Day Out," set to the tune of Voltaire's Villain Song Brains!

Web Videos

• Dr. Horrible's revenge song Brand New Day in Act II of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Which is well and truly blown out of the water by his song Slipping in Act III of the series. Which is then torpedoed by the final song of the show, Everything You Ever. By this point, the shiver-inducing My Eyes (or On the Rise) has been left long behind. Combined with the Batman: The Brave and the Bold examples, it's clear that Neil Patrick Harris is made of Villain Songs.
  • It helps a bit that the latter part of Everything You Ever, between the second and third verses, has sort of a Dark Reprise, with a chorus in the background singing to the tune of Brand New Day.
  • Though because Dr. Horrible is a Villain Protagonist, (and at least three of his songs describe his villainous motives), this trope is probably better exemplified by Captain Hammer's Everyone's a Hero in Their Own Way near the end of the film, which demonstrates he's a complete jerk while superficially sounding heroic.
  Everyone's a hero in their own way
  Everyone has villains they must face
  They're not as cool as mine
  But folks, you know it's fine
  To know your place...
  • Given how unnecessarily brutal he is to Doctor Horrible (he could probably have stopped him without grabbing him by the neck and slamming his head into a van or throwing a car at his head) and the fact that he tries to murder Dr. Horrible in the end (granted, Horrible intended to murder him first, but two wrongs don't make a right), one could perhaps argue that Hammer is also a villain anyway. That would make Everyone's A Hero a straighter example of this trope and A Man's Gotta Do an unusual case of a villain song started by one villain and then hijacked by an opposing villain (since Horrible starts it and Hammer takes over).
  • And the two versions of the Bad Horse Chorus, sung on behalf of the Evil League of Evil's leader.
  • It can be argued that every song in Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog is a Villain Song except for 'Caring Hands' and 'Penny's Song' (both of them being sung by Penny). 'My Freeze Ray' is somewhat on the ropes, it's more about love, but it has it's more sinister lines, plus it's sung by the anti-villain anyways. So They Say is similar in that the majority of it isn't evil, though Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible both have lines in the song.
• Played with in New Kids On The Rock's Christmas special, Ryan's Christmas Wish: The Large Ham villain The Misery Meister gets his own jaunty alliteration-filled villain song (which occurs about 11:51 into this video), but the flashiness is limited to intentionally stiff dancing, tossing rag dolls around, and menacingly wielding a small meat grinder, and after a verse we flash forward two minutes later to the very ending of the song. Also, as a Funny Background Event, Ryan is seen yawning and rubbing his eyes after the song is finally finished.
• Epic Rap Battles of History: Whenever one of the rappers is a villain in their original work, expect them to boast about their evil deeds. Whenever the battle is Evil vs. Evil, it's a double example as both rappers attempt to out-villain the other.
  • Bill O'Reilly's second verse in the first episode.
  Cause I'm evil! Heart blacker than Don Cheadle!
  • The entirety of the "Adolf Hitler vs. Darth Vader" trilogy, natch.
  • Joseph Stalin's verse in "Rasputin vs. Stalin".
  Look into my eyes, you perverted witch! See the soul of the man who made Mother Russia his bitch!
  • "Al Capone vs. Blackbeard".
  • "Jack the Ripper vs. Hannibal Lecter".
  • HAL 9000 in "Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs".
  • Walt Disney in "Jim Henson vs. Stan Lee".
  Artists begging me to stop? I won't let 'em! Working conditions in my shop? I don't sweat 'em.
  • "Shaka Zulu vs. Julius Caesar", to a lesser extent.
  • "Alexander the Great vs Ivan The Terrible", which portrays both as well as Catherine the Great when she joins the battle as brutal, warmongering tyrants.
  • Halloween Episode "Vlad the Impaler vs Dracula"
  • "The Joker vs Pennywise" is a battle between the two most famous Monster Clowns in fiction.
  • Thanos in his battle with J. Robert Oppenheimer is clearly enjoying being an iconic Marvel villain.
  Thanos: I am inevitable. Immeasurable. Inexorable. Monstrous.
  • Genghis Khan shows great pride in brutality during his verses in "Genghis Khan vs. The Easter Bunny".
  Genghis Khan: I'll bite off your tail and punch your teeth down your throat
  Then butcher your whole family, and make a new coat!
  • As does Freddy Krueger in his battle against Wolverine.
  Freddy: You got a healing factor? I got a kill bitches on the ceiling factor
  Under that mask, you're a singer/actor! Under my skin, I'm a slasher/slasher!
  • Donald Trump averts this in his first battle against Ebenezer Scrooge, where he insists he's the more moral of the two. However, he plays this straight in his later battles against Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, both of which portray him as a flagrantly racist and authoritarian President Evil.
• Remus/The Duke of Sanders Sides fame made his debut in "Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts" with "Forbidden Fruit", an almost disturbingly catchy tune that perfectly encapsulates Remus' personality.
• Mashup artist William Maranci put together one of these for the COVID-19 coronavirus, of all things. "Toxic" by Britney Spears and "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons provide the back-beat, while the stitched together lyrics allow the virus to gloat over its villainy:
  This is it: the apocalypse!
  I'm waking up: I feel it in my bones!
  'Nough to make my system blow!
  Welcome to the new age! To the new age! Welcome to the new age!
  [...] Let the bodies hit the floor!
• Puppet History has several villain songs sung by musicial guests on the show, such as The Beast of Gévaudan singing about all the French villagers he eats, two bottles of poison making a Boastful Rap, and the demon Asmodeus performing a diddy about Demonic Possession. The Wham Episode "The Bloody Life of England's Fastest Surgeon" meanwhile has this Played for Drama, where the Arc Villain reveals himself as an Evil Counterpart to the show's host, and threatens to skin Ryan in order to effectively Take Over the World. And to "cheer" Ryan up, he performs his own song describing him doing just that.
• In the "Goblins" one-shot in Critical Role, each of the players has a "Goblin Song" that they can sing at any point in the game for a re-roll. All of them are used in the session, all of them are hilarious, and all but one of the re-rolls are worse.
• Parodied multiple times by ProZD:
  • An example:
    King Dragon (singing): Who cares if those orphans were sad? It feels good to be bad!
    (Gets stabbed with a katana)
    Dennis: ...What? He's been singing for, like, two minutes.
  • He also gets a rap number.
• Slovenian parodist Klemen Slakonja's Putin, Putout at [1] is a hilarious send-up of the Russian leader that would put any Disney villain song to shame, complete with references to Pussy Riot, Eurovision, dancing bears and other theatrics.

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