Basic Trope: A villain states that he enjoys doing evil.
- Straight: Bob tells Alice that he gets a satisfaction in harming others.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob tells Alice that he enjoys daily crossing the Moral Event Horizon as well as the hatred and wrath of many people geared towards him for his wickedness.
- Bob acts as though he's having an orgasm whenever he commits a crime.
- Bob descends into pure evil territory.
- Downplayed:
- Bob tells Alice that he finds it enjoyable to treat people like utter dirt.
- Bob tells Alice that he only feels slightly good about being evil.
- Justified:
- Bob is a sadist, and get highly disproportionate reward from schadenfreude.
- Bob is just Drunk on the Dark Side.
- Bob doesn't believe that being good is enjoyable as other moralists tell him it is. It also doesn't help that being evil is easier than being good.
- Bob just doesn't understand altruism and is too hooked on evil.
- Bob's brain has been rewired so that committing evil acts literally makes him feel good by stimulating the pleasure/reward center in his brain.
- Bob is a Card-Carrying Villain.
- Being evil is just another day at the office for Bob.
- Bob lives and breathes evil for the sake of evil itself.
- Bob lives in a World of Jerkass and finds getting one over on fellow jerks immensely satisfying.
- Not only is being evil and cruel much easier for Bob, but it's also much more comfortable in that it doesn't require any real willingness to challenge or question his own mindset and beliefs. Why put in the effort to change for real, when you can just be a cruel monstrous person and trick people into thinking it's good by saying the right words and doing the easy performative actions needed to be seen as a good guy? People are shallow enough to fall for it and ignore Bob's victims as a result.
- Inverted:
- Being Good Sucks
- Being Evil Sucks
- Good Feels Good
- Bob hates doing good things. Alice coerces him into helping and rescuing people, but Bob finds the experience inherently repulsive.
- Subverted: Bob enjoys doing evil acts, but then becomes miserable and guilty.
- Double Subverted: ...But then forgets about it in the next day and continues joyously expressing his love for evil. His only regret is if his resumé has at least one good deed on the list.
- Parodied:
- Bob finds loitering and illegally downloading pornography to be the most pleasant experience in his natural-born life.
- Bob fondly recounts the time he poked that poodle. Apparently, it was Better than Sex.
- Zig Zagged: Bob either feels happy for doing evil or feels depressed over his evil deeds.
- Averted: Nothing is said about evil feeling good or unpleasant.
- Enforced:
- The writer wants Bob to have a motive for his evil acts that's understandable but not too sympathetic and so gives him this.
- The writer wants to make a point about how doing what’s right is difficult but worthwhile.
- Lampshaded: "You Bastard!! How could you find messing with innocent lives enjoyable?!"
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz rewires Bob's brain chemistry so it feels good when he does evil things.
- Exploited: Alice pulls a Batman Gambit on Bob, knowing he will commit an evil act because he enjoys that, to gather evidence of his criminal nature and wrongdoings.
- Defied: "I don't care how you feel about being evil. You won't enjoy it when you'll get what's coming to you!"
- Discussed: "What kind of person enjoys seeing people suffer?"
- Conversed: "Ugh! Bob disgusts me for saying how he enjoys being evil. Get him off of my screen!"
- Deconstructed:
- When Bob finally goes too far, Alice calls him out, and Bob realizes he was just pretending to enjoy his horrid moment when deep down, he found it rather disturbing to laugh at. This doesn't mean he no longer finds evil fun, however.
- Eventually, Being Evil Sucks.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob makes an agreement that he will downplay his enjoyment for evil and constrains himself with lines he won't cross, not that he will ever make a genuine Heel–Face Turn.
- But Being Good Sucks too. Having tried both, Bob settles for evil, as at least then he doesn't have to put up with people's crap.
- Played For Laughs: Bob is a Laughably Evil Card-Carrying Villain who indulges in schadenfreude after every over-the-top crime he commits.
- Played For Drama:
- Bob is an Anti-Hero trying desperately to stay on the right side of morality, but hurting people just feels so good...
- Bob is a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds finally lashing out at his tormentors. The fact that he's taking pleasure in his vindictive acts is a sign that he's Beyond Redemption.
- Played For Horror: On the top of Bob being an extremely vile and depraved sadist his satisfaction about his villainy is what you’d expect from a rapist after the orgasm they get when they raped someone.
Back to Evil Feels Good to enjoy being evil.
