Basic Trope: Bad guys either don't understand jokes or tell really bad ones.
- Straight:
- Emperor Evulz never laughs at anyone's jokes.
- Emperor Evulz laughs at things like drowning a person in a ducking chair.
- Exaggerated:
- Emperor Evulz has never gotten a single joke since he was born.
- Emperor Evulz is The Hyena, and what he finds so funny all the time is torturing or killing others.
- Downplayed:
- Emperor Evulz rarely laughs at people's jokes, but occasionally it happens.
- Emperor Evulz finds torturing people funny, but it's not the only kind of humor he likes.
- Emperor Evulz merely has a dark sense of humor that isn't inherently malicious.
- Justified:
- Emperor Evulz is The Eeyore.
- Emperor Evulz is a Monster Clown.
- Emperor Evulz hails from an Always Chaotic Evil race where human suffering is considered humorous.
- Inverted: Bob, the hero, has No Sense of Humor.
- Subverted: Emperor Evulz is seen laughing after someone drops a hundred-pound weight on an underling...but it turns out said underling is Made of Iron, making it the equivalent of slapstick comedy.
- Double Subverted: However, then someone hits the underling with a mallet made of something that weakens or bypasses his toughness, leaving him critically injured. Evulz finds this hysterical.
- Parodied: Emperor Evulz is a comedian with the funniest jokes. The moment he performs a Face–Heel Turn, all his jokes get Dude, Not Funny! reactions and opens to an empty crowd.
- Zig Zagged: Emperor Evulz has no sense of humor; Dracone has a sadistic sense of humor, and Eva's sense of humor is no different from those of the heroes.
- Averted: Evulz' sense of humor (or lack thereof) is no different from the heroes'.
- Enforced: The author wants to show clearly that Evulz is not a guy the audience wants to imitate.
- Lampshaded: "Why is it every villain I've ever met either has no sense of humor or a lousy one?"
- Invoked: Evulz wants his targets to view him as an unstoppable killing machine. Unstoppable killing machines don’t laugh.
- Exploited:
- Bob knows his jokes are more annoying to Evulz’ than they are funny. He keep joking and laughing at Evulz until he breaks down.
- Bob know that Evulz laughs hysterically every time he sees someone break a bone so Bob intentionally breaks his own arm, leaving Evulz open for attack in the middle of his laughing fit.
- Defied: Despite being a sociopath, Evulz regularly goes to stand up shows to study what people find funny so he can better understand and tell jokes.
- Discussed: “Why do the people trying to kill us never crack a good joke? It’s just brooding anger and dead baby jokes 24/7. At this point I’d even settle for a horrible pun.”
- Conversed: “Evulz totally changes the tone of the whole show, dude. He NEVER jokes around.”
- Implied: “You going to Evulz’s dungeon open mic this weekend?” “Why would I ever put myself through that?”
- Deconstructed:
- Evulz's bad sense of humor turns off potential allies and makes him The Friend Nobody Likes among his actual friend group.
- Internally, he’s dealing with a lot and just can’t bring himself to find any humor in the world.
- Evulz's cruel jokes get him in trouble with the Greater-Scope Villain.
- Reconstructed:
- After sorting out all his personal issues, Evulz still doesn’t laugh, realizing that he just doesn’t actually find many things funny.
- Played for Laughs:
- Evulz is The Comically Serious.
- Evulz's sense of humor isn't so much "sick and twisted" as it is "embarrassing"; he is unashamedly fond of outdated memes and unpopular internet celebrities.
- Played for Drama: Evulz is a truly dangerous sociopath and the Knight of Cerebus.
- Played for Horror:
- Evulz's standard reaction to having someone say a joke within earshot is to kill him and everybody who had any kind of happy reaction to it.
- Evulz's multi-decade murder spree is well-documented with hundreds of letters sent to the police full of incredibly shitty jokes and puns.
