For me it is only the audience that finds the Evilly Affable villain entertaining — other characters are too angry and scared of monsters like this and the villain is clearly using this paper-thin veneer of affability as a way of taunting his victims.
''The complete opposite of this trope is the Complete Monster, who is irredeemably evil in ways that aren't entertaining. Your Mileage May Vary on which side a particular villain may belong, though some are more clear-cut than others."
This makes no sense to me: Evilly Affable characters are often Complete Monsters. — think of The Joker which is presented as a prime example of Evilly Affable. Also: the laconic version of Evilly Affable: Unapologetically evil, but strangely amusing to watch.
All in all, I find the trio of Affably Evil, Evilly Affable and Laughably Evil to be a bit confusing.
edited 13th Sep '10 9:32:38 PM by Camacan
"All in all, I find the trio of Affably Evil, Evilly Affable and Laughably Evil to be a bit confusing." - Camacan
The way I interpret it, Affably Evil is primarily affable but happens to be evil, Evilly Affable is primarily evil but happens to be affable, and Laughably Evil is a much broader trope, covering things like Evilly Affable and the more humorous varieties of milder villains like the Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, and presumably the humorous varieties of whichever levels of villainy happen to be between the two extremes.
edited 13th Sep '10 9:49:19 PM by neoYTPism
Hrm - maybe Laughably Evil has supertrope potential? Evilly Affable, Terrible Trio, and so forth could qualify as subtropes.
What's precedent ever done for us?^ Making Laughably Evil a supertrope seems like a good idea at this point.
Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.The way I interpret it is this: while both tropes are related to comedic sociopathy, laughably evil gives emphasis to the comedic part, while evily affable gives emphasis to the sociopathic part; while laughably evil is made with rule of funny in mind, the laughs may come a side effect to the evil deed in the evily affable trope. Or as the laconic entry puts it: "Unapologetically evil, but STRANGELY amusing to watch."
Here's how I had them understood, for what it's worth:
- Affably Evil: They're evil and villainous, but that doesn't mean they have to be rude or discourteous. If they weren't evil, they would be quite nice, polite, even cultured. Too bad they're so, well, bad. (For the record, I would count Raul Julia's M. Bison under this category. He was courteous and honorable to his enemies, to say nothing of his charisma, but, well, he was also an insane maniac with an empire partially built on drugs.)
- Laughably Evil: Easy. There are two requisites for this. One: They're evil. No limit on that. Two: They're funny. The Joker is the king of this one, obviously — in fact, he has both the "harmless" and "horrific" extremes down pat, at least when he's written right.
- Evilly Affable: This is the one I've always had trouble with, which is probably why this topic exists. I interpreted it (largely due to the page image) as playing at being affable, even while still clearly being evil. Where the "Affably Evil" villain's politeness is probably genuine, this is only an act, or a sick (or bitter, or immature) joke. The two best examples in my mind are the Joker of The Joker Blogs, and Dr. Blackgaard from Adventures In Odyssey — in the latter case, he can fake it as long as he needs to, but that's all it is.
That said, I always thought it was just confusing to draw a pointed contrast between Affably Evil and Evilly Affable, all the more so for newcomers. Some kind of a rework may be in order, at least.
I think Affably Evil is more so about, like you said, politeness or charisma, whereas Evilly Affable is extreme villainy that happens to be amusing. I am not exactly convinced they are even in the same direction.
I think Evilly Affable and Laughably Evil should be merged. In practice, there's virtually no difference.
Also, the whole "polar opposite of Complete Monster" thing should be dropped. For the most part, an Evilly Affable character is a Complete Monster with a sense of humor or otherwise Played for Laughs out-of-universe (i.e., he's intended to be funny to the audience but horrifying to the characters).
"I think Evilly Affable and Laughably Evil should be merged. In practice, there's virtually no difference." - Toku
What are you talking about? Laughably Evil can span anything from Evilly Affable to Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, and presumably almost every level of villain threat in between. If anything, Evilly Affable is probably a subset of Laughably Evil, but the latter is a broader trope.
edited 18th Sep '10 8:20:45 PM by neoYTPism
The Same But More. Is there enough of a distinction in presentation to justify not merging them?
Evilly Affable is NOT just the same but more. Evilly Affable is funny and extremely evil. Laughably Evil is funny but with varying magnitudes of evil. If anything, the former is a subset of the latter, but I would not think they are tropes in the same direction.
edited 18th Sep '10 9:08:54 PM by neoYTPism
- Laughably Evil = Funny but evil
- Evilly Affable Funny but really evil
??
edited 18th Sep '10 10:34:55 PM by Arha
Right, Evilly Affable is a lot more specific. Note that Evilly Affable is not implied to be a scalar multiple of Laughably Evil; the factor by which funny is increased is not implied to be proportional to the factor by which evil is increased to go from Laughably Evil to Evilly Affable.
The way I always saw the distinction was that Laughably Evil is a fairly generic trope that can be applied to almost any humorous villain, while Evilly Affable refers to a very specific kind of villain who has no redeeming qualities beyond being amusing to the audience (Joker, Green Goblin, Xykon, some Megatrons, etc). I'd support keeping Evilly Affable as is, and making Laughably Evil a supertrope for funny villains.
EDIT: As for the Evilly Affable / Affably Evil divide, I think there can be some overlap, but it has to be clear that the villain is only being "nice" as a means of playing with their enemy (again, Xykon and Joker sometimes demonstrate this quality) as opposed to someone who is genuinely kind/polite, but happens to also be evil.
And the line about being the opposite of Complete Monster should go. Not all Complete Monsters are Evilly Affable, but many Evilly Affable characters are evil enough to qualify for Complete Monster.
edited 19th Sep '10 8:37:36 AM by MasterGhandalf
Just think of Evilly Affable as the subtrope and Laughably Evil as the corresponding supertrope @ Arha
The more I look at it, the more I think that merging or cutlisting Evilly Affable is the right way to go, as currently listed. The problem with The Same But More tropes, which this is starting to turn into, is that there is no good way to have a cut-off point between the two. Thus the tropes are virtually identical.
Video Game Census. Please contribute.I think I had some role in creating the trope. I admit to some confusion myself. I mean I guess the general idea is "funny but irredeemable", but I do recognize that there are some Affably Evil complete monsters (Noah Cross of Chinatown for instance), and I'm not sure if I knew that Laughably Evil existed at the time (although that implies more of a Harmless Villain, doesn't it?).
HodorI guess the difference is that Laughably Evil villains are... well, laughed at for whatever reason. Evilly Affable ones, meanwhile, are laughed at because they have a good sense of humour which works well with their evilness. Supertrope and subtrope, basically.
Also, that definition of Evilly Affable would make it work quite well as a Counter Trope to Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humour.
As for Affably Evil, being polite and friendly has no bearing on your moral compass whatsoever. In fact, it's a highly effective way to make yourself a truly disturbing Complete Monster.
edited 9th Oct '10 5:46:27 PM by Iaculus
What's precedent ever done for us?
Crown Description:

neo YT Pism hit it on the head for Evilly Affable. A Complete Monster with a hilarious or amusing personality which makes Envy a real good example as shown. The evil defines them and the amiability is a side dish to thei main personality. Affably Evil are not a Complete Monster and would be normal jovial, amusing or affable if it wasn't for the evil stuff they did. Laughably Evil are evil people who while evil and dangerous are hilarious in the way they are evil or mannerisms
the page definitions should more clearly reflect that so potholes and examples aren't added that are improperly placed
edited 15th Sep '10 10:10:36 AM by AymNaija