History ForTheEvulz / WesternAnimation

* Roger from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' often has no particular motivation at all for his despicable behavior. He'll casually admit as much without hesitation, as exemplified when he explains why he's familiar with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubler-Ross_model Kubler-Ross model of grief:]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AngelsFriends'' this is the devils' main motivation.

** Vicky also counts. Her very purpose in life is either to swindle cash or torture those under her care, even her own little sister. When Timmy asks why she is working in the hospital, she replies with this obvious answer: "I like volunteering in places where there's pain." When Timmy's parents finally stop being useless for once at the end of the special ''Channel Chasers'', Vicky gives a half-assed excuse for her obvious sadism: "I blame television!" Thankfully, Timmy's parents don't buy this for a second.

** Vicky also counts. Her very purpose in life is either to swindle cash or torture those under her care, even her own little sister. When Timmy asks why she is working in the hospital, she replies with this obvious answer: "I like volunteering in places where there's pain." When Timmy's parents finally stop being useless for once at the end of ''Channel Chasers'', Vicky gives a rather half-assed excuse for her obvious sadism: "I blame television!" Thankfully, Timmy's parents don't buy this for a second.
** The Episode ''Vicky Loses Her Icky'' reveals that her cruel personality is a result of her being under control by an Evil Bug, who once Timmy wishes away from her, ends up causing other characters, being [[BumblingDad Mr. Turner]], Principal Waxelplax, and [[OhCrap The President of the United States]]. In the end, Vicky ended up saving the day, but at the cost of [[StatusQuoIsGod going back to her mean form]].

-->'''Mr. Black:''' ''(Raising his glass)'' Gentlemen-- to evil.

* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'': Lord Dominator causes havoc and destruction because its so much fun. Her VillainSong, 'I'm The Bad Guy'm sums it up nicely.

** Mirage is a cat goddess who's labeled as "Evil Incarnate" and whose primary motivation is to destroy good and spread misery. She developed into wanting revenge on Aladdin, but started out trying to hurt Agrabah because there was too much good in it. As Iago puts it, "She hates good. She annihilates good. Evil is all she does."

* While all the villains from ''WesternAnimation/{{Captain Planet|AndThePlaneteers}}'' seemingly pollute for no reason, they actually have some incentive ranging from Looten Plunder being a CorruptCorporateExecutive to Verminous Skumm wanting to wipe out humanity so his kind can take over. Dr. Blight is the only one truly fitting of this trope to a degree (and she in fact, evokes it in the episode "A Perfect World"). Her motives vary from episode to episode, and she is the only villain other than Zarm to scheme to destroy the Planeteers and Gaia.

** The anti-fairies go out to cause bad luck, for no other reason than to go out and cause it. They ''are'' the EvilCounterpart to the Fairies, who go out to help kids ForGreatJustice (and to fill the void of not having kids of their own.)
** Vicky also counts. Her very purpose in life is either to swindle cash or torture those under her care, even her own little sister. When Timmy (who needs to have his tonsils removed) asks why she is working in the hospital, she replies with this obvious answer: "I like volunteering in places where there's pain." When Timmy's parents finally stop being useless for once at the end of ''Channel Chasers'', Vicky gives a rather half-assed excuse for her obvious sadism: "I blame television!" Thankfully, Timmy's parents don't buy this for a second.
*** The Episode ''Vicky Loses Her Icky'' reveals that her cruel personality is a result of her being under control by an Evil Bug, who once Timmy wishes away from her, ends up causing other characters, being [[BumblingDad Mr. Turner]], Principal Waxelplax, and [[OhCrap The President of the United States]]. In the end, Vicky ended up saving the day, but at the cost of [[StatusQuoIsGod going back to her mean form]].

* Skeletor in ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983''. His motive was simply that he enjoyed being evil. He waxed rhapsodic about how much he loved evil. He found joy in any act of nastiness, no matter how petty or arbitrary, and was repulsed by anything good or nice. (Being an '80s cartoon character, he never succeeded in anything ''really'' evil like, say, killing anyone. But given how much fulfillment he found in even the smallest acts of evil, maybe he didn't feel the need to.) For these types of villains, one can HandWave that sort of behavior by realising if they DID manage to kill people, they wouldn't be able to mess with them anymore, and therefore wind up as bored and disaffected as Kefka.

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': Subverted with Daolon Wong. Jade did theorize this as the reason Wong broke into Santa's workshop (she believed him to be just another Christmas-hating villain) but Uncle explained that Santa spends the whole year accumulating chi (despite not knowing chi by that name - he wondered if Wong wanted cheese) to help him deliver gifts and that makes Christmas time the occasion he has more of it to be stolen. So, it wasn't a matter of hating Christmas but a matter of not caring enough about it to pass up a chance to steal Santa's chi when he's got the most of it.

** WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck in at least half of his cartoons with WesternAnimation/SpeedyGonzales. Although in their first appearance together it was strictly MoneyDearBoy (Granny was paying him handsomely to exterminate Speedy).

* Many of the non-human villains in ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' (maybe about half) seem to have no motivation for terrorizing humans other than spreading chaos and destruction for its own sake. (A few do have motives, like being part of some curse, having GhostlyGoals, or even a few who are {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s or even NotEvilJustMisunderstood, but a lot just seem to be evil because they ''like'' it.)

** One memorable episode featured the season's BigBad trying to create a giant tidal wave to drown the city - for no discernible reason at all. Admittedly, the one-shot villains often fell into this too, though were usually just following whatever their gimmick happened to be (except for [[JerkJock Adonis]], who just seemed to wreck things because it helped boost his ego).
** Also the Brotherhood of Evil, at least in their first appearance. There is no logical reason, other than being a massive dick (quite an accomplishment for a BrainInAJar), that the Brain would use a black hole machine to destroy the Titans' home city. They weren't even there at the time, and he knew it. Even their later plan to capture and freeze every hero only seems to be so they can be evil without interruption. On the other hand, there's really quite a lot that the head of an international crime ring ''could'' do with a black hole machine, even if it's not spelled out. Can you say "extortion", anyone?
** Even ''[[Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} Slade]]'' flirted with this - see "Forces of Nature", where Robin wonders why Slade wanted to destroy the city, and never gets an answer. For that matter, Thunder and Lightning from the same episode would fit under this label, although they have a more believable "motive" of causing trouble for the fun of it because they're immature jerks. (Being forced to consider the victims of their actions gives Thunder pause.) Slade in that episode could be {{Fan Wank}}ed into setting the whole thing up to see what the Titans would do to stop it (thereby helping pick an apprentice - and it's only ''after'' that episode he decides to focus on Robin alone). Or it could just be CharacterizationMarchesOn, as they hadn't quite decided what they wanted to do with him yet.

** Of course a s time went by Karai gained more motivation and eventually [[HeelFaceTurn became a good guy.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'': This exchange sums up Karai's character quite well:

* Roger from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' often has no particular motivation at all for his despicable behavior. He'll casually admit as much without hesitation, as exemplified when he explains why he's familiar with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubler-Ross_model Kubler-Ross model of grief]]:

** His perwona Ricky Spanish is the pure embodiment of this trope. All he does is pure evil for the sake of it. This ranges from petty harmless evils like shutting an elevator while someone runs at it to murdering tens of people at a marriage.

* In ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'', though Lex Luthor ''does'' have a legitimate master plan, he explains this as his motive for the part where he tricks the League into thinking they were destined to become like their KnightTemplar AlternateUniverse selves.

** Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's reasons for bullying the Cutie Mark Crusaders are unclear but this seems to be their main motive for doing so.

* Katz from ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' to the point that it's actually frightening. All of his little scam businesses typically involve killing his "customers" [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness when he has no more use for them]], or simply torturing them for laughs.

* Skeletor in ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983''. His motive was simply that he enjoyed being evil. He waxed rhapsodic about how much he loved evil. He found joy in any act of nastiness, no matter how petty or arbitrary, and was repulsed by anything good or nice. (Being an '80s cartoon character, he never did anything ''really'' evil like, say, trying to kill anyone. But given how much fulfillment he found in even the smallest acts of evil, maybe he didn't feel the need to.) For these types of villains, one can HandWave that sort of behavior by realising if they DID manage to kill people, they wouldn't be able to mess with them anymore, and therefore wind up as bored and disaffected as Kefka.

* Mrs. Robinson from WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball. Virtually every action she takes is to cause suffering in others, just because she enjoys it, whether it is swapping newborn babies between two innocent families to make them fight each other to looking into a child's eyes as they choke to death and ''[[WouldHurtAChild smiling]]''. She takes such glee in this that the Season 4 episode ' 'The Wicked' ' gives her a very fitting VillainSong [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwUAqzlc74s adaptation]] of ''My Favourite Things'' from Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic

** Squidward, thought not liking SpongeBob, doesn't exactly plan anything against him most of the time. But on some occasions, like in ''Fools in April'' and ''Little Yellow Book'', he gets fed up with SpongeBob's antics and is willingly trying to cause harm to him just to watch his misery.

** Squidward, thought not liking SpongeBob, doesn't exactly plan anything against him most of the time. But on some occasions, like in "Fools in April" and "Little Yellow Book", he's malicious enough to willingly harm SpongeBob just to watch his misery.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Apparently the Mongolians' only motivation for repeatedly destroying sections of the Great City Wall of South Park in "Child Abduction is Not Funny."
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''
** The anti-fairies go out to cause bad luck, for no other reason than to go out and cause it. They ''are'' the EvilCounterpart to the Fairies, who go out to help kids ForGreatJustice (and to fill the void of not having kids of their own.)
** Vicky also counts. Her very purpose in life is either to swindle cash or torture those under her care, even her own little sister. When Timmy (who needs to have his tonsils removed) asks why she is working in the hospital, she replies with this obvious answer: "I like volunteering in places where there's pain." When Timmy's parents finally stop being useless for once at the end of ''Channel Chasers'', Vicky gives a rather half-assed excuse for her obvious sadism: "I blame television!" Thankfully, Timmy's parents don't buy this for a second.

** Even ''[[Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} Slade]]'' flirted with this -- see "Forces of Nature", where Robin wonders why Slade wanted to destroy the city, and never gets an answer. For that matter, Thunder and Lightning from the same episode would fit under this label, although they have a more believable "motive" of causing trouble for the fun of it because they're immature jerks. (Being forced to consider the victims of their actions gives Thunder pause.) Slade in that episode could be {{Fan Wank}}ed into setting the whole thing up to see what the Titans would do to stop it (thereby helping pick an apprentice - and it's only ''after'' that episode he decides to focus on Robin alone). Or it could just be CharacterizationMarchesOn, as they hadn't quite decided what they wanted to do with him yet.

* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''
** Lucius is evil for the sake of being evil. The sole focus of his MegaCorp is to make people miserable.
** [[EnfantTerrible Heloise]] too. On one occasion she was seen sucking up all the water around a tree just to get it to wilt.
* ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot''
** There is no doubt that this is the cause of Megabyte's actions later in the series. Shapeshifting as Bob and almost marrying Dot was done for no other reason than to amuse him.
** Hexadecimal is so chaotic that she sometimes falls into this trope, for example creating the Medusa Bug and overriding the system Paint command. She even fires The Hardware at the Principal Office, despite Megabyte's warning that doing so will destroy the entire system and everyone in it, including herself, simply because it is "screaming out to be destroyed".
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros'' cartoons, King Koopa and his kids are {{Card Carrying Villain}}s that are always doing evil for the sake of doing evil. Occasionally they would have plans that involved financial gain, but evil always took top priority and financial gain was a bonus.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'':
** The reason why [[spoiler:Stinkmeaner comes back from Hell to torment the Freeman family]].
** Stinkmeaner and the Hateocracy are pure personifications of this trope, stating that "they don't need no reason to fuck shit up".
** "It's fun to do bad things" is Lamilton Taeshawn's catch phrase and excuse for his behavior throughout his episode.
* In '' WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', this is the only reason ''Him'' does anything. [[VillainsOutShopping Except his aerobics.]]
* In ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'', though Lex Luthor ''does'' have a legitimate master plan, he explains this as his motive for the part where he tricks the League into thinking they were destined to become like their KnightTemplar AlternateUniverse selves.
-->'''Luthor:''' That's right, conspiracy buff, I spent seventy-five million dollars on a fake presidential campaign. ''[[EvilIsPetty All just to tick Superman off]].''

* Skeletor in ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983''. His motive was simply that he enjoyed being evil. He waxed rhapsodic about how much he loved evil. He found joy in any act of nastiness, no matter how petty or arbitrary, and was repulsed by anything good or nice. (Being an '80s cartoon character, he never did anything ''really'' evil like, say, trying to kill anyone. But given how much fulfillment he found in even the smallest acts of evil, maybe he didn't feel the need to.) For these types of villains, one can HandWave that sort of behavior by realising if they DID manage to kill people, they wouldn't be able to mess with them anymore, and therefore wind up as bored and disaffected as Kefka.
* Eris from ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy''. Even though her actions are justified since she is the goddess of chaos after all, she seems to enjoy way too much what she does, and the worst part is that most of the time her goals are just petty or meaningless, like ruining a kung-fu tournament or tormenting the main characters while they aren't even bothering her.
* Mr. Black in episode 401 of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Kamp Krusty", as demonstrated by his toast to the three juvenile delinquents he is employing as camp counselors:
-->'''Mr. Black:''' ''(Raising his glass)'' Gentlemen-- to evil.
* [[WesternAnimation/TheItchyAndScratchyShow Itchy]] kills his Best friend Scratchy for this. A good example is a cartoon where Itchy [[WoundedGazelleGambit pretends to commit suicide by jumping in a well]] so he can shoot Scratchy when he comes down to save him.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AngelsFriends'' this is the devils' main motivation.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' had the devil's nephew, IIRC, possess Johnny in order to turn off the filter to the city's water supply, giving the water a metallic taste. When Pops asks why the demon couldn't have done it himself, the demon says that he could, but it wouldn't be as interesting as forcing someone else to do it.
* While many of the other ghostly villains from ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' did what they did for money, power, revenge, or just because it was their job, [[FutureMeScaresMe Dark Danny]] clearly caused chaos and destruction throughout the Earth and the Ghost Zone mainly for this trope. Unlike many Western Animation examples, which are hammy, Anvilicious or just an excuse motif, Dark Danny [[AxCrazy plays]] [[FallenHero this]] [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids for pure terror.]]
* Katz from ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' to the point that it's actually frightening. All of his little scam businesses typically involve killing his "customers" [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness when he has no more use for them]], or simply torturing them for laughs.
* Many villains in ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR'' live by this trope. Two explicitly notable examples include Gerrkek the Planet Killer and Ender.
--> '''Ender:''' My name is Ender. I end things. People, planets, galaxies.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Azula may have her eyes set on the crown and other external motivations, but a lot of times she seems to just enjoy being an evil bastard. Especially when you consider how cruel Azula was to Zuko during their childhood. This blatant evil comes back to bite her in the ass when she has a tremendous VillainousBreakdown.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** [[MeaningfulName Discord]] loves causing chaos with his [[RealityWarper reality warping]] powers simply because he wants to. He shows pretty quickly that he possesses godlike power and could likely win with a fingersnap, but instead locks everyone in a rigged game where he can MindRape them at his leisure. Any possibility that his motivation might be more ItAmusedMe is put to rest when Fluttershy wins his game by being too mentally stable to fall for MoreThanMindControl, when he promptly loses his temper and cheats at his own game by breaking her through more brute force methods -- which incidentally makes her embrace this trope as well while under his influence, as she's brainwashed to be cruel and does things solely from that motivation.
** Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's reasons for bullying the Cutie Mark Crusaders are unclear but this seems to be their main motive for doing so.
* In ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeResolute'', Zartan says this about why he does what he does: "But I like the idea of living in a world where I can kill anyone I like, anytime I like. I don't need the money; I just need the killing."
* In ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'':
** Mirage is a cat goddess who's labeled as "Evil Incarnate" and whose primary motivation is to destroy good and spread misery. She developed into wanting revenge on Aladdin, but started out trying to hurt Agrabah because there was too much good in it. As Iago puts it, "She hates good. She annihilates good. Evil is all she does."
** The being named [[RealityWarper Chaos]]. Aladdin and Co. ''think'' he's following this trope, but it's really more because ItAmusedMe. They eventually find out he's not ACTUALLY evil, just making things "interesting" for them because of the "rut" that Aladdin is in, always being the hero and whatnot. When he accidentally lets slip that Mirage sent him there? They proceed to let him know that Aladdin's life is already pretty chaotic, but Mirage? ALWAYS the same thing, nothing but evil, evil, ''evil''. He decides to go make HER existence a little more... Varied. [[spoiler: It's even revealed that screwing with Mirage for trying to manipulate him was his ''real'' plan all along.]]
* Doctor Doofenshmirtz from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' is a bit of a subversion. His plans usually have a purpose (making money, petty revenge or [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over the tri-state area]]), but what he seems to care about above all is that his plans are '''evil!!'''... ''somehow''. The joke is that [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Doofenshmirtz is never remotely close to being as evil as he believes himself to be]] (but don't tell him that, or you'll hurt his feelings).
* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': Subverted with Daolon Wong. Jade did theorize this as the reason Wong broke into Santa's workshop (she believed him to be just another Christmas-hating villain) but Uncle explained that Santa spends the whole year accumulating chi (despite not knowing chi by that name - he wondered if Wong wanted cheese) to help him deliver gifts and that makes Christmas time the occasion he has more of it to be stolen. So, it wasn't a matter of hating Christmas but a matter of not caring enough about it to pass up a chance to steal Santa's chi when he's got the most of it.
* All the villains in the short-lived Saturday Morning cartoon series ''WesternAnimation/ProStars''.
* WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck in at least half of his cartoons with WesternAnimation/SpeedyGonzales. Although in their first appearance together it was strictly MoneyDearBoy (Granny was paying him handsomely to exterminate Speedy).
* In ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' Master Shake physically and psychologically tormenting Meatwad for no reason other than his own amusement.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'': This exchange sums up Karai's character quite well:
-->'''Leo''': "Karai, you don't have to do this."\\
'''Karai''': "I know. That's what makes it fun!"
** This also applies to Xever/Fishface. In "Baxter's Gambit," he tells Raphael that he enjoys having a job where he gets to crack skulls.
* [=SheZap=] from ''WesternAnimation/SheZow'', his existance is valued by nothing but chaos, plain and simple, and slandering [=SheZow=]'s good name.
* Many of the non-human villains in ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' (maybe about half) seem to have no motivation for terrorizing humans other than spreading chaos and destruction for its own sake. (A few do have motives, like being part of some curse, having GhostlyGoals, or even a few who are {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s or even NotEvilJustMisunderstood, but a lot just seem to be evil because they ''like'' it.)
* Creator/LooneyTunes short "WesternAnimation/CannedFeud" is one of the more dramatic examples in the Warner Brothers canon. Sylvester the cat is battling with a clever mouse, as he often was if he wasn't battling with Tweety--but in this instance Sylvester isn't trying to eat the mouse. All he wants to do is eat his canned cat food after his owners left on vacation without leaving out any food. Unfortunately for Sylvester the only can opener is in the hands of a mouse. Not only does the mouse not give over the can opener, he tortures Sylvester with it, continually dangling it in front of him only to devise elaborate traps. The short ends with the canned food under lock and key, with Sylvester apparently doomed to starve to death.
** Oddly enough, the mouse is actually endangering HIMSELF by doing this.
* Roger from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' often has no particular motivation at all for his despicable behavior. He'll casually admit as much without hesitation, as exemplified when he explains why he's familiar with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model Kubler-Ross model of grief]]:
-->'''Roger''': Back in the late '60s, I was [[BeenThereShapedHistory porkin' this unattractive lady scientist]], Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. I dumped her hard for no reason. Out of nowhere. It was awesome.
* Mrs. Robinson from WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball. Virtually every action she takes is to cause suffering in others, just because she enjoys it, whether it is swapping newborn babies between two innocent families to make them fight each other to looking into a child's eyes as they choke to death and ''[[WouldHurtAChild smiling]]''. She takes such glee in this that the Season 4 episode ' 'The Wicked' ' gives her a very fitting VillainSong [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwUAqzlc74s adaptation]] of ''My Favourite Things'' from Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic

-->'''Luthor:''' That's right, conspiracy buff, I spent seventy-five million dollars on a fake presidential campaign. ''All just to tick Superman off.''

* ''Comicstrip/TheBoondocks''
** The reason why [[spoiler: Stinkmeaner comes back from hell to torment the Freeman Family.]]
** Stinkmeaner and The Hateocracy are pure personifications of this trope, stating that "they don't need no reason to fuck shit up".