History Main / BanteringBaddieBuddies

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[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/TheUmbrellaAcademy https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hazelchacha2.png]]]]

* ''ComicBook/CloneWarsAdventures'': "Thunder Road" features two Separatist mercenaries who seem more interested in whimsically speculating about how the canyon got its name than trying to capture Anakin and Obi-Wan. Their boss repeatedly tells them to shut up.
* Morjak and Gelt in Neil Gaiman’s Marvel ''ComicBook/{{Eternals}}'' miniseries. Two persistent hired killers - Deviants (although they prefer “the Changing People”) in HumanDisguise suits. One talkative, one quiet. One tall and muscular, the other short and stout.

* Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd from ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'', possibly the {{Trope Codifier}}s. (Quite a few other examples listed here are based on them, at least partially.) They have a strange habit of dispatching everyone else in the diamond smuggling ring and tried to off James Bond [[RuleOfThree three times]]: once by leaving him to meet a fiery end in an incinerator; again by leaving him to rot in a pipeline; and the third and final time by appearing to him in person disguised as the cruise ship's kitchen crew. Each time, they out-quip even Bond himself. For example, when they dispatch a guy by blowing up a helicopter:
-->'''Mr. Kidd:''' If God had wanted man to fly...\\
'''Mr. Wint:''' He would have given him wings, Mr. Kidd.

* ''Series/CowboyBebop2021''. In "Blue Crow Waltz", we discover that this was the relationship between [[WeUsedToBeFriends Fearless (now Spike Spiegel) and Vicious]] when they worked for the Syndicate. Their EstablishingCharacterMoment has them debating the subject of manscaping while disguised as cleaners waiting for their target to exit his office so he can be stabbed and garroted to death.
* ''Series/DayBreak2006'' has Fencik and Buchalter. Ex-policemen who stopped caring long ago. In the original version of the GroundhogDayLoop they install hidden microphones and cameras (killing an accidental witness), tail the hero, filming his every step, deliver threats to a corrupt policeman, who wasn't helping the conspiracy diligently enough, and stand guard while the hero is being beaten. In the subsequent iterations they prove to be the smartest and toughest agents of the conspiracy the hero has to face again and again. By the way, they are neo-Nazi.

-->''Just declaim a few lines from "[[Theatre/{{Othello}} Othella]]"\\

Just remind her that "[[Theatre/AllsWellThatEndsWell All's Well That Ends Well]]."\\

* ''Videogame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'' has Kroger and Finch, two goons working for Vallory who serve as her muscle and depending on the situation are either threats or allies of convenience. While by the series standards they're pretty much mooks, since the protagonists are [[ActionSurvivor schlubs just trying to survive]] they're still comparatively dangerous.

* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar2: Retribution'' has Kap'n Bludflagg and his first mate Miss'ta Nailbrain, a pair of ork SpacePirates who get hired by an imperial inquisitor to assassinate a Khorne cultist. While Bluddflagg being in charge puts a twist on the standard dynamic of the trope, the two spend pretty much the entire ork campaign playing off each other and never failing to use the polite address.

* ''Series/CowboyBebop2021''. In "Blue Crow Waltz", we discover that this was the relationship between [[WeUsedToBeFriends Fearless (now Spike Spiegel) and Vicious]]. Their EstablishingCharacterMoment has them debating the subject of manscaping while disguised as cleaners waiting for their target to exit his office so he can be stabbed and garroted to death.

* ''Series/CowboyBebop2021''. In "Blue Crow Waltz", we discover that this was the relationship between [[WeUsedToBeFriends Fearless (now Spike Spiegel) and Vicious]]. Their EstablishingCharacterMoment has them disguised as cleaners waiting for their target to exit his office, debating the subject of manscaping.
* ''Series/{{Fargo}}'': Mr. Wrench and Mr. Numbers are two violent enforcers from the Fargo syndicate, sent to Bemidji to look into the murder of a trucking affiliate. In between shootouts and drowning victims in a frozen lake, they use sign language to banter in front of people and occasionally argue like an old married couple.

* ''Film/TheBalladOfBusterScruggs'': Although they're not necessarily ''bad,'' this is the dynamic between the jovial, sinister Thigpen and Clarence in the segment "The Mortal Remains." Claiming to be bounty hunters (or "reapers" in Thigpen's words), the two make their kills by the Englishman Thigpen distracting them with stories and words while the Irish Clarence handles "the thumping." They regale their fellow stagecoach passengers with songs, spooky stories, and philosophy while transporting their latest catch on the coach's roof; it's heavily implied that the pair's purpose is to ferry souls to the afterlife.

* ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'': Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar (the Old Firm) are an inseparable pair of AxCrazy, violence-loving assassins who deliver dark jokes and philosophical observations as they murder. Croup is eloquent and philosophical, while Vandemar delivers deadpan, earnest lines.

->''"'But, Mister Croup, we hurt people. We don't get hurt.'''
->''Mr. Croup turned out the lights. "Oh, Mister Vandemar," he said, enjoying the sound of the words, as he enjoyed the sound of all words, 'if you cut us, do we not bleed?'''
->''Mr. Vandemar pondered this for a moment, in the dark. Then he said, with perfect accuracy, 'No.'"''

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''ComicBook/CloneWarsAdventures:'' "Thunder Road" features two Separatist mercenaries who seem more interested in whimsically speculating about how the canyon got its name than trying to capture Anakin and Obi-Wan. Their boss repeatedly tells them to shut up.

* ''ComicBook/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': Hazel and Cha-Cha are a pair of super-effective assassins who are never seen apart, with [[TheDividual basically the same personality]]. Their banter in partiular is of the [[PsychopathicManChild childish]] variety.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/TheBalladOfBusterScruggs'': Although they're not necessarily ''bad,'' this is the dynamic between the jovial, sinister Thigpen and Clarence in the segment "The Mortal Remains." Claiming to be bounty hunters (or "reapers" in Thigpen's words), the two make their kills by the Englishman Thigpen distracting them with stories and words while the Irish Clarence handles "the thumping." They regale their fellow stagecoach passengers with songs, spooky stories, and philosophy while transporting their latest catch on the coach's roof; it's heavily implied that the pair's purpose is to ferry souls to the afterlife.

* Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd from ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'', possibly the [[TropeCodifier Trope Codifiers]]. (Quite a few other examples listed here are based on them, at least partially.) They have a strange habit of dispatching everyone else in the diamond smuggling ring and tried to off James Bond [[RuleOfThree three times]]: once by leaving him to meet a fiery end in an incinerator; again by leaving him to rot in a pipeline; and the third and final time by appearing to him in person disguised as the cruise ship's kitchen crew. Each time, they out-quip even Bond himself. For example, when they dispatch a guy by blowing up a helicopter:
--> '''Mr. Kidd''': If God had wanted man to fly...
--> '''Mr. Wint''': He would have given him wings, Mr. Kidd.

* In ''Film/PulpFiction'', Jules and Vincent are a pair of hitmen working for crime boss Marcellus Wallace. As they get their guns ready and prepare to do a hit, they have rambling, {{Seinfeldian Conversation}}s (including an infamous one about the social meaning of foot massages, though that one had plot relevance given that Vincent was being hired to watch over Mia Wallace, their boss's wife, who was the subject of the foot-massage talk). As {{Villain Protagonist}}s, they're rather likable, but also capable killers (at least Jules anyway. Vincent not so much). Jules is also prone to [[AsTheGoodBookSays quoting the bible]], making him seem more eloquent.

[[folder: Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Mr. Tulip and Mr. Pin, two criminals hired to discredit Vetinari in ''Literature/TheTruth'', were designed as a homage to several other examples on this list. They engage in banter inspired by ''Film/PulpFiction'', and are collectively referred to as The New Firm in reference to ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'''s Old Firm. They're quite violence-prone, and Tulip is smarter than drug- ([[TheCon and not-drug-]]) addled Pin, though Pin does have extensive knowledge of art.

* One episode of ''Series/ShakespeareAndHathawayPrivateInvestigators'' had a pair of thugs [[spoiler: actually friendly actors]] menacing the client [[spoiler: actually an unsympathetic DomesticAbuser]], who called themselves R and G, one being talkative and the other quiet.
* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': Their dangerousness masked by both the weariness of encroaching middle-age and by the boredom of the grind of being time traveling assassins just going through the motions, Cha Cha and Hazel, both suit-wearing bad-asses as well as {{Punch Clock Villain}}s in The Umbrella Academy, engage in a great deal of work-wife/husband dialog about subjects as banal as their benefits package and profound as their small place in keeping the time continuum in order, at least until their inevitable breakup. Until then, though, it's almost easy to overlook their bored brutality - for example, while torturing a garage worker they mistake for their mark, Number Five, with a car battery charger, or interrogating Klaus in the throes of drug abuse withdrawal - while squabbling with each other like a couple just doing dishes for the umpteenth time. Cha Cha stone-cold shooting Detective Patch in the back to get Hazel out of a jam speaks volumes to their bond without saying a word.

-->'''Gangster #1''': Now we hope we have made ourselves perfectly ''Eclair.''\\
'''Gangster #2''': One ''cannoli'' hope.\\
'''Gangster #1''': You ''biscotti'' be kidding me.\\
'''Gangster #2''': A ''trifle'' much?\\
'''Gangster #1''': Don't ''tart'' with me.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Mr. Wink and Mr. Fibb, who are most likely meant to parody Wint and Kidd from the James Bond example, were always cracking jokes on how badly the KND was doing against whatever chair-based Mecha they'd brought out to fight.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheMagician'': Spade and Diamond were Blackjack's henchmen, and their back-and-forth was pretty versatile: sometimes it was PlayedForLaughs, and other times they would convey a part of the plan to the viewer by discussing it between themselves, e.g. Diamond reminding Spade that gas masks were hidden inside clown noses.

[[quoteright:350:[[WebAnimation/BowsersKingdom https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/68f2db8d_5605_4f8a_8b87_6a07ce5e97e9.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The only thing that can make this conversation more interesting... is [[Music/BlueOysterCult more]] [[Series/SaturdayNightLive cowbell]].]]

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Mr. Tulip and Mr. Pin, two criminals hired to discredit Vetinari in ''Literature/TheTruth'', were designed as a homage to several other examples on this list. They engage in banter inspired by ''Film/PulpFiction'', and are collectively referred to as The New Firm in reference to ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'''s Old Firm. They're quite violence-prone, and Tulip is smarter than drug- ([[BeatBag and not-drug-]]) addled Pin, though Pin does have extensive knowledge of art.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Mr. Tulip and Mr. Pin, two criminals hired to discredit Vetinari in ''Literature/TheTruth'', were designed as a homage to several other examples on this list. They engage in banter inspired by ''Film/PulpFiction'', and are collectively referred to as The New Firm in reference to ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'''s Old Firm. They're quite violence-prone, and Tulip is smarter than Pin, though Pin does have extensive knowledge of art.

* ''WebAnimation/BowsersKingdom'': This old Flash animated series centers around two low-ranking minions for Bowser, Jeff The Goomba and Hal The Koopa. They often made cracks at the series' logic and whatever wacky misadventures they got themselves into.

* In ''Film/PulpFiction'', Jules and Vincent are a pair of hitmen working for crime boss Marcellus Wallace. As they get their guns ready and prepare to do a hit, they have rambling, {{Seinfeldian Conversation}}s (including an infamous one about the social meaning of foot massages). As {{Villain Protagonist}}s, they're rather likable, but also capable killers (at least Jules anyway. Vincent not so much). Jules is also prone to [[AsTheGoodBookSays quoting the bible]], making him seem more eloquent.

-->''Just declaim a few lines from "[[Theatre/Othello Othella]]"\\

* ''Theatre/TheDrowsyChaperone'': Gangsters 1 & 2 are a pair of mooks disguised as pastry chefs there to threaten Feldzeig into sabotaging Janet's wedding. As they are disguised as pastry chefs, the gangsters pepper their speech with dessert puns.
-->'''Gangster #1''': Now we hope we have made ourselves perfectly Eclair.\\
'''Gangster #2''': One cannoli hope.\\
'''Gangster #1''': You biscotti be kidding me.\\
'''Gangster #2''': A trifle much?\\
'''Gangster #1''': Don't tart with me.
* ''Theatre/KissMeKate'': Likely the inspiration for the gangsters in ''The Drowsy Chaperone'', this musical has First Man and Second Man, two witty gangsters who show up to collect a hefty debt from the leading man, who needs to keep the titular show open in order to pay this off. They sing the comedic "Brush Up Your Shakespeare".
-->''Just declaim a few lines from "Othella"\\

Tell her what Tony told Cleopaterer,\\

Just remind her that "All's Well That Ends Well."\\

* ''Theatre/TheDrowsyChaperone'': Gangsters 1 & 2 are a pair of mooks disguised as pastry chefs there to threaten Feldzeig into sabotaging Janet's wedding. As they are disguised as pastry chefs and the show is a pastiche on old fashioned musicals, the gangsters pepper their speech with dessert puns.
-->'''Gangster #1''': Now we hope we have made ourselves perfectly Eclair.//
'''Gangster #2''': One cannoli hope.//
'''Gangster #1''': You biscotti be kidding me.//
'''Gangster #2''': A trifle much?//

->'''Mike:''' Ugh, I hate that floating idiot!
->'''Marty:''' Mike, he's not worth it, man.
->'''Mike:''' Yeah, okay.
->'''Marty:''' Say. What do you say we go and devour the flesh from some innocent humans?
->'''Mike:''' ...Heh. You always know what to say to me, Marty.

[[folder: Web Animation]]

->'''Marty:''' Hey. What do you say we go and devour the flesh from some innocent humans?

[[folder: Webcomics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoxtrolls'': ObliviouslyEvil henchmen duo Trout and Pickles, who have several philosophical debates about whether or not they are the "good guys" and eventually make a HeelFaceTurn.

This draft is the result of TRS threads for [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1570404334052073400&page=6#144 Those Two Bad Guys]] and [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1610578532076023900&page=2#43 Mister X and Mister Y]]. This is an attempt to salvage a trope concept covered by ThoseTwoBadGuys and MisterXAndMisterY, which the TRS voted to disambiguate.
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Indexes:
* {{Criminals}}
* DuoTropes
* HiredGuns
* OrganizedCrimeTropes
* {{Villains}}

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[[/folder]]