History Main / BewareTheSillyOnes

->'''Mr. Croup:''' You find us funny, Monsieur le Marquis, do you not? A source of amusement. Is that not so? With our pretty clothes, and our convoluted circumlocutions-\\

'''Mr. Croup:''' -and our little silliness of manner and behavior. And perhaps we are funny. [...] But you must never imagine, that just because something is funny, Monsieur le Marquis, ''it is not dangerous''.

* ''[[WebVideo/LifeSMP 3rd Life SMP]]'': Nobody thought [=GoodTimesWithScar=] would make it past the halfway mark due to his accident-prone nature and him being a bit of a ditz. He ends up not only being the [[spoiler:penultimate]] person to die [[spoiler:(or the ''last'' person to die when not counting Grian's LastSurvivorSuicide)]], but he personally kills [[spoiler:''both'' of Dogwarts' leaders (Rendog and [=InTheLittleWood=])]] in the final battle.

* In ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'', Scanlan Shorthalt has all the appearances and mannerisms of a QuirkyBard, and Creator/SamRiegel has stated in interviews that he explicitly tried to make the dumbest character possible. However, Scanlan has had several badass moments throughout the series (thanks to 5th Edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' Bards being incredibly powerful and versatile spellcasters,) including [[spoiler:taking on an entire manor filled with armed guards by himself]] in Episode 31, [[spoiler:severing Percy's connection to [[EnemyWithout Orthax]]]] in Episode 35, [[spoiler:paralyzing a Goliath warchief that was [[TheWorfEffect tossing]] [[TheBigGuy Grog]] [[TheWorfEffect around like a ragdoll]] only a minute ago]] in Episode 52, [[spoiler:slaying a [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Pit Fiend]] and stopping the Efreeti guards of the City of Brass from arresting Vox Machina]] in Episode 76, and [[spoiler:holding his own in a WizardDuel against ''freaking [[PhysicalGod Vecna]]'']] in Episode 114.

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s ClassClown personality and SubertedKidsShow aesthetic means his rapping style is extremely playful and gimmicky, combining [[LeastRhymableWord unrhymeable words]], disc-scratching sounds, [[ManOfAThousandVoices goofy voices and accents]], ThrowingOutTheScript, and cracking [[BottomOfTheBarrelJoke hyperoffensive]] jokes or [[HurricaneOfPuns excruciating puns]]. His first hit was a novelty song, and due to being promoted as a TeenIdol his early fanbase was a combination of [[EstrogenBrigade swooning teenage girls]] and [[SubvertedKidsShow prepubescent children whose parents didn't know what was on the albums]]. Add to that his [[TokenWhite white skin]], and it's easy to see why many of his peers did not take him seriously. However, his virtuosity is second to none. After he outrapped Music/JayZ in "Renegade" so effortlessly that 'renegading' is now used in hip-hop slang to mean a guest rapper murdering the artist who made the album it's on, other rappers began to reckon with him being a genuine threat. By now, few rappers are willing to guest on his albums because of his reputation of eating them alive, and his {{Diss Track}}s have a reputation for causing severe damage, sometimes ending careers. Several rappers have noted that it's Eminem's silliness that lets him be so brutal -- his onetime BattleRapping opponent Otherwize compared him to Howling Mad Murdoch from ''Series/TheATeam'', as a crazy comic relief figure whose effectiveness as a fighter comes from that.

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s ClassClown rapping style leads to him spending a lot of time doing silly gimmick rapping like [[LeastRhymableWord rhyming words like "orange" and "discombobulated"]], rhyming things with disc-scratching sounds made with his mouth, [[ManOfAThousandVoices flickering into various characters and accent]], and making [[BottomOfTheBarrelJoke hyperoffensive cracks]] and (later) [[HurricaneOfPuns groaner puns]]. He got famous for a novelty song BlackSheepHit, and his early fanbase was made up of [[EstrogenBrigade swooning teenage girls]] and [[SubvertedKidsShow prepubescent children whose parents didn't know what was on the albums]], so many of his peers did not take him seriously. The turning point was when he effortlessly outrapped Music/JayZ in "Renegade", so much so that 'renegading' is now used in hip-hop slang to mean a guest rapper murdering the artist who made the album it's on. Few rappers are willing to guest on his albums because of his reputation of eating them alive, and his {{Diss Track}}s have a reputation for causing severe damage -- he's credited with ending the careers of Ja Rule and Benzino.

* ''[[WebVideo/LifeSMP 3rd Life SMP]]'': Nobody thought [=GoodTimesWithScar=] would make it past the halfway mark due to his accident-prone nature and him being a bit of a ditz. He ends up not only being the [[spoiler:penultimate]] person to die [[spoiler:(or the ''last'' person to die when not counting Grian's LastSurvivorSuicide)]], but he personally kills [[spoiler:''both'' of Dogwarts' leaders (Rendog and LetsPlay/InTheLittleWood)]] in the final battle.

** The entirety of the Immediate Murder Professionals are cornered by a quasi-government agency, [[EmbarrassingInitials D.H.O.R.K.S]]. Seventy-odd MenInBlack type agents armed for bear with various Edo-period weaponry vs [[CloudcuckooLander Bli]][[ProfessionalKiller tzo]], [[CuteButPsycho Mil]][[TheBerserker lie]], [[BrattyTeenageDaughter Loo]][[HellHound na]], and [[CuteButCacophonic Mox]][[TheGunslinger xie]]. They don't stand a chance. I.M.P. proceeds to clean house, taking them all out without suffering a single casualty among themselves.

** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-846]], or Robo-Dude[[{{Tradesnark}} ™]] is a funny-looking toy robot with no less than 350 weapons that go from a childish water gun to an '''atomic grenade'''.

* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': The Gamemaster's guide notes that, while Saminga, the demon Prince of Death, might be a complete idiot who talks like a saturday morning cartoon villian, he's also an extremely powerful OmnicidalManiac. However much he cackles and monologues, he's got the highest death toll of anything else in the setting, and he's constantly aiming to get it higher.

* ''[[LetsPlay/LifeSMP 3rd Life SMP]]'': Nobody thought [=GoodTimesWithScar=] would make it past the halfway mark due to his accident-prone nature and him being a bit of a ditz. He ends up not only being the [[spoiler:penultimate]] person to die [[spoiler:(or the ''last'' person to die when not counting Grian's LastSurvivorSuicide)]], but he personally kills [[spoiler:''both'' of Dogwarts' leaders (Rendog and LetsPlay/InTheLittleWood)]] in the final battle.

* ''[[LetsPlay/LifeSMP 3rd Life SMP]]'': Nobody thought [=GoodTimesWithScar=] would make it past the halfway mark due to his accident-prone nature and him being a bit of a ditz. He ends up not only being the [[spoiler:penultimate]] person to die [[spoiler:(or the ''last'' person to die when not counting Grian's LastSurvivorSuicide)]], but he personally kills [[spoiler:''both'' of Dogwarts's leaders (Ren and Martyn)]] in the final battle.

* ''Website/SCPFoundation'' takes this trope to the extreme with some of its characters:
** Me, [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-426 SCP-426]], or "I am a toaster". At first, it's funny to speak about me at first person, I am only a toaster, after all. But those who came too close to me didn't laugh as much: an old man nearly starved because he ingested bread and didn't understand why it didn't pop out of his mouth, thinking he was a toaster like I am. Even worse, he was the ''the sole survivor'': his daughter died [[HighVoltageDeath trying to plug herself on an electric socket]] and his wife died of internal bleeding after ingesting 10 kilograms of toast bread.

* Princesses of Spades from ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'' have an ideal based on [[CrazyEnoughToWork outside the box thinking]] and [[FunPersonified spreading humor]], which has resulted in them gaining a reputation as lazy and immature pranksters. The crossover section of the game's wiki, however, mentions that some of them managed to con some of the ''[[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost True Fae]]'' into leaving the physical world forever.
* Clan Malkavian from ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' is one and all incurably insane in some form or another. Some insanities may be "harmless," but the nutjobs are still vampires with all the inhuman strength and resilience that entails. If the guy babbling in the corner thinks you're interrupting the conversation with the voices in his head, they might convince him to tear your arms out and beat you to death with the wet ends. Oh, and one of their clan skills, the one that scares the hell out of other clans, is to [[MindRape "share" their madness with you]] if they feel like doing so, which makes the aforementioned death look preferable.

* The ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' game has its share:

** Most Toon Monsters are cartoony versions of already-existing cards, and pretty much all of them look significantly more goofy. They can also be summoned more rapidly than their original counterparts, and have the nasty ability to attack an opponent directly, ignoring any Monster defending it except another Toon Monster. The catch is that they usually need either a Toon World or a Toon Kingdom card to exist - and if [[AchillesHeel it gets destroyed]], they perish with it.

* In [[Webcomic/OutOfPlacers]], this is the Salia family's hat. The nobles of House Ivenmoth are known for being eccentric and whimsical. Those who take that for a sign of weakness tend to come to sticky ends. Viracroix, the current head of House Ivenmoth, is a prime example of this, perhaps best exemplified when [[https://www.valsalia.com/comic/out-of-placers/oops-66/ dealing with a subordinate]] with more appreciation for profit than the well-being of their citizens. His method of debate involves wearing a "special outfit" (a tarp) to avoid getting splattered [[spoiler:by Mister Omarhan's messy execution]].

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The teddy-bear cholla, a cactus native to the deserts of the American southwest, from a distance looks as cute and fuzzy as the name implies. Those fuzzy-looking spines, however, frickin' mean business! Entire segments of the plant will break away and cling to their victim like a gigantic, vampiric cockleburr. This is also simultaneously the teddy-bear cholla's main defense against herbivores and their primary form of reproduction (in that the segments sprout as soon as they're removed from their victim). They tend to grow in patches, making large swaths of the Sonoran Desert impassable. The cactus is so devious that locals like to repeat an old wives' tale that claims plants are able to reach out and stick passers-by, which, by the way, inspires its other common name of "jumping cholla."
* The platypus is an odd animal, even among the grab-bag of evolutionary oddities that make up the ecology of Australia. Possessing a duck's bill, a beaver tail, and otter-like feet, it further distinguishes itself by being one of only five species of mammals to lay eggs. Beware the male ones, though, as they produce a venom that causes excruciating, intractable pain in humans that lasts for weeks, and is noted for not responding to analgesics like morphine. This venom is not actually fatal - but a dose of morphine that ''is'' will not make a dent in the pain. Physically severing the nerve transmitting the pain signal is actually considered valid medical treatment to platypus venom. From ''Website/{{Cracked}}'':
-->[[http://www.cracked.com/article_15853_the-6-cutest-animals-that-can-still-destroy-you.html The platypus is Mother Nature's way of saying, "I made this thing out of spare parts I found on the workshop floor, and it can still fucking cripple you."]]
* Of all the animals in Africa that has killed the most people, it's the ''hippo'' that takes the cake! The big chubby creature with cute little ears that is usually herbivorous. Word of advice: When in Africa, don't ever go near where a hippo lives, because they ''are'' territorial and if they see you, they ''will'' chase you and you better have a runaway truck nearby, [[LightningBruiser because they]] ''[[LightningBruiser are]]'' [[{{Acrofatic}} faster than they look]]. Why should you be so worried about escaping an angry hippo? Why is the death rate so high? [[http://web.archive.org/web/20170123162432/http://images.travelpod.com/users/shieldsontour/world_tour_2008.1215108420.angry-hippo.jpg Hippos aren't afraid to bite.]] And the lesson is? Don't antagonize an animal that's eager to bite you with teeth as big as bowling pins! There's a reason why Steve Irwin was afraid of them. Sometimes hippos don't bite. They simply want to go back into the water, and don't give two fucks about what or who is on the way. [[StoutStrength Getting hit by one is just like getting hit by a truck]].
* Caterpillars are a perennial source of visual amusement for humans. After all, the typical caterpillar is soft, fuzzy and too interested in eating to notice the big humans poking and gawking at it. However, there are some caterpillars that, despite looking rather peculiar or ridiculous, are actually dangerous. One offender is the caterpillar of the puss moth, which is a big, fat, green caterpillar. If threatened, it rears up to show off its big, pink head, which it sinks into its neck, so that one sees a face with what appears to be a pair of lips underneath its mouth. Any predator (animal or human) that does not get the hint to leave it alone from this threat display will then find out that the "lips" serve as the opening to a gland that squirts out a jet of caustic formic acid. The caterpillar of the flannel moth is far worse, appearing as a disheveled and strangely adorable ball of fluff. [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Do not touch any caterpillar with the nickname "asp!"]] The fluff hides numerous venomous spines that cause excruciating pain, comparable in agony to snakebite, and, with the added bonus of causing bleeding, blistering rash at the site of contact.
* Mosquitos. They're annoying little pests with big doofy eyes and who buzz around dopily, with hobbies that include leaving behind an itchy bite, buzzing in your ear, and ruining outdoor events, and they go out in one swat. Wouldn't it be scary if they were responsible for more human deaths per year, or total across history, than ''any other organism on the planet'' and our only means of warding them off is avoiding them or hiding from them with repellent and hoping they don't happen to bump into us? Yeah, that's [[NightmareFuel actually the case.]]
* Domesticated pigs. Fat, often pink creatures with curly tails that look too tubby for their little legs, stuff themselves on near everything and look ridiculous when they're running around. As any farmer will tell you, though, pigs are incredibly dangerous when riled, and have been known to kill and eat their caretakers if they're provoked into it (or [[FedToPigs if the caretaker is just knocked unconscious into their pen]]). Suddenly, the scene of [[Film/TheWizardOfOz 12 year old Dorothy falling into the Pig Pen]] isn't that overdramatic anymore, huh?
* Chimpanzees are known for being human-like, to the point where they are dressed in human outfits. Also, they can make a funny, huge, toothy grin they flash for the cameras, it makes them look devilish. The bad thing is, it's not a grin, but a mouthful of very large teeth being bared. Despite their small size, they're strong enough to literally tear a human limb-from-limb with their bare hands.
* [[FowlMouthedParrot Cockatoos]] are probably one of the cutest, funniest birds to exist under the sun. They imitate noises. LOTS of noises. They get loud when they don't like something, or just need to get it out of their system. And this is all if they're raised ''correctly''. If abused or neglected, they're very bitter, they bite often, and when they feel threatened, they puff up to look like bigger, [[http://s238.photobucket.com/user/jfl14609/media/yank2.jpg.html more monstrous animals]].
* Poultry birds such as chickens, turkeys, geese, and ducks all share the common trait of waddling around, making silly noises, and being food. They also all share the common trait of being much more aggressive (as well as [[SmarterThanYouLook smarter]]) than they're given credit for, all having the means of inflicting painful and even serious injuries on humans, living in flocks, and will eagerly and ''seriously'' ruin your day if you run ''[[JustForPun afoul]]'' of them.
* Panda bears: Cute, fuzzy, little pandas love to roll around, play with each other and their humans, and nibble on bamboo. But we have the BearsAreBadNews trope for a reason-''do not'' mess with them.
* Genki Sudo is known for his flashy entrances, bizarre in-ring movements and the overall appearance of not taking his match seriously. He has a 15-4 win-loss record thanks to his ''amazing'' grappling skills.
* Any ratite bird would count for the fact of being flightless and perceived as quite ''comical'' through human eyes as they run or walk on their two legs and sometimes waddle. Noted, however, the legs of these sorts of birds are not only strong enough to use for running at alarming speeds but are also enough to be weaponized, in addition to sharp claws at the toes of their feet quite lethal at that. They can fatally kick, even gash a full-grown predator (or human) with just a single strike. Ostriches and the Australian Cassowary are well-known culprits of this type.
* Xenarthrans are a good example of it. The living giant anteater is a very goofy-looking animal that (as the name implies) mainly feeds on ants and termites but it is also armed with formidable claws and has been known to chase away and even kill jaguars and cougars. The same is true for its extinct relatives, the ground sloths, a varied group of…well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin giant, terrestrial sloths]], who would have come across as cumbersome and docile-looking vegetarians, but they were armed with similar claws, on top of having thousands of tiny bones embedded in their skin, giving them a sort of biological chainmail armor (based on the mummified skin of ''Mylodon''). Combine those two traits, and even the fiercest predators of the Americas during the Pliocene-Pleistocene like terror birds and saber-toothed cats would have been hesitant to tackle these hulking browsers. The largest of ground sloths, like ''Megatherium'', grew as big as elephants, so they were off the menu by that virtue alone.
* During the Late Cretaceous, therizinosaurs were the dinosaur equivalent of ground sloths, plodding browsers with long claws evolved to rake branches, and easily one of the most comical-looking dinosaurs ever found ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therizinosaurus#/media/File:Therizinosaurus_Restoration.png imagine a giant, overfeed turkey with claws]]) but those WolverineClaws allowed them to fend off predators, namely tyrannosaurs, who are often found in association with therizinosaurs across Asia and even one site in North America. The largest of them, ''Therizinosaurus'', is estimated to have stood over 4 meters tall and had claws 50 cm long, the largest claws of any known animal (the keratin sheath in life would have made them even longer), allowing it to fight off the apex predator of its environment, ''Tarbosaurus'', the Asian twin of T. rex.
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* ''WebAnimation/MurderDrones'' presents us with Serial Designation N, one of the Disassembly Drones. He's enthusiastic, cheerful, and goofy...and also just as capable of killing as any other of his kind when his friendly personality isn't holding him back.