History Main / HarmlessVillain

* BigBadWannabe: When a villain tries to be dangerous and may be to an extent, but the more harmful villains quickly [[EvilerThanThou snuff them and make them know their place]]).

--> ''Brainstorm has just crashed his rocket into the house, leaving a massive hole in the floor. He climbs out of it.''
--> '''Andy:''' Oh, it's only you.
--> '''Dr. Brainstorm:''' ''Only'' me? Come on! I'm more threatening than I look!
--> '''Sherman:''' Pal, the hole you just came out of is deadlier than you.
--> '''Dr. Brainstorm:''' Ha! I'll have you know- ''[trips over a discarded plank]''
--> '''Socrates:''' The piece of wood you just ''tripped over'' is more threatening than you.

* "Literature/TheHolinessOfAzéderac", by Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith: The title character might be a demon-worshiping sorcerer, but he mostly just uses his dark arts to charm his way into [[BetterLivingThroughEvil a cozy life as a bishop]] and summon the occasional otherworldly horror in the basement. Even when a monk tries to expose him, Azéderac gets him TrappedInThePast rather than kill him.

** The Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance won't attack forces weaker than they are, and make a point of never harming orphans.

* Both Gru and Vector in ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe1'' don't really do anything overly dastardly, at least in the animated film's universe (in RealLife, the consequences of stealing the Moon would be much more horrific). Yes, Gru freezes a few people, but the freezing is implied to be harmless. And Vector is content with stealing monuments and just sitting back playing his Wii. In fact, had Vector not stolen the Pyramid at the beginning, that boy would have died.

* Both Gru and Vector in ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' don't really do anything overly dastardly, at least in the animated film's universe (in RealLife, the consequences of stealing the Moon would be much more horrific). Yes, Gru freezes a few people, but the freezing is implied to be harmless. And Vector is content with stealing monuments and just sitting back playing his Wii. In fact, had Vector not stolen the Pyramid at the beginning, that boy would have died.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':

* In ''WebAnimation/CheatCommandos'', Blue Laser's first appearance had them declaring intent to "blow up the ocean", but after that, their plans take a dive, being entirely dedicated to screwing with the Cheat Commandoes. The Commandos actually let Blue Laser's commander come over for video games.

Villains are vile, ruthless, merciless, and bloodthirsty; any pretension of civility is just a smokescreen to hide a ''really'' twisted BigBad. Not exactly kid-friendly, is it? So what are kids shows and movies supposed to do, if the original source's baddy eats babies? Why, [[{{Disneyfication}} make them]] a [[TitleDrop harmless villain]], of course!

[[caption-width-right:350:[[PokeThePoodle The]] [[AndThatsTerrible fiends!]][[note]][[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Ironically, this inadvertently caused one of the biggest threats on the show, in the episode "Gesundfight".]][[/note]]]]

* The evil AI Omega from ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' can qualify for this, depending on who he's possessing at the time. In the body of Tex or any other sufficiently trained soldier, he's a genuinely terrifying threat. In the bodies of the Blood Gulch crew, and most especially Doc, he's little more than a nuisance.

* ''Film/ChildrensPartyAtThePalace'' has several villains that have harmless and lukewarm plans; just sabotaging the Queen’s party by distracting the corgis, [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink putting a potion in the cake]] (which doesn’t hurt whoever eats from it; just [[OneDoseFitsAll transforms the children]] [[BalefulPolymorph into mice]]), and stealing the Queen’s [[MacGuffin handbag]]. Only exception is the Grand High Witch, who mentioned about [[EatsBabies cooking and boiling children]].

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e1230b6b_b4ea_42bf_be27_eb0ef0d69ed4.png]]]]

** Marik tries to be evil, but his evil plans usually involve things like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jnCcejkpjg stealing the Pharaoh's leather pants]], asking to borrow Yugi's Millenium Puzzle and not returning it for three weeks, and [[PokeThePoodle pushing him off a boat. Into the sea.]] And on top of that, he is ''very'' easily distracted.

* Both Gru and Vector in ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' don't really do anything overly dastardly, at least in the animated film's universe (in RealLife, the consequences of stealing the Moon would be much more horriffic). Yes, Gru freezes a few people, but the freezing is implied to be harmless. And Vector is content with stealing monuments and just sitting back playing his Wii. In fact, had Vector not stolen the Pyramid at the beginning, that boy would have died.
* The title character in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' appears to be this. Despite having 87 life sentences, it is implied that he never really causes physical harm to anyone, seeing as he chooses unoccupied areas for his base of operations (such as an abandoned observatory) and repeatedly abducts reporter Roxanne Ritchie but leaves her unharmed everytime and all his threats are pure bluster that both him and Roxanne know will never go beyond that. Even after he 'wins' and takes over the city, he merely causes property damage. He even tells the citizens to proceed as usual. It's even shown that the only reason he had a rivalry with Metro Man in the first place, is because the latter deliberately pretended Megamind was a threat to him by barely trying to oppose him using his powers. To reinforce this point, he's outright horrified at the evil of the film's true villain, Tighten, and when the latters starts his rampage the news state that Metrocity had never seen destruction on the scale of Tighten's before.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[PokeThePoodle The fiends!]][[note]][[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Ironically, this inadvertently caused one of the biggest threats on the show, in the episode "Gesundfight".]][[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[PokeThePoodle The fiends!]][[note]][[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Ironically, this inadvertently caused one of the biggest threats on the show, in the episode "Gesundfight"]].[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[PokeThePoodle The fiends!]][[note]]Ironically, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom this inadvertently caused one of the biggest threats on the show, in the episode "Gesundfight"]].[[/note]]]]

* Despite being the BigBad of ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'', [[PresidentEvil President Skroob]] is incompetent and not dangerous in the least. Even [[TheDragon Dark]] [[DarthVaderClone Helmet]] mocks him behind his back.

* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: When a villain has genuinely malicious intentions yet constantly fails to do anything nasty because of their incompetence or because the hero is so overwhelmingly superior to them[[note]]A good example of the differences between a Harmless and an IneffectualSympatheticVillain is this: An IneffectualSympatheticVillain will plan and try to shoot you [[TooDumbToLive but accidentally leave their weapon at home]]. A HarmlessVillain will plan and try to shoot you... [[PokeThePoodle with a water pistol]]. [[FelonyMisdemeanor And gloat about it.]][[/note]]).

* "Cactus" Jack Slade from the western parody, ''Film/TheVillain''.
* In ''Film/ZombieBloodBath'', the zombies seem to be relatively harmless so long as you don't just stand there and let them kill you. In one scene, they had to get pass an army of zombies on a staircase, and they did this by...just gently shoving them aside. The zombies groaned and flailed their arms, but didn't seem to pay much attention to them.

* ''Film/TheBigLebowski'', the Nihilists. Despite having a ferret that could bite the Dude's ''manhood'' off and one of them carrying a sword, it's clear they are simply pretentious blowhards. The worse thing that they ever done was commit arson to the Dude's car. It's even shown near the ending that Walter manages to incapacitate one of them, bites the guy holding the sword's ear off and the last one doesn't even bother trying to attack the Dude and just makes weird karate moves while bragging that he's going to 'f*** him in the ass' and Walter takes him down with ease.

* Played with in Literature/TheSupervillainySaga by Creator/CTPhipps. Gary Karkofsky a.k.a Merciless: The Supervillain without [=MercyTM=] is considered this by both superheroes and supervillains. This is brutally averted just about every time Gary elects to use his powers and they are shown to be highly lethal as well flexible under his imaginative usage. It gets to the point that people assume he's using ObfuscatingStupidity by the sixth book.

* PeekABogeyman: a villain or monster whose sole intention is to briefly scare people instead of harming them. * PokeThePoodle (when villain does lame and ridiculous things trying to be evil), TeamRocketWins (when a normally ineffectual villain achieves a temporary victory) and {{Troll}} (when the most insulting thing the character does is [[PokeThePoodle annoy people until they become angry]]).

PeekABogeyman: a villain or monster whose sole intention is to briefly scare people instead of harming them. * PokeThePoodle (when villain does lame and ridiculous things trying to be evil), TeamRocketWins (when a normally ineffectual villain achieves a temporary victory) and {{Troll}} (when the most insulting thing the character does is [[PokeThePoodle annoy people until they become angry]]).