History Main / PeeveGoblins

Peeve Goblins are simple characters or personifications who are portrayed as being singlehandedly responsible for whatever mundane annoyances you face in life. If the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification embodiment of hangryness]] would be your typical hairy bugbear who goes on a rampage whenever it gets hungry, then the peeve goblin equivalent would be some invisible gnome who sprinkles sparkly hangry dust on you everytime your stomach growls. In general, these guys only exist to suck the fun out of your day and and make it slightly more sour than it already is.

* ''Webcomic/OwlTurdComix'' often uses concepts like Life, Anxiety, etc. depicted as (often muscular) humanoids who torment the creator's AuthorAvatar in various ways, ranging from simply pestering him to downright beating him up.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/OnePiece:'' In the Dressrosa arc, there exist a local legend where "fairies" will steal some minor item from people's belongings without them noticing it until later. They're actually liliputian dwarves who lived in a nearby small island; they were allowed to do this by the king, Riku Dold III, as an apology for his ancestors oppressing the dwarves.

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder:Myths and Religion]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder:Web Video]]

* ''Disgusting [=McGrossface=]'': Subverted; the boy blames messes on a creature named "Disgusting [=McGrossface=]", but then it turns out that Disgusting doesn't exist and the boy was just lying.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Popular folklore in Imperial hive cities and spaceship crews attributes "the bendies" (a common name for the Hrud, a species of highly secretive, diminutive aliens who often secretly inhabit other species' structures) with whatever goes wrong. Missing item? The bendies took it. A machine breaks? The bendies did it. Someone vanishes? The bendies took him.

* Before his start as an author, Creator/DrSeuss did some work in advertising and portrayed a number of creatures that could only be vanquished through the correct product.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* The children's poem ''Mr. Nobody'', published anonymously in 1947, describes a mysterious character who lurks in houses with children and performs acts of mischief when there isn't anybody looking -- after all, if all the children deny having tracked mud on the carpet or left the toys lying around, then Nobody must have done it.

* Subverted in the children's book ''Disgusting [=McGrossface=]'' where the boy blames messes on a creature named "Disgusting [=McGrossface=]", but then it turns out that Disgusting doesn't exist and the boy was just lying.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''': Popular folklore in Imperial hive cities and spaceship crews attributes "the bendies" (a common name for the Hrud, a species of highly secretive, diminutive aliens who often secretly inhabit other species' structures) with whatever goes wrong. Missing item? The bendies took it. A machine breaks? The bendies did it. Someone vanishes? The bendies took him.

* In the song ''Die Vampire! Die!'' from the Broadway musical Theatre/TitleOfShow, the titular vampires are responsible for WritersBlock.

* Discussed in ''Franchise/{{Touhou}}'', specifically in the book ''Symposium of Post-mysticism''. Since supernatural beings in ''Touhou'' run on ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, and the Outside World (AKA the real world) has grown skeptic to superstitions, almost no new {{youkai}} are being born there. Most of them are [[MurphysLaw "Murphy's youkai"]] like imps that hide the TV's remote control, which exist only for a moment before running out of belief and poofing out of existence again.
* This is basically the premise of ''VideoGame/YokaiWatch''. The titular Yo-kai are spirits who are responsible for everyday annoyances and problems plaguing humanity who can be battled and befriended by the protagonists.

* Wiki/ThisVeryWiki also has its own Peeve Goblins, in the form of DataVampires.

* The Underpants Gnomes from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' go out of their way to steal underwear (and are thus the cause of underwear that go missing) as part of their MissingStepsPlan to get rich quick.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In ''Series/DeadLikeMe'', Gravelings are responsible for causing fatal mishaps, and thus their presence helps the Reapers figure out where and when to collect the next soul.
* In ''Series/GoodOmens'', demons cause some, but not all, misfortune. There are also the [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Four Horsemen]] (War, Famine, Death, and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Pollution]]) who cause the problems they're named after.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

* In TheEighties, [[https://youtu.be/uxpRAOgZVzc The Noid]] -- a wacky claymation humanoid with rabbit ears wearing a red jumpsuit -- starred in many Domino's Pizza commercials. He is portrayed as a trollish ScrewySquirrel who loves to ruin people's pizza, but bears intense hatred for Domino's own quality pizzas, which he constantly tries to destroy only to be thwarted at every turn.

[[folder:Mythology and Folklore]]

[[folder:Folklore]]
* Whenever [[AcquiredErrorAtThePrinter a printing error]] happens in Sweden, locals like to attribute it to the ''Tryckfelsnisse'' ("printing error elf") entity. Similarly, the Finnish would blame it on ''Painovirhepaholainen'' ("printing error devil").
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]

* The ''[[{{Youkai}} kamaitachi]]'' are weasel-like creatures who represent the sensation felt during bitterly cold winds, and attack in trios: one knocks down a traveler with a gust of wind, the next cuts the traveler with its sickle-like claws, and the last applies an ointment that stops the resulting bleeding, leaving their victim with bloodless but inexplicably large and painful wounds.

* [[https://youtu.be/tnduNEc-Be4 Allstate's commercials]] are famous for [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Mayhem]], a BadassInANiceSuit who gets people in accidents, playing anything from distraught teenage girls, a very bad housekeeper, a deer in the headlights, to a ''blind spot'' in some lady's pickup truck.
** Some recent commercials also feature the Rate Suckers, ordinary actors who literally suck victim's rates by latching onto their cars like leeches.

* A ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' cartoon, captioned "Car Key Gnomes", shows two garden-gnome like figures in a nightly living room picking a ring of keys from a pair of trousers hanging over a chair, with the apparent intent of hiding it under the couch cushions.
** One cartoon titled "Door Ding Gnomes at Work" depicts two elf-like beings in a parking lot using hammers to create small dents on the sides of cars.

* Discussed in ''Franchise/{{Touhou}}'', specifically in the book ''Symposium of Post-mysticism''. Since supernatural beings in ''Touhou'' run on ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, and the Outside World (AKA the real world) has grown skeptic to superstitions, almost no new {{youkai}} are being born there. The only ones are things like imps that hide the TV's remote control. But said youkai will also immediately vanish because of the lack of belief.

* A ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' cartoon, captioned "Car key gnomes", shows two garden-gnome like figures in a nightly living room picking a ring of keys from a pair of trousers hanging over a chair, with the apparent intent of hiding it under the couch cushions.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In one cutaway, Peter, angry his dryer apparently kept stealing one of his socks, climbed in only to discover a portal to Narnia. It was the satyr Mr. Tumness who was stealing the socks.

* A famous animated short in the 2010s was "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiCrniLQGYc I had a black dog, his name was depression]]" released by the [[UsefulNotes/UnitedNations World Health Organization]], which refers to the depression as a black dog and exemplifies how depression works with this dog. The video got so good reception that actually the "black dog" short can be seen also in hospitals and mental health institutions around the world.
* One ad from the late 2010s, called Telfast, involved creatures responsible for different allergies and diseases. They were Itchy Larry (allergy to dust mites), Sneezy Betty (hay fever in adults), Allergy Annie (hay fever in children), Cold Calvin (colds), Moody Mandy (allergy to mould), and Teary Harry (allergy caused by air pollution).

* Since TheSixties, [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsP9yyORJan8lftZc9xI92j1yBDPSq-dC Raid commercials]] always featured cartoony pests who cause mischief in households, only to be killed in a cartoony fashion by the titular pesticide.
* [[https://youtu.be/49WjrRJ_DLw One Weight Watchers commercial]] features the Hungry Monster, an orange {{Muppet}} who constantly tries to sabotage your efforts in losing weight by tempting you with junk food.
* Mucinex has [[https://youtu.be/qLbceCaQyoY Mr. Mucus]], an anthropomorphic glob of phlegm portrayed as a stereotypical deadbeat couch potato wearing a dirty wife-beater. [[https://youtu.be/BmZMuJEL8qg More recent commercials]] portray him as TheFriendNobodyLikes.

* Cap'n Crunch would follow suit in TheEighties with the Soggies, villainous creatures that looked like globs of milk that sought to sog out kids' Cap'n Crunch cereal to no avail. There was even a villain by the name of Dr. Sog who showed up in one major commercial and sought to steal everyone's Cap'n Crunch cereal through means of robotic/zombie Cap'n Crunches.
* [[https://youtu.be/AQ6-opqYLC8 This Dr. Scholl's Freeze Away commercial]] features an annoying talking wart growing on a woman's finger who acts [[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave like a stubborn house guest]]. He scoffs at a [[BrandX generic wart remover]] that takes weeks to get rid of him, only to immediately shut up as soon as the advertised product is pressed hard into him.

* In TheEighties, [[https://youtu.be/uxpRAOgZVzc The Noid]] -- a wacky claymation humanoid with rabbit ears wearing a red jumpsuit -- starred in many Domino's Pizza commercials. He is portrayed as a trollish ScrewySquirrel who loves to ruin people's pizza, but bears intense hatred for Domino's own quality pizzas, which he constantly tries to destroy only to be thwarted at every turn.

* The children's poem ''Mr. Nobody'', published anonymously in 1947, describes a mysterious character who lurks in houses with children and performs acts of mischief when there isn't anybody looking -- after all, if all the children deny having tracked mud on the carpet or left the toys lying around, then Nobody must have done it.

* Various folklores have stories of HouseFey which are usually helpful to whoever they share a home with. However, if the fey gets angered for some reason, they can cause trouble, either small (such as hiding household objects or breaking them) or large (killing livestock and making farmland infertile).

* Wiki/ThisVeryWiki also has its own Peeve Goblins, in the form of DataVampires.

->''This is The Noid. He loves to ruin your pizza!''
->''If you've ever gotten cold pizza, a squashed pizza, or pizza that just wasn't right, The Noid did it!''
-->-- '''[[https://youtu.be/uxpRAOgZVzc?t=210 80's Domino's Pizza comercial]]'''

!!Examples

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The large amount of unbound belief energy left over in ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' after the titular folkloric figure vanishes causes numerous creatures to be brought to life from general popular belief, including a number of Peeve Goblins. Examples include the Verruca Gnome, who goes around handing people unsightly foot warts; the Hair Loss Fairy; the Eater of Socks, an elephant-like being who consumes socks and leaves their twins unpaired in the wash; the birdlike Stealer of Pencils; and the God of Indigestion.

[[folder:Mythology & Religion]]

[[folder:Theater]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'': The [[AlliterativeName Game Graphic Glitch Gremlin]] is an almost literal example; a green-skinned GreatGazoo who messes up video games [[ItAmusedMe for his own amusement]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' we have the Anti-Fairies, an EvilCounterpartRace to fairies who are responsible for bad luck. They appear wherever someone triggers a superstition, and they use their magic to make it come true.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Whenever [[AcquiredErrorAtThePrinter a printing error]] happens in Sweden, locals like to attribute it to the ''Tryckfelsnisse'' ("printing error elf") entity. Similarly, the Finnish would blame it on ''Painovirhepaholainen'' ("printing error devil").
[[/folder]]

* A famous animated short in the 2010s was "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiCrniLQGYc I had a black dog, his name was depression]]" released by [[UsefulUnitedNations World health Organization]], which refers the depression as a black dog and exemplify how depression works with this dog. The video got so good reception that actually the "black dog" short can be seen also in hospitals and mental health institutions around the world.
* One ad from the late 2010's called Telfast involved creatures responsible for different allergies and diseases. They were Itchy Larry (allergy to dust mites), Sneezy Betty (hayfever in adults), Allergy Annie (hayfever in children), Cold Calvin (colds), Moody Mandy (allergy to mould), and Teary Harry (allergy caused by air pollution).

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer4000''': Popular folklore in Imperial hive cities and spaceship crews attributes "the bendies" (a common name for the Hrud, a species of highly secretive, diminutive aliens who often secretly inhabit other species' structures) with whatever goes wrong. Missing item? The bendies took it. A machine breaks? The bendies did it. Someone vanishes? The bendies took him.

Examples of peeve goblins aren't just limited to small annoyances; some can also be directly responsible for greater-scale problems such as war, [[HatePlague hatred]], disease, etc.

If you ever lost your pen cap at some point and have no idea where it is, it's because there's some small creature following you around who steals everything you drop, and loves nothing more than watching you pull your hair out in frustration as you turn the house upside down looking trying to find that cap, messing with your memory too just to taste those extra tears running down your face. Your car is breaking down in the middle of the highway? Some [[GripingAboutGremlins gremlins]] just replaced your oil with mouthwash. Did you just lose 2 hours of work put into writing an email or article on your computer? We at TV Tropes are all too familiar with [[DataVampires these little bastards]].

Peeve Goblins are simple characters or personifications who are portrayed as being singlehandedly responsible for whatever everyday annoyance you face in life. If the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification embodiment of hangryness]] would be your typical hairy bugbear who goes on a rampage whenever it gets hungry, then the peeve goblin equivalent would be some invisible gnome who sprinkles sparkly hangry dust on you everytime your stomach growls. In general, these guys only exist to suck the fun out of your day and and make it slightly more sour than it already is.