History Main / PeeveGoblins

* In ''Series/GoodOmens'', demons cause some, but not all, misfortune. Crowley, for instance, likes to crash telephone lines just to annoy people, and one of his big achievements is interfering with a certain motorway's construction so traffic jams are more likely. There are also the [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Four Horsemen]] (War, Famine, Death, and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Pollution]]) who cause the problems they're named after.

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 two 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.

* ''Franchise/{{Touhou}}'': Discussed 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.

* ''[[https://youtu.be/1Cpi93ApELE Breakfast Pals]]'', a 1939 animated commercial of Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal, pits [[Advertising/SnapCrackleAndPop Snap, Crackle, and Pop]] against their {{Evil Counterpart}}s Soggy, Mushy, and Toughy, promoting Rice Krispies's as a cereal that stays crunchy even with added milk.
* 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 Other commercials]] portray him as TheFriendNobodyLikes.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The large amount of unbound belief energy left over in ''Literature/{{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.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Impidimp, a Dark/Fairy 'mon modeled after mischievous imps and goblins, [[EmotionEater feeds on the negative energy released when people are frustrated]]. Consequently, it often sneaks into people's houses in order to steal and hide small objects, so that it can feed on their frustration as they turn their homes upside-down to look for the stolen items.
** Klefki is a keyring-like Steel/Fairy Pokemon that steals and collects people's keys.

* Although the creatures themselves do not actually appear, one of the lot traits in ''VideoGame/TheSims4'' is called "Gremlins", in which appliances on the lot randomly break. The icon for this lot trait is a goblin-like hand with CreepyLongFingers.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

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 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 every time your stomach growls. In general, these guys only exist to suck the fun out of your day and make it slightly more sour than it already is.

* In ''Series/GoodOmens'', demons cause some, but not all, misfortune. Crowley, for instance, likes to crash telephone lines just to annoy people, and one of his big achievements is interfering with a certain's motorway's construction so traffic jams are more likely. There are also the [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Four Horsemen]] (War, Famine, Death, and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Pollution]]) who cause the problems they're named after.

Related to the JustSoStory. {{Supertrope}} to GripingAboutGremlins, which is about similar creatures that mess up machinery or other equipment. Compare PaintingTheFrostOnWindows, for those who run nature.

-->-- '''[[https://youtu.be/uxpRAOgZVzc?t=210 80's Domino's Pizza commercial]]'''

->''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!''

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 make it slightly more sour than it already is.

** Clefki is a keyring-like Steel/Fairy Pokemon that steals and collects people's keys.

* 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/1Cpi93ApELE Breakfast Pals]]'', a 1939 animated commercial of Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal, pits Snap, Crackle, and Pop against their {{Evil Counterpart}}s Soggy, Mushy, and Toughy, promoting Rice Krispies's as a cereal that stays crunchy even with added milk.

For advertisers, the "just so" nature of peeve goblins' antics is what makes them perfect anti-mascots for their commercials, setting them up as pests you can quite literally punch in the face to make them go away, but only with the help of the advertised product. Other times they will be portrayed as either [[NoSell No-Selling]] or messing with every other competing product, or themselves [[TakeThat representing everything wrong/irritating]] about said competing products.

Related to the JustSoStory. Compare also GripingAboutGremlins, which is about similar creatures that mess up machinery or other equipment, and PaintingTheFrostOnWindows, for those in charge of changes in nature.

* 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).

* The entire premise of ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' is based on this trope.

* 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.

* 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.

* [[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.

* 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.