Joker Immunity in Western Animation.
- In action shows geared towards kids, the hero rarely kills, for obvious reasons, allowing villains like Dr. Drakken from Kim Possible or Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget to be let off the hook every time.
- Well, that, and both of the listed villains (among others, of course) are masters of Villain: Exit, Stage Left and the Cardboard Prison, assuming they even get directly involved to start with. In fact, the closest Gadget ever came to apprehending Dr. Claw was likely the show's humorous opening sequence (and even then, it was a booby-trap left by the villain).
- And in the case of villains like Dr. Drakken, or Dr. Doofensmirtz from Phineas and Ferb, they can be a bit bumbling and comical, if not pathetically incompetent, and have someone else do the dirty work for them. Killing them would be unreasonable because they are Affably Evil.
- In another case with Mumm-Ra in ThunderCats (1985), he's shown that the Ancient Spirits of Evil's power can allow him to survive As Long as There Is Evil.
- Interestingly Disney seem to have granted this to Shere Khan of The Jungle Book (despite being killed by Mowgli in the original novel). The Disney animated adaptation and its sequel are among the very few films in Disney Animated Canon to omit a Disney Villain Death, while he is about the only villain not to be killed off in the Live-Action Adaptation. He is also a recurring Anti-Villain in TaleSpin and Jungle Cubs.
- Instead of being sent to jail, most Batman villains are sent to an easily escapable insane asylum.
- One episode of Batman: The Animated Series featured a guard at the asylum fired for his (relatively minor, all things considered) abuses of the prisoners. He then quickly became an incarceration-themed Knight Templar supervillain called Lock-Up.
- Then there was "Judgement Day", where a new vigilante called the Judge was giving more severe punishments to criminals, and actually trying to kill them. Batman pressures a politician who was helping the Judge, saying that the Judge would kill someone eventually. The politician fires back, saying that the people of Gotham just would not care if Two-Face, or Killer Croc or any super-villain gets killed off as opposed to being sent to a Cardboard Prison they'll just escape from. He gives Batman due credit, but he reiterates that the people want something permanent.
- Clayface has had at least two onscreen deaths only to get back up later.
- Initially played straight and then ultimately subverted by Scarface, the seemingly Demonic Dummy controlled by a ventriloquist with a split-personality. Since Scarface was just a wooden puppet, he could simply be rebuilt any time he was destroyed. Come "Double Talk", the Ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker) appears to be cured of his split-personality only to be gaslit back into it by Scarface's mooks, Rhino and Mugsy. After some encouragement from Batman, Wesker finally has enough and "kills" the puppet, ending Scarface for good.
- In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Harley Quinn was assumed to have perished in her final battle with Batgirl; even the now elderly Barbara Gordon doubted she could have survived. Turns out, she did (maybe hanging out with the Joker taught her a few things) but the experience did cause her to retire from crime permanently.
- In Batman Beyond, the villain Mad Stan points out how he'll just break out of prison and keep coming back over and over after Batman foils his latest terrorist bombing, prompting Batman to beat him to death. It was really Barbara Gordon getting a hallucination from the villain Spellbinder; Mad Stan was alive and returns in another episode.
- That said, the series has a startling tendency to avert Joker Immunity a number of times, mostly because Terry is unable or unwilling to save villains from themselves, most notably the returning members of Bruce's Rogues Gallery: Mr. Freeze, Bane, Ra's al Ghul, and ironically the Joker himself in The Movie. It's subverted with the new generation of the Royal Flush Gang, who go through more Villain Decay with each appearance until they completely fall apart.
- The most notable exception to that rule is Inque; Terry actually said "She's been dead before" at one point ("Inqueling").
- Averted with Professor Milo in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, who is eaten by his abused lab rats after being turned into cheese by the Spectre. Played straight with most recurring villains.
- Vilgax from the Ben 10 franchise. He's been strapped to a missile, thrown into the void of space, trapped in another dimension, and had a spaceship explode in his face three times — but the squid-faced bastard just keeps coming back. Even in the future, when future Ben tore Vilgax to pieces and froze what was left, Vilgax was quickly revived and no less dangerous. Naturally, this is frequently subject to Lampshade Hanging. One of the pop-ups, however, confirm that Vilgax will meet his end approximately 200 years after the events of the Original Series.
- Later installments established Ben 10,000 to be an Alternate Timeline, and Vilgax was finally Killed Off for Real in Ben 10: Omniverse.
- Ernie the Giant Chicken on Family Guy always returns for another round of his eternal blood feud with Peter Griffin, despite having suffered a twenty-story fall (although Peter himself survived that), been eviscerated by an airplane propeller, suffered massive cranial trauma, and being set on fire WHILE being impaled up the anus by a giant spike.
- Deconstructed in-universe in the fifth season of Samurai Jack. Fifty years in a zero-sum game have utterly ruined both Jack and Aku; Jack has grown cynical and broken from fifty years of being unable to kill Aku (losing his magic sword along the way doesn't help), whereas Aku has gone increasingly insane and depressed from being unable to kill Jack no matter how many minions he has to throw at him. Aku has basically withdrawn and let his horde of minions do the fighting, in the hopes that one of them gets lucky or that time can do the job... except that Jack's temporal displacement and/or additional Time Travel have rendered him immortal, meaning one of them has to bleed out for the stalemate to actually end.
- Psycho from Max Steel. The man has been blown up, infected with a deadly fungus while trapped in a burning building, thrown into space, and he always comes back. To his credit, Max Steel is savvy enough to not question it and just deal with him whenever he shows up. His luck finally runs out in Endangered Species as he is unambiguously vaporized by the pyramid superweapon and his posthumous cameo in Countdown has him acknowledging and confirming his death, though even then his legacy lives on in his legions of Psycho Androids.
- Albert W. Wily's immunity is even more noticeable in the Mega Man Ruby-Spears cartoon than in the games; his Skull Castle is incredibly conspicuous and immovable, yet the military never once tries to attack it. To add insult to injury, he and his robots slip out of Mega Man's grasp every single episode, no matter how close he was to finally apprehending him. It's a wonder Mega hasn't snapped yet.
- Metalocalypse's Doctor Rockso the rock n' roll clown. He does cocaine. He is also the only known friend of Toki who did not die before the episode was over.
- Dr. Doofenshmirtz constantly blows up with his inventions but is never seriously hurt. Some of the time, Perry the Platypus will save him when he is falling, but most of the time, he has terrible things happen to him and just lives. Of course, killing or even injuring Doofenshmirtz in a show like Phineas and Ferb would hardly be a good idea.
- ReBoot's Megabyte has this in spades. He's in a city that doesn't have the capacity to delete him, protected by a Guardian who doesn't want to (Except for that one time.), and has a much more powerful sister who, despite having ample capability and opportunity to do so, doesn't. Even when they finally manage to get rid of him, he comes back, with whole new powers, and his sister conveniently taken out of the picture not long before.
- Rocky and Bullwinkle:
- Boris Badenov is presumably executed at the end of the "Painting Theft" story, yet there he is in the next five serials.
- The conclusion of "Pottsylvania Creeper" posits that Boris, Natasha and Fearless Leader were eaten by a Creeper plant. They all return in ensuing story lines.
- The Simpsons:
- Sideshow Bob, but that's mainly a case of Cardboard Prison. Well, that, and, as he explained to Edna Krabappel on a date once, he's never actually successfully killed anybody (Mrs. Krabappel looks more than a little disappointed to hear this). This is mutual, as when Sideshow Bob had the chance to finally kill Bart, he can't do it because he's grown accustomed to his face, owing his very existence to hating him.
- Mr. Burns is an apt representation of the trope with his constant polluting, corporate greed, and mere belligerence. Part of the reason that he is still around is due to making a deal with the devil.
- Since SpongeBob SquarePants is such a Long Runner, Plankton has gone through quite a lot as the show’s main villain. There have been countless times that Plankton has tried and failed to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula, yet despite it all, there aren’t too many consequences that he faces. He’s gone to jail a few times, but that rarely, if ever, keeps him in for very long (mainly because of his smarts and size). Usually, when Plankton fails, Mr. Krabs just throws him back to the Chum Bucket. Of course, since this is (usually) an innocent kids show, it wouldn’t make sense for anything too drastic to happen to Plankton.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Foregone Conclusion means that any character that's alive in existing material set after the series will survive, but it's most noticeable with Count Dooku and General Grievous, as no matter what attempts any of the protagonists make to catch or kill them, they always survive.
- Darth Maul, despite not being Saved by Canon proved amazing resilient, actually outliving any of the show's villains who didn't appear in the original trilogy. After returning from his defeat in Phantom Menace, which saw him cut in half by Obi-Wan and fall into a giant pit, he survives the crash of a starship during a failed Villain: Exit, Stage Left. After taking over Mandalore, Maul's next defeat saw him on the receiving end of an Eviler than Thou from Darth Sidious, who spared Maul's life because he still had plans for him. Those weren't revealed in-series, but Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir, based on unrealized plans for the final season, revealed it was to use him to lure out his mother Talzin. While Talzin was killed at the end of the comic, Maul survived thanks to Talzin forcing him to flee. In the show's finale, Maul has returned to Mandalore only to be defeated by Ahsoka Tano, but manages to escape while being transported to Coruscant, explaining his existence in Star Wars Rebels where he's found on Malachor. Maul shows by that point he survived for years despite being a fugitive from the Empire, survives getting thrown off a large building and escapes the planet. He went on confront the show's protagonists multiple times in his goal to find the location of Obi-Wan. It's only when Maul does find Obi-Wan that he's finally killed, after Obi-Wan fatally wounds him in a lightsaber duel.
- In Teen Titans (2003), Slade plays this one straight, but with surprisingly good in-story justification. In the first two seasons, he's The Chessmaster, so the Titans never actually face him directly until the season finales. Season one gives him a Villain: Exit, Stage Left, but season two seemingly averts this trope by actually killing him. His only appearance in the third season is as a hallucination tormenting Robin, and he's specifically resurrected to serve as The Dragon by season four's new Big Bad, Trigon. As a result, this is clearly a case of the writers wanting to keep the villain around because they like him, but it's always justified in-story (which is actually somewhat surprising, seeing as the Teen Titans team used plenty of tropes without bothering to justify them with anything but Rule of Cool).
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003):
- The Shredder/Oroku Saki/Ch'rell has survived so many instances where he was thought dead, only to come back, that even when he actually does seem to be Killed Off for Real in Turtles Forever, Splinter still doesn't doubt the possibility of survival. Even before his permanent death, when he once suffered a Disney Villain Death, in which he was left inside an exploding building after his exo-suit was disabled, the Turtles don't doubt he survived and display no surprise when he returned. His appearance in the season 3 finale "Exodus" had him Put on a Bus, in the form of leaving him on a remote ice asteroid light years away from any hope of rescue, likely intended to permanent, and he still returned.
- Baxter Stockman is just as bad. His body's been whittled down to nothing, he's been reduced to a Brain in a Jar, and he still just keeps coming back for more. Leonardo even lampshades it upon Stockman's death in "Insane in the Membrane," pointing out that he's come back from worse and "only time will tell" if it's really the end of him; sure enough, Bishop soon revives Stockman.
- The Transformers: Even after his death in the movienote , Starscream returns as a ghost in Season 3, thanks to his popularity as a character as well as his toy still being sold in storesnote .
- Most of the villains from The Venture Bros. fall firmly into this category, but Henchmen 21 and 24 really stick out because of the relatively short lifespan of henchmen in the series. It's even lampshaded by them and The Monarch on numerous occasions, with the duo taunting a rookie that he will die on the mission and they won't (which, sure enough, he does), and The Monarch pointing out that their best talent is their rare ability to not get killed on missions. It then gets cruelly deconstructed when 24 is abruptly killed accidentally by an explosion. 21 undergoes Training from Hell to become Two-Ton 21, suffers mental stress over the death of his friend, and careens everywhere from henchman, special agent, superhero, and supervillain.
- Although they've never come close to actually dying, Winx Club's Trix seem to be masters of returning from impossible situations. They get turned into children at one point, but are their regular ages in their next appearance; they get trapped in an alternate reality in the end of the second season (with the items used to open the portal connecting the Magical Dimension to the one they're trapped in destroyed), but are somehow pulled out between the second and third seasons, with the season three premiere featuring them escaping imprisonment within the FIRST FIVE MINUTES; and in the fifth season, they start out imprisoned underwater without their powers (how they ended up in this situation hasn't been explained yet), and are released and have their powers restored by a prisoner shortly after he meets them. Not to mention that they've outlived a god (Darkar), an immortal (Valtar), and the spirits of their ancient evil ancestors (the Ancient Witches) with seemingly no ill effects except the loss of whatever power boost was given to them by their previous master. It's obvious that the reason for being the only villains that haven't been Killed Off for Real and to appear in multiple seasons is their massive popularity.
- Adventure Time: Despite Finn's claims that he'll "slay anything that's evil", not once in the entire show have Finn and Jake even tried to kill The Ice King (unless you count briefly pondering whether or not to let Ice King save himself in "Ricardio the Heart Guy"). You could make the argument that Ice King is more deranged than outright evil, but Finn doesn't know that until late Season 3.
- Really, every villain in the Looney Tunes universe qualifies. No matter what injuries they receive, from being shot in the face to being crushed by a boulder, they'll always be back for more. For instance, Sylvester the Cat accidentally gets gunned down by the firing squad intended for Tweety at the end of "Rebel Without Claws." Sylvester rises as he breaks the fourth wall:Sylvester: It's a good thing I've got nine lives. With this army, I'll need 'em!
- On Danger Mouse, it's never clear about Baron Greenback's fate after one of his vehicles or contraptions explodes on him, but he eventually lives to see another day. In "Statues," he is pursued by the statue of Monsieur Smaquing Lippes who wants to make a dish of frog's legs out of him. The ungodly off-screen groan indicates he succeeded.
- Monstrox, the main antagonist of LEGO's Nexo Knights. He first appears bound to a book, is seemingly destroyed in the second season after a failed Grand Theft Me attempt, comes back as a storm cloud in the third season, then comes back again as a computer virus in the fifth.
- Although Young Justice (2010) is designed as a slightly more grounded take on the DC universe, it still occasionally practices the idea of supervillains escaping death or capture on a regular basis. For the most part, this is achieved through nearly every Earth-based villain working together as one massive organization known as the Light. As a result, many of the organization's members, most notably the four longest-lasting council members Vandal Savage, Lex Luthor, Queen Bee, and Klarion regularly escape capture, though occasionally, there are some who can escape later if they do get caught.
- Vandal Savage in particular is the main driving force behind the Light, and although flashbacks reveal his millenia-spanning immortality still derives from a Healing Factor like in the comics, allowing him to survive anything that comes his way, he typically retreats when in a losing battle to avoid capture. His threats largely come not through physical confrontation, but being able to take advantage of any situation in his favor, and his desire to see humanity rule the cosmos ensures that his plan is never truly in danger for long.
- Most of his near escapes, however, came with the help of his oldest partner, the Lord of Chaos Klarion the Witch Boy. Like Vandal, he is incapable of being killed, but has enough power himself to steamroll anyone in his path, with the only way to at least stall him for a while being to kill his anchor, Teekl the cat, to banish him from the mortal plane. If his power alone cannot help him for long, he tends to flee battles, often taking Vandal and other allies with him in the process. At one point, Zatanna found another way to stop him by trapping him in the Tower of Fate in season 3, but he escaped after sixteen days. Season 4 would solidify Klarion's immunity when Phantom Stranger warned the other heroes of even more dangerous Lords of Chaos that would come to Earth, far eviler than the somewhat merciful Klarion, forcing Zatanna, her Sentinels of Magic, and Doctor Fate to protect him from Child, one such Lord of Chaos who came down to take his place by force.
- Like in the comics, Lex Luthor's status as a Villain with Good Publicity protects him from being arrested, something taken to its apex when he became the Secretary-General of the United Nations, giving him far greater protection than he had when he was at one point in the comics a President Evil. Although he is later forced to resign from being the Secretary-General at the end of season 3, he still holds onto his position as the head of LexCorp, likely having paid off his lawsuits in order to keep it.
- Queen Bee also has a position that protects her from being directly targeted, but unlike Lex, it's full-blown diplomatic immunity as the ruler of Bialya (later Greater Bialya following the assimilation of Qurac). Therefore, targeting her would be a direct PR nightmare, and her ability to enthrall men (and some women) allows her to slip past most of the people who would try to oppose her anyway. That being said, the heroes often knock her unconscious temporarily in order to prevent her from using her powers to derail a mission, it just so happens they can't take her away to a prison cell.
- The Trope Namer himself, the Joker, is seen as too chaotic an asset that the Light themselves never let him in on the truth about their organization. When he found out in a flashback in season 4 and tried to bomb the United Nations (which would have endangered Luthor), Lady Shiva tried to have her daughter Orphan assassinate him as her first kill while the Bat-Family disarmed the bombs. Batgirl noticed Orphan about to move in for the kill and jumped in the way of Joker, even if it meant she took a sword through the spine (which caused the paralysis that led her to become Oracle), not to save Joker, but to save Orphan from becoming a killer.
- Agents of Darkseid often are beaten, but usually tend to slip away or not suffer a permanent setback for long, always being by Darkseid's side. This was most pronounced with Granny Goodness, who became part of the Light's council and even became a Villain with Good Publicity on Earth as Gretchen Goode, but when her aspirations to acquire the Anti-Life Equation clashed with Vandal's goals, forcing him to tell the Team where to find her and nearly jeopardizing his own alliance with Darkseid, she was shown being tortured as punishment, only to be shown in brief moments in season 4 to have been set free and once more serving Darkseid.
- Baron Bedlam, at the end of season 3, once vowed never to stop coming back as a threat to his nephew Geo-Force's life so long as he still drew breath. Geo-Force's response was instead to kill him, averting his immunity even if it cost him his place among the Outsiders.
- Ra's al Ghul was stabbed through the chest with a sword near the end of season 2, with Ubu immediately rushing him out to a Lazarus Pit to be resurrected. That being said, he did end up leaving the Light offscreen between seasons 2 and 3, however, and stopped being a major threat to the other heroes as a result.
- Whenever Ma'alefa'ak (who is an agent of Darkseid in this continuity) is cornered, he usually tends to escape using a Fatherbox to avoid being caught. Not even being banished to the Phantom Zone itself stopped him for long, while Lor-Zod was disintegrated after being tricked by Metron's Stable Time Loop, and General Dru-Zod and his forces were extracted from the Phantom Zone and imprisoned in the Warworld, Ma'alefa'ak was similarly extracted only to be returned to Darkseid, and not even being punished like Granny was.
