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"The vizier twirled his mustache, probably foreclosing another dozen mortgages."

Bah! Curses! But though I be foiled to-day, my proud beauty, a time will come! Ha-ha! (Boo! Hiss!)

An oddly specific kind of character, the Dastardly Whiplash is a cartoonish villain taken from the old stage melodrama tradition. Usually a Man of Wealth and Taste, in Great Britain (*cough Evil Brit cough*), he was generally a Bad Baronet; in the U.S., he (and it is in fact always a he, as the mustache is an important part of the aesthetic) was often an Evil Banker who held the mortgage on the heroine's farm. Physically, he's slightly hunched with an exaggerated nose and chin, a curling black moustache (all the better to twirl at you, my dear) and an elaborate costume, usually an old-fashioned black suit with a Black Cloak (maybe even an Ominous Opera Cape) and a hat, usually a top hat but occasionally a Dastardly Dapper Derby.

In personality, he is a one-dimensional, over-the-top, openly evil villain of limited intelligence who comes up with (sometimes absurdly) elaborate schemes for the hero to foil — kidnapping a helpless female and tying her up to either a railroad track or a Conveyor Belt o' Doom, in an attempt to coerce her into "marrying" him or relinquishing the deed to her property, is the old standard. He can usually be expected to go to great lengths to cheat at things he could easily win legitimately, purely For the Evulz. He also is prone to fits of nasal laughter ("Nyehehehehe!!").

He generally has two moods: when happy, he sneers, cackles, and rubs his hands in malevolent glee, and when unhappy, he glowers, sulks, makes a fist, bites his index finger and snaps at his sidekick or henchman, should he have any. He tends to speak largely in Antiquated Linguistics, preferring such expletives as "Curses! Foiled again!", "Blast!", and "Drrrat!" (or, for extreme cases, "Drat and double drat!"). Despite his menacing appearance and demeanor, he often turns out to be a Harmless Villain.

Expect his musical cue to be "Mysterioso Pizzicato", "The Maple Leaf Rag", or similar.

This trope is almost never played straight today. The Dastardly Whiplash is well on his way to being a Dead Horse Trope, having been largely replaced by the likes of the Villain with Good Publicity, although some modern works will still use him for sheer camp value, or for a one-off meta gag about stereotypical villains. Bonus points if one of his names is an adverb. Pantomime Villains often fit this trope, as they need to convey villainy without any dialogue or props.

The Repulsive Ringmaster often shares characteristics with this trope, such as the top hat and mustache. On the other hand, the Stage Magician wears a very similar outfit but isn't necessarily a villain.

Subtrope of Card-Carrying Villain and Obviously Evil; one of the more likely characters to play into Evil Is Hammy. (If the character doesn't have the specific appearance of a Dastardly Whiplash, it's probably one of those tropes instead.) If it's treated as a surprise twist that he's a villain, that's an overlap with Obvious Judas. Sister trope of Godwin's Law of Facial Hair, where the toothbrush mustache is associated with Hitler and evil authoritarians.

The Trope Namer is a combination of Snidely Whiplash (from Dudley Do-Right) and Dick Dastardly (of Wacky Races).

Real Life examples? No thank you. In Real Life, even the Card Carrying Villains are more complex than this.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • A worker's compensation law office commercial airing in the United States casts the boss forcing his injured worker to continue working as a hilariously stereotypical example of this trope, complete with gigantic fake curled mustache, eye patch, and corny Evil Laugh.
  • For a time, the advertising of the Mexican brand of tortillas and other bakery products, Tia Rosa, featured a baker with these features as an Evil Counterpart to the brand's main mascot.
  • In this commercial for Duracell batteries, a heroic cowboy powered by the then-new-and-improved Duracell battery faces off against an outlaw powered by the older Duracell battery, who wears a black suit and an eyepatch, and has a handlebar mustache.
  • Superman vs. Nick O'Teen: Nick O'Teen is an Obviously Evil dude (with a mustache in the first commercial) with a cape and a top hat (the latter of which is colored like a cigarette) who offers cigarettes to children, only to be stopped by Superman for a Drugs Are Bad message.
  • This commercial for the home console ports of Donkey Kong Jr. portrays Mario, the Big Bad of that game, as one of these, retaining his mustache and also giving him black pants, a vest, and a fedora to make him look even more evil.
    Mario: I got Donkey Kong! And now I'll get you too, Junior!..."Save your papa," huh? Save yourself first!

    Anime and Manga 
  • Kurayamiman from Anpanman. He's a giant darkness monster that wears a top hat (this is also how he travels, he can suck his whole body into his hat and let it float around) and black cloak. He was a former magician, and now only uses his magic for evil purposes. He's more of a gentleman compared to the other Anpanman villains, yet he's completely fine with attacking the other villains as well as the heroes. Oh, and he also has access to a wasteland dimension inside of him.
  • Mr. X in TigerMask is a thin blue skinned man with a thin mustache, Black Tophat, monocle, Black cape, and all Black outfit. Mr. X is a crooked wrestling manager, and is portrayed more seriously than most modern examples.
  • Viper Snakely from Kimba the White Lion is one of these wearing safari hunter gear.
  • Grandis' ex-fiancee in the infamous Africa arc from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. Or rather, his portrayal as one, which is enough to make one wonder why Grandis fell for him in the first place — or even falls for him again after the latter destroyed her life!
  • Subverted with Vista of the Whitebeard Pirates from One Piece. Despite the distinctly Snidely Whiplash-like mustache, he's an Officer under Whitebeard and certainly comes off as a heroic character.
  • "The Grandest Dream Thief Leon the Great" from episode 45 of Pokémon Black and White is this trope to a tee. He does not have a top hat or black clothes, but his mustache, attitude, and scheme has this trope written all over him.
  • Grocky, member of Skull Gang, and all his expies from Time Bokan series. They are all extremely thin men with a hunched posture, love of evil, and long thin mustaches which they twirl. The only they're missing is the Black tophat, and cape. This is downplayed in Yattodetaman with Kokematsu who doesn't have the mustache or posture, but still exhibits some mannerisms of this trope.
  • Given every single national team from Medabots was a ridiculous national stereotype, it wasn't too surprising that all three members of Team France turned out to be this.
  • Sergeant Gross from Attack on Titan is dressed in a military uniform and has a curled mustache, he also has a penchant for feeding Eldians alive to his dogs and sending prisoners to "fight" against their recently Titanized comrades and family members, just because he needs "entertainment".
  • Prof. Moriarty from Sherlock Hound is this to a T. From the outfit (Tophat, cane, monocle, pointy mustache and cape only in white), the personality (Larger-than-life, self-proclaimed Evil Genius) to the modus operandi (Concocting overly complex schemes doomed to fail due to a combination of both shortsightedness and the incompetence of Smiley and Todd). Most notably, Hound sees him as more of a nuisance than a real threat.

    Board Games 
  • The Spy piece in Stratego looks like one of these as it is depicted with a tophat, and handlebar mustache.
  • An MVP (named star player who can be hired in League Play) in Dreadball called Slippery Joe is a goblin who wears a false one of these. According to the fluff about him on the website, between games he often sports a top hat and plays the 'moustache-twirling' villain image to the hilt. His showmanship after throwing a strike often includes actually twirling his great black slug of a moustache to the cheering crowds.
  • Lord Licorice from Candy Land doesn't wear black, but does have a top hat, and mustache.

    Card Games 
  • A Jewish-Yiddish version of Old Maid features a gender-inverted, sinister version of the Old Maid: Yetzer Hora (evil imagination): he smokes a smelly cigar, wears a top hat, sports a trademark villainous mustache, and has a Snidely Whiplash-like evil grin on his face. After the other pairs are matched up, the player stuck with the one Yetzer Hora card loses the game.
  • Grave Robbers from Outer Space parodies this archetype in its cowboy expansion with the "Dastardy Villain" card.

    Comic Books 
  • Tom Strong's archnemesis Paul Saveen is one of these, except for the hat part. However, in an issue where he uses a time machine to call several versions of himself, one has a top hat. He's actually much more competent than usual examples of this trope, even though Failure Is the Only Option for him, like for most supervillains.
  • Krimson from Suske en Wiske (Spike & Suzy) is a classic example from Belgium.
  • Green Lantern:
    • Nemesis Sinestro certainly looks the part. In terms of personality, he's more complex. The added depth is relatively recent with his reinvention as an antihero/disgraced ruler in Emerald Dawn; before that, he was this, but less cartoonish about it (outside of the Super Friends anyway).
    • Hector Hammond would look like this if not for his superhumanly giant head.
  • Captain Marvel's Mad Scientist nemesis Dr. Sivana doesn't have the wardrobe (or the mustache) but does invoke a few of these traits, including his catchphrase "Curses! Foiled Again!"
  • Zot!: The Harmless Villain Dr. Ignatius Rumbault Bellows was based on Professor Fate from The Great Race (see below) and is a pretty straight invocation of this trope. He's also a Steampunk Mad Scientist with No Indoor Voice.
  • Superman: In a Golden Age story where a supervillain called Funny Face was bringing to life various villains from comic strips, Superman fought an Expy of the Hairbreadth Harry villain Relentless Rudolph Ruddigore Rassendale in the form of the Viper from the fictional strip Happy Daze. This story was later retold in All-Star Squadron with members of the Squadron taking the place of Superman.
  • The iconic 'stache was sported by the villainous Herr Doktor Count Baron Napoleon von Strudel (a.k.a. Bert Maudsley) in one Wallace & Gromit comic, who also had an Eyepatch of Power concealing an experimental ping-pong ball that would explode on contact with the ground. And yes, he did twirl the moustache at least once.
  • One Lucky Luke book contains an in-universe use of this trope as the villain in a melodramatic play produced by a travelling theatre company.
  • Adolf Hitler in one-shot Russian comic Stalin vs. Hitler acts like this trope.
  • One of the very last known completely serious, unlampshaded examples is the unnamed villain from a 1982 French Disney comic, The Great Toy Robbery, who plots to steal all of Santa Claus's toys to become the Santa Claus himself — except he'll sell the toys instead of giving them. He is interestingly portrayed as a human, just like Santa, even though all the other characters are Funny Animals.
  • In Issue 34 of the vintage Donald Duck comic book, Huey, Dewey and Louie have apparently been watching a movie whose main antagonist is a textbook example of the Dastardly Whiplash called Cyrus Blackheart.
  • Dastardly & Muttley: The Unstabilium is making Richard Atcherly more like one of these. By Issue #3, he even gets the iconic mustache.
  • Wonder Woman Vol 1: Minister Blizzard had a handlebar mustache, cliche villain outfit including a helmet with jagged edges and acts like the archetypal Evil Chancellor.
  • Chlorophylle: Anthracite is a bombastic conniving classic villain and wears an all-black suit with a top hat and cape. His whiskers could even qualify for a moustache.
  • In the Doctor Who (Titan): Eleventh Doctor "Year One" series, the Arc Villain the Talent Scout dresses like a stereotypical Old West grifter and acts very much like this.
  • Wednesday Comics has Grushenko, the villain of the Plastic Man comic. He's a little different visually — he's an overweight Evil Redhead Mad Scientist with a bushy beard in addition to the long mustache. But personality-wise, he's as cartoonishly villainous as they come. He says "Drat!" unironically, claims the devil is smiling on him, and really hams it up as he plots to start his own evil dynasty. This is fitting because the Plastic Man comic is more wacky and cartoonish than the others.

    Comic Strips 
  • One of the earlier examples of this was Relentless Rudolph Ruddigore Rassendale, the villain of C.W. Kahles' 1906-1940 newspaper strip Hairbreadth Harry. An almost direct rip-off of this character was the eponymous Desperate Desmond.
  • Buck Rogers' recurring nemesis Killer Kane was this sort of character in Space Clothes.
  • Several villains from Dick Tracy could count as such, such as the early 30's villain Benito Spaldoni or the new undead-magician-themed villain Abner Kadaver.
  • In one series of Garfield strips, Jon buys a fake novelty mustache. Garfield wears it and pretends to be "Evil Roy Gato".
  • A classic Charles Addams cartoon depicts one of these headed down into a subway station with a damsel slung over his shoulder and toting a coil of rope.

    Eastern Animation 
  • Shapoklyak from Cheburashka is a rare female example. She obviously lacks the mustache, but has the long nose, pointy chin, black dress, top hat and the For the Evulz villainy.

    Fan Works 
  • In the Star Trek: Voyager Parody Fic Voyager Chicks Behind Forcefields, an evil Captain Janeway twirls her red hair as she doesn't have a moustache.

    Films — Animation 
  • Bowler Hat Guy in Meet the Robinsons is an incompetent example. Turns out, the Bowler Hat itself is a better villain.
  • Toy Story and Toy Story 3: During Andy's playtime, Mr. Potato Head becomes one of these as the villain, "One-Eyed Bart".
  • Honest John from An American Tail, A hero, had Dastardly Whiplash-esque, with his gray top hat, and shabby blue tuxedo, with gray pants, and his orange mustache.
  • Mr. Winkie from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, had Dastardly Whiplash-esque, and he had a mustache on his face, and has a purple tuxedo with necktie.
  • Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective, had some Dastardly Whiplash-esque, in his black top hat, black suit, gold cane and black and red cape, similar to a vampire in some appearance.
  • Alameda Slim from Home on the Range, had many Dastardly Whiplash-esque, He dressed as Yancy O'Del disguise, with A blue top hat, monocle glasses, blue suit, with A black cane, He wanted to buy a farm, and wanted outlaw.
  • Captain Hook in Peter Pan is basically what would happen if Dick Dastardly swapped racing for piracy.
  • Cat R. Waul from An American Tail Fievel Goes West, had Dastardly Whiplash-esque, he had red top hat, with red cape, and light coral red tuxedo, with white shirt, and shoestring tie.
  • Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog, had a Dastardly Whiplash-esque, He was a voodoo magician, he had top hat with white skull, dark purple tuxedo, with a magic cane.
  • Twice Upon a Time: The Big Bad Synonamess Botch is a stout, hunchbacked, greasy-haired fellow who dresses in dark colors and has a long, thin mustache. He's even seen tugging on his mustache and giving an Evil Laugh during the opening Dramatis Personae sequence.
  • The Walrus in Alice in Wonderland has many Dastardly Whiplash-esque traits: wearing a top hat and a shabby tuxedo, carrying a cane, twirling his mustache and smoking a cigar, and coming up with an elaborate plan to lure some oysters into becoming lunch for him and The Carpenter (and then eating all the oysters by himself while the Carpenter is preparing to cook them).
  • C. Bagley Beetle from Mr. Bug Goes to Town may not have a mustache, but he's still a traditional upper-class, top-hat-wearing, Simon Legree—esque villain. He hatches all sorts of devious plots in an attempt to eliminate Hoppity and win his girlfriend, Honey.
  • Mega Mind leans hard into this trope. He doesn't have a hat or mustache (he does have a Beard of Evil though), but he does wear black, and a cape. He has a humorously incompetent henchman (who becomes hypercompetent when required). He crosses over into Mad Scientist territory with the superweapons he constructs. He favors ridiculously overcomplicated schemes, that usually fail (in fact, they are intended to), and has a preference for kidnapping and tying up one particular Damsel in Distress (to the point where at one point, she quips, "Could someone just stamp my Frequent Kidnapping Card?"). And he always makes an impressive entrance... to say he is a scene-stealer is an understatement; he's all about the PRESENTATION! He does however have a "hero's (villain's?) journey" and ends up being an Anti-Hero at the end, when the hero won't step up.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Hedley Lamarr, the Big Bad of Blazing Saddles, who appoints a black sheriff, knowing that the townspeople won't like him. Meanwhile, a new railroad is to be routed through Rock Ridge, and Hedley wants to force the residents to abandon their town so he can get the right-of-way for the railroad. Later on, Hedley starts recruiting a horde of outlaws, Klansmen, Nazis, and Methodists. Sheriff Bart and the Waco Kid manage to create a diversion by building a fake town to lure the outlaws away from the real Rock Ridge.
  • Ford Sterling in the 1913 silent film Barney Oldfield's Race For A Life ties a woman to a railroad tracks for rejecting him. Aside from wearing a Bowler hat instead of a Top Hat, he fits all physical criteria.
  • Professor Fate, Jack Lemmon's character in The Great Race. In fact, Dick Dastardly was clearly based on Professor Fate, so this is, in fact, the (half-)Trope Namer's origin.
  • Terry-Thomas made his career out of playing these:
    • Sir Percy Ware-Armitage in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. With his clipped moustache, clipped English accent, and clipped morals, he was the epitome of the "disreputable cad". Incidentally, Sir Percy Ware-Armitage was another large influence on Dick Dastardly, as the latter's spin-off show took rather blatant inspiration from this movie.
    • In Monte Carlo or Bust (a.k.a. Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies), he plays Sir Percy's equally devious son, Sir Cuthbert Ware-Armitage.
    • In Tom Thumb, he plays the villainous Ivan complete with top hat, cape, and handlebar mustache twirling, also notable for featuring Peter Sellers as his sidekick.
  • Bill "The Butcher" Cutting in Gangs of New York could be seen as a reconstruction of this character, as he fits the description in dress and outward behavior, but betrays more depth as the movie progresses. While partially just a product of his time period, the visual references must be deliberate.
  • Barnaby from Laurel and Hardy's Babes in Toyland replaces the mustache with sideburns, but fits every other aspect of the trope, including forcing the heroine to marry him in exchange for the mortgage. In the Disney re-make, Barnaby (played by Ray Bolger) changes the side-whiskers for a small waxed moustache.
  • Tod Slaughter, in nearly all his roles, played this character seriously — or, at least, as seriously as one can. "So, you wanted to be a bride, my dear Jessica, did you? So ye shall be — a bride of DEATH! Ehehehehehhehaaa!"
  • In 1940, the silent movie villain was caricatured in The Villain Still Pursued Her in the person of Silas Cribbs (Alan Mowbray).
  • In an Unbuilt Trope aversion, Paul Panzer played the silent film epitome of this character, "Raymond Owen" (later renamed "Koerner" to take advantage of World War I-era anti-Teutonism) in The Perils of Pauline, as a fairly young man (the secretary of the eponymous Pauline (Pearl White)'s guardian, bent on gaining her fortune), clean-shaven, and not particularly antiquated or exaggerated in manner or appearance. (Incidentally, contrary to popular belief, few of the "Pauline" films were cliffhangers; most were self-contained episodes.)
    • In 1947, Pearl White's life was romanticized in the film, The Perils of Pauline. In this musical film, actor Timmy Timmons (Billy DeWolfe, plays the villainous character "Hugo Mortimer" in White's films as the full-blown Dastardly Whiplash character of the popular imagination, rather than strictly recreating the Raymond Owen of the original serial (who didn't really fit this trope). Interestingly, the original Owen, Paul Panzer, plays the bit part of a "Drawing Room Gent" in this film.
      • Billy DeWolfe would later voice the evil Prof. Hinkle as yet another Dastardly Whiplash in the Frosty the Snowman Christmas special.
  • Cactus Jack, Kirk Douglas' character in the 1979 Western spoof The Villain uses the personality characteristics of this trope, but the costume conventions of the bad-guy-in-a-black-hat from Westerns.
  • Downplayed a bit, but General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith has the black cloak, hunched posture, and hand-rubbing gestures. A humorous gif adds the hat and mustache...
  • In Singin' in the Rain, Don Lockwood gets his first break as a stuntman at Monumental Pictures playing a mustache-wearing villain type who takes it on the jaw from the hero after being caught menacing the girl.
  • Inspector Monet from Le Havre is a contemporary example — he's tall, thin, mustached, and his only outfit is a flowing black coat, black pants, and a bowler hat. However, the end of the film proves his morality is slightly more ambiguous than the average Whiplash.
  • Lee Van Cleef portrayed examples that were genuinely imposing. The most famous of these is undoubtedly Angel Eyes.
  • Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). He's got a prominent chin, curled mustache, black coat and flamboyantly villainous personality. His mustache grows even bigger when stranded on the Mushroom Planet. Ironically, Jeff Fowler stated that he wanted to defy certain aspects of this trope, calling the game version of Robotnik "moustache-twirly" and saying he wanted this interpretation to be more "grounded."
  • Played for laughs in the Dudley Doright movie, where Alfred Molina is clearly having the time of his life as Snidely Whiplash.
  • Vincent Price's onscreen persona evokes a little bit of this trope, with his imposing height, sinister voice, mid-Atlantic accent, and well-groomed mustache.
    • Frederick Loren in House on Haunted Hill (1959) appears like this trope at first, being a rich and powerful man, distrusted by most other characters, sinister in appearance (dressed in a suit like the Man of Wealth and Taste he is, and Vincent Price's moustache is at its most twirlable in this film), and with a sneeringly sarcastic and morbid sense of humour. It's obvious from the start that he's hiding some sinister plan. However, he turns out to be a more complex character than this trope. For a start, he's not the villain of the film, but rather the intended murder victim, though still a ruthless schemer who might well have murdered his previous three wives. He's also far more competent than the usual cartoonish, unintelligent and easily foiled version of this trope: his plan might be rather odd and overcomplicated if you think about it too hard, but it works, and ultimately he defeats his enemies and gets away with everything, making him quite the Karma Houdini if he really did commit the other murders he was suspected of.
    • Waldo Trumbull in The Comedy of Terrors, meanwhile, is a particularly comedically incompetent and over the top version of the trope, played for laughs as an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist. He pairs the moustache with sideburns this time around and even dresses in the stereotypical outfit of black suit, top hat and cape-like coat (though it's justified as he's a 19th century undertaker), and tends to speak in Antiquated Linguistics and phrases like "Confound you!", though he mixes in some Sophisticated as Hell (unlike most versions of this trope, he is not rich or a Man of Wealth and Taste, but a crude drunk with pretensions). He's unrepentantly evil, having murdered several people before the events of the film even start to keep his undertaker's business going, and is petty, vicious and cruel to everyone except his Right-Hand Cat. And he certainly has the over the top mannerisms down: he sneers, rubs his hands, and laughs maniacally while attempting to strangle his wife. He even has a bullied sidekick played by Peter Lorre. Of course, his schemes end up failing in comedic ways, thanks in no small part to his own incompetence, and the film ends with him receiving Death by Irony while everyone he tries to kill over the course of the film, except the old man he kills early on, is doing just fine.
  • The Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a sort of medieval example. He's one-dimensional, scene stealing, big mustache (and beard), wears black, comically dark, obsessed with marrying the girl and stealing her land (or killing her and stealing it, whichever works; he's nothing if not pragmatic).
  • Major Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He doesn't have the mustache, and his greed is only for Der Fuhrer, but he's got the big black hat and cape, he steals (and sucks the oxygen from) every scene he's in, he's bone-chillingly evil, has goofy equipment (that hanger!), and instead of a maniacal laugh he has more of a sinister wheezing cackle reminiscent of Peter Lorre.
  • Raúl Juliá's "M. Bison" from the Street Fighter film belongs here, or at least deserves an honorable mention. He's not an exact match: he doesn't have a mustache and wears red instead of black, but he does have a black cape and a ridiculously large black hat, he's hilariously one-dimensional and utterly hammy (the scenery quite literally gets pulled down around him at the end), has an evil laugh, has dimwitted henchmen, he menaces a girl, Chun-Li (for him, it was Tuesday) and has plans to kidnap the queen of England, has a scheme to take over the world and a ridiculous machine to do it with, and eventually falls to a meat-headed, equally one-dimensional "do good" hero. It was a horrible movie elevated to horribly glorious by his tour de force final performance.

    Literature 
  • Older Than Radio: Simon Legree from Uncle Tom's Cabin is a sort of proto-Whiplash combined with the message that Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil. No pretensions to refinement, but plenty of exultation-in-evil. This was codified mostly in the plays which tended to cast Legree in all black outfit.
  • Soon I Will Be Invincible: Trophies from his past exploits indicate Baron Ether was one of these in his youth, before becoming an Evil Overlord.
  • Discworld
    • Since Moving Pictures races through the entire history of cinema up to Gone with the Wind in a couple of weeks, a Dastardly Whiplash naturally appears early on. He's tying Ginger to a tree (in the absence of railroad tracks on the Discworld at this time) and a sign is held in front of the picture-box saying "Ahar! My proude beauty!"
    • Abrim in Sourcery is sort of this trope meets Evil Chancellor. When he first appears, it's said that "He twirled his mustache, probably foreclosing another dozen mortgages."
  • All the villains in the Sword of Truth books by Terry Goodkind are rapists and pederasts. If they are hidden villains, the first thing they try to do once they reveal themselves as villains is try to rape someone. Also, the villain from the first book (and some others) is named Darken Rahl. Might as well have just called him "Snidely Whiplash." For that matter, the major villain for the rest of the series is "Jagang", which has the word "gang" in it. And he even does have a mustache to twirl.
  • Alec D'Urberville, from Tess of the D'Urbervilles, is an early version of this trope played straight (it's Victorian melodrama with a Realist touch). Hardy starts to give him Hidden Depths when he attempts to become a religious man, but he soon drops it and goes back to his dastardly, womanizing ways.
  • "Squire Hardman" from H. P. Lovecraft's "Sweet Ermengarde" is an early (ca. 1920) parody:
    When the lovers had finally strolled away he leapt out into the lane, viciously twirling his moustache and riding-crop, and kicking an unquestionably innocent cat who was also out strolling.
    "Curses!" he cried — Hardman, not the cat — "I am foiled in my plot to get the farm and the girl!..."
  • Sir Percival Glyde, a "bad baronet" in The Woman in White, is this, involved in the standard financial scheming and wife imprisonment.
  • The trope is mocked by Artemis Fowl:
    Butler: Focus, Artemis, one dastardly crime at the time.
    Artemis Fowl: Dastardly, Butler? Dastardly? Honestly, we are not cartoon characters. I do not have a villainous laugh or an eyepatch.
  • Discussed in White Night:
    Harry Dresden: The wacky thing about those bad guys is that you can't count on them to be obvious. They forget to wax their mustaches and goatees, leave their horns at home, send their black hats to the dry cleaner's. They're funny, like that.
  • In Enoch Soames, the narrator is contemptuous of the Devil and notes that Satan's attempts to invoke Evil Is Stylish actually make him come across as a ridiculous example of this trope:
    "Dread was indeed rather blunted in me by his looking so absurdly like a villain in a melodrama. The sheen of his tilted hat and of his shirt-front, the repeated twists he was giving to his mustache, and most of all the magnificence of his sneer, gave token that he was there only to be foiled."
  • In the Sherlock Holmes canon, Colonel Sebastian Moran. Sidney Paget draws him in white tie and a Badass Longcoat, with a prominent nose, eminently twirlable moustache and Bald of Evil. Personality-wise, he's pretty one-dimensional even for a Holmes villain — established as being Moriarty's number-one thug, a former Sociopathic Soldier and the disgraced son of a man who almost counts as an aristocrat (being a Knight of the British Empire, a Companion of the Order of Bath and an Ambassadorial Minister, all of which are high-ranking but technically non-noble titles), he seemingly has no interests outside of shooting things (either animals or people) and cheating at cards.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Angel: Becomes the subject of a pun by a secretary at supernatural law firm Wolfram & Hart.
    Harmony: I'm sorry. Wrong extension. You need "529" for Curses. Foiled again, huh? [chuckles] Hello?
  • In the Batman (1966) episode, "The Riddler's False Notion", the Riddler has planned a series of crimes with a silent movie theme. During one caper, he is dressed as the titular villain, wearing a black top hat and cape over his green tights, and wearing a false mustache and carrying a whip.
    • The Penguin is a type of this throughout the series. Wearing a top hat and morning suit, smoking cigarettes from a long cigarette holder, walking with an odd waddling gait and having a maniacal quacking laugh.
  • Doctor Who:
  • Firefly:
    • In the first episode, Simon is used as a Red Herring and looks a lot like this kind of character.
    • Referenced in "Ariel": after Simon has planned and executed his first heist, Shepherd Book asks if he's got his next scheme lined up, referring to him jokingly as a "criminal mastermind". Simon responds, "Not yet, but I was thinking of growing a big, black mustache. I'm a traditionalist."
  • M.T. Promises on The Great Space Coaster is a villainous ringmaster who is always trying to force or trick the show's hero into returning to work in M.T.'s circus. At least his occupation justifies his wearing the standard Whiplash outfit.
  • Robbie Rotten of LazyTown may not have the loftiest of goals (he just wants the kids to be lazy so they won't be running back and forth across the roof of his subterranean lair all day — one might suggest he move, but it's probably rent-controlled), and lacks the mustachenote , but he more than makes up for it with his Lean and Mean physique, prominent chin, wicked grin, hammy mannerism, and the kind of elaborate costumes and schemes that define this trope.
  • Uncle Deadly filled this role in the Melodrama sketches of The Muppet Show, with Miss Piggy as the Damsel in Distress and Wayne (of Wayne and Wanda fame) as the hero.
  • North and South (U.S.) has several spanning the course of three books, most of them Southerners: mega evil plantation owner/wifebeater/slave abuser David Carradine, cackling racist and adultery enthusiast Ashton, slimy slave overseer Salem Jones, bloodthirsty prison warden Wayne Newton, seemingly-immortal wannabe warlord Elkinah Bent, and Ku Klux Klan co-founder (and evil landlord, god help us) Robert Wagner, among others. Lest you think the Confederacy gets the short end of the stick, there are plenty of Yankee bigots: Jonathan Frakes and wife (hates the Irish), Kirstie Alley (hates southerners), and Forest Whitaker (hates white people). The latter forms an alliance with his old overseer and raids their plantation, all for the express purpose of raping one slave girl who turn him down years ago.
  • Speaking of racists, Roots (1977) rolled out a new arch-villain for each chapter. First there was the truly creepy first mate of Kunta's slaving ship, Mr. Slater; then the ghoulish, rape-happy plantation owner Tom Moore; and finally Lloyd Bridges as a particularly meddlesome racist. The latter even says "you haven't seen the last of me" during an encounter with Kunta's grandson.
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch: In "Silent Movie", a Magic Misfire makes everyone part of a Silent Movie with Mr. Kraft as a moustache-twirling villain tying damsels to railroad tracks.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: Picard references this archetype when he refers to "villains who twirl their moustaches" being easier to spot than "idealists" who "clothes themselves in good deeds" in "The Drumhead".
  • The Twilight Zone (1959): In "Miniature", the doll girl's suitor resembles this type of villain, complete with cartoonishly evil mannerisms and musical cues.
  • On the game show Whew!, a member of the Gauntlet of Villains is Mr. Van Louse the Landlord, brandishing a top hat, mustache and the deed to someone's house of which he plans to foreclose.

    Music 
  • The original picture sleeve for The Beach Boys' 1967 single "Heroes and Villains" had a cartoon illustration of one of these (getting bested by a Dudley Do-Right-esque hero).
  • The cover for the 1969 Ohio Express album Mercy features a villain with everything but the mustache in a match of fisticuffs with a lumberjack on a handcar, while the rope-bound Damsel in Distress cries for help.
  • The Coasters' song "Along Came Jones" (written by Leiber and Stoller) has the exploits of the villain Salty Sam, Sweet Sue, and Jones running on the TV — on every channel, apparently.
  • One of Doctor Steel's steampunk outfits includes a black stovepipe top hat and black PVC cape (along with his ubiquitous goggles), reminiscent of 19th century villains.
  • Taylor Swift's "Mean" has a picture in the liner notes of a stereotypical villain standing over Taylor, who is tied to a railroad track. He's also in the music video and on the single cover, too.
  • Tom Smith's song "Sheep Marketing Ploy" pitches a series of horror movies about a sheep who usurps Satan's position as ruler of Hell; the sheep is described as having a classic villain mustache.
  • The villain in Coldplay's "Magic" is a hybrid of Stage Magician and this.
  • With his black zoot suit, John Waters-style mustache and comically sinister stage persona, "Goth Swing" bandleader Lee Presson of Lee Presson and the Nails could be considered another musical version of this trope.
  • The Cog Is Dead did a cover of Billie Eilish's hit song, "Bad Guy". While there isn't a music video 'per se', the cover art of their YouTube track shows the lead singer, "Captain John Sprocket", dressed as the stereotypical black hat wearing, mustache-twirling bad guy. The song lyrics are full of this trope.
    • They really love this trope; they did a follow-up villainous cover of Bella Poarch's song "Villain", and a Disney Villain parody of The Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You".

    Myths & Religion 
  • Norse Mythology: Through only two depictions are known that might represent Loki, both of them have him sporting a dastardly mustache.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • The Vaudevillains, a WWE tag team consisting of Simon Gotch and Aiden English, were thematically patterned after this archetype, complete with Gotch sporting a handlebar mustache and their entrance being filmed in black and white—though, despite the name, they largely didn't really act all that heel-ish.

    Radio 
  • While you can't see what he looks like on the radio, Mr. Gently Benevolent of Bleak Expectations certainly fits the character.
  • Rocky Rococo from The Further Adventures of Nick Danger is described as a "little man with an evil grin". He has some convoluted scheme involving blackmail, a contract, and using a pickle as a bludgeon.

    Stand-Up Comedy 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dr. Scrooge, from Spirit of the Century's supplement "Spirit of the Season", is essentially one of these. He's an evil banker (well, businessman of many stripes, really) who uses his wealth to greedily acquire more wealth to acquire more wealth, and so on, but will gladly go out of his way to steal cookies from orphans while he's at it. Somewhat more developed than most in that he's suffering from a delusion where he thinks he is actually Ebenezer Scrooge's heir, despite the character from A Christmas Carol being entirely fictitious. He's (somehow) calculated an exorbitant sum of money that he would have had if Scrooge hadn't squandered it on charity. His goal in life is to earn back that money. His hatred of orphans is tied to the fact that he is one. So...yeah...really messed up. Still comes across as almost a Care Bears villain, though.
  • The cowboy expansion deck of Grave Robbers from Outer Space had a "Dastardly Villain" enemy card who surely was meant to evoke this archetype. Complete with handlebar mustache to twirl.

    Theatre 
  • The villainous long-lost husband of "Miss Lucy," the heroine of the Victorian-era Show Within a Show in Show Boat, "The Parson's Bride" is played by the show boat troupe's comedian, Frank Shultz, as one of these, uttering the iconic line, "I reckon you thought I was dead, gal! Well, I'm about the liveliest corpse you ever saw!"
  • The silent movie stereotype derives partly from seducer figures in Victorian melodrama; Alec, from Tess of the D'Urbervilles, with his curling black mustache which he constantly strokes in order to show off his diamond rings, is one of the most notorious. For some reason, the character is often given the name Jasper, as in the Bawdy Song Oh, Sir Jasper Do Not Touch Me.
  • Spoofed in Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore (1887). The baronet of Ruddigore is required, due to an ancestral curse, to commit a single evil deed daily. When the leading man, Robin Oakapple, is exposed to secretly be Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, the true heir to the seat of Ruddigore, he exits and then returns, as traditionally portrayed with the mustache and top hat. Similarly, his servant Old Adam spontaneously acquires a hump and changes his name to the more suitably-villainous Gideon Crawle.
    • One of the deceased "bad baronets" was actually named Sir Jasper.
  • The Show Within a Show entrance of "King Simon of Legree" (see Literature, above) in The King and I is accompanied by blood-curdling screams. His cruelty toward the slaves is presented as a barely-veiled allegory for the King of Siam's persecution of Tuptim and her secret lover Lun Tha.
  • The Mark Twain play Is He Dead? gives us the evil landlord Andre who stalks the stage and offers to forgive the Starving Artist's debt if said artist's Love Interest marries him. Later, he makes the same deal, offering marriage in exchange for debt-forgiveness to the Starving Artist, now in drag, posing as his sister.
  • Count von Cliché from Way, Way Off Broadway is a parody. He wants to steal the map of the railroad so he may buy the land before the railroad owners get a chance to and sell it to them at a very high price. To achieve this end he has to tie the heroine to the railroad tracks. Just...'cause.
  • Pinocchio: The Musical turns the Coachman into a combination of this and a Repulsive Ringmaster, with the classic curly moustache.

    Toys 
  • Slyboots and Lord Sam Sinister from LEGO Adventurers are this type of villain.

    Video Games 
  • Waluigi from the Super Mario Bros. series is an interesting variation. Although he wears overalls, not only does he look almost identical to Dick Dastardly and Robbie Rotten, he has a lot of the characteristics of a dastardly whiplash.
  • Dr. Eggman of the Sonic the Hedgehog series certainly has many characteristics of this archetype, namely his moustache and a never-ending supply of evil tricks and traps as well as a penchant for piloting large death machines to crush Sonic and his friends.
  • One of these is introduced in The Sims 2: Bon Voyage expansion, known only as "Unsavory Charlatan". He's a pickpocket who sneaks around in a top hat, stroking his handlebar mustache. There's one for each Hollywood Atlas settings, each otherwise dressed in locale-appropriate garb.
  • Albeit he lacks a mustache and dresses in purple, Leopold Charles Anthony Weasleby the Third from Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is a perfect example of a Dastardly Whiplash with an obsession with clockwork Death Machines.
  • Dampierre from Soul Calibur Broken Destiny is a variation on the trope: although he otherwise fits the trope perfectly, and commits petty crimes typical to the Dastardly Whiplash archetype, he's actually more of a good guy than a true villain and ultimately wishes to atone for the wrongs he's done. Quite justified when you've got villains such as an Omnicidal Maniac Eldritch Abomination resurrected from an evil sword, a sadistic, insane Psychopathic Womanchild, and similar nasties running around freely. However, according to the fifth game, he did sell Pyrrha into slavery.
  • Bergamot in Steambot Chronicles may not look the part, but once his Voice Actor starts talking, there won't be a doubt in your mind. Bonus points towards the end of the game's Hero path, where he almost seems a hair's breadth from a set of train tracks and an "I have you now, my pretty!"
    Bergamot: You little strumpet!
  • Regis from Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness. He certainly has the look down, but he leans closer to Corrupt Corporate Executive.
  • Salem from Drawn to Life 2.
  • Red Dead Redemption:
    • The achievement "Dastardly", which you get for hogtying a woman and placing her on the train tracks and afterwards watch the train running her over. The icon for the achievement is a depiction of a top hat and handlebar moustache. Leave it to Rockstar to give you gamerscore for being arbitrarily evil in such a cartoonish way.
    • The "strange man" plays with this trope a LOT. While his missions lend to moral ambiguity, the fact that he is implied to be Death or The Devil may make him the ultimate Dastardly Whiplash, but his character and motivations are deliberately vague enough that it's equally plausible he's an angel, or even God himself, which would make him a subversion.
  • Don Paolo from the Professor Layton games definitely counts, with the mustache, the long coat, and the smug sneer. We don't find out what his beef with Layton is until the third game.
  • Chancellor Cole, the Big Bad of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, definitely has the look, complete with top hat (or rather, two of them, to hide his horns; hatless, he looks like the original Pointy-Haired Boss). He's a lot more competent than most Dastardly Whiplash characters, though, and, early in the game, kills Zelda because he didn't actually need her alive, since her body is necessary for reviving his boss, Demon King Malladus. (This backfires, funnily enough; Zelda is surprisingly useful while dead.)
  • The title character of The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom looks a bit like one of these. Given the mayhem he causes in his efforts to steal pies, he's certainly not a very nice guy.
  • Yoshiaki Mogami of Sengoku Basara 3 is this, right down to having an incredibly pointy mustache. About the only major action he takes is kidnapping Matsu so that the Maeda clan join up with Ieyasu. It's even shown in his fighting style, which is a mix of Confusion Fu and Combat Pragmatism, meaning that he makes good use of tricks like point somewhere else to distract enemies, groveling on the ground to prep for Counter Attacks, and generally fighting in a tricky/deceptive fashion.
  • Yin-Yarn, the Big Bad of Kirby's Epic Yarn, who, indeed, sports a mustache and an evil grin despite looking more like an evil wizard. However, he is a more competent example, given that he's managed to split Patch Land into pieces, and subsequently took over Dreamland by seizing both Castle Dedede and the Halberd. He has no idea what he'll do afterwards.
  • Bioshock Infinite has Jeremiah Fink, who not only looks like Snidely but is a monstrously racist Robber Baron who exploits his employees as much as humanly possible.
  • Super Solvers' Big Bad Morty Maxwell comes across as one of these in the clothes of a Mad Scientist, due to his sinister mustache, cartoonishly villainous personality, and constant scheming.
  • In the Toy Story 2 Licensed Game, the mini-boss of the eleventh level, "Al's Penthouse" is Gunslinger, a tall, thin desperado with a handlebar mustache. He re-appears in the fifteenth and final level, "Prospector Showdown", working alongside Stinky Pete and Blacksmith.
  • King Dice from Cuphead is a character with these features dressed in a suit and with a die for a head. His appearances on the show based on the game has a rigged game show Roll the Dice which is impossible to lose for contestants since their souls get snatched after they enter the Mystery Prize Room, and deliberately sabotages the Devil's 3rd Finest Demons to get the glory of kidnapping Cuphead. Plus, he believes he's the Devil's Number 1, though his boss doesn't acknowledge it.
  • Dr. Fetus from Super Meat Boy. Although he lacks a mustache (being a fetus and all), he dons the wardrobe and his most infamous crime is kidnapping the titular hero's girlfriend.
  • In Imperium Nova, Fornuxian Count Giacomo di Scaliger and his family were all officially titled "the Dastardly" by an Imperial judge. He embraced the trappings of this trope very quickly.
  • Dr. Strangeglove from Moshi Monsters. His top hat is his face (the eyes pop out of the top of it, and the moustache right under it moving like a mouth). There's even a promotional poster of him tying Tyra Fangs to a railroad track (in sepia tone!)
  • Panic Restaurant has Hors D'oeuvre (Ohdove), a Dastardly Whiplash in a chef’s outfit.
  • Captain Brains from The Stretchers has this archetype down to a tee. Outrageously villainous? He spends the game hypnotizing people and turning them into "Dizzies". No depth to his personality? All we know about him is that he was a former medic who turned to evil, and nothing else. Handlebar mustache? One finely-styled hallmark of his treachery right beneath his schnoz!
  • Fool, the Big Bad of Tail Concerto more or less emobodies this trope. He's sharply dressed, superficially polite, openly underhanded & deceitful, entirely characterized around his big complicated scheme, and is very Obviously Evil not to mention he ultimately fails due to his own naivety and doesn't learn a darn thing from it. All he's missing is the mustache and he'd be perfect.
  • Freaky Flyers features Pilot X, a Humanoid Alien variant of the archetype. While he does dress in all-black clothing and sports the thin mustache, he doesn't directly engage in deceitful trickery himself, letting his collaborator Professor Gutentaag handle that, and only confronts the other flyers after they've won the racing competition (even Gutentaag). ALSO, HE CONSTANTLY YELLS HIS SENTENCES LIKE THIS!!
  • A newspaper article in Victoria 2 reads:
    The horrifically-mutilated corpse of a damsel was discovered yesterday tied to a train track. The public is advised to be on the lookout for a man with a large moustache, a top hat and a black opera cloak.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 features Consul V, who has the voice, accent, and mannerisms of an old-timey villain, while his Consul helmet is shaped like a top hat, and has tubes on said helmet resembling a handlebar mustache. He may be one of the less competent Consuls, easily falling for Taion and Riku's trap, but was also responsible for brutally executing soldiers that completed their 10 terms to prevent their souls from being lost from the cycle of reincarnation, as well as Ashera's suicidal tendencies, the former of which resulted in the creation of the Homecoming Ceremony.

    Web Animation 
  • "Sir Strong Bad", Strong Bad's Old-Timey counterpart in Homestar Runner, is mostly dead on, except that his face is still a luchador mask (which doesn't stop him from keeping the mustache.)
  • One of these appears on the "Good guys, bad guys, and explosions" part of the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny Flash cartoon.
  • The singer of mrweebl's "Moustaches" has the appearance, but not really the behavior to go along with it.
  • Zero Punctuation often uses top-hatted mustached figures as stand-ins for the villains of the games under discussion, usually if the villains aren't interesting enough to warrant talking about in detail.
  • DSBT InsaniT: Robber Eel is one in the form of an eel.
  • FreedomToons: The GOP is depicted as a mustache-twirling villain who wears a black suit, top hat, and eye mask.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • Whateley Universe. In "Razzle Dazzle", Mephisto the Mentalist portrays one as part of the many criminal characters he adopts throughout history. According to him he's not being evil — the "taking over the ranch" plot was just him drawing attention to the shady tactics used by the banks who were the real villains.

    Web Videos 
  • The Spoony Experiment: In Spoony's review of Avatar, he comments that the only way the villains could possibly have been more one-dimensional and Obviously Evil is if they had moustaches to twiddle.
  • In The Cartoon Man, Simon becomes this type of character when in his cartoon form.
  • Manatee Girl: The Movie has the InHumanatee who has a comically large mustache despite being in live action. He dumps oil in manatee inhabited springs simply because he considers it a "sufficiently evil undertaking for a man of [his] talents".
  • Guaranteed* Video: New Kids on the Rock's "Ryan's Christmas Wish" features the Misery Meister, who is just as moustache-twirlingly evil as the name would imply. Although, unusually, he's played by a female actor.

    Western Animation 
  • The co-Trope Namers:
    • Snidely Whiplash from Dudley Do-Right is among the most prominent examples, although the character type had already existed beforehand, and, like everything else about the show, Whiplash was more of a parody than a straight example.
    • As is Dick Dastardly of Wacky Races and Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines, though he eschews the top-hat, morning-suit, and cape, and dresses in purple rather than black.
    • Dudley creator Jay Ward's Fractured Flickers show (which featured old silent films with newly-dubbed dialogue and music) had an animated opening sequence that included this type of character chasing a blonde damsel.
  • Boris Badenov from Rocky and Bullwinkle.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: "The Blackened Sponge" features Jack M. Crazyfish, who in SpongeBob's dream, ties damsels in distress to railroad tracks and cheats at Rock–Paper–Scissors. SpongeBob initially makes up and brags about a story involving Crazyfish to explain his black eye, which actually occurred when SpongeBob tried to use a monkey wrench to remove a toothpaste cap.
    • Subverted when Crazyfish appears, only for Spongebob to confess that he made up the incident to avoid looking foolish. It turns out Crazyfish just wanted to see SpongeBob because SpongeBob makes really good Krabby Patties. When SpongeBob spills a deluxe Krabby Patty with extra cheese on Crazyfish's suit, they settle things with a quick game of Rock–Paper–Scissors.
  • Thaddeus Griffin, Peter's evil twin from Family Guy.
    Thaddeus: Nyah, this will surely affect my inheritance... nyah!
    [escapes in hot air balloon]
  • The Powerpuff Girls has two of these:
    • One is a zombie called Abracadaver who wears this outfit because he was a Stage Magician.
    • The other, Max Von Nitrate appears when they watch a silent movie, and find out that Professor Utonium is the Damsel in Distress!
      Buttercup: Whoa! Who's that?
      Blossom: The bad guy.
      Bubbles: How can you tell?
      Blossom: He’s the one with the flycatcher for a mustache.
      [he girls giggle]
  • Oil Can Harry in the old Mighty Mouse cartoons.
    • Lampshaded by Scrappy in Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures in the episode "Scrappy's Playhouse" when he's watching a clip of an old cartoon that features a more traditional human version of the character:. "Hey, didn't he used to be a cat?"
    • Another episode featured a one time character named "The Glove" who also dressed like this.
  • Dishonest John from Beany and Cecil. "Nya-ha-hah!"
    "DJ, you dirty guy!"
  • Looney Tunes:
    "A runabout! I'll steal it! NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!"
  • The Hooded Claw from The Perils of Penelope Pitstop has Dastardly Whiplash mannerisms, though his appearance — with color scheme on loan from The Joker — is more flamboyant than most (he also lacks the traditional mustache). No surprise, since he's voiced by Paul Lynde.
  • George of the Jungle:
    • A Super Chicken episode features theater actor Briggs Badwolf, who, playing the melodrama villain once too often, believes he is the character — he makes off with the female lead of the play. Attempting to get her to go to the Villain's Annual Picnic with him, he takes her to the usual places — the sawmill, the railroad track, the old abandoned mine...
    • And Baron Otto Matic, in the Tom Slick segments.
  • In Sheep in the Big City, there's "The Count D'Ten" (one, two, three-darn it!). A Speed Racer parody featured "Greedy McGreed-Greed", who resembled this character type.
  • In a Pinky and the Brain episode set at the beginning of the silent film era, Brain decides to conquer the world by making himself a movie star. The movies that he and Pinky make together spoof various silent film tropes, including one with Pinky as a villain of this type — complete with cloak, top hat, and mustache — tying a Damsel in Distress to railroad tracks so that Brain, as the hero, can rescue her.
  • Phineas and Ferb: While Dr. Doofenshmirtz is clearly a Mad Scientist, he still echoes quite a bit of this trope: exaggerated nose and chin, hunched posture, elaborate crazy schemes, and over-the-top mannerisms. No mustache or hat, though, and, in keeping with his Mad Scientist role, he wears a lab coat.
    • In the episode "Steampunx," his counterpart "Professor von Doofenshmirtz" fits the trope perfectly, mustache and hat included, and for bonus points he ties Perry to the train tracks.
    • Mitch, the mustachioed arch-nemesis of Meap.
  • Professor Hinkle, the self-styled Evil Magician of Frosty the Snowman has the antiquated costume (though he loses the top hat), the handlebar moustache, He has a green tuxedo with pink shirt on black tie, the exaggerated mannerisms, and the general incompetence associated with this trope. The fact that he is voiced by Billy DeWolfe (see Live-Action Film, above) demonstrates the provenance of the character.
  • As an Expy of Trope Namer Dastardly (for legal reasons), the Dread Baron from Laff-A-Lympics naturally falls into this category as well. Issue #13 of the Laff-a-Lympics comic book (Marvel, Feb. 1979) notes that Dick Dastardly and Dread Baron are brothers.
  • Rum-Baa-Baa, the evil sheep from British toon Henry's Cat, may not have the moustache, but has everything else. One variation of the show's end credits even show him doing the old train track routine.
  • Awful B. Bad from Little Clowns of Happytown has everything associated with this trope, right down to the mustache and badly planned acts of evil, and always sets out to ruin everyone's day but always ends up being effortlessly thwarted.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Sideshow Mel in '"The Lastest Gun in the West".
    • Moe appears this way on one side of his business cards, which state his "profession" as villain. When he becomes a volunteer firefighter, he modifies the back of his cards so they reflect the fact that he is now a hero.
    • Homer as the wicked landlord Mr. Stingly in Rent II: Condo Fever, bursting into the room in full Snidely Whiplash regalia.
      Homer: Where is the rent? I must have the rent. Dollars, dimes, and nickels — I need them all right now!
    • Charles Montgomery Burns was born around the turn of the 20th century and still thinks and acts like an old-timey robber baron. This is best exemplified in Who Shot Mr. Burns?, part I, where he steals the oil well out from under the local elementary school. He's got no mustache or cape, but his Finger-Tenting and hiss of "Excellent!" are plenty theatrical enough make up for it. On the other hand, depending on the episode, he may be more Affably Evil or even Obliviously Evil than deliberately, dog-kickingly villainous.
  • Heeza Ratt, the villain from the 1934 Betty Boop short "She Wronged Him Right" who is actually an actor in a play Betty Boop is playing the heroine in.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
  • G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero: Major Bludd, Cobra's henchman with a sinister Australian accent.
  • Rattfink, from the Roland and Rattfink cartoons.
  • Phantom Phink in Yogi's Space Race is a Captain Ersatz of Dick Dastardly, who was also a Hanna-Barbera character.
  • The Amazing Mumbo from Teen Titans definitely sports the look and one-dimensional villainy, although he's never seen engaging in mustache twirling or Antiquated Linguistics. Justified in that his whole theme is stage magic turned horribly real; top hats, black suits, and cloaks just happen to be the stereotypical garb of stage magicians.
  • In The Fairly OddParents! short that first aired on Oh Yeah! Cartoons which was the pilot to the series. When Vicky is trying to run away she ends up tied to a railroad track, with Timmy gloating over her with mustache and top hat.
  • In the Popeye short "Cartoons Ain't Human", Popeye makes one of these the villain of his home-made cartoon.
  • The Peculiar Purple Pie Man of Porcupine Peak,note  from the Strawberry Shortcake cartoons has the twirly mustache, nose, chin and mannerisms to qualify for this.
  • Long John Spoilsport (voiced by James Earl Jones), from the 1970s PBS show Vegetable Soup.
  • Ben Buzzard from the Donald Duck short The Flying Jalopy.
  • The South Park episode "Safe Space" has "Reality", a being in this form trying to make people hiding from online criticism accept that the real world is cruel. He ends up being executed by said growing group of people.
  • Two such characters appear in The Brave Engineer. The first is a more traditional looking Dastardly Whiplash character who ties a damsel to the train tracks and shouts "Curses! Foiled again!" when thwarted. The second is a more haggard looking one, who blows up the tracks.
  • Black Hat, the Villain Protagonist of Villainous, is an odd example of this trope. In terms of aesthetics, he wears all-black formal wear with a monocle and top-hat (hence the name), and he speaks with a thick Cockney accent — though he lacks the traditional hunched posture, exaggerated nose/chin, or curly mustache. His personality also fits the bill, as he's a Card-Carrying Villain who abuses his henchmen for fun and is prone to emotional outbursts. Unlike other examples of this trope, however, Black Hat is highly intelligent, practical-minded, and scarily competent, on top of being a Humanoid Abomination with an array of nasty powers at his disposal.
  • Defacely Marmeister from Hammer Man, A campy supervillain with a high pitched raspy voice and a very cheesy outfit. He even says Curses! Drat! when he gets caught at the end.
  • Enforced in-universe in an episode of DuckTales (2017) by Scrooge McDuck, who has not seen a film since the 1930s and insists that the villain of the Darkwing Duck remake should have a mustache to twirl so that the audience knows he's evil.
  • Humpty Dumpty Jr. is an old animated short by Ub Iwerks, whose villain, simply referred to as "The Bad Egg", is a pretty straightforward instance of this trope, except that he's a talking egg.
  • Discussed by aging supervillain Red Death from The Venture Bros. in his "Gentleman Villain" monologue, where he's opining about the Good Old Ways to fellow supervillain Blind Rage (who is at this point gagged and tied to a railway). The Red Death mentions that his favorite bit of villainy was the old Time Bomb, where the indeterminate ticking would give the victim some slim hope while also giving the anxiety of the constant reminder of imminent death.
  • Mayor Humdinger from PAW Patrol is a preschooler-friendly version of this. While he doesn't tie anyone to any railroad tracks, he has a grumpy demeanor, comes up with complicated, often bizarre plans for the PAW Patrol to foil, and twirls his mustache when he laughs.
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil has one-shot villain, the Pie King. He is thin, with a handlebar moustache, pointy nose and a very flamboyant personality. Also, unlike the shows more complex villains, such as Ludo and Toffee, this guy is extremely one-dimensional, with all his evil acts being motivated purely by greed.
  • The Ice King from Adventure Time is a deconstruction. Whilst he has a full beard rather then a simple moustache, he has other physical traits, such as a long nose, slightly hunched posture and (Depending on the Artist) is Lean and Mean. During the first few seasons, he was a stereotypical cartoon villain, kidnapping helpless women in order to force them to marry him, amongst other crazy schemes. He even once cheated in a wizard battle, by useing weapons, despite the fact he can already make weapons out of ice. However We soon learn that he used to be a normal man, and both is appearance and insane personality was due to being cursed by the crown.
    • His Distaff Counterpart, and Author Avatar the Ice Queen, is a rare female example, who kidnaps men. She has a voice that sounds somewhat like a feminine version of Dick Dastardly, and her long eyebrows serve as a suitable substitute for the iconic moustache.
  • The Patrick Star Show: In "Dad's Stache Stash", Patrick wears an old-timey mustache that turns him into a classic villain. He promptly ties his family to railroad tracks, acting hammy and giving out evil cackles throughout. His family aren't even threatened; they just point out how trite it is.
    Squidina: Really? Tying people to railroad tracks? Hasn't this been done before?


 
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Alternative Title(s): Moustache Twirling Villain, Mustache Twirling Villain, Vaudeville Villain

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Godfather Sopranos

Kevin tries to make his mobster character in BitLife look intimidating. When he succeeds, he lampshades how the character looks like the type of villain to tie people to train tracks.

How well does it match the trope?

4.92 (13 votes)

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Main / DastardlyWhiplash

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