Basic Trope: A horrifying monster/villain has a harmless and/or adorable-sounding name.
- Straight: Mr. Pancakes is a giant, scary monster who takes great pleasure in destroying civilizations on other planets and the millions of innocents living there. He can also fire an intense gamma ray from his mouth and use his long, spear-tipped tail to wipe a huge area out of his sight.
- Exaggerated: Mr. Pancakes is an amorphous, repulsive amoeba-like beast whose organs and flesh can spread of his own volition, and he can sprout immense Combat Tentacles which can extend for several miles, and shapeshift into a vast Wave-Motion Gun to destroy an entire planet if he so desires.
- Downplayed:
- Mr. Pancakes is an antisocial bear who will growl and lightly swipe at you if you get too close.
- Mr Pancakes is a large feral tomcat who loves killing rats and scratching humans.
- Tom the Dark Lord
- Justified:
- Not everyone wants to give him an obviously menacing name.
- The local Fluffy Tamer just doesn't consider the creature he raised to be dangerous, because to them, it is not. It's just a cute pet to them.
- Someone gave the monster a cutesy nickname as a way to make fun of it.
- Mr. Pancakes was named when he was a baby, before anyone knew how monstrous his adult form was.
- It's a deliberate attempt at irony.
- Mr. Pancakes was called that because he absolutely loves to eat pancakes. And if you are stupid enough to deny him pancakes, there will not be enough of you left to identify as human remains, let alone bury.
- While it sounds harmless to our modern day ears due to Language Drift, during its heyday of the 900's it sounded properly horrifying. note
- Mr. Pancakes looks cute and harmless at first...... until he transforms into a more monstrous form.
- Inverted: Deathbringer the Adorable
- Subverted: In spite of his terrible abilities, Mr. Pancakes will flee at the first sign of danger and hide until he can confirm the "danger" has passed.
- Double Subverted: Mr. Pancakes will fight against his instincts and go on the offensive anytime his Berserk Button is pressed. This happens a distressing number of times.
- Parodied: Nobody is scared of Mr. Pancakes, because who the hell would be scared of something called "Mr. Pancakes"? The beast finds himself thinking "Dude, Where's My Respect?" every time he hears vast crowds laughing at him, usually minutes before he massacres them by the millions with his laser eye and a sweep of his tail.
- Zig Zagged: If he trusts you, Mr. Pancakes is as friendly and cuddly as they come; if he doesn't, he's as deadly as his appearance suggests.
- Averted: Mr. Pancakes is not very threatening at all. Alternatively, the monster is named something more threatening.
- Enforced: The author was challenged to create something horrifying with a ridiculous name.
- Lampshaded:
- This dialog:
Mr. Pancakes: *inhuman screaming, gurgling and shrieking noises* (Translation: Why do these horrid blobs of meat address me by that abhorrent name? It's fucking embarrassing.)"- Or:
"Why do we call him Mr. Pancakes, anyway?"
"Because he squashes everything flat. Not the best name, but it IS descriptive, so it kind of works." - Implied: Alice reads the plaque on the door that reads "Mr. Pancakes" two seconds before Mr. Pancakes' billion-decibel roar rattles the screen (and Alice).
- Invoked: Mr. Pancakes is given a name the deliberately undersells his ferocity to lower the guard of anybody being introduced to him.
- Exploited: Mr. Pancakes' name endears him to people he's not supposed to eat more easily.
- Defied:
- Nobody wants to call Mr. Pancakes by his chosen name and refer to him by a more fearsome name. Mr. Pancakes just rolls with it after a while.
- Emperor Evulz gives his master monster tamer a Dope Slap and roars out to his face that the Eldritchogre Supremis that he has ordered to obtain to protect his castle is capable of growing to be nine hundred and sixty feet tall, has organic steel skin that can shrug off nuclear explosions and eyes that petrify entire acres of land in one fell swoop, so there will be hell to pay if that damned thing gets a name as bloody stupid as "Mr. Pancakes". The monster tamer promptly decides that maybe it's best to give it a scary name and compensate with some extra love.
- Discussed:"We have to fight something called Mr. Pancakes? That just sounds mean."
"Don't get soft, now. I've read about too many dangerous things with cute names to underestimate this one." - Conversed:"I have to admit, I wasn't expecting the ultimate villain of The Demon Hunters' Guild to be called Mr. Pancakes. I also wasn't expecting something called Mr. Pancakes to casually eat an entire island, either."
- Deconstructed: It does not matters how destructive and vicious Mr. Pancakes is, the nickname is embarrassing and anybody who is connected to the monster (especially whoever gave it the name) are labeled as complete idiots for having given it that name, completely killing any intimidation factor.
- Reconstructed: As a result, everybody who is affected by this snafu (especially Mr. Pancakes) quadruple their efforts at spreading destruction, terror and mayhem through the land so nobody will find it funny, ever.
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