Basic Trope: The villain is subjected to a series of humiliating defeats.
- Straight:
- A Corrupt Politician has an Engineered Public Confession aired during his speech in front of the entire country, is booed off stage, openly mocked by the heroes for his downfall, and finally gets sentenced for life.
- The Alpha Bitch is exposed as a cheating liar at prom, is scorned by her Girl Posse, and loses her boyfriend to the Cute Bookworm she had been bullying, who proceed to win Homecoming King and Queen.
- Exaggerated:
- Karmic Butt-Monkey
- The entire city takes turns publicly humiliating the villain.
- Police then barge in and arrest the Alpha Bitch for Brother–Sister Incest. She performs her community service naked in a park as a Dirty Kid records her on a livestream and she is forced to watch her ex-boyfriend and the bookworm on their first date.
- Downplayed:
- Humble Pie
- The humiliation the villain goes through isn't as bad as it could have been. They've been through worse.
- The Alpha Bitch loses her boyfriend to the Cute Bookworm she had been bullying. She storms off with her Girl Posse.
- Justified: The heroes need to destroy all confidence in the villain, so they utterly humiliate him.
- Inverted:
- The villain gives one to the hero.
- The audience is lead to believe that Professor Evulz is the villain until just before the ending. The Professor actually receives numerous praises and favours from the heros, the townspeople, and the Imperial government for being the vital person in bringing down the real villain - he was working undercover the whole time!
- Subverted:
- The hero sets up a series of humiliating events for the villain, but they all fail.
- The villain was meant to be humiliated as a punishment, but one of the heroes, who believes in more direct punishment and isn't swayed by the emotional satisfaction, decides to shoot him in the head instead on sight.
- Double Subverted: They finally spring at the perfect time, utterly humiliating the villain.
- Parodied: The heroes set up a literal conga line of everyone in town to march past the villain, each person taking turns humiliating the villain.
- Zig Zagged: The humilation happens in a fantasy of The Hero but never actually occurs.
- Averted:
- Karma Houdini
- No humilation happens.
- The villain faces no risk of humiliation, whether or not he is defeated.
- The villain is killed publicly via firing squad.
- Enforced: "We mustn't let the audience think that the villain can get off scot-free after what he did, but killing him off would be too far; let's have him humiliated in public!"
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: The Hero purposely seeks for previous victims of the villain in an attempt to let them humiliate him after he is defeated.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: The Hero refuses to let the villain be humiliated, choosing to arrest and punish him privately.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- With each new defeat, the villain becomes that much more desperate and, therefore, that much more dangerous; this eventually (and ironically) makes him into an even bigger threat than he'd have been if everything had gone his way.
- Each subsequent humiliation takes a toll on the villain's mental stability, causing him to be viewed more sympathetically.
- Reconstructed: The heroes are aware of the old adage about a rat being more dangerous if it's backed into a corner, and they approach the now-desperate villain as cautiously as possible when they go in for the kill.
Back to Humiliation Conga
