Basic Trope: The Big Bad is the serious one, whereas his underlings (sometimes The Dragon) are Laughably Evil.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz is a dead-serious, maniacal sociopath who puts his subjects through torment and intends to ruthlessly Take Over the World. General Drake is the Laughably Evil dragon.
- Exaggerated: Evulz is pretty much nightmare-incarnate, whereas his mooks pretty much graduated from Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy and Drake can barely count past ten.
- Downplayed:
- Evulz and Drake are both threatening in their own right. Though it's more of a case of Red Oni, Blue Oni, where Evulz is the blue, stoic and threatening oni and Drake is the red, Bloody Hilarious oni.
- Evulz is threatening but in the end still human, while Drake is funny but still competent.
- Drake is every bit as powerful as his master, perhaps more so, but his patience and attention span leave a bit to be desired. When Evulz isn't around to keep him focussed on the bigger picture, he often gets sidetracked by his own random pettiness or goes off on weird conversational tangents.
- Drake and Evulz are both funny, but Evulz is more believable as a threat due to power/competence/motivation etc.
- Drake and Evulz are both capable, but Evulz is rarely or never funny, while Drake has enough funny moments for it to be a noticeable part of his character.
- Justified:
- Evulz believes your right hand man can't be both strong and obedient, you have to choose one or the other.
- Drake is The Wonka, if he weren't goofy and laughable, none of his plans would work.
- The main, if not only, reason that Evulz keeps Drake around is because Evulz thinks Drake is funny.
- Inverted:
- Evulz is the laughable one, whereas Drake is the serious one.
- Humorless hero, silly sidekick.
- More Despicable Minion
- Subverted:
- Evulz undergoes serious head trauma, which makes him just about as goofy as Drake.
- Drake is more dangerous than he lets on.
- Even though Drake is comical compared to Evulz, it turns out that neither Drake nor Evulz is actually a villain at all.
- Double Subverted:
- Evulz somehow recovers, making himself serious again.
- Drake, however, manages to screw up again.
- Some time after it's revealed to the audience that they're not villains, they have a Start of Darkness. The comical dynamic continues into their villainy.
- Parodied: Evulz and Drake are both equally threatening, but Evulz is regarded as though he's far more menacing and capable than he really is, while Drake is treated as a laughingstock no matter what threat he could actually pose.
- Zig-Zagged: Depending on the Writer, Evulz and Drake constantly switch roles.
- Averted:
- Evulz doesn't have a right-hand man.
- Drake is actually competent and taken just as seriously as Evulz.
- Enforced:
- The writers wanted to make a foil to Emperor Evulz without making said foil the good guy.
- The work is supposed to be lighthearted, while Evulz is a Complete Monster (or at least is very close to one). The writers didn't want Evulz to be any less evil, but wanted something that could at least balance out his villainy to prevent the work from being too dark, so they decided to give him a comedic sidekick.
- Invoked: Drake was notorious for trying to usurp Evulz, so Evulz inflicted him with a spell that dumbs him down, so to speak
- Lampshaded:Evulz: I'm Surrounded by Idiots.
- Exploited:
- The heroes completely ignore Drake, knowing he won't do anything to hinder their plans.
- Evulz transfers Drake over to the heroes side, trusting that Drake will hinder all of their plans. It works.
- Defied: Evulz goes out of his own way to not hire any "silly" henchmen.
- Deconstructed: The personality difference gets on Evulz's nerves, and he ends up executing Drake.
- Reconstructed: Drake has a personal relationship with Evulz that protects him, in spite of his annoying sense of humor.
Back to Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey
