Follow TV Tropes

Following

Playing With / Villainous Harlequin

Go To

Basic Trope: A mostly harmless, comedic villain with clown motifs.

  • Straight: Bonzo the Clown is an evil clown, but his acts mostly revolve around doing silly things like hitting people in the face with a pie to escape from robbing a bank.
  • Exaggerated:
  • Downplayed:
    • Jack is a villain with an occasionally clown-like motif, but doesn't usually bother to do anything such as going by Bonzo.
    • Bonzo the Clown is more of a Jerkass than a villain, but the point still stands.
  • Justified: Bonzo likes clowns and is aware that they can make good villains due to the Monster Clown trope being popular. However, he's more silly than outright evil.
  • Inverted: Bonzo the Clown is a mostly harmless, comedic hero with a clown motif.
  • Subverted: Bonzo the Clown serves as a silly dragon to the lead villain, The Court Jester. However, The Court Jester ends up being killed off or otherwise unavailable, so Bonzo is a Dragon Ascendant... and shows everyone Who's Laughing Now?
  • Double Subverted: After that's over, Bonzo is still as silly as he once was.
  • Parodied: Bonzo just does silly clown things like spraying water from a flower and making balloon animals and is somehow considered a villain.
  • Zig-Zagged: Sometimes Bonzo is a more serious villain, sometimes he isn't.
  • Averted: There aren't any clown-like villains, and any that are shown are actually dangerous.
  • Enforced: "We should have a clown-like villain for our show, but an actual Monster Clown isn't quite suitable... how about an evil clown that embraces the more goofy aspects of being a clown?"
  • Lampshaded: "Should we be scared of Bonzo? I mean, he's not even trying to throw bombs at us or anything, just pies."
  • Invoked: Bonzo is encouraged to keep his love for clowns after being a supervillain without necessarily turning into a threat.
  • Exploited: Because of Bonzo's lack of actually being a threat, he's easy to defeat, and the heroes convince him to pull a Heel–Face Turn and join their side.
  • Defied:
    • Jack likes clowns, but refuses to have a supervillain alias themed after them.
    • Bonzo actually becomes a Monster Clown.
  • Discussed: "I'm pretty sure Bonzo's easy to defeat, just trust me."
  • Conversed: "I never really see evil clowns that are still... well, clowns. Good for Bonzo, I guess."

Back to Villainous Harlequin

Top