OK, so I just wanted to ask this: Does anyone know exactly where this character type really originated? And more importantly, was it ever played straight? As in, there was a mustache-twirling villain who was played 100% seriously without either being an outright comic farce or at least with tongue in cheek humor.
I'm asking this because recently I watched a record of Our American Cousin, the 19th century play that Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated in 1865. The play itself was written and first performed in the 1850s, 10 years before his assassination. The play is a comedy and... the villain in the play is a mustache-twirling villain (complete with cloak and top hat) that is trying to screw one of the estate owners out of his estate by claiming he's broke and cannot pay the mortgage or something similar.
The thing which surprised me is that even though this play was done in the 1850s the character is portrayed as a full-on joke from the get-go. The play is a comedy, I know, but I had no idea that this character type goes back that far. Basically by the time The Perils of Pauline came out in 1912 the character type was already well-established as a cartoon villain, though albeit much more murderous.
How much restraint did it take to not name this trope the equally valid "Dick Whiplash"?
The Dream Soldier
Some of the characters that Daniel Day-Lewis played DO look like these Dastardly Whiplash types, so kudos to the person that added an example.
Edited by 67.186.44.137
Could Jack Spicer from Xiaolin Showdown be considered one of these, if only for the laugh?
destroyer of hopes
Might we please change the name of this? I remember it being called something different that I liked more, but I can't remember what it was exactly, so I suggest "Squire Fate", a combination of Squire Hardman from Lovecraft's Sweet Ermengarde and Professor Fate from The Great Race. Dastardly Whiplash just doesn't seem to give the right impression of what the trope is.
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"Dastardly Whiplash" gives a better impression than "Squire Hardman" (IMO). At the very least, the "Dastardly" part implies villainary, even if you don't know who the name is referencing. "Squire Hardman" is completely meaningless if you don't know the reference.
Does anyone know who drew the page image? It seems to show up a lot when people need a picture of a generic villain.
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Need to add Loopty Goopty from Helluva boss and The Monarch from The Venture Bros.