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Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under 't.
—Lady Macbeth, Macbeth Act 1 Scene 5.
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You meet someone you think is a really Nice Guy/Girl, or perhaps you meet a favorite celebrity for the first time, thinking that they'll be just as warm-hearted and cool as they are on camera. However, something happens to show their True Colors, revealing an immature brat, total Jerkass, or even outright Villain.
Congratulations. You've just met the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing—the polar opposite of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
The Wounded Gazelle Gambit is a favorite tactic of this sort of antagonist, and if they are genuinely evil, expect them to be a Villain with Good Publicity.
It's also worth mentioning that this trope isn't exclusive to female characters. The "Nice Guy" who hides a cruel, self-centered nature under superficial inoffensiveness is also a Bitch In Sheep's Clothing. (Don't confuse this with the Nice Guy trope, though.)
In romance plots, the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing is usually trying to date, dating, or about to marry another character, and is hiding their True Colors. Occasionally, the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing genuinely was a nice person... but suffered sudden Character Derailment in order to remove their status as a love interest for another character. In any case, expect them to make an Engineered Public Confession in one form or another.
In some cases however, a Bitch In Sheep's Clothing can be sympathetic. Many lighter cases involve a scenario in which a fairly flawed yet well intentioned character make themselves out to be more benevolent than they really are (especially if they have a high profile of themselves). More often than not, this charade falls apart and their true persona blasts out, usually in an extreme manner that makes them look even worse than they usually are. In some cases, a Bitch In Sheep's Clothing can lean more towards Jerk with a Heart of Gold if they aren't too busy hiding their unpleasant qualities with an overenacted facade, instead of showing their genuine (and usually resented) redeeming aspects. Maybe someone will seem like this, then you realize they are just a type B Tsundere.
See also: Devil in Plain Sight, Villain with Good Publicity, Warts and All. A Romantic False Lead is often like this. The Enfant Terrible is also a related trope (possibly the Annoying Younger Sibling with Sibling Rivalry from Hell). For a version specifically concerning actors and actresses, see Nice Character, Mean Actor. For a more extreme version of this trope, see Bait the Dog, where the 'bitch' is often a Complete Monster, who oddly enough likes to Kick the Dog. Not to be confused either with Affably Evil or Beware the Nice Ones, where the person is genuinely nice rather than just putting up a facade (though both tropes can be derail as such if over exaggerated, as can a Bitch In Sheep's Clothing evolve into one of the former via Character Development). Contrast With Took a Level In Jerkass, where the character was genuinely nice and became...well a Jerkass.
Contrast Bitch Alert for a bitch who lets everyone knows that she's one.
Anime and Manga[]
- Inaho Hitomebore from Master of Mosquiton 99. To the school, she's the most exalted student; to those unfortunate enough to travel with her, she is a miser who uses her friends as tools and makes the guy who loves her do stupid and humiliating things while she ignores his pleas and thinks of riches.
- In Ashita no Nadja, Nadja's best friend, Rosemary Applefield, starts as a sweet Naive Everygirl with a huge inferiority complex. After she's "betrayed" by Nadja and snaps, she makes everyone in her surroundings believe she is the real Nadja, fooling a whole noble clan as a part of a conspiracy that will make her boss, Hermann Preminger, the true heir to the clan. To make these plans work, Rosemary shamelessly lies, tells half-truths, manipulates, steals/destroys various stuff, and gleefully takes part in Hermann's various schemes, rarely losing her innocent facade, and even being ready to betray her boss if she gets to keep her new "princess" status that way. And even when she admits her defeat and willingly returns everything to Nadja, Rosemary bitterly recognizes that she's been so deeply changed by such experiences that she just can't be the genuinely sweet kid she once was.
- Ami from Toradora!, although, with Character Development, she becomes more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold in sheep's clothing, and eventually, just a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Anko's wart in Episode 14 of Thriller Restaurant. When she takes over the real Anko's body and mind, she makes herself appear as a bright, attractive girl. In reality, the wart is arrogant, manipulative, and absolutely sadistic. Thank goodness Shou noticed something was wrong with her.
- Lust is one briefly in Fullmetal Alchemist. As Havoc's girlfriend Solaris, she was apparently charming, sweet, and attentive, and was very supportive of him as he got used to living in Central. Havoc is understandably a bit shocked when she turns out to be an evil quasi-immortal being who literally stabs him in the back, and then goes on to try to kill Mustang, Hawkeye, and Alphonse, all the while thoroughly enjoying herself.
- Quattro of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S. Though she initially appears to be a seemingly playful, childlike Meganekko, this is a facade to conceal her true personality.
- Miya Miya of Bamboo Blade. In classic Power-Rangers style, she's added to the team as the "Pink" ranger for her cute and sweet nature. It's all a lie, though. She's actually the most terrifyingly brutal character in the show. The team names her real persona "Black", and it comes with its own aura of violent intent. On one occasion, it startles Pink Miya Miya when just her grimace from painful feet terrifies Sayako and Kirino into dogeza because they think "You were Black Miya Miya!"
- Polly (Pururun) from Samurai Pizza Cats, while sweet and charming at first, is actually a real bitch when she gets annoyed, often taking her frustrations out on innocent customers.
- Sei Arisaka from Himechan no Ribon acts like a perfect gentleman towards everybody around him but Daichi seems to be the only one who realises he has an alternative motive.
- Shou from Skip Beat has carefully engineered his public image to look like the perfect Teenager Cool Prince, and he isn't shy to step over anyone he considers beneath his "grand destiny" of becoming the most popular artist in Japan. He is also selfish, immature, petty, absurdly self-centered, and completely unable to cope with any reaction which isn't admiration or adulation.
- Tomoe Marguerite from Mai-Otome puts on airs of sweetness in front of the staff at Garderobe, but has no problem hurting or otherwise manipulating others to get her way, especially when Shizuru is involved. She even acts nice to Arika herself (in her mind, her main rival for Shizuru's affection), but mainly while others are watching, and reveals her true colors to Arika when she first sees her after the Wham! Episode.
- Akira Kogami from Lucky Star's Lucky Channel segments.
- Izaya Orihara from Durarara. Nice friendly guy. Smiles a lot. Says he loves people. Cheerful attitude. Convinces people to kill themselves.
- Zange from Kannagi.
- Sakurako Sanjou of Hana Yori Dango, who, in all continuities (manga, anime, drama), befriends Tsukushi Makino and looks like a kind, shy, cutesy type...at least up until she has Tsukushi drugged, takes pictures of her unconscious, in compromising positions, and distributes them freely among the school, leading to her assault by other students. This is revealed as a part of her master plan for seducing/exacting revenge upon Domyoji, Tsukushi's Slap Slap Kiss-y love interest, which also involved her spending a fortune on plastic surgery, dropping out of school in the past, and hiring professional goons to assault various characters (not only Tsukushi). The reason for all of this is that ever since she was in kindergarten, Domyoji bullied her and called her ugly. Talk about one Woman Scorned.
- However, through Character Development, she arguably becomes A Lighter Shade of Gray, Good Is Not Nice case of a sympathetic Femme Fatale, who beats up the other Bitches in Sheep's Clothing when they try to kill Tsukushi. Just goes to show that despite all the terrible acts of evil and violence committed against Tsukushi and her friends, almost all villains end up with a Heel Face Turn, and this series firmly belongs on the lighter side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism. This would make Tsukushi a rare Knight in Sour Armor that SUCCEEDS in her goals.
- Sousuke Aizen from Bleach would be a male example of the trope. Actually, he's probably the best example of the trope, because he's actually the Big Bad. And prior to his introduction, he spent at least a hundred years maintaining the nice guy façade.
- Kuugo Ginjou, with added Memory Gambit at no extra charge.
- Mariya Shidou from Maria Holic fits this to a T — sweet, helpful princess of the school on the outside, sadistic Manipulative Bastard (and Villainous Crossdresser) on the inside.
- Natsu Tanimoto of Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple is another male example. To most of the school, he's the extremely handsome, incredibly intelligent, multi-talented, kind-hearted honor roll student. To the members of the Shinpaku Alliance, however, he reveals his true nature: an angry, violent, short-tempered Jerkass who is prone to stomping them into the ground for even looking at him the wrong way. However, thanks to some Character Development (most of it courtesy of Kenichi's little sister Honoka), he's now more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, though you'll be hard-pressed to get him to admit it.
- Sae from Peach Girl, who uses her Raven Hair, Ivory Skin ingenue appearance as an advantage over "gangster-looking" Darkskinned Blonde Momo (she tans easily). Out of jealousy that Momo has the attention of two hot Bishounen classmates, Sae pretends to be her friend but starts whispering rumours about her, repeatedly pulls the Wounded Gazelle Gambit to make people hate her, blackmails her mutual crush into pretending to be Sae's boyfriend instead to protect her, and tells her (next) boyfriend that Momo has rape fantasies about him and demands that he fulfills them - then tricks Momo into going somewhere with him, and drugs her into a stupor. And this was just what she'd done by the 2nd volume.
- In a not-uncommon Hentai example, Yuriko from Moonlight Lady. At first, she seems to be a Yamato Nadeshiko who honors family tradition. She is. She just doesn't care that her daughter gets raped as a part of it. She's not above trying to steal her son-in-law-to-be, either.
- Doe-Doe Eun of Pig Bride is publicly a sweet Yamato Nadeshiko maiden who enjoys being demure and needlework. But it's almost entirely an act to snare the main lead, who has made no secret that that's the kind of girl he likes. When there are no boys around, Doe-Doe is a ruthless gangster-type who bullies the other girls so they won't move in on her territory. What makes her a touch more sympathetic is that she is stuck in a You Can't Fight Fate competition with the title character, rendering all her efforts fruitless from the start.
- Akira of Samurai Deeper Kyo fits this trope in his interactions with Yuya. To the male characters, he's a complete and utter bastard, but to Yuya, he continues to act sweet even after she knows it's an act.
- A more classic example in the series would be Antera, who has the appearance of a young girl but once killed a man by squeezing his head until it popped.
- Ran from Urusei Yatsura, although a bit on the Yandere side. Ryoko, on the other hand, is a better example.
- Ranma One Half has Nabiki Tendo: a pleasant, good-humored (if mildly snarky) girl who places more value on her wallet than on human life...to the extent that she once offered to sell her (temporary) fiance to the other members of his Unwanted Harem (and would have, if they hadn't had a spontaneous attack of Stupid Evil and tried to kill her instead of pay her), and let the same Unwanted Harem members know that he was about to marry Akane Tendo because she thought they'd bring cash presents to the wedding that she could steal. One might also consider Shampoo to be one of these, with her capacity to go from sweet, bubbly, and crushingly affectionate to a calculating, destructive warrior willing to kill off her romantic rivals...but she makes no effort to hide her darker side from anyone, least of all Ranma, so she might not count.
- During the introduction story of "Pantyhose" Tarou, when Shampoo finds Akane alone and tied up in a cave, she thinks that this is a perfect opportunity to Murder the Hypotenuse and let Tarou take the blame. While she was initially quite blatant and straight-forward in her attacks on others, by this point in the manga, she had become quite duplicitous.
- In Kämpfer, Kaede Sakura would qualify. Such a sweet girl, handing out stuffed animals to her closest friends and acquaintances. Through the early and mid portions of the anime, she's seemingly oblivious to any and all of the strange occurrences happening around her. It's only later that her cold calculating side comes to the forefront.
- Luna of Seto no Hanayome appears to be a sweet, incredibly Moe Idol Singer. Turns out, she's really a bit of a bitch, especially when it comes to one-upping San. Although she does have some genuinely nice moments.
- Tomomi in Ladies Versus Butlers definitely qualifies. While the end result is for the best, she usually grins in an evil way just to make her Unlucky Childhood Friend Akiharu and Schoolgirl Rival Sernia squirm for her satisfaction.
- In Code Geass, Empress Marianne VI Britannia, AKA Lady Marianne "The Flash", AKA Lelouch's mother, is presented for most of the first season as practically a Purity Sue that was Too Good for This Sinful Earth, and was killed because of it while protecting her daughter. However, when we finally meet her, late in R2, she turns out to be a Blood Knight that had used her Geass power to survive, using a young girl (who she constantly Mind Raped) as a Soul Jar. Also, she was working with her husband The Emperor on his Assimilation Plot, and since she lacks his Freudian Excuse, she comes across more as a Lady Macbeth with shades of Knight Templar Parent than he does.
- C.C., who at first seems like a persecuted Mysterious Waif with a humorous affinity for being a Deadpan Snarker when it comes to Lelouch and a love for pizza. But as the series progresses, it's revealed that she seriously FUCKED over her insanely-obsessed lover Mao, Lelouch's predecessor, in fact, and is running a particularly cruel Thanatos Gambit to direct Lelouch into fulfilling her secret death wish so that she doesn't have to live anymore. Oh, and that guy named Mao? She tried to do the same to him first, but because he was her Yandere, he refused, and she abandoned him for it. Complete with incontinent Telepathy. Nice. Although, around this point that she starts undergoing Character Development ([[spoiler: righting her wrong with Mao by killing him), is later revealed to have once been a Woobie who just wanted to be loved, but was betrayed by her own Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, and in the end foresakes her Thanatos Gambit and accepts living.
- Asuka. Langley. Soryu. Pretty much all the cast knows she's a Jerkass.
- Though she's also a Tsundere, she only ever shows her "dere-side" to Kaji and even that is superficial.
- Jin in Innocent Venus. he actually manages to keep the act up for half the series, honestly appearing to be a Nice Guy with only the occasional slip-up (and a scene in the opening) to hint that he's not the main protagonist, but is, in fact, an outright villain.
- Yukino from Yakitate!! Japan isn't just a bitch, she's a Complete Monster. But the first time she appears outside of a flashback, she acts very friendly to Tsukino and apologizes for defiling her mother's ashes. It's all a lie, or course, but this facade has her grandfather wrapped around her little finger.
- Shinghi from Zippy Ziggy, especially at first. It's pretty much the entire point of his character. The same with his father.
- Surprisingly for a harem story, Hayate the Combat Butler has three, all seeming to be on the same side of the good vs evil line. All three seem to have taken up this because of love, but don't have the mental instability of a Yandere.
- Athena is the strongest case, at least as a little girl: she acted wonderful and loving to Hayate, even training him to be stronger, but any time she got a hint of him not being single-mindedly in pursuit of her, she didn't hesitate to attack, usually Hayate himself. She appears to have grown out of it.
- Mikoto (Wataru's mother) also seems harmless, but uses wiles to try to convince/coerce Wataru to live with her while belittling both Saki (his maid) and Sakuya (one of his potential love interests).
- Mikado seems to be acting this way, an unassuming old man, but with significant evil intentions just under the surface.
- Honey Hunt: Yukari is Yura's mother, a beautiful and talented actress. But her beauty is only skin deep, as shown throughout the series. She is never at home for Yura and is very selfish. On all of her interviews, she lies and says that she and Yura are close and spend much time together, when in reality, she is a cold and distant parent. While her husband was having an affair, she was having one of her own with Yura's neighbor, Shinsuke (who Yura had a crush on). She and her husband were only together for the sake of their careers and their images, they didn't love each other. The two of them even agreed on a rule with each other that they would stay married as long as they hide their own adulterous affairs. After she decided to divorce Takayuki, however, it is shown that she has no intentions of taking care of Yura, and only cares about improving her image in the eyes of the public who had originally thought she was the "ideal mother".
- Hana Mizuki from Papillon. She has a beautiful angelic appearance and acts in a sickeningly sweet manner towards people, but underneath that is an extremely manipulative and selfish girl who acts terrible to her sister for the sole reason that she wants to prevent her sister "from ever attaining happiness" out of jealousy that boys seem to like her sister's personality more than hers. Kyuu compares her to a rose, stating she is "covered in thorns".
- Mayu Okada from Kaguya Hime. She is very much a Yandere for Akira, and doesn't let men or women near her. She has a sweet appearance but, beneath that, is very manipulative and will do anything to get her way, such as pretending to be sick and fainting on the spot to get attention.
- Mimi Yoshioka from Lovely Complex. She is in love with Otani, and brings him milk every day so he could reach her height, about the same as Risa's. Since Otani does not have feelings toward her but does have feelings for Risa, she becomes jealous of her. She acts accordingly two-faced between them both: acting sweet and cute whenever Otani is around, yet slipping into psycho mode and acting malicious to Risa whenever Otani is not around. She becomes less of a jerk later on, though.
- Tsuzuki from Private Prince.
- Kimi ni Todoke: Kurumi acts sweet and nice to gain Sawako's sympathy, then tells her to keep her hands off Kazehaya. She gets better, though.
- Kento is an unusually accurate male example, given the way he manipulates classmates and takes advantage of Sawako's faith in him to convince her Kazehaya doesn't like her.
- Ibuki Yagami from Maison Ikkoku is a Stalker with a Crush to her substitute teacher Godai, and she is extremely manipulative and aggressive in getting what she wants. She often makes use of her girlishly innocent appearance to deceive people.
- Oniisama E: Fukiko and most of the senior members of the Sorority. They'd sell their grandmothers if it would bring them the slightest advantage (after inviting her to a fancy dinner, nonetheless).
- Naruto: Kabuto Yakushi. He usually presents himself as this harmless, bumbling oaf with Nerd Glasses who showed up to help Naruto and his teammates on occasion but is, in fact, a sadistic Manipulative Bastard and a subordinate of the Big Bad Orochimaru.
- Elfen Lied: during Lucy's childhood, she made friends with a seemingly sweet, kind-hearted girl who promised to keep the fact that Lucy was taking care of a puppy a secret from a group of boys who frequently bullied her. Eventually, the boys find out about the puppy and beat it to death in front of Lucy while making her watch. Turns out, the girl Lucy made friends with had deliberately told the boys about the puppy, and while she's pretending to cry about it and feel bad about what she did, we see her smile through her tears. Lucy then snaps and kills her along with the bullies.
- Captain Shears in the Star Fox comic "Farewell, Beloved Falco" - Shears, a military officer on Titania, tells Fox that he needs help combating remnants of Andross's army who are planning a counterattack. In fact, Shears is trying to re-build Andross and is trying to fool Fox into attacking Falco and his group
- Yu-Gi-Oh:
- Seto Kaiba, in his first appearance in the manga and the first anime, pretends to befriend Yugi, and has Yugi's grandfather's Blue Eyes White Dragon switched with a copy. When Yugi figures this out and calls out Kaiba on the switch, Kaiba loses the facade and whacks Yugi in the face with a briefcase.
- Kaiba does it a second time during Death-T in the manga. He pretends that he has forgiven Yugi and simply wants to let him and Jonouchi have a good time; once Yugi discovers that his grandfather is in the battle arena, Kaiba drops the pretense of being nice. Yugi notices the difference in how he acts around a disgruntled ex-employee and how he acts around him, but doesn't suspect enough to see through him until it's too late.
- Nezumi in the manga - Yugi and Jonouchi meet Nezumi at school. Nezumi claims that a gang of bullies attacked him and that he needed help in dealing with them. In fact, Nezumi was ordered by Hirutani, Jonouchi's old middle school friend and now enemy, to have Jonouchi and Yugi lured to the abandoned warehouse so that Jonouchi could be forced to re-join Hirutani's gang.
- Volume 1 and Season 0 had Ms. Chono. To the teachers and staff, she is just an incredibly nice and beautiful teacher who does incredibly well in getting her students to behave, and the only flaw she has is her not-so-suspiciously-poor track record for arranged dates and marriages always being called off. To the students, however, she is the "wicked witch of expel", who noticeably has as much bitchiness as she does make-up on her face, and who expels students for even the slightest twitch and has taken delight in starting dates with men just to tug at their heart strings and then shatter them to pieces. Yami Yugi reveals her true nature, but how he does so varies between the manga and the anime.
- Subverted in Aim for The Ace with Reika. She seems to turn into a bitch at first, despite still being a good sport. Over the course of the series, especially after Coach Munakata's death, she turns into a much more sympathetic character.
- Ayumi in Gu-Gu Ganmo. She appears to be a cute, gentle girl in the first few episodes, but eventually, she shows her true colors and turns into a manipulative, self-centered, and aggressive little bitch. Oh, and her farts could wipe out whole towns.
- Henri from Future GPX Cyber Formula. For most of ZERO, he appeared to be a cheerful rookie who seemed to be nice to most of the racers, but in reality, he's a vengeful person who wanted to make Hayato suffer for taking away his dream. His father was a former racer who pushed Henri to be the best in racing to make him the youngest champion in CF history, but when Hayato got the title before him, his father started drinking and then abandoned him, which triggered his resentment towards Hayato. Thankfully, he somewhat mellowed out at the end of ZERO.
- Fiore of The World God Only Knows is actually introduced to the audience as an agent of Vintage from her first appearance, and it isn't until after she stabs Kanon that we see the sheep's clothing that she wears around her fellow New Devils.
- In Bakuman。, Toru Nanamine acts polite and cheerful around the editors, apologizing for publishing his oneshot online after it got passed over for an award, and the main characters note that he seems somehow overly polite. When he's alone with the main characters, though, he reveals that he has nothing but contempt for editors, who he views as outsiders who know nothing about manga. He keeps up his persona around his editor until he reveals that he is corresponding with 50 people online for ideas, and, while taking advantage of his editor's lack of confidence and need to get a series, threatens to go elsewhere if his editor doesn't go along with what he does as the 51st person.
- Johan Liebert is one of the most pleasant and polite people imaginable. He's incredibly classy, cultured, intelligent, and a very good listener. He's also practically the embodiment of pure evil and the trope image on the Complete Monster page. All of his "nice actions" just make it easier for him to get into your head, Mind Rape you, and either kill you, get you to kill others for him, or make you kill yourself.
- Remi Mizuchi in Sukeban Deka. She seems to be The Ojou in Princess Curls, and seems like the White Sheep of the family compared to her Obviously Evil siblings. Then, in the OVA, she suddenly leaps into full-fledged terrorism, and she becomes a major recurring villain in the manga.
- Iris's Emolga, as the viewers undoubtedly realized from the moment she was introduced. She'd better watch out, 'cause Snivy don't take no shit.
- Master of Martial Hearts is literally riddled with multiple instances of the trope:
- Faux Action Girl Miko, the cute, helpless strange girl and cuddly and cheerfully friend in need who drove Aya to the whole mess? Nothing but a bitchy mark.
- Heterosexual Life Partners Natsume, Aya's best friend forever? Actually a revenge-obsessed bitch willing to trample, maim, and Mind Rape a whole bunch of innocent women and girls just to screw with Aya. The whole time faking friendship towards her just to rub it in her face during The Reveal.
- Natsume's brother, Aya's love interest? Ruthless enough to kill in cold blood people he actually hired for his plot, is Miko's lover, and in league with the other two to ruin Aya's life forever.
- Natsume's mom, the epitome of the trope. Currently a Cute Mute Hot Mom, secretly a Stepford Smiler, deeply inside, a raging beast that, due to have catastrophically lost her voice, mental sanity, and freedom because of Aya's mom when both of them were plucky Action Girls (and she actually tried to kill her opponent's parents, it seems...), masterminded the whole convoluted plot, pressuring her offspring and their cousin Miko to send dozens of young girl to same fate as her just to ensure Aya was reeled in.
- Kimi no Iru Machi gives us the character Eba Rin, main heroine Yuzuki's younger step-sister. Even before the manga begins, Rin has managed to make her sister so uncomfortable that she moves out to be as far away from Rin as possible. Eventually, she drops her meaner tendencies and gets along with her sister, but still loves to Troll just about everyone else.
- One Piece Wanted: In the story Monsters, we have Cyrano. He seems to be a nice guy at first, but he's actually one hell of an asshole.
- Nanami of Revolutionary Girl Utena at times, and Shiori in regards to Juri as well.
- Saki from Family Compo. At first she seems like a Yamato Nadeshiko but we quickly learn that's a cover-up since she's a Gold Digger and a Manipulative Bitch.
- Masahiro from the manga Teacher's Pet. He's aggressive and forces sex onto the protagonist several times but he's quiet and feminine looking so no one guesses it.
- Momoka from High School Girls: Jealous of her older sister Yuma's friendships with the other main girls, she spreads a rumour that Ayase is cheating on her boyfriend, leading Ayase to assume it was Yuma and cause them to fall out, gloating about how it only took her spreading one rumour to shatter one friendship and how it would only be a matter of time before she destroyed the rest, all whilst pretending to befriend the other girls and generally behaving in a cutesy, peppy manner. Luckily, Eri figures it out.
- Black Rock Shooter (anime) Saya Irino is the school guidance counselor, she appears to be friendly but in reality is someone cunning, manipulative and spiteful who caused great pain and harassment to girls on purpose just so they can awake their other selves in the Otherworld all for her own selfish reason according to her of protecting Yuu.
- Trapeze features in episode 2 a man whose wife seemed to be a modest and good woman but then she left him for someone that she met at work. Later when he met his ex-wife she is living in an expensive building and wearing slutty make-up and clothes much to his shock realizing his ex was only an interested woman and when she found someone with more money she dumped him and ran to this new rich guy.
- Spice and Wolf Chloe initially appears as nice girl but then her true colors reveals when she take part in the plan to turn over Holo to the church, she is shown cruel, manipulative and cold-hearted when she try to bribe Lawrence to come with her promising him a life together along with his dream of having a shop of his own but then when he refused she had no complaints in order his men to kill him, later she is seen cowardly begging for her life when Holo transforms blaming the latter for how things turned out when in fact everything was her own fault.
- Eve Boland when she met Lawrence for the first time called herself charming and friendly, at first seems to follow the plan along with Lawrence but she ends up showing his cunning and treacherous nature when Lawrence finds out the totality of her secrets business with the church she betrays him and she even threat him with knifes she had hidden willing to kill him if he decided to cancel the plan all just for her selfish desire of making more and more money in the end she knock him unconscious and rob him his share of the money.
- Gankutsuou Heloise Villefort who is Gerard Villefort's second wife, appear to be a proper and motherly woman but that is nothing more than a facade that hide her perverse nature that led her to slowly poisoning her stepdaughter out of resentment for the inheritance that she was going to get and the fact that her son wasn't, also there were rumors that Heloise was beating Valentine her stepdaughter regularly.
Is also shown that she masturbated while thinking of the Count and the poison ring he gave her. In essence, she was also getting off to the thought of killing her stepdaughter and husband.
She ends up getting Valentine sick and murdering one of the servants of the house, later she is confronted by her husband and although initially denies everything eventually admits it, then breaks down and collapses to the ground, finally giving in to her insanity. Her husband then puts her in an insane asylum for the rest of her life, she and her son were at the care of the Count but after he died it is unknown what happened with them, she appears in episodes 7-8-9-10-11.
- Blood C Yuuka Amino at the start she is seen as a caring person towards Saya and their classmates but after the end of the experiment in Ukishima, she is revealed as participant of the same and her true personality comes out as a cold, calculating and inhuman woman who would do anything to achieve her political ambitions of becoming governor of Tokyo, showing none concern or remorse at all for her involvement on the countless deaths during the massacre that took part at the end of that atrocious experiment and all of the things that Saya was put through. At the end she reached her goal of becoming governor and for all the atrocities and crimes she committed apparently she is not punished or arrested at all, she got away with everything.
Comic Books[]
- Surprisingly, Sonic the Hedgehog fits this trope in the Fleetway comics. While he was hero worshiped by all of Mobius as a fearless symbol of hope, he was actually a self-centered, immature Jerkass.
- This comes back to bite him in the ass in Sonic the Comic Online, where, despite being more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold than an out-and-out Jerkass, the sheep's clothing gets flung off and he ends up becoming a fugitive. Once the public knew about some of his more questionable decisions that he made to try and save Mobius, all the Jerkass tendencies that people were willing to ignore made it easy for Grimer to convince the public that he was a villain.
- Dean in My Faith in Frankie. Although he gives the excuse of being in Hell for ten thousand years during the day he spent dead, the very fact that he ended up in Hell implies that he was actually always like this, and now he just has a focus and outlet.
- At his very worst, Cyclops of the X-Men, in contrast to Jerk with a Heart of Gold Wolverine. Ignoring the complicated mess that is his love life, Cyclops tries to project the image of a wise and noble leader for mutants to admire while keeping dirty secrets from his teammates, such as the existence of X-Force, his personal mutant kill-squad. This is after he kicked Professor Xavier out of his own home because he kept secrets from Cyclops. To be absolutely fair to Scott, he really thinks all of this is necessary to ensure the survival of mutantkind after the various disasters of the past few years—and he might be right. Still, at one point, Wolverine, X-Force's field leader, reminds Cyclops that his hands are just as dirty as any member of X-Force's, since Cyclops organized X-Force in the first place and gave them their orders.
- That's more of a Darker and Edgier Anti-Hero in The Cape's clothing. Scott isn't really that bad, he's just been forced to do some really dark things to keep the mutant race from extinction (they're down to less than a hundred and everyone seems to be out to kill them all). When Xavier lied and kept secrets, it was to make his dream go on undisputed, when Cyclops did it, it was to save the rest of his species. Different things.
- It's become a raging debate in X-Men fandom, especially for people who remember Cyclops from The Bronze Age of Comic Books, and weren't huge fans of his. Cyclops has done numerous questionable things through the years that Wolverine wouldn't have considered. He's gotten over Jean Grey in two seconds after thinking she was dead, married another woman just because she looked like his ex, abandoned said ex with their newly-born son to go back to Jean, and threatened several teammates on the grounds that they didn't agree with him.
- That's more of a Darker and Edgier Anti-Hero in The Cape's clothing. Scott isn't really that bad, he's just been forced to do some really dark things to keep the mutant race from extinction (they're down to less than a hundred and everyone seems to be out to kill them all). When Xavier lied and kept secrets, it was to make his dream go on undisputed, when Cyclops did it, it was to save the rest of his species. Different things.
- Tinsel has got to be this trope personified.
- Professor Kallisto Vangelis from Les Légendaires, when first introduced, was portrayed as one of the nicest guy in the show: he had been like a father to the leader protagonist Jadina when she was a child, took care of her mother after she got incurably ill and took time to talk with the then disturbed Tenebris. In the next book however, he's revealed to have been controlled since his first appearance by a Parasite, Evil scheming creature who poisoned the same queen he had been healing, orchestrated Jadina's attempted execution, Brainwashed and Crazy Tenebris into cooperating with him and attempted to rule Jadina's kingdom with Tenebris by his side (while calling her his sister but suspectly treating her as... much more).
- Of course, this wasn't the real Vangelis doing, but notice he was already under control since his introduction to the reader, even when he was seemingly a nice guy.
Fairy Tales[]
- Many Wicked Stepmother fairy tales involve the stepmothers acting nice to the stepchildren when their fathers are still alive, and then turning cruel after the fathers pass away. This may also apply to the father if the stepmother was always motivated by desire for money.
Fan Fiction[]
- A lot of genuinely nice characters will be "interpreted" or outright derailed into this trope if fanfic writers want him or her to be made unsupportable as a perceived threat to a pairing they support.
- Jenny from Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way vs. Canon seems like an average teenager who happens to enjoy Trolling the internet. She then reveals herself to be a pretty nasty piece of work.
- In Metroid: Kamen Rider Generations Vol. 3, Kaguya Kozuki is a pacifist who leads an anti-war resistance faction to stop the war for the control of Pandora's Box. Behind closed doors, she's anything but pacifistic; she is proven to be heinous compared to Gentoku and Soichi. Her true goal is to undermine the governments of Touto, Hokuto, and Seito so she could take Pandora's Box to herself and use its power to remake the world in her own vision.
Film[]
- The starter boyfriend of many a romantic female lead in any Romantic Comedy. Sometimes, the nice guy veneer is so thin, you have to wonder HOW he manages to hide it at all from the woman, or why he even WANTS to marry her instead of just dumping her and moving on to the next girl? Starter girlfriends in romantic comedies get this treatment too, though they tend to have even LESS of a nice gal veneer than the starter boyfriends.
- Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2. We assume all fairy godmothers are nice - this one definitely is not.
- Auric Goldfinger, as stated in his "The Villain Sucks" Song:
"Pretty girl, beware of his heart of gold, this heart is cold!" |
- Baby Herman in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
- Herman seems to manage to be a combination of this and Jerk with a Heart of Gold. In the films he stars in, he plays an innocent, happy baby, while in real life, he's actually a gruff womanizer. However, he's still a decent guy who, once he finds out Roger's in trouble, immediately sets off to try and help him out.
- Peyton Mott in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. A very chilling example.
- Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects.
- The Harry Potter flicks have both Quirrel and Umbridge, who both seem quite benign on the surface, but are in fact quite evil. Heavy emphasis on the "bitch" part in the latter's case.
- David Simms in Tin Cup. Partly subverted in that Roy MacAvoy and all his friends already know this about David. Conversely, David's girlfriend (with whom Roy falls head-over-heels in love, naturally) doesn't realize that Roy's comments about David's true nature are accurate until the movie is almost finished.
- Simone Clouseau in the original The Pink Panther (at least to a modern viewer). Because her husband Jacques is The Fool, she is able to successfully hide her professional and romantic connections to the jewel thief he is trying to capture, and ultimately helps frame him for their crimes. Since the thieves were the protagonists of the film, and were pulling a Karma Houdini (Clouseau was the Ensemble Darkhorse who became the hero of the subsequent films after being a Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist), the audience is supposed to be on their side. Unfortunately, even here, Jacques Clouseau is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, so her behavior is rather cruel.
- Regina from Mean Girls. Towards the very beginning, we're told that she's a bitch, but she seems to act perfectly civil to Cady. Then, of course, things begin to go downhill. A good example is when Regina insults someone's skirt after saying to the person's face that she liked it. This is obviously a call back to earlier in the film when she complimented Cady's bracelet.
- Cady herself becomes one of these toward Regina and her circle later in the film. A case of Pay Evil Unto Evil given Regina's actions, but Cady's actions (turning her friends and on-again-off-again boyfriend against her, giving her "diet" bars that cause her to gain weight, attempting to publicly humiliate her) are still quite nasty, especially since she does them under the guise of friendship.
- George in The Philadelphia Story. His true colors are revealed in his last scene.
- Macy in Trick R Treat. Actually, many characters in Trick R Treat.
- In the Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy Jingle All the Way, Phil Hartman portrays his next-door neighbor, who appears to be a nearly perfect man: a devoted single father who dotes on his child, a master at cooking and home repair, and has a seemingly limitless supply of free time to devote to helping others. For most of the film, only Arnold can see him for what he really is: a Smug Snake whose every move and thought is dedicated to seducing every woman he comes across, whether they're single or not.
- The Second Wife in Raise the Red Lantern.
- Ray Zalinsky in Tommy Boy. Tommy quips that he seems so genuine on camera. He then explains what a Jerkass he is when Tommy gets to Chicago to try and talk him out of buying the family business.
- In 27 Dresses, the heroine's sister fits this trope perfectly.
- It's very heavily implied that she's doing it to deal with her own loneliness, and they do make up at the end
- Karl in Blackout. On the outside, he's a helpful, chivalrous Nice Guy, devoted parent, and recovering widower. But between his flashbacks, and his gradual loss of patience in the elevator, we learn that he's a deeply sadistic and misogynistic Nietzsche Wannabe Serial Killer/rapist who staged his wife's suicide, and whose main reason for needing to escape the elevator is to clean up his bachelor pad before his daughter arrives and sees the corpse of his latest victim.
- Katharine Parker in Working Girl starts off as a BISC before progressing to being a Devil in Plain Sight.
- In Legally Blonde 2, the senator (played by Sally Field) is sweet and kind to Elle, becoming a mentor and friend quickly. She throws Elle under the bus the first chance she gets to gain a political edge.
- Lotso in Toy Story 3. In the Art of Toy Story 3 book, the revelation of his true nature was said to be like "finding out Mister Rogers Neighborhood was a mafia don".
- Eve Harrington in All About Eve.
- Mother Gothel in Tangled pretends to be Rapunzel's loving mother, but she's only using her for her own ends.
- Carrigan Crittenden in Casper. She's this way up to the point of her ethereal death by light.
- Professor Catalan in the French action-comedy That Man From Rio, a mousy, academic archaeologist who is kidnapped by folks who had just stolen a Mesoamerican statue which is the key to a vast treasure. The protagonists rescue him around mid-film, unaware that he'd staged his own kidnapping and is after the treasure himself, along the way, murdering a former colleague and abducting a young lady he had been a surrogate 'favorite uncle' to.
- Balraj's sister, Kiran and Mrs. Darcy, in Bride and Prejudice are not nice people at all.
- Nina is perfect for the role of the Black Swan, because she is a Manipulative Bastard, master of the Wounded Gazelle Gambit, and most importantly, crazy enough to do anything to get the role.
- Palpatine, full-stop, combining this with Villain with Good Publicity. As the Chancellor of the Republic, he had cultivated an image of himself as a kind, tea-drinking, grandfatherly figure who cares deeply for his planet, The Republic, and democracy. All the while, he was running the Separatist forces as his alter-ego, Darth Sidious. Immediately upon being confronted by the Jedi, he shows his true colors as a sadistic, megalomaniacal, power-hungry Manipulative Bastard. In the public eye, he kept up his former facade, while using his new hideously deformed appearance to pull what was essentially a giant Wounded Gazelle Gambit and turn the Senate and public opinion against the Jedi.
- What's more is that even after the Empire unleashed the full force of its tyranny on the galaxy, he remained popular, and even those who hated Imperial rule generally did not see him as the villain. He continued to be seen as either the galaxy's benevolent hero who ended the Clone Wars, or at the very worst, as a weak-willed old man being manipulated behind the scenes by the likes of Tarkin and the Moff Council. Very few actually realize (or want to believe) that he is a megalomaniacal tyrant in complete control of The Empire.
- At one point, Mon Mothma even calls him this trope.
"This Palpatine was a Rodian in Ewok's clothing!" |
- Hal from Megamind. He's basically Jimmy Olsen—if Jimmy secretly hated Superman and lusted after Lois Lane. The Sheep's Clothing fools Megamind, who thinks that Hal is the kind of nobody who would become a hero if given great power. Instead, Hal goes From Nobody to Nightmare.
- Tony is revealed to be one at the end of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, although there are subtle hints dropped throughout the film that he's not as nice as he at first appears.
- The Parent Trap (at least the Lindsay Lohan version) has the step-mom-to-be being a sheep to the dad, and a bitch to everyone but. It's surprising how he doesn't see it, honestly, but then again All Stepmoms Are Evil.
- The Scream series has a fair amount of these. On a lighter note, Rebecca is a memorable example in the fourth installment. On a darker one, Ghostface killers are usually this before The Reveal.
- Eddy ub Hick. On the surface a friendly Good Ol' Boy with perhaps some anger management issues, underneath a psycho killer and rapist.
Literature[]
- Blanche Ingram in Jane Eyre coos and fawns over Mr. Rochester to the point where it almost sickens the reader—though the company takes it as proof of her love—while giving Jane death glares and making cutting remarks that manage to sound innocuous while obliquely insulting Jane. Her love of Rochester, however, is put to a quick end when he tells her (lying) that his fortune is far smaller than she thought it to be.
- Princess Josiane in the Alanna quartet, after being turned down by Prince Jonathon, turns out to be quite literally Ax Crazy.
- This happens a lot to Copper Islands rulers; due to excessive inbreeding, a lot of them exhibit this characteristic. Take Princess Imajane in the Trickster books—beautiful and sweet to most, but turns into a sadistic bitch if you are so unfortunate as to piss her off.
- Caroline Bingley in Pride and Prejudice
- Wickham is a male example: he seems like a wonderful, charming guy, but he's a Casanova and a bit of a con artist.
- Lucy Steele in Sense and Sensibility. She might seem like a harmless ditz at first, but she turns out to be grasping and passive-aggressive; knowing that Elinor Dashwood and Edward Ferrars were close, she makes a big point of talking about her engagement to him in front of Elinor. Elinor being the way she is, just sits back and takes Lucy's nastiness, but deep down she's hurting. Good thing Lucy ends up with Edward's brother instead...
- Tommy Toledo in the short story "I'll Never Stop Loving You, Tommy Toledo" by Ellen Conford.
- Darth Zannah sort of qualifies. In Dynasty of Evil, she makes an act of being nice to people just to get favors, and she seduces a guy in book 2, resulting in his death.
- Given the Sith philosophy towards self-realization, which means first fulfilling one's capacity to experience genuine affection, friendship, passion, and love (thus, directly rejecting the Jedi concept of detachment), and then attaining personal liberation and fulfilling one's capacity to experience pain and loss by betraying the objects of such affection in the deepest imaginable ways...really, not only does this come with the territory, Bitch in Sheep's Clothing is probably the best outcome which can be hoped for.
- Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter. Uber-feminine pink frills, kitten pictures, and passive-aggressive personal style go with an obsession with personal and governmental power. The bitchitude is meant to be transparent to the reader and sympathetic characters, but the intended hypocrisy is clear enough. Her inner bitch is meant to be out of the closet by the time she uses a magical instrument of torture on the hero.
- During his school years, Tom Riddle is this. While Dumbledore can see through his facade, everyone else believes him to be an honorable, hardworking student, and a hero who caught the Heir of Slytherin.
- Gellert Grindelwald is heavily implied to be this: Dumbledore remembers him as being the brilliant, handsome, idealistic and charismatic young wizard who wanted the same as him...until frenzied duel between him, Dumbledore and Aberforth ended in his sister Ariana's death, at which point Dumbledore realised the terrifying monster that Grindelwald truly was.
- Burgo Fitzgerald in Can You Forgive Her?" (1864) by Anthony Trollope. Trollope included many others in his other novels.
- Male example in The Graveyard Book. Mr. Frost is the nice bachelor who has recently moved in. He is friendly to both Scarlet and her mother. Turns out, he's also the same Jack who killed Bod's family all those years ago, and is still out to get him.
- Several examples in Warrior Cats.
- Sasha meets some cats on a farm Pine shows her. They pretend to be nice, but as soon as Pine leaves, they attack Sasha and her kits.
- Hawkfrost acts kind and considerate, but really, he's a huge ass.
- Ashfur is seemingly very nice, but he is consumed with hatred for Squirrelflight. To the point of trying to kill her.
- Hollyleaf, after Long Shadows
- Sol. Calm, kind, behind everything?
- Willy and friends from Ravenpaw's Path.
- Helen Vaughan in Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan appears to be a beautiful, charming woman. In reality, she's the Humanoid Abomination daughter of a dark nature god. She will seduce and lure you in, and drive you to madness and suicide.
- Dame Olga from Ella Enchanted. When we first meet her, she seems nice enough, at least compared to her daughters (especially Hattie). But once she marries Ella's father and discovers that he had no money, she quickly turns into the cruel, abusive, petty stepmother we know from the Cinderella tale, making Ella a slave in her own home and tormenting the girl after her father leaves for business.
- Nancy from Are You There God Its Me Margaret She's nice enough to befriend Margaret, but mean enough to start vicious rumors about Laura Danker just because she has big boobs.
- Grandmother in L. M. Montgomery's Jane of Lantern Hill. She's a sweet-looking little old lady, but sabotages her daughter's marriage, and can, and does, make anything sound like an insult.
- In Death: A number of the murderers can qualify as this. A notable example would be Ava from Strangers In Death. Eve actually refers to the act Ava puts on as a suit, and Eve has to poke at it to eventually make Ava drop the act.
- Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels: Rosemary Hershey was supposedly this, but by the book Sweet Revenge, her little act has apparently worn thin. Little Fish, Stu Franklin, and Henry "Hank" Jellicoe are revealed to be this by the book Cross Roads. The book Deja Vu simply expands on the depth of Jellicoe's depravity.
- Jeremy Jason McCole in Animorphs. He seemed all nice and awesome on camera but was a total jerk off camera.
- Clive Barker's Abarat series contains a truly spectacular example, in the form of Princess Boa. The world she comes from (yes, more or less the entire world) remembers her as someone who was inhumanly kind, innocent, and noble. Absolute Midnight reveals that, boy howdy, she is none of these things.
Live Action TV[]
- Bad Girls had Natalie Buxton. She was introduced to both the viewers and the other characters as a nice-as-pie, meek, timid woman who wasn't in jail for much of a crime. Turns out she's a peadophile with a tendency to beat the crap out of people if she doesn't get her own way. She eventually becomes the Top Dog because everybody is too scared to challenge her.
- Star Trek:
- The Klingons and Romulans whenever they put on the "Faux Affably Evil" hat. They act civil but they're always looking for a chance to kill you.
- Khan from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Space Seed" and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Unfailingly polite guy until he gets into even the mildest disagreement.
- The episode "Amok Time" gives us T'Pring. More of a bitch in Emotionless Girl's clothing, really, but still the ex-wife from hell whose Jerkass moves include: denying Spock sex when it will literally kill him not to have it, trying to make him fight his captain and his friend to the death, then revealing that even if Spock still wanted her after all that, she would have cheated on him anyway.
- One time Star Trek: The Next Generation character, Nicholas Locarno, from "The First Duty" while nice and charming on the outside, was actually a really nasty person beneath the surface, according to Word of God. While he did perpetuate a coverup, he eventually insisted to the board that the blame be placed entirely on his shoulders, making this come off as something of an Informed Attribute. Especially since another of the conspirators, Sito Jaxa, showed that she wasn't a monster in "Lower Decks".
- And on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Vedic (later Kai) Winn: wise and benevolent religious leader on the outside, but full of biting, passive-aggressive insults that quickly reveal the depths of her envy and pettiness.
- Gabriel Lorca on Star Trek: Discovery. He makes no secret that he's a more militaristic captain than is expected of Starfleet but he comes across as a pretty decent guy in the first season. Until the season's final arc reveals that he's from the Mirror Universe and brutal even by their standards. He's just a Master Actor.
- Xena: Warrior Princess features a few of these. Xena herself occasionally counts as this, especially during her first appearance on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
- Gabrielle from Xena also counts as an extreme version of this in mid to late Season 5. Her bitchiness was so noticeable, out-of-character and unpopular, that it was actually lampshaded by Gabrielle herself in the episode "Eternal Bonds".
Gabrielle: ... I can be a real bitch sometimes, can't I? |
- Also, taken Up to Eleven by Varia. In every appearance she ever had, Varia was at first made out to be friendly, and as each episode panned out, she became the bitch yet again. Taken up again by yet another eleven by Varia in "To Helicon and Back", which featured Varia selling Gabrielle out to a genocidal maniac, bent on the destruction of her people. Nice.
- Velasca wasn't very good at playing the sheep, but she also counts as this.
- Amarice in her first appearance was similar to Velasca, but was also more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist, even trying to take on Xena, in her attempted protection of Gabrielle in "Endgame".
- Ephiny inverts this trope in her first appearance by being aggressive, unfriendly, and cold toward Xena and Gabrielle, before eventually becoming one of their best, and most trusted friends for the rest of her life.
- Jasmine from Angel has a hypnotic power that causes everyone who sees her to instantly become entranced and view her as perfect and beautiful, which hides the fact that her true appearance is of a decaying maggot-covered corpse, and she eats people. A lot. And wants to enslave the Earth. More to the point of the trope, while she acts like a wise and all-loving goddess when she's getting her way, an awful temper and vindictiveness lie beneath.
- Cordelia, in the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She's very kind to Buffy and looks out for her on the first day, but Buffy sees her for what she is when she insults Willow for her admittedly hideous outfit. Cordy eventually redeems herself in both Buffy and Angel, but can still pull out the bitch card when needed as seen in "Rm w/a Vu"
- Whereas, by Season 7, one suspects that the reason Buffy spends every single scene with Spike is because no one else can stand her anymore.
- The potential Slayers pick Faith over her. Faith. What's that tell you?
- Willow can be this occasionally, especially in season 6.
- Whereas, by Season 7, one suspects that the reason Buffy spends every single scene with Spike is because no one else can stand her anymore.
- Speaking of Willow, Lily in How I Met Your Mother. She's manipulative and controlling and very rarely takes other peoples' feelings or opinions into account, but never gets called out on it. She appears to be the sweet, maternal member of the group but is revealed at one point to have been quietly manipulating her friends' lives and relationships for YEARS (going back to before the show began).
- This is how Dr. Kelso was introduced on Scrubs.
- He later turns out to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, especially after he retires.
- Elliot Reid is this in most, if not all, of her relationships.
- In an episode of ICarly, Carly meets up with an old friend named Missy, but Sam has suspicions that Missy is trying to get her out of the picture, but Carly believes otherwise. It turns out that Sam was right all along, and after winning a chance to take a cruise, Missy confesses to Sam about her intentions, but Carly was within ear-shot at the time, and it also turns out that Freddie won the cruise and gave it to Missy, who is actually prone to seasickness.
- Marcy from Married... with Children, who is often presented as being old fashioned and loving of her husband Steve (and later Jefferson). However, she often ends up in situations where someone has wronged her, and this often causes her to describe in violent detail how she is going to exact revenge on them. In a similar fashion, she's also shown to be sex-obsessed, but she tries to keep this persona hidden from the Bundys, because she wants to look wholesome and be the voice of reason. It never works.
- Sherry Palmer from Twenty Four could've been the trope-namer.
- In all fairness, she did get a Pet the Dog moment by helping Jack stop Peter Kingsley
- Isabella from Robin Hood shows her true colors when she tries to kill Robin after he dumps her. However, it is unintentionally subverted considering Robin's questionable behaviour in this particular season, and the fact that it is heavily hinted that Isabella has mental problems thanks to seventeen years of an abusive marriage. Likewise, the Derailing Love Interests trope played a part, as Robin hooked up with Kate soon afterwards.
- Kate herself was petty, mean, jealous, spiteful, and vindictive...not that the writers ever noticed, considering she was an almost too-perfect example of a Jerk Sue masquerading as a Designated Hero.
- Everybody Loves Raymond: In a flashback episode, Robert's ex-wife Joanne is revealed to have been one of these.
- Marie can also count as one as well.
- Debra also has her moments, particularly in the later seasons.
- Friends had Emily, Ross's 2nd ex-wife. Later on in her appearance, she became much more...not bitch per say, more along the lines of 'possessive extremist with a short temper'. Granted, she had reason for being not so innocent anymore (Ross said the wrong name at the wedding), but her 'demands' were admittedly quite unreasonable...
- Phoebe, late in the series, especially in that episode where she and Monica try to break up and fire, respectively, a guy, but the first one to do so is the bitch. Monica rehires him but Phoebe doesn't take him back.
- Amy Pond from Doctor Who is something of an unintentional example. On the surface, she seems fun to be around, but she treats her boyfriend like crap.
- Amy just likes to play up the feisty Scottish lass stereotype. But if you try to mess with Rory, Amy will fucking end you.
- To be fair to dear Amy, she does appreciate Rory, and it becomes pretty obvious as the season progresses that she loves him as much as he loves her. That being said, her trying to seduce the Doctor the night before her wedding day, and attempting to kiss him on the day, was still a bit of a dick move.
- While we're on the topic of the Doctor's companions, Rose could be a bit of a bitch to Mickey as well. She abandoned him for a year (accidentally making him a murder suspect), kept disappearing for months at a time, and got mad when she heard that he was dating someone else. This quote from when she first leaves with the Doctor illustrates this:
Rose: Thanks. |
- Both Rose and Amy, however, have been called out on their poor treatment of their significant others by their significant others; "Boom Town" has Mickey chew Rose out for essentially abandoning him for another guy only to keep showing up and stringing him along whenever it suits her, leaving Rose rather shaken. "Amy's Choice" has Rory angrily point out, when Amy flippantly accuses him of being 'insecure', that she did run off with another guy the night before their wedding; although he doesn't mention the whole 'attempt to seduce the Doctor' thing, Amy's touchy and defensive "Not in that way!" response suggests that she's aware that his accusations cut deeper than he realizes and is more than a bit guilty about it.
- To be fair, we do get something of an inversion with Donna Noble. She starts out as a loud, shrill harpy, but as time goes on, we realize that her attitude comes from her feelings of total worthlessness. The Doctor said it the best, "Shouting at the world 'cos no-one's listening."
- The Doctor is, at heart, a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but friendlier regenerations can swing from nice to mean to Good Is Not Nice very quickly.
- Also, to be fair to Amy, a lot of her issues were only shown in Season Five, where it's clear that she has issues related to the cracks in time swallowing her parents and, later, Rory himself. In Season Six, which takes place after the Doctor "reboots the universe", she's considerably better adjusted.
- Firefly has Saffron/Yolanda/Bridget/whatever her real name is. A con artist with Companion training who works by seducing anyone worth a mark.
- It's arguable whether Seth started as this on The OC or Took a Level In Jerkass.
- Sonny With a Chance: Penelope. Big time.
- In the Korean Series 49 Days, In-Jung is the best friend of a girl in a coma. Come to find out, she set up the hostile takeover of her friend's company two years before the beginning of the story, using her boyfriend/lover as bait.
- Daphne from Frasier is a rather harmless and comedic example. While perfectly nice when she gets her way, she has also proven to be selfish, manipulative, petty, and a huge hypocrite who is quick to blame others for most of the problems she causes. This is actually lampshaded shortly after she gets together with Niles, when she believes that her overeating binge was caused partly by anxiety over the fact that she knows she's not as sweet as she acts and doesn't think she can live up to Niles's expectations of her after he has built her up and worshipped the ground beneath her feet during seven years of Unrequited Love. It turns out that Niles is perfectly capable of coming up with a long list of things he hates about Daphne, but loves her all the same.
- Becky Slater, Kevin Arnold's ex from The Wonder Years.
- Patty Hewes seems to be invited to guest at a heck of a lot of morning news-and-chat shows in spite of her numerous nefarious, under-the-table deeds.
- On 90210, Naomi's older sister Jen seemed like she truly cared about Naomi in her first appearance. Right until we learn that she slept with Ethan while he and Naomi were together (she would later go on to sleep with Liam while he was dating Naomi and blame Annie for it).
- Annie and Dixon's cousin, Emily, seemed like a sweet, innocent girl who looked up to Annie at first. Then, she turned all of Annie's friends against her, tried to steal Liam away from her, and got Annie fired from her internship and suspended from school...all while pulling the Wounded Gazelle Gambit.
- Marisol from Degrassi is cute and cheerful (if a bit dim), however, she flirted with, and possibly had an affair with, KC while he was living with his girlfriend and son, and told the entire school that her childhood best friend Katie was a recovering bulimic, almost causing Katie to relapse, all because Katie was dating Drew, who Marisol went on one date with months ago.
- HRH The Princess Eleanor from The Palace charms the public with her poise and charitable endeavours, but she's really a ruthless schemer who will abuse anyone's trust to get to the throne.
- Morgana from Merlin has fallen into this, mostly in the earlier seasons when she was pretending to be the good girl princess-her temper and strong will showed up from time to time, but Uther never knew she was as bad as she was. And she's openly evil nowadays.
- Arguable, but everyone's treatment of Jerry on Parks and Recreation may lead on to reason that even the "nice" characters like Leslie, Andy, and Ben are closer to this trope than to actual nice people.
- In Oz Schillinger offers to be Beecher's new cellmate to seemingly protect him from Adebisi. Beecher accepts the offer from the seemingly helpful Schillinger, but on their first night in the cell together Schillinger rapes Beecher and "brands" him by burning a swastika design into his right buttock.
- And let's hear it for Grace Whitney of Dance Academy: first she gets thrown out of the Royal Academy for driving another girl into a nervous breakdown; then she sets up Abigail (the only one who's even remotely onto her) as a villain to isolate her from her tentative friends Kat and Tara while also putting the moves on Abigail's choreographer Ethan and claiming he jumped her; she shows her true colours as a shameless and menipulative liar while rehearsing a 'self-revelation' choreography assignment, but still manages to convince everyone that she's a total sweetheart and 'the least competitive girl at the Academy'. Don't you believe it. Grace will do anything to get ahead.
Music[]
- Progressive rock band Coheed and Cambria makes a reference to this in their song "Welcome Home", with the "bitch" context taken a little up:
"A whore in sheep's clothing, fucking up all I do." |
- Debatable. Considering the song is about The Writer not only fantasising about killing his ex girlfriend, but also talking to his bicycle, one wonders how much of The Writer's side of the story we should believe.
- The song is featured in the rhythm game Rock Band, where the same line is changed to "A wolf in sheep's clothing, mocking up all I do".
- The Elvis Presley song, Devil In Disguise.
- Referenced vaguely in Mumford & Sons' "Little Lion Man".
"Your grace is wasted in your face. Your boldness stands alone among the wreck." |
- By Word of Goddess, Sara Bareilles considers herself one of these. She's said at more than a few interviews that she finds it very amusing that she can fill her albums with angry songs that chew people out or tell people off, and people turn around and love her for it. In her words, "You can be a total bitch, but if you say it in a happy, peppy, sweet way, absolutely no one will notice."
Mythology[]
- From Greek Mythology, Hera in pretty much all depictions. Queen of the Gods! Goddess of Marriage! Nice woman, right? Wrong.
- On balance, we are also shown that she's the victim of some truly outrageous acts of adultery by her husband (and brother!), Zeus.
- Aphrodite is actually a better candidate. Arguably the Ur Example of the Brainless Beauty, and seemingly too innocent to perpetrate a single evil act. But she regularly runs the gamut from petty and mean to a Complete Monster.
Newspaper Comics[]
- In For Better or For Worse, when Elly is interviewing a replacement for Kourtney, she thinks the candidate seems like a nice person from her application, and wonders why she was let go. She calls up, and the woman on the other end seems polite up until she screams at her child for acting out. Elly politely removes her from consideration, having heard all she needs to.
Professional Wrestling[]
- Maryse, while playing an angle with Gail Kim. She even began tag-teaming with (then-face) Gail, saying friendly things to her in English while insulting her in French. (This backfired.)
Tabletop Games[]
- In Exalted, the Black Claw Style of Supernatural Martial Arts is based entirely around this concept; most of the techniques of the style are variations on the Wounded Gazelle Gambit, and the final Charm in the style is a powerful attack that becomes unblockable, undodgeable, and even more powerful if its target is someone who genuinely loves the user of the style.
Video Games[]
- Samhain:
- Evelyn's Little Brother seems like such a nice little boy. Unfortunately, it turns out that his idea of a friend is someone that he can keep captive forever. In addition, if he catches that someone trying to escape, he will kill them without hesitation.
- Evelyn sure did the boy a favor by saving him from her little brother. Unfortunately, she shrinks the boy very small and put him in her dollhouse to keep as a doll (that is to say, a prisoner). Oh, and when the boy destroys her two dolls, she will take him out of the dollhouse and open her closet to release an evil spirit on the boy.
- Dimentio from Super Paper Mario is a polite, almost perpetually-smiling court jester who pretends to be on the side of the heroes. Then, he tries to destroy reality.
- Mimi also fits this trope, although she drops the "nice" facade within a few minutes of meeting Mario (when he breaks her vase). The player knows she's evil from the get go, though, and she pulls a Heel Face Turn at the end.
- And in Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door, there's Grubba, who acts nice to Mario for most of the chapter, but turns out to be a total bastard who's been using the chapter's MacGuffin to drain the life energy out of people later.
- Many characters in the Ace Attorney games are like this, and they're usually the true culprit of the crime.
- Dahlia Hawthorne being the best example, since she looked sweet enough to give one cavities, but was, in actual fact, a bitter serial killer.
- Apollo Justice also had Alita Tiala, a seemingly loving, devoted fiancée to Wocky, the defendant of Case 2, who was, in fact, marrying him because she and the victim of the case were the only two people who knew that Wocky was going to be dead soon. In fact, she carried out the murder to prevent being ratted out, and blamed it on Wocky.
- Matt Engarde is a pretty decent male example.
- As is Kristoph Gavin.
- Subverted in T&T case 2, where everyone expects this of Desiree, but she's genuinely a nice person. Played straight in every other case 2 of the series - April May, Ini Miney, and Alita Tiala.
- And deliberately invoked in Investigations. Colias Palaeno was designed to be as friendly and sweet as possible to make veteran players suspect him right off the bat. In fact, he's exactly who he presents himself to be, and was just Manny Coachen's pawn.
- GLaDOS from Portal.
- Wheatley from the second game is one as well.
- Yokuba/Fassad from Mother 3.
- Halo's Prophet of Truth comes across as polite and affable at first to the Covenant, until it's shown that he tried to commit Genocide against the Elites, and he becomes hysterical by the end of Halo 3.
- Atris, from the second Knights of the Old Republic. She even wears white. Despite her crappy attitude, she presents herself as very much holier than thou; the quintessential perfect goody-two-shoes Jedi. In reality, she has turned to the dark side and caused countless innocent deaths. Executive Meddling caused the extent of her evil acts (causing the destruction of Katarr, the extinction of the Miraluka, and the death of hundreds of Jedi just because she loved and hated the Exile) to be cut from the finished game. If anything, she's a unique case in that she has no idea how bad she was until she's shown.
- In the beginning of Dragon Age: Origins, Queen Anora seems like nothing but eye candy for King Cailan, and, after his death, became the justification why her father should be the regent in the absence of a king. Towards the end of the game, you have to rescue her from a castle where she is kept against her will by her father. Once you have saved her, it turns out that she had been running the kingdom all the time. That her father arranged for the death of her husband seems not to be bothering her too much, but she isn't going to let him take away her kingdom. She agrees to marry her late husband's half-brother to strengthen her claim as the queen, but only under the condition that she keeps running the show and he is going to be only for show.
- Sister Petrice plays one in Dragon Age II as she manipulates events in order to start a war with the Qunari.
- Aerie comes across as the sweet, innocent Woobie of the group for most of the story, but gods help anyone in a romantic rivalry with her. It's telling that Jaheira, whose status as a short-tempered Tsundere is the stuff of legend, has the clear moral high ground when the two of them fight over a male player character.
- Borderline example: Rin Tohsaka from Fate Stay Night, who combines this with Jerk with a Heart of Gold. She's not a bad person, but she's Cool, Dark and Snarky, rather than the "perfect honour student" image she shows to the rest of the school. The only ones in on her in on her real personality (barring Shirou, who's a bit traumatised when he finds out) are her rival Ayako, who has a similar facade going on, and Issei, who served with her on the student council in middle-school and got to see her true, pragmatically ruthless nature. Sakura seems to have at least some idea too, because she's her sister. She has rather mixed feelings, however, since she worries about what Rin might do to Shirou in the war, but at the same time, clearly still loves Rin, and desperately wants to be acknowledged by her. How much of this you see depends on the route. In Fate, you see some of her kindness amongst her glorious snarkiness. In Unlimited Blade Works, her kindness is fully displayed. In Heaven's Feel, she seems to drop the 'heart of gold' entirely and just becomes a bitch — especially towards her sister, Sakura — until the end of the final fight, where she demonstrates that her bitchiness had really been a facade all along, as an attempt to persuade herself that she could, after all, kill Sakura if she had to. The True End of the Heaven's Feel route implies that she has dropped the "bitch" part entirely, at least as far as Sakura and Shirou are concerned.
- B.B. Hood/Bulleta. Well, hopefully. If it's not just an act, she's even more Ax Crazy than she seems, which is saying a lot.
- Athena in the God of War series. She plays The Obi-Wan role for most of the first game, and in the third, though posthumously, only to reveal her true nature after Zeus is killed. When Kratos sacrifices himself to release Hope to all of humanity, Athena wails, "You fool! That was supposed to go to me! The mortals won't know what to do with it!"
- Actually it's implied that this was God of War III only. The box's evils infected the others so it may have influenced her as well. She also states that becoming a ghost caused her to "see the bigger picture" so it's quite possible that she only fell prey after death and may have genuinely cared about him in games one and two. Hell Zeus himself flat out states she refused to betray him.
- Adachi Tohru in Persona 4, in the Normal/True play through.
- Izanami might be a more subtle example. She's a goddess who gives people incredible power and sits back as two of them endanger the lives of innocent people, and ultimately ends up trying to kill you. Her disguise? An androgynous, and relatively friendly gas station attendant.
- Scott Selby in Heavy Rain. At first he comes across as a nice, compassionate guy, who even rescues a suicidal mother and looks after her baby, but is actually the Origami Killer.
- Fal from Symphonic Rain who only acts nice to the protagonist in order to take advantage of his musical talents.
- Paz from Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker. She introduces herself as a sweet college student longing for peace in her beloved country, Costa Rica. Even after knowing that her "professor" works for the KGB, Snake decides to accept the mission just for the sake of this girl, because he thought that her feelings were genuine. But then she turns out to be the game's final boss when she steals YOUR beloved Metal Gear ZEKE, pilot the damn thing in her underwear, and tries to blast you with a railgun. She actually works as triple agent for the KGB, CIA, and mostly Cipher the proto-PATRIOT. Thank God Snake then blows her ass out of the Metal Gear, into the ocean.
- Given the lighthearted nature of the series, Pamela from Atelier Series is a Played for Laughs case. Well, she's not evil, but some things she does are not very...nice.
- In Trinity Universe, she more or less states that she does those things only because that's how ghosts are supposed to behave. She genuinely is dense to the point that she doesn't realize what she does can be construed as 'evil', and all she really wants is a friend to play pranks on. Even when she goes ubercreepy and helpfully hopes you'll die soon, it's only because she thinks that way you can have fun being ghosts together with her.
- Numnu from Suikoden Tierkreis, although this is usually Played for Laughs. He might seem to be a cuddly, adorable Porpos-kin, but he is also good at putting people into troublesome, or even outright dangerous, situations.
- Levin, aka the third World Eater Raksha, from Soul Nomad and The World Eaters combines this with Obfuscating Stupidity and spends most of the game pretending to be a good-natured goofy moron. Disturbingly enough, while he isn't good-natured or moronic in the slightest, he still comes across as a little goofy when Trish confronts him. This is also one of the rare cases where, depending on Relationship Values, the person in sheep's clothing can end up Becoming the Mask.
- Dragon Quest IX has Mayor Bryce, who runs the struggling Port Llaffan. While he treats Jona kindly, acting like a surrogate father for the recently orphaned girl, he's mainly interested in abusing her ability to summon the great whale, Leviathan. When she says that she's not comfortable overusing that power, he immediately replies, "Well, it's not like you can do anything else for us, useless girl." It's not simply a matter of helping their village survive, either; he keeps her summoning to the point where everyone completely abandons their fishing as useless. And even before she developed her power, when they were honestly struggling to survive, he still wouldn't let anyone else use his private fishing hole...better described as an entire coastline.
- Randy from Valkyria Chronicles II qualifies. He's the ideal student council president, comforting those who are down and out and helping old ladies across the street. And then you bring him into battle...BANG BANG BANG PLOP. "How unfortunate." The whole nice guy thing was just a facade so that he could set himself up for a leadership role. God help you if he perceives you as a threat to his role as a leader and the center of attention.
- Tokimi in Eien no Aselia. Only Yuuto ever seems to realize it. Deep down, she's really not so bad, though.
- In World of Warcraft Cataclysm, it turns out that Hope Saldean, the kindly adopted daughter of the Saldean farmers who cares for the people of Westfall, is actually Vanessa VanCleef, who seeks to revive the Defias Brotherhood and avenge her father's death.
- Captain Shannon from The Orion Conspiracy. He seems to be a nice guy, giving a eulogy to Danny, Devlin's son, and letting Devlin say something at the funeral. He seems to care very much about the crew (notwithstanding some hostilities between him and the engineer Meyer), and is a little condescending towards Devlin, on the grounds that Devlin is middle-aged and Shannon is in his prime. Shannon also seems to be rather anal about the rules. Then, when Kaufmann is murdered, Shannon blames Devlin for the murder, ignores Devlin's protests of innocence, has Devlin imprisoned, and decides to cover up the murder, keeping it between himself, LaPaz, and Ward. So you would think, what a sleazy guy, right? Then Devlin and Shannon have a confrontation later on and it is revealed that Shannon blames Devlin for the death of Shannon's wife, so he murdered Danny as part of his revenge, then he murdered Kaufmann to frame Devlin, and now he is going to murder Devlin. Now that is a Bastard In Sheep's Clothing! Good thing Meyer intervened before anything else happened.
- Luca from Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica, she gets better, but there are still people who hate her for it.
- Harvestasha in the sequel, very Moe in an appearance and has a very squishy voice, but doesn't hesitate in disabling her trusted friend in an attempt to wake up a Physical God.
- James Tobin from In The 1st Degree. He seems like a nice guy who got caught in a bad situation at first. However, it will become clear that this is only the image he is trying to project, as he is trying to not be found guilty of murder and grand theft. Luckily, he is not very good at projecting this image. In fact, if you play the game right, you'll be able to make him lose his cool completely, and then he will show himself for what he is right in front of everybody in the courtroom.
- Jeannie May in Fallout: New Vegas, who gets found out during a quest to find out who sold Boone's wife to Legion slavers to have her lead out to be assassinated in front of the local tourist attraction, later, and nothing of value was lost.
- Tingle is perky, cheerful, and near-sycophantic when talking to Link, but if you talk to the guy in pink, he reveals that he's Tingle's younger brother, and Tingle is incredibly abusive, but on days when you visit, he's so much nicer (he does not, however, specify if "so much nicer" is enough of an improvement for Tingle's behavior to qualify as "nice" on its own)! If you talk to the guy in white, you find out he's not even related to Tingle; he's just some poor schmuck who happens to look like Tingle, and washed ashore one day after a boating accident, and Tingle has been forcing him to do menial labor ever since.
- Deadeus: Played with in the case of the boy's mother. It turns that she is basically responsible for her husband's death. She does apologize to the boy on the third day for what is going through and tells him that she loves him. On the other hand, in the Jump/Final Ending, she asks a cult member if the boy had done it, and disturbingly seems to be fine with the fact that her son is dead.
Web Comics[]
- Felicia from Ozy and Millie, literally. She's the school bitch, and she's a sheep.
- Angelo, the leader of Angelo's Kids from Our Little Adventure.
Web Original[]
- In The Gamers Alliance, Desdemona and Vaetris seem genuinely nice and likable people but underneath that kind exterior they're anything but. The former is actually a power-hungry, backstabbing schemer who killed one of the heroes and is currently manipulating King Marcus into marrying her in order to subtly take over the Remonian throne, and the latter is one of the four dreaded archdemons in disguise whose goal is to keep other races divided so that she can take over the world with her demon horde.
- The Nostalgia Chick combined this with a Sarah Palin impression to try and overthrow the Critic during Kickassia.
- In the Travel Channel website-original animation "Anthony Bourdain's Alternative Universe", we see a fictional side of travel hostess Samantha Brown we don't normally see on the air, in the episode "Romanian Rhapsody" (Sam's segment starts at the 1:40 mark). Seeing the burned corpse of the fictional Anthony Bourdain, she goes, "Yeah, NOW who's laughing, funny man?" Sam kicks the head off the body, then gets an evil look on her face as she goes, "Guess that 10:00 time slot just. became. AVAILABLE." Spouting off to a nearby camera man, she tells him when she's calmer, "Go get the head and send it to Rachael. She'll appreciate it." One final rant, and then she gets the clapboard in front of her face. Once the clapper comes down, she's her normal smiling self again.
- Survival of the Fittest v4 has Aaron Hughes as a male example. He starts out wanting to start an escape plot, but throughout the game, he manipulate every single character he comes across, and eventually decides to play the game conventionally while still keeping the guise of the leader in an escape plot. Ashlie Jackson of Evolution is also hinted to have been one of these before being put in the experiments, and although her power rendered her unable to pull it off as much, she attempts to pull off a Cute Mute facade at one point. And as early as his first appearance, Simon Leroy of Virtua is already shaping up to be a male example, who started out the game attempting to get Sycanus Appletin's trust by pretending to be a Nice Guy...while planning to use her trust to his advantage.
- Solange of the Whateley Universe started out this way. As a frosh, she was kind and understanding to Montana even though he looked like a sasquatch... and then she publicly humiliated him. All so she could force her way into the top clique of the school.
Western Animation[]
- Angelica Pickles in earlier episodes of Rugrats, while seemingly polite and sweet to adults, is actually a Spoiled Brat and a Control Freak who constantly abuses her baby cousin and his friends. She was mostly this in the first season.
- Darla Dimple in Cats Don't Dance.
- Suzy Johnson on Phineas and Ferb, though possibly only when it comes to girls her older brother Jeremy likes (and whom she thus feels are a threat to her status as his "favorite girl").
- Apparently, she also torments Buford, but the audience has never seen her do it.
- Subverted in The Fairly Odd Parents, where Timmy summons a pop star for his babysitter to forcibly marry, expecting that he will be an example of this trope...however, he turns out to be a very nice and easygoing guy.
- Vicky in the eyes of Timmy's parents, usually.
- On Futurama, Leela dates the Mayor's Aide, and he pulls strings to get her nice perks, before discovering that he was a creep who deprives orphans of fun and commits other such selfish acts to get those perks.
- Also from Futurama, there's Mom, the grandmotherly industrialist who is secretly a bitter, old hag.
- And Zapp Brannigan, of course. The Zapp Brannigan!
- Then again, it has more to do with just about everyone's inability to recognize Zapp's incompetence.
- Also Professor Farnsworth. Considering that some of the less disruptive things he's done in the show include creating albino atomic apes for the sole purpose of proclaiming his love for Mom, and the implication that he has multiple doomsday devices, his charming and harmless-seeming senility could be just a very good act.
- Lois in Family Guy definitely falls here. Granted, she is a sensible person and the usual voice of reason, but really get her going and she can do some rather questionable things and not bat an eyelash. Can't even get the courage up to say "I Love You" to her daughter Meg (she merely mumbles it) on her wedding day, no less.
- Even lampshaded in one episode where she is described as "more of a bitch than she lets on."
- Goes even further in the 'Foxy Lady' episode when Peter draws Red Heinie Monkey's female sidekick "who's always nagging at Red Heinie Monkey and telling him not to leave his beer cans lying around and what not."
Peter: [Holding up a drawn picture of Lois with a duck bill instead of a mouth and nose] And her name is Bitch-Duck. |
- Most formerly pleasant characters or Straight Man types have gained extreme Jerkass traits that makes them into this trope. The frequent Comedic Sociopathy in the show has arguably lent to the more openly Jerkass characters, like Brian and even Donna, actually having more genuine redeeming aspects than the designated "nice" ones, such as Peter or Lois.
- Francine of American Dad! also occasionally leans into this (or Beware the Nice Ones on lighter occasions), though, granted, she is called out on it or handed an Aesop more often than Lois.
- Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time comes across as this very notably on several occasions. She wanted to have the poor Duke of Nuts KILLED for eating all of the royal pudding, she tortured the Ice King because he tried to do her a favor, she demonstrates a complete disregard for the well-being of the mentally ill, such as the Royal Tart Toter, and she abandoned her son Lemongrab- sticking him in a castle to be raised by servants in isolation, and bullying him for being a terrible ruler, even though it was her fault he sucked at being a good ruler. She was also pretty insensitive to Finn on a few occasions, and to Marceline.
- Ferris Boyle from Batman: The Animated Series qualifies big time. While he pretends to be a humanitarian, he is really a callous monster who cares only about money. Even Batman, who's usually pretty stoic, is horrified to the point of even muttering an audible "My God!" (an EXTREME rarity in cartoons in those days), when he discovers the full extent of what Boyle did. The only happy part in the whole episode is knowing that Boyle will face justice for his crimes thanks to Batman.
- Quite a few characters on The Venture Brothers can be this from time-to-time, but nobody takes the cake like Dr. Jonas Venture. When the show started, he was just shown as a God-like super-scientist and globetrotting adventurer who was just plain better than his son and heir, Rusty. But as the show went on, it was revealed that he was an extreme Jerkass who went back and forth between neglecting his son and putting him in situations of traumatizingly-high levels of danger. Further, the reason Rusty is such a failure who can't live up to his dad is because of his horrible upbringing which has left him a mental wreck.
- Rusty's brother Jonas Venture, Jr. seemed like a nearly-perfect human being when he first emerged from Rusty's body. Only gradually was he revealed as a lousy husband and all-around self-involved jerk.
- Many fans believe the innocent farm girl Lila from Hey Arnold to be this, in a passive aggressive way.
- Remember that one time she seemed to be forcing Helga to admit her secret crush to her, just so Helga could have Lila's part in the play? Lila's tone of voice seemed to indicate she was taking pleasure in seeing Helga physically struggle to get the words out.
- Don't forget Summer...
- In Codename: Kids Next Door, Numbuh 3's little sister Mushi, at first, comes across as being just as childish and ditzy as her older sister. However, when she is stuck alone on the space ship with Cree and Numbuh 5, she gives a speech about how they should stop fighting because sisters are supposed to care about each other and be friends. As the teenage villain stops to think about this, the little girl pushes her out of the airlock, turns to Abby, and says "older sisters always fall for that mushy stuff". In her next appearance, her True Colors are revealed as she stabs her sister's stuffed animal and is sent to her room forever. After that, she becomes a full-fledged villain and creates a spanking monster to attack kids.
- Hama in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- Darcy from Winx Club does this in one episode. After seemingly saving Riven's life, she deliberately acts sweet and cutesy (she even says "My name's Darcy" while giving a big cutesy smile that make her two psychopathic sisters disgusted). Next episode, she's back to being a seductive and evil bitch who attempts to commit homicide against her rival for Riven (which shows how spiteful she is, given that she didn't even like Riven, and yet still wants to murder Musa just for liking him. Jesus).
- First time you see her, Josephine from Samurai Jack looks more like a Stepford Smiler Femme Fatale; it's when her smile wears off that you realize why she's so good at her job.
- Mrs. Gerkin on Jimmy Two-Shoes. Her first appearance hypes her up as a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold, only to reveal in the last moments that she is, indeed, everything Jimmy feared. Her next appearance has her causing a Zombie Apocalypse.
- Marcia from Blinky Bill is basically this mixed with Sociopathic Hero.
- Arguably, Rebecca Cunningham of Tale Spin leans over the fine line between this and a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. She is a nice girl deep down, but too often tries to sugarcoat her bad temper and ego problems in a professional facade, rather than sticking to her genuinely positive traits.
- Invader Zim: Dib's sister Gaz and Tak from the episode "Tak the Hideous New Girl".
- Pietro in X-Men: Evolution is introduced as one. At first, he pretends to be nothing more than a Rival, and even helps Evan in luring a trap against whoever's ripping him off. Then he reveals, in an awesome manner, that he is the one who's been messing with him, and leaves him framed for vandalism and theft.
- Kitty accuses Lance of this at the beginning of Season 3.
- Stan's older sister Shelly pulls this act in her introductory episode on South Park around her parents, only to beat him up in their absence.
- Butters' grandma has been revealed to be one as well, bullying her poor grandson when no one is looking. Apparently, there is no foster care in South Park.
- Becky Benson from Recess
- Gilda from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. She's introduced as Rainbow Dash's BFF in "Griffon The Brush Off", but then she starts revealing her true nature to the rest of the "dweebs". It's her bullying Fluttershy to tears that causes Pinkie Pie to finally draw the line with regards to her, and resort to "extreme measures... PINKIE PIE style!"
- The show also has a more extreme example in the form of Chrysalis from Canterlot Wedding. She disguises herself as Shining Armor's bride Cadence; just to harness his love for her as energy for her Changeling invasion of Canterlot; and imprisons the actual Cadence in the caves beneath Canterlot that most ponies had forgotten even exist. When Shining Armor's sister Twilight, having seen fake Cadence casting spells on Shining Armor, voices her own suspicions, fake Cadence plays innocent and makes it look like Twilight's only accusing her out of possessiveness of her brother. Fake Cadence then imprisons Twilight in the caves beneath Canterlot, away from the actual Cadence hoping neither will find the other.
- Principal Pixiefrog, Neardy Crocodile and Bear in a red shirt from My Gym Partners a Monkey.
- Porita, Gwen and Penny from Mighty B.
- Nester's Mother from Scaredy Squirrel.
- Ranger Stu from Squirrel Boy.
- Cheif, Lok and the Pupununu tribe in Tak and the Power of Juju.
- Sense Jimmy in Sidekick
- Mr. Heelo from The Goode Family.
- Kate and Sandra from Will and Dewitt.
- The Simpsons:
- The whole Lovejoy family. Reverend Lovejoy doesn't give a damn about the church, Helen Lovejoy is a huge gossip and the Token Evil Teammate among the women of Springfield and their daughter Jessica is a manipulative little bitch whom everyone believes is a sweet, innocent minister's daughter.
- Ned Flanders. He paints himself as a friendly neighbor-rino (and to be fair, he is) but he is completely intolerant of other people's faiths and likes. He's mocked Apu's Hinduism, enjoys a good old fashioned book burning and is a self-elected Moral Guardian, destroying Kent Brockman's career in "You Kent Always Say What You Want" despite fully knowing that Kent's Precision F-Strike was knee-jerk accident that no one saw.
- At their worst moments, Lisa and Marge can be this, claiming their actions are noble, but really doing it for their own ego.
- Qilby from Wakfu. He's practically unrecognizable the moment he ditches the Sheep's Clothing.
- Hiroshi Sato from The Legend of Korra seems nice at first. Cue episode 7 when he reveals himself as the Evil Genius of the Equalists who hates Benders with a passion. His real thoughts concerning Mako and Asami's romance are absolutely vile, and he calls Mako a "fire-bending street rat."
- Tarrlok also counts. He appears to be a politician who cares for the safety of the city, but that is just a cover for his real personality, a manipulative Jerkass that plays most of the heroes, getting one of them to resign to position, almost got them killed, and even went into darker territory by creating laws that discriminate against non-benders, even being cruel on enforcing them. He is vicious enough to where he doesn't need a full moon to blood-bend.
- Allison in Alpha Betas.
- Though, she's not seen as a nice person from the beginning, she is shown to be serious about her job and to her man-children co-workers and is implied to have a soft-spot deep inside for them. Her true colors are shown when at the end of the show pilot, it's revealed that she has hired another team to completely mess up her co-workers jobs thatway she finally has a reason to fire them, due to her deep-hatred and annoyance towards them. She is also revealed to murder anyone who threatens her job.
Real Life[]
- Pretty much applies to anyone who has met someone who acts nice to them (as a friend or as a lover) at first, but turns out to be terrible people once you get to know them for who they really are.
- Many celebrities display themselves as nice and caring people and have good publicities, but some later get exposed as frauds, abusers, or generally mean people.
- Abusers commonly use this method by acting nice towards their victims whenever they meet other people or they're in public.
- And of course the self claimed "Nice Guy"