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Sometimes, especially when writing a story or a script about a highly unusual situation, you find that you've just loaded up your protagonist or some other fairly important character with lots of potentially Unfortunate Implications. Alas, trying to have your character explain to everybody why this is Not What It Looks Like is likely to be a real show-stopper, and mostly just makes your readers/viewers even more suspicious. What can you do?
Fortunately, there's an excellent—if not perfect—solution to your problems: the Deliberately Bad Example. The Deliberately Bad Example is everything your morally wholesome and upstanding protagonist is not. If you present this depraved buffoon's perversity comically enough, you won't have to say anything about your protagonist's motives at all. Your viewers will understand that since your protagonist is not at all like this Deliberately Bad Example, he must *not* be a bad guy.
There are lots of variants. For example, rather than the protagonist, the Deliberately Bad Example may be serving as the backdrop to an important secondary character. Pointing out the differences or similarities between the behavior of the two characters may also serve to raise suspicions rather than allay them. (If the Jerkass doesn't behave like the Complete Monster, how do we know he isn't really a closeted warm-and-fuzzy type? If he does, how do we know he isn't The Mole?)
Deliberately Bad Examples do of course tend to be rather one-dimensional in their usual roles as the Butt Monkey or Complete Monster, but need not always be so. Quite often, if a story lasts long enough and they get enough face time, they may go on to develop personalities of their own and maybe even become a Draco in Leather Pants or an Ensemble Darkhorse.
This a sub-trope of the Foil. Compare the more PSA-oriented version of this character-as-a-device, the Anti Role Model, where the character's purpose is to be an example of what the people in the audience aren't supposed to do.
Anime and Manga[]
- Mori Kouji and Toufukuji from I My Me! Strawberry Eggs, of course. See how these guys behave? Amawa Hibiki is nothing like them!
- Love Hina's Shirai and Haitani are definitely this to Keitaro, though all the girls in the dormitory fail to see the difference.
- Odagiri from Koi Kaze: he's the raving pervert with a fetish for high school girls who's pining away for a younger sister, not Koshiro.
- Parodied and Lampshaded with the character Matagu from Please Teacher: although he's definitely Hot for Teacher and has always wanted to marry a space alien, he's not really necessary. It's already pretty well established from the beginning that the protagonist Kei is nothing like him—which doesn't stop Kei from getting jealous and bad-mouthing him to Mizuho anyway.
- Kagaya and Muzan from Demon Slayer are pretty good examples of how a leader should and should not act in a given situation. For example, Kagaya rewards success, while Muzan punishes failure.
- S-Cry-ed is practically littered with examples. Many of Ryuhou's associates from HOLY serve to emphasize that he really does believe in what he's doing as a Knight Templar by showing what people with less noble motives might do with their powers. The way a number of Kazuma's fellow alter-users behave also indicates that his noble behavior as the Anti-Hero is more the exception than the rule out where he lives.
- From the Tournament Arc in Fairy Tail, Sabertooth seems to be one of the bad guys... until you see Raven Tail. Then you realize that Sabertooth is just a case of Good Is Not Nice.
- Subverted, forcing a member to strip before kicking them out for losing a fight can hardly be considered good.
Comic Books[]
- Deadpool (pictured above) is this for a lot of characters in the Marvel Universe.
- Helping Spider-Man deal with the Axe Crazy mass-murdering symbiote Carnage earned sometime Arch Nemesis Venom a measure of respect as an Anti-Hero from both the readers and Spider-Man himself.
Film[]
- In Assassins, the villainous hitman and Complete Monster Miguel Bain's rather indiscriminate slaughter of bystanders along with his targets helps establish that although the protagonist Robert Rath is also a hitman, he's a lot more restrained and professional, making his role in the story as a Hitman with a Heart somewhat more believable.
- Wild Target follows Assassins' lead, making the vicious hitman Dixon a Deliberately Bad Example in order to make his colleague Victor Maynard more sympathetic.
- While Dirty Harry tends to act more like a gunfighter than a police officer (the way a lot of the TV cops these movies were parodying did), a band of lawless vigilante cops in Magnum Force whose idea of community service is coldblooded premeditated murder of the accused helps demonstrate that he does at least have some scruples against vigilante justice.
- King Zahn and Sedessa from Delgo represent what a monarch should or should not do in a given situation. It was unfortunate for the Nohrin that the Lochni decided to stop giving them land. But the Lochni had their reasons for not doing so, and a peaceful solution could be found. But Sedessa decided that the Lochni didn't matter and she decided she would wipe them all out. Inevitably, this led to a racial war, as the Lochni realized they had nothing to lose if they did go to war with the Nohrin, on the basis that Sedessa wasn't going to leave any survivors in her attacks. Fortunately, King Zahn realizes how awful Sedessa's actions truly were and decides to remove her from the royal family for this reason.
- Leah and Mayor Phlegmming from Osmosis Jones represent how an authority figure should and should not act in a given situation. Leah is smart and knows what to do in a given situation. Mayor Phlegmming in contrast doesn’t listen to other people and decides not to look after Frank’s health, which eventually has dire consequences when an extremely deadly virus named Thrax finds a way inside Frank’s body due to his actions.
Literature[]
- Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter novels. If Severus Snape really were a Complete Monster, this is who he'd be.
- In Sabatini's novel about the pirate Peter Blood, Isterling and l'Evaser are both portrayed as Complete Monsters so that Blood can retain the image of a noble pirate.
- In Alexander Pushkin's "Captain's Daughter" the author made use of one of these to avoid censorship: The hero Grinev is friends with the anti-Czarist rebel Pugachev, yet remains a positive character, which could have led to the book being banned in Czarist Russia. So Pushkin introduced Shwabrin, a spineless, unscrupulous traitor who sells out everybody; in comparison to this, the hero seems quite loyal and patriotic.
- Tommen Baratheon and his brother Joffrey from Game of Thrones represent how a king should and should not act in a given situation. And yes, Tommen is by far the more likable of the two.
Live-Action TV[]
- Simon from The Walking Dead (TV series) represents what Negan would be if he didn’t have any standards or if he didn’t have any redeeming qualities. As such, it’s possible to root for Negan when he directly fights Simon.
- In the first episode of Loki, Mobius notes that this is the title character's life purpose. His power grabs and schemes bring out the best in others and let them become the heroes they're destined to be.
Video Games[]
- Tao from Shin Megami Tensei V repreeents what true love is, loving Sahori as her best friend. But Lahmu, on the other hand, represents what false love is (aka lust). At first glance, both of them love Sahori. But in Lahmu’s case, he ultimately doesn't see her as an individual, but rather part of himself. And the reason why he eventually murders Tao? So that Sahori will be his and his alone.
- Likewise, Lahmu is a contrast to Aogami. While Aogami merges with the player, he considers them to be their own person, and will allow them to make their own decisions. But on the other hand, Lahmu doesn't truly consider Satori to be her own person. While he allows her to make her own choices to some extent, there's a reason why he took away her ability to feel sadness, even if she agreed with it. When you take away a person's ability to feel sadness, you also take away their ability to feel empathy. And when you take away someone's ability to feel empathy, you turn them into a sociopath.
- The character of Khonsu demonstrates what Lahmu would be if he truly loved his human partner. He considered Miyazu to be more important than the throne of creation, and gave up the throne for this very reason. Unlike Lahmu, Khonsu doesn’t expect things in return for the gifts he gives her. He has difficulty realizing Miyazu doesn’t wish to be a goddess, however, though she legitimately appreciates everything he does for her.
- And of course, he’s one for Sahori (his human partner) herself. While Sahori also has darkness in her heart (and is mentally ill, similar to Lahmu being insane), she only turned evil because she lived an unhappy life and kept being bullied. And she was shown to feel remorse for her actions, though she didn’t at first. Lahmu in contrast does everything he does willingly, and he never regrets what he does.
Western Animation[]
- Wait Till Your Father Gets Home has Ralph playing this as a neighbor to Harry Boyle; Ralph is a paranoid far-right militia type the level-headed conservative Harry is the first to call a nutcase.