Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey

While a villain may be horrifying, the same may not apply for their lackey. Perhaps they didn't want the lackey to be like their employer. Or perhaps they want some comic relief to compensate for the scariness of the villain. Long story short, the lackey is either more sympathetic than their boss, or Laughably Evil at worst...

Examples of Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey include:

Animated Films

• The Horned King from The Black Cauldron is one of the most horrifying villains that Disney has ever made, with even his own followers living in fear of him (bar his equally horrific Cauldron Born). However, Creeper is anything but horrifying and is rather comedic.
• Averted in The Little Mermaid. Ursula’s pet eels Flotsam and Jetsam, while a bit comical, are just as frightening as their master. They’re a big part as to why Ursula was able to convert so many merfolk into polyps, which is a terrible experience. Additionally, Ursula does care about them and goes berserk when they're killed.
• Inverted in Meet the Robinsons. It’s actually the Bowler Hat Guy who’s laughable and Dor-15 who is horrifying. Though it does appear that Bowler Hat Guy is the main villain at first, given his intentions of ruining Lewis’s future.
• Ratcliffe and his lackey Wiggins in Pocahontas. Ratcliffe wishes to bring death to the Indians (and is willing to have whoever disobeys his orders hanged), while Wiggins wants to give them gift baskets.
• King Womp is a dire threat to the Klaymen who came close to killing all the Klaymen and transforming them into beings more like himself. However, his lackey the tongue alien isn’t threatening at all, as Dr. Bob found out when he wrapped his tongue around and it didn’t do anything to the doctor.

Anime and Manga

• DemiDevimon from Digimon is humorously ineffectual and is not a real threat to the Digidestined. Especially since they defeated Devimon, DemiDevimon’s evolved Digimon form. His employer Myotismon, on the other hand, is one of the nastiest Digimon in the series.
• In The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird, Draias is an Energy Being who's LITERALLY Made of Evil. The Mad Scientist he's allied with, Dr. Jango, is the incarnation of Small Name, Big Ego and very Laughably Evil (most of the time).
• In the first Sailor Moon anime, the Sailor Anima Mates had some funny sides and interactions - especially Sailor Iron Mouse, Sailor Aluminium Siren and Sailor Red Crow. Anything funny, however, was thrown out of the window whenever their boss, Sailor Galaxia, showed up. . .
• In Pokemon, things tend to get VERY serious whenever the leader of Team Rocket, Giovanni, shows up.

Live-Action Film

• Imhotep and his lackey Beni from The Mummy are a variation. Imhotep, the title character, is an unholy flesh eater that drains the life from others, as he does to the four people who are cursed by him and is the source of the movie's horror. In contrast, Beni is the source of much of the movie's comic relief. However, it's actually Imhotep who’s more sympathetic than Beni. Imhotep didn't choose to be a monster and wishes to resurrect his lover as he promised to do earlier, while Beni is heinous enough to sell out everyone to the Big Bad, simply to save his own skin. As such, Beni suffers a much worse death than Imhotep does.
• Enchanted: Queen Narissa and her lackey Nathaniel aren’t exactly alike. Nathaniel tries to give Giselle poisoned apples at the queen’s behest, but her naivety ends up sabotaging his plans. But unfortunately, Narissa decides to do the job herself eventually, and she ends up succeeding magnificently. Luckily, true love’s kiss is the cure to the poisoned apples, though Giselle was never in danger of being buried alive.
• In the 1995 The Babysitter's Club film, Cokie Mason is a nasty Alpha Bitch whose mission in life is to destroy the heroines and their business. Her lackeys Bebe and Grace are bumbling airheads who screw up her evil plans to the point where Cokie at one point says she's trading them in. Later flipped on its head when the girls call Cokie out for making them waste their whole summer on her petty vendetta.

Video Games

• Lord Crump from Paper Mario is rather comical, though he is legitimately a threat to our heroes, not least due to the mechas he pilots. However, the same cannot be said for the downright sociopathic Lord Grodus, who wishes to have a demon possess Princess Peach's body. And yes, it's horrifying. The Shadow Queen herself is even viler.

Western Animation

• Ducktales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp has Merlock and his minion Djion. Merlock is a surprisingly scary sorcerer who is responsible for the sinking of Atlantis and the destruction of Pompeii. Djion in the other hand is a comic relief villain, though he shows a darker side when he decides to steal Scrooge McDuck's fortune and then have him be arrested for breaking and entering (from the police's perspective).
• Truly exemplified with We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. The main villain Professor Screweyes is a villain who likes to scare people, and forces the four prehistoric reptiles his brother made into sentient creatures to regress back to their old, terrifying selves by threatening to turn their child friends into apes. In contrast, his lackey Stubbs is a clown...literally.
• The Batman: Joker and his one-shot partner Prank play this trope mostly straight, though the Joker being the Joker is comedic himself. Prank is shown to have standards when he refuses to kill people, whereas it’s been shown in other episodes that the Joker is willing to kill anybody.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bebop and Rocksteady have this dynamic with Shredder. It’s actually their bumbling that often thwarts Shredder’s plans. In some occasions, however (such as in the last seasons of 1987’s version) there are villains that are worse than Shredder himself.
• While Father himself is considered to be the biggest threat to the Kids Next Door, the villains that are working with him tend to be more comical to varying degrees. The best example of this is Toiletnator. Nobody treats him seriously, especially not his fellow villains. (Though one episode suggests that he's actually MORE dangerous than he appears.)
  • This is however averted with Grandfather, the villain of the movie. His minions the Senior Citizombies are just as frightening as their boss is. If they touch someone, they will become infected and become a senior citizombie themselves. He demonstrates this by converting the Toiletnator into a senior citizombie. Immediately, he goes from being laughable to being downright frightening. Small wonder the villains attempt to evacuate (unsuccessfully) after seeing what Grandfather does to him.