Said Satan, in "Paradise Lost," quoted in "Bad is Good and Good is Bad" (TV Tropes).
Sometimes it isn't enough for a villain to be evil. They have to prove their evilness by eschewing all that is good and embracing all that is bad. They'll eat foods that disgust the good guys and laugh at funerals. They may also carry this over to their speech, making sure to only use negative phrases when most people would use a positive one, and correcting themselves if they "slip" ("Oh, goody! I mean, 'baddy.'")....
Compare Above Good and Evil and What Is Evil? Villains whose strong point is not logic will sometimes use both tropes to justify this. See also Bizarro Universe, Mirror Universe, Blue-and-Orange Morality, and Naughty Is Good. Not to be confused with So Bad, It's Good.
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He lived as a devil, eh? (Palindrome)
Reviled did I live,” said I, “as evil I did deliver" (Palindrome)
I said cool is a rule, but, sometimes, bad is bad.
— Huey Lewis
This sounds like an evil person in a comedy. Preferably one that is less than 30 minutes long because their schtick would quickly become tiresome. Even Dante's Satan doesn't eschew good, he merely redefines it for his purposes.
The evil person worth watching will think of themselves as good and will have a coherent argument why the evil they do is actually good. For instance, in the Harry Potter books (a point not well developed in the movies), Voldemort sees himself as the savior of the wizarding world and is truly perplexed that some wizards oppose him. His hero-complex plays a role in how he justifies his barbarity.
So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politnesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste, mm yeah
Lazy writing.
Addams Family Values is one of my favorite movies. I think the immediate predecessor, with many of the same people involved, is not quite as good. The TV show had its moments. Gomez, rightly or wrongly, decides to take up the practice of law after many years to fight some kind of ticket. Yes, he somehow graduated from law school at some point--maybe with someone helping him skate, like Biden. He loves making grandiose speeches in court. The judge gets fed up: sir, you are obviously completely incompetent. For you to appear here and then make it obvious you have no knowledge of relevant statute or case law, and you are helpless in the cause you are trying to defend, is a disgrace. Gomez: I resent that. Judge: Not only that, but it is clear to me that the only reason you have gone to this trouble is to serve yourself, not anyone else to say nothing of the public. You are entirely self-centered. Gomez: that's better. Two meanings of the word "virtue."
Addams Family is basically one joke: what's good is bad, what's bad is good, etc. There weren't really all that many Addams cartoon in this vein, but one had the family ready to pour a big pot of boiling something onto the heads of carollers or maybe trick-or-treaters. Cruel and unjust, contrary to Disney, and yet: the little bastards should have known better than to trespass on this property. At its best the Addams franchise walks a fine line: they don't seem to object to murder, but if you saw them commit one, especially with sadism, this would somehow spoil it. I've seen the beginning of Tim Burton's Wednesday, where she immediately kills two water polo players in a gruesome way. Yes, but ... for Gomez and Morticia, it was more about avoiding the world in its paltriness and ugliness, its lack of romance and adventure, than it was attacking those slobs.
So where does Sam Brinton fit into Satan's plans?
grrrrrr
I've got some good heaven/hell/Satan stuff on the Metallica thread
I would move it except it's not up yet
organization is my Achilles heel
(Achilles if you ever want to yell at me, I would focus on that, free tip, buddy!)
Bizarroworld is a variation on this. Everything is the opposite, but the bizarros aren't evil, just incurably stupid.
Bidenworld looks like a synthesis: bad is good and stupid is brilliant.
War is the health of the State.
Where does that fit?
I enjoyed reading Milton.
Once wrote music to lines from Il Penseroso.
The lyrics were good.
Now everything's a little upside down
As a matter of fact the wheels have stopped
What's good is bad, what's bad is good
You'll find out when you reach the top
You're on the bottom
--------------Idiot Wind, Bob Dylan
L'etat, c'est moi.
-- Obama
L'etat, c'est moi.
-- Obama
L'etat, c'est moi.
-- Obama
You could admire screwtape, he was a professional. A Rommel who served an evil master. I disrespect the cartoonish villeins who say "I love evil." Just mundane. Like the THRUSH committee in Get Smart. At least Moriarty published a paper on the binomial theorem.
Interesting that Keith Richards, famous musician who played on Sympathy for the Devil, makes an appearance on Johnny Cash's amazing video, God's Gonna Cut You Down
Change of heart?
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