Monday, May 26, 2008

Root, Root, Root for the Bad Guy

In real life it is not cool to cheer for the bad guy, pretty much, ever. In sports it is acceptable to cheer for the bad guys if your team needs another team to lose and the team you need to lose is playing the Yankees. But, for the most part you are not going to cheer for evil.

(The Evil Empire)

In the land of make believe however, there are many times where you can cheer for the bad guy and be okay.

A prime example for me would be Wile E. Coyote. While Wile E. is clearly the bad guy, the road runner is just an asshole and it would really do me good to see, just once, Wile E. defeat him/her (who knows what sex the roadrunner is?).
(This just in....your acme shit.....it don't work)

I feel the same way about Tom as well. Jerry is a tool and Tom is just doing his job. I am definitely cheering for Team Tom here.
(Sleeping with the enemy)

I suppose the definitive “cheer for the bad guy” medium is hack and slash horror movies. Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, etc. are clearly the “heroes” in their respective films. People don’t go to these movies to see which hot chick lives, they go to see said killers….well, kill.
("What's with kids today huh? Noooo respect...")

More recently Ben from the t.v. show Lost is a bad guy I like to cheer for. More of an anti-villian due to the ambiguity of his actions, he is still clearly not a “good guy” by definition, but just grey enough to win our hearts.

(I'd write something about the show, but it wouldn't make sense)

For Heather’s sake I will not even go into cheering for the bad guys in pro wrestling, but be warned…..it’s coming.

2 comments:

whatever_heather said...

I love this post! Thanks for the refrain on the wrestling. Haha.
I love cheering for the bad guy sometimes. Well, is he's cute. Hehe. XOXO.

ErinM said...

Adam, I just can't agree with the Yankees comment. As a Mets fan from NY married to a Red Sox fan who spent part of his childhood in Vermont, it is NEVER acceptable to cheer for the Yankees. If the team you need to lose is playing them, you just have to accept that they are not allowed to lose and cheer them on to win regardless. There are certain sports standards that MUST be upheld.