LogFAQs > #976748322

I haven't voted in this contest before, but today is the rare day where I know both characters and I want to make an argument for Mr. Burns.

My reasoning is based in the caveat that we should consider characters at equal "power level". In the episode "The Old Man and the Lisa", Mr. Burns loses all his wealth and becomes a regular citizen. It looks like he's changed when he gets into recycling... but, by the end of the episode, he's created a recycling plant that also scoops up all nearby sea life and grinds it into slurry. Even as a regular guy, Burns manages immense, environmentally destructive evil. And that's when he's trying to do good! As Lisa put it, "You're still evil, and when you're trying to be good, you're even more evil!"

Johan, meanwhile, actually had a subplot where he was trying to get close to a lonely old man for access to wealth and political power. However, he wound up abandoning that plan in favor of another one that targeted far fewer people, albeit in a much more personal way. Even when he has the opportunity to acquire wealth and all the destructive power that comes with it, he opts for smaller scale evil. Johan is a nightmare on an individual level, but his evil is far more contained. The most he ever did was orchestrate a massacre in one small town. I can't picture him poisoning an entire town like Burns often does.

Mr. Burns hid toxic waste in trees at a public park, and that was after he stopped using playgrounds because all the bald children were starting to draw attention. I can't picture Johan ever doing something like that because it's too impersonal. And Burns is plenty capable of being personal too. He crippled Milhouse to inspire a sports team, and threatened to come back and finish the job unless the team won! He's got my vote in this for sure.