LogFAQs > #914816389

Yesterday's trope, An Ass-Kicking Christmas, was won by Die Hard which got 8 votes.

Previous Winners:
Un-Canceled - Futurama
Continuity Reboot - Batman Begins / Tomb Raider (2013)
Opposing Sports Team - Monstars (Space Jam) / Globo Gym Purple Cobras (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) / Luca Goers (Final Fantasy X)
Calling Your Attacks - Falcon Punch (Super Smash Bros.)
Arc Words - You have failed this city! (Arrow) / Bad Wolf (Doctor Who)
The Gunslinger - Roland Deschain (The Dark Tower)
Interface Screw - Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy (Yoshi's Island)
Cold Sniper - Widowmaker (Overwatch)
Signature Move - Falcon Punch (Super Smash Bros.)
Badass Santa - Santa Christ (Nostalgia Critic)
How the Character Stole Christmas - How the King Stole Christmas (Brawl in the Family)

Today's trope is Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain. Here is the link: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IneffectualSympatheticVillain

A potential villain who is consistently a failure or never gets the respect that he thinks he deserves, and may even be angry that the heroes don't take him seriously.

He may not necessarily be entirely inept or have a laughably mild idea of what counts as villainy. Villain Decay is usually too simple an explanation. This is sometimes a relative situation, and the hero's Rogues Gallery just happens to include people more showy, better financed, or just plain scarier than him. These guys are why people are found Rooting for the Empire. A defining feature of such a villain is his gullibility: they are more often than not pitted against a Trickster who easily bamboozles them and leads them on their defeat, while it is obvious to the viewers that they should know better than listen to and believe their intended victim. A considerable number of them tend to be Klutzes who are likely to fall in their own traps thanks to poor judgement, underestimating their foes to a ludicrous extent and/or failure to think ahead or pay any attention to their surroundings. And it is a usual way to showcase their stupidity by making them screw up their own plans and even die or get injured due to such mistakes in more realistic and grittier works.

This does not mean that he doesn't bear animosity; that's a Punch-Clock Villain. He's probably jumping at the opportunity to outdo his rivals and the hero. But there is something about his perseverance or attitude about the whole thing that is just short of sympathetic.

TL,DR: A villain who is so harmless and pathetic you just feel sorry for them.

Nominations:
Dr Doofenshmirtz (Phineas and Ferb)
Robbie Rotten (Lazytown)
The Carpenter (DC Comics)