"Being a genius certainly has its advantages."
"I'll give you a description. A forked tongue, little beady eyes, and he slithers on his belly. You'll find him easy. Just look under rocks."
— Mrs. Kandell, Dragnet 1967, "Burglary: Mister"
The Smug Snake is a type of character (usually a villain) who tends to treat friends and enemies alike with equal disdain. They almost constantly speak in a sarcastic tone and punctuate most of their sentences with a smirk. While they aspire to be a formidable and awe-inspiring adversary, they often just become a Big Bad Wannabe, failing in the face of more cunning villains or becoming their servants, in which case they'll generally be The Starscream. Others that fall under this trope are simply in it to bug the good guys and take advantage of their moral insecurity.
A key character trait common to Smug Snakes is overconfidence. The Smug Snake is usually too arrogant to be rattled. Oftentimes, they will view themselves as a Magnificent Bastard. While they may believe that they have the situation under control (whether they do so through blackmail, manipulation, or simply being in a position of authority), there will usually be a hole in that plan that they failed to consider. Perhaps they underestimated their opponents' abilities and claimed themselves unbeatable, or maybe they made a really stupid mistake along the way. They may even taunt someone or something even when common sense dictates that doing so is a good way to get themselves killed. Once that realization hits, expect the Snake to lose their cool right before everything starts falling apart for them. They are not necessarily entirely incompetent, stupid, or ineffectual, however, and may succeed with at least part of their goals, but they are still lacking that charm and grace that the Magnificent Bastard possesses, and even the clever ones all too often ultimately are Too Clever by Half. Often a Know-Nothing Know-It-All too, to inspire added bile, though still enough to take the 'sympathetic' out of Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain (the best of them are Insufferable Geniuses heavy on the former and light on the latter to the point that they teeter on Insufferable Imbecile). If a Smug Snake considers themself a Magnificent Bastard, then they're a villainous Small Name, Big Ego. When things go badly, the Smug Snake may reveal themself to be a Dirty Coward and pathetically grovel when a former victim asks Who's Laughing Now? or beg the victim to save them in the event of outside danger. In fact, for all their self-proclaimed brilliance, this is a trope that's highly likely to overlap with Stupid Evil and end with the Smug Snake proving themselves Too Dumb to Live and even suffering a Karmic Death.
Mostly, a writer will purposely introduce a Smug Snake as a target for audience hate by making them Kick the Dog or bend the rules to get their way and come out smelling like a rose. Basically, this is a villain that's made to be hated and the audience will often enjoy hating. This, like all other tropes, can backfire if misused. If the writer still tries to foist the character as a Magnificent Bastard when their previous actions have proven otherwise, the audience will likely stop enjoying hating the character, and instead genuinely hate them as much as they would The Scrappy or the Creator's Pet. Evolving a Smug Snake into a true Magnificent Bastard could be doable, in theory, but shouldn't be attempted lightly, and has only been pulled off successfully in fiction a few times. Ever. Of course, the author might be deliberately doing this, playing a villain up as a Magnificent Bastard when it comes to getting the power they crave, but proving to be so inept at wielding that power once they finally have it that they ultimately are a Smug Snake instead. The line between those two Tropes is thinner than it looks, after all, and the further someone overestimates themself and underestimates the others, the closer they lean to Smug Snake territory, even if they are normally a Magnificent Bastard. So it is a state of mind directly proportional to the overconfidence of the character, and a character who has a good reason to have a high idea of themself will need to exaggerate their self-worth more to reach it than someone who hasn't. They can also be The Ever-Calm, able to think calmly and clearly even in tense situations.
The Smug Snake will rarely be a Draco in Leather Pants, because, as previously stated, they're often created intentionally to be loathed by the audience. (However, it is possible for this to happen, especially if the character is physically attractive — the Trope Namer himself is an example.)
If the Smug Snakes are literally snakes, then it also overlaps with Snakes Are Sinister.
If the Smug Snake is wealthy, you might be able to Hit Them in the Pocketbook.
Contrast Worthy Opponent, Evil Is Cool, and Magnificent Bastard, who inspire respect and/or admiration from their opponents/the audience, and Awesome Ego, whose brash cockiness is part of their charm (although any of these may be perceived as a Smug Snake by an audience via Alternative Character Interpretation or simply poor writing). Compare and contrast Smug Super, for when the person's arrogance and ego can actually be backed up with feats.
Sub-Trope of the Sin of Pride.
Sometimes Truth in Television, but let's leave it here, so No Real Life Examples, Please!
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Mythology & Religion
- The Devil in many religions and media is always depicted as arrogant and smug, though not always without justification.
- Ironically while the King of Tyre (which is the title given to its deity Melqart)— not to be mistaken for the Prince of Tyre (the human ruler)— is called a fallen Cherubim who got cast out from the Garden of Eden due to Pride, and judging from the Apocryphal book of Enoch (which has been quoted by Jude). It was referring to the fallen Cherubim Shamsiel who was one of the angels guarding Eden after man was kicked out, not Satan.
- The other "evidence" for Satan's Smug Snake status comes from a description of Nebuchadnezzar (who was a Smug Snake) so Satan holding a Smug Snake status is unsupported in the actual Bible which implies he is willing to hand over his throne to the Beast of the Apocalypse out of fear of his power.
- Ironically while the King of Tyre (which is the title given to its deity Melqart)— not to be mistaken for the Prince of Tyre (the human ruler)— is called a fallen Cherubim who got cast out from the Garden of Eden due to Pride, and judging from the Apocryphal book of Enoch (which has been quoted by Jude). It was referring to the fallen Cherubim Shamsiel who was one of the angels guarding Eden after man was kicked out, not Satan.
- And let's not forget the Garden of Eden, where a literal Smug Snake tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, only to be cursed by God as a punishment. Indeed, some versions say that the snake exists in the first place because God punished the original for his arrogance by taking his limbs and ability to speak and forcing him to spend the rest of eternity crawling on his belly. However, the snake was cautious to come off as interested in Eve's status, persuading her by acting as if helpful.
- The Apocrypha (namely the same book of Enoch quoted by the epistle of Jude) describes the sole fallen Archangel Ramiel as the real Smug Snake of the fallen Angels and being the king of Pride. He gets bonus points for being an actual snake (hinted to be the Leviathan itself).
- Another fallen Angel who was a Smug Snake was Azazel, the Goat demon who revealed the secrets of fashion to humans, who later wound up being chained to a rock bound until the End Times where he'd be thrown into the Lake of Fire due to his lack of subtlety in his arrogance towards the Almighty even after losing.
- Tengu in Japanese mythology tend to be this. Arrogance is their Fatal Flaw, to the point that Japan has a common phrase that goes "becoming a Tengu" (basically meaning "getting a swelled head"), and despite the fact that they're tricksters, there are just as many myths about their tricks being turned around on them as there are about them messing with humans.
Professional Wrestling
- Several wrestling managers such as Bobby Heenan, Jim Cornette and Jimmy Hart fall into the trope quite well as, being managers, they have to rely on their mouths to do the talking. And they do that well.
- Chris Jericho, specifically during his last heel run.
- Edge as a Heel.
- Hollywood Hulk Hogan. He will tell people how awesome he and the nWo are, and yet when Sting, The Giant (Big Show), or other big face somehow managed to get the upper hand on him, he will go on full panic mode before someone saves him or he gets the upper hand again.
- The Honky Tonk Man as well. He really bought into his own hype of being "the greatest Intercontinental Champion in history", though this only came despite his lack of technique as a wrestler. He relied on some underhanded tactics, weaseling out of losing the belt by count-outs or Jimmy Hart lending a hand when Honky got into hot water. His defeats at the hands of Hulk Hogan and then losing the belt in 30 seconds against the Ultimate Warrior only served to highlight this trope.
- Jake "The Snake" Roberts tended to waver between Smug Snake and Magnificent Bastard, depending on how cartoonishly evil he was booked.
- John "Bradshaw" Layfield spent his entire main event push as this. Despite being WWE Champion for almost a year (a fact he reminded everyone of constantly), the man couldn't win a match cleanly to save his life. Nevertheless, JBL constantly weaseled his way out of title matches via underhanded tricks whenever he couldn't beat the guy... which was everybody he fought. It finally took John Cena to take the belt from him.
- John Laurinaitis, with his smugness especially elevating when he got a position of power and became the General Manager for both Raw & SmackDown. His supposed mantra of "People Power" is an extended excuse for Laurinaitis to abuse his power and to crush those he feels are plotting against him, and he proclaims his role in the WWE with great pride ("Executive Vice President of Talent Relations & General Manager for Raw & SmackDown"). In fact, CM Punk even explicitly called Laurinaitis out on this during one occasion.
- Dr. Stevie, who uses every trick in the book to either hurt Abyss, or try to turn him into his puppet. While slightly effective, his big flaw is that he keeps pissing off the wrong people. For example, he bribed Kevin Nash $50,000 to attack Abyss. Nash succeeded, but Dr. Stevie refused to honor their deal...
- The Miz. Even if he's a face, he's smug.
- Paul Heyman is one of the most smug, conniving asshats in the wrestling business since Bobby Heenan. He loves to shoot his mouth off bragging about how brilliant he is and how dangerous his "clients" are, taunting male babyface wrestlers and creeping on female wrestlers. Much like "The Brain", Heyman can usually get away with this because his clients tend to be very large men with HairTriggerTempers who double as his bodyguards. And, much like Heenan, when those clients are out of the way or they turn on him Heyman often turns into a blubbering Dirty Coward who's reduced to begging for mercy.
- Coming off of reDRagon's loss of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles, Kyle O'Reilly offered to buy Roderick Strong a beer so he could drown his sorrows, knowing he'd be O'Reilly's first opponent as a former champion.
- Adam Cole lobbied for Kyle O'Reilly to enter the Hyatt Regency Dallas Landmark Ballroom first on Supercard Of Honor X night 2 on the grounds Cole should be entering as champion since he was 2-0 against O'Reilly. Every facet of this argument was Insane Troll Logic but in the end, it was simply so he could attack O'Reilly from behind before the bell rang.
- Taeler Hendrix, for all her effort researching/stalking other wrestlers, frequently fails to take very basic details about her targets into account, eventually forgets her entire mission for being in ROH over a self destructive hatred of Mandy Leon, and though she gives a lot of impressive speeches, she at one point had a worse WOH record than Dirty Coward Veda Scott and remained in the shadow of Kelly Klein long term. The aforementioned SCOH X is also where she had to manage The House Of Truth in Truth Martini's absence, which in hindsight hastened the downfalls of Daddiego, Jay Lethal and the HOT foothold in ROH beyond herself.
- Triple H calls himself the Cerebral Assassin, and usually tries really hard to come off as a Magnificent Bastard, but in full Heel mode, he's always a Smug Snake. He respects nobody, he always loses it whenever he's not in control, and tends to react erratically when things don't turn out the way he plans them. Combine that with the fact that fans believe he uses his Real Life pull to always have things go his way, plus his idolization of the truly magnificent Ric Flair, just accentuates his smugness.
- Veda Scott herself is a good example. She does commentary on her own matches, sometimes grabbing a microphone before they're even over to congratulate herself on winning.
- Vickie Guerrero nonstop. She bragged about how she was right about some things. And when someone got in pain (and if she's the one doing it) she let out the most annoying evil laugh ever.
- Though in the last years before her retirement, she toned it down, and her mean side was rarely brought up.
- Wade Barrett from The Nexus slipped into this Trope more and more as he lost control of his own stable.
- With The Nexus long gone, Barrett would try to recreate it on SmackDown with "The Corre", a stable where everyone was supposedly equal, with no leader figure present. However, Barrett's ego again brought an end to the stable, as his fellow equals in The Corre had enough of him.
- Michael Cole, since his Face–Heel Turn. The crux of his character now is that Cole is a braggadocio, often trumping his superiority and victories (one of them being at WrestleMania against fellow announcer Jerry Lawlernote ), as well as being "The Voice of The WWE". However, Cole ends up being humiliated spectacularly in various ways by superstars like John Cena, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, and Jim Ross.
- Eric Bischoff simply oozed smugness when he was a WWE character, whether with his arrogant smirks, condescending way of talking, sleazy management style as an authority figure or his creepy manner around some of the female wrestlers. He regularly got his comeuppances from babyface wrestlers or authority figures, and immediately turned into a sniveling Dirty Coward whenever it happened.
Roleplay
- Vincent Abrams of the Delicious Friends is a Manipulative Bastard and former abusive husband (to Casey)... who, to everyone's enormous satisfaction, found himself thoroughly outclassed against the Porcelain Lady, a true Chessmaster.
- From Dino Attack RPG:
- Grease is very snobby and rude, acting like he's better than "outdated losers" like Alpha Team or Rock Raiders. However, he doesn't actually do anything to back up his smug attitude, and is seen running away from the Brickspider Bot or getting his butt handed to him by Mutant Raptors (resulting in him being rescued by some of the "outdated losers" that he previously insulted). Additionally, in Alpha Team RPG: Ogel's Last Stand, he got the snot beaten out of him by Frozeen, who was so irritated by the former's smug attitude that he was even willing to throw inter-agency relations out the window just to shut him up.
- Walter Breen is confident that his high-ranking status in XERRD gives him the authority to boss everyone around and act like he's the one in charge, and remains smug and arrogant through it all. In return, his fellow XERRD scientists despise him and, at one point, even shoot missiles at him just to get him to shut up.
- French Fries is sure that he is well-deserving of his elite agent ranking and believes that his supposed "friends in high places" will protect him from anyone who raises a finger against him. As such, he comes across as incredibly smug, even boasting to Rex's face that he supposedly ran over Trouble with a vehicle. The result is that he gets utterly humiliated: he is arrested, violently assaulted twice, stripped of his ranking, and discharged from the team, all the while unable to even put up a good fight.
- The Formula Rejects Alternate Series have a number of those characters, prime examples are British racing driver James James Davies and Kay Lon, who openly acknowledges Davies as an inspiration as far as professional conduct is concerned.
- There's actually quite a few examples in Survival of the Fittest:
- Victor Danya could easily be an example. Arrogance? Check. Mocks the students whenever he can? Check. Doesn't foresee things like two different successful escape plots? Check. Multiple Kick the Dog moments outside of the whole "abducting students" thing? Check. However, how much he fits this trope depends on who's writing him.
- Maxwell Lombardi of version four is quite the arrogant sort. On one hand, he's the top killer on the island (in fact, he is the one character with the most kills in SOTF history). On the other, well, he lets his arrogance get the better of him at times to say the least. Although this is one of the main criticisms of Maxwell's characterization, his handler confirms his overconfidence getting the better of him to be intentional.
- Sidney Rice of SOTF-TV seems to be an example, based on her overall attitude towards the game. Her Establishing Character Moment? Pointing a gun on a kid and proceeding to mock him seemingly for laughs, not even bothering to just shoot him and be done with it. Naturally, she gets interrupted by Jonas Jeffries, an Uzi, and a meme-worthy one-liner. She tries something similar with Karen Ruiz later on which she doesn't survive.
- Haine and Skull Knight from Yu-Gi-Oh! East Academy. They can dish out the taunts, but they can't seem to take them.
Tabletop Games
- The Clans in BattleTech are total smugs to everyone, they look down on the Inner Sphere as barbarians, and consider themselves superior to them. Within Clan society Trueborns sneer at natural born Freeborns viewing them as inferior, and consider older warriors as Cannon Fodder.
- This is the default personality for any intelligent, powerful Always Chaotic Evil monster in Dungeons & Dragons, both to explain why they aren't currently ruling the world and to give puny mortal playable adventurers a fighting chance against them. The classic examples are beholders, cunning predators and masters of the mystic arts who are so steeped in a toxic cocktail of arrogance, paranoia, and xenophobia that they usually end up as their own worst enemies (sometimes literally - beholders are so magical and so severely maladjusted that a common way for them to reproduce is by accidentally dreaming their own Enemy Without into reality).
- Duke Rowan Darkwood from Planescape thinks that he is fated to conquer Sigil. He is wrong.
- Vampire: The Requiem: Clan Ventrue are already predisposed to see themselves as the natural leaders of vampire-kind, but the Deucalion Bloodline are full-on Ventrue supremacists. Their Bloodline weakness is an ironclad delusion that they're perfect and incapable of error: whenever they fail at a goal, they lose a Willpower point as they rationalize themselves as victims of circumstance.
- In Warhammer, most skaven seem to have this as their Hat, with the ones at the top usually being full fledged Magnificent Bastards.
- The same can be said about the Dark Eldar in Warhammer 40,000, as well as a majority of Imperial Governers and Chaos Sorcerers; and the Alpha Legion most of all.
- Among the Skaven, Grey Seer Thanquol from the Gotrek and Felix novels takes the cake and eats it. He appears as a would-be Big Bad in what seems like half the books, always having his schemes foiled by the titular pair of heroes. At one point he finally gets them in his claws, only to realise they have no idea who he is. Cue the Villainous BSoD.
Theater
- The ancient Romans called this sort of character a "Ballio", after the villain of Plautus' Pseudolus. Ballio the pimp is a raging egomaniac who threatens his courtesans with demotion to low-class whores — and floggings — if they fail to obtain rich birthday presents for him from their lovers; and he takes a nasty delight in telling Calidorus that his [Calidorus'] beloved is about to be sold. Ultimately, when he's been tricked out of the deal, he resolves to hang himself.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney:
- Redd White from the second case is so overconfident in his blackmail network that he hits Phoenix just to show he can get away with it and then testifies in court to spitefully frame Phoenix for murder. All evidence so far has contradicted Phoenix being the killer, and White doesn't even try to match up his testimony with that from the previous day's trial.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All:
- Richard Wellington from the first case is egotistical and nowhere as smart as he thinks he is. Also, his testimony is pulled apart by an amnesiac Phoenix.
- Matt Engarde from the final case. He hires someone to do the job for him and easily outsmarts the Magatama the first time, can put a facade that fools most people and he nearly breaks Phoenix with a Sadistic Choice. He even wins in the bad ending. However, he barely falls short of being a Magnificent Bastard because he makes the fatal mistake of thinking to blackmail a hitman. That exposes him to Phoenix and makes the assassin turn on him. His breakdown also shows he is a really Sore Loser.
- Juan Corrida, victim of the final case. He can be incredibly petty and even break the law just to stop being Always Second Best to Matt. Unfortunately for him, Matt surpasses him even in scheming and villainy.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations:
- Dahlia Hawthorne, the primary villain of Trials and Tribulations. Though she bears loads of surface-level charm and she's been masterminding crimes since she was fourteen, she's consistently shown to be nowhere near as clever as she thinks. She's a Bad Liar (she falls for the I Never Said It Was Poison trick twice in the same case), she gets Out-Gambitted regularly, and her crimes are consistently sloppy. Really, she only gets as far as she does by playing on her looks and Phoenix and Terry's trust in her. In a later "The Reason You Suck" Speech, Mia simply points out that, for all her boasting, none of her schemes were actually successful.
- Subverted with Luke Atmey, who acts condescending to Phoenix for the entire first day (investigation and trial) until he's caught. And then you find out he manipulated you into coming to that particular conclusion so he could play the justice system. In fact, the entire first day was a major case of Obfuscating Stupidity on his part. He still suffers the sin of Pride (which ultimately leads to his downfall), but aside from that, he's an extremely capable and dangerous criminal whose claims of superior intelligence may be more than just hot air. Had he not made one (easily missed) mistake at the end, he would have gotten away with murder.
- Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth:
- Ambassador Quercus Alba acts like a condescending asshole every minute after The Reveal, flaunting his Diplomatic Impunity in Edgeworth's face until it's revoked. And he still acts like a smug asshat, stubbornly repeating that none of your evidence proves he committed the crime.
- Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney:
- Alita Tiala from the second case originally acts as the defendant's eager fiancée, until she reveals she's an arrogant Gold Digger who only hired Apollo because she was under the impression that the office he's employed under is a third-rate and questionable law firm that will get the defendant convicted for sure. That backfired.
- Daryan Crescend, from the third case, laughs disdainfully at almost every accusation Apollo throws at him, convinced it isn't enough.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies:
- Florent L'Belle is an obnoxious jerk who takes every opportunity to laugh disdainfully at Apollo. But while his scheme is clever, it's also ludicrously complicated, to the point where a bumbling thief who decides to steal the treasure L'Belle is after for a lark ultimately tears it apart.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice:
- Paul Atishon-Wimperson in case 5 believes himself to be an incredible politician (he can't even win an election in a small town) and treats the witness stand as yet another campaign platform, oblivious to how much his antics irritate the judge and undermine his own case.
- Nearly every prosecutor in the entire series that you go up against is a smug prick in one way or another and they become it even more when the tide turns in their favor. They'll present every counterargument dipped in snark and contempt for the player character while making them feel dumb for not seeing the flaws in their own logic. The moment things start turning in your favor, the prosecution will either come up with flimsy logic or shout some variant of This Cannot Be!. The only prosecutors that avoid the trope are Miles Edgeworth (who was a smug bastard before he went through Character Development), Klavier Gavin (who just teases Apollo Justice rather than putting him down) and Simon Blackquill, who also just teases and intimidates, but he only pretends to be a bad guy.. Winston Payne is the most notable example, as he really can't back up his ego and this trope is the worst thing that can be said about him.
- Manfred von Karma is a very good schemer, and he is also a prosecutor who can intimidate the Judge. He comes close to becoming a Magnificent Bastard, as he puts up an incredibly good fight and has a record of forty years of victory, but he is too arrogant and some of his taunts backfire on him (though he is Crazy-Prepared for such a thing), is also incredibly petty and he makes the fatal mistake of committing murder because of a penalty he got, plus framing the victim's son for it. Also, he is such a Sore Loser it becomes the final nail in his coffin, as his scream of defeat is what gives him away to Edgeworth.
- Nahyuta acts like a Holier than Thou jackass constantly. He subverts this trope, as he was forced by actual Smug Snake Queen Ga'Ran to act like that. The queen herself puts up a good fight, but only because she abuses authority. She still loses.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney:
- Danganronpa: Junko Enoshima of Class 78th, the Big Bad of the series and mastermind of the first game, is overconfident in their ability to have a secure plan that results in their success and is always looking down on the rest of humanity due to a grandiose superiority complex. This attitude does not hold up upon being defeated, as Junko turns into a Dirty Coward immediately when things fall apart for her, both in Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair.
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc has Byakuya Togami. While he is one of the more intelligent students, and among the few who contributes much, he's also one of the more arrogant ones, so he isn't as smart as he thinks he is. This becomes particularly evident in the fourth case, when he fails to consider the idea that Aoi betrayed and killed her best friend Sakura, rather than because she wanted to kill herself and everyone else out of the belief that they drove Sakura to kill herself and ends up having a Break the Haughty moment when he's faced with the truth. In the end, his contributions aren't quite up to Makoto or Kyoko's.
- Dennis from Double Homework thinks he's superior to everyone, and it shows in his voice. He has supreme confidence in his ability to manipulate others. However, he ultimately loses his battle of wits with Dr. Mosely/Zeta, and she has him taken away for execution.
- Fate/stay night:
- Shinji Matou. In all three routes (Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel) he's shown to be overconfident, unintelligent, and tries to win through manipulating more powerful characters (e.g. his servant Rider, Gilgamesh, and Sakura). However, it always turns out badly (and sometimes bloodily) for him. Actually, he's being manipulated, by his grandfather Zouken. This is most obvious in Heaven's Feel (where his actions form most of the impetus for Sakura's gradual Sanity Slippage, culminating in his eventual death and her Freak Out), but is also true in the other two routes.
- Gilgamesh. Oh, sure, with his enormous strength and power he could easily have become a much more successful villain, but he's just so damn egotistical that it winds up costing him dearly in each route he appears in, particularly in the UBW route, where he foolishly underestimates the power of Shirou ultimately.
- Minotaur Hotel: Argos is a literal example, being an actual serpent and smug as all hell.
- Paper Perjury has Lowell Ledger, executive assistant to Anton Chambers, president of Eubank Investments. He's arrogant and condescending when first introduced, and only gets worse after Anton dies and Lowell takes over his job. It ultimately turns out that Lowell is the murderer, having taken advantage of the altercation between Anton and Eubank Investments CEO Owen Eubank to kill Anton while framing Owen for the crime. Lowell is significantly more intelligent than the other culprits, but is nowhere near as smart as he thinks, since he makes several blunders throughout the case that lead to his undoing, such as the picture he used to secure his plea deal ending up becoming evidence that he committed the murder.
- SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky has Shigeto Kido, assistant to a prominent politician who he is trying to secretly oust and replace for the sake of his own career while marrying his daughter for the money. He puts up an amicable front, but he's not as clever as he thinks he is.
- Eva-Beatrice of Umineko: When They Cry is incredibly arrogant as she treats her allies poorly whenever they fail to entertain her and acts jerkish any time that she feels safe. She's also reduced to a screaming mess when things don't go her way.
Web Animation
- AoHaru Manga Library: An antagonist in the stories here tends to be a super smug, fun-chasing extrovert who likes to flex their elite status and look down on the more down-to-earth Keiichi, while usurping his place and being so self-assured that with their riches, they would be way more successful than Keiichi could ever be. When they have the upper hand in the beginning, they act so smug, expecting Keiichi to be crying at the misfortune that they caused. By the end of the story, their smug attitude comes crashing down along with their plans, showing that they are actually incompetent at their field. Meanwhile, Keiichi perseveres with his own hard work ethics, so they usually come back to Keiichi begging for a second chance, but at that point, Keiichi has had enough of their smug shit and rejects them, leaving them to a horrible fate.
- Dreamscape: Boy is Ethan cocky! His holier-than-thou attitude pairs surprisingly well with his Affably Evil facade.
- Monkey Wrench: Dr. Ingrid Agness thinks herself a master inventor for building a superweapon out of an entire species, using said weapon against the mercs she tricked into bringing the Lythops to her while taunting them throughout on the belief that she is invincible. She doesn't take into account the possibility of somebody using a weapon against her that could penetrate her defences. When Punti, a crystal Lythop, reveals himself to her, she has a panic attack.
- Red vs. Blue has Felix, in the Chorus Trilogy. He genuinely is a good soldier and a talented manipulator, but he has a very bad habit of running his mouth whenever he thinks his opponent is at his mercy, and severely underestimates the Reds and Blues.
- Revenge Films: Some antagonists are overconfident enough to think they won't suffer the consequences of their actions, only for karma to prove them otherwise and screw them over.
- "My wife had an affair while I was in the hospital and she tried to get away with it!"
: When Alan and his in-laws took his wife to task for cheating under the excuse of going on a trip with her friends, his wife happily signed the divorce papers thinking her lover would take her in, only for the man to reveal that his wife is also divorcing him, driving the cheating woman to panic and uselessly try to worm her way out of said trouble.
- "Wife’s cheating partner told me they had a kid and to divorce her…": Adam's wife's lover smugly proclaimed that his wife was pregnant with his child and bragged about how he was a far superior match for her than him. However, it turns out Adam was actually a lawyer, who later spoke to the guy's university about the affair, effectively ruining the bastard's contract and chances of becoming rich.
- "My wife was cheating on me with one of my clients…": The cheating wife's lover, who headed his company's sales department, was fired for causing a loss of profits with his affairs. However, the bastard shrugged it off and went to work as usual, but his former coworkers knew about the situation and decided to take him apart and kick him out of the building, which made him realize that they weren't bluffing.
- "My wife was having an affair in our living room at night, and her excuse was ridiculous": Jessica flippantly justified her cheating to her husband Jonathan as he confronted her about it, thinking that the law would take her side if he tried to sue her. Moreover, she refused to let him divorce her until he earned enough money to her liking and instead wanted him to pay for her affairs. Even when caught cheating with her boss, she kept gloating that he deserved it for being "poor and useless", thinking this would scare him into submission. Much to her dismay, Jonathan had enough and called her parents, who took her to her house and disown her for her trouble.
- "My wife had an affair while I was in the hospital and she tried to get away with it!"
- RWBY:
- Cardin Winchester acts like a tough guy when he feels safe, torments other students and makes their lives as miserable as possible just for fun, and tries to get Pyrrha stung by rapier wasps by forcing Jaune to hit her with a jarful of sap. However, when he is faced by an opponent bigger than himself, he immediately loses his arrogant bravado and turns tail.
- Mercury while he is a very competent fighter and most of his smugness is justified, he's not completely aware of where he stands on the totem pole, and occasionally underestimates his opponents. His attempt to intimidate Raven is met with scorn, and when he disarms Ruby and starts mocking her, she cuts him off with a headbutt to the face.
- Jacques Schnee presents himself as calm, pompous and manipulative when in control of a situation. In Volume 4, he cajoles an unwilling Weiss into singing at a charity event for Vale, praising her only when she gives in to his demands. Later, he disinherits Weiss for her insolence while treating her like an ungrateful child. While conversing with the council in Volume 7, he smugly flatters Robyn for her passion and uses Winter's own words against her to have the council end Ironwood's embargo that's eating into his business profits. After Weiss exposes him for treason, ballot stuffing, and accessory to murder, his smug arrogance vanishes to be replaced by a stammering, panicking coward who attempts to run away.
- His son Whitley is also one as such in the Volume 4 episode "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back," when he interrupts Weiss in the middle of her training to ask her if she wants him to pick anything up for her while he's in town meeting business associates. He's uninterested in whether she does have any errands for him, he just wants her to know he's out and about on SDC business while she's detained.
- While Cinder Fall was already confident in her abilities, she prefers working behind the scenes and getting the job done as quickly as possible. Upon being wounded by Ruby's Silver Eyes, Cinder has become self-assured that her newfound Maiden powers can help her achieve victory that she formulates plans that involve her personal desires, whether they go against Salem's orders or not, and is prone to taunting and underestimating her enemies when it seems she has the upper hand that result in her losses. When she decides to drop Watts to his death and take Penny's Winter Maiden powers for herself, he calls out Cinder for her repeated failures due to her over reliance on brute force over tactics. Cinder later takes Watts' advice to heart and uses her smarts to acquire the two Relics, defeat Team RWBY, and tie any loose ends.
Webcomics
- The slimy, manipulative businessman Serk Brakkis in Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire is a walking embodiment of this trope. He uses his power to utterly ruin people's lives, takes their money and then hides behind Byzantine laws. In the end, however, he is trampled under a Humiliation Conga, beginning with a fencer flicking his wig off ("Toupee!"). Much later, when it looks like he's going to beat the rap after another foiled scheme, Celesto shows up and turns him inside out.
- Flaky Pastry gives us the goblin vizier Reptilis. He finally gets brought to heel, but is more-or-less left in his position of authority because, despite his being an example of this trope, he's still the most qualified candidate available.
- Girl Genius:
- Tarvek of Girl Genius. Most Sparks we've seen only think that they're surrounded by idiots: Tarvek actually tells the idiots so. He gets better after a run through Castle Heterodyne and nearly dying of poison. Only the Baron's actions inadvertently saved him.
- Martellus von Blitzengaard is an arrogant smug bastard when he first appears, absolutely confident that he will be the new Storm King and everyone, including Agatha, will fall in awe at his feet. He's intelligent like Sparks tend to be, but his brains are overwhelmed by his massive ego. Agatha kicking his butt several times (he deserved it), him surviving the Geister and original Storm King attacks on Paris, and finding out his attempt to chain Agatha to him had backfired spectacularly, cut his ego down to size and performed an ectomy on his smugness.
- Vriska Serket of Homestuck. She's a spiteful, conniving, BLUH BLUH HUGE BITCH with a serious case of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. She also would like to think that she's the best Troll, but really isn't capable of manipulating anyone without resorting to Mind Control, and usually ends up being manipulated herself by other characters' Batman Gambits.
- Oddly enough, she may actually know this; her munchkin-ry and Glory Hounding are implied to be an attempt to match her warped idea of what will make people respect her, and part of her falling-out with Terezi was due to jealousy that Terezi could do more with no special abilities than Vriska could with Psychic Powers.
- She's later one-upped in her smugness by her ancestor Aranea, who puts on a show of being nice and courteous, but is actually a Glory Hound Knight Templar who thinks that she's the only one who can stop Lord English because she's smarter than everyone else. Naturally, she's wrong, and her plans fail miserably and doom an entire timeline. Ironically, seeing what a horrible sociopath Aranea is (and how horrified everyone else is by it) causes Vriska to realize how awful she's been to her own friends.
- Kubera has a few examples wandering about. But the one of greatest note is Riche. The woman is one of the simple Muggles in a world of the mages who isn't even one of the major antagonists, yet manages to out-smug even the Smug Super/Smug Snake Snake People present and has so few morals, you'd be better off trying to list the ones you can find than those you cannot. And, she thinks she's the best thing since sliced bread because she can buy/ bribe/ blackmail her troubles away or hire specialists to do whatever her whims dictate. Needless to say... guess who gets the blame when things go wrong?
- Rayne Summers in Least I Could Do became a rare non-villainous example when an arc was written of him bashing webcomic artists for ScheduleSlip while subtly praising his own comic's creators for not doing so. His niece's smug expression as he's going on his high horse doesn't help in the least, either.
- The Order of the Stick:
- Daimyo Kubota is an always plotting, Genre Savvy aristocrat. Almost everything he does to try to usurp Hinjo's position is just plain hateful, culminating in him ordering the assassination of a pair of former commoners who were promoted to nobility. The wife is pregnant. When the plan fails, he murders his own number two with poison just to give himself time to escape. When he's captured, he plans to use his good publicity to avoid justice and humiliate Hinjo. Fortunately, right after he outlines the above plan, Vaarsuvius, not wanting any more distractions from the main plot, disintegrates him. His status as a Smug Snake is cemented by the fact that he just doesn't stack up against Big Bad Xykon and his long-term planning henchman Redcloak. He's also horribly naive, and thinks taking the city back from Xykon will be a trivial matter.
Quarr: Kubota had ambition, sure, but his power was mostly political—and when the political system fell apart, so did he. Literally, in the end.- Likewise, Nale, leader of the Linear Guild and Elan's Evil Twin, isn't nearly the Magnificent Bastard and evil mastermind he likes to think he is; Vaarsuvius points out that most of his plans, which he likes to think of as works of genius, are in fact rather trite and cliched (if nevertheless somewhat effective), and he has the tendency to come off as being rather smug rather than magnificent. Elan and Nale's father, General Tarquin, who is much closer to qualifying as a Magnificent Bastard, more or less confirms this when he is insulted by being compared to Nale:
"Your brother was a disorganized buffoon who cared more about satisfying his own ego than any realistic plan for world domination. All he ever cared about was that everyone knew HE was the victor, even when the situation called for keeping a low profile."
- General Tarquin himself also qualifies, despite presenting himself as a Genre Savvy Magnificent Bastard (and convincing a fair few readers that this is the case). While he is a lot smarter and more successful than Nale, he really isn't all that different at heart, ultimately being an egotist with a massively inflated sense of his own importance and role in the story, and thus having a tendency to fly into a murderous rage when things don't go exactly the way he wants them to.
- Tsukiko is an incredibly vain sorceress who believes she's the heroine of some Twilight-esque novel with Xykon as the dashing undead love interest. Worst, she actually believes she can treat Redcloak like dirt and constantly get away with it, up to the point of replacing him as Xykon's Dragon. Redcloak ultimately demonstrates that she's very, very mistaken on every count, and way over her head.
- Umbria/Zaedalkaah from Our Little Adventure. She believes herself to be a skilled liar and cunning calculator, but most of what was actually going in her favor is simply luck. She used to be a skilled half-demon assassin, but has been reborn into something considerably less powerful. It doesn't make her act any less entitled however...
- Donggwon Park in Return to Player. When we first meet him in Sehan's second playthrough, Sehan remembers all the vindictive manipulations Donggwon did to get ahead. Since Sehan now finds Donggwon so predictable, he doesn't rise above this trope.
- Faz in Shortpacked! is a toadying, nakedly ambitious sycophant with a permanent smug expression and a tendency to openly plot against and undermine the people he works with. Absolutely no one in the store, including his boss, particularly gives a damn about his continuing existence or welfare.
Faz: Your thoracic diaphragm heaving in anger is not unlike how I picture your anatomy during our inevitable lovemaking.
- If you need even more evidence of his Smug Snake status, just read his entry on the cast page: "Shortpacked!'s most annoying recruit has an infuriatingly smug grin you'd love to remove with a grenade launcher."
- It doesn't help that he also comes off as a slimier Casanova Wannabe when trying to convince Amber to sleep with him, including pulling out the Kinsey Graph when Amber said she was a lesbian (Long story)
- He's obliviousness over the fact that Amber was really his half-sister isn't helping his case either.
- If you need even more evidence of his Smug Snake status, just read his entry on the cast page: "Shortpacked!'s most annoying recruit has an infuriatingly smug grin you'd love to remove with a grenade launcher."
- Sparkle from Sidekick Girl. She quite fancies herself as The Vamp and a Classy Cat-Burglar, but in reality, she's nothing more than a nuisance and is quickly curbstomped by anyone who bothers to fight her straight on. She's quite smug when she meets Illumina because Illumina can't take her in (despite Sparkle having betrayed Illumina and left her to die) because she's not doing anything wrong at the moment, only for Illumina to one punch Sparkle out (and get away with it because she learned the rules the Heroes Association has about returning nemeses). She hasn't learned anything by the time she meets the Vigilante, and despite her power and pepper spray only mildly annoying him, she's smug because he can't take her in, since he's not a member of the Heroes Association. He then reveals that he just planned to set her up to get captured by cops, which would utterly ruin her reputation as an effective villain.
- Sluggy Freelance:
- Ralfoy Malfoy note . He takes the smug-snakeness to the extreme by acting smug even though his "enemy" is the adult but childish Torg who will inevitably just do something like give him a wedgie (or even tell him to do it himself) and send him scuttling away. Only in the 3rd parody did he actually manage to rise to the status of a real adversary for a while... and that was at the expense of getting a video put up on YouTube of him saying he thought a ferret was sexy-cute.
- K'Z'K, formerly known as Kozoaku, the Destroyer Deity. He is honestly more effective when he's sealed. Whenever he breaks free, he assumes that he is invincible with all subtlety and scheming going out the window. While he's tied with his counterpart as the second strongest being on Earth, he has a number of critical supernatural weaknesses that his carelessness makes possible to exploit. The most egregious example is when he kills his High Priestess for annoying him and lets Gwynn seal all of his followers just for his amusement, leaving him with no one left to bail him out when he's taken by surprise and sealed again.
Web Videos
- In Classic Alice, Ewan McBay turns into the smuggiest of snakes. He talks down not only to his friends, but to Alice and even the audience!
- In Marble Hornets, Entry 68 has Alex threaten the Hooded Man after he was cautious looking around where he was staying, and all the Hooded Man does in return is, according to Alex, smile 'Wipe that stupid smile off your face.' indeed.
- The Game Genie from The New Adventures of Captain S. Pretentious use of the Royal "We", an unseemly obsession with squirrels, an Annoying Laugh, having to be rescued by NES after finding out the hard way that he isn't all-powerful outside of Videoland, and finally, meeting an undignified end (being trapped in a cartridge, then being drowned inside said cartridge by a can of soda).