People made their case for the ‘bad guys’ who were actually good and it was our favourite ‘Ask Reddit’ of 2023

We’ve featured plenty of questions on these pages about questions people have posed over on ‘Ask Reddit’ and the funny and interesting – and occasionally outrageous – responses they prompted.

But of all the times we did it in 2023, this might be our favourite, when people shared the ‘bad guys’ who were actually 100% in the right after HallZac99 asked this.

‘What’s a story where the “bad guys” are actually, completely, 100% right, to the point where it’s weird the story keeps calling them the bad guys?’

And a very interesting discussion it prompted to with no end of responses. We’ve read them all – well, quite a few of them – so you don’t have to, and here are our favourites,

1.

‘Mrs Doubtfire because Pierce Brosnan was really nice and was a lonely middle aged man who wanted a family but Mrs Doubtfire was so mean to him and even tried to kill him with pepper knowing he was allergic!’
CoolIceCreamCone

2.

‘Iceman in Top Gun. I used to work in naval aviation and he was totally right, Maverick was dangerous and unreliable.’
AbbaZabba85

3.

‘Jack and the Beanstalk. Some dick finds the giant’s house and starts taking all his best stuff.’
TwinnieH

4.

‘Every single Donald Duck cartoon. Dude usually just wants to chill out without being bothered and there’s always someone bothering him and then he gets blamed for standing up for his own needs. The older I get, the more I empathize with Donald Duck.’
karlverkade

5.

‘That weird episode of Friends where Phoebe is convinced her dead mother is reincarnated as a cat so she tries to steal it from it’s owners and Ross is presented as the bad guy for pointing out how ridiculous this is.’
Ok-Set-5829

6.

‘Police Academy. They let a bunch of violent, unstable, dishonest deadbeats into the police force, and the Chief of Police was supposed to be OK with that? He was doing the public a favor by trying to weed out the worst ones.’
Dotard1

7.

‘Tom the cat.

‘He was trying to rid of a mouse that frequently stole food and trashed the house. Tom was just doing his job as the cat of the house.’
Ok_Organization1969

9.

‘That guy in Bee Movie.’
cakeday173

‘Girlfriend leaves him for a fucking bee said bee proceeds to gaslight him into thinking he’s crazy anyway that movie sure was weird.’
Killmumger

9.

‘Peter Rabbit.

‘He was a thief, a glutton, a trespasser, a burglar. A naughty little rabbit.
Meanwhile, Mr. MacGregor only wanted to produce something of value and feed his family.’
spammmmmmmmy

10.

‘Walter Peck in Ghostbusters.

‘The proton packs are unlicensed nuclear accelerators (this is explained to the audience by Ray when the guys are at their first job).

‘The Ghostbusters built everything themselves in what appears to be a short amount of time, with no regulations or inspections. It’s perfectly reasonable and legal for the EPA to investigate the storage facility and the equipment.’
TheCervus

11.

‘Any romcom where the main character cheats on their partner with the new love interest that they end up with.’
goin-up-the-country

12.

‘Peter Pan. The pirates are just grown-up lost boys that he brought to never land. They just want to leave and return to their lives.’
seventynineinches