Karma Houdini

The Big Bad has kicked the hero's dog, abducted that Ridiculously Cute Critter's loving family only to torture them to death, blew up the castle of King Elden the Good with him and his subjects in it, abused the most sympathetic of his Woobie minions, killed off the series' most popular Ensemble Darkhorse, invented a Kill Sat that uses babies as its primary fuel, ate little kids as a morning snack and jaywalked in front of a bus full of nuns.

He's done just about every conceivable thing that would make an audience boo, hiss and hate him with the burning fire of a thousand suns. So when the Karmic Hammer falls and the time for his comeuppance finally arrives, the audience is going to sit back and bask in the satisfaction that can only come from watching him get what he so richly deserves, up to and including a highly ironic and gruesomely appropriate death.

Only... that's not what happens. He doesn't get what he deserves. Instead, he gets away scot-free, thumbs his nose at the hero, dons his baby seal cape (made from baby harp seals he personally skinned alive), and walks off into the sunset. And sometimes those who were chomping at the bit to hit the Big Bad with a Humiliation Conga end up with more serious matters on their hands.

The character above is Bendy from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. He pretty much fools Herriman and Frankie into believing and loving him while he does terrible things around the house and ends up getting Bloo screwed over for it. Bloo, being not very bright, decides to trap Bendy in a situation where they would have to acknowledge that Bendy was guilty of something wrong only to end up screwing himself into destroying most of the house while "Bendy took a cookie." I see this as a bit ridiculous after Bendy gets away with everything.

There is also Charles Montgomery Burns, from The Simpsons, One of the most infamous examples of his karma evasion is the end of "Homer vs. Dignity".

He exploits Homer's desperation for money by making the guy into a prank monkey to the point of having him dress up as a panda that gets raped by another panda. Remember, Burns is the guy who took over Springfield's television stations to try to make the residents take a teddy bear from a baby in "Rosebud", made employees who quit and later retake their jobs crawl through a narrow tunnel so that they can come out with Burns looking down on them in "Maggie Makes Three", sent vicious attack dogs after hungry children who try to steal food that Burns would have otherwise disposed of in "Bart vs. Thanksgiving", took advantage of legal loopholes that allowed him to steal from schools and wreck old folks' homes and then proceeded to block sunlight from Springfield until it took him getting SHOT for the device blocking said sunlight to be wrecked in "Who Shot Mr. Burns", and in "Curse of the Flying Hellfish" attempted to drown Bart for no apparent reason other than that Bart insulted him. And none of these evil deeds make any apparent dent in his prominence or power or wealth at all. Well, at least not permanent ones.

Homer Simpson himself certainly qualifies, believe it or not. Never (or rarely) is punished when strangles Bart, even for the smallest things.


there is also Fire Lord Sozin from Avatar The Last Airbender murdered his best friend through inaction, led an almost complete genocide, drove a number of species towards extinction (the flying bison, the dragons, and the flying lemurs are down to a handful if that), burned at least one army and village to a crisp, and conquered a sizable chunk of Eurasia-sized Earth Kingdom in his life time. After all that, he... died peacefully in his sleep, at the age of 102, likely in the comfort of his palace, revered at large. And he got a comet named after him, a continued family-line on the throne, and a nation dedicated to his honor and wishes. He just barely began to regret his actions during the very end of his life. (So at least his conscience didn't let him off even if karma did)

Family Guy does this a lot, especially with Stewie. However, that's not uncommon, being a series infamous for tangential gags and a tenuous sense of accountability at best. However, it does somewhat subvert this trope in "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing," where Peter blows up a children's hospital to get rid of an Anheuser-Busch beer ad. No more mention is made of the incident until the end, when his boss tells him he's going to jail. "You just blew up a children's hospital! You thought people would forget about that?" Although his only punishment is to go to jail "Until next Sunday at 9".

Cartman is a frequent offender. A lot of the time, he gets his, but he tends to avoid comeuppance when he crosses the Moral Event Horizon (Scott Tenorman, ginger kids, trying to kill his mother, and infecting Kyle with HIV are examples of this).

The titular character in Invader Zim, though occasionally getting dealt a bad hand every now and again, has gotten away with some pretty crazy shit throughout the course of the series including but not limited to harvesting the organs of innocent school children and ripping out the eyeballs of a child who merely desired his friendship because said child was a nuisance.

Making Dib often being blamed for whatever Zim did


The "Nicelanders" from Wreck It Ralph act like total a-holes to Ralph and never say there sorry or received any punishment for they actions. To be fair they do start acting nice but is a simple sorry to much.

Mertle Edmunds from Lilo & Stitch is even worse then The Nicelanders (they ad-lest pull a Heel Face Turn.) Mertle treat Lilo like dirt for the inter series and never gets punished in any way ever and thats just the tip of the iceberg. in fact she was responsible for a loss in a dog contest to Lilo AND ended up winning it after she sabotaged Lilo's chances in one episode (She put caffeine in his water bottle. Causing Stitch to go nuts during his turn when it was fed to him). Though she relinquished the trophy when Lilo and Stitch helped save her pet (which was one of the experiments). Still her snobbish attitude never changes throughout the series, even in the fourth movie finale.

In Young Justice both Lex Luthor and Vandal Savage escape justice and hinted at there plans had not being completed. Vandal Savage gets a hug death star knock-off to Command and allies himself with Darkside. And Lex Luthor get promoted to a government position. But hey, the producers set that up so it could all be resolved for season 3. I mean, there's no way the show will be cancelled on a cliffhanger this enormous.