Hello, this is my first ever proposal for this wiki, so please don't yell at me if it isn't very good. However, I do feel that Buford Howard 'Biff' Tannen stands a good chance at being a Pathetic Pinhead. So let's see why.
What's the work?[]
- Back to the Future is a sci-fi/comedy trilogy created by Robert Zemekis and Bob Gale. Released between 1985 and 1990, the story follows a teenager, Marty McFly, and his friend Emmett 'Doc' Brown travelling through time using a converted DeLorean DMC-12. Across the trilogy, they run into the Tannen family, mostly Biff Tannen, who serves as the main antagonist.
Who's the villain/What has he done?[]
- Biff Tannen is the overall main antagonist of the Back to the Future franchise, serving as the main antagonist of the first two films and the overarching antagonist of the third film.
- He's the loud-mouthed, cocky and arrogant bully of George McFly, harasser of Lorraine Banes and archenemy of Marty McFly and Emmett Brown.
- While he initially appears as a foul tempered and insensitive bully, he becomes a genuine threat when he tries to rape Lorraine, break George's arm and kill Marty on numerous occasions.
What makes him Pathetic?[]
Generally[]
- While he puts on a tough, macho persona, underneath he is ultimately a slimy coward who refuses to confront or even interact with Marty or George without either his friends present or a weapon.
- While he does have several comedic moments, they only really highlight how stupid and vile he really is. Even so, his worst actions, like his attempted rape of Lorraine and his ruining of Hill Valley are played dead seriously.
Original 1985[]
- He constantly bullies and belittles George McFly, even into their adult years.
- He is a lecherous pervert, groping and assaulting Lorraine. It's shown he never subverts this, as he tells Marty to 'Say hi to your Mom for me.'
1955[]
- His first instinct upon meeting Marty is to make fun of him for staring too long.
- After being punched by Marty, he chases him around the town square and tries to kill him by crushing him between his car and a manure truck.
- When a group of children ask for their ball back, he throws it into the gutter of a nearby house for no apparent reason.
- He blames Marty for damaging his car, punching him in the stomach and having his friends lock him in the boot of a random car.
- He tries to break George McFly's arm for standing up to him.
1985A[]
- While he does seem to have mellowed out and become kinder, this is most likely because he's now too scared of George to step out of line.
1985AB[]
- After he recieves the sports almanac from his older self and gets rich, he murders George and forces Lorraine into marrying him.
- He frequently abuses Lorraine and her children, pushing her to the ground and punching Marty.
- He also cheats on her with two women who look like twins, which means that he has no issue enforcing or at least enabling incest.
- After he tells Marty about the almanac, he tries to shoot him.
- He taunts Marty by telling him that he was the one who shot George.
What makes him a Pinhead?[]
- To put it simply, he is horrendous at basic planning:
- He openly harasses Lorraine in public, regardless of who may be watching.
- He tries to kill Marty in front of the entire town by ramming him into the manure truck.
- Tries to break George's arm without considering he may stand up to him.
- After recieving the Almanac, he makes no effort to conceal it, despite the invaluable information that it holds.
- Tries to kill Marty again in 1985AB by shooting him, completely ignoring how this may make him look.
- Tries to kill Marty again in 1955 by crushing him between the wall of a tunnel and his car, once again completely ignoring that what he is trying is murder.
- He tries to kill Marty one final time by running him over, ignoring how that could incriminate him.
- He gets basic turns of phrase wrong, i.e. Make like a tree and leave becomes Make like a tree and get out of here, and That's about as funny as a screen door on a submarine becomes That's about as funny as a screen door on a battleship. In fact, he does this so frequently that even his own future self gets frustrated with him.
- The wealth that he obtains in the second film is entirely unearned, as he simply looked up the winner in the Almanac, betted on them and won. This means he uses no cunning or experise to deserve it.
- He is a horrible shot, as he consistently misses Marty while trying to shoot him despite Marty moving in a fairly constant trajectory.
Is he hateable?[]
Yes. Absolutely. The most hateable villain in the franchise; he's dimwitted, incompetent, arrogant, perverted, cowardly and overall purely hateable. And while he does have several comedic moments, they only really highlight how dim and pathetic he really is.
Is he successful?[]
Absolutely not. He fails to complete anything he sets out to do, from keeping Lorraine to himself, to killing Marty and keeping George down.
Verdict?[]
An Easy Yes for Biff Tannen, I think. He is everything a PP should be: dimwitted and incompetent (obviously), perverted, cowardly, exceedingly arrogant and egotistical and just an overall horrid person.