| “ | This is gonna be great. | „ |
| ~ Benton Tarantella whenever he "shoots" a film. |
Benton Tarantella is a minor antagonist in the Cartoon Network television show Courage the Cowardly Dog, serving as the main antagonist of the Season 1 episode "Everybody Wants to Direct" and the Season 3 episode "Angry Nasty People".
He is an undead film director who was a serial killer back when he was alive alongside his associate Errol van Volkheim. Although captured and sentenced to life in prison, Tarantella somehow comes back to life in the present day and resumes his snuff enterprises.
He was voiced by the late Peter Fernandez.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- Back when he was alive, Benton Tarantella and his partner Errol van Volkheim were already savage snuff-filmers responsible for murdering 12 people after luring them to participate in their snuff films. He remained locked up for the rest of his life before being somehow brought back to life as a decrepit zombie, but that was all well-deserved.
- Although this happened offscreen, the newspaper seen in the Computer is evidence enough to prove how serious the crime was and that it did happen, giving it sufficient weight in story.
- Even though Errol himself has no redeeming qualities, Benton fully approved of his complicity.
- Finds the farm of the Bagge family and bribes Eustace Bagge with money so he can dig a pit in their basement in which he can revive Errol with the Moon's light when planets get aligned so they can resume their killing spree again.
- Deceives Muriel into thinking he wants her to act in his movie when in reality he straps her to a table for him and Errol to feast once Errol revives, intending for Eustace to shoot it.
- Constantly kicks Courage away whenever he tries to warn Muriel and even asks Eustace to kick him out from the basement and lock him up in a chest as part of the "act".
- Gets in a fight with Errol once they are tricked by Courage into leaving Muriel unharmed despite it being contrary to his writing.
- Returns episodes later to trick the Bagges again by convincing them to join his Angry Nasty People reality show, encouraging Eustace to be rude to everyone he meets, including a waitress but mainly Courage: who Eustace takes the chance to despicably bully and humiliate.
- Eventually creates Mr. Nasty by gathering enough essence from Eustace's cruelty and uses him to insult all of the Bagges, though Eustace doesn't mind it because of the money Tarantella gives to him.
- What's more, this leads Muriel and Courage to leave the house and be laughed on and jeered at by everyone they come across in the streets. Though easily overlooked, Muriel expresses that maybe Mr. Nasty's insults are what she deserves, implying that she was getting depression from all the psychological abuse.
- Tries to incite Courage into throwing Muriel into a quicksand pit Courage placed for him, not giving a heck of Mr. Nasty's resignation.
- Given his clear intuition, he likely realizes people can’t sink past the waistline in quicksand. As such, his eagerness to see Muriel sink in the pit and be stuck so he could have her tortured to death in any way of his choosing strongly infers he also never gave up his own passion for snuff filming.
- It’s also quite possible he wanted her to be stuck in the mud so he’d have another chance to eat her.
- He continues inciting Courage until he knocks him into the pit, where he sinks himself for his well-deserved comeuppance. Especially because he probably survived again as it’s already clear he can survive being buried under a heavy clump of dirt, this makes it even more well-deserved for him.
- Although Katz and Fusilli done worse, Tarantella has less resources and stands out just as much in his own way merely being an illegitimate filter with just his camera and script.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- Despite being taken seriously for the most part, Benton has a few comedic moments that detract from his villainy, like easily getting fooled by Courage's rewritten script or comically sinking in the mud pit Courage placed while remarking that placing it for him to sink was something extremely nasty. However, his crimes are still treated seriously as well as his second defeat being somewhat played for horror and implying he may one day rise again to exact his revenge, making this a minor prevention.
- He seems to have a real friendship with Errol, as he summoned him to the living world to eat Muriel together, even though he could have eaten her himself.
Trivia[]
- He, along with Volkheim and the Straight Outta Nowhere version of Katz, are the only three Courage the Cowardly Dog villains to be Near Pure Evil.
External Links[]
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 Near Pure Evils
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 Near Pure Evils
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