Why are badgers usually the baddie?

[ShabbaDabaDingDong]

in kids films and TV shows, why are badgers usually portrayed as baddies?

I don’t have any particularly negative views regarding badgers but so often they’re the bad guy.

Foxes I get. They’re little shits. Badgers though?

AIBU?

Bodger's mate was only really a threat to mashed potatoes. I don't think he's much of a baddie.

Yes YABU. Are you not familiar with Wind in the Willows?

Because they carry TB

They're not baddies in books:

The Wind in the Willows
Prince Caspian

Have you seen American badgers? They look like they would eat your arm off. British badgers look like gentry in comparison. 😁

Mr Badger was a scholar and a gentleman.

I feel this thread might be a bit goady but I’ll go anyway.

They’re vicious, horrible sods in real life outside their social groups. Proper ‘come and have a go’ fuckers. Very, very intelligent too and great problem solvers. Hence why they fit the villian stamp.

I come across loads of animals at all times of the day… that’s one beast I’ll not get out of the car to chase off 😂

maybe because to badger someone is to annoy them, so people relate that to it?

Badgers destroyed my parent's garden.

Badger in Animals of Farthing Wood is a wise sage!

The wombles said twas always the bloody Badgers who couped the bags o rubbish they diligently gathered then sat n sniggered

I accept there are some exceptions but badgers are getting a bad rap, in my opinion.

The clue is in the name:- BADger

Because they cause damage are aggressive and carry tb.

What bad fictional badgers are there? I can't think of any offhand

Tommy Brock.

Brock the Badger was always wise (Sam Pig)
See also wind in the willows
Plus the one from Rupert Bear (i think)
And Bodger's Badger is a Ledge!

In fact I cant think of any villainous badgers?

I can't either. If you want heroic badgers OP, go read the Redwall series. The villains in those are rats, foxes, weasels, stoats and lynxes.

A badger chased my brother on a bike once! Tried repeatedly to bite him on the legs, apparently.

For clarification: my brother was on the bike, not the badger.

Is this going to be a thread like that one about the evil dolphins?

Badgers are much more vicious and violent even than foxes.

So had the Brontë sisters. But I wouldn’t hit them with a shovel, no matter how bad the books were.

They’re savage, filthy and destructive.

I live surrounded by farmland and it’s overrun with the dirty sods. They bite or dig through the fence to wreck my vegetable plot, leaving massive, stinking, slimy piles of shit around the garden. They’ll stand up to a placid dog. The bloody foxes injure and kill chickens but their droppings are less vile to clear up, and they don’t destroy my entire crop of sweetcorn in one visit.

I think I should change this chat to why are badgers frequently the goodies when in fact they’re total shits.

They’ve clearly got good PR.

Ah but now there is an imagine of a badger chasing someone on a bike 😅

Someone shouting to your brother run!!!! Faster!!! While the badger smirks and peddles faster 🦡