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MTV Movie Awards Best Villains, ranked

The 2017 MTV Movie and TV Awards, hosted by Adam DeVine, kickoff May 7. In honor of that, we're looking back at previous award winners in various categories. Today: Best Villain. As one of the awards they've been doing since the get-go, Best Villain has seen its Golden Popcorn on villains both legendary and befuddling, but it hardly ever disappoints. Here are the Best Villains, ranked.

 
1 of 24

Ben Stiller, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

Ben Stiller, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
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Ben Stiller's White Goodman is more of a jerk and bully than a villain. Sure, his rival gym owner is up to no good, but he's vanquished easily enough and hardly ever taken seriously. That year he beat out Rachel McAdams' Regina George from "Mean Girls" and that character is easily a bigger jerk and bully. 

 
2 of 24

Jennifer Aniston, Horrible Bosses

Jennifer Aniston, Horrible Bosses
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As a dentist with a penchant for workplace harassment, Dr. Julia Harris makes life very difficult for Charlie Day's Dale, but the group doesn't even deem her necessary to kill, so she's probably not even the most horrible boss in the movie.

 
3 of 24

Jim Carrey, The Cable Guy

Jim Carrey, The Cable Guy
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As the titular cable guy, Jim Carrey isn't so much a villain as he is misunderstood and lonely, so we can't really rank him any higher. 

 
4 of 24

Rebecca De Mornay, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle

Rebecca De Mornay, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
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As a psycho nanny, Rebecca De Mornay's Peyton is the nightmare of overworked new parents everywhere. However, she pales in comparison to most of MTV's Best Villains.

 
5 of 24

Jim Carrey, How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Jim Carrey, How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Archive Photos / Getty Images

Another lonely, misunderstood Carrey villain. At least he goes so far as to steal Christmas before his redemption. 

 
6 of 24

Tom Felton, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Tom Felton, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Ian Gavan/Getty Images

Tom Felton won back-to-back Golden Popcorns in "Halfblood Prince "and "The Deathly Hollows: Part 1". While Draco Malfoy did some nasty things, he was really a kid in over his head, being forced into action by his parents, who were forced into action by Lord Voldemort. Seeing that Tom Felton beat out Christoph Waltz in "Inglorious Basterds" and Leighton Meester in "The Roommate" to win these awards, we can't say the voters got it right either.

 
7 of 24

Matt Dillon, There's Something About Mary

Matt Dillon, There's Something About Mary
Jon Furniss/Getty Images

Matt Dillon's Pat Healy is a real scumbag, but a villain? Hardly. He's simply one of the many people who fell too hard for Cameron Diaz's Mary and didn't have the emotional intelligence to handle being rejected. He's the third-worst dude in the movie, tops.

 
8 of 24

Mila Kunis, Oz the Great and Powerful

Mila Kunis, Oz the Great and Powerful
Jason Merritt / Getty Images

As the Wicked Witch of the West, before "Oz the Great and Powerful," audiences really only knew Mila Kunis' Theodora as a ruby-slipper-delivery device. Even so, she receives more depth in the movie, but is still really manipulated into being bad by the Wicked Witch of the East when you think about it.

 
9 of 24

Alicia Silverstone, The Crush

Alicia Silverstone, The Crush
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Teens with crushes can do some terrible things, but ruining Cary Elwes' life because he rejected you is a terrible thing for young Adrian to do. The movie itself is trashy and fun, though, and we wish Alicia Silverstone was still around, frankly. 

 
10 of 24

Johnny Depp, Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Johnny Depp, Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Kevin Mazur / Getty Images

A barber with murder in his heart who also makes literal mincemeat (pies) out of victims sounds pretty spooky, but it's Johnny Depp and it was a musical, so he isn't so bad. Plus, most of London could use a good blood-letting in those days if you ask us.

 
11 of 24

Mike Myers, Austin Powers 1 & 2

Mike Myers, Austin Powers 1 & 2
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Mike Myers took home two Best Villain awards for Dr. Evil in the "Austin Powers" franchise. While he's a memorable character (with some great lines, for sure), his attempts to take over or extort the world never really get that far.

 
12 of 24

Stephen Dorff, Blade

Stephen Dorff, Blade
Ron Galella, Ltd. / Getty Images

Deacon Frost is a pretty good villain! He torments Blade and even betrays his own vampires as part of his evil plot. However, since he technically tied with Matt Dillon for the award, how great a villain can he really be?

 
13 of 24

Tom Hiddleston, The Avengers

Tom Hiddleston, The Avengers
Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Tom Hiddleston's Loki is rather bad. He kills Agent Coulson and unleashes alien invaders on Midtown Manhattan, but he ultimately gets the Avengers to work together to defeat him. Plus, he's really just another one of Thanos' lackeys.

 
14 of 24

Jack Nicholson, The Departed

Jack Nicholson, The Departed
Chris Polk/Getty Images

Frank Costello is an iconic Jack Nicholson role, but he's not really that menacing in the movie. Sure, he hams it up, but not in that scary a way. No, Matt Damon's Colin Sullivan, the dirty cop who isn't afraid to knock off some inconvenient witnesses, is the much bigger scum.

 
15 of 24

Jennifer Jason Leigh, Single White Female

Jennifer Jason Leigh, Single White Female
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As a new roommate who starts copying Bridget Fonda's life, Jennifer Jason Leigh's Hedra is a real nightmare tenant and a pretty classic villain.

 
16 of 24

Dennis Hopper, Speed

Dennis Hopper, Speed
Denise Truscello / Getty Images

" Speed" is such a great action movie because Dennis Hopper makes such a great villain. While he's not nearly as unhinged as he is in "Blue Velvet," his ex-cop playing cat-and-mouse with Keanu Reeves is one of the best villains MTV has ever recognized.

 
17 of 24

Lucy Liu, Kill Bill Vol. 1

Lucy Liu, Kill Bill Vol. 1
Jeff Kravitz / Getty Images

O-Ren Ishii is definitely one of Lucy Liu's best characters. She wields a katana like few others and isn't afraid to take over the Yakuza. However cool she is, she's not nearly as ruthless as some of the other members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who she beat for this award.

 
18 of 24

Adam Driver, Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Adam Driver, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Michael Buckner/Getty Images

We won't know for sure how bad of a bad guy Kylo Ren is, but Adam Driver's performance is plenty good enough in our opinion. Plus, anyone who [redacted] Han Solo can jump in a Sarlaac Pit.

 
19 of 24

Denzel Washington, Training Day

Denzel Washington, Training Day
Archive Photos/Getty Images

Alonzo Harris is a great cinematic villain, a performance that nabbed Denzel Washington several other awards. He's iconic and memorable and so, so bad. Villains don't come much better than this.

 
20 of 24

Meryl Streep, Into The Woods

Meryl Streep, Into The Woods
Mike Marsland / Getty Images

Meryl Streep beat out Rosamund Pike's "Gone Girl" character, so we know the voters got it wrong that year. However, as a witch who is quick to curse people for inconveniencing her, The Witch is plenty scary, even if it all happened in another Sondheim-adapted project.

 
21 of 24

Hayden Christensen, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

Hayden Christensen, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
 
22 of 24

Kevin Spacey, Seven

Kevin Spacey, Seven
Christopher Polk/Getty Images

John Doe has the upperhand on most of the other villains in this list. Kevin Spacey's chilling performance in Seven is one of cinema's greatest bad guys.

 
23 of 24

Daveigh Chase, The Ring

Daveigh Chase, The Ring
Michael Caulfield Archive / Getty Images

Don't let the outward cuteness fool you, Samara is a bad little kid. She scared people out of using VHS tapes, leading the rise in DVDs. How many villains on this list damned physical media and made you double check to make sure your TV was off?

 
24 of 24

Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Paul Kane/Getty Images

The Joker is an all-time villain and Heath Ledger's The Joker as agent of chaos is the all-time iteration. Sure his plans are overly complicated, but he succeeds at his ultimate one, turning Harvey Dent to the darkness, making him the most evil of the villains on this list.

David Matthews writes and tweets from Brooklyn.

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