| Dick Hardly | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Naming | |||
| Others | Professor Dick Hardly Richard Hardly | ||
| Personal information | |||
| Species | Human (mutated) | ||
| Gender | Male | ||
| Place of origin | Townsville | ||
| Age | Unknown | ||
| Occupation | Scientist | ||
| Current status | Deceased | ||
| Cause of death | Exploded | ||
| Biology | |||
| Body type | Humanoid | ||
| Sentience | Sentient | ||
| Sapience | Sapient | ||
| Behind the scenes | |||
| Universe | The Powerpuff Girls | ||
| Created by | Craig McCracken | ||
| Performed by | Jeff Bennett | ||
Dick Hardly is the main antagonist in The Powerpuff Girls episode, Knock It Off. He was Professor Utonium's former college friend who attended at Townsville University.
History[]
Dick Hardly was Professor Utonium's old college roommate who leeched off of him instead of studying. It is revealed in flashbacks that Professor Dick is a womanizer.
He appears to be around the same age as the Professor. Where he was amazed over the girls' powers. He wanted to make a profit off of them, but the Professor angrily refused and kicked him out. As a result Hardly comes up with a wicked plan: if he couldn't have the girls themselves, he would make his own and make billions.
While picking them up from Pokey Oaks, he asks the girls how to create his own little girls. So after learning the ingredients, Dick goes to an abandoned factory and creates the "Powerpuff Girls Xtreme." However, his Powerpuffs turn out to be cheap knock-offs and some of them turn out to be disfigured, horrible, ugly mutants as well. When the girls found out what he was up to, they confronted him in his lab and asks for the Chemical X back. But Dick deliberately swallows it, causing him to transform into a monster. As a monster, Dick's size is increased a hundredfold, his skin turns green, spikes grow out of his shoulders, blue tentacles burst out of his chest, his ponytail turns into a tentacle, his normal glasses are normal sunglasses and the only bit of his clothing is the remains of his pants. In this form, he easily captures the girls and drains the Chemical X from their bodies so he can continue to make more members of Powerpuff Girls Xtreme.
As Utonium goes into the lab, Dick punishes the girls while nearly draining all of their Chemical X and life force, but the other Powerpuff Girls Xtreme realized that Dick never gave them love and care. So, in their anger, they sacrificed themselves to destroy him, and Utonium gets the girls out in the nick of time as the factory explodes, killing Dick in the process. As Dick dies before the factory is completely destroyed, Utonium grows sad at the loss of the girls, but his fatherly love revives them! Delighted to see them alive again, he says "Old Dick may have gotten the formula right, but the only ingredient he forgot was LOVE, lets go home girls." Then Dick screams "NO!" one final time as he is ambushed in the factory before he dies, and the factory is destroyed.
Personality[]
Dick Hardly was extremely unpleasant and selfish, living by pretending to care about other people as a way of getting whatever he wanted. He always tricked Professor Utonium into finishing his college work for him, while Dick would go hang out with people and flirt with women. Although Utonium always viewed Dick as a friend, his ex-colleague exploited him so that he didn't have to get anything done by himself. After many years, Dick called up Professor Utonium to once again take credit for doing everything for him.
Dick also acted the same way towards the Powerpuff Girls. He pretended to be nice to them, just so he could gain a sample of Chemical X and create his Powerpuff Girl Xtreme. Dick made it appear like he wanted to rid the world of all crime. However, inside of the evil factory, he was seen being a completely different person: A cruel, ruthless, tyrannic, sadistic, slave-driving, cold-hearted maniac who only wanted money and had no remorse for cheating others.
Dick's greed and lack of compassion ultimately proved to be his downfall. Right when he was successfully draining all of the chemical X from the girls, his army of imperfect Powerpuff clones turn against Dick and used their powers in destroying him, much to his horror. These actions made him one of the darkest villains in any cartoon produced by Hanna Barbera.
Gallery[]
Notes[]
- Despite having a one shot appearance in Knock It Off, he is the most darkest, terrifying and evilest villain in the show ever created, unlike other villains who have redeeming or comedic traits, Hardly has quite none of them.
- His name "Dick" is often used as a profane insult to obnoxious people, mostly males, and also referred to his unkind nature.
- In his human form, he is similar to Dexter's dad from Dexter's Laboratory.