How Bad Can I Be - The Lorax

The Lorax is a creation of Dr. Seuss and it's rights are property of Universal Pictures

[--]

"What's the difference between a Villain and a Super Villain?"

" *P R E S E N T A T I O N* "

[monke]

"Just look at my petting this puppy"

*rubs teeth of a small bear*

[sophiacorless]

"and a portion of proceeds goes to charity"
*gives a whopping 25 cents to a guy that just so happens to be his dad*

[DaGameRunnerNatosandr]

"AND THE LAWYERS ARE ALL DENYING!"

So he DID illegal stuff, huh.

[galaxypotato]

"Who cares if a *FEW* trees are dying?!"
*proceeds to chop down ALL the trees*

[brookemcnichol]

He may be bad but he’s stylish as hell

[hamter.]

"How bad can i be?"

*proceeds to demolish the entire forest*

[rianmela]

I love the gradual changing of meaning in the phrase “ how ban can I be?” And it becoming messed up as The Onceler does worse and worse things. It goes from “ Am I actually bad?” To “ I kinda know I’m bad” to “ just how much worse should I make things?”

[SPMask]

Lorax: "Stop making your Thneed! Trees are dying!"

Onceler: "I miss the part where that's my problem."

[leandromendoza]

The moment he realizes he just fucked himself over when the last tree goes down is absolutely magical, i struggle to decide if he puts that face because he feels bad he killed them all... or just because he doomed his empire

[sgh]

i really like how the name of the song has a double meaning; at the start it means “i don’t see how my actions will cause harm” and then it develops into “let’s see how much harm i can cause”

[typeywypey]

Evolution of the meaning behind each "How bad can I be"

0:34 - 0:51 "How bad can I be?" -->basically how can i be bad, rhetorical to self, truly believes himself to be good .
0:52 "How bad can I possibly be?" --> decides to push the boundaries of what "good" is.
1:19 - 1:38 "How bad can I be?" --> "good" and "bad" start to blur, believes he is just doing "what comes naturally"/"(he) is just following his destiny", redirects blame to (human)nature. The lorax protects nature, so he's using this argument against the lorax saying that what he is doing is natural/meant to be, still somewhat cares about persuading the lorax, although this sentiment quickly fades.
2:13 -2:22 "Come on how bad can I possibly be?" --> Now he claims that all he's doing is following the "principles of business, " tries to strengthen his argument supporting his destructive business even more, nature/the lorax's will is irrelevant to him now. He also starts to develop a bit of a superiority complex and is shown to have become very greedy.
2:23 - 2:31 "How bad can I be?" --> rhetorical to the public who don't perceive him as bad and he knows it.
2:32 "How bad could I possibly be, let's s ee, " --> has begun to question how much he could potentially get away with, acknowledges that he is "bad"
2:37 - 2:46 "How bad can he be?" --> public echoing his question to them, don't see him as 'bad'. However he sees how his "money is multiplying" and is excited to earn more, decides to protect himself from the repercussions of his actions so he can go further and earn more money.
2:48 - 3:05 "How bad can he be?" --> He is protected from the repercussions of his actions, he knows there are no consequences whatsoever, feels very powerful, fully embraces being "bad".
3:08 "How bad, how bad can this possibly be?" -->basically how bad can I get, a challenge to self, and the song ends right there. After the song ends, we see that the last tree is chopped down, implying that he never got to see "how bad it could possibly be" as his business was shut down immediately as a result. All his power was stripped away not long after he acquired it.

I personally blamed the Once-ler's family for tempting and pressuring him, but ultimately it was the Once-ler's decision

[angelamaerz]

He just keeps getting more insane throughout the video

[tacuhe]

I like how the song flows from the meaning of "How can I be bad?" to "How bad can I be?"

[miloyall]

By far the fastest villain transformation in movie history

[minaminastheanimationfan]

Say whatever you want about Illumination’s take on The Lorax, but you can’t deny the songs are catchy as heck, especially this one.

[amedotuniverse]

One of the things that I always liked about this as a villain song was that at the beginning of the song, Onceler genuinely doesn't see what he's doing as being a bad thing and the question of "How bad can I be?" Is more of a, "it's no big deal" dismissal, but by the end of the song, it's more of a challenge to himself to see what he can get away with.

[gamerstheater]

I love how he goes from innocent wannabe to psychotic overlord in like 3 minutes

[loonzer]

“Who cares if a few trees are dying” I don’t know why but that line always hits hard