Dick Hardly

Hate Sink

Human
Monster

Full Name

Richard Hardly

Alias

Dick

Professor
Master of Evil

Origin

The Powerpuff Girls (1998)

Allies

Professor Utonium

Blossom
Bubbles
Buttercup (all formerly)

Powers/Skills

Genius intellect
Expertise in chemistry
Smooth talking
Vast wealth
Business management
Mastery of manipulation
In his mutant form:

Superhuman strength
Regeneration
High durability
Tentacles
Claws
Fangs
Energy absorption (through tentacles)

Goals

Get rich by selling clones of the Powerpuff Girls (succeeded for a while, then failed).

What Makes Them Despicable

Using Professor Utonium for him to succeed in college.
Viewing the Powerpuff Girls as products rather than people.
Deceiving the Powerpuff Girls into giving him some Chemical X for his Powerpuff Girls Xtreme business.
Being an unpleasant businessman towards his co-workers.
Discarding a perfectly made Buttercup clone.
Attempting to murder the Powerpuff Girls by extracting their Chemical X.
Attempting to permanently enslave Utonium by making him produce mass Chemical X while leaving the Powerpuff Girls to die, despite the deal of sparing the girls themselves.

"Love to hate" factors

The way he swallows the Chemical X is a bit comical, even if nothing else he says or does is.

He is often regarded by fans as one of the most memorable villains in the show in part due to his sheer ruthlessness.
Jeff Bennett's fluid voice acting for the character.

Type of Hate Sink

Greedy Scientist

“	You know I've been reading about you guys, and I think it's really great what you do here in Townsville. But you know, I've been all over the world, and there sure is a lot of evil out there. It's too bad there aren't more of you girls out there to help save everybody. Gee, if... there was only a way to make more of you girls, we could help save people all over the world, and that would be good, huh?	„
	~ Dick convincing the girls to help him

Professor Richard "Dick" Hardly is a one-shot antagonist of the 1998 version of the Cartoon Network series The Powerpuff Girls, appearing as the main antagonist of the Season 4 episode "Knock It Off".

He is an old college student of Professor Utonium who, after seeing the Powerpuff Girls themselves and their powers, decides to make a business of his own named "Powerpuff Girls Xtreme", where it produces knock-off versions of the girls themselves. To do so, he decieves the girls into giving him some Chemical X, which proves to be a hit at first. When the girls witness his schemes, they decide to deal with what he has been up to.

He was voiced by Jeff Bennett, who also voiced Mike Brikowski and Major Man in the same series, the Huntsman in American Dragon: Jake Long, and Bendy in Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends.

What Makes Him a Hate Sink?[]

In General[]

As the nickname of his first name suggests, he is a massive jerk who lives by manipulating people into helping him for profit.

Background[]

When they were young roommates in college, he took advantage of Professor Utonium and had him do all the work for him, while he went to parties and dated women (who he only cared about for their attractive looks) as well as was shown to steal Utonium's ideas and pass them off as his own, pretending to be his best friend for the sake of convincing him to go along with it.
He once sabotaged Utonium's chemistry mixture so that it literally exploded in his face, while Hardly made himself look good in front of everyone.
He was shown to be a sleazy and utterly disgusting pervert, spying on women with his telescope.

The Powerpuff Girls[]

When he first meets the Powerpuff Girls, he repeatedly refers to them "things" in front of Utonium, proving that he sees them as mere objects made to make a profit off of simply because they were created and not born.
He is an extremely difficult boss to deal with, not caring when his employees were getting extremely tired, yelling orders at them, and even forcing them to work even harder and faster.
He tricked the Powerpuff Girls into giving him Chemical X and used it to create intentionally botched-up clones of them, to make money.
He showed absolutely no care for his 100% sentient creations. When they literally fell apart overtime due to the intentionally poor way they were made, he was happy because this meant that those using the clones would have to call in for more of them, which would make him more money.
When one of his workers created a perfect, powerful, and healthy Buttercup clone that could potentially last without breaking down, he was enraged because she would mean less money for him, ordering her to be melted down for her excess Chemical X. This means that he had a child brutally killed offscreen.
He punished and nearly killed the Powerpuff Girls when he drained all of the Chemical X from their bodies while saying he would keep the professor as his slave by making more Chemical X and threatening to kill him if he refused or tried to stop him.
- What's worse is the fact that the Powerpuff Girls are merely children, showing how low Dick will go just to get his hands on money.
He's the only villain in the series to be taken completely dramatically seriously and his death is also a very satisfying and karmic moment that serves a fitting punishment due to the fact that he was willing to commit murder, including pedicide to become rich and the fact he directly caused his own death by mistreating his own creations. At least Princess Morbucks tended to have some comedic moments herself.
- By extension, he's the only villain who almost managed to kill the girls for good, something that not even their sworn enemies were able to do.
- Although the way he swallows a bottle of Chemical X is a bit comical, it is extremely brief and does not detract from his heinousness.
He stands out as the 2nd evilest man in the PowerPuff Girls in-universe for being a normal human being, fully knowing what he is doing is wrong yet he willing chooses wrong over right for no reason other than being a greedy jerk, making the show darker and edgier even if he appeared in only one episode. Even HIM (who is the personification of evil itself) has redeeming qualities and comedic moments, despite being overall more heinous than he is.