Pop Culture's Best Devils, And Catching Up On Fox's 'Lucifer'

By Tori Preston | Lists | May 31, 2017 |

By Tori Preston | Lists | May 31, 2017 |

Gather round boys and girls, because I need your help. See, I gave up on watching Fox’s supernatural procedural Lucifer after the first season and now I’m rethinking my decision. The reason I stuck with it even that long was because of Tom Ellis, who made the titular Devil such a fun character. I wasn’t hung up on the way the show didn’t stick to the original comic, but I also wasn’t sold on the case-of-the-week format. Often it seemed like the show had a lot of great elements, but had to contort itself to be a procedural when maybe it just shouldn’t have been one in the first place. And yet Ellis was the morning star shining through all that network drama sludge, bringing effortless humor, palpable danger, and delicious ennui to his Lucifer.

I’m only a season behind, since the second season just finished airing and it will be back for a third. And from what I’m hearing, the show gelled in interesting ways during the second season. Should I catch up on it over the summer, or find something more useful to do with my time like, I don’t know, having friends? Taking up a hobby? Learning a language?

While you consider this conundrum, let’s take a moment to appreciate some of the other devilishly great Satans of pop culture (and no, this isn’t a backdoor Trump joke). In no particular order:

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I’ve mentioned previously that this movie is turning 20 this year, but let’s face it — a good “The Devil Is My Dad!” story never gets old. And it also may explain why Keanu hasn’t aged…

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Oh, sorry - his character is actually named Louis Cyphre. Not the same thing at all. My bad.

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Ok, so he may not be Satan but “Daryl Van Horne” seems pretty demonic. People should really stop listening to mysterious strangers…

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The Foo Fighters frontman showed up as the Beelzeboss even before Tenacious D got their own movie — he also donned the horns for the music video for their song “Tribute.” Maybe those are just really comfy goat-legs…

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Ok, so he’s technically the “Lord of Darkness” or something, but c’mon. Look at him. Curry also voiced the Devil in an episode of Dinosaurs, but that time he mostly just looked like a dinosaur. Obviously.

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Viggo’s Lucifer is great at math! As he points out, two Hells is one Hell too many. Can’t argue with those numbers.

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I know we’re supposed to root for the Winchesters to finally lock Lucifer away, but he makes it really hard. We’ll see how long he stays stuck in that other dimension…

And of course, the best Satan of them all…