About: Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!   Sponge Permalink

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... Except of course it doesn't. Criminals are cool. It might be a terrible thing to say, but it's true. One of the most enduring images in modern fiction is that of the glamorous gangster - a streetwise, Self-Made Man who's rich, powerful, Badass, irresistible to women, fashionable, and unfettered by conventional morality. In short, a perfect Escapist Character for times when being a good guy is just too dull. On the flip side being in organised crime is scary, paranoia-inducing and the story probably won't have a happy ending. Examples of Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster! include:

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  • Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!
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  • ... Except of course it doesn't. Criminals are cool. It might be a terrible thing to say, but it's true. One of the most enduring images in modern fiction is that of the glamorous gangster - a streetwise, Self-Made Man who's rich, powerful, Badass, irresistible to women, fashionable, and unfettered by conventional morality. In short, a perfect Escapist Character for times when being a good guy is just too dull. On the flip side being in organised crime is scary, paranoia-inducing and the story probably won't have a happy ending. Examples of Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster! include:
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  • ... Except of course it doesn't. Criminals are cool. It might be a terrible thing to say, but it's true. One of the most enduring images in modern fiction is that of the glamorous gangster - a streetwise, Self-Made Man who's rich, powerful, Badass, irresistible to women, fashionable, and unfettered by conventional morality. In short, a perfect Escapist Character for times when being a good guy is just too dull. On the flip side being in organised crime is scary, paranoia-inducing and the story probably won't have a happy ending. Violence might be abhorrent in Real Life, but on the big screen it can be just another way to get the audience's adrenaline flowing, and there's nothing wrong with that. Besides, in fiction, it doesn't matter how many dogs you kick as long as you look really cool when you do it. This trope was widely popularized in the US during The Roaring Twenties, when Prohibition made organized crime big business and the gangster became one of the iconic figures of the era; and The Great Depression, where bank robbers were seen as striking at the greedy and foolish banks that got the country into this mess. Of course, it has roots much further back in history - the popularity of outlaws like Jesse James and Billy the Kid in the American frontier era certainly counts, and even as far back as Robin Hood it was cool to steal. However, modern works are more likely to subvert or deconstruct this trope as play it straight. Indeed, the so-called "rise and fall" narrative is such an integral part of the gangster genre that it now makes straight examples of this trope nigh impossible. Sub-Trope of Evil Is Cool and closely related to Do Not Do This Cool Thing. See also Neighborhood Friendly Gangsters. Examples of Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster! include:
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