The most famous specific lists, both referred to as the
Evil Overlord List, were developed concurrently. Both were published to the web in the early 1990s. The original, if lesser-known list was compiled in 1990 by members of the now-defunct
FidoNet Science Fiction and Fandom (SFFAN) email echo. The FidoNet list originated with a 1988
Saturday Night Live skit featuring
Bond Villains touting a book "What Not To Do When You Capture James Bond". The FidoNet list arose out of discussions regarding what sort of advice might be in that book, and was compiled and published by Jack Butler. It predated the following list, but was only widely published later, and is the more obscure of the two.
The later-produced and more famous version of the list was compiled in 1994 by Peter Anspach (hence it is occasionally titled "Peter's Evil Overlord List") based on informal discussions at conventions and on online bulletin boards in the early 1990s,
[1] and has subsequently become one of the best-known parodies of bad
SF/F writing, frequently referenced online. It was originally
The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord, but grew to include over 100 entries.
Anspach and Butler acknowledge the existence of each other's lists, and state that their two lists have been so cross-pollinated over the years as to become effectively identical.
The Evil Overlord List has led to spinoffs, including lists for
stock characters including (but not limited to)
heroes,
henchmen,
sidekicks, the Evil Overlord's
Accountant, and
Starfleet captains.
[2]
