The world of Grand Theft Auto can be a super dark, violent, and sleazy place. That sort of thing comes with the territory, after all. This isn’t Dora The Explorer’s Cutesy Journey Around Some Adorable City Somewhere. This is Grand Theft freaking Auto we’re talking about. These are the games where you –the way the media tells it—sleep around, pay for it, and take the money back ... and then shoot the money (maybe?).

Rockstar’s crime ‘em up is serious business, is what I’m really getting at here. The games depict everything that is bad about the human experience, everything that can drive a seemingly ordinary person into the criminal underworld. Motives can begin as innocently as paying for a sick relative’s hospital bills, but it can be tough at times for the ends to justify the means.

With all of this said, then, it’s no surprise that Grand Theft Auto encourages a certain type of mentality among players. Morals seem to disappear down the WC when it comes to online play, with players harassing others in the server in all kinds of creative and dastardly ways. The reasoning simply being it’s Grand Theft Auto, why shouldn’t I be a huge steaming a-hole?

This isn’t exclusive to players themselves, either. The games are populated with all kinds of terrible characters too. With that in mind, let’s take a look at 15 trollish players and characters who got what they so richly deserved.

Warning: this piece contains high levels of karma.

15 When Samsung Want Your Exploding Galaxy Note 7

If you’ve spent much time in the PC gaming arena, you’ll know that modding can be a powerful, powerful tool. From nude mods to bust size mods to… well, mostly those two things, there’s very little that canny modders can’t do with video games these days.

When they do get their creative hats on, these people can do some amazing things. When the news hit that Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 had a tendency to spontaneously combust, there was only one thing for modders to do: Troll the Korean tech giant by adding a Galaxy Note 7 skin to GTA V’s Sticky Bombs. Simple, brilliant, and hugely offensive to Samsung. Their crusade against video footage of the mod didn’t amount to much, and it’s still right there for us to enjoy.

14 When You’re Having Far Too Much Fun With A Hearse

For obvious reasons, when it comes to super happy fun times vehicles, a hearse isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. For me, it’s the terrible, luminous pink Bison I bought for a joke, for those times when you and the squad just need to go on a 4mph crime spree. It turns out, though, that the hearse can be both a great source of hilarity and an engine for social justice.

As you probably know, this macabre vehicle is a tough one to lay your hands on. This, in turn, makes it a popular target for other players. Over on the GTA Forums, smokingndriving explained how this makes it a perfect trap for thieves and trolls, and the ideal recipient of the ignition bomb.

13 Operation: One Million Dollar Car (Or Mom, I Can’t Go To School Today, My Wallet Hurts)

Now, as all players of Grand Theft Auto Online will know, the game is chock-full of ways to accrue a small fortune fairly quickly. You’re encouraged to do so, by the range of expensive gear Rockstar keep releasing. We’re up to our navels in luxury vehicles and properties here. A lot of this is because the devs are trying to hawk their shark cards, but never mind that.

One player, Aaron Reynolds, noticed that players like to wait around the body shops for someone to emerge in their newly bought, freshly-customised cars, simply to destroy them. His response was something he dubbed Operation One Million Dollar Car, in which he souped up a vehicle as much as possible. “Then I made my insurance claim, in-game, and then listened to their wails and cries as they lost all their money,” he told Twitter.

12 When The Trolls Bust Out Creepy Children’s Music

Now, I like to think of myself as a relatively hardened horror fan. I’m really not a squeamish person, and I’m certainly not a behind-the-couch pillow-hider. However much of a horror fan you are, though, there are certain things that you’ll be predisposed to being creeped out by. Demonic children would be mine, I guess you could say. The music of a children’s choir in a dark, creaky building… That's cheek-tightening stuff, right there.

As such, I’m certainly thankful that I never ran into this guy during his heyday. There are many ways to be a GTA troll, but this is one of the most creative. Don a creepy mask and simply follow other players around, playing children’s music at them. It’s super unsettling. What did he get for his efforts? Verbal abuse, mostly. “It sounded like Chucky was finna kill yo ass or some [explict],” as one victim reported.

11 Grand Theft Auto’s Original Trolls: The Cops

In just about any game with an online component, you’ll find the usual crop of undesirable players. The trolls, the griefers, the ragers, the making-voice-chat-a-crock-of-crap-by-incessantly-rapping-along-with-Eminem-ers… it’s a bad time. As bad a rap as online players usually get, though, they’re not the only culprits. A game’s NPCs themselves can be all the trolls we need.

Case in point: the Grand Theft Auto series’ police. Since the first instalment, these guys have been screwing with us in all kinds of ways. Why do they pay us absolutely zero attention when we cruise past them with a rocket launcher over our shoulders? Why have they given up on attempted arrests entirely, and adopted this fancy new shoot-on-sight policy? It’s really no wonder that players love to screw with them right back, seeing how long they can survive at maximum wanted level and that sort of thing.

10 The Madness Of Lindsay Lohan

Remember ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s song I’ll Sue Ya? It’s a snarky commentary on today’s lawsuit-heavy, super frivolous world. The song speaks of a man who sued Coca-Cola because he put his finger in a bottle of coke and it got stuck, and of suing Taco Bell because he ate half a million chalupas and they made him fat.

Lindsay Lohan’s feud with Rockstar highlights exactly what Al was getting at with this one. According to the inimitable star, her likeness was used without her consent in the game. This claim originally only centered around the character of Lacey Jonas, a minor character you must rescue from the paparazzi. From here, the whole thing developed into a claim around the unnamed woman who features in the game’s promotional art. Needless to say, none of this came out in Lohan’s favor.

9 When Rockstar Sits You At The Back Of The Class With The Safety Scissors And Glitter

As I say, Rockstar have been delightedly supporting Grand Theft Auto Online since its release. Previous gen systems are no longer receiving the updates, but regular content packs are still being pumped out. And why? Because more desirable items equals more cash for Rockstar, that’s why. Before you know it, you’re up microtransactions creek without a paddle.

After all, lots of people have no patience to actually earn GTA dollars in-game. So what are your options? Buying them with real money, or, back when it was a thing, the money cheat. You had to tread carefully with this one, though, as Rockstar didn’t take kindly to these sorts of shenanigans. Doing this could get you branded as a cheat, and doomed to play only on a server with other cheats until you had been ‘forgiven.’ There was also a dunce’s cap to wear.

8 Roman Bellic, Aka Bowling McBowlingFace

I get it, Roman, I really do. Everybody has to have a hobby. Interests. Passions. Something to be enthusiastic about, and escape to, when this craptacular world of ours gets them down. Yours is bowling. I can appreciate that. I like to go bowling myself, every couple of months or so.

You’ll notice, Roman, that I said months, not minutes. Stop blowing my phone up while I’m trying to delicately aim my gun from a moving motorcycle. You’re like one of those crazy elderly aunts who hear you casually mention that you kinda don’t mind scented candles, and then you get one for every damn special occasion ever.

Stop with the damn scented candles, cousin. It’s like Bed, Bath and freaking Beyond in here. Stahhp.

7 Did ANYBODY Like Manny?

As we know darn well at this point, the Grand Theft Auto series is populated with all manner of shady individuals. The whole good versus evil, black and white morality thing really doesn’t apply here at all. We’ve got ‘good’ people committing the worst deeds for the best reasons, and we’ve got ‘bad’ people surprising us and doing the right thing out of no-darn-where.

Among this whole smorgasbord of humanity, there is Manny Escuela. He’s as much a gray area as most other characters you’ll encounter in the franchise, and he’s one of my very least favorite for sure.

He’s egocentric, a self-professed rap god, and he reeks of phoniness. One of those people who put on a great show for PR’s sake when there are cameras rolling. Constantly begging for his comeuppance, and I was always happy when he got it.

6 Sure Glad That Vlad(imir Glebov) Died

In that one Simpsons episode years back, Homer is advising Mr. Burns on how best to placate his employees. He mentions to the boss that he always runs out of tartare sauce when the cafeteria serves fish sticks. Burns responds as though the greedy guy is a business genius. “A happy worker is a busy worker,” he muses; a couple of cents worth of tartare sauce would see the workforce’s productivity skyrocket.

Why are we talking about this? Because if a crotchety old miser like Burns understands the need to take care of his employees, why the hell is Vladimir Glebov trolling us through every one of the missions he gives us in Grand Theft Auto IV? Constant derision and trash talk, that’s all this guy was. At least the player got to kill him personally.

5 Cargobob Woes

It’s odd to think that Grand Theft Auto V originally released four years ago. In video game years, Rockstar’s magnum opus is actually pretty darn old. Hence all of the where is Grand Theft Auto Six spam.

Over those years, times have changed, as they will. Like horrendous flares, disco afros and everything else, fashions and trolling techniques come and go. Back when the game was new, screwing with fellow players in the Cargobob was a devious art form.

This harmless chopper wasn’t very mobile, but the GTA V version was able to nab vehicles and carry them away. Seeing your beloved car very slowly float on over to the ocean was not a good time. Even so, these things were super, super easy to take out before it came to that, and you’d have to be AFK for about a month and a half for this to happen.

4 Trolling The Press With Honest-To-Goodness Full Frontal

Grand Theft Auto has never been a franchise afraid to stare controversy in the eye. Indeed, Rockstar have been staring into controversy’s eyes for so long that controversy is starting to get deeply uncomfortable. You know how it is when you make eye contact with a stranger on public transport, and then accidentally meet the same person’s eyes another couple times? That’s how controversy is starting to feel here.

All of the anti-GTA backlash came to a head with the Lost and Damned DLC package for the fourth game. This was the first game to feature genuine full-frontal nudity, and it came courtesy of politician Mr. Stubbs in a massage parlor. It was the way Rockstar trolled their critics with this cutscene that made the whole thing: We were presented a view of the naked man from a range of angles, delicately skirting around it, before it was unleashed.

3 C.R.A.S.H And Burn, Eddie Pulaski

Now, I’m a simple man. I like my coffee black, my hot sauce darn hot (lightly spiced? Nuts to that; it’s about as spicy as an elderly nun’s underwear drawer), and my villainous a-holes to be unrepentant villainous a-holes to the end. None of this feeble begging-for-mercy-when-the-good-guy-finally-catches-you business.

There aren’t a lot of things you can say for San Andreas’s Eddie Pulaski, but I guess that’s one of them. This corrupt cop revels in his duty of concealing the truth of the C.R.A.S.H unit’s crimes, and butted heads with protagonist Carl Johnson on several occasions. Even before the events of the game, this guy was asking for it, and was still talking smack about CJ’s sister even as his last words. Now that’s commitment to the d-bag cause.

2 Remember When Saint’s Row Trolled GTA V To The Limit?

Grand Theft Auto V’s release, back in September 2013, was the gaming event of the decade. The Hype Train has been barrelling along full steam ahead (I don’t know why it’s a Ye Olde steam train, just roll with it) for some time, the tension was almost palpable, the sick days taken on launch day many.

Spare a thought, though, for the other sorry sandbox titles around at the time. These poor souls had to try and continue existing, in the wake of the arrival of GTA V. How can you even do that? In Saint’s Row 4’s case, with a lot of snark.

Taking advantage of all the Los Santos city hype on release day, the Saint’s Row team dropped a DLC for the fourth game. It allowed you to play as Johnny Gat, and so the snarky hashtag #GATV was born. That’s what you get for stealing the limelight.

1 When There’s Actually A Troll Under The Bridge (Except There Isn’t)

And so we’ve arrived at the end of the countdown. We’ve seen all sorts of unsavory Grand Theft Auto happenings, from players trolling and griefing their fellow players to NPCs screwing with everybody. Let’s end things on a lighter note: there are Billy Goat’s Gruff-esque trolls lurking under the bridges in GTA: Vice City.

This odd theory began circulating online almost a decade after the game’s release. It pinpoints areas like Vice Point, Leaf Links, and Washington Beach as places where these elusive creatures have been seen. It’s all a lot of hearsay and creepypasta-ing, of course, but that would be quite an easter egg to have included in Vice City. The trolls, the stories go, are mostly harmless and will hide from the player if seen, so it’s nice to know people aren’t blowing them away.