- ❝ What up forknuts? ❞
- —Bad Janet greeting Shawn
- ❝ It's up your mom's butt, you fat dink! ❞
- —Bad Janet responding to Michael asking a question
Bad Janet is a character in The Good Place and is played by D'Arcy Carden.
History[]
Bad Janet is a sentient database for The Bad Place (presumably) created by "the Makers of Light, Darkness, and Everything", much like her Good Place counterpart. Janet is able to instantly appear to anyone's side when they call their name (though unlike her Good Place Counterpart, always on the opposite side than the one who summoned them is looking, forcing them to turn around).
Uses[]
Bad Janet is used primarily as a personal assistant by the Eternal Beings of The Bad Place. Most people summon them by saying 'Bad Janet'. She is able to retrieve/create any object requested for instantly. However, Bad Janet will only summon items for Architects. They will not help any bad place humans in any way. Janet also doubles as an accessible database, as they reportedly have all the knowledge of the universe.
Personality[]
Bad Janet by default is rude, offensive and possesses a very antisocial attitude towards others. They are incapable of being nice, and before their reboots, would melt upon imitating a Good Janet. When asked a question, they usually insult the asker and goes to their void with no help. They are always on their cell phone even when doing other things like casually opening the door to Michael's cell. They are also known for their quintessential fart noise, which is their way of showing apathy.
However, Bad Janet did show some alliance with their 'sister', Good Janet. They disobeyed Shawn, in one of the last episodes, and said the whole Afterlife system was 'royally effed'. As callous as they may be, Bad Janet is not fully a villain.
Purposes[]
Upon first meeting, Tahani questions the very point of a Bad Janet, and even Michael claims to not know what purpose a Bad Janet is supposed to have.
From what we know about Janets in general, one purpose can be inferred: a Bad Janet can operate the train (and presumably does, to bring Shawn, Trevor, and the rest of the Bad Place crew to Neighborhood 12358W).
Another potential purpose of Bad Janets is suggested by the fact that when Good Janet glitches, strange things happen to the neighborhood around her. It is possible that Bad Janets may torment the residents of their neighborhoods by bringing about such effects deliberately.
It is also known that Good Janet constructs and runs Good Place neighborhoods. It can be assumed Bad Janet does the same for Bad Place neighborhoods.
Both Bad Janets and Good Janets can function as a walkie-talkie so they are useful for talking to someone in the Bad Place.
Bad Janet is the tannoy for the train station in the Bad Place. They usually notify everyone there, by delaying every train by three hours to arouse irritation. They also use their term 'fat dink' to classify everyone there.
Besides all that, it is also entirely possible Bad Janet just exists for no actual reason besides infuriating a neighborhood's residents and/or being generally rude, as any other Janet could serve the same purpose.
Powers & Abilities[]
- Teleportation: Bad Janet is able to teleport anywhere in an instant either at will or when they are called.
- Omniscience: Like Janet, Bad Janet has all possible knowledge that both humans and Eternal Beings possess.
- Summon and retrieval: Janet can create/retrieve any item anyone desires at any time in an instant.
- Operating the Train: The only way in and out of a neighbourhood is by the train, which only Janet can call and operate.
- Walkie-Talkie Protocol: Two Janets can be linked together to serve as a long-distance address system. This is seen in Chapter 12 when Shawn uses them in Neighbourhood 12358W to transmit a message to Eleanor and Jason in The Medium Place through Good Janet. It is, therefore, one of the few special abilities which Janet retains when outside their neighbourhood.
- Impersonation: Normally, if a Bad Janet tries to impersonate a Good Janet, their head melts. But, through a number of reboots, Bad Janet was successfully able to impersonate Janet as shown in Chapter 43: Tinker, Tailor, Demon, Spy.
- Farting: As shown in numerous chapters, Bad Janet can fart on command. They also are shown farting at will numerous times, even when they have been marbleized.
Trivia[]
- Even though Bad Janet is out of their own neighborhood, they can still travel between Neighborhood 12358W and their Void, though in the same episode it appears that Good Janet cannot travel between their Void and The Medium Place. This may mean that a Janet's powers are restricted to a realm (i.e., Good Place, Medium Place, Bad Place), rather than a specific neighborhood. If so, it is a clue that Neighborhood 12358W is part of The Bad Place, and also that The Medium Place really is separate from it.
- Bad Janet looks almost identical to Good Janet, except they have long blonde hair with roots.
- Their void is white and is filled with supposedly "bad" items including monster trucks, literal garbage, missiles, etc. Their "search bar" is a mid-2000s computer that often crashes and produces errors. The Gummy Bear song is always repeating there, since most people see it as an extremely bad song.
- It is unknown how many Bad Janets have appeared as many appearances have no connection with each other, but none have interacted to prove that they are different Janets. However, in Chapter 43, when describing the marbleization of Janet, Bad Janet did state that another Bad Janet distracted Eleanor while they switch places with Janet.
- Normally Bad Janet's head will melt if she tries to impersonate Good Janet, but Shawn rebooted one instance of Bad Janet "like, forty million times [sic]" and they were then able to do so.