The Bad Place was a realm in The Afterlife where damned souls were tortured. It was dissolved after authorities implemented the morality test.
History
The Bad Place has likely existed since the beginning of time (at the very least since the case of Og and Grog) and is a hellish damnation for not only those that were evil in life but for those humans whose final point total wasn't high enough to enter The Good Place.
Entry
Gaining entry into The Bad Place is very easy. According to Michael, from the moment of birth every action and decision that a human makes either had a positive or negative effect, thus affecting that human's overall point score total. The bigger the action, the bigger the point difference, but there is a catch. Simply doing good deeds is not enough to raise a human's point total, as their motivations must be pure, otherwise it is seen as a selfish act.
Factors contributing to negative point totals leading to entry to The Bad Place include ever having microwaved fish in an office kitchen, been a Bachelor contestant (or just generally been emotionally invested in the franchise), taken off one's shoes and socks on a commercial flight, had vanity license plates like “MAMASBMW,” “LEXUS4LIZ,” or “BOOBGUY," or seen the California rock band The Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert during one's time on Earth. From comments by Michael and Shawn, it appears that the simple fact of being from France or Florida is also enough to condemn one to The Bad Place.
For a human to enter The Bad Place, their overall point total doesn't even have to be negative, it simply needs to not be high enough to enter The Good Place.
A notable exception being Mindy St. Claire who underwent a posthumous point spike and so was afforded The Medium Place as a compromise. In all other known cases, humans with point totals which were not considered high enough, even if in the hundreds of thousands (like Doug Forcett, whose point total was over 500,000), were sent to The Bad Place. According to Michael, the average point total of a good place resident is 1,000,000 points.
Inhabitants
The Bad Place houses not only humans and Bad Janets but also Immortal Beings whose only purpose is to torture and inflict pain on the humans who reside there. It is assumed that Immortal Beings and Bad Janets may come and go as they please, but humans cannot, although Eleanor was able to escape Neighborhood 12358W more than 15 times with Janet's help (although this is probably because a Good Janet operated the Train rather than a Bad Janet).
Known Humans
*Admitted to the Bad Place
| Name | Year admitted | Cause of death | Reason for entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grog(possibly) | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown, possibly due to murdering Og or losing a million points |
| Socrates | 399 BC | Poison | Too annoying, very loud chewer |
| Plato | 348/347 BC | Died in his sleep | Defense of slavery |
| Aristote | 322 BC | Natural causes | |
| Christopher Columbus | 1506 AD | Illness | Rape, slave trading and genocide |
| William Shakespeare | 1616 AD | Fever | Insufficient points to enter The Good Place |
| Mozart | 1791 AD | Illness | |
| Florence Nightingale | 1810 AD | Died in her sleep | |
| Emily Dickinson | 1886 AD | Illness | |
| Adolf Hitler | 1945 AD | Suicide | Genocide |
| Picasso | 1973 AD | Pulmonary edema/heart failure | Insufficient points to enter The Good Place |
| Elvis Presley | 1977 AD | Cardiac arrest | |
| Joseph Stalin | 1953 AD | Cerebral hemmorage | Genocide |
| John Wayne Gacy | 1994 AD | Lethal injection | Murder, torture and sexual abuse of at least 33 teenage boys and young men |
| Idi Amin | 2003 AD | Illness | Genocide |
| Julia Child | 2004 AD | Kidney failure | Insufficient points to enter The Good Place |
| Waqas Al-Jamil | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Manisha Al-Jamil |
Everyday Life
Each day in The Bad Place is a hellish existence for the humans that reside there as they are tortured endlessly by Immortal Beings and Bad Janets, who seem to enjoy doing so.
Immortal Beings
Although The Bad Place seems to answer to Gen, they appear to have a hierarchy system. Michael answered to Dave prior to becoming an Architect, and Dave seemed to answer to Shawn. In Chapter 22, Shawn stated that, as a result of Michael's neighborhood's success, Shawn would achieve a seat on the High Council.
Michael has stated that the Immortal Beings consider being called "Demons" racist, but later are seen referring to themselves as demons. They are cruel in nature and enjoy torturing, and Shawn once states that seeing the look on peoples' faces while he tortures them is "the best part of my job".
Demons seem to especially enjoy jalapeño poppers and Hawaiian pizza, much to the dismay of inhabitants of The Good Place.
Trivia
- A normal Bad Place neighborhood is never seen, only Michael's experimental "Good Place" neighbourhood.
- Michael explained that a "normal" Bad Place neighbourhood will "haunt you for eternity."
- The official Bad Place theme song is the Kars4Kids theme song.