Content Warning: This is article contains references to drug misuse.
With the CW reworking the pilot for the live-action Powerpuff, it’s more than certain that Mojo Jojo, arch-nemesis of the Powerpuff Girls, will be making his transition to a more grounded setting. How exactly that will work remains to be seen, as Mojo is at his best when his plans are at their most audacious. Not every evil scheme is a winning idea, however; over six seasons of the original Powerpuff Girls, Mojo’s plans have varied from brilliant to just plain absurd.
But how have his various ventures in villainy stacked up to one another? He’s had a lot of plans over the years, and it would take a long time to list and rank every single evil plan he’s ever had. On the other hand, several of Mojo’s plans stand out as highlights, whether genius or not.
Lamest: Trick The Girls Into Thinking They’re Wetting Themselves – “Pee Pee G’s”
This isn’t so much an evil plan as it is a cruel and petty joke. Mojo, armed with only a glass of water, tricks the Powerpuff Girls into thinking they have a bedwetting habit. His prank has plenty of unforeseen consequences; the girls become so anxious about their predicament that it interferes with their crimefighting and social lives.
However, for some fans, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Mojo knows where the girls live and the best he can do with this information is an infantile prank? Why would he not use this opportunity to take out his worst enemies once and for all?
Turn Townsville Into Dogs (Again) – “Monkey See, Doggy Two”
For some reason, Mojo Jojo took a second look at his old plan to turn all of Townsville into dogs and decided it was worth revisiting. Even the girls seem incredulous that Mojo is reusing a plan that wasn’t so great in the first place.
This time, his only changes include installing worldwide security cameras, not turning the Powerpuff Girls themselves into dogs, and wearing a metal plate for protection against dog bites. However, as expected, the plan fails once again.
Crash The Girls’ Slumber Party – “Slumbering With The Enemy”
Despite how random and ridiculous this plan sounds on paper, it also stands out as one of Mojo’s few plans that almost worked. With the help of a stolen invitation, Mojo infiltrates the Powerpuff Girls’ slumber party as ordinary kindergartener ‘Moejisha’ and uses the opportunity to inject the girls with Antidote X, which takes away their powers.
This plan eventually fails when the girls end up beating Mojo up with several pillows. While this scheme isn’t amongst the lowest of the low, it’s still pretty pathetic for a villain to be taken out by a horde of angry five-year-old girls without superpowers.
Take Over The World With An Army Of Primates – “The Powerpuff Girls Movie”
To be completely fair to Mojo, this was his first-ever evil scheme since becoming a super-genius chimpanzee; it’s little wonder, then, that it went completely off the rails even before the girls mustered up the courage to stop him. He gives his monkey army the same level of intelligence he has, using Chemical X, which quickly backfires as his Simian squad attempts to hijack Mojo’s schemes and descends into chaos.
By the time the girls show up, Mojo has already entered desperation mode and filled himself up with enough Chemical X to turn into a green King Kong. It’s not the greatest introduction to the Powerpuff Girls’ archnemesis, but later plans more than make up for this first misstep.
Sabotage The Narration – “Simian Says”
Mojo Jojo has kidnapped plenty of people over the years, but the most surprising victim of his by far is the show’s omniscient narrator. After a hostile takeover of the show’s narration, Mojo realizes that he now has the power to control what happens in Townsville with the power of his own words. He uses these abilities to force the girls to fight each other and let them do the job for him.
Mojo’s takeover of the show’s narration ranks among one of the more surreal plans in his history – and proves that not even the fourth wall is safe from this dastardly ape.
Gives The Girls’ Classmates Chemical X – “Mojo Jonesin'”
The Powerpuff Girls has never been afraid of sneaking an inappropriate joke or two past the censors. “Mojo Jonesin'”, on the other hand, goes the extra mile and plays out like a classic 90’s anti-drug PSA. Mojo gives four of the girls’ classmates the fictional Chemical X, which temporarily grants them superpowers. He becomes their dealer, bribing them with a continued supply of Chemical X in exchange for taking out the Powerpuff Girls for him.
It’s one thing for Mojo to square off against three superpowered kindergarteners on the regular, but manipulating regular kids and pitting them against their classmates is one another. This episode turns Mojo Jojo into every parent’s worst nightmare.
Assemble The Villains As One Team – “Meet The Beat-Alls”
Besides Mojo, the Powerpuff Girls have a healthy rogue’s gallery of villains that have failed to defeat them on multiple occasions. In season three’s “Meet The Beat-Alls,” Mojo discovers that when the villains work together to defeat the girls, they get better results. He forms them into a group known as the Beat-Alls and leads them on an unstoppable rampage throughout Townsville.
Mojo himself is plenty dangerous on his own, but he’s downright diabolical when given a position of leadership. With his guidance, the Beat-Alls were a difficult obstacle for the Powerpuff Girls to face, and one that required some trickery of their own to save the day.
Appeal To The Professor’s Fatherly Nature – “Mr. Mojo’s Rising”
Season one’s “Mr. Mojo’s Rising” has Mojo emotionally blackmailing Professor Utonium with this knowledge, claiming that he left and pursued evil after feeling rejected in favor of the Powerpuff Girls. In reality, Mojo was a disobedient pet whose antics caused Professor Utonium to knock a vial of Chemical X into the formula that created his own rivals in the process.
By guilting the Professor into accepting him as a surrogate son, Mojo manages to convince the Professor to transfer the girls’ superpowers to him instead, only to betray him and attack the girls afterward. Mojo’s gambit demonstrates that he’s not only a super-genius but dangerously charismatic as well.
Fight Fire With Fire – “The Rowdyruff Boys”
If Mojo can accidentally create one team of superpowered kindergarten-aged children, then surely he can create another one on purpose. With only a sample of armpit hair, some prison-quality escargot, a dog’s tail, and a toilet full of his own chemically enhanced waste, Mojo created the Rowdyruff Boys: dark mirrors to the Powerpuff Girls and beloved additions to their rogue’s gallery.
The boys were just as strong and tough as the girls were and almost managed to beat them. While the odds didn’t stay in his favor for long, Mojo got to experience not only a brief taste of victory but the joys of fatherhood.
Smartest: Erase The Girls From The Timeline – “Get Back Jojo”
Mojo’s wildest plan stands out as one of the biggest twists and most disturbing moments in the show’s history. In order to erase the Powerpuff Girls from existence, Mojo Jojo goes back in time to when Professor Utonium was a child, not much older than the girls. Once there, he plans to kill him and create a time paradox that prevents the Professor from later formulating the Powerpuffs in his lab.
While Mojo hasn’t hesitated when it comes to children before, his willingness to outright murder one shows how truly evil and immoral he is. Time-traveling only contributes to this perfect storm, as Mojo risks unravelling all of time and space just to see the Powerpuff Girls wiped from reality.
