Over The Simpsons' long reign as king of cartoons, it's had a number of different doppelgängers, including Herb Simpson, Homer's far more successful half brother and Bart and Lisa's rivals Lester and Eliza. The best of the lot is undoubtedly Hugo, Bart's evil conjoined twin in the 'Treehouse of Horror VII'. Hugo is left to his own devices alone in the attic with nothing but a 'pigeon rat' for company, while Bart skateboards and pranks his days away. It's only at the end of the episode that Homer and Marge realise they've made a terrible mistake Bart is in fact the evil twin. While this might not be surprising to viewers, this still makes for an unusually good storyline, especially when compared to the other more recent 'Treehouse of Horror' plots. Whereas recent 'Treehouse of Horror' plots have basically become unwatchable with their inexplicably random plots, this evil twins episode is actually pretty good story telling for a very short cartoon. Nice use of a famous TV trope, Matt Groening. In any case, Hugo is memorable for being really quite likeable despite the fact that he's a little gross.
15. Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island is like a more light-hearted and far less trippy precursor to Lost, following seven castaways surviving together on an island. While Bonanza may have started the evil twins trend, Gilligan's Island was the first TV show to really own it literally half the characters have an evil twin in it at some point in the series. The chance of having an evil identical twin is small enough the chance of three out of seven characters on a small island having an evil twin must be minimal. Still, Gilligan's Island embraced these minuscule odds and made it a staple story arc of three separate episodes. The evil twins in Gilligan's Island are memorable for both their variety (one was a Russian spy, one was a woman chasing Hollywood fame and another was a money-grabber) but also simply their sheer numerousness and defiance of all odds. Not only are the three sets of twins able to reach Gilligan's Island in the first place, they are also able to leave it again by the end of the episode.
14. Star Trek
Star Trek also threw in an evil twin trope, with its parallel universe themed episode 'Mirror, Mirror.' Amusingly, Spock's evil twin from the Mirror Universe is distinguished from his more benevolent counterpart simply by having a beard, in keeping with the other Mirror-crew's more flamboyant looks and dress-code. Not technically an evil twin, but actually a doppelgänger from a parallel universe who just happens to be a tad more brutal and ruthless than our serious Spock. The Mirror Universe episode is one of the most memorable in Star Trek and Mirror Universe Spock well deserves his place on our list, as he has set something of a precedent for all evil twins in pop culture since. Facial hair is now a requirement for all malevolent carbon copies.
