He's that annoying drip in the tap; that bird that chirps outside your window for an hour before sunrise.
He is the master at poking you in the chest so softly that one barely registers but the 100th tips you over the edge.
But if Michael Ennis returns to the Origin arena on Wednesday night Queensland prop Matt Scott has vowed not to be baited again.
It took 79 minutes and three seconds before Ennis got the better of Scott in the Sharks' come-from-behind win over the Cowboys in Townsville last weekend, an inside pass from Scott spilt by Jake Granville giving the 'Menace' all the opening he needed to prod the big front-rower one more time.
What he said exactly can't be picked up on video but given Cronulla's six-point advantage and Scott's disappointment it need not have been much.
Scott reacted by pushing Ennis in the chest with both hands and the pair continued to exchange pleasantries in the ensuing scrum but the Maroons bookend said that if Ennis does replace Robbie Farah in the Blues team next week as expected, he won't be suckered in again.
"He knows what he does and everyone else knows what he does," Scott said.
"You've got to really not buy into that stuff and I bought into it with 10 seconds to go. The game was over so I thought I'd give him a little push.
"He's obviously made a career out of niggling and trying to stir blokes up. If he does play or if anything does happen in an Origin you really can't react to that, just get on with the game."
The possible inclusion of Ennis for New South Wales will offer Queensland fans a plethora of villains capable of whipping the sell-out crowd into a frenzy on Wednesday night.
Over the course of the Maroons' eight-year winning streak hating someone from the Blues was akin to hating Wile E. Coyote but with the Blues on the verge of going back-to-back, there are some villainous characters only too happy to play the part.
Paul Gallen has been public enemy No.1 north of the border in recent years and in the past 12 months has been joined by Beau Scott and David Klemmer as Blues players capable of getting Queensland fans riled up.
South of the border there has been no love lost for the likes of Justin Hodges, Sam Thaiday and Darius Boyd but you'll be hard pressed to find a bad word said about 'JT' and only in recent times has there been any negativity directed at everyone's favourite accountant, Cameron Smith.
Smith himself concedes that the Maroons bought into the Blues' niggling tactics in Game Two but won't fall for the same trick with the series on the line.
"I probably do think we got caught up in their rubbish a bit, which we've never done before," Smith said. "That's a lesson learned, we've spoken about that, we just can't afford to do that in Game Three.
"We always play our best footy when we worry about ourselves and worry about what we want to do on the field.
"Their plan worked in Game Two, it had to. They were desperate, they needed to do something to win and maybe in the back of our minds we were 1-0 up and we didn't necessarily have to win that game.
"We wanted to win it but they had to and they came out and played a really strong game-plan so things have changed for us this match for sure."
Very rarely cast as the villain, Scott said success over a long period of time had no doubt led to some ill feeling towards him and some of his Queensland teammates.
"I suppose everyone loves a villain," he said. "Queensland love to hate Paul Gallen and I'm sure New South Wales love to hate a lot of our guys after eight years.
"It can be good for the game. I don't particularly like that sort of stuff but each to their own."
