Need a term...

I'm sorry you said 'two timer' doesn't seem right. That was my first thought.

double-crosser?

back-stabber?

triangulator

manipulator

Schemer?

Shyster

Trump

Tummler. Yiddish is a rich language.

Not exactly. The actual translation for tummler is the person who warms up the crowd before the main act comes out…sort of like the master of ceremonies. Circus barker or even agitator is another way of looking at it but he/she does not engage n playing one side against the other.

Back to the OP, it could be the most extreme case of a Devils’s advocate.

Provocateur?

One definition, also and incompetent minion. Basically a borderline incompetent used to fill multiple slots in the herding of visitors in a borsht belt resort.

Respectfully, I disagree. The meaning indicates more of a cheerleader or warmup for the acts…not an incompetent at all..just not a mainliner talent…engaging in slapstick humor. Many future talents were tumblers. Perhaps, my memory serves me, Mel Brooks may have been one forahile.

However, back to the OP, it doesn’t fit [url]definitionwise[/url] into what he is asking.

Spellcheck took over: tummeler

Yes, I was correct. Brooks was a tummeler at Grossingers.

Spellcheck took over: tummeler

Yes, I was correct. Brooks was a tummeler at Grossingers. As was Carl Reiner.

Yes, that’s it. Agent provocateur meets the criteria .

Thanks everyone. Provocateur seems closest, but not on the mark. A provocateur doesn't always set one group against another for their mutual destruction.

There was a Japanese movie staring Mifune Toshiro, in which he played a ronin (masterless samurai) who joined two opposing gangs, each thinking he was a double-agent working on their own behalf, and he expertly set both sides against each other. This led to an all-out gang war, during which he mostly just sat by and watch both sides annihilate each other. He did some fighting but mostly, the gangs accomplished the desired action of killing each other off, leaving the town free of both gangs of ruthless criminals. Mission accomplished, the ronin left town at the end of the movie. Much like a Clint Eastwood movie...

I'd like to know what the term is that applies to that kind of person. Sometimes he does this for a good or moral cause, sometimes he just wants to see destruction.

The word you are looking for is, "antagonist".

Yes, and I like 'instigator', as well, and Inciter and Agitator.

two-faced, or deceitful. Personally, I love backstabber!

There is another word, that I'm having trouble remembering. The act isn't always described accurately because we have become oblivious to vocabulary.