History Main / DamnedByFaintPraise

* Competitive fighting game sites like Super Combo and Dustloop feature a "pros and cons" section near the start of any given character analysis. Naturally, sometimes this forces them to assign "pros" to a character widely seen as a JokeCharacter or LowTierLetdown, which is often used for jokes. (This can also be inverted when discussing "cons" for a character widely seen as a GameBreaker or HighTierScrappy.) For instance, the listing for ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger'' describes Iron Tager's sole strong point thusly:

* On the job board website Indeed, the possible ratings for assessment tests, in order of best to worst, are: Expert, Highly Proficient, Proficient, Familiar and...''Completed''. It's safe to say that if you get a "Completed" result, no employer who needs that particular skill will hire you.

* On the job board website Indeed, the possible ratings for assessment tests, in order of best to worst, are: Expert, Highly Proficient, Proficient, Familiar and...''Completed'', which is a really nice way of saying "you absolutely suck at this and nobody will hire you if they need this skill".

* On the job board website Indeed, the possible ratings for assessment tests, in order of best to worst, are: Expert, Highly Proficient, Proficient, Familiar and...''Completed''.

* On Indeed, the possible ratings for assessment tests, in order of best to worst, are: Expert, Highly Proficient, Proficient, Familiar and...''Completed''.

* A {{tearjerker}} example: in 1939, the great New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig had been experiencing periodic weakness and loss of muscle coordination but tried to ignore it. One day during a game, he fielded a routine grounder and flipped the ball to the pitcher covering first base, ending the inning. As Gehrig made it back to the dugout, his teammates showered him with praise, patting him on the back and congratulating him. Realizing how badly he must have been performing if such a routine play earned so much praise, he quit the game. Soon after, he was diagnosed with ALS, a disease now commonly referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." It would kill him two years later.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_III_of_Spain Phillip III of Spain]] was a member of the [[RoyallyScrewedUp notoriously messed up Hapsburg royal family]]. The Spanish Hapsburg line was particularly inbred and subject to a host of maladies, and Phillip III's history reads like a laundry list of genetic collapses waiting to happen. The most positive statement made of him is that "his only virtue appeared to reside in a total absence of vice." While he wasn't a drunkard or a glutton or a lech or a tyrant, he was also about as much use in statecraft as the palace's potted plants. Possibly the most telling factor is is his royal title, "The Pious," suggesting that the best his contemporaries could say was that at least he did not blaspheme God in any way (other than by existing as such a pitiable genetic wreckage of a man).

* After the 2024 UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation All-Star Game, which the Eastern Conference won by a record-breaking final score of 211–186, in a game most observers found deathly dull (with both teams shooting countless three-pointers and not bothering to play defense), league commissioner Adam Silver praised the winning team, not by honoring their athleticism or display of skills, but by noting that "you scored the most points; well, congratulations."

* A [[https://www.grandforksherald.com/lifestyle/the-eatbeat-long-awaited-olive-garden-receives-warm-welcome viral review of a small-town Olive Garden]] praised the decor, the service, the large portions, and the low prices... but as some people eventually noticed, the nicest thing the reviewer said about the food itself was that it was warm.

* One article on the Website/AVClub noted that the best thing about the Tiger Electronics UsefulNotes/RZone was that it cost thirty dollars. It went on to name it "a better fashion statement than a gaming console"... before noting that the R-Zone looked incredibly stupid to wear, calling out this trope by name.

* In ''The New Champion of Comicbook/{{Shazam}}'', Fawcett Community College does this to ''itself'', with a video that starts off by saying that it's the perfect place to complete your education if you don't want to leave Philidelphia, [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative or go to a different school in Philidelphia]], and ending by boasting that the college has been nominated for "some awards".
* ''ComicBook/{{Nova}}'': One issue features an inversion of this, where the titular character ends up being praised by faint damnation. When he's hooking up with his old friends from the New Warriors, they gently make fun of the fact that he's grown far beyond them after he TookALevelInBadass in ''ComicBook/{{Annihilation}}'', comparing him to being [[BreakupBreakout the one guy in the band who actually got famous]]. Nova attempts to nod off the praise by calling back to an earlier issue when he met the Characters/SilverSurfer and basically got his ass kicked... at which they point out that casually having a hostile encounter with the Silver Surfer and living to tell about it is pretty damn indicative of how strong he's become, and joke about it as if he just met a major celebrity.

Compare DamnedByAFoolsPraise and TheOneThingIDontHateAboutYou. See also WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency, SoOkayItsAverage, NotLikeOtherGirls, and YouAreACreditToYourRace. Contrast with StealthInsult, which also damns people through "praise" – in that case, though, the praise is illusionary rather than merely weak. SarcasmMode is also a sister trope. Those who confuse faint praise with actual praise will claim that ItsNotSupposedToWinOscars.

* In ''Theatre/{{Hairspray}}'', Tracy's mother thanks Velma Von Tussle for letting Tracy appear on her TV show (she didn't, actually; the decision had been made without her and she protested vehemently). Velma diplomatically replies, "Well, Tracy has certainly... redefined our standards."

** The Dutch Comedy show ''Koefnoen'' did a similar sketch where two obnoxious yuppies "translated" every selling point a real estate agent gave them, ("Good access by car and public transport." "Highway through the back yard, foundations ruined by the subway line.") turning into a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. As they walked away satisfied, they decided they were going to buy it anyway.

** [[http://www.theguardian.com/education/commentisfree/2015/feb/18/oklahoma-ban-advanced-placement-history This article]] talks about the Oklahoma House Republicans on the Common Education Committee that voted to ban advanced placement US history courses, because they think it shows [[PatrioticFervor “what is bad about America”]]. The author warns them: If they insist to make an OrwellianRetcon on Oklahoma's story, they will UnPerson the entire state because they have very few things to be proud about":
-->In its ''“good”'' history, Oklahoma can boast [[{{Theatre/Oklahoma}} being the basis of]] a [[Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein Rogers and Hammerstein]] musical and the home of Oral Roberts University. But if Oklahomans were to purge all their local stories which reflect “what is bad about America”, their history pages would be [[UnPerson wiped as white as a Tulsa klansman’s hood]].

* In ''Film/{{Hairspray|1988}}'', Tracy's mother thanks Velma Von Tussle for letting Tracy appear on her TV show (she didn't, actually; the decision had been made without her and she protested vehemently). Velma diplomatically replies, "Well, Tracy has certainly... redefined our standards."

* In ''Film/{{Hairspray}}'', Tracy's mother thanks Velma Von Tussle for letting Tracy appear on her TV show (she didn't, actually; the decision had been made without her and she protested vehemently). Velma diplomatically replies, "Well, Tracy has certainly... redefined our standards."

* The comments section for [[https://youtu.be/qleJpzB4q7A "Tone Deaf"]] by {{Music/Eminem}} is ''brimming'' with this. [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/2629b055f7f38e5f5a92670f963d92b4/b3cdd8d8b7cb69f2-5c/s1280x1920/f843d6bc04903e9d80fa210b2fe790d405a6c0a1.pnj A selection.]]

* UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr's "Letter from Birgminham Jail" commends the many white supporters who "languished in filthy, roach infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as “dirty nigger-lovers"... then, after expressing his disappointment with the white church establishment, he damns select members with faint praise for at least allowing black congregations to worship in their churches on special occasions.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'': When Héctor and Miguel learn the former is the latter's long-lost great-great-grandfather, Héctor laments that he's a pretty poor excuse for one. When Miguel tries to reassure him that two seconds ago he thought he was related to a murderer and Héctor is a total upgrade by comparison, Héctor is, unsurprisingly, not convinced.

** ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'': As Shrek leads Donkey through a swamp, Donkey complains about its miserable state and wonders aloud who would be crazy enough to live there. Shrek replies that this is actually his home. Donkey [[VerbalBackspace immediately showers the swamp with (rather weak) compliments]].

* In ''[[Literature/BridgetJones Bridget Jones's Diary]]'', Creator/JeffreyArcher makes a [[TheCameo cameo appearance]] [[AsHimself as himself]] at a book launch. Bridget, who's giving the introductory speech, spots him in the crowd just after she's described the book her company is publishing as "the greatest book of our time" ... and goes on to tell Archer that "yours aren't bad either".