History Main / LawOfDisproportionateResponse

* In GreekMythology a beautiful woman named Medusa was being raped by Poseidon in one of Athena's temples, Medusa pleaded to the goddess for help. The goddess of wisdom responded by turning her into a hideous gorgon.

* The whole premise of ''FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', a show where imaginary beings spring to life on a regular basis, most of the plot involves overreactions to very minor everyday things, such as getting lost or going to the mall.

* An episode of ''HeyArnold'', "Olga Comes Home", has Olga, Helga's sister and the stereotypical "perfect girl" in a highly dysfunctional family, becoming catatonically depressed when Helga tricked her into thinking she had gotten [[TheBGrade a B in one of her college classes]].

* A sketch on ''ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' featured David Mitchell and Olivia Colman as a married couple. Olivia is slightly niggled by David's habit of sleeping with his secretary and the fact that he refuses to start a family...but this is only a front to cover up the heartrending distress she suffered when he left the fridge door open.

* ''OutsideInterference'': Kate's response to Hollie grabbing her [[PettingZooPeople large, fluffy raccoon tail]] is a devastating right cross that is implied to have actually knocked her out.

* ''DarthsAndDroids'' - "What did I do?" "I think you took his parking space."
* ''TheOptimist'' - Did someone say [[http://the-opt.com/?p=48 NAPKINS?]] What is that [[http://the-opt.com/?p=2873 BEEPING?]] Did you say [[http://the-opt.com/?p=2780 PEPSI?]] I can't [[http://the-opt.com/?p=2242 HEAR YOU.]] This table is [[http://the-opt.com/?p=91 WOBBLY!]] You're using [[http://the-opt.com/?p=89 THE WRONG WORD.]]
* SpookyDoofus is (as of this writing) gearing up a storyline where Ed sues M&M's/Mars because some of his M&M's have W's on them instead.

* In ''HotFuzz'' police officer Nicholas Angel is convinced that the reason behind all the murders is a complex scheme to buy soon-to-be valuable land carried out by [[spoiler: Simon Skinner]]. But it turns out to be [[spoiler:a whole conspiracy by the entire Neighborhood Watch Alliance to kill the people who may make the town look bad for the Village of the Year Contest]]. The charges which led to the executions are exactly as follows: [[spoiler:Martin Blower: being an apalling actor; Eve Draper: having a very annoying laugh; George Merchant: having an awful house; Tim Messenger: editing the Sandford Citizen Newspaper, riddling it with tabloid journalism and persistent (spelling) errors; Leslie Tiller: being set on moving away and might give her green thumb skills to another town.]]

* Being a deconstruction of the FightingSeries PlayedForLaughs, MutekiKanbanMusume justifies LawOfDisproportionateResponse because the core cast is a bunch of {{SchoolYardBullyAllGrownUp}}s

* In ''HotFuzz'' police officer Nicholas Angel is convinced that the reason behind all the murders is a complex scheme to buy soon-to-be valuable land carried out by [[spoiler: Simon Skinner]]. But it turns out to be [[spoiler:a whole conspiracy by the entire Neighborhood Watch Alliance to kill the people who may make the town look bad for the Village of the Year Contest]]. The charges which led to the executions are as follow (and I quote): [[spoiler:Martin Blower: being an apalling actor; Eve Draper: having a very annoying laugh; George Merchant: having an awful house; Tim Messenger: editing the Sandford Citizen Newspaper, riddling it with tabloid journalism and persistent (spelling) errors; Leslie Tiller: being set on moving away and might give her green thumb skills to another town.]]

** Ditto with the book.

** At Act III Scene V, Christian tries to talk to Roxane without Cyrano’s help. He cannot be eloquent, so a disappointed [[MinorFlawMajorBreakup Roxane cruelly rejects him and shuts her door on Christian face yelling him that he cannot come back]] [[SeriousBusiness until he can get his eloquence back]].

* CyranoDeBergerac: This play deconstructs this law showing us the [[JerkAss kind of person]] who uses DisproportionateRetribution (like Cyrano, De Guiche and all the Gascon’s Cadets except Le Bret) and the [[SeriousBusiness kind of]] [[FanDumb personality that uses]] DisproportionateRecompense (like Cyrano and Roxane) and the consequences of this trope in RealLife. For the audience, the same thing that are very funny [[{{Deconstruction}} are very serious for the characters in the play]].

* This happens to ''JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' ''constantly''. He's pretty wacky. Johnny: [[RantInducingSlight WACKY!!? What the hell kind of word is that!!? I HATE that word!! Fewer words are so excrutiatingly stupid!! And used in description of ME!!!]] [[UnusualEuphemism Fook!]]

* ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'': "Sno-Balls? Sno-Balls? Where the fuck are the God damn Twinkies?"

* Piss off [[SmallNameBigEgo Christian Weston Chandler]] enough and he will write you into his [[{{Sonichu}} webcomic]] as an often easily defeated villan. Or make a CAW of you in ''SoulCalibur'' and struggle to beat it up.

**** Well this is more like a WaferThinMint moment.

* The example from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' was possibly based on a true story where a man at an all-you-can-eat joint was asked to stop eating the oysters after having between 30 or 40 (his count) and 70 (restaurant's count) of the things, because other customers were complaining that there weren't any left. Yes, he did sue them, on the basis that he hadn't had "all he could eat", and the case was subsequently settled out of course. The restaurant holds no grudges, though, because the publicity was fantastic and they said that whenever he shows up they're going to present him with a big shovelful of oysters.

* The example from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' was possibly based on a true story where a man at an all-you-can-eat joint was asked to stop eating the oysters after having between 30 or 40 (his count) and 70 (restaurant's count) of the things, because other customers were complaining that there weren't any left. Yes, he did sue them, on the basis that he hadn't had "all he could eat", and as I recall it was settled out of court. The restaurant holds no grudges, though, because the publicity was fantastic and they said that whenever he shows up they're going to present him with a big shovelful of oysters. No word on the man's opinion, though, so one is left to wonder if or even [[FridgeLogic why he would want to go back at all]].
** Because he gets a shovelful of oysters.
* Piss off [[SmallNameBigEgo Christian Weston Chandler]] enough and he will write you into his [[{{Sonichu}} webcomic]] as an often easily defeated villian. Or make a CAW of you in ''SoulCalibur'' and struggle to beat it up.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'' - Do '''not''' mess with Erza's cake.

* In some versions of {{Superman}}, Lex Luthor hates Superman so much because Superman accidentally caused Lex's baldness. Other versions have him being hated just because he ''exists''.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Community}}'', Jeff goes in for a physical and learns that he's in perfect physical condition except for slightly high cholesterol, and reacts as if he's been told he's dying. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when his horrified reaction causes the nurse to wonder if he's accidentally told someone they have AIDS [[NoodleIncident again]].

*** In the Christmas episode, Lois stays calm throughout the disastrous shenanigans that have been going on. Peter gave the presents away? Another family benefits. House burned down? At least no one got hurt. No turkey? We can work something out. ''No paper towels?'' Destroy Christmas!

* ''Film/IAmLegend'' - "I was saving that bacon." Fully justified in this case, as he is going/has GoneMadFromTheIsolation, and he's woken up after a suicide attempt to find two strangers in his house, eating his food.

* ''Film/IAmLegend'' - "I was saving that bacon."

* After the leaking of documents stating ambassadors found the Prime Minster of Canada Stephen Harper "kind of dull", his advisers have called for a man who owned a website that hosted the documents to be killed via attack drone. May or may not be direct consequence, but still funny.

* Music/DavidLeeRoth and Brown M&Ms. Music/VanHalen's contract had a clause that there had to be a bowl of M&Ms in the dressing room, but the brown ones had to be removed. On one occasion, Roth found brown M&Ms and flipped out. What's not usually included in the telling of this rather well-known story is that the whole reason for the "no brown M&Ms" clause was to [[SecretTest test]] how closely the venue's responsible parties were [[http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp reading the contract.]] The band had fairly demanding requirements for power, weight, etc. for their equipment, and needed to know that they had been read and followed (otherwise the heavy stage could sink into the floor or something).