History Main / LawOfDisproportionateResponse

* [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Edward Elric]] puts up with a real lot. And he does well, considering [[HairTriggerTemper his temper is even shorter]] [[TheNapoleon than he is]]. He even stays relatively calm when you threaten his loved ones ([[TranquilFury though it is not a ''good'' calmness]]). However, call him small - [[BerserkButton KABOOM - you've got him in your face]].

* Death The Kid from ''Manga/SoulEater'', largely thanks to having SuperOCD, hates ''anything'' that isn't symmetrical. When he saw how the pharoh demon was assymetrical, he blasted it to smitherines.
* [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Edward Elric]] puts up with a real lot. And he does well, considering [[HairTriggerTemper his temper is even shorter]] [[TheNapoleon than he himself]]. He even stays relatively calm when you threaten his loved ones ([[TranquilFury though it is not a good calmness]]). However, call him small - [[BerserkButton KABOOM - you've got him in your face]].

[[TheDitz Stumpy]]'s reaction to anything is the opposite of what it should be. Being told to take a bath? BigNo! [[HarmlessVillain Olaf]] trying to attack people with a hairdryer (of all things)? Look out, it's a dangerous weapon! [[AxCrazy Mr. Cat]] set [[NighInvulnerable Quack Quack]] [[ManOnFire on fire]]? "Oh hey, Quack Quack's on fire."]]

-->'''Prisoner:''' Well...I'd just like to say, m'lud, I've got a family...a wife and six kids,,,and I hope very much you don't have to take away my freedom because, well, because m'lud freedom is a state much prized within the realm of civilized society. (''lapses into Olivier'') It is a bond wherewith the savage man may charm the outward hatchments of his soul and soothe the troubled breast into a mangitutde of quiet, It is most precious as a blessed balm, the savior of princes, the harbinger of happiness, yea, the very stuff and pith of all we hold dear. What frees the prisoner in his lonely cell, chained within the bondage of rude walls, far from the owl of Thebes? What fires and stirs the woodcock in his springe or wakes the drowsy apricot betides? What goddess doth the strom toss'd mariner offer her most tempestuous prayers to? Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!\\

* A ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' sketch opens in a court of law where a prisoner is giving a statement prior to his sentence:

** In "Dog Of Death" Santa's Little Helper eats Marge's old quilt, which was a family tradition for centuries. She is understandably very upset and Homer tries to comfort her by telling her it's just a quilt. Then he discovers the dog also ate a cookie he wanted to eat, which sends him into a hysterically {{Narm}}y despair. This also turns to be the final straw for him to get rid of the dog.

* ''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 one strip of ''VGCats'', Aeris's response to Leo making fun of her malfunctioning Xbox and then going off on a tangent consisting of YourMom jokes is to go back in time to shortly after he was conceived and ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice give his mother an abortion]]''.

-->'''Craig''': ...Of course, Paul Gauguin ended up with a terrible case of syphilis. [[TakeThat Like]] [[JerseyShore Snookie]]. ...That's a ridiculous thing to say- Did you just offer him a '''candy'''?? ''You're meant to be pretending to be watching this crap!''

-->'''Prisoner:''' Well...I'd just like to say, m'lud, I've got a family...a wife and six kids,,,and I hope very much you don't have to take away my freedom because, well, because m'lud freedom is a state much prized within the realm of civilized society. (''lapses into Olivier'') It is a bond wherewith the savage man may charm the outward hatchments of his soul and soothe the troubled breast into a mangitutde of quiet, It is most precious as a blessed balm, the savior of princes, the harbinger of happiness, yea, the very stuff and pith of all we hold dear. What frees the prisoner in his lonely cell, chained within the bondage of rude walls, far from the owl of Thebes? What fires and stirs the woodcock in his springe or wakes the drowsy apricot betides? What goddess dith the strom toss'd mariner offer her most tempestuous prayers to? Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!\\

[[folder:Real Life]]
* 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 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.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=127AjQpNHdI&feature=related Mom gets beaten by her son with a baseball bat]] when she doesn't share her Royal Farms french fries.
* A woman in Florida called 911 after [[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,504125,00.html her local [=McDonald=]'s ran out of chicken nuggets and refused to refund her order]].
[[/folder]]

* [[ElvisPresley Famous example]]: "You can do anything, but lay off of my blue suede shoes."
* Arlo Guthrie's "Music/AlicesRestaurant": While registering for the military draft, the singer/narrator is placed on the "Group W Bench" with an assortment of criminals (mother rapers, father stabbers, father rapers, and so on). When one of the thugs asks what he was arrested for, Guthrie mentions his crime: littering. ("And they all moved away from me on the bench there...")
** "And creating a nuisance." And they all came back...

* David Sedaris describes his sister as thus: "Tiffany is big on rules but allows a pretty wide margin when it comes to mortal sin. Rape, murder, the abandonment of children: these are taken on a case-by-case basis. What riles her are the small things, and in denouncing them, she tends towards proclamations, most beginning with the words 'A person doesn't". "A person doesn't just go around ''making'' things out of pinecones' or 'A person doesn't use the word ''weenie'' when talking about a hot dog. It isn't cute. It isn't funny. It isn't done'" Also a lot of humor in David Sedaris essays in general encompasses this trope.

* 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 worse).

* The entire premise of ''WesternAnimation/DanVs''.

* Messing up a carefully-laid straight line of toys [[ProtocolPeril can tick '''some''' autistic children / people off.]]
** Certain people with ASD or Asperger's Syndrome have specific routines or requirements, and messing with these can get them '''very''' upset.

* Sometimes seems to be true of teens in general, if books like ''Mortified'' and ''Cringe'' (both featuring excerpts from real teens' diaries) are any indication.
* Well, to be fair, we've all had our bad days, and we've all done this at some point or another. The trick is to catch ourselves doing it.

* Messing up a carefully-laid straight line of toys can tick '''some''' autistic children / people off.

* In ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'' the titular wizard, who messes around with ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow and frequently fights demonic creatures and fleets of airships, goes completely batshit after he accidentally ''dyes his hair the wrong color''.

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

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

** Not to mention her father [[spoiler: relinquished his planet's air supply, dooming billions]]. His reason? The aliens who captured his daughter threatened to [[spoiler: reverse her plastic surgery.]]

* A brief incident involving his boss and a Moistmaker-equipped Thanksgiving leftover sandwich with a clearly marked limerick indicating rightful ownership resulted in Ross from ''{{Friends}}'' being given "indefinite leave" from his job and enough tranquillisers to calm a elephant.

* The entire premise of ''WesternAnimation/Danvs''.

* Being a deconstruction of the FightingSeries PlayedForLaughs, MutekiKanbanMusume justifies LawOfDisproportionateResponse because the core cast is a bunch of [[SchoolYardBullyAllGrownUp Schoolyard Bullies All Grown Up]].

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' - Dream of the Endless cast Nada into Hell because she didn't want to get into a MayflyDecemberRomance. There are undoubtedly other examples within the series, but that is the one that stands out the most. To be fair, he did let her out... ''after several thousand years, and being bugged about it by various people the whole time''.
* In some versions of {{Superman}}, ComicBook/LexLuthor hates Superman so much because Superman accidentally caused Lex's baldness. Other versions have him being hated just because he ''exists''.

* This happens to ''ComicBook/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 excruciatingly stupid!! And used in description of ME!!!]] [[UnusualEuphemism Fook!]]
** This is someone who considers being talked to by a dead bunny to be perfectly normal, and who doesn't bat an eyelash upon meeting God or the devil.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/KimPossibleMovieSoTheDrama'', after losing his want-to-be girlfriend to a RomanticFalseLead, and having his favorite restaurant turned into a kiddie joint by a new owner, Ron finally goes insane (well, for a second time) after they replace the bendy straws with regular ones, though that was probably just [[RageBreakingPoint the straw that broke the camel's back]] ([[IncrediblyLamePun no pun intended]]).
* In ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Yzma gives Kronk a long TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. He's, at most, mildly upset. She insults his spinach puffs. Kronk does a HeelFaceTurn and ''drops a chandelier on her''. Which gets HarsherInHindsight when we find out in the sequel that Kronk's dad had found him a disappointment for wanting to be a chef.

* In ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Yzma gives Kronk a long TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. He's, at most, mildly upset. She insults his spinach puffs. Kronk does a HeelFaceTurn and ''drops a chandelier on her''.
** Which gets HarsherInHindsight when we find out in the sequel that Kronk's dad had found him a disappointment for wanting to be a chef.

* In one episode of KevinSpencer, Anastasia screams at her husband to answer the phone (which is ''right next to her.'') When she doesn't get a response (he wasn't even in the same province at the time. He just didn't tell her he left), she proceeds to destroy everything Percy would hold dear, culminating with the destruction of the house.

** In a mini-video filmed for [=MuchMusic=], Al recites ''Literature/GreenEggsAndHam'' to the tune of {{U2}}'s "Numb" while undergoing the same randomness that the Edge underwent in the original video. He doesn't complain until the moment "Bono" starts singing.

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

* 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]] DisproportionateReward (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]].