History Main / MiseryPoker

* Defied in Music/{{AJR}}'s "World's Smallest Violin". The singer is seeing a therapist, but feels [[TherapyIsForTheWeak unworthy]] simply by going and complaining about his problems because his grandfather and father had it worse than him and seemingly never complained (the former was a World War 2 veteran and the lstter is a firefighter). However, he argues with himself about it, saying that "smaller" problems (such as his homesickness when at college) are just as valid, and he ''needs'' to let his fears and anxieties out or he fears that he'll explode emotionally. If he's playing the Smallest Violin, then by God he's going to play the hell out of it for his own peace of mind.

* Defied in Music/{{AJR}}'s "World's Smallest Violin". The singer is seeing a therapist, but feels [[TherapyIsForTheWeak unworthy]] simply by going and complaining about his problems because his grandfather and father had it worse than him and seemingly never complained (the former was a World War 2 veteran and the lstter os a firefighter). However, he argues with himself about it, saying that "smaller" problems (such as his homesickness when at college) are just as valid, and he ''needs'' to let his fears and anxieties out or he fears that he'll explode emotionally. If he's playing the Smallest Violin, then by God he's going to play the hell out of it for his own peace of mind.

* In ''Flour Babies'' by Anne Fine, the protagonist is told at the end of the story that hundreds of children go through the same trauma and worse that he went through...and none of them made as much fuss about it as he did. Possibly a LampshadeHanging - the author makes it clear that the teacher's being an unsympathetic {{Jerkass}}.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AnExtremelyGoofyMovie'', Max is behaving eagerly because he gets to leave home and get away from [[WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} his father]] who loves him but is annoying. PJ, who [[BeingGoodSucks generally does not engage in this although he usually has the right to]], lets Max know that [[WesternAnimation/{{Pete}} his father]] is callously tossing him aside for his own selfish agenda.

* A Netflix Original movie by the name of ''Tall Girl'' has a line early on that practically screams this. Protagonist Jodie is 6'1 (the average height of a fully grown woman in the US is around 5'4), though with no other apparent issues. Her parents make good money, she's thin, acne-free, cisgendered, white and apparently smart. An introductory monologue says "You think your life is hard? I'm a high-school junior wearing size-thirteen Nikes. Mens size-thirteen Nikes." topped off with an almost smug-sounding "Beat that." Naturally, the internet has risen to the challenge with people bringing up victims of abuse, people living under oppressive regimes, and other miseries that no decent person would ever contest.

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* The ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' fic ''The Heralds of Andraste'' indulges in a playful version of this before the Halamshiral ball, in ''[[Fanfic/TwiceUponAnAge All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird]]''. Mahanon has to go explore the castle and face down a would-be assassin, plus who knows how many Venatori and other assorted deadly foes... but Victoria has to smile and make pleasant conversation with ''Orlesians''.

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* The point of http://first-world-problems.com/ -- the joke being that only "FirstWorldProblems", i.e. minor annoyances of privileged citizens of wealthy countries/cities are allowed in contrast to "big problems" such as bone-dry poverty, universal food shortage, or being caught in a raging civil war.

* In [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/23191222 this fanfic]], [[Anime/OnePiece Robin and Law]] decide to engage in this trope during a rare get-together of their crews. They're mostly doing it for laughs but the rest of both crews are ''horrified'' by what the pair are lying out.

* ''Theatre/{{Six}}'' opens with the six wives of Henry VIII arguing over who had the worst time being married to him. Katherine Howard gets a scene where she makes a ''really'' compelling argument that it was her, snarking that compared to her fate of being executed at the age of ''fifteen'' (not to mention the lifetime of abuse she endured before that), the other wives' problems of ''almost'' being sent to a nunnery, or being divorced, or dying of natural causes are pretty lame by comparison. While the women all agree in the end that it doesn't really matter, and that they should stop letting Henry define their stories, pretty much the entire fanbase agrees Katherine wins.

* Extremely common in real life, in almost any context. Complain about literally anything, ''especially'' on the internet, and someone will be there to tell you about how they or other people in the world have it worse. Weather too hot or too cold? Someone from a greater climate extreme will be there to laugh at you for being such a wimp. Tough childhood? Bullied at school? Toxic work environment? Abusive spouse or parent? They've had it worse!

* The previous generation of anyone, anywhere, in any career field, will always look down on the newer generation for "having it easy." It just seems to be a universally human thing.

** The previous generation of anyone, anywhere, in any career field, will always look down on the newer generation for "having it easy." It just seems to be a universally human thing.

* Extremely common in real life, in almost any context. Complain about literally anything, ''especially'' on the internet, and there will be someone there to tell you about how they or other people in the world have it worse. Weather too hot or too cold? Someone from a greater climate extreme will be there to laugh at you for being such a wimp. Tough childhood? Bullied at school? Toxic work environment? Abusive spouse or parent? They've had it worse!

* ''Film/MontyPythonLiveAtTheHollywoodBowl'' has a sketch where a group of rich men try to one-up each other with increasingly ridiculous and over-the-top claims about how miserable and [[HillariouslyAbusiveChildhood abusive]] their childhoods in poverty were.

* ''Film/MontyPythonLiveAtTheHollywoodBowl'' has a sketch where a group of rich men try to one-up each other with increasingly ridiculous and over-the-top claims about how miserable their childhoods in poverty were.

** Among social justice activists, this is referred to as "The Oppression Olympics", and strongly discouraged. Trying to one-up each other over who has suffered more discrimination (of whatever kind) only creates division, resentment, and hinders cooperation among people who would otherwise work together to improve things. Even so, it still happens.

* Extremely common in real life, in almost any context. Complain about literally anything, ''especially'' on the internet, and there will be someone there to tell you about how they or other people in the world have it worse. Weather too hot or too cold? Someone from greater climate extremes will be there to laugh at you for being such a wimp. Tough childhood? Bullied at school? Toxic work environment? Abusive spouse or parent? They've had it worse!

** Among social justice activists, this is referred to as "The Oppression Olympics", and strongly discouraged. Trying to one-up each other over who has suffered more discrimination (of whatever kind), prejudice, violence etc. only creates division, resentment, and hinders cooperation among people who would otherwise work together to improve things. Even so, it still happens.

* Extremely common in real life, in almost any context. Complain about literally anything, ''especially'' on the internet, and there will be someone there to tell you how they or other people in the world have it worse. Weather too hot or too cold? Someone from greater climate extremes will be there to laugh at you for being such a wimp. Tough childhood? Bullied at school? Toxic work environment? Abusive spouse or parent? They've had it worse!

** Among social justice activists, this is referred to as "The Oppression Olympics", and strongly discouraged. Trying to one-up people about who has suffered more discrimination (of whatever kind), prejudice, violence etc. only creates division, resentment, and hinders cooperation among people who would otherwise work together to improve things. Even so, it still happens.

** Among social justice activists, this is referred to as "oppression Olympics", and strongly discouraged. Trying to one-up people about who has suffered more discrimination (of whatever kind), prejudice, violence etc. only creates division, resentment, and hinders cooperation among people who would otherwise work together to improve things. Even so, it still happens.

** Among social justice activists, this is referred to as "oppression Olympics", and strongly discouraged. Trying to one-up people about who has suffered more discrimination (of whatever kind), prejudice, violence etc. only creates division, resentment, and hinders cooperation in order to improve things. Even so, it still happens.

** Among social justice activists, this is referred to as "oppression Olympics", and strongly discouraged. Trying to one-up people about who's suffered more discrimination (of whatever kind), prejudice, violence etc. only creates division, resentment, and hinders cooperation in order to improve things. Even so, it still happens.

** Among social justice activists, this is referred to as "oppression Olympics", and strongly discouraged. Trying to one-up people about who's suffered more discrimination (of whatever kind), prejudice, violence etc. only creates divisions, resentment, and detracts from improving things by group efforts. Even so, it still happens.