History Main / NobodyCallsMeChicken

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': In the YourWorstNightmare episode, Blossom gets Buttercup to face her fear by teasing her about being afraid.

* ''Manga/ShuumatsuNoWalkureRecordOfRagnarok'' opens with the gods deciding [[HumansAreBastards humanity isn't worth their effort]] and that they'd wipe the Earth clean and start over, only for the [[Myth/NorseMythology Valkyrie Brunhild]] to propose that humanity be given a chance to fight for their survival. When they call it pointless and try to refuse, she [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu taunts them into accepting]] by loudly accusing them of "chickening out".

--> '''Yuma:''' Maybe you're just a big chicken!
--> '''Shark:''' Chicken? Do you know what happened to the last person who called me a chicken?
--> '''Yuma:''' Something, uh, bad?
--> '''Shark:''' I don't know, because it's NEVER EVER happened before!

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' has the titular character accept all challenges for a duel, no matter how unreasonable or uneven the stakes because of Ranma's strong sense of pride and unwillingness to let anyone have any excuse to call him a coward. At times this was so irrational that he even accepted things like "cuteness" challenges, where Ranma had to prove that he was the cutest competitor even when he didn't want people to think of him that way at all. Whenever Ranma gets involved in some contest that revolves around proving his [[GenderBender "femininity"]], it's invariably either due to wounded pride or because he's been forced into it.
** Played with in at least one case. Shampoo tries to egg Akane on by telling her that Ranma will date her if she wins the [[MartialArtsAndCrafts Martials Arts Takeout Delivery]] contest, trying to provoke Akane into going all YouKnowWhatYouDid on him. Several minutes later Shampoo actually tries to make the ridiculous proposal to Ranma and he ''accepts''.
** [[OldMaster Cologne]] exploits this trait in her first duel with Ranma for the sake of HustlingTheMark: when it seems the young martial artist is whipping the floor with the [[MiniatureSeniorCitizens little old lady]], the latter challenges Ranma formally and gets him to agree to marry Shampoo if she wins. Ranma, high on his near-certain victory, agrees, and Cologne immediately beats him into paste.

* ''Manga/ShuumatsuNoWalkureRecordOfRagnarok'' opens with the gods deciding [[HumansAreBastards humanity isn't worth their effort]] and that they'd wipe the Earth clean and start over, only for the [[Myth/NorseMythology Valkyrie Brunhild]] to propose that humanity be given a chance to fight for their survival. When they call it pointless and try to refuse, she [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu taunts them into accepting]] by loudly accusing them of "chickening out".

* In ''Manga/Eyeshield21'', after Leonard Apollo arrogantly cancels the Japan vs. America football match between the Deimon Devil Bats and the Nasa Aliens, Hiruma baits him into going through with it by making a viral video that, among other indignities, depicts Apollo as a chicken.
* In Chapter 2 of ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaInnocent'', Lord Dearche manages to goad a reluctant Alicia into joining the team match by calling her, well...
--> '''Dearche:''' I guess you're happy with your current number of losses to me, hey, LITTLE CHICKEN?

* During the climax of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'', [[spoiler: [[BigBad Diavolo]] is considering pulling a ScrewThisImOuttaHere after [[TheHero Giorno]] gets his hands on [[AmplifierArtifact the Requiem arrow]]. When Diavolo's estranged daughter Trish calls him out on it, Diavolo's titanic ego causes him to stay and fight instead... and promptly finds himself on the recieving end of a CurbStompBattle leading to an AndIMustScream FateWorseThanDeath at the hands of Giorno's new StoryBreakerPower.]]
* A FatalFlaw of Ann from ''Anime/PrettyRhythmRainbowLive'' is that she is stubborn and refuses to back down when she's taunted. In the first story arc, she falls for Wakana's taunting and accepts her challenge despite knowing that Wakana has more experience in performing Prism Shows.

* Homer Simpson from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.
--> '''Homer/[[Film/BonnieAndClyde Clyde]]:''' Chicken? Nobody calls me chicken without goading me into doing something stupid!

* A classic exchange between Yosemite Sam and WesternAnimation/BugsBunny in ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'':
--> '''Yosemite Sam''': Now you ornery, no-good, long eared, varmint...
--> '''WesternAnimation/BugsBunny''': Just a minute, doc. Them's fightin' words.
--> '''Yosemite Sam''': Yeah, them's fightin' words!
--> '''WesternAnimation/BugsBunny''' (draws a line across the ground): I dare you to step across this line.
--> '''Yosemite Sam''': I'm a-steppin'.
--> ''(some variations involve multiple "lines", but they always result in Sam falling of a cliff/diving board/what have you)
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': In the YourWorstNightmare episode, Blossom gets Buttercup to face her fear by teasing her about being afraid.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Apple Bloom is attempting to actually call a chicken, and Scootaloo claims "that is ''not'' how you call a chicken!" When Scootaloo refuses to show her the right way to call a chicken…

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Anti-Cosmo and Head Pixie once goaded Timmy into accepting a bet by impersonating chickens.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' does this in "Mr. Saturday Knight"
-->'''Black Knight:''' You see kids your father is nothing but a FIZZLE!
-->'''Peter:''' Nobody calls me a fizzle and gets away with it! [[SubvertedTrope Except that one guy who called me a fizzle and then ran off.]] He got away with it. But most people who call me a fizzle don't get away with it. Well, actually, that guy who got away with it was the only one who ever called me a fizzle. [[ZigZaggingTrope After today... only half the people who ever called me a fizzle will have gotten away with it!]]
** Happens again with the actual word in "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS16E7PeteyIV Petey IV]] where Vladimir Putin ridicules Peter by saying he's a chicken. Since Peter's SitcomArchnemesis is a chicken, he takes great offense to this.
* From the ''WesternAnimation/MrBogus'' episode "[[Recap/MrBogusS2E8BogusToTheRescue Bogus To The Rescue]]":
-->'''Brattus:''' ''[[[MockingSingSong in a sing-song tone]]]'' Bogus is a chicken! Bogus is a chicken!
-->'''Bogus:''' ''[[[{{Angrish}} Angry muttering]]]''
-->''[Every inanimate object in the bathroom starts laughing at Bogus.]''
-->'''Bogus:''' Oh yeah?!? Bogus not chicken! Bogus not- ''[Promptly turns into a chicken and starts clucking like one.]''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': This is how [[TheStarscream Starscream]] tricks Megatron into walking alone into a trap in the episode "Triple Takeover".
-->'''Megatron''': We'll need reinforcements.\\
'''Starscream''': ''Reinforcements?'' This our mission, Megatron, we don't need to share the glory! Unless...unless Megatron is ''afraid''!\\
'''Megatron''' (after shoving Starscream): [[ThirdPersonPerson Megatron knows no fear!]]

* In one occasion where the ''WesternAnimation/StuntDawgs'' were contract bound to perform stunts for one of Fungus' movies, he tried to use this trope to make them wear blindfolds during the performance. They said that the contract didn't require them to accept that request and they asked 60 million dollars in exchange for doing it. Fungus made a counter-proposition (half the gross profits) and they accepted it.
* The ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "Memories Of Boom Boom Mountain" has a shout-out to the ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' example above, where the Marauder leader calls Finn "chicken" (with the added bonus of the former being voiced by Creator/ThomasFWilson himself).
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' manages to [[InvertedTrope invert]] this trope. When Eddy taunts farm boy Rolf by calling him a chicken, Rolf is furious [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne at the insult to chickens]] and takes Eddy up on his challenge.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' episode "Beach Blanket Bravo", a boy gets jealous when his girlfriend latches onto Johnny, so he angrily challenges Johnny to a surfing contest. Johnny refuses, not wanting to get his hair wet, but the boy calls him chicken. In response, Johnny goes, "That does it, kid! You've earned yourself a serious butt whooping!" and accepts the challenge.
* In the ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'' cartoon, "Females is Fickle", Olive buys a goldfish, but is distraught when it jumps into the sea. She begs Popeye to go and save him, but he refuses (the fish was rude to him prior). A sobbing Olive calls him a coward, which is enough motive for Popeye to jump in after it.
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Rupert}}'' episode "Rupert and the Temple Ruins" has Rupert Bear motivate Edward Trunk into joining him in the Professor's balloon ride by calling him "chicken". Rupert gives an AsideGlance and remarks to the audience that calling Edward "chicken" always works in getting him to have fun.
* Tom's cousin in the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoon, "Timid Tabby", subverts this by saying "I can't help it if ''I'm'' chicken," when scared by Jerry.

* In ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' #1, Ben Grimm has an unreasonable objection to Reed Richards' plan to [[WhatTheHellHero steal an experimental space rocket and fly it through lethal cosmic rays]], leading to...

* In ''ComicBook/Shazam2012'', [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] and ComicBook/BlackAdam battle, but are too evenly matched. Marvel gets an idea and proposes they fight equally as mortals. He says Shazam to turn back into little Billy Batson. Black Adam calls him a fool and prepares to kill him, but Billy calls him a coward for not taking his challenge. Enraged, Black Adam says Shazam to depower himself, which is what Billy was counting on. Since Black Adam was kept alive for centuries by his powers, [[NoImmortalInertia he rapidly ages into dust]].

*** Ox has never actually met the Kingpin. Montana told him that he couldn't defeat him, that he shouldn't even joke about it... and now Ox thinks that he has to fight the Kingpin. He has been challenged!
*** Electro called Spider-Man a "Slippery little yutz". He got offended for that, and this allowed Electro to defeat him for good.
** ''ComicBook/UltimateVision'': Tarleton tried to manipulate the Vision with this. It did not work. She has no problem to say that she ''is'' afraid of Gah Lak Tus.

* In ''ComicBook/PowerGirl'' fic ''Fanfic/AForceOfFour'', Franchise/WonderWoman tries to goad Badra into unchaining her and fighting her. Unfortunately the villain doesn't take the bait.

* ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'': "What's the matter, Colonel Sandurz? ''[[{{Pun}} Chicken]]?''"

* Done in ''Film/RookieOfTheYear'' when Henry provokes a baserunner to take base so he can get him out.
* In ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'', when Alan refuses to finish playing the game, Peter tells Judy "It's OK, he's afraid." This quickly changes Alan's tune. Peter later says he learned the technique from their dad.
* ''Film/{{Hancock}}'' is about to abandon prison and heads for the door when his friend Ray calls him out ("You're being a coward!") which makes Hancock change his mind.
* In ''Film/{{Heathers}}'', Heather Chandler is challenged to drink from a cup of unknown content. First she denies, but immediately succumbs to her pride.
-->'''Heather''': "Think l'll drink it just because yοu call me chicken? ... Just give me the cup, jerk!"
* Used several times in ''Film/{{Tombstone}}''. Accusing Wyatt Earp of being a coward takes some balls, it must be said.
* In ''Film/UndercoverBrother'', Lance goes off the deep end when he gets called a sissy.

* In ''Film/HotToTrot'', Fred Chaney's step father can't believe that Fred's entering Don the horse into a race, and considers making a bet, pointing out that he can bet Don (when Fred says he has nothing to bet). He calls Fred chicken shit, then laughs off the bet, but when Fred calls his step father chicken shit, this pushes him into betting all of his horses (including his girlfriends beloved Satin Doll), just because nobody calls him chicken shit.
* In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', Dean's line in TheStinger to Eggsy "Why don't you ask that tailor friend of yours, and knock up a nice chicken costume?" prompts the latter to prepare for an IronicEcho BarBrawl.
* ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact:'' When Picard starts going full-on Captain Ahab against the Borg, everyone tells him the sensible idea is to just blow up the ''Enterprise'' with the Borg on it, including Worf, who actually calls Picard on his obsession. Picard calls [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Worf]] a coward, and he snarls that if Picard were ''any'' other man, he'd kill him where he stands.
* In ''Film/{{Starkweather}}'', Charlie decides to not to commit robbery and murder and is driving away from the gas station. His infuriated ImaginaryEnemy, the Dark Man, starts calling him a coward and chickenshit. That last one so stings Charlie that he turns the car around, drives back to the gas station and kills the attendant.
* In ''Film/ConfessionsOfAPsychoCat'', Virginia is able to goad Rocco out of hiding to come and fight her by calling him a coward and insulting his manhood.
* ''Film/CurseOfTheUndead'': At TheSheriff's urging, Buffer is willing to ignore Tim Carter's drunken goading and walk away. Right up until Tim calls him a "yellowbelly". At that he turns and a gunfight is inevitable.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Brienne uses this tactic to pretty much save Jaime Lannister's life after [[spoiler:he loses his right hand]]. Jaime's pretty much hoping to die at that point, and doing everything he can to bring it about, until she accuses him of being too cowardly to live with what's happened. It actually works, because while people have been calling him a murderer and a traitor behind his back for decades, no one has ever called him a coward before -- and he's not about to let them start now.
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'': Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort face each other in a WizardDuel in a graveyard, but the much more experienced Voldemort soon has Harry on the ropes and starts torturing him. Harry eventually manages to dodge a spell and then hide among the tombstones. Voldemort mocks Harry as a coward and unworthy of his parents, who fought Voldemort head on and died on their feet. Enraged, Harry declares to himself that he will not die a coward and comes out to face him.

* ''Literature/SirGawainAndTheGreenKnight'': The Green Knight enters King Arthur's court and challenges anyone to strike him, on the condition that he'll be allowed to return the blow in a year and a day. At first, no one is willing to take the challenge, so the Green Knight calls them all cowards. Enraged, Sir Gawain takes the challenge and decapitates him. Unfortunately, [[LosingYourHead the Green Knight picks up his head]], reminds him to meet him in a year and a day, and leaves.

Subtrope of InspirationalInsult. Compare FearlessFool. Closely related to GameOfChicken, an often foolish challenge to see which player chickens out first.

* ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012'': In the episode "Run Pig Run," Spider-Man, after being [[BalefulPolymorph transformed into a pig]] by Loki and made the target of an Asgardian boar hunt, is hiding in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier while his friends and allies. Loki proceeds to taunt him, stating that since Spidey is letting everyone else fight his battles for him, perhaps a chicken was a more appropriate form for him than a pig. Spidey is livid and immediately jumps into the fray.

'''Marty:''' [''[[OhCrapSmile chuckles nervously]]''] ...chicken.

Subtrope of InspirationalInsult. Compare FearlessFool. Closely related to GameOfChicken, an often foolish challenge to see which player chickens out first. See CluckingFunny for actual chickens.

* Ace from ''Manga/OnePiece'' falls prey to this whenever anyone badmouths Whitebeard or threatens his little brother. Indeed, his original purpose in the series is to hunt down Blackbeard after his "insult" of killing a fellow crewmember. This trait tends to go poorly for Ace though as he always gets defeated/captured/hurt whenever this trope takes effect (we even learn after the fact that Ace's battle against Blackbeard was an example of this as Ace couldn't leave Blackbeard alone even if he wanted to due to both the threat he posed to Luffy and the insult to Whitebeard that would occur if he had abandoned the battle. He loses this battle horribly and gets captured as a result). Finally, in what is the most apt example of this trope, Ace, [[spoiler:after having just been freed from execution in Marineford]], gets goaded into a fight with Admiral Akainu via the latter purposely insulting Whitebeard. Then, to make matters worse, Akainu invokes Ace's second berserk button by suddenly attacking his little brother, resulting in Ace taking the punch for Luffy. "Going badly" understates the result of this [[spoiler:as Ace dies from this even though he's in a series well known for its [[DeathIsCheap fluid mortality]].]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Supposedly, in the Wild West calling someone a coward was one of four fighting words that you would only invoke if you were prepared to fight for your life. The other three were thief, cheater (especially when playing cards in a saloon), and liar.
* TruthInTelevision: In Tennessee and the DC area, you can get arrested for calling someone a coward if they refuse to fight you. Interestingly, this is where the phrase, "Them's fightin' words!" comes from, "fighting words" originating as a legal term referring to words spoken to deliberately incite a fight, which is illegal.
* For anyone who gets pressured into doing [[DrugsAreBad drugs]], if they are called a [[FunWithAcronyms "C-H-I-C-K-E-N"]] for refusing, they can tell them (or not) that it stands for "'''C'''ool, '''H'''onest, '''I'''ntelligent, '''C'''lear headed, '''K'''een, '''E'''nergetic, and '''N'''ot interested in drugs".
** Alternatively? Do your own research on the drug (or the subject of the dare), and ask yourself if you would want to do this, for yourself, if the person who dared you to do this never existed. Remember, no amount of coolness will ever offset the patheticness of those who [[BlindObedience enslave themselves to bullies who simply say "I [s]order[/s]dare you to ruin your life]], [[{{Dehumanization}} Chicken.]]
* This was very nearly the undoing of Second World War flying ace and [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools rare positive example]] of InspirationallyDisabled Douglas Bader. Someone dared him to perform [[DoABarrelRoll an aileron roll]] at low level over the airfield, which he wasn't especially keen to do for the very good reason that it's bloody dangerous... but then they implied that this was down to cowardice on Bader's part. So he tried it, and it went horribly wrong and cost him both his legs.
[[/folder]]

Of course, this doesn't always end well. Often, insulting a character's courage can end up pushing the BerserkButton, and the opposition will promptly get taken to the cleaners on whatever the bet was. Sometimes this is done deliberately thanks to a tricky [[{{Mentors}} mentor]] to get the hero to do something he is unlikely to do for any other reason.

* In ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'', after Leonard Apollo arrogantly cancels the Japan vs. America football match between the Deimon Devil Bats and the Nasa Aliens, Hiruma baits him into going through with it by making a viral video that, among other indignities, depicts Apollo as a chicken.

** In ''Comicbook/KryptonNoMore'' story arc, Franchise/{{Superman}} refuses to undertake a space mission and his cousin Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} slaps him and calls him a coward. Several hours later, Clark is still brooding about it.

** In ''Comicbook/KryptoniteNevermore'', third-rate supervillain Nyxly challenged Superman to a death duel. Superman was weakened but he appeared because "Whatever else Superman may be... He's no coward!"

* In the ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' story arc ''Comicbook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'', ComicBook/{{Lobo}} taunts Supergirl, stating that she's afraid to cut loose. In reaction, Kara goes ballistic and delivers a brutal NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to him.

* ''FanFic/BackToTheFuturePrequel'': Marty, even though he's scared of "The Doctor", spray-paints his house to avoid being called scared.

* ''FanFic/TheIkaris'' uses this to put the plot into motion. The gang finds Misato's beer stash and Asuka dares Shinji to drink. Then he dares her to try and out-drink him. By the end of it, the two are so blasted, they got married and forgot about it the next morning.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': In the YourWorstNightmare episode, Blossom gets Buttercup to face her fear by teasing her about being afraid.

* ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'': In the episode "Run Pig Run," Spider-Man, after being [[BalefulPolymorph transformed into a pig]] by Loki and made the target of an Asgardian boar hunt, is hiding in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier while his friends and allies. Loki proceeds to taunt him, stating that since Spidey is letting everyone else fight his battles for him, perhaps a chicken was a more appropriate form for him than a pig. Spidey is livid and immediately jumps into the fray.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Exiern}}'' any insult to Tiffany's pride requires retribution...whether it is a sword fight or holding a dressmaker at sword point until she makes Tiffany prettier and more feminine than the AlphaBitch. For the record, Tiffany [[GenderBender used to be a male barbarian]].

* In ''Webcomic/HereThereBeMonsters'' Lucas managed to goad Victor into giving away all but one of his silver bullets before leaving to hunt a werewolf, bragging "I only need one silver bullet to do the job, unlike you wasteful slobs." That worked out for Victor about as well as can be expected.

--> '''Granny Smith''': What did you just call me, sonny?

--> '''Cheese Sandwich''': Nopony calls me boneless! ''(turns to his rubber chicken)'' Right, Boneless?

* During the climax of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'', [[spoiler: [[BigBad Diavolo]] is considering pulling a ScrewThisImOuttaHere after [[TheHero Giorno]] gets his hands on [[AmplifierArtifact the Requiem arrow]]. When Diavolo's estranged daughter Trish calls him out on it, Diavolo's titanic ego causes him to stay and fight instead... and promptly finds himself on the recieving end of a CurbStompBattle leading to an AndIMustScream FateWorseThanDeath at the hands of Giorno's new StoryBreakerPower.]]

* In the ''Series/{{The Big Bang Theory}}'' episode "The Jiminy Conjecture", we have this gem:

* A staple of most RPG mechanics is the Taunt skill, which inflicts Berserk. This generally increases the target's attack power at the cost of making them too blinded by rage to think about anything (which sometimes includes maintaining their passive defenses) but killing the user - even if the user's ally is slowly charging an attack right behind them.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': This is how [[TheStarscream Starscream]] tricks Megatron is walking alone into a trap in the episode "Triple Takeover".

* '''''[[WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever "Shredder!]]''''' [[WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever Do you fear us?!"]]
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' did this in "Mr. Saturday Knight"

[[folder:Videogames]]

%%* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Calling Snape a coward is an... ill-advised move, to put it lightly.