Times where someone asks "Did You Think I Can't Feel?" in Live-Action TV series.
- Arrow: A surprising one to Laurel Lance from Oliver Queen (who can be a bit of a stoic jerkass himself). He's tired of taking the blame for everything bad that has ever happened to the Lance family.Oliver: I have stood by you through everything. The DUI, losing your job. Laurel, I was concerned about your well-being when you were trying to get my mother the death penalty.
Laurel: (sarcastically) Yeah, and you've been a real stand-up kind of guy.
Oliver: Laurel, do you think you're the only one who is having a hard time? Do you think you're the only one with family issues? You have no idea... NO IDEA... what is going on with my family right now. But I am still standing here. And you are still blaming everyone but yourself.
Laurel: Are you done?
Oliver: (visibly shocked) Yeah... Yeah, I'm done. I'm done taking the blame and I'm done caring. So go have a drink. Get wasted. Go to Verdant. I'll pay for it. I have loved you for half of my life. But I am done running after you. - Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Xander is also on the receiving end of this when, having failed to successfully ask Buffy to a high school dance, he tactlessly asks Willow (who has been crushing on him all season) to go with him as his backup.
- In "Forever," Dawn openly accuses Buffy of not even caring that their mother is dead, since Buffy hasn't even cried and has been running around treating the whole thing like "just another chore." Buffy breaks down at that, revealing to Dawn that until this point, she's been bottling up her emotions because it's the only way she can deal with the grief.
- In Coupling, Jane gives a speech to Steve about this.
- In Doctor Who, companion Martha spent an entire season pining after the Doctor- probably due to the fact that on top of being good looking and intelligent, he kissed her the first time they met. (To save the Earth, but still). He spent most of the time dismissing her, and constantly comparing her to his last companion and love interest Rose. Eventually she took a level in badass and left the TARDIS, telling him up straight that she wasn't going to stick around feeling second best.
- In Classic Who, Zoe Heriot looked noticeably sad when, during her introductory story "The Wheel in Space", she was twice accused of being "All brain and no heart."
- In the episode "Thin Ice," new companion Bill is at first furious when a child dies and the Doctor doesn't seem to be upset after his initial reaction. He tells her that it's not that he doesn't care—he cares a lot, and shows himself to be a Friend to All Children throughout the rest of the episode (the audience already knows this). However, he's got a mystery to solve and a killer to stop, and isn't going to sit around stamping his feet, because he "has never had the luxury of outrage."
- Steve Urkel of Family Matters finally stood up to Laura after she refused to show any consideration for Steve giving her a ride to an out-of-town function, caused his car to break down by putting it into high gear and insisting she take the bed alone while Steve sleeps in the bathtub in their motel, culminating in the line "I'm a person, I have feelings and I demand to be treated with respect and dignity." All while wearing Laura's spare nightshirt. Woah, Mama!
- When he does reach that part about "I'm a human being! I have feelings too!", you can barely make out what he says after that because of the audience applauding and cheering so hard!
- Game of Thrones: Shae gets really pissed when, after all they have been through, Tyrion assumes she's still only with him for the money.Tyrion: I'm a monster, as well as a dwarf! You should charge me double.
Shae: You think I'm here for money?
Tyrion: That was the arrangement we made. I pay you and you lie to me.
Shae: Oh, I'm a poor little rich man and nobody loves me, so I make jokes all the time and pay them to laugh. Fuck your money. - Anne Lister, the heroine of Gentleman Jack, is normally unflappable and impossibly confident, but when her lover Ann Walker ends their relationship and claims it's sinful and wrong, she's on the edge of tears if she asks if Miss Walker ever considered that she might have feelings, too.
- Spoofed in The Goodies episode "For Those in Peril on the Sea" when the Villain of the Week gives a speech regarding trope, reducing the Goodies to tears. Turns out he just wants to get some enjoyment out of life by doing mean and nasty things; is that too much to ask?
- Grey's Anatomy: Izzy gives one to Alex after he keeps taking out his recent heartbreak and frustrations on her, including stealing one of Izzy's patients:Izzy:Using me as a doormat is one thing. Screwing with my career is another! I have been wiping your snot and covering your ass for weeks now. And all you've done is abuse me. And for a little while you get to do that because you're heartbroken and pathetic, and I'm a good friend. But it ends now. Get your own surgery and wipe your own snot.
- A variation in How I Met Your Mother occurs when Barney finally realizes how much his behavior post-breakup is hurting Robin, although its more a "Do you think she can't feel" as its the rest of the gang who eventually break it to him (after each realizing themselves how much they weren't helping the situation).
- An episode of M*A*S*H sees Margaret clashing with her nursing staff for not including her in their social activities, not even to invite her for "a lousy cup of coffee". They tell her they didn't think she would accept, to which she bitterly retorts "Well, you were wrong."
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024): During a particularly bad fight with Jane, John lays into her, saying she doesn't understand feelings or what it's like to care about somebody and that she just mimics the behavior of other people. She stays quiet before finally asking who his emergency contact is. He admits that his emergency contact is his mother and Jane tells him he's hers.
- Once Upon a Time: The closed-off Emma eventually opens up to Graham. Also, at one point in the Enchanted Forest, Rumplestiltskin was talking to Charming about the power of True Love and Charming dismissively asked what he could possibly know about True Love. Rumplestiltskin irritably replies, "Not so much as you, perhaps, but not so little as you might think." (Referring to his role as the Beast in Belle's story.)
- Emily Thorne has one on Revenge where she goes off on Aiden for mentioning her lack of empathy.Aiden: I'm sorry if I'm not as cold and calculated as you. I can't just turn my feelings on and off like the flick of a switch.
Emily: Is that what you think? That I don't feel? That I don't miss my father every single day? That I don't mourn the life that I could've had? But that's why people like you and me fight. Because it gives us something to live for when everything else has been taken away. I thought you understood that. I thought we shared that. - In Robin Hood after Guy of Gisborne discovers that Marian is in fact the Night Watchman (a vigilante who steals for the poor) he manages to bring the entire situation back to his unrequited feelings for her. Marian? She's more concerned about not getting hanged for treason.
- Throughout Sherlock, Molly Hooper has always had a very obvious crush on Sherlock, and always takes his abuse/taunts. In 'A Scandal of Belgravia,' Sherlock goes too far during Christmas at 221B, deducing that the reason she's dressed up is to try and seduce a man, and that she's obviously bought a present for 'someone special.' When he realizes that the man in question is him, he's stunned into silence and shame at his own cruelty. And finally, Molly calls him out on his behavior.(tearfully) You always say such horrible things....
- And Sherlock apologizes (something he has NEVER done to anyone, at least in-show), gently kisses Molly's cheek and says "Merry Christmas, Molly Hooper."
- Has occurred numerous times in Star Trek. Vulcan philosophy is the Control of Emotion, not the lack of emotion. Most notably in the book Spock's World, where this is said almost word for word by Sarek to his wife.
- In Torchwood, Ianto's job description is general dogsbody: he does everything nobody else wants to do, from feeding weevils to ordering pizza, and tends to blend into the scenery unless someone (usually Jack) wants something. They're so dismissive of him and his feelings that they don't even notice that he's hiding a half converted Cyberwoman in the basement which is pretty damned oblivious. When this is finally discovered, Jack blows a fuse and starts violently question him on it, Ianto bites back: "when was the last time any of you asked me anything about my life?" It's possible that realizing how dismissive they've been of him is part of the reason as to why he wasn't fired from Torchwood (at least), after this incident in the first place.
