Times where characters are left questioning Dude, Where's My Respect? in Literature.
- J. R. R. Tolkien's Beren and Lúthien: When Lúthien introduces her fiancé Beren to her overprotective parents, Thingol does not care for Beren being the former Lord of Dorthonion who waged a one-man war against the Dark Lord for years, despite losing his house, his family and almost his sanity. And he does not care either for Beren being obviously not a bad person, since he was able to walk through his kingdom's magic barrier. He only cares about his beloved daughter being wooed by one baseborn, scruffy mortal who creeps around as Morgoth's spies and thralls. When Beren protests he does not deserve such disrespect, Thingol still doesn't care, and sends him on an impossible quest to get rid of him.
- Caging Skies: When Johannes, a little German schoolboy is told by Adolf Hitler that he is the future, he goes home and tells his mother. His mother, who is part of The Resistance, sarcastically mocks him by calling him my little Zunkuftie (Zunkuft is German for future)
- Luther in The Candidates (based on a true country) feels, with some justification, that he damn well deserves some respect as a decorated war veteran and community leader. Sadly, he's surrounded by outrageous racists who assume that he's a thug with Sticky Fingers.
- In The Clone Empire by Steven L. Kent, the main character had previously rescued an entire planet from a race of hostile aliens who had occupied it and were on the verge of rendering it uninhabitable, thus killing everyone. The locals are not very grateful. "Yeah, good job saving us all from certain death, then committing your engineers to rebuilding our cities, restoring power, and giving us food and water. Now would you kindly get the hell off our planet, you sick, violent brute? Oh, and we're taking your engineers too. Toodles!"
- Benjamin Weaver from A Conspiracy of Paper also suffers from this as well. He helps his clients retrieve what has been stolen from them and all he gets in return is racist remarks and scorn just because he's a Jew.
- Terry Pratchett's Discworld:
- The opening dedication of Guards! Guards! is to the policemen, firemen, and other stock characters in any story whose role it is to respond to calls for help, rush to the rescue, and usually get killed just to illustrate how serious the threat is. As Pratchett notes, nobody ever thanks them for it.
- The subsequent novels featuring the Ankh-Moorpork City Watch likewise emphasize just how thankless their job is, being the nighttime police force in a city where most crime (including theft and murder) is rigidly controlled by guilds and thus licensed, leaving the Watch with very little in the way of official duties to perform. They also frequently get spit on by the Day Watch and the Palace Guards, who do just as little but earn much more prestige.
- The Dresden Files: The White Council towards Dresden. He feels like no matter how far backwards he bends, they still think he's going to go warlock on them without a second's notice or is a maverick at best. Honestly though, wouldn't you be a little paranoid about a guy who can control an undead T. rex? In later books this is subverted and it just took Harry a very long time to realize it. He becomes a Warden during Dead Beat, and during Turn Coat Harry realizes that the Council has a great deal of respect for his abilities: They take his apparent threat of a fight entirely seriously and show up in force, and the Wardens present are worried about having to fight him. Harry knows he tends to end up just barely surviving and is usually beaten to a pulp for his trouble, but the listed accomplishments still speak for themselves, especially for those who weren't there personally. Many younger members of the council seem idolize Harry a great deal both for his accomplishments and his presence as a strong anti-establishment voice in the organization, and even hardliners like the Merlin and Morgan have a good deal of respect for Dresden's abilities despite their ideological differences.
- An opening scene of The Fold shows a science project team facing down its oversight committee. The committee has provided funding for the last four years and is considering whether to do so again. Without this funding the project would not exist, and if funding is withheld then the project believes its work will cease. Nonetheless, the project leaders stonewall requests for a finished product, documentation, or any timeline to either.
- The Great Gatsby: In a subversion, the narrator eventually realizes that for all his faults, Gatsby is still better than the Upperclass Twits who dismiss him as nouveau riche.
- The title character of Harry Potter is turned on by Hogwarts students and the wizarding world in general at the drop of a hat, despite Harry having saved both several times.
- Goblet: Harry gets attention as the fourth Triwizard champion, but people are suspicious of him and refuse to believe he didn't do it. Including his best friend. At the end of the book, he tells Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge and several others that Voldemort is back, but Fudge doesn't believe him.
- Order: Fudge spends a lot of effort trying to smear Harry as a dangerous, paranoid, attention-seeking lunatic, and people still look sidelong at Harry because he showed up with Cedric's body. In the climax of the story, Voldemort has a big, public battle with Dumbledore in the Ministry of Magic.
- Part of the problem is that most the events of the four previous books aren't very well known. It's stated that everyone knows about what happened in Philosopher's Stone, but the other three, not so much. The Ministry refuses to believe what happened in Goblet of Fire. Harry clearing Sirius' name in Prisoner of Azkaban is a secret, in part because of the Ministry of Magic again. And while there's no mention of Chamber of Secrets being kept under wraps, it still doesn't appear to be general knowledge, as a group of students (including friends of Harry's) are surprised when they hear about Harry summoning Godric Gryffindor's sword.
- Prince: The Ministry is forced to publicly admit it was wrong, and Fudge is run out of office in disgrace, and the new Minister For Magic comes to Harry, metaphorical hat in hand, to beg him to support the Ministry. Twice. Harry refuses.
- Janine/Giannine from Heir Apparent is a victim of this: in order to advance in the virtual world game, she has to go on quests and help everybody to win their approval; and even though she eventually succeeds in winning the guards' and her half-brothers' respect, she just can't seem to please the queen.
- Monstrous Regiment has an especially cruel one: The Ragtag Band of Misfits has managed to survive in the wilderness for days, evaded capture by the enemy multiple times, break into the Keep and free the imprisoned Borogravian soldiers, thus turning the tide of the war... but none of it stops them from being arrested and thrown in the same dungeon they freed the soldiers from, just because they were all women and the High Command can't have anyone know they were rescued by mere women.
- More Than This: Tomasz gets annoyed that Regine and Seth treats him as the Funny Foreigner/Tag Along Kid even after he saves them from certain death multiple times.
- In the final book of Protector of the Small, Keladry manages to turn the tide of the Scanran war by killing Blayce the Gallan, ending the threat from his killing devices. Though the war continues into the next book series, this act destroys the Scanran king's biggest advantage over the Tortallan military and sets the seal for his failure. Rather than being lauded as a hero, her actions are officially ascribed to "a powerful new mage" by Tortall's intelligence service and she is given a new refugee camp to manage. Not that she minds, given that the people she respects know the truth and she has no interest in that kind of glory.
- Downplayed and justified in David Drake's RCN series. Due to his penchant for pulling off decisive victories with few resources, Daniel Leary is rapidly promoted to captain from his starting rank of lieutenant and earns an array of military decorations that would make many long-serving admirals jealous (including the Cinnabar Star with Wreath, the equivalent of earning the Medal of Honor twice). However, he also comes in for a fair amount of guff from officers jealous of same: They typically think he's either a Glory Hound or well-connected. (They're about half-right on the latter: he's the son of a former Cinnabar head of state and the original head of the Navy Board in the series, Admiral Anston, took a liking to him, but Anston was medically retired in The Way to Glory and Daniel and his father haven't been on speaking terms for over a decade.)
- Reaper (2016): Turns out to be the Reaper's motive. He's one of the original Game Techs, and once Game opened to the public he expected to be a celebrity. But instead, it was decided to make the Founder Players celebrities and for the Game Techs to be anonymous behind-the-scenes figures, plus a load more were brought in to cater to the increased number of players, making him feel doubly passed over. He targeted Avalon because it was the first Game world made without him, and planned to bomb the Celestius server to get revenge on the Founder Players.
- RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant: In The Man Who Stared at the Sun, the sun often feels like it's unappreciated for the hard work it does in providing warmth and light. Most people only ever complain at the Sun when it's too hot or it can't be seen through the clouds.
- In Shaman Blues, Witkacy notes that despite being one of very few people with abilities that let them deal with often-malicious ghosts, the Council that hires him seems to think that he doesn't need to be paid and the satisfaction from being a hero is enough for him to live on.
- Played straight and then later subverted: Sherlock Holmes is treated like this by the official police in the early part of his career. Gradually, however, his track record wins them over and they begin according him respect. In one story ("The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"), Inspector Lestrade even tells him that they are extremely proud of him at Scotland Yard, and every officer in the building would be glad to shake his hand if he came to visit.
- Star Wars Legends:
- Luke and Leia get accused many times of trying to take over the government they helped create. No matter how many times they (or their families... or the Jedi in general...) save the galaxy, whoever's in charge blames everything on them or the Jedi. Leia has actually been accused of trying to seize power just like Darth Vader. This is the same woman that originally didn't want to have children out of fear that they'd become Sith.
- The Jedi entirely, who throughout the ages have saved the galaxy countless times, maintain peace, and take down evil empires by the dozens. Even still everyone in the galaxy are quick to blame and abandon them when the next empire comes up, while they are sitting on their hands, and Jedi are out there stopping the new threat.
- Both of the above happen so often that it honestly may as well fall under the entire galaxy suffering from Aesop Amnesia.
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- Out of literally hundreds of named characters, here is a list of those who respect Tyrion Lannister: Jon Snow, Bronn, Jaime Lannister, Garlan Tyrell, Varys, Maester Aemon... and that's it. This is a very intelligent man who is directly responsible for protecting King's Landing from Stannis, schemed his way out of captivity (multiple times), survived two battles despite being a dwarf, and is basically one of the most intelligent, decent people in the whole damn series.
- Downplayed in the case of Davos Seaworth. During Robert's Rebellion, he slipped past the siege of Storm's End and relieved Stannis Baratheon and his bannermen. Stannis rewarded Davos with a lordship, but still punished him for his previous life as a smuggler by chopping off the last joint of all the fingers on his left hand. Davos finds this rather reasonable, and has served Stannis loyally ever since, keeping the his fingerbones in a bag around his neck. Also, he was mocked for the blockade running by people who said he saved people with onions. Rather than take offense, he put an onion on his coat of arms.
- Stannis perceives Robert giving him Dragonstone as a slight, but Word of God is that it was meant as an honor (particularly since Dragonstone was seen as the heir's lands), and Robert could have been well in his right to keep that and the Stormlands for his children. Although there are countless other examples where Stannis is genuinely screwed over and disrespected — namely by Renly betraying him and trying to steal his rightful crown, instead of doing his duty and supporting his elder brother, as Stannis did for Robert. And this after Stannis protected Renly as a boy through the siege at Storm's End... Renly promptly took sides with the same Tyrells who were starving them to death.
- Jaime Lannister saved King's Landing from being burnt to the ground by Aerys Targeryen, but everyone felt that breaking his oath to protect Aerys was more important (not that he helped it, since he never told anyone about the "being burnt to the ground" thing). Ever since, he's been dubbed the Kingslayer and is treated with mildly concealed contempt by everyone.
- In the Star Trek: Voyager Relaunch, Chakotay gives a truly epic one to Counsellor Cambridge, accusing Starfleet Command of almost criminal negligence in its treatment of the Voyager crew. Despite everything they did and their loyal service throughout their time in the alpha quadrant, Starfleet still doesn't trust them (or so Chakotay suggests) simply because they didn't participate in the Dominion War. Instead, they're given ridiculously easy missions like escort duty, and viewed with suspicion by the admiralty. Chakotay bitterly insists that they've never been appreciated and that he's tired of people who are only alive because he bled for them judging and harassing him.
- In The Supervillainy Saga, specifically Cindy's Seven, this trope is the entire motivation for the novel. After a villain brushes her off during a jewelry story heist, Cindy becomes obsessed with the idea she doesn't have nearly as much street cred as Merciless: The Supervillain without Mercy AKA her lover as well as the father of her children. This despite the fact she was a key player in all of his major crimes. Cindy thus decides to rob the Dragon King AKA the richest person on Earth (as well as a literal dragon).
- In The Underland Chronicles, the Underlanders will spend centuries meditating on the possible meanings of Sandwich's prophecies, but they won't give a second thought to whatever Nerissa says. Sure, Nerissa is not all there but her visions are accurate.note Gregor at least gives her the respect she deserves.
- James McCarthy, the narrator-protagonist of The War Against the Chtorr, is the front-line expert regarding the invading alien ecology, and grumbles loudly about how all that he gets in return is abuse and another round of ever-more-deadly assignments. It isn't until the fourth book in the series that he's finally told how respected and wide-read his reports actually are, because he's also an insufferable hair-triggered asshole.
- In the Warrior Cats book The First Battle, Clear Sky has this reaction to a cat considering leaving his group — he insists that she should be grateful to him for finding their camp, setting their borders, and leading them. She rightfully points out that they all made the journey together and that his "The Needs of the Many" reasoning is just an excuse to be greedy and seize territory and power.
- This is justified in Worm in the case of Weaver, a villain-turned-hero who finds herself relegated to menial tasks and forced to keep from using her powers at their full effectiveness. When she brings this complaint to her superiors, it's pointed out to her that her Heel–Face Turn involved murdering two people in a psychotic breakdown, and they need to know that she can be trusted to work for them.
