"Mustn't lose my cool mustn't lose my— Hey! Calm down, sis!"
The hero is getting really agitated with a certain individual. That individual has been really getting to them throughout the whole episode. Eventually, the hero has had enough and...
What's this? The hero's sidekick (who tends to be more composed) has grown fed up and is taking action before the hero does.
Often, when this happens, the character who was ready to snap doesn't question it or even try to stop the one who does. Rather they just join in. However, that isn't always the case.
Sometimes, they may be in shock that somebody else beat them to the punch and remain that way for the whole bit.
It's also possible that the character expected to snap doesn't even come close, and they find themselves having to hold back their friend upon witnessing them fail to hold back the anger they themselves have been.
Depending on how this plays out, this can also result in Do I Really Sound Like That? and/or a Jerkass or Heel Realization. The former for if the character simply takes note of how friend's freak out resembles or takes cues from their own, and the latter for if they realize that by voicing their own agitation, they had unwittingly been ignoring their friend's, if not accidentally adding to it.
Usually a form of Bait-and-Switch. To add a twist, it's the character less likely to get angry and may convey a Tranquil Fury. See also O.O.C. Is Serious Business for when instances of this get lampshaded.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: In the episode introducing the demon sisters Scanty and Kneesocks, the two do everything they can to get on the anarchy sisters' nerves. While Stocking remains calm for the most part, Panty gets more and more agitated. As the Demon sisters call them fat, Panty gets ready to flip a table only for Stocking to beat her to it, having taken serious offense to being called fat.
- The Quintessential Quintuplets: The fight that kicked off the Seven Goodbyes arc started with Nino once again trying to refuse Futaro's tutoring and Miku trying to support Futaro. The fight starts to escalate when Nino tears up one of Futaro's hand-written practice tests. It looks like Miku is going to lose her temper after this until Itsuki steps in and slaps Nino herself. This is especially surprising, as Itsuki up until this point has largely sided with Nino and gotten along poorly with Futaro, serving as a sign that Itsuki is warming up to the latter.
- Spy X Family: The Forgers go to an interview at Eden College for their daughter Anya's admission. After some jealous heckling from Housemaster Swan towards the nice-seeming family, he eventually crosses the line by asking Anya (a mind-reading orphan) if she prefers her new stepmother over her birth mother, causing a genuine emotional breakdown in the 5-year old. Yor (actually a trained assassin) is nearly ready to pounce, but after Swan continues to mock both Anya and "the replacement mother", it's Loid (the superspy who orchestrated this entire interview) who takes the first swing at Swan, only stopping at the last moment to instead destroy a table and claim he was merely squishing a mosquito. He then ends the interview for Anya's sake, despite that getting Anya into Eden College is part of his current mission.
Films — Animated
- Trolls World Tour: After getting hypnotized and almost captured by Chaz on the river trip, Branch watches Biggie as he calls out Poppy for the latter breaking their pinky promise that she'll protect him no matter what, and subsequently leaves the boat they're on. Initially, Branch doesn't think much about that moment, but it inspires him to later give Poppy a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for not listening to what others tell her after her arguments with Quincy and Essence at Vibe City; the two end up separating briefly over this.
Films — Live-Action
- Batman Begins: Bruce Wayne, fourteen years after his parents' murder, attends the court hearing of the culprit Joe Chill. Chill is able to get paroled and freed when he testifies against crime lord Carmine Falcone. Bruce, angered by this turn of events, has already hidden a gun inside of his coat sleeve and intends to kill Chill outside of the court hall in revenge. Fortunately, what saves Bruce from enacting his plan and ruining his own life is the sudden appearance of one of Falcone's henchpeople, as she emerges from the crowd of reporters covering the case, and fatally shoots Chill.
Henchwoman: JOE! HEY JOE! Falcone says "Hi"!
(she shoots Joe Chill through the chest) - West Side Story (2021): When Tony arrives at the rumble and attempts to make peace with Bernardo, Bernardo refuses to hear him out and tries to goad him into a fight by repeatedly sucker-punching him. When his last punch seemingly knocks Tony out, Riff, furious that Bernardo has treated Tony like a punching bag despite him clearly not wanting to fight, steps in to fight Bernardo himself... only to be pushed out of the way by an enraged Tony who proceeds to deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
Live-Action TV
- In the final season of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon and Amy's chances at sharing a Nobel Prize are put in jeopardy by a duo of frauds. Sheldon is told that he needs to hold in his anger during an event hosted by the university, and he barely does so. However, when the frauds claim to be suffering from imposter syndrome, Amy is the one who loses her cool, angrily telling them that they cannot be having imposter syndrome because it implies that they are the ones who actually achieved something. Even Sheldon is taken aback by this development and spends the next episode holding it above everyone's heads.
- iCarly: In "iSpace Out", Carly, Sam, and Freddie are put in a space simulator for the chance to do their show from outer space, and their final test involves them having to stay in a bunker for 24 hours. During the experiment, Carly constantly has to remind her friends not to succumb to Space Madness and opening the door lest they fail the challenge, but by the episode's end, it's she who ends up having a claustrophobic meltdown.
- Star Trek: The Original Series: In The Trouble With Tribbles, Chekov and Scotty are in the space station's bar when some Klingons begin trying to provoke them by insulting Captain Kirk. Chekov keeps reacting to the taunts only for Scotty to hold him back. Then one of the Klingons does something really stupid and insults the Enterprise, at which point Scotty slugs him and starts a Bar Brawl.
Video Games
- Evil West: Throughout most of the game, Secretary of War James Harrow has been a thorn in the side of main character Jesse Rentier, insulting him and his father, sending Jesse on a dangerous mission to the Kingston oil fields to collect some documents that were supposedly to help turn the tides in the war against the Sanguisuges, but were actually just supposed to put even more money in Harrow's pockets, and openly belittling his black, Chinese and female allies. The only time Jesse comes close to physically attacking Harrow (shortly after he finds out about Harrow's true plans for the documents), the Secretary of War threatens to use his clout with President Grover Cleveland to have Jesse imprisoned for threatening him "unprovoked". Later on in the game, when Harrow finds out that the heroes lied to him about Jesse's father William dying after a vampire attack at the start of the game, and that William is being kept alive in the Calico Institute cell so that they can use his Psychic Link with Felicity to work out her Evil Plan. Harrow decides to pull rank and order Dr. Emilia Blackwell to imprison Jesse and his friend Edgar Gravenor for "treasonously" keeping William alive, and then kill William once they've finished interrogating him. Dr. Blackwell instead orders Harrow to leave her cell and gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, after which Jesse scares him into clearing off with a "Shut Up!" Gunshot. By the end of the game, Dr. Blackwell takes initiative in shutting Harrow up again by openly punching him in front of President Cleveland when he tries taking credit for the Institute's triumph over Felicity, (and insulting her again) and tells Cleveland about his corruption and abuse of power, prompting the President to have him dismissed and arrested.
Web Animation
- Starter Squad: When Charmander and Squirtle go to meet a Weepinbell to get a poison-curing berry for Bulbasaur, Charmander is ready right away to force the berry out of him only for Squirtle to remind him to be empathetic, resulting in the two of them having to do multiple meaningless challenges that Weepinbell fails them at. When it looks like Charmander manages to complete a challenge only for Weepinbell to fail him, it appears that Charmander has had enough. Lucky for him, so has Squirtle, who snaps and attacks Weepinbell first.
Western Animation
- House of Mouse: In the short "Donald's Dinner Date", Daisy gives Donald the ultimatum that it'll be over between them if he loses his temper on their next date, which becomes difficult for him when Goofy turns out to be their waiter. But while the Goof's antics get on Donald's nerves at first, it's ultimately Daisy who blows her top by the end, while Donald ends up having a pleasant meal... at least until he gets the bill.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
- In "Slave the Day", Big Billy of the Gangreen Gang tries to help the girls as thanks for saving his life, only to fail spectacularly at being a hero. Bubbles and Buttercup are ready to give him a thrashing, but Blossom tells them to give Billy the chance to prove himself. However, when one of Billy's attempts at helping leads to him leveling a good chunk of Townsville, Blossom is absolutely livid and gives him one hell of a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- In "Roughing It Up" the Professor takes the girls camping, but they find Fuzzy has taken some nephews of his for the same reason. The girls are ready to fight Fuzzy whenever he and his nephews bother them but are able to quell themselves with the Professor reminding them to have a good time. When Fuzzy cuts down a tree that the Professor grew when he was a child though, Professor loses it and attacks Fuzzy while the girls start getting along with Fuzzy's nephews upon seeing this moment.
- One episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks has Mariner and Boimler assigned to a Starfleet recruitment booth at a job fair; Mariner is threatened with reassignment to Starbase 80 if she leaves the booth and/or doesn't sign anyone up. All day, people from the other booths make fun of them and try to poke holes in Starfleet's boat, including an Adventurer Archaeologist in the booth next door. Mariner is kept in check by Boimler...but the situation is flipped when a couple of Jerkass outpost scientists approach the booth and act like they're interested before continuing to make fun of Starfleet; one of the scientists takes Boimler's rank pips, tosses it aside and steps on it. Boimler proceeds to go completely off his shit, telling off the other assholes who'd been harassing them all day, wrecking their booths and swearing up a storm, much to Mariner's shock. That said, Boimler's confidence as he rages ends up getting a lot of people to sign up for Starfleet, leaving Ransom confused at Mariner's following orders and Boimler's rage rampage.
