Most gifts are thoughtfully given, and usually appreciated. But sometimes, the giver spitefully hands over something which they know full well is of little or no value to the receiver; often as a Kick the Dog moment. A bully or villain might hand back something they had previously stolen or damaged, which is now no use to the victim, or they might offer the victim something they know they don't like. Occasionally this is done with good intentions, perhaps with a lack of awareness for the feelings of others, and usually with disastrous results. The receiver is often seen sadly looking at their "gift".
Related tropes are Crush the Keepsake; the villain might then throw the pieces of a destroyed trinket in the victim's direction. See also My New Gift Is Lame, Crappy Homemade Gift, Unwanted Gift Plot, Take Back Your Gift, and Returning the Wedding Ring, in which the return of an unwanted gift can be similarly nasty, even when done politely. This trope can overlap with Finger in the Mail; limbs are no use to the victim once they have been severed.
This can be played for laughs in game shows, where losers receive a worthless "booby prize".
Truth in Television. It has been known for mobile phone thieves to throw a stolen phone back at their victim, possibly smashing it, when they discover it is not valuable enough.
Examples
Anime- Digimon Adventure: In a metaphorical sense, Apocalymon. He states that he was created from the discarded data of digimon who couldn't digivolve and simply vanished. He even states this trope in his own words.
Apocalymon: Why do you get to laugh while I'm forced to cry? Why do you get to taste the best life has to offer while all I do is choke on its leftovers!? Answer me this: why do you all get the pizza, while I get the crust?!
Mimi: Oooh, I can't take all the metaphors!
Fan Works
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: Duels supervised by Azzathra the Mighty Tyrant typically result in the winner being given some part of the loser's strength as a reward. However, since Mercury's duel against the Horned Reaper was supposed to be an elaborate execution for her, and since she used trickery to win, Azzathra spitefully grants her a portion of the Reaper's knowledge instead. Specifically, the spell he used to create/recreate his loincloth and scythe. Since a scythe is a totally unsuitable weapon for someone small and fast like Mercury, and the spell consumes all the person's existing clothing and equipment in the process (which would leave her topless and bereft of her computer), it's clearly intended as an insult rather than a prize. She finds a way to make use of it anyway, though, teaching it to her goblins as a replacement for their own substandard equipment, then making use of their scythe skills by turning them into the pilots of her fearsome remote-controlled "reaper-bots".
Film - Animated
- Pinocchio: After eating Pinocchio's apple, Honest John gives the core back to him.
Literature
- In Adrian Mole, a dentist mistakenly removes one of Adrian's front teeth, wraps it up, and gives it to him to take home.
- In Digging To Australia, Bronwyn gives Jennifer an Important Haircut; and when they quarrel, she then gives Jennifer back her cold, dead, childish hair, in a paper bag.
- Harry Potter:
- In at least three books, Harry receives an almost worthless Christmas gift from the Dursleys: a single tissue, a single toothpick, and a fifty-pence piece.
- In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The kindly Mrs Weasley gives Hermione an Easter egg which is much smaller than everyone else's when she believes what the journalist Rita Skeeter cruelly writes about Hermione being Harry's girlfriend. Fortunately, she later becomes warmer towards Hermione when Harry emphasises that she is not his girlfriend.
Hermione looked sadly at her tiny egg.- In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Harry receives a present from the unfriendly house-elf Kreacher, which contains a large number of maggots.
- Mr. Men:
- Downplayed in Annual No. 3: The king of the goblins has a birthday party. Hobgoblin is furious at not being invited, so he steals all the king's gold, leaving the king unable to buy anything for the party. The goblins call on the wealthy Mr. Uppity for help, whose birthday happens to be the same day, and they have a joint party. Hobgoblin is so sad at having missed this that he quietly returns the gold.
- In Mr. Mean, Mr. Mean sends his brother a piece of coal for Christmas. When Mr. Mean reforms and becomes generous at the end of the book, what does he send his brother? Two pieces of coal.
Live-Action TV
- Subverted on Girl Meets World in the Secret Santa episode. Riley and her friends gift each other things all the recipients hate — a broken clock for Maya, an etiquette book for the autistic Smackle, a Tabletop RPG for Zay, and a Menorah for Farkle. Everyone is furious and hurt by their gifts and bitter at the friends who gave them until Riley sits them all down again and makes them explain the meaning of each gift. As it turns out, all the gifts had a lot of thought put into them (for example, the etiquette book was heavily edited to praise all of Smackle's quirks), and everyone accepts them in the end.
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: After learning his dad stole Christmas presents for him, Mac decides to apologize to one of the theft victims by returning a toy robot that had been a big fad... and now, 20 years later, is completely cheesy and outdated. Then it's subverted when it turns out Mac still wants to keep the robot, pissing the victim off even more.
- Mr. Bean takes a thread from a waitress's outfit, causing a strap to detach. After using the thread to floss between his teeth, he gives the thread back to her.
- On That '70s Show, we learn of a pair of bullies known as "Break" and "Give Back". What they do is that "Break" takes something from one of their victims, breaks it, and gives it to "Give Back". Then "Give Back" gives the broken item back to the victim. The episode that introduces them has them do this to a beer tap that Kelso had bought for a keg party (after the gang found a lost beer keg). This comes back to bite them when they try to attend said party and it's their fault that no one can have any beer.
- Played for laughs in the game show Take Your Pick, in which a contestant has to choose between an increasing cash prize or an unknown prize from a box. There was a fair chance of winning an Undesirable Prize, some of which were:
- A hundred losing lottery tickets.
- A bag of kitty litter.
- A plate of snails.
- A policeman's helmet.
- One jump lead.
- An old supermarket trolley.
- The Thundermans: In the Christmas Episode, it's revealed that Max has tried to ruin Christmas for his family every year. When he gets Nora for Secret Santa, he resolves to give her the worst Christmas Present ever and ruin the holiday for her. First he plans on giving her a box full of cottage cheese. When the Ghost of Christmas Past shows him that his presents always get spun into good things every year, he doubles down by giving her a box full of nothing, and later decides to steal Christmas from the rest of the family as well. One trip to a Bad Future later, and he changes his mind, instead giving Nora the gift of snow.
Western Animation
- Rugrats: In "Driving Miss Angelica", Angelica saves Chuckie and makes him become her servant. She has him steal a box of chocolates for her, and while she does share some with Tommy, she gives the undesirable, coconut flavored pieces to Chuckie.
- In the future timeline episode of The Simpsons, "Lisa's Wedding", the family try to impress Lisa's British boyfriend by raising the Union Jack flag, only for it to set alight on a bug zapper. After desperately trying to put it out by stamping on it and dumping compost on it, Homer then meekly gives the remains to the mortified boyfriend as a gift.
