"If the pilot's good, see, I mean if he's reeeally sharp, he can barrel that baby in so low... oh you oughta see it sometime. It's a sight. A big plane like a '52... varrrooom! Its jet exhaust... frying chickens in the barnyard!"
— General "Buck" Turgidson, Dr. Strangelove, explaining enthusiastically that his pilot can reach his target and start a nuclear war.
Pride. It's one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It goeth before a fall. And it's part and parcel of the human condition.
Someone is very likely to have pride in their achievements and their discoveries. It's natural.
However, sometimes people have pride in things that just aren't appropriate. In some cases, it will be pointed out by someone else that what they're proud of isn't really appropriate (and may be a case of Crosses the Line Twice). Other times it's because what they're proud of is likely detrimental to everyone, including the person who is proud of it.
Often played for comedy and a subtrope of Comically Missing the Point. Sister trope to Your Approval Fills Me with Shame, where someone else is proud of the character for the atrocities they committed.
See also I'll Take That as a Compliment. Compare Insult Backfire. Occasionally overlaps with Dude, Not Funny!. Compare Card-Carrying Jerkass, when the character in question is not only proud of being unpleasant, but also self-aware of their unpleasantness.
No Real Life Examples, Please!
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- My Hero Academia: Monoma has a strange obsession with one-upping Class A and will take every chance he gets to mock them. At one point, he manically taunts the other students over how, while multiple people from Class A failed their exams, Class B had only a single failure — Monoma himself. Everyone is confused as to why he's proud of that.
- Marie of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water brags to Nadia that Sanson taught her to cheat and lie; Nadia is less than pleased.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: In "The Cowbell of Happiness", Nanami is delivered a cowbell she insists is from fashion designer Sebastian Dior and starts wearing it everywhere, convinced that everyone's stares of perplexity is just envy. Then she starts acting like a cow and things get even weirder. To cap it off, the cowbell was actually ordered by Anthy from the designer "Cowstian Dior" for her pet cow, also named Nanami, and the mailman just got mixed up.
- Tenchi Muyo!: Mihoshi protests that there must be some way to escape the shadow dimension aboard Kagato's battleship and that as the inventor, Washuu should be able to find it. Washuu boasts that it's because she designed it so that the trap is so perfectly inescapable (even though she herself is trapped within it). Of course, it means they're powerless to aid in the fight against Kagato.
- Wasteful Days of High School Girls: Nozumu "Baka" Tanaka once showed Kanade "Majime" Ninomae a set of her exams with scores that were 10, 11, 12, 13, and a 1, or as Majime noted with astonishment, a numerical representation of a Royal Straight Flush. "Baka" was far more proud of that than she was concerned about the "scorched earth" (as her instructor called them) level of failing grades.
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin proudly announces
he's been saving the product of his sneezes so hospitals can use it for mucus transfusions. His disgusted mother tells him no one needs those, and after a Beat, Calvin says he has a jar for her to wash.
Films — Live-Action
- Dr. Strangelove: When the President asks Gen. Buck Turgidson if the sole surviving plane can reach its target, he enthusiastically says that with their training, they absolutely could make it. This is actually a bad thing, as it would trigger The End of the World as We Know It due to a Doomsday Device for mutually assured destruction. And Turgidson is aware of this.
Literature
- Animorphs: In "The Hork-Bajir Chronicles", one of Dak Hamee's friends boasts that he is a great killer of Yeerks. The Hork-Bajir having led peaceful lives up to the point the Yeerks invaded, Dak Hamee sadly agrees.
- In Marcel Ayme's "The Bailiff", part of the Man Who Walked through Walls series, Malicorne proudly told Saint Peter he had plenty of insolvent households removed from their housing, including widows and orphans. Saint Peter is less than pleased with this and wants to send him to Hell.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: In The Long Haul, Rodrick enthusiastically admits to having TP'd an elderly neighbor's house. This doesn't go over well with Susan.
Live-Action TV
- Chef!: Chef Gareth Blackstock takes unabashed pride in the fact that he's a tyrannical bastard.
Gareth: I am Gareth Blackstock and I am a thoroughly unpleasant person! I am a bastard! My bite is much worse than my bark and my bark is ATROCIOUS!
- The Good Place: In the first episode, Eleanor describes her old job to Chidi, which was to market bunk medicine to elderly people. Eleanor boasts that she was the top salesperson five years in a row. Chidi lampshades that she shouldn't be so proud:
Chidi: Okay, but that's worse. I mean, you... you do get how that's worse, right?
- How I Met Your Mother: Played for Laughs after Ted took a step back from his friendship with Robin and Marshall told Robin Ted was doing okay. Ted quickly realized what he was doing.
Ted: Just okay?Marshall: Ted, last night you ate an entire box of Cap'n Crunch in your underwear.Ted: I demolished an entire box of Cap'n Crunch totally nude. Yeah, okay is about right.
Tabletop Games
- Battletech: After the Kentares Massacre during the First Succession War, most of the DCMS units that took part were either demoralized or outright disgusted by what they had been ordered to do. Not so the Second Sword of Light. Ever since the massacre, every Second Sword BattleMech has Kentares V's flag painted on its back. Not as penance, but as a sign of pride that the unit did their duty, no matter what.
Theater
- A Very Potter Sequel: Draco Malfoy introduces himself to Harry in the form of one of these on the basis of wanting to make friends, which manages to offend basically everyone in Gryffindor house in one fell swoop.
Draco: My name is Draco Malfoy. I am a racist, I despise gingers and mudbloods, I hate Gryffindor House, and my parents worked for the man who killed your parents. Do you want to be my friend?
Video Games
- AI: The Somnium Files: Date has a very unapologetic obsession with porn, to the point that he hides it in every corner of his apartment and dreams up an absurd story on why porn gives him superpowers. This tends to bewilder and/or disgust everyone around him, especially his daughter Mizuki.
Mizuki: "Yeah, I think I'm gonna change my last name..."
- Dawn of War:
- Khornate Berserkers leaving a transport vehicle will sometimes happily claim they murdered the pilot.
We need a new driver, this one is dead!- Gorgutz' henchman grins happily because Gorgutz named a plan after him. Said plan consists of calling Crull a grot, and was duly named Plan: Stupid by Gorgutz.
- During a sidequest in Tales of Symphonia, Lloyd is proud to have gotten a 25 on a quiz — his best score ever. Subverted when he finds out the test is out of 400, not 100.
Web Video
- Twisted Translations: Played for Laughs in the Google Translate Sings episode of "Friend Like Me", in which the Genie (Brian) claims they "pride (themselves) on slavery", to which Aladdin (Malinda) argues they shouldn't be proud about.
Western Animation
- One of Ed's golden moments in Ed, Edd n Eddy came in "Cry Ed" when he decided to assist Eddy's Wounded Gazelle Gambit by picking up an entire house and dropping it on him to really sell the injury. When a panicked Edd turns and asks "WHAT IN HEAVEN'S NAME WERE YOU THINKING?!", Ed casually leans against the house with his hand cocked in a self-satisfied manner and says "Absolutely nothing, Double-D!"
- Family Guy: A cutaway gag from the episode "A Lot Going On Upstairs" has the Griffins' couch attending "Couchella", where we get this exchange:
[The Griffin couch walks up next to a brown couch amongst the partying crowd]Brown Couch: Hey, man! Where you been?Griffin Couch: I just had sex with a girl on her period!Brown Couch: [disgusted] Dude, that's not a brag!
- Kamp Koral: In "Night of the Living Stench", the campers all want to win a trophy declaring them to be the stinkiest person in the camp, and show off how smelly and disgusting they've become to each other.
- Star Wars Rebels: After his Heel–Face Turn, Kallus was not happy about the low-level assignments he was getting.
Kallus: Why would she give me such a meaningless task? I've commanded Imperial squadrons.Rex: I think you just answered your own question.
