Nice To The Waiter / Live-Action TV

Times where you can tell the good guys from the bad based on whether or not they're Nice to the Waiter in Live-Action TV series.

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• 3rd Rock from the Sun:
  • At first, Dick doesn't tip just because he doesn't know he's supposed to. But even after being informed ("NO WONDER MY COFFEE ALWAYS TASTES LIKE SPIT!"), he still doesn't seem to catch on, setting ludicrous standards for giving tips (Starting with a sum and adding and deducting money for a wide range of circumstances that are often unrelated to the waitress's service). He just doesn't understand why he needs to pay them extra when they already have a salary, and sees no reason why a number of services have now had an arbitrary 15% price jump.
  • In another episode, the aliens attend a murder mystery dinner and think it's real. When they get the idea that The Butler Did It, Tommy gets worried that he'll be the next victim because he was rude to the butler earlier.
• David Palmer in 24 is often distinguished by his extremely respectful attitude to secret service agents, particularly Aaron Pierce, and those at CTU, making his later death a very personal moment for everyone.
• This gets discussed in Adam Ruins Everything, noting how the concept of tipping is really only an American thing where as servers in other countries make a wage where tipping isn't necessary to survive, and how it was created mainly so restaurants could keep down costs by not paying servers a decent wage. At the same time, Adam points out that despite this, you should still tip your server because if you don't, you come off as an asshole.
• The Addams Family treat Lurch and Thing less like servants and more like members of their family. There was even one episode where, worried that Lurch may be getting overworked, Pugsley made a robot to help him. (It ended up getting destroyed because Lurch didn't want it to take his place.)
• Air City: Ha-joon, head of security at Incheon Airport, seems to know all the airport staff personally. He chats up the runway workers (and changes out a couple of runway lights himself when he notices one has a sprained ankle) and asks a lady who's collecting cardboard for recycling when her son is getting married. This becomes plot relevant in the second episode when his familiarity with the staff causes him to realize that one of them's an impostor (the bad guy who escaped the hospital in the first episode).
• Blackadder:
  • The Duke of Wellington may be the king of averting this trope. He may zigzag between Jerkass and Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but it is implied that he treats his servants like absolute shit. Case in point: he punches George, while the latter is disguised as Blackadder, for every mistake he makes, but when George tries to tell him the truth of how he is actually the Prince, Wellington shoots and kills him. Even Blackadder, who's no saint himself, thinks that Wellington's methods are too much, but that's more likely out of sympathy for Wellington's own servants rather than for George, as he's more than happy to punch George a few times.
  • Other Blackadder aversions include Sir Talbot Buxomly, who literally sees his servants as furniture, and of course, the title character, who frequently takes his frustrations out on the hapless Baldrick.
• Black Mirror: Deconstructed in "Nosedive". It's set in a world where people rate each other on a Facebook meets TripAdvisor app, and your rating determines almost every socioeconomic aspect of your life, from where you can live or work to your priority for cancer treatment. Everyone pretends to be nice to the waiter because otherwise you risk being downvoted. One of Lacie's first interactions with another person is a mutual five-starring with a coffee shop clerk; in fact the Reputelligent advisor notes that many of Lacie's interactions are "reciprocal five stars from service workers". Later on, she gets downvoted by a cabbie for taking a bit too long to get in the cab and for having an annoying laugh, and her lower score prevents her from being able to get on a priority seat on a plane when her flight is cancelled. Lacie is at first nice to the airport agent in the hope that she will get an exception, but quickly yells and curses when it becomes clear that the agent can't, or won't, get her a seat on the plane. She's put on a penalty by a security guard and downvoted by the clerk and all the people behind her in the line as a result.
• In a Flash Forward in Breaking Bad, Walt gives a fast-food waitress a hundred-dollar tip. Keep in mind that it was a free meal to begin with, and he didn't even eat it because he was only there for a deal. This is meant to imply the radical changes Walt goes through over the course of the time difference... as well as the fact that he knows he doesn't have long to live.
• Subverted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While the Mayor is evil and manipulative, he is also very nice to everyone he meets, including vampires and demons. The only demand he makes of his staff is that they take his hygiene advice.
  • Subverted also with Mr. Trick. When the drive-thru guy hands Trick his diet soda and says to have a nice night, his response is a genuine smile and "Right back at you." A minute later, though, he unexpectedly gets hungry (for blood), yanks the poor sod out the window, and makes a meal of him.
• Burn Notice: One villain is introduced with a lovely scene where he trips a busboy at a restaurant for no particular reason.
• Carnival Row: Sophie Longerbane is friendly and kind to her Faun maid, which tips off Jonah that her anti-Fae bigotry is just an act to get in good with her father's political party. At the same time however this shows she's willing to back actions that would hurt her own maid, as a Fae, for power, subverting the trope somewhat.
• Castle: Richard Castle may be a wealthy millionaire mystery writer and playboy, but he's constantly seen being nice, polite and friendly to people who earn less than him. Even outside of the main detectives he works with in the police precinct, the way he acts around the other cops suggests he's well-liked and respected.
  • Parodied in one episode set in the Hamptons, where the bad guy of the week ends up engaging in a Motive Rant while holding a hostage at gunpoint about how much he hates wealthy people like Castle who own big houses at the beach and act like they're better than the locals. Castle's response is a wounded, defensive and genuinely shocked "I don't think I'm better than you!"
• This is an Establishing Character Moment in the first few minutes of Community. Jeff Winger is a sleazy former lawyer planning to cheat his way through college and pick up hot blondes, but when a lunch lady says he forgot to pay for lunch he immediately apologizes and pays up. He's a jerk, but he's not that much of a jerk.
• In Coupling, Jane ignored Oliver Morris' advances until she saw how well liked he was by Mrs. C and Mrs. M (whose name was actually Barker — Oliver had unintentionally nicknamed her after the mole on her face), the cashiers at the supermarket Oliver had been shopping at for three years while Jane had been shopping there for five.
• The Crown: Prince Charles is shown to be very nice to the Palace staff as a child. "Paterfamilias" shows him cheerful and friendly around them contrasting the cold relationship he has towards his parents. This attitude persists into adulthood.
• CSI: Recurring Extra Drops bought his Nanny and her daughter each separate apartments, the former for raising him and his sister, and the latter was his girlfriend. When the cops release him to find out the nanny's killer, Drops meets his Number Two who runs his nightclub, he's very friendly, and even gets the guy to smuggle him a device to jam the GPS (that the police use to keep tabs on him) on his ankle. When he gets arrested for murder, his lawyer proves the crime was self-defense (it was), and he remarks that he thought he was paying him too much and says he's alright.
• In Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry annoys practically everyone he meets but is shown on multiple occasions to be a friendly and kind boss, giving employees generous bonuses at Christmas, though he seems to dislike Jason Alexander's generous tipping, if only because he refuses to tell Larry how much he tips.
• On A Different World, at their first meeting, Whitley mistakes Dwayne's mother for a housekeeper. The woman never lets her forget it, and later tells Dwayne it's not being mistaken for a maid that bothered her so much as how rude Whitley was to someone she thought was merely a servant.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Doctor usually goes out of his way to find the names of and be kind to the random people he meets on his travels. His companions are pretty good about this as well.
  • "The End of the World": Rose is thanked by an employee on a space satellite, because the former gave the latter permission to speak.
  • "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel": An alternate-universe Jackie Tyler dismisses Rose's attempts to repair her failing marriage because "You're just staff!" Of course, given that Jackie and Rose had been getting along well previously, it could have been that she was embarrassed that a strange waitress was giving her marriage advice. To emphasize this, alternate universe Jackie gets assimilated into the Cybermen, while Rose's alternate universe father, who is nice to her, lives.
  • "Army of Ghosts": Yvonne Hartman, the head of Earth defense organization Torchwood, is shown as this. She may be leading a Conspiracy dating back to Victorian England seeking to reinstate the British Empire as ruling body of the Earth through exploitation of stolen alien technology, but she is courteous to her employees and goes out of her way to learn all of their names.
  • And when it doesn't happen, it's noteworthy enough to be called out: see the late 10th Doctor episode "Midnight" and the stewardess of the tour shuttle he and several strangers are on.
  • In "A Christmas Carol", the Doctor asked a rich Scrooge-Expy who a young woman is, and he answers "Nobody important." The Doctor acts amazed; in all his years he's never met someone who wasn't important.
• Downton Abbey. Every person of nobility is considered decent if they treat their servants well. The Granthams tend to go above and beyond what many employers of the time would have done.
  • Lord Robert Grantham pays for their cook to get eye surgery, as opposed to firing and replacing her as many would have
  • Lady Mary rushing her maid Anna to a London doctor in the middle of the night to keep her from miscarrying, among other things. Mary can be quite nasty, especially to her sister Edith, but she's always polite to Anna and takes very good care of her; Anna is one of a very few people whose opinion Mary actually values, and whose advice she will seek when she's uncertain. In the movie, she explicitly calls Anna a good friend.
  • The Dowager Countess, Robert's mother, skillfully misleads the local doctor to giving two of the family's staff medical excuses to not be drafted into the army during World War I. After William is badly hurt and dying, she makes the local pastor into performing William's deathbed marriage to a girl he cares about.
  • Matthew plays with this in his first few episodes. As he is born to the upper-middle class, he didn't have a valet or butler to help him get dressed, and doesn't see the reason for it. So he tries to be nice and not need the help of the Mosely, the butler the Granthams hired to help run the cottage Matthew and his mother move into on the estate. Robert takes him aside and notes that this is Mosely's chosen profession and his years of training should be taken into account and respected. After this Matthew starts allowing Mosely to do his job.
• The Empress: To demonstrate her empathic nature, Duchess Sisi greets the servants in the morning and helps a cook pick up some dropped fruit with a smile.
• Endgame: Arkady Balagan despises the upper management of the Huxley Hotel, and they would really like to shift him out of the penthouse suite he's occupying, but he is generally nice to the staff.
• Enemy at the Door: Von Bulow, the title character of "The Prussian Officer", appears at first to be a gentleman, but is rude to the waiter, treats his valet terribly, and is basically a dick to anyone he considers a social inferior. He's such an awful person he makes the SS officer look like a human being.
• Frasier:
  • Subverted in one episide when Niles praises Daphne for not being nice to the waiter (or the electrician, in this case).
  • Frasier himself zig-zags on this. While he will initially make every effort to be polite and genial, if the slightest thing throws him off, he often goes straight to totally insufferable. The problem is exacerbated when you realize that much of what does throw him off is stuff that most working class people wouldn't know. For example, he once insulted a waitress when she didn't know the difference between two vintages of the same wine. That said, once his boorishness is pointed out to him, he does usually apologize and try to make up for his behavior.
  • Niles himself also zig-zags this. He is less directly insufferable to waiters and baristas, but behind their back is every bit is stuffy as Frasier—one episode has him getting very worked up when his overcomplicated coffee order is messed up, angrily ranting how in some countries the offending barista's hand would be cut off. This might have something to do with Niles being far less confrontational than his brother. Another episode has Frasier point out, when Niles is trying to act like this, that he once made a major scene because a bag boy put ice cream on top of his veggies, up to and including accusing him of being on drugs.
  • In one episode Frasier is torn between two women he's romantically interested in. Their different personalities are demonstrated by how they treat Daphne the morning after sleeping over in the apartment. Cassandra is cold and dismissive, while Faye greets Daphne warmly and compliments her new haircut.
• The Banks family (and Will) in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air treat Geoffrey, the butler, with varying degrees of niceness versus taking him for granted.
  • Philip generally tries to keep his relationship with Geoffrey professional, but sometimes takes him for granted or talks over him, and pays him less than he'd like. On the other hand, he's been very generous to him on occasion; he paid his mother's medical bills, and in the final episode, upgraded his airline ticket to first-class and gave him his spring bonus.
  • Vivian and Ashley are undoubtedly the nicest. In fact, any time Geoffrey has extra time off, it's usually thanks to Vivian.
  • Carlton and Hilary take Geoffrey completely for granted, especially Hilary, who makes demands of him nonstop. Nicky can be a bit of this, too, but he's also only five.
  • Will often takes Geoffrey for granted. However, when Geoffrey has personal problems, Will is the first person to have his back. It reflects in how Geoffrey treats them as well: he is insulting towards Phil, kind towards Ashley and Vivian, is dismissive of Carlton and Hilary, and generally tries to take Will under his wing and treats him almost as a wayward son.
• During a stint in Friends where Joey worked at the coffee shop as a waiter, one of the tips he gets from Rachel was that if a customer's ever rude to you, you spit in his muffin. When Ross (who during all this has been repeatedly asking Joey to take his order) loses his patience, Joey tells him that he'll throw in a free muffin along with his coffee.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Tywin Lannister has a few Pet the Dog moments with Arya Stark and treats her with a surprising amount of respect, largely because he is amused by her and obviously enjoys the company of a bright youngster more than that of his rather pedestrian retainers and warlords, though he does warn her to "be careful" when she steps over the line. Of course, this doesn't stop him casually giving her over to the monstrous Gregor Clegane once he has to leave.
  • Daenerys Targaryen treats her servants with a great deal of respect.
  • King Renly Baratheon shows concern for the lowborn soldiers in his army, making the effort to remember their names (Gerald in the episode) and the nature of their injury if they have one.
  • In a flashback, Lyanna is shown to be kinder to Hodor (then Wyllis) than Ned was at the time, giving the boy some tips on how to spar with Benjen.
  • Robb is even nice to enemy soldiers outside of combat. As far as Robb's concerned, being King is no excuse for being a dick.
  • What separates Arya from Sansa is her visible lack of snobbery and kindness to everyone regardless of their class. She remembers the violence committed on the poor like Mycah and Lommy Greenhands long after most people have forgotten them. It also hurts her when Gendry gives her a reality check that if they were to return to safety, Arya would go back to being a highborn daughter while Gendry will be a mere commoner again and they would not enjoy the close friendship they had known until then.
  • Tytos Lannister had his kennelmaster (the grandfather of Gregor and Sandor), knighted for saving his life from a lioness — thus making the latter the forebear of House Clegane. Though typical for the series, this one act of kindness led to killing machines Ser Gregor Clegane and Sandor Clegane when they enter the Lannister service as loyal hitmen.
  • Even though her mother despises Ser Davos, Shireen considers him her friend, and resolves to teach him to read.
• On Ghost Whisperer, Delia declines a second date with a guy who completely freaks out and berates a waiter for spilling something on Delia (far more than the poor guy deserves). The date was otherwise perfect, but she explains that her mother always told her never to date a man who was rude to waiters.
• Played with on Gilmore Girls — Emily is never outright rude to her servants, but has ridiculously high standards and changes maids every couple of weeks for reasons that Lorelai finds absurd.
  • That said, Lorelai and Rory aren't particularly nice to the waiter either. While they treat the maids better than Emily does, that's a rather low standard, and Lorelai isn't above putting them on the spot for the sake of taking a potshot at her mother. And when Rory is put in charge of a DAR event, Paris (temporarily poor and working for her) is quick to point out that Rory doesn't mingle with the "help."
  • Emily's Character Development in A Year in the Life is demonstrated by her treatment of her maid. Not only does she keep the maid for the entire year, she winds up unofficially adopting her family and takes them along when she moves. She can't understand them (and isn't even sure what language they speak), but she cares for them and treats them like family.
• The Good Guys: In "The Little Things", a pizza manager is quick to reveal information about a customer who Jack and Dan tell him is an Identity thief because the man has ordered over a thousand pizzas without ever tipping.
• Gran Hotel:
  • When Alicia first enters the hotel, she thanks one of the maids who comes to take care of her and refers to her by name, an early indicator of her kindness. It's later revealed that she knows everyone who works there by name.
  • This is subverted by Teresa. While she's courteous to the hotel staff, and will reward them if they help her, she ultimately only sees them as a means to satisfy her own needs, and has no problem dispatching of them once they've stopped being of use to her.
• In Heat Of The Sun, set in colonial Kenya, the hero (played by Trevor Eve), a detective, stands up for the indigenous Africans, shakes hands with black servants, etc., while his boss, a colonialist jerk, looks down on them.
• Gregory House, while giving a eulogy at his father's funeral, professes his belief that the test of a man's character is how he treats those over whom he has power. He notes his complete lack of surprise that all the military officers present are his father's rank or higher, and tells the audience that his father failed the test, and that maybe if he had been a better father, House would have been a better son.
• How I Met Your Mother:
  • The first sign that a woman Ted briefly dates is awful is her yelling at a waiter and demanding a free appetizer.
  • The gang is always nice to Wendy the waitress, who works in their favourite pub.
  • Barney is shown to usually be nice to his servers (he inevitably learns the names of his cabbies and converses with them like friends). He does a variety of less-nice things like yelling at a receptionist until she cries, however. Basically, whether anyone in the gang is nice to the waiter depends on Rule of Funny.
  • Lily is referring to a server by the wrong name after he told her his correct name. Bitch in Sheep's Clothing in that episode.
• In Hustle, the marks are invariably rude to waiters, the hired help, their own employees and anyone else lower than them on the social pecking order. In one episode, Albert is watching a potential mark at a restaurant. One of the other people at the table leaves a generous tip for the waiter which the mark then pockets for himself when the others leave. At this point, Albert decides that he is definitely their next target.
  • In "Big Daddy", a pit boss gets fired as a result of failing to stop the crew ripping off the casino. When he opens his locker to clean it out, he discovers the crew have left a huge pile of cash for him as compensation.
• On Mystery Diners, a mystery diner is sent in to test a waitress with an attitude problem. he is perfectly nice to her about the order being not what he wanted. After some gratuitous rudeness she expresses anger that she has to get a fresh burger set up. Back in the kitchen (but watched by a Hidden Camera), this fat sweaty waitress deliberately puts the burger bun inside her top, rubbing it against her breast and armpit before returning it to the plate—and serving the hapless customer.
• On Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay is always nice to the staff that doesn't deserve to be yelled at, who in turn are typically the most honest in regards to the restaurant's problems. A good example is the "Oceania" episode, where he's almost apologetic to have to send the waitress back with the food. In "Amy's Baking Company", he is duly appalled when he learns that one of the owners takes all of the tips given to the waiters/waitresses and when a waitress is summarily fired for asking a simple question. He makes sure to tip the waitress directly and tries to stand up for them by telling the customers about their tips being stolen and how they deserve those tips.
• In the premiere episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, a criminal gives an insultingly small tip (measured in spare change) to a skycap when he picks an associate up at the airport. This comes back to bite him later when the cops come around and the skycap remembers him.
• Happens in an episode of MacGyver, where he is in a casino and sees a woman yelling at a waitress for accidentally spilling a drink on her dress. MacGyver decides to use her as a distraction. The distraction involves the woman's dress falling down in front of everyone.
• Mad Men:
  • Played with when Joan makes it a point to be exceptionally nice to the phone line operators, to the point of bringing them flowers and presents. It's made clear that this is not out of kindness, but because being on an operator's bad side will make it impossible for you to do your job.
  • Roger needs to have his shoes shined but the man who shines shoes in their office building is absent so he offhandedly asks his secretary to inquire what happened to the man. His dutiful secretary calls up the man's home and finds out that he died. The man's family is extremely touched that Roger seemed to care so much about the well being of the man who shined his shoes that they send him the dead man's shoe shining kit as a keepsake. Roger is amused by the misunderstanding but it gives him an epiphany and it helps him deal with his mother's recent death.
• Merlin
  • Prince Arthur flip-flops with this in regard to Merlin. While he clearly assumes he's the superior and constantly insults and berates Merlin while Merlin's trying to do his job, he has shown that he cares about the common people and occasionally shows Merlin some measure of affection and respect. He's also willing to risk his life to protect or save Merlin without a second's thought. Especially after a bit of Character Development, he moves firmly into Vitriolic Best Buds territory with Merlin-he respects and appreciates Merlin, but would never admit that out loud short of severe torture. However, he still shows continues to show a bit of cluelessness as to the actual difficulty of being a servant.
  • Princess Mithian, along with all of her other admirable traits, genuinely tries to befriend Merlin and treats him far better than Arthur does.
  • Prior to her Face–Heel Turn, Morgana is incredibly kind and respectful to both Gwen and Merlin, and even after said event, there are moments where it seems like she still has some respect for them.
• In the "Upper-Class Twit" sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus, one of the tasks required of the contestants is abusing a waiter.
  • The couple in the "Dirty Fork" sketch maintain their décor while the restaurant staff all go ballistic over said cutlery.
• A visiting writer in one episode of Murder, She Wrote is first shown to be a Jerkass when he doesn't recognize Jessica, assumes she's nobody important, and treats her very rudely. He makes it worse by trying to apologize later, explaining that "I didn't realize you were somebody." She coolly informs him that in Cabot Cove, it's standard procedure "to be polite even to nobodies." (However, he didn't commit the murder despite looking for the whole episode like he or his sleazy assistant did.)
• In My Name Is Earl, ex-wife Joy shows her true colors by responding to a rant in Spanish with "Excuse me, I don't speak maid!" The rant itself is a Bilingual Bonus, which translates to "I want to acknowledge the Latin public that follows us every week. And for those that are not Latin, I congratulate them for learning another language."
• The Nanny:
  • Fran Fine grew up in a working-class family, so it's expected, but it deserves special mention since it's frequently contrasted with the snooty blue-bloods she usually deals with. In fact, the first person from the Sheffield household to truly accept her was the butler Niles, with whom she becomes close friends throughout the series. During "The Strike", she explicitly refuses to cross a picket line of striking busboys, and when Maxwell tries to force her through the picket line, it turns into a scandal by the paparazzi. In another episode, "Personal Business", when she dates an obnoxious soap star, she addressed the driver by name whereas her date only called him "Driver".
  • In "The Butler, the Husband, the Wife and Her Mother", Niles has to pretend he's Maxwell Sheffield and married to Fran as an attempt for Fran's mother Sylvia to one-up her brother-in-law Jack and his daughter Marsha, which goes well until Maxwell and the Sheffield children comes back... and then the Butler's Association arrives to judge Niles's performance. Once the scheme backfires and the representatives are ready to give Niles a horrible appraisal, Maxwell points out that if a family is willing put on that kind of performance for their butler, he must be a truly spectacular butler indeed and that Niles is, basically, family. Also, after learning that Fran's the nanny for the Sheffields, Marsha starts gloating about Fran "only" being the nanny, till the usually timid Maggie says "Who asked you anyway, you big green cow!?", and Sylvia, whose ego started this mess, finally says "At least she's got a job. I wouldn't trade my Fran for all the Marshas in Miami.".
  • C.C. Babcock is in no way nice to Niles, and she pays dearly for it. Some of the things that are seen or mentioned during the show: swapping out her lip balm for glue stick, putting dishwater in her coffee, switching some labels on breath spray and pepper spray, leaving her trapped in a malfunctioning wheelchair spinning out of control, squirting lemon juice into her eye, handing her a scalding hot teapot, and in general, Niles plays hacky-sack with her mental and physical health the entire series. And she is especially ill-mannered towards Fran, who she sees as a rival for Maxwell's affections. C.C. is very condescending to Fran, undermines her and tries to manipulate her in one way or another, but Fran usually has the last laugh.
• Played straight in an episode of the British sitcom The New Statesman: Alan B'Stard and one of his cronies deliberately get waiters fired from a restaurant solely for idle amusement. To add further insult, one of the waiters later attacks the duo with a knife and is dispatched with contemptuous ease. (Amusingly, the crony and the waiter are played by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.)
  • "Sack him... Why? Because we're very, very rich, that's why!"
• Obi-Wan Kenobi: In the first episode a young Princess Leia thanks a droid by name when it serves her during a party and explains her actions as being "good manners". Her cousin makes fun of her for it, claiming she doesn't need to be nice to "lower life forms". After Leia insults the cousin she defends herself to her mother by citing his rudeness to droids as a reason he needed to be put in his place.
• Leslie on Parks and Recreation is generally extremely outgoing and friendly with almost everyone, so it's unsurprising that she nice to and often beloved by lower-level workers, both in and out of government. In an notable example, the crew at the local airport see a very unpleasant reporter trap her into an embarrassing interview, and when he travels, the bag with his tapes mysteriously goes missing.
• Part of Me: Mónica and her daughters are very kind to her house staff, and treat them almost like family. In Mónica's will, she leaves a considerable part of her fortune for the pensions for her staff and even money to pay for Ricardo's university. By contrast, Gerardo is indifferent to them while Elena despises them and enjoys humiliating and mistreating them.
• Scandal: President Fitzgerald Grant, according to Morris the guard.
• In Scrubs Turk is incredibly rude to a parking valet, only to find out that it was actually Carla's brother. Did we mention this takes place at their mother's funeral? If Turk had just been nicer, his relationship with his in-laws would have been a lot less funny.
  • In another episode when Dr Kelso's gardener Hector is admitted to Sacred Heart, Carla and Dr Cox try to anger Kelso by moving him into Kelso's office to prove a point about a recently closed wing of the hospital. Kelso is angered by the scheme but allows him to remain, is seen spending time with him throughout and towards the end Carla mentions that Hector has worked for Kelso for 20 years and spoke very highly of him.
    Cox Lampshades the trope by asking "Say Bob, is it possible that in your life outside this place you aren't a massive ass?" Kelso dismisses the remark, but is seen at the end of the episode driving Hector's family to church in his car and offering to take everyone to Dairy Queen. This episode hinted at Kelso's eventual character development from Affably Evil Jerkass to Jerk with a Heart of Gold and finally Cool Old Guy.
• Seinfeld:
  • George Costanza is obsessed with waitresses liking him, and becomes obviously distressed when they don't. He is most definitely not a good person. In another episode, Jerry and Elaine argue over what to tip a baggage handler, with the result that Elaine (who favors tipping low) finds her bags sent to Honolulu.
  • Played with in another episode where Jerry, George, and Kramer visit LA. Jerry and George run into a guy who favors giving huge tips to the help, but he doesn't turn out to be such a good guy in the end. He's actually a serial killer.
  • And yet another episode in which George seems very disturbed by the fact that a security guard has to stand all day, and further upset that his fiancée Susan doesn't seem to care. Naturally, his efforts to help by providing the man with a chair just makes things worse — he falls asleep on duty and the store is robbed.
• Sex and the City
  • Subverted when Samantha's client (Lucy Liu) says she judges people by how well they tip, because she used to wait tables for a living. Sam looks distinctly worried as Lucy pulls over the check; however, Lucy is very impressed that Sam tipped 25% and Sam wins the contract.
  • Inverted with a man Samantha was dating. He had a very close cleaning lady he swore was a lifesaver. She was sickeningly sweet when he was around, but acted out full on Asian Rudeness to Samantha the second he left the house. When Samantha confronted him with this, he dismissed Samantha and sided with the servant.
• In Sherlock Holmes, Holmes is usually an Insufferable Genius, even with those in powerful positions, but he's typically nice to servants, constables and working people, especially innkeepers, always tipping generously. This serves him well, because those people usually end up being the most helpful. He is also (usually) very polite to Mrs. Hudson, the landlady, who serves his meals and tidies up the flat.^note While in the books Holmes is implied to be fond of Mrs. Hudson, most of his behavior toward her in the Granada series was a result of the affectionate real-life friendship between Jeremy Brett and Rosalie Williams.
• Like Sara in A Little Princess, the Japanese drama Shōkōjo Seira has the main character Seira being very kind and friendly with everyone around her, whether they are the same rank as her or not. Back in India, she treats all her servants amiably and they in return love her very much. She approaches Kaito (Becky's Spear Counterpart) when no one else does and drops off books for him to read. Even when she loses her fortune and everyone is out to make her life miserable, Seira still smiles and bows politely to them.
• In an episode of Stargate SG-1, the team finds a village where they use creatures called Unas as slave labour. While attempting to barter for one Unas in particular, resident nice guy Daniel thanks an Unas who serves them drinks. The trader they're bartering with expresses surprise at this and Daniel, in an attempt to keep up appearances as a slave trader, claims that he's merely using positive reinforcement to better train the Unas.
• On Suits, Daniel Hardman made the mistake of badly tipping the staff at a hotel where he was having clandestine rendezvous with his mistress. More than five years later, they still remember him and are willing to testify about the affair. Within the law firm of Pearson-Hardman being rude to the secretaries and paralegals is pretty much career suicide to anyone who is not already a senior partner. And even they respect Donna.
• Played both ways in The Thick of It. The ministers in charge treat their subordinates horribly, and PR enforcers Malcolm and Jamie have no problem hurling truckloads of abuse at politicians and civil servants, but the Caledonian Mafiosos are both markedly more patient with- as well as friendly and polite to- "normal people" like cleaners and drivers. They seem to reserve their ire for those who make it clear they're only in it for themselves and arguably deserve it.
• In Trust, Little Paul is the only member of the Getty family who treats the elder Getty's butler Jahangir like a human being. The others can't even be bothered to learn his name; they all call him Bullimore, which was the name of Paul Getty's first butler God knows how many years earlier.
• One of the reasons for President Jed Bartlet's popularity with viewers of The West Wing was most likely this trope, as Bartlet was consistently shown to be a kindly, supportive and genuinely caring person with those who worked for him. It was particularly apparent in his fatherly relationship with his personal aide Charlie. He didn't always remember their names, but he never failed to treat them well. This is also true of all of his senior staff with the notable exception of Toby, who hates working with anybody who can't write up to his standards or annoys him in the slightest, and wants everyone to know it. He is, however, very protective of the ones who manage to stick it out. And interestingly, most of the baddies on the show seem to have very loyal staffs of their own.
• An episode of Will & Grace had Will on a date with an arrogant man. At the end of the date, they began to argue over which of them should pay the bill. Will gets the waiter to give him the bill with the promise that "I'll tip you."
  • Previously, Will mentions playing the "Be Nice To Waiters" game. He says, "If you win, you get to not go to hell."
• Why Women Kill: Played with as part of Simone's taking a level in kindness. She's never shown being outright mean to minimum wage workers, and had rather humble beginnings herself, but is haughty, demanding, and absurdly self-centered at first. She's not cruel to those working for her because she barely notices them at all. However, she becomes genuinely selfless and kind over the course of the series, though she still has her moments. When Karl collapses in their front yard, not a single one of the neighbors will help him, because he has AIDS. A gardener, however, rushes over to help him to his feet and allows him to lean against him as he and Simone help him to the car. She's genuinely grateful, thanking him profusely and offers to hire him to work for them. Karl, who is significantly more down-to-earth than his wife, dryly informs her that he does work for them, and has for six years. Simone, a little embarrassed, asks the gardener his name and thanks him once more.
• Wolf Hall:
  • Thomas Cromwell treats most people with decency and respect until they give him reason not to; he pulls up a chair for the near-fainting Princess Mary when her mother tells her to stand out of courtesy and is kind to his subordinates. He is still, however, the man who orchestrated the Kangaroo Court and execution of Anne Boleyn and her purported lovers.
  • Anne Boleyn's habit of not doing this plays a major role in her downfall. She's irritable and insulting to her ladies-in-waiting and goes so far as to strike Lady Rochford in the face. Rochford exacts revenge by telling Cromwell that Anne and her brother George Boleyn are sleeping together.

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