Basic Trope: Saying nice things about other characters can backfire.
- Straight: Bob compliments Alice. Alice yells at him.
- Exaggerated: Bob compliments Alice. Alice becomes violently enraged and beats Bob to a pulp.
- Downplayed:
- Bob compliments Alice. Alice just gave a displeased scoff to Bob.
- Bob compliments Alice. Alice just replies with an apathetic "Excuse me?", she ain't offended, but she ain't flattered either.
- Alice accepts the compliment but not before wincing at it's implications.
- Justified:
- That Came Out Wrong
- Alice feels that Bob isn't sincere enough about his compliments.
- Alice feels that the compliment reflects what Alice dislikes about herself.
- Alice assumes that Bob is insulting her.
- Alice is a Tsundere who has a secret crush on Bob, and no matter how nice Bob is to her, that won't get through her ill-tempered exterior.
- Alice just inexplicably hates Bob through and through and finds any excuse to mistreat him for everything he does.
- Bob's complement to Alice was that she's "smart, for a woman."
- Bob's complement was unintentionally backhanded. He tells Alice he likes her raincoat and that she should leave it on all day because it's so pretty, Alice has a lot of tattoos and interprets it as Bob "politely" telling her to hide her tattoos.
- Bob's compliment, while perfectly appropriate in his culture, is offensive to Alice, who comes from a different culture.
- Inverted: Insult Backfire
- Subverted: Alice was just angry for the moment and thanks Bob for the compliment.
- Double Subverted:
- ...but when Bob says another nice thing, Alice proceeds to pummel him.
- Alternatively: Alice was just hiding her pent-up rage.
- Parodied: Bob complements Alice's saliva, saying it looks "pretty" with all those bubbles in it, and says he likes that she goes a long time without swallowing her spit. Bob then is genuinely confused when Alice yells at him, flips him the bird, then storms off.
- Zig Zagged: Alice only reacts negatively to some of Bob's compliments while feeling calm about the rest.
- Bob is giving Alice a "shit sandwich" type critique, the "sandwich" is being taken insultingly while the "shit" is subject to Insult Back Fire.
- Averted: Alice doesn't react negatively to Bob's compliments.
- Enforced: The work wants to teach a lesson about accepting complements and misunderstandings.
- Lampshaded: "Geez, Alice, it was a compliment."
- Invoked: Alice, a Tsundere, threatens to beat Bob if he says something about her, even if it was polite.
- Exploited: Knowing that past attempts to insult Carol have resulted in Insult Backfire & Insult Misfire, Bob tries complimenting her instead. It works.
- Defied: "Bob is being polite to me. I shouldn't be angry at him for it."
- Discussed: "People just don't know how to get along with those who say nice things about them."
- Conversed: "Just say one thing nice about Alice. She'll give you a reason why you don't want to be around her."
- Played For Laughs: Alice has a Calling Me a Logarithm reaction to one of Bob's compliments.
- Played For Drama: Bob and Alice have a falling out when Alice gets mad at Bob for complimenting her.
- Played For Horror:
- Alice is a Serial Killer with a penchant for Disproportionate Retribution and Bob had the extremely bad luck of pissing her off.
- Alice was already barely holding on as it was because of a number of terrible misfortunes and Bob's alleged insult is what made her finally snap.
- Deconstructed: After Alice yells at Bob for complimenting her, he decides to stop speaking to her.
- Reconstructed: Alice learns to accept complements better on the surface, but still gets annoyed with complements.
"What a nice link to Compliment Backfire!"
"Wait, are you saying you don't WANT to be here, after all I did for you!?"
