Discussion Main / InsultBackfire

I'm trying to find a trope for something like a blend between this and Mugging the Monster in a social situation - "condescending to the superior", "lecturing the expert", "challenging the overqualified", etc, where the person intentionally acts like a dick to someone they don't know much about and it turns out that person is NOT a good target. The insult doesn't backfire because the insultee unexpectedly APPRECIATED it, it backfires because You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With (except without the stock phrase and a bit lower intensity). I don't if this trope exists, but I feel like it's a reasonably common dialogue trope that establishes the insulter's foolishness and dickishness while establishing the target as somewhat unassuming (for otherwise the insulter would've known their mistake), cool (at least depending how they react to the insult), and of course, highlights the fact that they don't fit the criteria the insulter had assumed.

I recently added this edit to the page, but somebody deleted it.

• Yet another example involving Donald Trump. When Hillary Clinton said that "you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables," Trump supporters turned the word "deplorables" into a meme and started wearing the word proudly and even making merchandise with the word.

the reason that they gave was "They seemed to have adopted it out of spite rather then being clever."

I don't understand how this example is any different than the other Real Life examples

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what's with this? Allergy on xD&D?

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edit article | go to discussion page 22nd May '12 6:16:07 PM Hylarn Send Hylarn a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy Changed line(s) 634,647 (click to see context) from:

• In Legend of the Five Rings, the Scorpion Clan's motto is "I can swim", from their telling of the fable of the Scorpion , they revealed that Mick Foley would win the championship, with an announcer sarcastically claiming "That's gonna put butts in the seats". It did; many viewers switched channels to see it. This compounded the damage done by the Fingerpoke Of Doom, which occured the same night. WCW never recovered.
  • Not to mention the signs in arenas for years which said, "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat".
• In a pre-Wrestlemania interview with Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, and Randy Orton, Orton does this twice:
  Angle: You're nothing but a smug son of a bitch!
  Orton: (grins) Why, thank you Kurt!
• At The Rock's birthday celebration on 5/2/11, Vickie Guerrero attempted to ruin Rock's party by bringing in...Mae Young. This backfired spectacularly, as Rock was positively delighted to see Mae. And even kissed her.
• Natalya told Lay Cool that their IQ was lower than their combined non-existent waist size. The girls took this as a compliment on how skinny they were.
• On WWE Tough Enough, contestant AJ was nicknamed "tumbleweed" by the trainers. He embraced the nickname and his fans now call themselves "Team Tumbleweed".
• Done rather believably by John Cena in response to CM Punk comparing him to the New York Yankees by saying he'd become a dynasty and combined with CM Punk making fun of Cena for his Broken Base. Cena replies to this by pointing out that the "Let's go Cena!/Cena Sucks!" chants mean that people are involved in his matches, which, as an entertainer, is his job. He also thanks Punk for the New York Yankees insult because, after giving it some thought, he realized Punk's comment was correct in that the Yankees get a very simular reaction that he does, which means that they're likewise doing their job. Cena's character has always embraced his Broken Base; Punk really should've known better than to call Cena out on that.
  • On WWE RAW November 21 2011, he turns around Miz and Truth's Hannibal Lecture and turns it into a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that's so powerful, the two end up fighting each other.
  • On WWE RAW February 27 2011, he takes The Rock insults and similar to above example he leaves The Rock speechless.
• The CD&D supplement Tall Tales of the Wee Folk mentions that it's virtually impossible to insult a satyr, as they'll either agree with personal remarks directed against them ("'Dirty little coward'? Well, yeah, I am shorter than average, and I fell in the mud while running away from that dragon, so... yep, guess that's me, all right."), or disagree with them, but take no offense either way.
• Dungeons & Dragons "drow" is said to be a corrupted/contracted form of old elven "dhaeraow", meaning literally "black heart" and figuratively "traitor".
  • Forgotten Realms has Khôltar, where humans just didn't get dwarves are trying to insult them and ran with the descriptive nickname "the Place of Pourers and Filers".

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...And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense - R.W.Wood

Daft punk, anyone?

Cut this:

* A Jewish student tried to guilt a Jewish professor on his statements about the Israeli-Palestine situation. What follows in this video is one of the most severe political ownings caught on video.

Because it's neither an insult nor a backfire. Trying to appeal to someone's sense of remorse does not constitute an insult, and having that person react by denying any feeling of remorse does not constitute a backfire. Calling Finkelstein a liar and having respond by saying 'thank you' would be an Insult Backfire.

An example of insult backfire that doesn't seem to be in the "Western Animation" list would be from a Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon named Sat AM; in the episode Super Sonic, after Bunnie tries to free Sally but instead gets shot with some sort of paralyzing ray by one of Robotnik's robots.

Sally: You are a miserable creep, Robotnik.

Robotnik: Why thank you, princess.

EDIT: I think I may as well go ahead and add it.

Edited by neoYTPism