Isabela: You're such a hero, you know that right? Always trying to help those in need... I mean, you definitely-
Hiccup: Cut to the chase.
Isabela: I want you to break up with Mariano for me!
Hiccup: Cut to the chase.
Isabela: I want you to break up with Mariano for me!
When a person wants to break up a relationship they have with someone but decides to have a third party relay the message for them. This is typically done because they want to avoid an awkward or emotionally-charged situation, but using a proxy usually just makes the situation a thousand times worse.
When Played for Comedy, the attempt at Alice trying to break up Bob and Cindy's relationship for Bob results in Cindy misunderstanding the message and hilarity ensues. When Played for Drama, the fallout of Bob using a proxy to end it with Cindy just escalates the emotional turbulence, leaving everyone worse off until Bob swallows his pride and does the deed himself. Played for Horror when Bob wants Alice to break it off with Cindy because Cindy is an abusive psycho and he's genuinely afraid of how she would react.
Compare I Can't Do This by Myself. Contrast Differing Priorities Breakup. See also Minor Flaw, Major Breakup, Offscreen Breakup, Second-Act Breakup, Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him.
Examples:
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Comic Strips
- For Better or for Worse: One arc centered around a teenaged Elizabeth deciding she didn't want to go to the dance with Anthony. However, she can't bring herself to tell him herself, so she asks one of her friends to do it. Feeling sorry for him, the friend asks him to accompany her to the dance instead, much to Elizabeth's outrage.
Fan Works
- In Chapter 17 of The Dragon and the Butterfly, Isabela asks Hiccup to break off her engagement with Mariano for her, having promised to do so but putting it off because of how awkward it was. This results in a distraught Mariano blaming himself for emotionally pressuring her.
- In the NSFW Teen Titans fanfic One over another
by Trixiedixie, Nightwing doesn't believe he can have a long-distance relationship with Starfire once he and Cyborg leave to join the Justice League, so he tells Beast Boy (who is left in charge) to do that. Beast Boy then attempts to tell Raven to do it, but she refuses.
- In Universe Falls, Dipper breaks up with Gideon on Mabel's behalf. This time, Gideon believes that it was orchestrated by Steven out of jealousy, even though Mabel and Steven are Just Friends.
Films — Live-Action
- Set It Up: One of the men in the opening montage of beleaguered assistants is seen ending a relationship on his boss's behalf.
Live-Action TV
- The Brittas Empire: There are several instances in the show where Helen wants to leave her husband Brittas, but leaves it up to her friend Laura to break the news to him, arguing that a divorce would sound better coming from her. Laura is usually not pleased and normally forces Helen to do the deed herself (although it always fails anyway because she is convinced beforehand to stay with him).
- Friends: Chandler wants to break up with Janice but can't work up the courage to tell her it's over. Meanwhile, Phoebe is breaking up with her Guy of the Week, which takes all of five seconds and ends with them hugging fondly before parting. When Chandler accidentally pokes Janice in the eye, Phoebe decides to take over and uses her method to break the news to Janice. She responds just as positively as Phoebe's guy did, leaving Chandler stunned and asking if they can do all of their future breakups together.
- In The Good Place episode "The Ballad of Donkey Doug", Chidi's neurotic personality makes his attempts at breaking up with Simone via a simulation fall flat on their face and it gets to the point where he tries having Eleanor do it for him "like [they're] in middle school or something." That simulation ends with Eleanor accidentally getting seduced by Simone and trying to make out with her before Chidi ends the experiment.
- In Only Murders in the Building, Charles discovers Jan does not consider that their relationship is over - even if one of the reasons she is in prison is a murder attempt on Charles. Because he's genuinely afraid of doing a formal break up in person and thinks doing so over the phone or a letter is crass, he sends in his stunt double Sazz to do it for him with a script.
- Parks and Recreation: In "Swing Vote" Tom enlists his ex-girlfriend Ann to break up with his new (and insane) girlfriend Mona-Lisa for him. This backfires as Mona-Lisa latches onto Ann following the breakup. When Ann pretends to kiss Tom to get out of that, Mona-Lisa assumes it's a setup for a threesome. Ann eventually gives up.
Tom: Dating Mona-Lisa is awesome, except that I live in constant fear for my life. So I guess it's time to do the mature thing and have someone else dump her for me.
- Saturday Night Live: In the sketch "The Understudy", Melissa Villaseñor asks Chloe Fineman to impersonate her and break up with a boyfriend. As Melissa admits, she's terrible with breakups.
- In an episode of Seinfeld, George is dating a woman who wants to break up with him. However, he doesn't want that to happen since he wants to take her to a company dinner to impress his bosses. After George attempts to avoid her in most of the episode, she gets Kramer to break up with him for her.
Western Animation
- 6teen: Marlowe manages to convince Jonesy to break up with Wyatt for her, reasoning that it would be easier coming from a friend. Jonesy does so, but in a way that leaves him and Wyatt Mistaken for Gay. Nonetheless, Wyatt and Marlowe meet up accidentally later and break up properly.
- In the Amphibia episode "Cursed!", Anne offers to break off Sprig's engagement with Maddie for him, claiming she used to do that with her other friends at school.
Anne: They called me "The Break-Up Queen." Also, "Angel of Death!"
- In the Gravity Falls episode "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel", Mabel ends up in a relationship with Lil' Gideon. Mabel only wants him to be her "best friend/little sister" but he ends up making it a full-blown relationship, with the social pressures that come from his good reputation leave her unable to break up with him. Dipper offers to break it off for her as a third option. Gideon — who's established as being a total psycho — thinks Dipper is trying to sabotage what he thinks is a perfect union and tries to kill him.
- The Simpsons: In "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words", Homer starts an actual business called "Sweet Conclusions" after becoming noted for his skill at secondhand breakups, making quite a bit of cash before Marge—concerned that he's making breaking up too easy for couples who might otherwise work things out—asks him the Armor-Piercing Question "What would have happened if there was someone who could break us up every time I had my doubts about you?"
- South Park: The beginning of "Raisins" has Bebe telling Stan that Wendy is breaking up with him. Jimmy tries to tell Wendy (on Stan's behalf) that she's still a continuing source of inspiration to him in order to salvage their relationship. Unfortunately, Jimmy's Speech Impediment makes him unable to pronounce anything past the first syllable of "continuing", much to the anger of Wendy who thinks that he's trying to call her something offensive.
