History Main / ChewbaccaDefense

** For the record, Chewbacca ''doesn't'' live on Endor, he lives on Kashyyyk.[[labelnote:If you want to get technical]]He actually doesn't even live on Kashyyyk, he was ''born'' on Kashyyyk, but spends the majority of his time (and pretty much all of his screen time) travelling with Han Solo aboard the ''Millenium Falcon.''[[/labelnote]] In fact, nobody lives on Endor, because it's a gas giant. Ewoks live on one of Endor's moons. Therefore, Cochran's entire argument, in addition to being nonsense, is also completely ''wrong''. [[FridgeBrilliance Which may or may not have been the whole point]] since Chef was clearly the victim of a FrivolousLawsuit and deserved to win. If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit, and he doesn't, so the jury shouldn't have acquitted and should have sided with Chef instead.

Yet another Atheist's logical counterargument.

Atheists gives up and goes home.\\
Therefore God exists.

** Cato the Elder is famous, among other things, for ending his senate speeches with "[[CatchPhrase Carthago delenda est,]]" which translates to "Carthage must be destroyed." He did this in ''every single'' speech he gave, regardless of whether it had anything to do with Carthage. He believed that strongly that it had to go. But he also invoked Carthage as an AppealToWorseProblems; whatever the senate was debating was likely not as critical to the existence of the Roman state than the UsefulNotes/PunicWars. Cato continued the practice until the day he died, shortly before Carthage was razed to the ground, as he had wanted for years.

** "The Trial of R. Kelly" features Music/RKelly on trial for urinating on a minor. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, he wins the case due to his popularity and because his lawyer used manipulative LogicalFallacies such as comparing R. Kelly's perversions to the Founding Fathers', in an inversion of HitlerAteSugar, and accuses the staggering evidence of being "really" based on racism. The defense lawyer also makes an issue out of the fact that the DA in the case, Tom Dubois, has a white wife (Sarah). [[AuthorAvatar Huey Freeman]] calls the entire court out on their stupidity afterwards:

** In "Return of the King", Huey and Martin Luther King, Jr. are on a Creator/{{Fox News|Channel}}-type show, and the host responds to King by saying "Do you love America?", implying that King is simply anti-American. What's worse is that the way he asked it seemed to imply that it's a standard question that he asks everybody in the hopes of sparking conflict. And what's even worse is that a political pundit (Sean Hannity) has said these very words verbatim multiple times. It also didn't help that the height of this line's popularity was during the lead-up to the Iraq War. Though he doesn't really get anywhere with this dialogue, because he promptly gets assaulted with a projectile folding chair and beaten up by a child.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One", Mayor West uses this when Lois is running against him. Lois then wins the election by taking Brian's advice to do the same thing:[[note]]She answers every question with "9/11".[[/note]]

** In the episode "In Blackest Night: Part II", Franchise/TheFlash becomes the Franchise/GreenLantern's attorney during his trial. The former doesn't have a clue what to use to turn the case around, so he uses a Chewbacca defense. He ends his speech with "If the ring wasn't lit, you must acquit!" Both of them end up getting sentenced to death. The use of the defense is {{justified|Trope}} in this case, since Flash wasn't really trying to win, just slow the trial down so that Superman and Martian Manhunter would have enough time to find proof that GL was innocent, which they did.
** In "Eclipsed: Part I", talk show host Glorious Godfrey accuses the League of causing more crimes than they solve. Proof? White collar crime, which the League doesn't cover, [[LiesDamnedLiesAndStatistics went up 3%]]. The real kicker is when he claims that thanks to the League, half of marriages end in divorce, while the other half in ''death''.

** When Marge is being prosecuted for shoplifting in "Marge in Chains":

** During Homer's dispute with the phone company in "A Tale of Two Springfields":

** In "To Surveil With Love", Lisa joins the school's debate team. In her first debate, her opponent, a brunette girl, immediately circumvents the subject in favor of breaking down Lisa's argument on the grounds that Lisa is a DumbBlonde. Much to the chagrin of anyone with half a brain, [[InsaneTrollLogic it works]].
* The {{Trope Namer|s}} comes from the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Chef Aid". The defense is employed by Johnnie Cochran. An oft-overlooked aspect of the defense is that Cochran ''himself'' points out that the argument that he's making is utter nonsense, and is just using this as yet more evidence that the whole trial is a joke and the jury should acquit.

** Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) did this in his attack on the "Green New Deal", saying he would treat it with "the seriousness it deserves". This led to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fLd0duzT6g a speech]] which included pictures of [[WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}} Aquaman riding a seahorse]], UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan riding a velociraptor shooting a gun, and [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Luke Skywalker riding a tauntaun]]. It's perhaps the purest form of Chewbacca defense in that it emphasizes a belief that the entire debate is nonsensical.

** The [[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Gish_Gallop "Gish Gallop"]] is commonly encountered in the atheist and agnostic community, after debates with creationist, biochemist, and professional debater [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Gish#Debates Duane Gish]]. Gish employed a technique similar to "spreading" -- introduce as many arguments as you can, and if your opponent can't address every single one of them fast enough, you win. Except Gish didn't even bother making ''valid'' arguments; he just used the same canards over and over again, easy to deploy but difficult to clean up quickly. The best defense against the Gish Gallop was employed by Michael Shermer, who knew what he was getting into and was able to accurately ''predict'' all of Gish's arguments before he even made them and explain why they were wrong -- he even predicted (and stole) all of Gish's jokes. (Gish just gave the same speech he always gave and declared himself the winner.)

* ''Film/TheGoodsLiveHardSellHard'': Don "The Goods" [[EstablishingCharacterMoment quickly establishes]] what [[HonestJohnsDealership kind of a salesman he is]] and how good he is at it by swindling a stewardess into letting him smoke on an airplane with a spiel about how when smoking was allowed on airplanes [[{{Eagleland}} America]] put [[UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace a man on the Moon]] and thus Americans should be given back that freedom and improve the country (he even gets "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" as background music as he says it).

-->-- ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''

* Isaac and Miria from ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''. The argument referenced in the quote? ''It wasn't even an argument at all'', but rather a ShrinkingViolet trying to introduce himself to them.
* An utterly horrifying example in ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}''. After inviting two women to kill themselves with him, Izaya asks them if they think there is anything after death. After saying they do, Izaya proceeds to mock them, and tells them that killing themselves yet still believing in the afterlife is stupid since they're just trying to escape their problems. It's stated that his arguments are flawed and that there are many loopholes to exploit. The reason the women do not challenge him is that they believe Izaya is too twisted to reason with and nothing they said would get through to him.

* Used in ''LightNovel/HorizonInTheMiddleOfNowhere'' by Pope Innocentius when he's debating against Masazumi. Masazumi has just accused the Testament Union of abusing the system of History Recreation to benefit themselves at the cost of an innocent person's life. She then proposes an alternative course of action that requires no deaths and benefits not just the far east but ultimately the whole world. The Pope's response? He reveals to everyone listening that Masazumi (who presents herself as male) is actually a girl and then accuses her of just using the situation to take power for herself. It was totally irrelevant, did nothing to counter her arguments, and it almost worked.

* Keyrock the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' abused this constantly. Every sketch would have him beginning his statements with lengthy monologues about how he's "just a caveman", frightened and confused in a modern world he doesn't comprehend, to establish himself as a complete outsider to humankind -- and then rattling off his argument and desired verdict as if it's a universal truth even ''he'' can understand. Despite being an obvious slimeball attorney who's adapted ''[[LikeADuckTakesToWater extremely well]]'' to the 20th century, he always wins his case.

* The [[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Gish_Gallop "Gish Gallop"]] (as it's known on Rational Wiki, named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Gish#Debates Duane Gish]]): Hit your opponent with as many arguments as you can in as short a timespan as you can. If they don't address ''every single one'' to your satisfaction, you win. And it's practically impossible for them to do that because they have no time to prepare and are not going to pay attention to everything you're vomiting out there.

** UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump is a known Gish Galloper, having successfully used this and the Chewbacca Defense during the 2016 presidential primary debates to steamroll the other candidates with BlatantLies and word salads so they won't be able to rebut him coherently. However, his overuse of these tactics during the presidential debates with UsefulNotes/JoeBiden in 2020 were criticized as Biden was forced to shush him several times while trying to answer questions from the moderators.

** UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump is a known Gish Galloper, having successfully used this and the Chewbacca Defense during the 2016 presidential primary debates with an endless stream of BlatantLies, exaggerations, and nonsensical arguments so others won't be able to rebut and keep up with him.

*** Even during his presidency, UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump is a known Gish Galloper, having used this during debates with an endless stream of BlatantLies, exaggerations, and nonsensical arguments so others won't be able to rebut him.

** Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) did this in his attack on the "Green New Deal", saying he would treat it with "the seriousness it deserves". This led to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fLd0duzT6g a speech]] which included pictures of [[WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}} Aquaman riding a seahorse]], UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan riding a velociraptor shooting a gun, and [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Luke Skywalker riding a tauntaun]]. It's perhaps the purest form of Chewbacca defense, in that it emphasizes a belief that the entire debate is nonsensical.