History TakeThat / Literature

** Creator/PGWodehousewas widely denounced for his wartime broadcasts from Berlin, and leading the attacks on him was his erstwhile friend Creator/AAMilne. Stung by the bitter and personal nature of Milne's remarks, the usually-mild Wodehouse was driven to take revenge, and wrote a short story, "Rodney has a Relapse", in which the author of hard-boiled detective stories turns to writing the most sickening poems about his son, Timothy Bobbin. "I am not a weak man," says the narrator on hearing one, "but I confess that I shuddered."

* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'': The entire book is written as a series of Take Thats to [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad political correctness]], multiculturalism, and all forces of perceived liberalism. In it, the United States fractures into a series of successor states with {{straw feminist}}s, environmentalists, academics, and gays, each overcome and in most cases destroyed utterly by the protagonists. Along the way, the book takes time out to insult pop culture, in particular rap and 'that crooner Madonna.' Also, at one point, an elderly Jane Fonda appears to try and justify her actions during the Vietnam War... just in time to perish in a nuclear fireball.

** The entire book, as well as ''An Imperial Affliction'', is designed to be one big TakeThat to the {{Glurge}} and [[TastesLikeDiabetes sugar]] that [[LittlestCancerPatient most]] [[TheTopicOfCancer cancer]] stories are filled with.

** Then there's his association of poet ''Edgar Guest'' with the villains in ''The Grim Grotto'', even stating outright that it's because his poetry sucked in a TastesLikeDiabetes way. Kind of jarring in a series so focused on BlackAndGrayMorality.

--> "Some of the bloody fools I've known can't stop talking about how tragic they are. The poor lonely vampires. How t-hey're just like us. Bloody idiots."

--> '''UPN Executive:''' "You want to put this lunatic on the air? Try Creator/FoxNewsChannel, I'm not interested.

---> ''"Your first difficulty about the sonnets, epigrams, or complimentary verses which you want for the beginning, and which ought to be by persons of importance and rank, can be removed if you yourself take a little trouble to make them; you can afterwards baptise them, and put any name you like to them, fathering them on Prester John of the Indies or the Emperor of Trebizond, who, to my knowledge, were said to have been famous poets: and even if they were not, and any pedants or bachelors should attack you and question the fact, never care two maravedis for that, for even if they prove a lie against you they cannot cut off the hand you wrote it with."''

-->"[[ShownTheirWork As to references in the margin to the books and authors from whom you take the aphorisms and sayings you put into your story]], it is only contriving to [[SmallReferencePools fit in nicely any sentences or scraps of Latin you may happen to have by heart, or at any rate that will not give you much trouble to look up]]; so as, when you speak of freedom and captivity, to insert ''[[GratuitousLatin Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro;]]'' and then refer in the margin to Horace, [[BeamMeUpScotty or whoever said it]]...'''With these and such like bits of Latin they will take you for a grammarian at all events, and that now-a-days is no small honour and profit."'''

--> ... when you speak of freedom and captivity, to insert ''[[GratuitousLatin Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro;]]'' and then refer in the margin to Horace, [[BeamMeUpScotty or whoever said it]]''.

-->"Personally, I never understood how anyone could have found that thing frightening to begin with."

--> "Some of the bloody fools I've known can't stop talking about how tragic they are. The poor lonely vampires. How they're just like us. Bloody idiots."

--> "No questions having been received, I shall now briefly explain the rules of public participation and the procedure we shall follow. This appears to me to be specially important in this session in light of one agenda item, the public interest in it, and the really quite extraordinary ideas, spread by that lady novelist, of how, precisely, planning applications are decided."

--> '''Lana:''' "Maybe you're attracted to dangerous unbalanced people, but listen up: I'm not Edward and you're not Bella."
--> '''Sanjit:''' "I don't understand what that means."

--> '''Jaslyn:''' ''(to herself, but the dragon, Silence, can read her thoughts)'' Silence! This is my Silence! Why is my Silence so cold and hostile?
--> '''Silence:''' ''Because you are my enemy, Princess Jaslyn. You would like to have me as I was. Stupified. I can see it in you, a great desire. I am not the creature you once flew. I am not some beast of burden. I am a dragon, and dragons do not serve men. Find another creature to be your slave. Be gone.''
--> '''Jaslyn:''' Could we not live together? Work together?
--> '''Silence:''' ''Why? What could you possibly offer us?''

--> "What is it with people who think vampires are sexy?" "I blame it on Twilight." In real life, vampires don't sparkle unless they're on fire.

--> "''Freddie Aguilar, who's billed as "the Music/BobDylan of the Philippines." This is unfair, since he's good-looking, plays the guitar well, can carry a tune, and writes songs that make sense.''"

--> "It's about time some publicly-spirited person told you where to get off. The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you've succeeded in convincing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. You hear them shouting "Hail, Spode!" and you imagine it's the voice of the people. That is where you make your bloomer. What the voice of the people is actually saying is, "Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your life see such a perfect perisher?"

-->''The most important thing we've learned\\

* ''Literature/ThePrioryOfTheOrangeTree'' is a feminist retelling of Saint George and the Dragon by a British author who developed a strong skepticism about her nation's patron saint in childhood, particularly George coercing the city by offering to kill the dragon only if they converted to Christianity. The book is set in several {{Fantasy Counterpart Culture}}s a thousand years after the slaying (Cleolind, Kalyba, and Galian/George are all historical figures). The nation of Lasia (the city from the original tale) sees Galian as a thuggish fraud and are particularly disgusted by the fact that Galian offered to fight the dragon only if Cleolind would marry him. The historical {{Chickification}} of Cleolind reflects how retellings of the George story often reduced the princess' role into a passive observer who might not even be named.

** The [[CoversAlwaysLie outsides of the books]] always show Harry with a [[NiceHat fedora]] to match his [[BadassLongcoat duster]]. The ''inside'' of the books have been getting progressively louder about Harry's dislike of hats, and in ''Dead Beat'' he makes fun of someone specifically for wearing "an honest-to-God fedora." The issue began when the books shifted from a first-edition paperback to first-edition hardback release, with a change in cover artists. The cover artist had not read the novels yet when he got the commission, so he had to work off the publisher's description which mistakenly included "an honest-to-god fedora". For consistency (as well as being a RunningGag that both the author and artist gleefully participate in), the hat's remained on the cover and more and more jokes have appeared in the novels about the hats.

--> ''"Your first difficulty about the sonnets, epigrams, or complimentary verses which you want for the beginning, and which ought to be by persons of importance and rank, can be removed if you yourself take a little trouble to make them; you can afterwards baptise them, and put any name you like to them, fathering them on Prester John of the Indies or the Emperor of Trebizond, who, to my knowledge, were said to have been famous poets: and even if they were not, and any pedants or bachelors should attack you and question the fact, never care two maravedis for that, for even if they prove a lie against you they cannot cut off the hand you wrote it with."''

* ''Literature/BlackTideRising:'' The short story "Ex Fide Absurdo" has the characters talking about how disappointing it is that the ZombieApocalypse prevented the release of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' Sequel Trilogy. They agree it would have been fun to see those movies unless the filmmakers did something completely stupid like bringing the Emperor back to life, having a DarthVaderClone, or killing off Han Solo. They then proceed to laugh at the idea that any filmmaker would be stupid enough to alienate the fanbase by killing Han.

* Creator/LarryNiven and Jerry Pournelle's joint retelling of the Inferno in the imaginatively titled ''Literature/{{Inferno}}'' follows in the same vein, condemning to Hell people who supported banning diet foods, people who shut down nuclear power plants based on bogus science, and a teacher who knowingly and wrongly suggested that some her students had dyslexia because they were hard to teach. And of course, they deliver a massive Take That to Creator/KurtVonnegut for supposedly being a terrible writer. They followed up with a sequel, ''Escape From hell'', which includes attacks aimed at the New Orleans authorities.

** Johnson was one of the great Take That champions of his time. His letter to Lord Chesterfield is a masterpiece of Take That: an enormous "go to hell" [[WithDueRespect couched in the most ostensibly respectful language imaginable]]. [[note]]Chesterfield agreed to be Johnson's "patron". He did nothing for seven years, during which Johnson experienced some of the leanest years of his career, then right before the book came out, he printed a "puff piece" that puffed himself more than the book or its compiler.[[/note]]* In an interview, British novelist Jilly Cooper admitted that a goat in her latest novel, ''Jump!'', was named Chisholm after the critic Anne Chisholm. Cooper explained that Chisholm's offence had been to reveal too much of the plot of her earlier novel, ''Rivals'', in a review, rather than being a CausticCritic. She added that "he's a terribly nice goat."

* ''Literature/AmericaTheBook'' mocks ''ComicStrip/MallardFillmore'''s use of [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]] rants in lieu of humor by posting a satirical ''Fillmore'' strip that begins with Fillmore talking about something that bugs him, and ending on the last panel with "Oops! I forgot to tell a joke!"
** Bruce Tinsley, the comic's author, didn't take this well, and proceeded to make a follow-up strip specifically blasting Jon Stewart.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' has an interesting application leveled at [[Series/{{Animorphs}} its own TV show]]. The series is based on an "[[Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers Invasion of the Body-Snatchers]]"-style paranoia and the TV show decided to indicate the invading aliens by [[CharacterTic having them stick their finger in their ear]]. The author then had one character lament that it would be so much easier if the villains would go around sticking their fingers in their ears.

* Parodied in John Hodgman's ''Literature/TheAreasOfMyExpertise'' with the Attack Ads segment, one of which accuses Music/JonathanCoulton of being a bad catsitter (Coulton has personally appeared in ads for the book and at signings, and even wrote a song to promote the book, so it looks like Hodgman meant nothing by it), and "has only masturbated out a window ''once''".
** This is turned UpToEleven in ''Literature/MoreInformationThanYouRequire'', in which Hodgman claims that Coulton was created in a lab to be the perfect cat-slayer and was then RaisedByWolves. Probably still a joke.
*** WordOfGod. Hodgman and Coulton are friends in real life.

* ''Literature/AMemoryOfFlames'' contains some pretty unsubtle jabs towards people who think that life would be so much better if dragons were in it, or want to become dragon riders/dragon soul mates, as per its deconstruction of the DragonRider trope. This is especially apparent in the character Jaslyn.
--> '''Jaslyn:''' ''(to herself, but the dragon, Silence, can read her thoughts)'' Silence! This is my Silence! Why is my Silence so cold and hostile?
--> '''Silence:''' ''Because you are my enemy, Princess Jaslyn. You would like to have me as I was. Stupified. I can see it in you, a great desire. I am not the creature you once flew. I am not some beast of burden. I am a dragon, and dragons do not serve men. Find another creature to be your slave. Be gone.''
--> '''Jaslyn:''' Could we not live together? Work together?
--> '''Silence:''' ''Why? What could you possibly offer us?''

* In Anne Ursu's Cronus Chronicles series, the incompetent, egomaniacal head god Zeus describes himself as "The Decider". You may remember former president George Bush calling himself the same thing.

* Creator/JimButcher did not like ''Film/ChildsPlay''. When a bunch of nasty fae take on the shapes of horror movie monsters in the ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' book ''Literature/ProvenGuilty'', Chucky's CaptainErsatz gets smashed effortlessly, and someone says this:

* A critic named Platt wrote some rather contemptuous and, in Creator/DavidDrake's opinion, ill-informed remarks on one of Drake's early stories. Since then, [[http://david-drake.com/2010/platt/ people named "Platt"]] in Drake's [[http://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHNU_enCA346CA348&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=site:webscription.net/+Platt books]] are invariably unpleasant in one or more ways -- usually being stupid; unsavory sexual tastes sometimes come in as well.

* In Vikram Seth's ''Literature/AnEqualMusic'', Helen, the violinist and the only woman in the protagonist's string quartet, remarks that "In the ''Quartetto Italiano'', the woman was serially married to all three of the men."

* A small Take That occurs in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel, ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'', where the narrator points out the sheer stupidity/illogical nature of the famous "They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!" speech of ''Film/{{Braveheart}}''. [[spoiler:Amusingly undermined later, when the revolutionary who kept using the battlecry gets shot up and killed... [[RevenantZombie and gets back up]], making the boast entirely ''literal'']].

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** In ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'', Jaime considers trying to practice jousting by using his left hand to hold a lance and putting a shield on his right arm [[spoiler:since his right hand has been cut off by then]]. But he quickly dismisses the thought because a jouster's foe is always to his left, and "a shield on his right arm [[Film/BatmanAndRobin would prove about as useful as nipples on his breastplate]]."
** In ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'', someone proves to be HarmfulToMinors, murdering the nine-year-old Walder... of House Frey, the InUniverse {{Scrappy}} because of their role in the [[InSeriesNickname Red Wedding]]. Lord Wyman Manderly -- who probably ordered the murder -- has a response that CrossesTheLineTwice: "Had he lived he would have grown up to be a Frey."
* Using an in-universe movie as a proxy, ''[[Literature/TheFlightEngineer The Privateer]]'' by Creator/SMStirling and Creator/JamesDoohan delivers a nice whack on the head to the episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' where SpaceIsNoisy was taken to an absurd conclusion: to wit, that the ''Enterprise'' could be {{stealth|InSpace}}y by running silent, and then be given away by a crewman dropping something.

* Some theories have it that the line "That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" from Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' was a Take That to the Rose Theater, rival to the Globe Theater, the one for which Shakespeare produced his plays. The Rose Theater also had a sewage problem, so this is very likely. Though it seems more likely it was meant as a reference to the War of the Roses. [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples Of course, there are examples older than television,]]

* It's apparent that Creator/DavidEddings had some issues with academia, and went to the effort to portray universities and professors in particular as arrogant, aloof and disconnected from reality.
** In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' 'Verse, characters mostly dismissed out of hand any literature from an academic source, and a visit to the Melcene University, largest in the world, was almost entirely fruitless because almost no one there had the slightest inclination to put their knowledge to any actual use.
** In ''Literature/TheElenium'', an entire college of physicians is easily bribed to refuse treatment to a main character, except for one old rascal who only helps because of the chagrin his colleagues will feel when the bribe money doesn't come through, thanks to his intervention.
** And in ''Literature/TheTamuli'', set in the same 'Verse, the main Tamul university exists primarily as a propaganda machine for the empire.
* Upon hearing Creator/GertrudeStein's quote, "A rose is a rose is a rose," Creator/ErnestHemingway responded, "A bitch is a bitch is a bitch." Mind you, [[BeamMeUpScotty that might not have been what Stein said.]][[note]]The original poem's line is "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose."[[/note]]
* The famous quote of Sir UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton, "If I have seen further than other men, it is only because I have stood on the shoulders of giants" was nothing more than a veiled Take That to a colleague and rival, Robert Hooke who was, shall we say, vertically challenged. Newton was really not that nice a man; then again, supposedly Hooke wasn't either. By modern standards, although both were geniuses, they were also...loosely hinged.

* In ''Literature/AStudyInScarlet'', Literature/SherlockHolmes takes jabs at two famous literary detectives:
** He gives some grudging credit to Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's Literature/CAugusteDupin: "He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine."
** Holmes angrily tears into Emile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoq:
--->"Lecoq was a bungler," he said, in an angry voice; "he had only one thing to recommend him, and that was his energy. That book made me positively ill. The question was how to identify an unknown prisoner. I could have done it in twenty-four hours. Lecoq took six months or so. It might be a textbook for detectives to teach them what to avoid."
** WordOfGod however states that this was intended to show Holmes's jerkass nature; in real life, Doyle was a fan of both Poe and Gaboriau. Thus it's more an InUniverse example.

* P.J. O'Rourke's writing style is filled with them, due to his GonzoJournalism roots. One particularly particular example:
--> "''Freddie Aguilar, who's billed as "the Music/BobDylan of the Philippines." This is unfair, since he's good-looking, plays the guitar well, can carry a tune, and writes songs that make sense.''"

* Creator/ChinaMieville's ''Literature/PerdidoStreetStation'' had a part where the heroes hire some professional warriors, who are obviously modeled on both [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] type adventurers and post-Tolkien fantasy heroes. They're greedy and uncaring, and almost all of them [[CruelAndUnusualDeath are killed horribly]].
** That said, Miéville said in an interview with ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' that he had played D&D when he was younger, and that it was an AffectionateParody. And let's face it -- D&D characters ''do'' have a tendency to die horrible deaths on a regular basis!
*** Sometimes [[DeathIsNotPermanent more than once]].

* * In-Universe example: In Piers Anthony's ''Literature/OnAPaleHorse'', companies that make flying carpets and car companies take pot shots at each other in their ads. (The main character has a magic horse that turns into a car.) Hell also does ads that are sometimes Take That at Heaven. Out of Universe: Could Anthony be doing a Take That to advertisement in general?

* ''Literature/{{Nightside}}'' In ''The Bride Wore Black Leather'', when message-bearing ravens keep arriving at John's office, Cathy deliberately lets their messages expire, ensuring they won't return to their source and she can find them good homes where they'll no longer be exploited as couriers. Probably a Take That at ''Literature/HarryPotter''.

* ''[[Literature/{{Nightside}}'' In ''The Bride Wore Black Leather'', when message-bearing ravens keep arriving at John's office, Cathy deliberately lets their messages expire, ensuring they won't return to their source and she can find them good homes where they'll no longer be exploited as couriers. Probably a Take That at ''Literature/HarryPotter''.