Follow TV Tropes

Following

Deadpan Snarker / Web Original

Go To


  • In Adult Wednesday Addams, Wednesday always has some biting remarks for whatever situation she finds herself in.
  • The Agony Booth's Mr. Mendo does this in his reviews, but really shines when dealing with hostile commentors. For example, after someone took issue with him trying to prove that Forrest Gump was a bad movie, he responded:
    Mr. Mendo: You're right, I should never have the courage of my own convictions. It's bad manners, you know...
  • Angus of The Adventure Zone: Balance packs some serious sarcasm beneath his polite exterior. Most of it is in response to Tres Horny Boys underestimating his intelligence and abilities.
    Angus: "I did detective good enough to see through your horseshit, so I can’t be too bad."
  • Joey from The Anime Man can hardly make a video without some sort of dry sarcasm. He actually made an entire video about this revolving around people saying that his personality changes when he's speaking Japanese, and his realization that this is because the Japanese language doesn't lend itself to sarcasm like English does.
  • Jeff Cavaliere from Youtube bodybuilding channel Athlean-X.
  • The Angry Video Game Nerd is famous for the sarcastic remarks he use when he's reviewing bad games. Half the fun of the show is his very deadpan personality.
  • Artificial Ace Attorney: Kristoph Gavin gets in on this in "Hotel Turnabout," after a witness described the shooter who killed the two victims as supposedly looking like "a real life Santa Claus."
    Kristoph: A Santa Claus who happened to kill two women.
  • The Bad Creepypasta crew is know for their deadpan and sarcastic remarks they throw in while MST'ing poor-written creepypastas.
  • BikdipOnABus can be this sometimes, especially to stupid commentors.
  • Andrew Rea, the host of Binging with Babish, has this tendency, though he's more on the deadpan side.
  • Brandon Farris can easily turn into this on the gaming channel, often due to being stuck in the same location where he dies/gets jump scared for a while.
    • Meanwhile, on the regular channel, Cameron and Gloria can both become deadpan when dealing with Brandon's regular antics.
  • In his podcasts and website, skeptic Brian Dunning actively uses deadpan snarking in his articles.
    I have no idea whether a single atom of magnesium restores sex hormones, whatever that means, but if so that's one hell of an atom. If you want magnesium, take a vitamin pill. If you want oxygen, take a breath. If you want sex hormones, get a girlfriend. -Wheatgrass article
  • Oancitizen. His field of expertise (arthouse movies) provide ample material.
  • The Bugle is what happens when you put three British Deadpan Snarkers on a trans-Atlantic call once a week.
  • Channel Awesome. A large portion of all the site's reviewers have a Snarker tendency.
    Guile: I'm going to get on my boat, and I'm going to kick that son-of-a-bitch Bison's ass...
    • The Surf Ninjas review. A whole episode of snarkiness. WOW.
    • The Cinema Snob has such a great voice for it, too. Case in point from his Island of Death review, when he sees a character get brutally slaughtered with a knife and a gun, then another character says that they don't know how he died.
    Snob: If only the stab wounds and bullet holes had given us more clues!
    • In the fourth anniversary movie, To Boldly Flee, the award for this goes to Sad Panda, who achieves a sort of stoic nirvana in which his face does not budge an inch and he does not utter a single non-sarcastic line.
  • Moose from Chicken And Moose.
  • Most of the players (and several NPCs) in Critical Role have their moments. Percy in particular has a sarcastic quip for almost every situation.
  • Cr1TiKaL's common commentary traits involves his deadpan and sarcastic observations (usually leaning towards the former) along with his dry and crude humor.
  • Pixel Girl of The Defrosters actually claims to be this in the first episode of the new season. She also claims to be a troper.
  • The title character of Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. (See the page quote)
    • His sidekick Moist...
      Dr. Horrible: I have a PhD in Horribleness.
      Moist: Is that the new catchphrase?
  • Dumb Lawyer Quotes IRL but in Ace Attorney has many witnesses who act the part, such as this exchange between a doctor(played by Gregory Edgeworth) and a lawyer(played by Apollo Justice).
    Gregory: (on why he knows the autopsy patient was dead) Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
    Apollo: I see, but could the patient have been alive, nevertheless?
    Gregory: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
  • Dana from Echo Chamber.
    Shannon: Shut up! You just don't know anything about love!
    Dana: Oh no. My heart. She breaks.
  • Janel Comeau from Fat, French and Fabulous, in contrast to Jessica's Large Ham, has a low-key, deadpan style.
    "I’m 90% sure I got into Columbia through a clerical error, and I’m just riding it to the top."
  • Jeff Andonuts, hands down, in Fobbies Are Borange.
    Jeff: Isn't your mom's name Rosie?
    Paula: Well, yeah...
    Jeff: Rosie the robot. He took the name from the Jetsons. Your mother is a robot, Paula.
  • Ferr of the Freelance Astronauts, though most of them (aside from pipes!) have their moments.
  • On Game Grumps, contrasting Arin's more emotional and bombastic personality is Dan's quieter and more sarcastic remarks. It's not to say he doesn't get pretty loud and worked up (just see any horror game he's made to play) but when it comes to getting a remark in edge-wise on a game or Arin, his sass game is on point. As seen when they're playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword:
    Arin: Alright, so check this out. Watch this. Point the Wiimote and—
    Dan: Mm-hmm. Teach me, Arin. Teach me.
  • Gary: Landlord of the Flies: Gabe tends to make sarcastic comments and quips about Gary's dubious sense of logic. This post provides a good example, where he spends a full paragraph breaking down Gary's inexplicable formality in a simple written note about not going to jail: "I am amazed he didn’t take the time to get it notarized."
  • Hila from h3h3productions is very quiet, but when she does speak up it is usually to deliver a perfectly-timed, dry snark.
  • Hector's World: Ming the clam scoffs a lot and makes snide remarks. Even if she isn't being snide, her voice tends to give the impression of a snarky know-it-all.
  • Alucard in Hellsing Ultimate Abridged:
    Luke: You must be the great Alucard.
    Alucard: 'Suuuuup.
    Luke: I've heard quite a lot about you.
    Alucard: Oh, really?
    Luke: The nightwalker, who glides through oceans of blood, beyond human, a monster whose power radiates with a darkness that casts a shadow upon darkness itself!
    Luke: Excuse you?
    Alucard: Oh, I'm sorry, I like to dirty talk when someone's sucking my dick.
    Luke: Perhaps I should just skip to my point. My name is Luke Valentine.
    Alucard: And I'm Carmen Sandiego! Guess where I am!
    Luke: I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you here.
    Alucard: Oh, so am I. And I'm failing... and I'm sorry for that. It's just that I'm so agitated, because this blond little shit strolled into my room, destroyed my 70" plasma TV, and is trying to impress me like I'm his alcoholic father!
    (Luke and Alucard point their guns directly at each other's head)
    Alucard: Be a sport and grab daddy another beer, would you?
  • Hero House has everyone getting in on the action, though Red Hood is the prime example.
  • Papa Burch, from Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?, makes snarky comments at his children (especially his son, Anthony) on a regular basis, his voice never going any higher than a disinterested monotone.
  • While Kings and Generals is typically a serious series of historical documentary videos, the narrators are not above snarking at certain events, such as quipping that Paris rioting is 'Paris doing what Paris does best', and how a Norman siege in Sicily being lifted due to a swarm of venomous tarantulas was a perfectly acceptable reason to do so.
  • Derek Lowe, author of pharmacology and chemistry blog In The Pipeline is a fine example. He is perhaps most well known for his "Things I Won't Work With" articles, wherein he describes a variety of chemical compounds and their dangers (which can often be summed up as "this hellaciously toxic chemical can dissolve human tissue" or "this compound explodes with comical ease") in a well-mannered but sarcastic tone.
    "I’d call for all the chemists who’ve ever worked with a hexanitro compound to raise their hands, but that might be assuming too much about the limb-to-chemist ratio."
  • Drew Gooden is very snarky, whether he's making fun of himself, his friends, or weird stuff on the internet; most of his humor comes from being blunt and sarcastic.
  • John, and to a lesser extent, Dave, from John Dies at the End.
  • Left 4 Speed 2's Nick. "A mall. How original."
  • In The Lizzie Bennet Diaries the cast always has its moments, but Lizzie deserves a mention as a creative and Stepford Snarker Deadpan Snarker, as does Charlotte for her especially dry and pragmatic wit, which aligns well with her personality.
  • Sarah in lonelygirl15 and, to a much lesser extent, LG15: the resistance.
  • In Lovelace ½, the protagonist, Andi, tends to makes jokes this way. For example, in Part 9:
    Andi: So, want me to write a computer program for you longhand? Best to give me a topic — I couldn't think of one. I'm not entirely sure what people write computer programs about. The book suggests it should just output 'hello, world,' but I’m not one to make that kind of unambiguous welcome to a planet I've barely even seen before.
  • Alex from Marble Hornets.
    Alex: (after his house had been broken into) Hey Jay, you forgot your flashlight.
  • The Mark Remark: Despite the energy he provides to most of the episodes, Martin does have the occasional deadpan moment.
  • Matt Santoro often makes sarcastic comments, like this one in his video Allergies:
    Matt: And not only am I limited to things I can do outside, but - lucky me! - I'm also allergic to cats and some animals inside.
  • Curt, from Mirror Fall definitely counts. In response to being teleported with Stef into the infirmary where the resident twin doctors are engaging in some, ah, 'creative healing' he covers Stef's eyes and says when she protests, "‘Newbie, don’t ask unless you want to see a very explicit answer to the question “what’s up doc?”
  • Just about everyone in The Most Popular Girls in School, but Bridget Tice really deserves a special mention:
    Judith: H-hey, Bridget. H-how's it going?
    Bridget: (completely monotone and deadpan throughout) Well, I'm 27 and I'm still living with my parents in Overland Park, I have an art history degree from a night school, my cat just died, I've lost twenty-five percent control of my sphincter muscles, I get a clicking sound in my jaw when I eat, I drive a 91 Dodge Neon, I have ovarian cysts, sometimes I pee the bed still, I have alopecia. The only man who wants to fuck me is my 48 year-old manager at Pizza Street. PS: He only has one ball. So I guess... better than you.
  • The brackets guy, and the annotations try very hard to be snarky in The Most Stupid Deaths in Super Mario 64, but the Engrish kind of undermines it.
  • Nicholas Moran AKA "The Chieftain" is a former tanker who now serves as part of the historical committee for World of Tanks. In his free time he conducts talks about the history of armored warfare (no, not that one) and is known for his dry and sarcastic observations. He describes getting shot at as "a Significant Emotional Event" and demonstrates the ease\difficulty\occasional futility of escaping a knocked-out tank with by facing the camera with a perfectly unflappable "Oh my god, the tank is on fire." He also doesn't mind taking the occasional snarky jab at pilots.
    "Let's say the aircraft actually does connect with your tank and your tank gets knocked out. Chances are you will survive this interaction, and then you simply get out, then you drop the six feet to the ground, you walk back, and get another tank. If the aircraft is hit by the .50-caliber round you are shooting at him, the pilot is now going through a Significant Emotional Event, because he is now thinking very hard about the pending earth-air interface and its nearly infinite coefficient of friction that he is about to demonstrate in a very violent physics lesson. He would like to avoid this as much as possible."
  • Mr. Coat: More deadpan than snarky, but he still makes a few sarcastic quips.
  • After finding himself trapped in a fantasy world and having to make the best of it, Paul Twister is constantly snarking about the silly fantasy tropes he keeps running across.
  • The host of The Music Video Show is this trope, when she's not Ax-Crazy. The Kevin Federline episode is definite proof of this.
    "I live in a regular house and I have more money than you."
    • This is especially evident since season four onward, especially in the Jake Paul episodes. Taken up to 11 in the season six finale, where she calls out the Paul Brothers and their fans when she is doing a fake memorial service for Jake Paul. She doesn't even emote AT ALL but the sarcasm is very apparent.
    "Rest in Hell, Jake Paul. You were taken from us too soon...but not soon enough."
  • From The Onion: "Awful Man Offers Witty, Acerbic Take On Everything He Sees".
  • Pikasprey: Christian's commentary is always extremely dry and sarcastic, with lines such as:
    "Point is, I proved someone wrong on the internet. And at the end of the day, isn't that what really matters?"
  • Pokemon Pals: Brock is a perfect example of this.
  • Professor Otaku frequently uses this, but it's also aided by the fact that he lacks any sort of smiling facial expression. Growing up on Spider-Man comic books probably didn't help.
  • Protectors of the Plot Continuum use this trope as a survival mechanism.
  • Sam & Mickey depict Barbie, Skipper, and Chelsea as having sarcastic senses of humor.
  • Danny Brady in Shadow Unit often fills this role, and so does Daphne Worth from time to time—usually when she's trying to outdo Brady.
  • Every commentator for pie TheStrawhatNO!
  • Stuff You Like's Sursum Ursa usually leaves the sarcasm to her subtitles. Usually.
    Sursum Ursa: Because we cannot ever, ever, have ugly people on our screens.
  • Shadow the Hedgehog in Super Mario Bros. Z, compared to in the actual Sonic franchise.
  • The Brooklyn Guy from SuperMarioLogan is this, as shown in the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? spinoff, as well as "The Pizza Delivery!", "Bowser's House Fire!" and "The Grilled Cheese".
    • Chef Pee Pee can also be snarky, especially towards Bowser Junior.
    • Cody has started becoming more sarcastic in the 2016 videos towards Junior. Taken full swing in "Cody's Birthday!" in response to Junior and Joseph's teasing.
  • Team Night Saturn has a couple of those:
  • The Mysterious Mr. Enter: Oh good God! Where do we even begin with this guy?! To put it shortly, he has such a sarcastic streak, especially in his Animated Atrocities videos.
  • In These days, Lilly progressively becomes more like this the longer she hangs with Ayase, despite trying to keep most of it to herself.
  • John Bain AKA Totalbiscuit. They don't call him The Cynical Brit for nothing.
  • The Strange Case of Starship Iris: Arkady Patel
  • Both friends from Two Best Friends Play fluctuate between this and open hostility at whatever they are playing.
    • And now, Liam is also known for it.
    Pat: Liam's deadpan delivery cannot be topped.
  • Belle of University Ever After is prone to making saracastic comments, especially when talking to Ben.
    • Snow likes to snark, too.
  • As Unskippable's premise is based off of Mystery Science Theater 3000, it's only expected that the two hosts play this role to a T.
  • Peristrixalo from The Wanderer's Library. “Just once, I would like to meet something beautiful that tries to kill me, but I suspect that's asking far too much.”
  • The Weather: One skit had a real sarcastic caller, who had to put up with Robby's antics:
    Robby: I just don't want any letters. From anyone.
    Caller: ...You don't want any mail?
    (later)
    Robby: This isn't my letter.
    Caller: I know. I'm Dan.
  • The narrator of Welcome to Night Vale, Cecil, with a heavy emphasis on the "deadpan". It's hard to say exactly when he's being sarcastic, but it's clear he does engage in snark.
  • Whateley Universe:
    • Phase does this with references most of the rest of the cast doesn't get. They return the favor. Girlfriend stuffed in a fridge, anyone?
    • Prince Vlad Brâncoveanu/Lord Fredrick Paramount in response to one critic, bemoaning the fact that they had originally hoped to simply outlive him lamented, "He will bury us all!" To which, Lord Paramount asked whether the critic had a preference to a shovel with an ash handle or a pine handle for the job.
  • In Worm, the protagonist's supervillain team, the Undersiders, has three: Tattletale, Regent, and Imp. Perhaps not coincidentally, each of them have powers that are well-suited to screwing with people's heads.
  • Either the titular Muse from Worst Muse (a blog that only gives hilariously bad writing advice) honestly thinks that her suggestions are worthwhile, or she's toying with bad writers. And judging by the blog's name, it's probably the latter.
  • The reporters for Yahoo's Odd News, especially Greg Proops, make humorous comments on everything they report about.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series is full of delicious snarkiness, especially Kaiba, Yami Yugi and Bakura, though everyone gets their snarky moments
  • Ben Croshaw very rarely feels the need to be deadpan—his humor's most often very blatant. Every so often, though...
  • This guy is pretty sarcastic to his father while he's making himself ready to hang himself with his tie. Then again, that's pretty understandable after reading My Immortal.
  • SMPLive features many characters who slip into this, in a perfect contrast with the server's many LargeHams.
    • Cooper tends to go into sarcasm mode very frequently, especially when around Travis or Mikey.
    • Connor frequently plays this to Schlatt's Large Ham. "I don't think they call you that" is a common response to Schlatt's self-assigned nicknames.
    • Ted Nivison's tendency towards this is on full display when dealing with a very drunk Cooper in "Drinking and Killing CaptainSparklez", acting as his minder.
    • Technoblade falls into this to an extreme degree — he tends to have a monotone voice in general, and can't seem to go five minutes without making a snarky comment.

New media

  • The website Cracked.com is the epitome of this archetype.
    • So, it comes as no surprise that David Wong writes for that site.
  • The Internet Movie Firearm Database is a website dedicated to documenting the appearances of various real-life weapons and vehicles in fictional media. The site is usually fairly straightforward, but every so often, certain articles are written by amazingly sarcastic editors, most notably this article documenting the shockingly Reliably Unreliable Guns of Far Cry 2.
  • Platypus Comix author Peter Paltridge works a number of sarcastic and/or smartass remarks into his articles.
  • Sylvester, from this YouTube video.
  • Snark has a certain cathartic or ego-stroking value for many people especially if it seems to go over the heads of their targets. For this reason and also because of the G.I.F.T, many netizens will snark as much as possible at anything they come across. Attempts are often made to veil genuine anger at someone else's snark with one's own cutting wit, usually with cringe-worthy results.
    • Admit it. We Tropers are a snarky bunch.
    • People on Facebook either ignore utterly pointless or vague statuses, or deliberately make fun of them. There really is no in-between.
    • Many YouTube commenters will show up on a video that does not interest them at all just to snark at the fans (or the fans' comments).
  • Chris "Rowdy C" Moore of TV Trash is probably the only person who can pull off Deadpan Snarker and No Indoor Voice at the same time.

Top