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alt title(s): The Zoidberg; Zoidberg; Also Zoidberg A standard comedy trope which, at its core, takes the form:
"There's X, and then there's you."
A character names a group, and then names an individual, to imply that the individual is not a member of the group.
Often done at the expense of the Butt Monkey.
Variant: "You've got A and B. One is (list of characteristics iconic of A which may be read as a list of insults to B). The other is A." This is sometimes used in political humour, with A and B being politicians or countries.
Variant: Addressing a crowd by saying " Ladies, Gentlemen, and X" as an insult to X.
Futurama is the Trope Namer, as noted by the quote above
Compare: I Take Offense To That Last One, Did Not Eat The Mousse.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
Comedy
- In the Mad Magazine parody of Constantine, Constantine tells his love interest, a cop, that a romance between them would never work out. It goes something like, "We come from different worlds! One is full of sin and corruption, and in the other, I'm busy fighting Satan!"
- Dave Barry once referred to human beings "and Limp Bizkit."
- This is one of his running gags. "We, humans and congressmen alike..."
- Jon Stewart got a good one at the expense of Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska and Republican vice-presidential nominee. During her acceptance speech, Palin asked, "You know they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?" Stewart responded, "One is unfairly maligned despite evidence showing they're no worse than any other dogs, while the other is an artificial demographic no better or worse than any other kind of mom." Her actual answer was "lipstick".
- Stewart owns two pit bulls. It's something of a sore spot.
- And again, during the ANCHOR WAR! between Stewart and Mad Money host Jim Cramer:
- Ambrose Bierce wrote the following for the definition of "man" in his Devil's Dictionary:
an animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth and Canada.
Comic Books
- Avengers: The Initiative:
Ant-Man: So, Taskmaster, anybody ELSE still alive? Taskmaster: Everybody worth mentioning. Crusader: Ahh...my hand... Taskmaster: And Crusader.
- Ironically, Crusader would go on to play a major role in beating back the Skrull Secret Invasion. Not worth mentioning, huh...
- In the 1995 hypothetical one shot The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe, the title character is sentenced to life in jail "for the murder of several of this nation's greatest heroes - and the X-Men Cyclops and Jubilee".
- In one story of Archie Comics, Jughead is chosen to be a contestant in a gameshow, Dull or Not Dull (parody of Deal Or No Deal). Cue this dialogue:
Jughead: I need my friends for support. (pause) Oh, and you can come, too, Veronica.
- Variant in one comic strip, when Jughead reads a newspaper article describing their rock group:
Jughead: The Archies come across as a tight-knit and cohesive group... with one exception. (cue a shot of Reggie)
- PS238:
Tyler: He says if he sees me at school again, he'll splat my friends. Oh, and Zodon, too.
Film
- Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight's Tale does this a couple of times to Wat. "All human activity lies within the artist's scope. Well, maybe not yours..."
- A scene in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest sort of combines this with Odd Name Out: McMurphy is chartering a fishing boat for himself and the other inmates after they break out of the hospital. He convinces the harbormaster that they're all doctors from the hospital, and begins introducing them one by one: "Dr. Cheswick", "Dr. Taber", etc. All except Harding, whom he introduces as "Mister" (prompting a dirty look from same).
- Similarly, Bill Murray in Ghostbusters introduces himself and his colleagues as Dr. Venkman, Dr. Stantz and Egon.
- In Serenity, Simon proposes taking River and leaving the ship, believing that they're a danger to the rest of the crew.
Kaylee: Nobody's saying that. Wash: Nobody but Jayne is saying that.
- Done in the first film Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers did together, Flying Down to Rio, making this Older Than Television. Fred and Ginger both play members of a music band where Ginger is the band vocalist (and the band's only girl) named Honey. Near the start of the film, Ginger/Honey is with the rest of the band when Fred approaches them and says, "Attention, boys and girls, and you too, Honey!"
- Wayne's World has a non-human example with Hawaii, Texas, and... Delaware.
- The MC at the drag club in Kinky Boots opens with "Ladies, gentlemen, and those of you who have yet to make up your minds..."
- Hudson Hawk:
Darwin: Ladies and gentleman! And Minerva!
- Done by Groucho Marx in A Night At The Opera
"Ladies and gentlemen...I guess that covers most of you."
Fan Fic
- In one The Lord Of The Rings fanfic
, a Mary Sue has joined the Fellowship, and the journey is told entirely through journal entries (where they wonder various things, such as her real hair colour, past, and name). Galadriel makes an entry when they leave Lothlórien:
Today the Fellowship moves on. A great evil passes from my domain, and a vast dank shadow lifts from the hearts of my people.
Oh, and the One Ring is leaving, too.
- From an excellent Kingdom Hearts parody:
They arrive at HALLOWEEN TOWN, which looks similar Camden, New Jersey. The only difference is that one is a terrifying land made up of nightmares and horrors beyond imagination, and and the other is HALLOWEEN TOWN.
- In Half Life Full Life Consequences, Gordon Freeman, in his dying breaths, tells John Freeman to "Save humens and Henry Freeman".
Literature
- The Lord Of The Rings begins with Bilbo announcing to his party that, "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." This doesn't draw many laughs from the audience, mostly because nobody gets it - which seemed to be why he said it.
- While not intentionally comedic, Mark 16:7 actually has an angel say, "Tell the disciples and Peter"
- Not intentionally comedic, but intentional. This happens shortly after Peter denies Jesus. At the time it was entirely appropriate to refer to him separately. He doesn't get his badge and gun back until meeting up with the newly resurrected Jesus.
- Additionally, Psalm 18 starts off telling us that David spoke the words of the song "in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul." This may signify that even after all that, David didn't consider Saul an enemy.
- Not intentional? Granted much has been lost in translation, but there are some pretty good one-liners in the Bible if you know what you're looking for.
- In the Animorphs books, all of the blurbs on the back cover described the adventures of "X (the main character of that particular installment), the Animorphs, and Ax," with the subtle implication that, being an alien (and a Sixth Ranger), Ax didn't really count. It may be a reference to the fact that they came up with the term "Animorph" to refer to each other before Ax joined, but still...
- The comedic version was also done, where Rachel demanded the Helmacrons free "my friends... and Marco, too..."
- In Cold Comfort Farm, Amos concludes his letter with "Love to all except Micah."
- One of the oldest examples can be found in Shakespeare's King John:
King John: Doth not the crown of England prove the king? And if not that, I bring you witnesses, Twice fifteen thousands hearts of England's breed,– Bastard: Bastards, and else. King John: To verify our title with their lives. As many and as well-born as those,– Bastard: Some bastards, too. King John: Stand in his face to contradict his claim.
- Some recent paperback editions of Discworld novels in the states feature a Discworld guide at the end of the book. The list of main characters includes the following introduction: "Any way you slice it, Discworld would be much more akin to a drab, uninteresting sitting room without this cast of heroes, villains and assorted none-of-the-aboves."
- An obvious Discworld example is Nobby Nobbs. To be fair to him, at one point it is stated that he IS human, it's just he's the only one needing an official chitty saying so.
Live Action TV
- A take off of Variant A from Beakmans World:
Beakman: Here's some CO2 and some air. Like Phoebe and Lester, one is much denser than the other. Lester: (to Phoebe) He's got ya there!
- From the Doctor's over-the-top dramatic speech in Voyager's "Year of Hell":
Doctor: Who would have thought that this eclectic group of voyagers could actually become a family? Starfleet, Maquis, Klingon, Talaxian, hologram, Borg - even Mr. Paris.
- Partially justified, in that Paris was rather unique, being a prisoner at the start of the series, and hence neither Maquis or actively Starfleet. (Although, technically, he was still in Starfleet, he'd just been court-martialed.)
- From the Buffy episode "Family":
Buffy: If you want to get her, you'll have to go through all of us. Spike: Except me. Xander: Except Spike.
- Also from the season 7 episode "Storyteller":
Andrew: A morning in Sunnydale, and the women of command central take the time to fortify themselves for the day ahead. Xander: Hey! Andrew: Women and Xander.
- Also used in Entourage:
Vince: I'm here with all my friends. Eric: And Ari. Vince: And Ari.
- Craig Ferguson of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson loves the "You've got A and B. One is (list of insulting characteristics that sound like they describe A). The other is A." variant of this trope, and uses it at least once a week (usually more, actually) in his monologues. He Lampshaded this himself on the September 7th, 2009 show. He also does a variant in the beginning of most of his monologues as he's "welcoming" the viewers:
Craig: "Welcome, welcome: sit back, let down your long, luscious blond locks... You too, ladies!"
- Firefly had Simon and Kaylee in a room observing an "alien" (actually a mutated cow fetus) in a jar as part of a sideshow. When Kaylee storms off, Wash enters and remarks "Oh my God, it's grotesque! Oh, and there's something in a jar."
- And in another episode after River attacked Jayne.
Zoe (about River): "She's never hurt anyone." Jayne: "Butcher's knife!" Zoe: "Anyone we can't spare."
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has an exchange where John asks Derek why the two women (Cameron and Sarah) were sent into a dangerous situation instead of the men. Derek responds, "Because one of the women is harder than nuclear nails." John adds, "...and the other is a cyborg."
- Used in a segment of Mystery Science Theater 3000:
Servo: Gentlemen...and Gypsy...and Crow...and Mike...and Servo.
- In an episode of S Club 7 in Miami (aka Miama7), Rachel reports the death of many people during a hurricane, including several talented artists and Bradley MacIntosh.
- M*A*S*H 's Major Winchester frequently entered the scene with a greeting of "Gentlemen... Pierce."
- Leslie of The Big Bang Theory has done this at least once in reference to her nemesis Sheldon: "Hello, fellow scientists. Sheldon."
- In Knightmare, Cedric, a monk, is trading insults with Folly, a jester, and his final one is:
Cedric: When the joker is no longer funny, when his jokes can't earn him any money, when wit deserts the stupid clod— I'll send HIM here, to do YOUR job!
- In The Young Ones:
Vyvyan: This is my friend Mike, this is my friend Neil, and this is some bastard I know named Rick.
- In Spaced:
Duane: You know what they say about love and war. Tim: Yes, one involves a lot of physical and psychological pain, and the other one's war.
- Ladies. Gentlemen. Ted.
- Tony DiNozzo gets this twice in the NCIS season six premiere:
McGee: I would give this up in a heartbeat to be working with you and Ziva again.
Gibbs: And DiNozzo?
McGee: Yeah, him too.
- Variant A in Will And Grace, concerning Karen and Jack dog-sitting.
Will: I feel good about this, leaving our puppy with Cruella De Vil...and Karen.
- All In The Family used the second variant in "California, Here We Are". Visiting Mike and Gloria over the holidays, Archie and Edith discover the Stivics are separated and that Gloria has been seeing another married man:
Archie: How could you do a thing like this to your family? (points at Mike) And him...
- Krod Mandoon: "These are my best friends! And Bruce." (Although to be fair, at that point they'd only known Bruce for one episode.)
- Wings: Helen, regarding Roy's Russian mail order bride.
Helen: Could you imagine your only two choices in life being Roy and Siberia? One is cold, vast, and depressing, and the other is way the hell in Russia.
- Also an episode wherein Fay, gathered with the whole group to console and help someone, assures the person that they're surrounded by nice, compassionate friends who care for their well-being. And Roy.
- The Mary Tyler Moore Show: After a disastrous poker game, Lou Grant informs Mary, "Well Mary, there's something you have to remember about poker. It doesn't matter if you win or lose. It's being involved in a group activity with people you like. And Ted."
- From Red Dwarf:
Rimmer: Open communication channels, Lister. Broadcast on all known frequencies, and in all known languages, including Welsh.
- In the third season finale of Ugly Betty, Henry is repeatedly referred to as Betty's first love. Take That, Walter!
- Frasier has another variation:
Dr. Frasier Crane: Thank you, Niles. You're a good brother and a credit to the psychiatric profession.
Dr. Niles Crane: You're a good brother, too.
- Inverted in Power Rangers RPM. Dr. K lists what she apreciates about each ranger, each speech culminating in her using their name for the first time. She skips Ziggy entirely, much to his dismay.
- In the tongue-in-cheek musical documentary Dr. Titania's Sex Guide to All Creation, Dr Titania explains that dancing is used to atract mates in a number of insect species, "and Italians".
- Dr. Cox makes used of this trope in the Scrubs episode My Last Day.
Dr. Cox: ...everything on the planet, everything in the solar system, everything everything everything everything everything everything everything that exists - past, present and future, in all discovered and undiscovered dimensions. Oh! And Hugh Jackman.
Machinima
- The Red Vs Blue video for the Halo 3 demo had the following exchange:
Sarge: Another important development from Bungie Labs is the homo-sapien propulsafier, also known as the man-cannon. Simmons: It fires men? Sarge: Yes, and also Grifs. Come here Grif. Let's says the Blues are launching co-ordinated offensive... What better way to slow them down, then to choke up their movement ways with dead soldiers, or if no soldiers are available, dead Grifs. Grif: Wait, what? (Sarge knocks Grif out and throws him in the man-cannon)
- Sarge tends to use this alot when addressing his soldiers. E.g:
Sarge: Alright men... and Donut...
Music
- "Greg! The Stop Sign!" by TISM contains the lines:
The rich kid becomes a junkie,
The poor kid an advertiser.
What a tragic waste of potential...
...and being a junkie's not so good, either.
Theatre
- Played with in Angels In America. When Prior Walter, the protagonist with the long family tree, is visited by the ghosts of two of his similarly-named ancestors, a Running Joke in the scene is made as to how many members of the family have shared the name Prior.
Prior's ancestor #1: (re: himself) "The fifth of the name."
Prior: "I'm the thirty-fouth, I think".
Prior's ancestor #1: "Actually, the thirty-second."
Prior: "Not according to Mother."
Prior's ancestor #1: "She's including the two bastards, then; I say leave them out. I say no room for bastards."
- And after the second ghost arrives
-
Prior's ancestor #2: "Prior Walter. Prior to you by some seventeen others."
Prior's ancestor #1: "He's counting the bastards."
Video Games
Web Animation
Web Comics
Web Original
Western Animation
- Can be made at one's own expense, as seen elsewhere in Futurama:
Fry: Everyone we invited is here.
Zoidberg: Also Zoidberg!
- Example of the second variant, also from Futurama:
Bender: Ladies, gentlemen, smoking heaps of machinery...
- And another:
Ultimate Robot Fighting Announcer: Ladies, gentlemen, and smizmars...!
- Futurama really loved this one:
Bender: Leela, save me! And yourself, I guess! And my banjo! And Fry!
- Flipped around in The Movie:
Lars: Hello to everyone that isn't Leela. *roguish smile at Leela* And a very special hello to everyone else.
- A similar case in an episode where the main characters got superpowers. Bender became Super-King, Leela became Clobberella, and Fry became Captain Yesterday. Their theme song announces them as
Singer: Super-King, Cloberella, and all the rest!
- Which parodies the early Gilligans Island theme that described the Professor and Mary Ann as "the rest". Later versions of the song name-checked them as well.
- Which was due to a clause in Tina Louise's (Ginger)contract that specified that no one who signed on for the cast after she did could be named in the opening credits. It was Bob Denver who went to the studio heads and demanded that they be added.
- Also used for a Take That in the Episode "The Deep South": as the "quality people" flee the sinking Atlanta, including Jeff Foxworthy and the inventor of Coca-Cola, the boat starts to shove off...at which point Jane Fonda dashes in, violently elbowing her way through the crowd, and leaps onto the boat at the last second, prompting Donovan (who narrates the tale) to add "...and also Jane Fonda was there" in mid-sentence.
- Zoidberg himself used it at one point, referring to Leela, Fry, and Bender as "my friends and the robot."
- And, naturally, Bender's plea to Robot 1-X that he "Save my friends! And Zoidberg!"
- Even subverted once, in one of the What-If episodes.
Professor Farnsworth: Suck it, everyone who doesn't have a Nobel Prize! Especially you... *points in the direction of Zoidberg* ...Amy!
*Screen moves to show Amy standing next to Zoidberg, as she starts crying*
- Kim Possible:
Mr. Dr. Possible: Uh oh, sounds like boy trouble! Kim: It's not a boy, it's Ron!
Also Ron: Come on, we gotta save Kim! And Bonnie too.. I guess.
- In the Chowder episode "A Taste of Marzipan":
Mung: You see, Chowder, there is enough room in this festival for two good chefs... and Endive.
- Done to a degree on Family Guy; when Joe Swanson is about to fall to his death, Lois struggles to pull him to safety. To motivate her, he yells "Pretend I'm your child, Lois!" Lois starts to let go, to which Joe screams "NOT MEG! NOT MEG!"
- The episode that opens with the Superfriends parody intro simply introduces Meg (who is also the only one not in costume) with no fanfare.
- Meg IS this trope. The one episode they all got superpowers all she could do was grow her fingernails extra long.
- In Jimmy Neutron, Jimmy pulls this: "Ladies and Gentlemen!...And Cindy."
- In one episode of Tiny Toons:
Buster Bunny: Ladies and gentlemen... Montana Max: (in audience) BOOOOOO! BOOOOOOOO! Buster Bunny: ...And Monty.
- In the same episode, Bugs Bunny addresses the group of veteran cartoon characters:
Bugs Bunny: Distinguished friends, honored colleagues, beloved cartoon-stars... And uh, you too Daffy. Daffy Duck: ... Oh, har har, it is to laugh.
- There used to be a cartoon centered around this, called The Three Friends and Jerry.
- From the TV version of The Boondocks:
Huey: Granddad, the only way to win is not to fight. Tom: That's right, Robert. Nobody's gonna call you a "fruity-boy" or a "pansy-pants" if you don't do this. Riley: I will. Tom: Right, well... Riley will.
- But it should really go without saying that Riley would.
- Pinky And The Brain. The episode "Pinky and the Brain... and Larry" is filled to the brim with this trope (particularly the theme song
that preceded it) to demonstrate that Larry does not fit into the show's standard routines. It even switched around a bit at one point:
- Also, the episode "Your Friend: Global Domination" had Variant A in effect on Pinky and the Earth, the former described as "a mass of inert matter hurtling blindly through the void" — a description that could actually be used for the Earth. And the Larry episode utilised Variant B as well:
Guard: You look awfully small for wallpaper hangers. Brain: Actually, we are two laboratory mice attempting to take over the world. And, uh, that's Larry. Larry: Hello! Guard: (laughs) Oh, you wacky little wallpaper hangers! Go on in!
- The Simpsons episode "Deep Space Homer" includes this, when a NASA guy starts a press conference with: "Ladies and gentlemen and members of the press..."
- In an episode of Fairly Oddparents, Timmy is on stage to introduce Chip Skylark. He addresses the crowd thus: "Ladies!" (wild cheering from the almost entirely female audience) "And Timmy Turner's dad!" His father responds to this with "Hey, that's me!"
- This seems justified, as Timmy's dad is literally the only man in the audience.
- Another episode had Cosmo going on a dating game to see if he'd pick Wanda all over again. Cupid (the host) introduces her and her two opponents as "Two beautiful contestants...and the average looking one".
- "Now gentlemen...and Rhino..."
- In one episode of Spongebob Squarepants, Squidward gets fed up with Spongebob's lack of 'normality' and tries to explain...
Squidward: There are two types of people - there's normal people, and then there's you.
- Avatar The Last Airbender:
Toph: We can take them, it's three on three!
Sokka: Actually, Toph, there's four of us.
Toph: Oh, sorry, Sokka. Didn't count you, no bending and all.
Sokka: [enraged] I CAN STILL FIGHT!!
Toph: Okay. Three, on three-plus-Sokka.
- Also inverted and positive for Sokka
Sokka's dad: ...and all the men, get ready to set sail.
Sokka: [thinking he was left out] What do you want me to do?
Sokka's dad: Didn't you hear me? I said "All the men."
- King Of The Hill used this trope at least once.
Hank: Hey guys... and Kahn.
Kahn: Hello!
- A visual variant on the same style gag is done in, of all places, the darkest episode of Danny Phantom, "The Ultimate Enemy". In a Crapsack World future, Jack, Maddie, Jazz, Tucker, Sam, and Mr. Lancer are dead. The first five get a statue that says "Gone, but Not Forgotten". The last? Just plain "Gone".
- In an episode of Justice League Unlimited, the supervillain Captain Boomerang gets out of jail and meets others, commenting:
Mirror Master, Captain Cold! It does feel good to meet the old faces... Even the Trickster.
- "Her Imperial Higness, Her Grace, Her Excellency, Her Royal Majesty, the Queen of Hearts! . . . And the king."
- In the last episode of American Dragon Jake Long, the presence of Jake's father gives Grandpa pause when he greets the family.
Grandpa: Welcome to Hong Kong, beloved family and... daughter's husband.
- In South Park, during a pretty uplifting parody of the Three Musketeers:
Stan:One for all and all for one except for Cartman!
Cartman:Yeah... HEY!
- From a Phineas And Ferb episode that's just aired in the UK:
- ""As Told By Ginger'':
Mrs. Gordon: Ladies. Gentlemen. Hoodsey.
Real Life
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