Beat Without a "But"

Merritt: Well when I first met you, I thought you were kind of a... dick.
Daniel: Huh! Oh.
Henley: And?
Merritt: [glances around] No no, that's it.

— Now You See Me

A usually comedic dialogue trope to subvert audience expectations. A character will be in a sticky situation, and begin to describe how difficult things are, seemingly leading to a hopeful message... but they stop in the first half of the sentence because they genuinely can't find the good side of this situation. For example, if a character says, "I know things look really bad right now..." you'd expect something like, "But things are going to get better!" to follow. Instead, it's just a Beat, possibly emphasized with the character saying, "That's it." Despite the title, this trope can still apply if they say "but" — they just can't follow it up with an actual clause that contradicts their original point.

Alternatively, somebody may stick up for an unlikable person by summing up their bad traits, but doesn't ever get around to listing the good traits. This is a common way to subvert Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving or I Have Just One Thing to Say: pointing out all the terrible things somebody has done, seemingly setting up a compliment at the end... only to end with just the bad things, either because they don't have anything to say or because they genuinely forgot their original point after such a Long List. Inversions are rare, but possible: someone will list all the benefits of a situation or person but can't come up with any flaws.

Subtrope of Bait-and-Switch Comment. Compare Bait-and-Switch Sentiment and Cue Card Pause. Contrast The One Thing I Don't Hate About You. May sometimes be combined with Could Say It, But.... Also compare Damned by Faint Praise, when the character can come up with some good things, but they're barely good at all; that can occasionally overlap with this trope.

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Examples:

Comic Strips

• Garfield: Played with in one strip when Garfield and Jon are discussing each other's flaws:
  Jon: You sleep too much.
  Garfield: You talk too much.
  Jon: And you're a lump.
  Garfield: You're a dork.
  Jon: [puts a hand around Garfield affectionately] But I love you anyway.
  Garfield: You're still a dork.

Fan Works

• A canonized side-story to A Darker Path has Whirligig and Trainwreck visiting Parian in hopes of becoming her minions instead of staying on the streets. Parian isn't keen.
  Whirligig: Guess we'll go back to being homeless then. Plenty of dumpsters to sleep in. Sure, we have to share space with the rats, but... yeah, actually, there's no but, it's pretty awful.

Films — Animation

• In Big Hero 6, after Aunt Cass bails her nephews out of jail, she rants, "For ten years, I have done my best to raise you. Have I been perfect? No! Do I know anything about children? No! Should I have picked up a book on parenting? Probably! ...Where was I going with this? I had a point..."
• The LEGO Movie: When the council of Master Builders is dismayed that the alleged chosen one appears to be some random guy with no extraordinary skills, Emmet acknowledges his faults, but takes so long on listing them that none of the Master Builders care to hear the next part trying to be positive.
  Emmet: Yes, it's true, I may not be a Master Builder, I may not have a lot of experience fighting or leading or coming up with plans, or having ideas in general, in fact, I'm not all that smart, and I'm not what you'd call a creative type, plus, generally unskilled, also, scared and cowardly. I know what you're thinking: "He is the least qualified person in the world to lead us!" And you are right!
  Swamp Creature: This is supposed to make us feel better?
  Emmet: What th-? No, there was about to be a "but"...
  Gandalf: You're a butt!
• Monsters University: After Mike and Sulley find themselves in a boring scream canister class.
  Professor Brandywine: Some say that a career as a scream can designer is boring, unchallenging, a waste of a monster's potential... open your textbooks to Chapter 3.
• NIMONA (2023): Before Ballister's knighting ceremony in the beginning of the film, Todd talks to him, appearing like he's going to give him a heartful apology for the horrible way he's treated him over the years, but he's not, and just continues to insult him.
  Todd: Hey Ballister, listen man. I just wanted to say, I know I’ve always been tough on you, and I never thought you belonged here...
  Ballister: ...And?
  Todd: And what? Did you think I was gonna keep going, or did you think I was gonna apologize for how I treated you? Oh, my God! That’s hilarious. You're so stupid, I love it.
• Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans: At the end of the movie when the two Robins go their separate ways, 2003 Robin seems like he changed his opinions on 2013 Robin, but just confirms his initial suspicions.
  2003 Robin: When I first met you, I thought you were weird and annoying...
  2013 Robin: ... And?
  2003 Robin: And you are.

Films — Live-Action

• Men in Black 3: When Kay delivers a eulogy for Zed during his funeral, he lists all the things Zed never did with him before making a pause, making it look like he's about to say something positive in the end... But no, he only says "Thank you" and leaves, much to Jay's dismay.
  Kay: I worked with Zed for over forty years, and in all that time he never invited me to dinner. He never asked me to his house, or watch a game. He never shared a single detail of his personal life. [pause] Thank you.
• Now You See Me: As the Horsemen are preparing for their final act, Merritt seems to be about to start an It Has Been an Honor conversation, only to indulge in some more Snark-to-Snark Combat instead.
  Merritt: Well when I first met you, I thought you were kind of a... dick.
  Daniel: Huh! Oh.
  Henley: And?
  Merritt: [glances around] No no, that's it.

Internet

• The Image Macro "I May Be Stupid" is structured like a typical top text/bottom text meme, with the title phrase at the top. Rather than a "but" phrase at the bottom, or any kind of text, the bottom half is left blank.

Literature

• At the end of The Stand, Frannie asks Stu what they'll do now. Stu's response is "I don't know." Stephen King originally intended there to be a "But", and spent literal months trying to figure it out... only to realize there really wasn't an answer. Stu thus simply repeats "I don't know".

Live-Action TV

• Brooklyn Nine-Nine: When Jake arrested a suspect without any real evidence just for mouthing off, the entire squad had 48 hours to get the necessary proof in order to avoid a lawsuit.
  Holt: I know everyone is upset about having to give up their weekend.
  Jake: But?
  Holt: No "but," I was simply demonstrating for Peralta what a fact is.
• In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Where the Wild Things Are," Spike volunteers to help Xander rescue Buffy from the haunted house. He lists the various reasons one would expect he wouldn't, and in the process convinces himself to walk away instead.
  Spike: I know I'm not the first choice for heroics. And Buffy's tried to kill me more than once. And I don't fancy a single one of you at all. But... actually, all that sounds pretty convincing.
• Community:
  • The show's very first scene opens like this, with Dean Pelton sharing a few thoughts of wisdom and inspirations. Justified in this case, since he was missing a cue card.
    "What is Community College? Well, you've heard all kinds of things. You've heard it's Loser College, for remedial teens, 20-something dropouts, middle-aged divorcees, and old people keeping their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity. That's what you've heard, however, I wish you luck!"
  • Season 3's "The First Chang Dynasty" has no such justification.
    Britta: Look, I hate cops...
    [complete and utter silence as everyone else in the room, including a cop, slowly realizes that was the end of the sentence.]
• Frasier: Following a heart attack, Niles receives a get well card from his mother-in-law that reads "Dear Niles, I know we never quite get along..." He checks for the rest of the message, but there is none.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Will and Carlton compete for a new job position and the employer asks them for their qualifications. Carlton gives out his work experience and education while Will answers:
  Will: Well, you know, I mean, I don't like to brag...
  Employer: But?
  Will: Oh That's it. I just don't like to brag.
• M*A*S*H: After a young visiting surgeon proves himself superior to the 4077th doctors, Hawkeye finds BJ sheepishly reading a medical journal out of fear they're losing touch, and tries reassuring him:
  Capt. Hawkeye Pierce: So he's younger than us. So he's up to date on all the latest medical techniques... (beat) ...so let me read that when you're done.
• MasterChef Australia Season 12: At the end of the immunity challenge in episode 14, guest judge Curtis Stone picks Jess and Laura's dishes as the clear stand-outs of the day. After giving his assessment of Laura's dish, he starts listing the things he liked about Jess's dish and ending his compliments with a "but..." After a brief pause, he then says that there is actually no "buts", and announces Jess as the winner of that particular challenge.
• Saturday Night Live:
  • During a Weekend Update bit, Michael Che seemingly begins to defend Vin Diesel's poorly-received music career: "And look, I know a lot of people are making fun of him, and saying it's terrible, and he should stick to acting..." He stops there and goes on to the next joke.
  • In the Season 47 Billie Eilish episode, a commercial for a Hell Hotel ends with the spokeswomen reciting the slogan, "We may not be the Ritz-Carlton..." and then just waving.
• In the Scrubs episode "My Two Dads", after Elliot, believing her breasts have magic healing powers, flashes a patient, J.D. tries and fails to put a good spin on it:
  Elliot: At what point did I become a crazy person?
  J.D.: Oh, come on. Yes, exposing yourself to a dead guy might have been a tad unorthodox, and yes, it might be a little hard to live down...
  [Beat]
  Elliot: I'm waiting for the "but".
  J.D.: So's everyone else around here. [Rimshot]
• Superstore:
  • In "Health Fund," Amy tries and fails to make Jonah's health fund idea sound plausible, despite everybody's doubts (including her own).
    Amy: I know that this idea seems really not well thought out and that it's totally naive... [beat] That's all I wanted to say.
  • In "Conspiracy," Dina tries to positively compare Glenn to paper coupons before giving up and getting distracted.
    Dina: You're like the old paper coupons. You were kind of a nuisance but arguably served a purpose, and now you're... useless but...
    Glenn: But?
    Dina: Oh, carrot cake Oreos are back. That's fun. [walks away]
• In Pataclaun, Machin is having an existential crisis and asks his wife and friends to tell him what good qualities he has. After some thinking, they start listing all his defects in quick succession until he gets tired and asks if they are trying to bring him down further, and they rail on him how difficult it is to think of good qualities about someone like him, so they are listing all the bad ones to see if they maybe find some good on what's left.
• Two and a Half Men: Berta's toast to Alan on his birthday goes as follows:
  Berta: Zippy, I got to tell you, when you first moved in, I didn't really care for you. You were a persnickety, self-righteous, smug son-of-a-bitch. And now, here we are, six years later. [beat] Thank you.

Podcasts

• The Weekly Planet: The Caravan of Garbage episode on Transformers: The Last Knight ends on this:
  Mason: At the end of the day [The Michael Bay Transformers films] may not be the most intelligently written movies, they may not be the cleverest movies, they may not be the most fun movies... anyway, that is the end of that sentence.

Theatre

• Mean Girls: In "Meet the Plastics," Dumb Blonde Karen ends her verse by singing "My name is Karen, I may not be smart... [beat] that's it."

Video Games

• Friday Night Funkin' D-Sides: The Couch Gags are set to have one sentence appear and then have another sentence show up underneath it. One of the gags is "may not be the best mod but", which has no second part.

Web Animation

• The Homestar Runner Decemberween toon A Death Defying Decemberween has Homestar Runner make a short speech before he does the titular death defying stunt.
  Homestar: I'm not very good at speeches.
  [beat]
  [abruptly starts the run]
• Oversimplified has this as the main gag of a scene in their video of the First Punic War, after the Romans turn their efforts towards Carthage, with a Carthaginian general seemingly setting up a Rousing Speech, only to end on the threat of a grisly mass death.
  Carthaginian General: Okay guys, looks like the Romans are coming straight for us this time. And what will they do when they get here? They'll kill us all.
  [Crowd gasps]
  Carthaginian General: They'll massacre each and every last one of us. They may even chop our pets in half.
  Rob: That's barbaric!
  Carthaginian General: No, Rob, it's actually pretty normal for the time. We'd do the same to them.
  Mary: Who will protect us?
  Carthaginian General: Funny you should ask, Mary. That's kind of why I called this meeting. Who will protect us? Protect our families, our homes, our children? You guys? Ha, don't make me laugh. Why, you're just a bunch of stupid and weak farmers. Simple-minded buffoons, cowards, fools. Rob here thinks enslaving women and children is barbaric. You're a snowflake, Rob. Yes, you are. The fact is if the Romans manage to land on African soil, we're all gonna die a terrifying, hideous, unspeakably painful death.
  Rob: Is that the end of that speech?
  Carthaginian General: Yes.
  [Crowd panics]
• Red vs. Blue: In season 13's "Test Your Might", Washington tries to reassure the Reds after learning that they're going to be on the front lines, but can't think of anything to say.
  Washington: Well... look on the bright side!
  [Silence]
  Grif: You know, if you say that, you're supposed to follow it up with the bright side!
  Washington: [looking down] I know.
• In Welcome to... YouTube!, when the narrator brings up the topic of paid subscriptions, he says, "Now I know what you're thinking: 'People have to pay to subscribe to me? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!'". The narrator doesn't follow that up with any potential benefits and moves on to the next topic.
• Zero Punctuation:
  • In the review of The Last of Us Part II, Yahtzee starts out by saying how miserable he felt playing the game, pauses for a second, and then spends the rest of the review outlining his numerous issues with it:
    Yahtzee: Now, don't get me wrong, viewer: playing The Last of Us II was a pretty miserable experience.
    [beat]
    Viewer: Kinda sounded like you were going to say "But..." there, Yahtzee.
    Yahtzee: Mmm, no. It's really fucking miserable and depressing, and I would've enjoyed my weekend more had I spent it teasing out my bum hairs with pliers.
  • Three weeks later he reviewed Deadly Premonition 2 and gave a bit of background about the franchise and its creator.
    Yahtzee: The creator, Swery, is like the poor man's Hideo Kojima got together with the poor man's Suda51 and had a very undernourished baby. But he's been able to carve an identity for himself making games usually themed around an outsider's view of American culture as seen through the lens of TV, and that began with Deadly Premonition, which was basically Twin Peaks.
    [beat]
    Viewer: Sounded like you were gonna say "But", there, Yahtz.
    Yahtzee: You keep falling for that one, don't you, viewer. No, Twin Peaks about sums it up.

Webcomics

• In this strip of Litterbox Comics, a cow calls out Fran for feeding her baby milk formula, accusing her of not wanting him to do well in school. Fran responds with "You know, when I first met you, I didn't really like you". The cow smiles, expecting the sentence to have a second half before Fran confirms that nope, there is no second half.

Web Video

• Cinema Wins: In "Everything GREAT About Gremlins 2: The New Batch!", Lee has this to say after a scene where an announcement for a job opportunity in the Clamp Building is made after the previous employee is fired:
  "Ah, corporate America. It's cold and heartless, but...no, that's it."
• In Drew Gooden's "What is Rick Lax doing?" video, he remarks how gross it is to hold an egg yolk, and it seems like he's going to add some sort of silver lining, but he just ends his sentence there.
  "This is the grossest thing I've ever done... and I never want to do it again...um...and that's the end of the sentence."
• Familiar Faces: In the review of TRUMP The Board Game, Chad Rocco notices that the "outside investor" cards serve as additional money without any cost, even though they should logically be paid back at some point... which gets him thinking about the many times the man himself cheated investors large and small out of their investments:
  It's funny; it's almost like he purposely sought out these smaller construction companies so he could raise the value of his property before going bankrupt, and not have to pay them anything, knowing that they couldn't afford to take him to court for very long, but that would be the work of a lying, dickless, scumbag thief! ... (Beat) ... If you're waiting for a "but", there is none... only a butt-face.
• Game Theory: In a Film Theory video on The Lorax (2012), when talking about how Illumination Entertainment handled the movie:
  MatPat: Now some people might call this an unnecessary cash-grab that totally negates the message of the original story. [Beat] What, were you expecting a "but" at the end of that sentence? It totally negates the original message of the story.
• Izzzyzzz: In the video about the Soulja Boy game console failure, Izzy states Soulja Boy's claim that both Google and Nintendo had expressed interest in buying his game console company, which up to this point had been selling cheap dropshipped consoles that ran illegally emulated software. This was in spite of the fact that Nintendo had even threatened legal action against him for it. Izzy then responds by saying:
  Izzy: I don't want to call him a liar... [Beat] ...so I won't.
• Joel Haver: "This Box Could Change Your Life Forever" is an advertisement for Box Of Snakes, and mentions a limited-time offer to get Snakes To Go with your order completely free. One customer tries (and fails) to shill for Snakes To Go:
  Testimonial: Look at it this way: Snakes To Go is not necessarily less annoying than Box Of Snakes but... [Awkward pause. Cut to new scene.]
• Honest Trailers: Happens in the Honest Trailer of Justice League (2017) when the narrator describes the heroes of the film.
  Narrator: The Batman. He may not be that tough, or that smart, or that careful with his secret identity, but... Wait, there is no "but"? That's a shame, he was the best part of the last one.
• In Jordan Fringe's review of My Life as a Teenage Robot, he claims that Sheldon "can come off creepy, though, but..." before admitting he doesn't have a "but" and he doesn't know what the audience expected.
• mossbag, a Hollow Knight YouTuber, has a video in which they heavily criticize the wiki website Fandom (formerly known as Wikia), entitled "Stop using Fandom". At one point, mossbag says, "Now, I've been pretty mean to Fandom throughout this video," before the video abruptly ends.
• The Nostalgia Critic: In "Commercial Resurrection," Critic caps off his review of the creepy stretchable toys by remarking, "It's pretty sick and demented, but... Nope, that's all I've got."
• Scott The Woz:
  • Scott's review of the New Super Mario Bros. franchise ends with Scott saying, "All in all, the New Super Mario Brothers series aren't bad games..." then pausing until the end screen comes on.
  • In "E3 2021," after the Square Enix presentation concludes, Scott remarks, "I didn't like it..." and holds his finger out as if he's going to continue the sentence. He just stands there with his finger out for a few seconds before moving on to complain about the presentation.
  • While wrapping up "Plug and Play Games," Scott seems like he's about to compliment the Plug and Play games but doesn't get very far.
    "On the surface, these things may seem like nothing more cheap toys with extremely basic games for children..." [beat] "That sentence was finished long ago."
• A vine by Thomas Sanders parodied the tendency of Heroic Self-Deprecation in romance movies by having the male lead not even explain why he's good for the girl.
  Thomas: Wait! I may not be the bravest, or the smartest, or the best for you...
  [Beat as he starts walking away]
  Girl: But?
  Thomas: No, that was it.
• In the episode of Try Hards where Tomska and pals make fighting robots, Tom has this to say about his attempt to make armor out of a colander.
  It's not pretty... Unfortunately that's the end of that sentence.

Western Animation

• The Fairly OddParents!: In "Old Man and the C-", Timmy begins a sentence by saying that he "may hate school..."
  Cosmo: But?
  Timmy: No, that was it.
• Family Guy:
  • In "Call Girl", when Peter is saying bye to his family as he's about to leave and have an affair, he says to Chris, "Chris, people are gonna tell you that you're stupid and that you're no good.", seemingly about to follow it up with something to make Chris feel better, but he ends it there and walks away.
  • In the "Super Griffins" segment of "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1", the Griffins get superpowers from nuclear waste and start terrorizing the city, so to combat them Mayor West tries to give himself superpowers in the same way. Instead he just gets lymphoma, leading to this exchange with Dr. Hartman:
    Hartman: What in God's name were you trying to prove?
    West: I was trying to gain superpowers.
    Hartman: Well, that's just silly!
    West: Silly, yes. Idiotic, yes.
    [after a long Beat, the scene ends]
• Futurama: In "The Silence of the Clamps," Bender bids a tearful farewell to Planet Express to go into witness protection. He says to Zoidberg, "I know it seems like I can't stand you..." but never actually counters that before moving on to say goodbye to Leela.
• In the Hey Arnold! episode "Dino Checks Out", the funeral of the (seemingly) late Dino Spumoni has a "eulogy" from one of his music partners:
  Don Reynold: What can you say about a guy like Dino? He was a mean, bitter, selfish, arrogant, back-stabbing... A nasty human being! But Dino had another side, too... He was also a sniveling coward.
• Human Resources (2022): After saving Maury from a flooded bathroom, Connie discusses her feelings on Maury having her baby. As in, she's still against it.
  Connie: I thought I wanted total freedom to go be a hot adventure bitch.
  Maury: Oh?
  Connie: And I thought a kid would get in the way of all that.
  Maury: But?
  Connie: But the truth is... I was right!
  Maury: What? Then why did you say "but"?
  Connie: I didn't say "but," you said "but"!
  Maury: Fine, but that was still very confusing!
• Inside Job (2021): In "Ghost Protocol", Reagan fakes her own death and gives Glenn a eulogy to read, which ends on a "but" with no follow-up.
  Glenn: "Reagan was an American hero. We didn't agree politically, but..." Hmmm, it just ends there.
• Played with in the Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness episode "Sight For Sore Eyes", Mr. Ping insists the others go help Po from Junjie. The Furious Five, having already suffered from Po's misbehavior earlier, are skeptical it's a lie, to which Mr. Ping angrily rebuffs, though needs them to finish the "but" for him when loses train of thought:
  Mr. Ping: My son may be not perfect. He may be big and loud and clumsy and annoying and impatient and hotheaded and... er, where am I going with this?
  Mantis: But he's not a liar?
  Mr. Ping: Right.
• Teen Titans Go!: In "Baby Hands", Raven and Cyborg tell Robin that they like to tease him and don't respect him as inspiring music starts to play. Robin thinks they're about to say something good about him and asks, "But?" Starfire then admits that's all they had to say.
• In Rick and Morty episode "The Old Man and the Seat", Morty delivers a speech to his father that sounds like a pep talk but it doesn't go beyond listing bad things about Jerry.
  Morty: I started today disgusted and embarrassed to be your son, and then later I thought we were gonna die because you're a loser.
  [Awkwardly long pause]
  Jerry: There's no more, is there?
  Morty: Nope. Quit fucking up.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Homer the Vigilante", Homer appears on TV to talk about his newly-formed mob, but their complete lack of positive attributes makes his defense less than convincing:
    Kent Brockman: What do you say to the accusation that your group has been causing more crimes than it's been preventing?
    Homer: Oh, Kent, I'd be lying if I said my men weren't committing crimes!...
    Kent Brockman: (Beat) Hmm, touché.
  • In "My Fair Laddy", the first version of Willie's "I Want" Song starts off with him singing "All I want is a place somewhere"... and that's the whole song. Bart nudges him to aim a little higher, and it leads to a longer song, "Wouldn't It Be Adequate?", parodying "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" from My Fair Lady.
• Total Drama: Zee's intro in the 2023 season ends with him saying "I might not be the strongest or the fastest or, like, try super hard... or remember what I'm talking about..."

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