Berserk Button - Television Tropes & Idioms

Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist goes into a berserker rage whenever someone mentions his vertical deficiencies. He usually ends up exaggerating the insult to ridiculous extremes as well.
- The only one he won't go nuts on is Al (after all, they're brothers...and someone has to keep him in line), and even he got away with a knock on the head and a (tired) retort of "Don't call me small.". Of course, the short rants are constantly a Crowning Moment Of Funny...
  - He won't lash out at his teacher Izumi either, primarily because she can kick his ass if he ever even thought about hitting her!
  - Same with Olivia Armstrong. He actually got scared!
- Edward also finds himself the victim of the Berserk Button whenever he needs to go back to Winry for maintenance and (predominantly) repairs. If there's even so much as one scratch...
- Izumi also seems to have a few of these, and they seem to be set on a hair trigger.
- Roy Mustang is generally a Chessmaster who pretends that he is not more than he seems; pursuing career and chasing girls shamelessly. But if you dare to harm his comrades, he'll give you hell for all his worth. Literally.
  - Chapter 93 shows mocking the death of a close friend, especially when you're the killer, is another excellent way to push it.
  - And he's ready to take a dive down to the extreme just to make sure Envy paid for it. Good thing (or bad thing) Hawkeye and Ed stop him.
  - On the other hand, you shouldn't tell Hawkeye that you killed Mustang (even if it's not true). The result is not pretty.
- A scene with Greed shows that calling Envy "ugly" is a great way to tick him off, and get him to turn into his true form to freaking kill you.
- You think it's dangerous to poke jabs at Ed's hieght? If you threaten Winry he will kick...your...ass!
Choji Akimachi from Naruto is constantly prodded into battle by his allies and enemies who call him fat.
Choji (after one of the Sound Genin calls him "fatso"): "I'M NOT FAT! IIIII AAAAAAM BIIIIIG BOOOOOOONEEEEEEEED!"
- One of the Sound Genin calls him worthless and fat. In response, Choji takes some random Pill, and it Makes him skinny, gives him magical glowing butterfly wings, and enough raw power to kill the Sound Genin (in his own Final Form) in one strike.
- This exchange from The Movie is pretty self-explanatory:
  Naruto: Man, I don't know where you got your taste in men, Sakura, but it stinks.
  Sakura (furiously): WHAT DID YOU SAY?!
  Naruto (with Blank White Eyes and a small voice): I'm sorry, what was the question?
- The Choji example is even more amusing considering that, yes, he is fat, his entire family is pretty big, because their family specialty involves various uses for all that extra weight, including burning through all of it in a single fight for extra energy. Although Chouji himself is less fat and more big-boned after the Time Skip.
- On a more serious note, mentioning Orochimaru in a respectful fashion in front of Naruto is a good way to activate Naruto's Superpowered Evil Side.
- After the timeskip, Naruto and Sakura are both angered by anyone who badmouths Sasuke, or suggests that he is too far gone for them to bring back.
- Lee gets quite angry whenever anyone speaks ill of Guy.
- In Shippuuden, a surefire way to push Kankuro's Berserk Button is to badmouth Gaara in front of him.
- And then it all hit the fan. All of it. Apparently Naruto's real berserk button? Stab and almost kill a close friend who just declared her love for him. Cue Rocking Rocks, a tune that plays when a certain OmnicidalManiac gets pissed off.
- Never! EVER! Call Tsunade an old hag! EVER!
- Also, pointing a sword at Sakura when Naruto is around is a bad idea.
- The Mizukage does NOT like anyone implying that she needs a man.
Lina Inverse from Slayers lays the smackdown on anyone who's impolite enough to point out she's rather flat-chested, especially her younger incarnation.
Lina (after a Slayers Next exchange, where Martina says her chance to win against her are smaller than her curves): "That bitch!... She has the nerve to defy me and even brought up my weakest point!
In the harem comedy manga Ai Kora, Maeda tends to go ballistic on those who ridicule or harm the girls in his ~~semi-wanted~~ hunted-after harem, especially if they threaten their "perfect features" (like a delinquent who nearly knocked out one of Sakurako's flawless blue eyes, or a salesman pushing dodgy "breast-reduction bras" who made Yukari feel self-conscious about her "bullet-train bustline").
In the manga Cafe Kichijouji, Jun, a younger effeminate boy, snaps into a violent manner if anyone makes the unfortunate mistake of saying that he looks like a girl.
Ikuto of Nagasarete Airantou, if told anything is "absolutely impossible", will get it done with twice the speed and four times the effort.
Josuke of Jojos Bizarre Adventure will go from polite doormat to rampaging berserker if anyone dares insult his hair. This includes his allies.
- In one particularly humorous scene, his opponent (who is currently bedridden from severe racing injuries) plays off of Josuke's moral nature to keep himself from getting attacked... only to end up insulting his pompadour. Josuke gets around beating up the helpless by using his powers to heal the fellow, and then beats the man to a bloody pulp and throws him out a window. He gets better, though.
In Hayate The Combat Butler, Nagi goes ape when Hayate discovers her self-made manga and calls it a "picture diary". She boots him out of the study, but he mistakes it for her kicking him out of the mansion.
In Shin Mazinger, Kouji snaps when Boss and his goons insult his grandfather Juzo one too many times. He promptly beats the ever-loving crap out of Boss, and would have seriously hurt him if Kouji's soon-to-be girlfriend Sayaka hadn't interrupted to tell Kouji that his grandfather was in real danger.
Kei and Yuri have only one official code name: The Lovely Angels. Calling them the Dirty Pair to their faces - or suggesting that two college-age girls can't be all that dangerous - will earn you a punch in the face.
- Not to mention what they will do if you actually are the individual that they have been hired to bring in.
- Or if you're simply unfortunate enough to be in the immediate area once they're finished their mission.
  - In some cases, "the immediate area" may be the entire planet - or on one occasion, several star systems.
In Dragonball Z, a key part of Gohan's character was the power he gained whenever one of his friends or family members was the victim of cruelty. He goes insane with rage and usually the Big Bad or an army of his Mooks are left reeling or dead. It was this that allowed him to be the first to reach Super Saiyan 2. Seriously, never do something horrible and snark Gohan. He will end you.
- Same thing happened to his dad in the last major arc...Frieza just had to kill his best friend Krillin at the end of a chain of revenge attacks (killing Dende, and severely injuring Piccolo) and then go on to threaten Gohan. Bad. Fucking. Idea. Just to prove he's Not Himself, he actually yells at Gohan to go back to the ship. And Frieza still doesn't get it afterwards, proceeding to mock Krillin later...
- Vegeta gets one of these as well during the Cell saga, when Cell kills Future Trunks. Vegeta - who, up until this point, has either ignored or explicitly rejected any attempts by Trunks to reach out to him - absolutely loses it. Of course, his attack doesn't work, but it's a pretty critical character-defining moment.
Call Allen Walker from D Gray Man 'Moyashi' and watch him boil and explode.
- Or mention to him something about "debt"...
- Either that, or tell Komui Lee that his sister Lenalee is getting married...
Souichi Tatsumi from Challengers and The Tyrant Falls In Love may be antisocial, but he's pretty normal otherwise... until a reference to homosexuality is made, upon which he burns with a desire to bash all homosexuals' skulls in, especially the one courting his little brother. He even becomes The Pesci to Morinaga after the latter drives home the point that he's a homosexual with a crush on him, interpreting every offer from Morinaga as an attempt to get into his pants (sometimes it's actually true, sometimes it isn't). And NO, he himself ISN'T a homo; he's just sleeping with one!
Oniwakamaru, from the second episode of Samurai Champloo, kills anyone who calls him a monster (usually based on his physical appearance).
Chrono Crusade has a more serious example (that's particularly noticeable in the manga version): Chrono is known (depending on the translation and whether it's the manga or the anime) as "the Slayer of 100/1000/100 million". How'd he get that name? Well, in the manga, he tried to rescue some of his fellow Sinners and found them killed by enemy demons. He picked up the body of a small child, staring in horror, then snapped, killing the number of demons he was said to have killed in one short, bloody, rage-filled battle. This happens at least a few other times, particularly in the manga: basically, if he's threatened or someone he cares about (PARTICULARLY Rosette) is hurt, his demonic nature takes over and things get very violent, VERY quickly.
Bleach: Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya is usually an apathetic, grumpy captain. But he has sworn that should anyone ever try to make his adoptive sister Lieutenant Momo Hinamori bleed just one drop, he had no qualms about going batshit to kill the one who makes her bleed. Unfortunately, the only time he really wants to go batshit, he's up against someone so broken that it's justified he'd lose that instant.
- He also gets pretty pissed when someone makes fun of his hair, but he's never tried to kill anyone in that instance (that we know of).
- Or when he gets called anything else but "Captain Hitsugaya". Momo is the only one who can call him "Hitsugaya-kun" without getting him to growl. But not even she can call him "Shiro-chan" without him going "... stfu, Bed-Wetter Momo!"
- Let's not forget Ikkaku Madarame, who threatens to kill anyone who mentions his lack of hair.
- Ichigo also gets very upset when he sees an older sibling threaten to harm a younger one. To him, older brothers are born first in order to protect the ones that come after them.
  - Ichigo also gets upset when people attack unarmed or defeated people.
  - And, lately, Ichigo has been going nuts on anyone that would dare harm Orihime. No prizes for guessing how the Shippers are taking that.
  - Not only that while in "Hollow Mode", he impaled Ishida just for touching her! Talk about agressive compatition.
- Let's not forget Captain Byakuya Kuchiki. Do anything to his adoptive sister/sister in law and he will make his cute little pink cherry blossoms eat you alive. All 784 million of them. Poor, stupid Leroux Zommari.
- Ganju will get angry enough to drive a bucketload of customers out of his store if you mention his eyelashes.
- Kira Izuru is a very quiet, calm person who would really rather not hurt his opponents too badly. Bring up the defection of his former boss, a man he was absolutely devoted to, however, and be prepared to die horribly.
- Ayasegawa Yumichika hates ugly things in general, but absolutely cannot stand being called ugly. Amusingly enough, his latest opponent, Charlotte Cuuhlhourne, shares this Berserk Button. Hilarity Ensues.
In Slam Dunk, Shohoku ace Rukawa shall NOT be interrupted when he's sleeping. Expect physical damage if you do.
Rukawa (to Norio Honda): My name is Rukawa Kaede, I'm a first grader, and I will NOT forgive the idiots who wake me up when I'm sleeping. *beats the crap out of Honda*
- Also earlier in the series, if you ever say 'Basket' or something that sounds like that in the vicinity of Sakuragi, expect yourself to pass out after he headbutts you.
- Don't forget their captain and leader, Takenori Akagi. Insult basketball in front of this Genius Bruiser and you'll see exactly how much of a Serious Business the sport is for the guy.
Apparently "bastardizing Shuffle! and insulting Rin-chan" does not sit well with Kaede Fuyou, who threatens to kill anyone who does so in this piece of fan art.◊
- Would've been better if it said "Rin-kun", as it's her Love Rival and senpai Asa Shigure who calls Rin "Rin-chan". Kitto Kitto Kaede is gonna have a field day with this.
Takeru aka TK is generally a Cheerful Child in Digimon Adventure 02. But because of seeing Angemon die in the first season, he can get very angry when people don't realize that Evil Is Not A Toy.
In episode 2 of the Pretty Sammy OAV, Tenchi mentions to Bif Standard that his software is slow. At that comment, Bif goes into a lengthy rant, feeling that he had insulted his software, and Tenchi, Sasami, and Misao quietly escape while he is still ranting.
One of the baddies taunted Cure Black about how easily he separated her from her partner and went on to explain how doomed they were (etc etc). Black then proceeded to blow up the subway car they were riding with her Battle Aura. "ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT HONOKA!?"
- Another baddie forfeited his life when he nearly killed her brother.
Daigo Ikari of Eyeshield 21 has a Berserk Button that goes off whenever someone insults one of his teammates, regardless of whether the insulting party was joking or not, or if he could get injured in the process (for example, he at one point dives off the stands to attack Onihei after he had called Otawara an idiot). The result is often that his own teammates have to restrain him with chains because he'll break free if they use rope!
- Of course, in this situation Ikari was frankly just being too sensitive; Otawara is an idiot. In any case, the fact that he goes completely nuts whenever he hears someone badmouth his school or its football team is the reason he's two years behind in school; He was sent to a juvenile detention center after one of his "incidents".
- NEVER insult anyone who stands up to Gaou around him. He will kill you.
- Monta has a beserk button of being called a monkey.
- Do not insult Sena in front of Chuubou unless you want to get knocked down.
Despite his cold demeanor, Mikagami Tokiya from Flame Of Recca HAS one Berserk Button: Call him a girl, a she-man, or whatever Gender Bender insult to him and the best thing you can hope for is a death cold stare from him (which thankfully what he usually did, thus far...)
Kamishiro Yuu from Holyland totally loses it after one of his friends is beat up by a gang and goes on a gang-hunting rampage. Given that the manga is fairly realistic in its treatment of street fights, this is quite the feat of endurance and strength.
Monkey D. Luffy of One Piece. He has two; run far, far away if you damage his hat, or hurt one of his nakama.
- The entire plot of One Piece seems to be based around this. If you fight Luffy without having hurt one of his friends, you at least have the possibility of victory. If you hurt one of his nakama...not so much.
- Massively subverted in one fight with Kuma. The man made the Straw Hat pirates vanish one by one, and Luffy couldn't do anything about it.
- And if you hurt one of YOUR nakama, you are so screwed Boa Hancock & sisters, we're looking at you.
- Also, Buggy the Clown. If you insult his clown nose, he will freak out, and given the chance, he will shoot you with a cannonball capable of destroying several city blocks. When you account for the fact that he tends to mishear things and assume they were insults to his nose...
- Robin is also quite angered by those who destroy ruins, as she demonstrates on a Mook and Yama in the Skypiea arc. She also gets angry when people talk about her past and why she got her bounty often because what they're saying is not true.
- Don't call Chopper a tanuki; he'll go ~~gorilla~~ Muscle Point on your ass.
- Sanji will beat anyone who mistreats the ladies to a bloody pulp, especially if the lady in question is his dear Nami-san. Also, he often goes batshit when called weak or something like that. And if you don't like his cooking or his table service? You're so dead.
  - And don't let him catch you wasting food either; that's a big one.
Even though she is sadistic and brutal, Suigintou rarely drops her cool and composed manner, antagonizing Shinku with an alluring, self-confident voice occasionally interspersed with a soft evil laugh. This goes away when Shinku calls her 'junk', whereupon Suigintou completely loses her cool and starts screaming "I AM NOT JUNK!!!!". Her power does significantly increase, but that's not doing her good most of the time.
Most of the characters on Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha are generally well-mannered. However... don't touch Vita's hat. Just don't. You'll live longer.
- The third season adds more cases: Don't hurt Vita's friends either; abducting Subaru's older sister or Nanoha's adopted daughter, and destroying Caro's home or threatening to do so is a bad idea as well, as all of those have led to an unstoppable rage.
Do NOT refer to Faust VII's wife and partner spirit Eliza as a "puppet" or a "doll". He's usually calm and arrogant to an unhuman point, but the moment you insult her, he will go into an Unstoppable Rage and KILL YOU.
Lelouch Lamperouge's Berserk Button is people threatening or harming his little sister or [[Nakama his friends]]. Not a problem in and of itself, but he has... trouble with restraint once the button's been pressed.
- Rolo also goes nuts when somebody mentions Nunally.
- Actually, what got Lelouch to really flip his lid was when his "brother" shot Shirley and, despite Lelouch's strongest efforts, he could not save her. It didn't help his sanity that she gave him a most romantic "good bye" speech.
"You've hurt my brother. That, I WILL NOT FORGIVE!"
Obligatory Death Note example. Do not call Soichiro Yagami a fool in front of Touta Matsuda. Even if you're his son. You will not like the result.
Butch, a member of Pokemon's Team Rocket, will not take happily someone butchering (no pun intended) his name. (Some examples include Botch, Bob, Bill, Biff, Buffy (seriously), and a variety of other names (except the obvious one)). In Japanese, the mistake is always Kosanji (instead of Kosaburo).
- Also be sure not to steal food from May when she's hungry, or she will beat you up.
  - Ash used to get really pissed off if someone stole his hat (Indigo League series). He's mellowed out about it recently.
- Fall asleep while Jigglypuff's performing and it will get angry. Steal its marker/microphone or otherwise deny it the chance to perform and it will get REALLY angry.
Don't call Nora a dog.
- In addition, don't speak dismissively of humanity or threaten the lives of those Kazuma believes to be under his protection if you are at all attatched to your vital organs.
It isn't wise to refer to Tadase as 'prince'.
Do NOT say anything bad about one Neil Dylandy within the earshot range of his partner Tieria Erde.
- Or don't mention Celestial Being in front of one Louise Halevy
Mitsukuni "Honey" Haninozuka from Ouran High School Host Club. Whatever you do, DO NOT attempt to harm his bunny. Or Haruhi or Mori, for that matter. Seriously, don't.
- Tamaki also gets pretty ticked when someone (usually the twins) makes a move on Haruhi. Except for Kasanoda, where he went into a Heroic BSOD!
Villain example from Black Cat: Do NOT mention Minatsuki Saya in front of Creed. Especially if you mention her in a positive light.
- Oh, and don't refer to Train as "that guy" in front of him, either. You will address his ~~wife~~ partner with respect.
In Fruits Basket, black Haru is breaking up a classroom in rage. They try to reason with him, until he grabs Tohru by the arm in front of Kyo. A moment later, standing between him and Tohru:
I don't know what made you snap, but don't get Tohru involved in your stupid problems.
- Messing with Tohru around Kyo, Yuki, Hanajima, Uotani, or most of the main characters is a really, really bad idea, especially considering that Kyo and Yuki are both extremely skilled martial artists, Hanajima once accidentally almost killed someone with her denpa, and Uotani is an ex gangster. Even Yuki and Kyo can get along when Tohru's involved, and they make quite a combination when they aren't arguing.
From Hidamari Sketch, we have Hiro's weight and figure. And then we also have Miyako pressing it so often...
In DOGS, both Badou Nails and Haine Rammsteiner have Berserk Buttons: for Badou, who is usually clumsy, goofy, and terminally unlucky, he'll become a terrifying killing machine if he runs out of cigarettes or has them taken away, his rage instantly subsiding the moment you give him a cigarette, leading to Haine at least once intentionally taking his cigarettes away from him to encourage him to fight. For Haine, who is terrified of women, being touched by one will cause him to attack everything around him indiscriminately (with the exception of Nill). And don't shoot his gun, unless you don't like your face.
Suwabara doesn't wear a bandanna because he's bald. Really!
Do NOT mess with Yuugi or any of his friends unless you want an ancient Egyptian spirit challenging you to a deadly game with even deadlier consequences once you lose.
Do not call Onizuka trash. Ever. Be prepared to have you back slammed to the floor by a fantastic martial artist if you do.
Full Metal Panic example: Oh god, never, ever kill the janitor's pet carp Catherine and feed it to him.
... Did you just refer to Kaidoh Kaoru as "viper"?
Don't mess with Negi's students in Mahou Sensei Negima. More importantly, do not tell him you just put him through hell and wasted months of his time and made him take up black magic for a fight he had no chance of winning. Possibly an invoked trope considering Rakan just got done revealing himself to not be a moron and here he is acting like one again. Also, he wants Negi to fight his best.
- Nodoka Miyazaki in particular seems to be a berserk button for Negi. When Fate attacked her Negi became even more of a Papa Wolf than he normally is.
- In a less serious example, anyone who wastes Eishun's food, he slices.
- Then there's Setsuna: Do not mess with Konoka or she will tear right through you.
  - Ala Alba could probably defeat Fate in a matter of seconds if they just told Setsuna that Fate kidnapped Konoka. Critical Existence Failure in 5, 4, 3, 2...
Galaxy Angel: Colonel Volcott O. Huey is a usually even-tempered and complacent commander. But tell him his mustache doesn't suit him, and he'll revert to his combat days as the "White Wolf" and proceed to destroy everything in his path to defend his mustache's honor.
In Wolf's Rain, don't hurt or try to abduct Cheza.
Do not call Tamahome "Obake-chan". It won't be wise to hurt or threaten Miaka or his family either. Too late for the latter, though.
- Also, looking at Suboshi's brother the wrong way is utterly wrong. Suboshi killed Tamahome's family when he thought the Suzaku Seishi had murdered Amiboshi, after all.
Black Lagoon: Although she's generally maladjusted anyway, do not question Revy's cynicism. You'll probably end up with an extra orifice somewhere, even if you are on her side. She also doesn't like Eda asking if she's already had sex with Rock, or Eda making advances towards Rock. Isn't she just the sweetest Trigger Happy Tsundere?
- Also, anyone who waltzes in and starts shooting when Revy and Eda are at the Church of Violence had better damn well be prepared to go to war, as the scumbags chasing the title character of the Greenback Jane arc found out the hard way. Eda in particular does not look kindly on anyone putting a bullet in the church.
Obligatory Sailor Moon example: Sailors Moon, Mercury, and Mars tear Jedite a new one when he makes sexist remarks in the 13th episode. He escapes, if only to be put to Eternal Sleep by his superior for his latest failure to kill them.
- If I recall correctly they ran him over with a plane. Or was it three?
Cowboy Bebop: As shown in "Jupiter Jazz (Part I)," it's a terrible idea to call Spike by the name of his rival Vicious. He ends up going berserk and beating up an entire gang — whose leader survives, only to toss himself into the back of a garbage truck. View the asskicking here.
Spike: You think I'm Vicious? YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT VICIOUS IS!
In Code Geass, after Shirley is killed, Lelouch pretty much loses it.
Busou Renkin: Papillon utterly despises being called by his real name by anyone other than Kazuki. He was also not too pleased to find that Kazuki had apparently given up his humanity to become a Victor-like being after having fought Papillon to prevent him from giving up his humanity to become a homunculus.
Suzumiya Haruhi. Do not hurt Mikuru while Kyon is present. This man did not shy away from attempting to punch Haruhi for it. Yes, Kyon tried to punch Haruhi.
It is highly recommended you don't tell Buttercup/Kaoru from Demashita Powerpuff Girls Z she looks cute in a skirt. Her reaction is not pretty.
- Also Bubbles/Miyako hates to see mistreatment to animals of any kind As the Rowdyruff Boys find out. Except Mojo obviously and a bunch of these monkeys who admittedly didn't deserve Bubbles/Miayko's sympathy with the way they were acting.. Though she did feel some sympathy for him when she found out why he is the way he is. But of course, Mojo immediatley does something evil getting rid of that sympathy.

Close Anime and Manga

Johnny The Homicidal Maniac is not wacky, and anyone who tells him otherwise is in for a world of hurt. He'll also go off on one for someone accusing him of being a killer (which, as the name would suggest...), looking at him funny, believing in God (or anything remotely hopeful) or trying to avoid dying. Still another berserk button is incorrectly assuming what he does with the blood he drains from his victims. He DOES NOT drink it, he paints his wall, and if you say otherwise, he will get upset. With daggers.
Rorschach of Watchmen can be said to have a berserk button about criminals, which sort of comes with his territory; but his interviews with Dr. Long confirmed one thing: anyone who harms a child or one of his superhero compatriots is in for a world of hurt. He hits his permanent berserk button when he realizes that the child abductor he had been tracking down had butchered his victim and fed her to his dogs. Since then, he has been a Heroic Sociopath in the eyes of many.
Death's Head from the Transformers and Marvel comics hates it when people call him a bounty hunter. He prefers "Freelance Peacekeeping Agent", yes?
Monica from Brazilian comic Monica's Gang. Don't comment on her weight, height, or how big are her teeth, and even worse, call her ugly, if you don't want a girl to beat you up using a plush rabbit.
Never call Obelix from Asterix "fat". His chest's just slipped a bit, is all.
- Whenever anyone points out the fact that Unhygienix's fish are not fresh, a brawl ensues. In Asterix in Corsica, we learn that this is his young son's Berserk Button, too.
Tintin's Professor Calculus ("Tournesol" in the original French) does this when someone suggests he is "playing the goat." Given the professor's notoriously poor hearing, he is likely to blow up if he hears the phrase "playing the goat" - or anything that sounds remotely similar - used in any context.
- Also Captain Haddock if you take away his whisky.
The Incredible Hulk is generally a Berserker anyway, but anything or anyone that reminds him of his father is definitely in for a world of hurt.
Apollo and The Midnighter, members of The Authority, are upstanding heroes (possibly Anti Hero in the latter case, but still...) dedicated to making a better world and raising their adopted daughter Jenny, and they're openly homosexual, not to mention having a very stable and loving relationship. Anyone who calls them 'poofters', though, is in for a great heaping of suffering.
When talking to Snow White, Don't Mention The Dwarfs. Ever.
In The Punisher story arc "The Slavers," the brutal treatment that the titular slavers put their captives through triggers a rage so deep within Frank Castle that he goes to savage lengths so extreme that even he himself is surprised.
- And let's not forget what happened when some jackass mob dude dug up the remains of Frank's murdered family and pissed on them. Unstoppable Rage doesn't even begin to describe Frank's response.
An Archie Comics story titled "By Hook or Crook" has Jughead visiting the Chocolate Shoppe when a pair of burglars are robbing it. He initally cowers alongside Pop Tate when the robbers take the money, a painting, and the silverware; but when they're about to take all the hamburger meat in Pop's freezer, that's when he starts throwing punches and taking them down.
In Knights Of The Dinner Table, no-one should ever touch Bob's dice, as Nitro, an ex-Marine, discovered to his everlasting humiliation.
Spider Jerusalem is pretty much an entire switchboard of Berserk Buttons looking for an operator, but god help you if he finds out that you've abused your authority and hurt someone defenseless.
Scrooge Mc Duck doesn't like it when people disrespect his dead mother. Not one bit. He's also not too fond of people who try to take his gold or his land
In Batman don't ever kill an ally or close friend of his if you do you'd better hope he'll keep his no killing rule, he's done this twice with the Joker first when he killed Jason Todd and second when he thought he killed his childhood friend Thomas Elliot (of course since he's the trope namer for Joker Immunity he survived both attacks).
- He also has a very dim view of bad things happening to children, as the Sewer King found out the hard way.
Don't call Barb Wire "babe".
Hunter Rose and Argent were essentially each other's Berserk Buttons in Grendel. Virtually everything and anything either one said or did to the other would set him off.

Close Comic Books

The 2009 Star Trek movie - It is perfectly okay to talk shit about Commander Spock's Momma...as long as you do it while he's under heavy sedatives and has all four limbs tied down. Otherwise, you are going to get curb-stomped. Epically.
- ROMULUS WAS DESTROYED!!. HE SAW IT HAPPEN! So please, do not try to suggest otherwise to Captain Nero. Because that'll only piss him off. And bad things tend to happen to..well..the universe..when he gets pissed off.
Bugsy: "Don't call me that!" (Truth in Television; the nickname "Bugsy" was Benjamin Siegel's Berserk Button.)
This was basically the whole plot of the movie The Waterboy
- O Brother Where Art Thou? applies the same thing to George "Babyface" Nelson. This, too, is historically justified, as the real Nelson hated the nickname.
The Cotton Club: Dutch Schultz appears to have made a grudging peace with a rival gangster, but the rival won't stop needling him, casually remarking while grazing the buffet, "Aw, what's a Jew but a nigger turned inside out, anyway?" Schultz goes berserk and stabs him to death. Then again, it was never difficult to rile Schultz, in film or real life.
Kill Bill: Do not disparage the American or the Chinese side of O-Ren Ishii's heritage if you are attached to your head and wish to remain so.
Marty McFly from the Back To The Future films: "Nobody... calls me... chicken!" This is a rare instance in which getting over the Berserk Button is part of the Character Development, or where the Berserk Button is even treated as a bad thing to have.
- Also, Buford Tannen, who was berserk to begin with, completely loses it when called by his nickname, "Mad Dog," which he earned due to his viciousness and tendency to drool.
You mess with the fro, you got to go.
- Lance, the meek Token White member of the BROTHERHOOD. When he's called a "sissy", he pulls a man's heart out of his chest, rips another guy's head and spinal column clean out of his body (à la the title creature in Predator 2), and squashes the speaker's head between his hands.
- Mr. Feather, when he realizes that he's being subconsciously influenced by black culture.
Subversion: In Wes Craven's movie Red Eye, the villain, whose name is Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy) explains early on that he doesn't like being called Jack, because then his name sounds too much like Jack the Ripper. Towards the end, the heroine tries to activate his berserk button by calling him 'Jack', with no real effect. He's already chasing her with a knife, so he doesn't seem to take much offense.
- Ironically, mispronouncing Cillian Murphy's real name reportedly has this effect. One kid too many must have called him "Silly 'un" at school.
In the 1982 Film Noir parody Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid the protagonist Rigby Reardon (played by Steve Martin) goes into a homicidal rage every time someone mentions "cleaning woman". This is later used by the female protagonist to save them from the Bad Guys by tricking the main villain into saying the words and thus triggering a Bad Guy-killing frenzy.
In Space Jam, Lola Bunny goes into a basket-busting frenzy whenever anyone calls her "Doll".
Serenity. Who knew that a commercial about Fruity Oaty Bars could result in this much carnage? This is less of a triggering of out-and-out rage than a Manchurian Agent style activation of River's deadly assassin abilities. On the other hand, when Simon gets shot by the Reavers at the film's climax, she gets very angry, very calmly. So River's Berserk Button is located in Simon's chest.
- Mal and Zoe also have a Berserk Button in regards to Serenity Valley. When Jayne, in the middle of ripping Mal's leadership abilities, accuses him of getting everyone on his side killed in that battle, Zoe, the other major survivor of the battle, gives him a high-quality Death Glare and asks him very calmly if he wants to leave the room. Jayne gets the hint and backs off.
- Simon has a general Berserk Button as well in regards to River being put in danger. After the first job Mal takes her on during the movie, a job which almost gets everyone on the job eaten by Reavers, Simon hauls off and decks Mal when he and the others make it back to Serenity.
In the movie The Quick And The Dead, outlaw Dog Kelly is so named because of an incident in his Back Story where he was forced to eat his own dog or face starvation. Being as he loved the dog in question, any mention of his nickname or the incident is a good way to seriously piss him off, as evidenced in the deleted scene when Ellen, the heroine, teases him about it.
In Tim Burton's Ed Wood, Bela Lugosi is having a good day on set, until a well meaning prop guy compliments him for playing "Boris Karloff's sidekick." Profanity ensues.
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls: In a fight with a crazed Wachootoo tribesman, the tribesman grabs Ace and rearranges his hair into horns, mocking Ace's reputation as the "White Devil". Ace gets up and says that this has gone far enough, "Nobody... messes.. with the DO!" and then proceeds to get further pummeled by the tribesman.
As revealed in Escape from the Planet Of The Apes, the Apes get angry and defensive (in one case violently so) when called "monkeys". (Even though the title of the original book was La planète des singes, and singe is the French word for both "monkey" and "ape")
- No discrepancy there if you translate singe as "simian", which the Apes wouldn't find inaccurate.
In Meet The Feebles, Heidi's berserk button is Samantha, Bletch's secret mistress. During their first encounter, after Samatha insults her and says Bletch doesn't love her, she calls Samantha a pussy (she is a cat, after all), and throws her in a box. In their second encounter, while Heidi is trying to commit suicide by machine gun, Samantha basically tells her Not With The Safety On You Wont, and begins to leave. Heidi turns the gun on Samantha and kills her, starting Heidi on a murderous massacre.
Hocus Pocus: The generally practical Winnifred Sanderson only fully unleashes her wrath on anyone who dares to call her "ugly," and tortures or pursues the offenders single-mindedly. This eventually leads to her own demise, and that of her sisters.
The Great Mouse Detective features Ratigan (Vincent Price). Ratigan can be quite Affably Evil, but he absolutely flips out when called a rat. (He actually IS one, the only one depicted in the film, though all the rest of the characters are various mice and lizards.) A drunken mouse slips and calls him a rat during his Villain Song. His reaction is all the more effective in that after an initial moment of fury, he calms down... instead, he goes extremely quiet, and cooly, calmly, even lovingly, feeds poor Bartholomew to his Right Hand Cat.
Hancock. Call him an asshole. One. More. Time.
- Mary also has one. She doesn't like it when someone calls her crazy.
Darryl Revok does not sound like Dr. Ruth. He sounds like Revok. Darryl. Revok.
Subverted in Straw Dogs: Dustin Hoffman does go completely homicidal when the lads try to break into his house, but he remains entirely calm throughout.
The Joker in The Dark Knight always gets a little bit more serious whenever someone calls him crazy or a "freak." At first, he merely shows annoyance, but the final time he angrily orders a man cut into pieces and fed to his dogs.
Repo! The Genetic Opera: If you hurt Nathan's daughter, do expect to survive the night.
Duck Soup: President Rufus T. Firefly is prepared to go to war over Ambassador Trentino calling him an "upstart." Later Firefly has calmed down and he and Trentino patch things up, realizing that neither of them can remember the word that set things off. Trentino jokingly tries several possibilities, and unfortunately hits on the right one, which starts the war all over again.
Forrest Gump: Lieutenant Dan took great offense at Cunning Carla when she asked if Forrest was "stupid or something". Also, Forrest himself unleashed hell on several occasions when he saw someone mistreating his beloved Jenny.
Return Of The Jedi: You can abandon him in childhood, terrorize the known universe, murder his foster parents, kill his mentor, massacre thousands of his allies, cut off his hand and take him prisoner, but start talking smack about turning his twin sister to the Dark Side and Luke Skywalker's going to take you to school.
Austin Powers: "That makes me angry, and when Dr. Evil get angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset, and when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset people DIE!"
Spaceballs:
Princess Vespa: My hair. He shot my hair. Son of a bitch!
In the film version of MASH, a player from the rival team tries to get one of the black players thrown out of the football game by hitting his Berserk Button (calling him a coon) and causing the player to attack him. Spearchucker Jones (played by Fred Williamson) decides that two can play at this game and suggests the player hit his Berserk Button by calling into question the virtue of his beloved sister. This other player attacks him and is himself thrown out.
Office Space. Excuse me, I believe you have my Red Stapler.
Jamal Malik of Slumdog Millionaire remians calm, friendly, sweet and honest throughout most of the film. He even retains his composure while the Indian police are torturing him. However, if someone insults or harms Latika, the girl he loves, he becomes a whirling flurry of fists and angry directed at the source of the transgression.
I dare you to touch Tony Montana's sister. Go on, do it. You'll be meeting his little friend too.
In The Lord Of The Rings movie, the entire Fellowship flips out when Frodo gets stabbed...again.
In Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Big Chris is a calm and collected enforcer. When Dog puts a knife to his son, Little Chris' throat, he keeps cool until he gets the upper hand, and then goes completely apeshit.
Tommy DeVito of Goodfellas normally has a reputation for getting pissed off no matter what is said to him. But when Billy Batts, a made man, talks about a rather humiliating period from Tommy's past when he was known as "Spitshine Tommy" for shining the other mob dudes' shoes, and then tells Tommy to go get his shine box, Tommy goes ballistic, knifing Batts to death in a savage rage. This eventually gets Tommy killed right as he himself is going to become a made man, because you do not kill a made man without a sitdown and an okay from the boss.
Do NOT, under any circumstances, make Dr. Frank N Furter jealous. You WILL regret it.
- This is evident when, just simply seeing Rocky with Janet causes Frank to go into a psychotic rage and starts to chase Janet all over the castle.
  - He also, kills Eddie with a pick axe simply because Eddie was stealing the spotlight.
She may be the most peaceful monster in the Toho universe, but it's still a very bad idea to harm Mothra's children or the Shobijin (The the two fairies she protects).
- Likewise, even though he's already got a rather violent temper, Godzilla himself tends to go into Unstoppable Rage mode whenever anything tries to harm his son.
Let's just say that harming a child whenever Gamera is around may just very well be the last thing you'll ever do.
You can say whatever you like about Frank Hopkins, but leave his horse out of it. Or very, very bad things will happen.
- Another man whose horse you shouldn't insult, even slightly: D'Artagnan from The Three Musketeers. He won't even challenge you to a duel; he'll just charge with intent to run you through. At least, that's what he does in the Douglas Fairbanks incarnation.
Teddy Duchamp in Stand By Me goes from mocking to frothing in seconds if you insult his dad's sanity. This is an odd case, since his dad once disfigured him on purpose.
Rock and Roll High School. Never try to burn a pile of your students' rock n roll records, or else they will take over the school with help from The Ramones.
Lone Wolf Mc Quade: You can beat him, shoot him, bury him alive, and even shoot his dog and maybe survive, but if you hurt his daughter, you will open the whole can of Chuck Norris whoopass.
Harvey Dent after Rachel dies.

Close Film

Barak and later his son in the Belgariad who turn into rabid bears when Garion or his son is threatened.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we discover that Molly Weasley also has a Berserk Button. The gentle housewife becomes an enraged witch when you threaten her children, as Dark Action Girl Bellatrix Lestrange learned the hard way. Hence one of the favorite quotes among some fans: "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" In fact, it pissed her off so badly she ignored wizarding laws and killed the bitch with an illegal curse.
- We never know which curse she uses. It's implied that Bellatrix dies the same way she killed Sirius. (however, that means the Movie will have her use the good old AK-666).
- And never insult The Dumbledore within earshot of Hagrid. That will show you what a Bad Idea is to piss off a Gentle Giant.
- Dumbledore has his own button - he's perfectly calm and cool while he is told he's lost his marbles, or while Harry throws a tantrum, implicates him in the death of Sirius, and wrecks his office, but threaten to harm his students, and God have mercy on your soul.
- Also Bellatrix herself has a little problem with people pointing out that Voldy is half-blood.
Terry Pratchett's Librarian in Discworld is famous for his hatred of being called a monkey. (He's an orangutan, and orangutans are apes, not monkeys.)
- Also, in Night Watch, Carcer — a rather psychopathic villain who would rather kill you for your watch rather than ask you the time — becomes inordinately angry when his rank of Sergeant is abbreviated to "Sarge".
- Subverted in Hogfather, in which the villain Jonathan Teatime (who will usually kill people for no reason at all) gets very mildly annoyed when people mispronounce his name (it's pronounced 'teh-ah-tim-eh'), at one point tiredly commenting "Please don't try to distract me."
  - Played straight with Medium Dave Lilywhite: "If he had a fault, it was a tendency to deal out terminal and definitive retribution to anyone who said anything about his brother."
- The monk Marco Soto in Thief of Time has a very un-monk-like mass of long black hair. He is a calm, tranquil person... unless you try to touch it. In the same book Pratchett actually refers to this trope, although by another name. As he puts it "everyone has their own private exemption clause. "But not on a Sunday", "Only if I feel like it" or in this case "Not the hair. Nobody touches the hair okay?" The real life person the character is based on and named after is much the same way. Not that you'd want to touch his hair anyway. It eats combs, people.
- Not quite the same as all of the other examples, but Sam Vimes in Thud! gets scary when he is prevented from reading to his son at 6:00. "That! Is!! Not!!! My!!!! Cow!!!!!"
- You know what? Pretty much any major character has a button. Granny Weatherwax. Go on. I dare you. Try and sort people by importance infront of Vimes. Death doesn't take kindly to anybody messing with his harvest. Tiffany loves her sheep. Etc. Etc.
  - DEATH also temds to do bad things to people who do bad things to cats
Due to hideous mistreatment on his part, the title character of White Fang goes insane when laughed at for much of the book.
Anne Shirley's hair, especially if you compare it to carrots.
Harm anyone Honor Harrington considers to be under her protection, and nothing will save you.
- Harm Honor herself (or even think about it), and Nimitz will rip your face off. Literally.
  - Harm Honor, and Andrew LaFollet will make you pay.
CS Lewis's The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Last Battle: The chapter "The Rashness of the King" refers to King Tirian going berserk and chopping off a few heads when he sees Calormenes chopping down dryads' trees and harnessing and whipping a Talking Horse. He blows his party's cover later when the Calormenes threaten a Talking Boar. Do not mess with King Tirian's subjects!
Rugaard from E. E. Knight's Age of Fire series hates being called by any derogatory nickname, and finally snaps when called "Batty" to his face by one of his fellow trainees in the Drakwatch, turning what started off as an ordinary brawl into an Unstoppable Rage as he takes on all three of his bunk-mates at once. Then again, it's understandable when you consider the fact he was without a name as a hatchling and as The Unfavourite was flat out told by his father he didn't need or deserve one.
Do not call Yosyp Kazakov a Russian. He is not Russian, he is Ukrainian.
Rosalie Hale from Twilight: "You. Got. Food. In. My. Hair." Enough said. Now would be the appropriate time to start running.
In the Temeraire universe, the marriage-like bond between dragon and handler means that dragons will, generally, flip their multi-tonne shit if their captains are hurt, and vice-versa. Captain Laurence, though, deserves special mention: raised the third son of a Lord, he becomes an aviator only after a long career in the Navy, with manners and a sense of social mores and politesse that most aviators just don't bother with. He's truly a gentleman's gentleman. However, if someone insults Temeraire or mistreats a dragon in any way, he will not be responsible for his very violent actions.
- Anne McCaffrey did it first, with dragonriders whose dragons have died most often becoming suicidal and/or insane. One of the Oldtimers deliberately arranged for his dying dragon to expire in a failed mating flight, specifically so he could go berserk himself and kill F'lar.
Jack London's famous novel The Call of the Wild features a a grizzled older sledding dog named Sol-Leks, with one blind eye. Buck, the mutt protagonist of the novel, takes a nasty bite when he approaches Sol-leks from his blind side and is careful never to do it again.
In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, only someone who doesn't mind dying at the hands of Luke Skywalker would even think of killing Mara Jade. Not that she needs his protection.
- And vice-versa; you try to hurt Luke or Ben, and Mara will not hesitate to rip your head off.
  - Family and friends seem to be a Berserk Button for the Skywalkers in general.
- Also, if you mess with Tenel Ka's friends, she'll mess up you!
  - Likewise, Tenel Ka's rival Tamith Kai freaks whenever someone brings up how Tenel Ka busted up her knee-cap without breaking a sweat. Tenel Ka makes it a point to ask "How's the knee?" every time they cross paths.
From Garth Nix's Old Kingdom trilogy, Touchstone goes into a berserker mode once, running up a hill carrying an injured Sabriel away from danger, and again (offpage) when a northern assassin tries to stab Sabriel with a serving fork, he throws the 6 foot assassin accross the table and attempts to crush him with his throne.
The Saga Of Darren Shan: Do not call Steve Leopard evil to his face. Seirously.
The title character of Hop Frog by Edgar Allan Poe is a short, misshapen jester who meekly puts up with the abuse heaped on him by the king and noblemen he serves...until the king throws his drink in the face of the dancer Trippetta, the only person who was ever nice to him. He immediately devises a scheme that ends with his tormentors getting burned alive in full view of a crowd.
Examined in, The Sleeping Dragon, the first of Joel Rosenberg's stories about a group of college kids transported to a fantasy world. A dwarf warrior needs to go berserk to break the group out of a bad situation. He understands that he needs to find a point of anger and build on it. Cue flashbacks to life back on earth, where he was wheelchair bound with MS. Not enough, no matter how deep he goes. Finally in despair he finds the button [["So here I am, just as helpless as I've been my entire life".]] Last words of the chapter "He went berserk".
One minor character from Simon R. Green's Nightside series, who fed on the intense emotions of others, went around in public dressed as a Nazi SS officer while wearing a large Star of David, specifically in hopes of pushing other people's Berserk Buttons.

Close Literature

If Jack Bauer is demanding answers NOW!!!, you had best answer them. Failure to do so will result in extremely unpleasant consequences.
- Also, lying to Jack Bauer is the same is feeding yourself to hungry Grizzly Bear, just much worse.
Ray J. Johnson, a character on The Redd Foxx Show, employed a variation on this as his signature trope; whenever addressed as "Mister Johnson", he would angrily rattle off a list of other things he would prefer to be called.
In 1944, both The Three Stooges and Abbott And Costello made use of an even older vaudeville routine (allegedly created by Joey Faye) in which the words "Niagara Falls" serve as a trigger for a violent outburst by one of the characters. A variation of the same routine (the keyword was "Martha") showed up in an episode of I Love Lucy, too.
The Golden Age of Ballooning sketch on one episode of Monty Pythons Flying Circus starred Ferdinand von Zeppelin, creator of the zeppelin airship, taking a trip in one of his zeppelins. Several people came up to him to congratulate him on his marvellous "balloon", to which he screams in a terrible German accent, "IT'S AN AIRSHIP!" and throws the offender out the window.
In the episode of The King Of Queens "Bun Dummy", Carrie would get very defensive if someone (usually Doug) made even a passing comment about her wearing her hair in a bun (Indeed, Carrie was taking her bun-wearing pretty seriously). It was only when she saw a picture of Doug's old high school librarian (emphasis on "old") with her hair in a bun that she realized they were right all along. To be fair, it was just in that episode, so it could also be considered a Compressed Vice.
In an episode of Without A Trace, Jack and Samantha catch a serial killer (who was posing as his twin brother) by using his Berserk Button: He hated his childhood nickname, "Mouse". The resulting violence was then cut short by the above agents immediately pointing their guns at him.
In The Catherine Tate Show, the comedy in the "Derek" sketches comes almost exclusively from his reaction when Mistaken For Gay.
Scotty of Star Trek The Original Series has a very logical Berserk Button for a chief engineer. Insult The Federation? Fine. Insult Captain Kirk? Fine. Insult the Enterprise? Prepare for a Bar Brawl.
- Don't call Worf a coward. Just don't.
- Or call B'Elanna 'Miss Turtlehead.'
- Also not a wise move to endanger any of Janeway's crew.
  - Jean-Luc Picard is a very refined gentleman. Hell, you can assimilate him, torture him, attack his ship, you name it, and he will still be willing to try to sit down and sort out the misunderstanding over a nice up of Earl Grey. But...if you're a fellow officer who feels you can disrespect the principles of Starfleet or another officer for your own convenience just because you think you have clout; he will seriously mess you up. And the worst part is he won't lift a finger.
- James T. Kirk will let a lot of stuff slide. But DO NOT try to hijack or steal his lady, the Enterprise. He WILL blow up the damn ship, just so you can see who you're truly messing with.
- If you call Spock a half-breed or insult his mother, your death will be slow and painful.
Kaylee of Firefly behaves similarly to Scotty above, and is ready to fight a garrison of Feds for insulting Serenity.
- Also, whatever you do, do not threaten or turn on any member of Mal's crew. If you're lucky, he'll just shoot you. But if you aren't, he's more than willing to throw you out the airlock or worse. Also, just because he calls Inara a whore constantly doesn't mean that you get to, as Atherton Wing found out when Mal decked him in "Shindig." Simon also got decked in the first episode when he accused Mal (a former Independent) of sympathizing with the Alliance. Quoth Jayne moments later: "Saw that comin'."
- Zoe's is rather obvious, although rarely triggered: Wash.
- Simon has River. River has ~~The Oatie Bar~~ Simon.
When in Rome, don't talk ill of the XIII Legion. Just don't.
In the '70s live-action Saturday morning show The Kids from C.A.P.E.R., Bugs went berzerk (fairly literally) whenever he heard the word "bananas," for no apparent reason.
One of comedy host Jon Stewart's major hot buttons is gay rights. When he was "interviewing" the show's senior black correspondent Larry Wilmore on the subject of the black community's opposition to gay marriage Stewart got very worked up and aggressive, despite the fact that the "interview" was pre-planned and comedic.
Cameron does not like it when someone lies to her. However, being somewhat lacking in emotions, her anger tends to be very cold.
- John Connor is both Cameron and Sarah's Berserk Button. Harm him, and your life is forfeit.
The Big Bad of third season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Mayor Wilkins, tended to lean toward the Affably Evil end of things; insisting on good hygiene from his minions, reading newspaper funny pages, refraining from profanity, and giving Buffy and Angel seemingly genuinely well-meant relationship advice. Then his enforcer, Faith, was put in a coma. He actually tried to smother Buffy right in the middle of the hospital. In front of a nurse. When Angel tried to stop him, he went so far as to call Buffy a whore. And he was the only villain who actually wanted to keep all the fighting and death a secret.
- Don't forget in the same season when the Mayor interrupts the Scoobies meeting in the library! He threatens Buffy and before you can say, "Who's your Watcher?" Giles has pulled a motherfucking sword on him. If you want to fuck with Buffy, you're going to have to fuck with her badass, daddy figure of a Watcher.
- Faith's coma was the result of her hitting Buffy's Berserk Button - harming Angel. When Spike did so in Season Two, he barely survived.
- The Scooby Gang is basically one giant Berserk Button. Hurt one of them, and they will all hunt you down.
- Tara was Willow's Berserk Button. Warren pressed it. The world was lucky enough to survive; Warren... not so much.
- In the season finale, Andrew tries to calm Anya down by having her think of good things. Then he mentions bunnies...
Do not call Cordelia Chase a bitch. She will prove it.
While playing himself in Father Ted, Richard Wilson is portrayed as reacting violently whenever someone repeats his catchphrase as Victor Meldrew to him. The actor himself admits that this (much like anyone else haunted by a well-known catchphrase) is something that spills over to real life.
In Doctor Who, you do NOT call Ace small. She will hurt you. With a bat. And Nitro-9.
There's an engineered instance in Torchwood; the guy Suzie has been messing with will go into a ten-second Unstoppable Rage when the titular organization is mentioned.
When he was first introduced, Hooch from Scrubs did not take kindly to his name being misused. And then, he went crazy.
Don't make fun of Trudy within earshot of Adrian Monk. Or you can vacuum his carpet to make the lines all diagonal. Or take a wizz on the train. Or...
In Battlestar Galactica, Commander Adama's is when people threaten his crew - comes with being a Nakama. It's most obvious in the second season, when Helo and Tyrol are facing execution for accidentally killing another officer.
- So he almost goes to war with the superior battlestar Pegasus to get them back.
- Speaking of Helo, don't ever call his wife or daughter a "toaster." Nor should you call him a "toasterfrakker."
- And as evidenced in season 4.5, do not keep Laura Roslin from talking to her people. Do not cut off her wireless. And especially do NOT tell Laura Roslin you've just killed her boyfriend, Admiral Adama. She will be COMING. FOR. ALL. OF. YOU.
In the X-Files, Agent Mulder goes on a rampage when he thinks the government is onto him, especially when Scully was abducted in season 2. Also, Alex Krycek and CSM tend to make him go on rampages.
- Agent Dogget's, (later introduced in season 8) button is when someone harms Scully or especially his partner Reyes. Seriously, don't mess with the T-1000.
- Hurt Mulder or Scully. Just try it. The other half of that partnership will own you. Witness the normally calm Scully's outburst at Boggs in "Beyond the Sea" and Mulder's rage when Scully is abducted. I would not want to come between those two.
  Scully: "I came here to tell you that if he dies because of what you did, four days from now no one will stop me from being the one to throw the switch to gas you out of this life for good, you sonofabitch!!!!!!!"
Harm Noah Bennet/HRG's family, and you will understand why he doesn't need superpowers.
- Jessica has a similar reaction to any percieved threats to Micah.
- And Hiro hates being called "Pikachu".
- Threaten Claire and not only will HRG brign down a world of hurt on you, but so will Peter, Nathan, Angela, Sandra, and a whole lot of others.
- Do not threaten Molly Walker or Daphne Millbrook. Matt Parkman knows how to screw with your mind.
Gil Grissom can converse coolly with rapists, child abusers, murderers, arsonists, and serial killers without breaking a sweat. But hurt Sara, and Unstoppable Rage doesn't even begin to describe it. The Miniature Killer is lucky to be alive.
Perhaps not so much a character trait as a one-off breakdown, but... YOU ATE? MY? SANDWICH?!?
Don't ever say the suits of the Power Rangers RPM are made of spandex in Dr. K's presence. "Tights" seems to be okay, though.
- Also, in the third season of the show, whenever Rito Revolto would call Lord Zedd "Ed"... it just wouldn't end well. At all. Actually, Rito was pretty much just a walking Berserk Button for all the other villains.
In Kamen Rider Kiva, Knight Templar Keisuke Nago literally goes berserk over a button on a shirt.
- A little elaboration may be in order: Nago is a Bounty Hunter who takes a button from every crook he captures as a trophy. In one episode, a Fangire criminal goes out of his way to mess with Nago, even having the buttons of his coat reinforced so they can't be yanked off. This causes Nago to go completely off the deep end, even beating up some cops and abducting the criminal post-arrest just to get the damn thing. And while doing so, he rants "BUTTON! MY BUTTON! MY BUTTON!" Not his proudest moment.
Don't endanger anybody on Leroy Jethro Gibbs's team. Especially Abby.
Supernatural makes an art of pressing the Berserk Button (and fuels countless gigs of fanfic) by using the preternatural protectiveness brothers Sam and Dean feel for each other. Even think about hurting Sam and Dean will turn your brain matter into jelly. And now that Sam has upped his mojo quotient with demon blood, even minions from Hell won't get a pass if they so much as breathe wrong around Dean.
The normally-placid Kyle in All The Small Things physically attacks an antagonist who speaks badly of Tom De Longe, Kyle's favourite singer.
Hurt Alex Eames and Bobby Goren will hunt you down.
The Adventures Of Pete And Pete, "Yellow Fever": Bus Driver Stu Benedict's Beserk Button is the song "If You're Happy and You Know It". He and his girlfriend, Sally Knorp, loved that song...but then Sally broke up with him. AGAIN. Over NOTHING!

Close Live Action TV

You can burn my house, steal my car, drink my liquor from an old fruitjar. Do anything that you want to do, but uh-uh, Honey, lay off of my shoes..

Close Music

The Bible: Do not transform the sacred temple of God into a marketplace. Jesus will be so "eaten with zeal," he'll literally whip your ass out of there.
- Do not mock the prophet Elisha's baldness, or he will use his hotline to the Lord to sic bears on your ass.
- Do not eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge. Bad things will happen to he entirety of humanity
- Also, don't mock Noah's building of a massive boat.
- Do not talk trash about King David's GOD. He's done far worse to better men than you.
- In case the ten plagues weren't a clue, you don't enslave God's people for over 400 years.
  - And don't try to wipe them out; Haman son of Hammedatha and Adolf Hitler can testify that the Lord doesn't like that.
Speaking of Shiva with disrespect is a terminally unwise idea around any form or incarnation of Parvati. Once Shiva's own incarnation tested her that way and was satisfied with the result — that is, she blasted him for good. In the only case when she could not do this (good goddesses have to be respectful to their parents and all that), she killed herself out of indignation, and then he came in Roaring Rampage Of Revenge, beating and maiming anyone he considered remotely responsible or accessory, and that meant everyone present.

Close Mythology

Tag team member, Festus, is a Gentle Giant until the bell rings, thus triggering his Berserk Button.
- This somewhat works in reverse, for when that bell rings again, usually after a victory, Festus visibly reverts to his gentle self.
A sure way to bring out a certain wrestler to interrupt a promo is to say something that plays on his Catch Phrase. This contributor feels that the cleverest use of this was when Booker T said his own Catch Phrase, "Don't hate the playah, hate the game" to HHH who is also sometimes known as the Game.
And speaking of HHH, should you bring harm to Ric Flair, he and Shawn Michaels will not be happy campers.
A documentary on pro wrestling showed a clip from an interview with Leon White (Big Van Vader). He was a nice guy, but that stopped when the interviewer asked him if wrestling was fake. Leon slapped him in the head several times and said, "Does that feel fake to you?!"

Close Professional Wrestling

Taken almost-literally by the Arco-Flagellants in Warhammer 40000, which are designed specifically to turn into berserk killing machines with the proper command. Don't examine them too closely, either... they're Nightmare Fuel Unleaded. Bring up the Squats at any GW event, and you'll find that the Berserk Button works in real life, too.
- Use the word "traitor" or "heretic" around the Sisters of Battle in reference to someone. Purging ensues.
- Mentioning Squad Broken is a general berserk button for the fan base.
The "Consumer On the Brink" archetype from the Feng Shui supplement "Seed of the New Flesh" is not very powerful in terms of skills. But attack him or put him in close proximity to his irritant, which is a Berserk Button or something else that pisses him off to no end, and his combat Action Values will go up to asskicking levels.

Close Tabletop Games

Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing goes berserk upon being called an ass. And then he tells everyone not to forget it.
Cyrano's nose in Cyrano De Bergerac. In Act II, scene ix, it's made quite clear that even using the word "nose" is sufficient to send him into a murderous rage. It's moderated in the remake movie Roxanne, though.
- Hilariously subverted in Roxanne into Berzerk Scathing Sarcasm with C.D. coming up with an impromptu list of 20 better jokes than "Big Nose".
Chicklet from Psycho Beach Party takes on her evil personality at the mention of the word "red".

Close Theater

Jin Saotome from Cyberbots (& Marvel vs. Capcom) goes into a rage if his opponents mention his dead father.
Flonne from Disgaea, while usually the Love Freak, is unusually loud when someone points out that she's flat. This is true of Etna, too, but she can be loud without a Berserk Button.
- That being said, when Etna's assets (or rather, her lack of them) are pointed out, she tends to go right past "loud" and straight to "murderously violent". Rozalin got to learn this the hard way.
- If you think calling Etna flat is a bad idea, then steal one of her desserts. I dare you. I double DARE you, muthafucka!
- From another work of Nippon Ichi, LaPucelleTactics, do NOT mess with Croix's girl or he'll flip out and crush your skull in, slowly, and while you beg for mercy.
Dr. Neurosis from Brain Dead 13. Don't call him "average." Just don't.
Raine from Tales Of Symphonia, despite her normally rather cynical and sensible behaviour, has archaeological mania. Woe betide anyone who disparages or harms any ruins in her presence.
Locke from Final Fantasy VI goes nuts whenever someone calls him a thief. He prefers to be known as a "treasure hunter."
Appearently, in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time/Darkness, if the generally friendly and easy-going Guildmaster Wigglytuff doesn't have any Perfect Apples to eat, the entire room begins to shake violently as if something VERY bad is about to happen. It doesn't happen, however, because another exploration team comes in with a Perfect Apple for Wigglytuff.
- Wasn't that a running gag as well as his entire personality. One of the funniest moments in the game is when Team Skull kidnaps him. Maybe they just put him in there for comic relief so they could hide the nightmare fuel unleaded and edginess.
Kornell goes nuts and breaks out of a trap in Grandia III when Miranda calls him a "muscle-bound peabrain."
CJ from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas reacts very badly to being called a 'bustah'. Badly enough that the game goes to pot whenever someone does...
Say 'Daisukenojo Bito' in front of Beat. I dare you.
- Okay! DAISUKENOJO BITO!
  - You've just been whacked to death with a skateboard.
  - "BWAAAAGHHH!"
Don't touch Boo.
- Insulting Dynaheir or Khalid ( especially after either's storyline death) is a good way to forfeit your life.
The whole point of Postal 2 is that the protagonist, an average, down-on-his-luck citizen of a simple little town can go on a mass-murdering rampage while performing boring, menial tasks that try their hardest to frustrate him. The catch is that the player can choose to do so or not.
In Super Smash Bros Brawl's Subspace Emissary Adventure Mode, the plot diverges slightly based on player action in the first stage, which determines which of the game's two resident princesses is initially captured by the baddies. The one who escapes is later believed by her corresponding hero to have been assaulted by allies. The batshit rage which results from this erroneous belief indicates that for Mario, endangering Princess Peach presses his Berserk Button; to press Link's, endanger Princess Zelda.
Barbatos Goetia in Tales Of Destiny 2 is already batshit insane from the start, but there are some ways to make him even crazier... Cast a spell in front of him? No, not that, he may counter immediately with a spell, but he still keeps his tone to usual... but use an item in front of him, and he'll approach you ASAP, grab you, slam you, stomp you and slash you with all his spectacularly Badass scream: "NO, ITEMS, EVEEEERRRRR!!!!!". Even more in the Japanese version, since he got Norio Wakamoto as his seiyuu.
The Witch in Left 4 Dead is the most passive enemy in the game, not attacking until you shine a flashlight on her, bump into her or do anything to disturb the woman. She then promptly stands up, annihilates the person responsible, before bursting into tears and shrieking as she runs away from the survivors.
Welkin Gunther, Valkyria Chronicles' resident Nice Guy has one when he found out that Faldio shot and nearly killed Alicia.
Do not mess with Bil's teddy bear.
Fujimura Taiga in Fate Stay Night is typically playful and cheerful...unless you call her Tiger, in which case you'd better have a will ready. Getting called Tiger actually pisses her off so much that saying it is enough to lift her out of unconsciousness.
Threaten any member of the Vance family, and you'll have to answer to Dog. Dog is a giant robot built like a gorilla.
Never, are you under any circumstances, are you to touch The Heavy's gun. EVER.
- HWG seems to have several beserk buttons, actually. According to his bio, anyone who disturbs his calm demeanor is likely to be torn limb from limb, and violence in general changes him from Gentle Giant to Psycho For Hire.
Sonic does NOT take being called a rat very well, to say the least.
- This berserk button apparently disappeared in Sonic's confrontation with Gawain in Sonic and the Black Knight, though. That, or it is not set off if Sonic's familiar with whoever called him a rat.
- Whatever you do, NEVER harm Shadow's friends. Doing so causes his wrath to become genocidal, which humanity learned in Sonic Adventure 2 and what the Black Arms learned the hard way in Shadow The Hedgehog (Black Doom's actions set off the chain of events that resulted in Maria's death) in one of his Crowning Momentsof Awesome. The thought of Omega being damaged/destroyed in Sonic Chronicles made him a bit unhinged, so you can imagine what would have happened to the Marauders if Omega was actually destroyed.
- Do NOT tell Amy Rose that Sonic doesn't feel the same way about her or that she doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell with him, unless you want a hammer to the head.
"They took away her babies." And that Berserk Button never got unstuck.
Narcis Prince in Super Punch Out!! admires his face a ton. If you even punch his beautiful face once, he'll get pissed off and will become more aggressive with his attacks. His berserk button is turned off if you manage to knock him down.
Do not refer to Suikoden I's Ronnie Bell as "Giant Woman". She will beat your ass to a bloody pulp.
From God Of War, Kratos once had a berserk switch. But one day it broke off while flipped to the "On" position.
Touhou's Sakuya Izayoi, according to Fanon and Memetic Mutation, will knife you if you mention the word "PAD" around her.
- The fandom itself reacts very poorly to people asking "What anime is this?"
In Mass Effect, do not open a Mass Relay without knowing where it leads first. The Citadel....frowns upon such shenanigans.

Close Videogames

In this strip from El Goonish Shive, we seen Nanase push her own Berserk Button.
- In the same webcomic, Big Bad Damien is seen to snap whenever someone suggests he was artificially created instead of summoned to fulfill a prophecy.
In Fanboys Lemmy goes into a berserker rage (complete with Glowing Eyes Of Doom) whenever someone says that "Nintendo is kiddy"; his roommate Paul has used this as a Manchurian Candidate-style trigger on more than one occasion.
In Exterminatus Now, Lothar - who's pretty damn Bad Ass to begin with - goes into berserk mode when his hat is destroyed. Trying to take his coffee away from him gets a similar reaction from Eastwood.
Everyday Heroes has Violet Klein (aka "Shrinking Violent") who is sensitive about the size of her nose. If anyone bumps into it, she undergoes a transformation parodying The Incredible Hulk only in reverse. She shrinks down from 7'2" to 2'7" and goes violent until someone can bring her candy to binge on. This returns her to her normal state but is dangerous, because she's diabetic and could die from the sugar rush.
The Jägers of Girl Genius are all very, very fond of their hats (a common Jäger remark is "Hey, nice hat!") and, apparently, take it badly if the hat is mistreated. When Agatha knocks off Maxim's hat (because he was being rude) he's very much about to flip out... except Agatha is currently in her mad-girl mindset and promptly puts him in his place.
- Gil has a button of his own. If you value your face, don't underestimate him.
When around Fighter of 8-Bit Theater, even if you're a teammate, under no circumstances are you to threaten or even imply that you will, either through action or inaction, bring harm to Black Mage. That would be wrong. Kind of chainsaw wrong.
Referred to in the Narbonic fanfic "A Brief Moment of Culture":
There are some things you can't say to people around here without having them come completely unglued. With Helen, it's, "Well, it looks like those fools at the institute were right after all!" All it takes with Dave is, "Bad news, all they had left was menthol." And Mell? Well, of course... "Your weapons are useless against it!"
- Naturally, Artie doesn't tell us what, if anything, is his own Berserk Button. After all, he is superintelligent.
Oasis from Sluggy Freelance has two of these. Identify yourself as a HeretiCorp employee or the object of Torg's love, and she will kill you painfully. The first is the result of extensive brainwashing, but the second is pure jealousy.
In The Last Days Of Foxhound, whilst Raven's Not Compensating For Anything, claiming he is will often earn you a one way ticket to a world of pain...
Order Of The Stick: You broke my sword.
- Also trying to match Xykon in arcane power and getting sort of close. This irritates him so much that... he stops goofing around and will roflstomp you, even taking advice from subordinates in order to make sure you die.
- Causing Xykon to lose his phylactery will make him furious, to the point of dropping all acts of politeness and trying to outright kill you.
Several College Roomies From Hell characters have Berserk Buttons, but the most dangerous is Marsha's. She will literally attempt to kill any of her ex-boyfriends on sight — and God help her current boyfriend if she gets it in her head that he's cheating.
"Fox" Maharassa, when still a minor character in Boy Meets Boy, was demonstrated to react violently to being called by his actual name ("Kailen").
"The last guy who used the K-name was stripped naked, tied to a chair, and whipped-creamed ..."
"I've been through worse."
"... then he was wheeled into a Jennifer Lopez concert."
Yamara as a halfling and thief seems to be accustomed to some people's disdain, but ones who miss her multiclassing while showing it provoke her to make a point. It isn't Unstoppable Rage, but they just earned a ticket to the world of hurt, one way or another.
In this◊ Penny Arcade strip, Tycho flies into a rage when Gabe insists that Warhammer Online is a ripoff of World Of Warcraft.
- In an earlier strip, Tycho mocks the Star Wars Expanded Universe...and Gabe responds by shoving a book in his mouth and punching it so hard that it rips off the top half of Tycho's head.
In Real Life Comics, the character of Greg Dean owns a replica Master Sword, and while the author Greg Dean owns a number of swords, the Master Sword is not one of them. So don't ask. It's even mentioned in the FAQ!
The bartender in Corner Alley 13 does not take it kindly if he's called an ogre. He's actually only half-ogre.

Close Webcomics

Shandala from Broken Saints has a common one: family. She's pretty much the sweetest,most caring person in the world but Bad shit happens when you mess with her various adopted family members.
A number of characters have one of these in The Mad Scientist Wars, most noticibly Andrew Tinker. No matter how tempted you are, or how true it is, do not call him 'girly' or refer to him as female. The last guy got pinned to a wall by his neck.
In Protectors Of The Plot Continuum, making pickled pepper jokes around Agent Peter Piper does not do wonders for one's life expectancy.
- Mess with Agent Madison O'Grady's favorite Doctor Who characters in her presence and you risk getting blasted with fire.
- Don't EVER sing "The Hedgehog Song" at the Official Fanfiction University of Redwall, or in front of at least one of the anthropomorphic animal agents (who claims that he has first-hand knowledge that the song is not true but refuses to elaborate).
- And you never threaten anyone in Agent Tawaki Penguin's family (including his in-laws).
- Most Agents from fictional series get extra-furious if their native continua are contaminated.
- You do NOT plagiarize from any musical around Agent Ekwy Fields.
- Never compare Hul Choka to anything mechanical.
Jeff, the hero of Ewen Cluney's anime-inspired story "Interesting Times," is a basically nice guy, if something of a Weirdness Magnet. But that comic collection that he maintains? Don't mess with it. You will not like him if you mess with it.
Mackenzie Blaise of Tales Of MU has one in her "little sister", the golem girl Two. Even joke about hurting her, and you got a very angry demon girl after you. A lot of the readers feel the same way.
- Unassuming little Hazel Callaway breaks bones whenever somebody speaks ill of her mum.
- Steff has a large half-ogre boyfriend who is very, very protective of her.
A few characters have at least one in Survival Of The Fittest. For example, in v3, Darnell Butler has his protectiveness towards women extend towards being compelled to violently attack anyone he sees severely mistreating one, and Bobby Jacks becomes uncontrollable when called a murderer, causing a fight at the senior year's bonfire and, eventually, driving him to murder Tyson Neills. Especially notable since this seems to be the only thing that can make Bobby actually snap or get angry at all.
"They gave him.... A....BAT....CREDIT....CARD?"
- Also, Doug.
Flocculencio in AH Dot Com The Series whenever anyone mentions the name of his nemesis, Justin Pickard. Particularly noticeable considering Flocculencio is usually one of the more laid-back and sedate characters, but this makes him go Ax Crazy.
In Im A Marvel And Im ADC, Green Goblin is a huge fan of Willem Dafoe, his film portrayer. So when the Joker says "I'm grateful Dafoe didn't play me in the Tim Burton movie", he promptly gets his ass kicked.
In Tech Infantry, Erich Von Shrakenberg has a bit of a thing about aliens, and about rebels who compromise humanity's unity in the face of the alien threat. And then there's Hex, who alternates between flipping his lid whenever someone calls him "Hex", and flipping his lid whenever someone calls him anything but "Hex".
In There Will Be Brawl, Mario gets angry when anyone insinuates that he is/was/will be a plumber.

Close Web Original

One possible reason that the titular Angry Beavers are so angry could be because people keep calling them weasels.
Pumbaa from The Lion King can take on any animal in Africa if they call him a pig; in the Latin American dub, Pumbaa also insists on being called a "decent warthog".
Nigel Uno from Codename Kids Next Door has broken out of brainwashing when one of his buttons was triggered. Among the set-offs: being overcharged at a restaurant.
- And don't threaten his Nakama:
  Number 86: You made a mistake by underestimating me, Nigel, but I don't make mistakes!
  Nigel: You just did... you made me angry!
- Also, don't insult the Rainbow Monkeys in front of Kuki Sanban aka Numbuh Three.
  Numbuh 13: *breaks the Rainbow Monkey Lisa on Kuki's face*
  Kuki: *insert The Scream*
  Mr. Boss: QUICK! RUN LIKE LITTLE GIRLS!
  - On another note, do NOT turn down Kuki's thermostat. EVER.
  - Or lower her father Kahn's, for that matter.
- As well as Numbuh 84, who, if you threaten to put her in a dark room, will beat up anyone around her.
The title character of the animated series Bounty Hamster, a battle-hardened Bounty Hunter who happens to also be a small fluffy critter, develops Unstoppable Rage whenever anybody mentions how cute he is.
In South Park, English kid Pip can't abide being mistaken for French. In the episode "Conjoined Fetus Lady", the other kids on the dodgeball team actually make use of this fact, to take advantage of his unstoppable rage.
- Also, Eric Cartman apparently has at least two Berserk Buttons. One is any references to him being fat or over weight, or when he gets pissed off at something/someone. See "Scott Tenorman Must Die" for further details.
Pesto of the "Goodfeathers" shorts in Animaniacs seemed to have a Berserk Keyboard; he could interpret just about anything Squit said as an insult worthy of a pounding. As he is a No Celebrities Were Harmed of Joe Pesci's character from ''Goodfellas'', he leads into the assault with a parody of the "You saying I'm a clown? That I amuse you?" speech from said film. Example:
Squit: You're a swell guy, Pesto.
Pesto: Whataya sayin'? That I got a big head? Is that it?!
- Katie Kaboom, also from Animaniacs, has her own Berserk Keyboard as well, but her preferred targets and triggers are less defined. Might just be from being a teenager.
  - Her triggers are perfectly well defined. Anything that annoys, irritates, inconveniences, insults, or bothers her.
Spinelli in Recess has gone berserk at people who have called her a girl in the past.
- In the 2001 Homage episode, Gretchen snaps when the SAL-9000 calls her "dumb".
- Gus doesn't play dodgeball. Unless you hit a little kid with a dodgeball. Then you really won't like what happens next.
Ron Stoppable, from Kim Possible, has a tendency to snap if his beloved fast food chain, Bueno Nacho, is destroyed or taken over by villains. The other way to send him into frenetic rage is to harm Kim Possible. Lord help you if you hurt his girlfriend. Two of his foes learned the hard way that that is something you just don't do in the series finale.
Aang in Avatar The Last Airbender is extremely attached to his pet Sky Bison, Appa. (Understandably, since Appa was trapped in ice 100 years with Aang, and is the only being besides Aang that survives the Air Temple raids.) During "The Chase", he remained calm and good natured in the face of Toph and Katara's bickering, continued assault by his enemies and sleeplessness, but he screamed at Toph when she dared blame Appa for the problem. This was some Foreshadowing of Aang's huge freakout, when Appa is kidnapped, which lasts for two whole episodes, the first one which he spends consumed with uncharacteristic rage and pessimism, and actually goes into the Avatar State when facing the kidnappers, and the second one where he represses his emotions. He snaps out of it eventually, but does scream at the brainwashed Joo Dee when she tries to get in the way of their search for Appa, and shows unrelenting determination to find him. In short, don't mess with the Avatar's bison.
- Also, NEVER put Katara in danger in front of Aang. It is THE BEST way to push him into the Avatar State and guarantee complete destruction for a hundred metre radius.
- The first time that Azula ever showed any explicit anger was when a recently Heel Face Turned Mai said that she "miscalculated". As she's a Magnificent Bastard obsessed with perfection, this is a far worse insult than it may seem.
Megavolt really hates it when anyone calls him "Sparky".
Winnifred, a wannabe witch from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, gets violent when someone calls her "Freddie".
In The Simpsons, Homer doesn't mind if a food will kill him or have other adverse side effects (he even ate old baking soda in one episode), but HATES if something is "low-fat".
Beavis of Beavis And Butthead barely noticed the massive volume of insults Butt-head threw his way, but don't call him a "butt-knocker."
Danny Phantom: Calm, debonair Vlad Masters turns angry if you call him a "fruitloop".
- Or mention how he lost the woman of his dreams to an idiot and still can't use his vast fortune to buy the Green Bay Packers.
Don't try to harm, capture, take or threaten Timmy Turner's fairy godparents. Timmy has magic on his side, and he uses it to beat your ass to Pluto and bounce off to the other side of the Universe to show he doesn't fuck around.
In Samurai Jack, the titular character loses it whenever his shoes are damaged. This once lead to a rage that helped Aku create an evil clone of him.
In the Disney Hercules series episode that's a crossover with Aladdin, being called "Jerkules" seems to function as this for Hercules. "Everyone thinks they're so funny when they call me that, but it's Not! That! Funny!"
Insult Ultra Lord in any way, shape or form in front of Sheen Estevez. Go on.
In Animaniacs don't ever call Wakko stupid or else you're in for a world of hurt Ms. Flamiel learned this the hard way.
- And don't ever call Dot "Dottie" or else you'll die, although she is never seen doing this.
Perry the Platypus doesn't usually turn Dr. Doofenshmirtz over to the authorities because he enjoys foiling his plans. But in "Journey to the Center of Candace", when Doofenshmirtz builds a device that "will destroy anyone who can't make up their mind", Perry realizes that this will put Phineas And Ferb (who were earlier having difficulty deciding what to do today), immediately attacks the doctor, handcuffs him to a pipe, and calls his boss to send reinforcements to arrest him.
In The Penguins Of Madagascar, never, EVER touch King Julien's feet. And if you ever decide to skate over them...well, say hello to Juliendämmerung
In Happy Tree Friends, pretty much anything that reminds Flippy of war can cause him to act out on his PTSD and murder his friends. In the spinoff series Ka-Pow, Buddhist Monkey really, really hates vandalism. But then again, the Red Shirt ninjas are asking for it by using martial arts moves to break the necks of flowers and backs of books.
The Secret Show villain Robert Baron is normally Affably Evil, but he HATES being deceived. If he finds out somebody is trying to fool him, he turns bright red and starts charging through walls.
Don't you dare break Yin's Two-nicorn toy. She will quite literally rain fire down upon your pitiful head from the sky if you do so.
Spike of Tom And Jerry has two main ones among others. Number 1: don't wake him up while he's napping; and Number 2: don't ever touch his son.
Serge the Seal Pup, of Aaagh!! It's The Mr. Hell Show!, can be sent into psychotic fits by anything that reminds him of his parents' deaths. These are usually punctuated by his Catch Phrase:
"IT! WAS! YOUUUUUUUU!!!!"
Cody in the Street Fighter cartoon Crossover episode, "Final Fight" doesn't seem to like it when "his" Jessica gets hurt. "You! Hurt! MAH! JESSICAAAAAAAA!!!!!
In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (and thus extending to the entire DCAU), Batman listened to Joker's story about how he tortured Tim Drake patiently, but when Joker says "You're just a little boy in a playsuit crying for Mummy and Daddy. It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.... oh what the heck I'll laugh anyway." and laughs at Batman, he flips his shit, to use a technical term, and instantly charges Joker and pummels him, delivering one of the most furious beating Joker's taken from Batman.
If you hurt Raven's friends, you're pretty much screwed.
In the {{Venture Bros.}} don't ever insult Triana in front of Dean.
[[Metalocalypse Charles Foster Ofdensen]] is a normal looking businessman, a savvy manager, and a very clever lawyer in charge of metal sensation Dethklok. DO NOT threaten his ~~'boys'~~ 'Bread and Butter'. Just don't. He will END you.
Though non-violent, Shaggy from Scooby-Doo has a variant: if your criminal scheme threatens to cancel one of his beloved mini-golf tournaments, he will instantly morph into a Sherlock-Holmes-caliber detecting genius and solve the case so fast even Velma's left wondering how he did it.
On Ed Edd N Eddy, Rolf does not take kindly to those who ridicule the customs of his homeland. "Son of a gun, you insult Rolf by denying the eels?!"
Do not insult the British Empire within hearing range of Sarah Phillips. Just don't. And on a similar note, don't mock France or call Henri little.

Close Western Animation

On a certain famous Image Board, there exist "rage inducing threads", whose sole purpose is to hit the Berserk Button of as many posters as possible.
- This isn't simply trolling, it's actually more of a specific activity, approaching that of a game. The thread is even traditionally started out with the phrase "You get filled with rage, you lose." The starting image is usually a recent piece of Dis Continuity or Wall Banger or somesuch.
  - On 4chan, at least, it's "You Rage, You Lose", with certain amounts of time giving you certain grades. (Ranging from a few seconds to several minutes.) The common responses are either "Easy/Medium/Epic/etc. RAGE!" or "FFFFFFFFUUUUUUU"(CK)!"
- Also don't harm a cat, they will have you arrested.
Mods that add cloaking functionality are a berserk button issue for the entire Freelancer community. Merely mentioning it is a ban-worthy offense on most Freelancer forums.
In the Left 4 Dead fandom, it is a well-established fact that Louis isn't very visually distinct from the standard infected, because he wears an outfit very similar to one of the infected models. It's also a well-established fact that if you bring this up, you will be shot down by thousands of posts calling you a racist.
The vaudeville sketch Slowly I Turned is based on this, and has been homaged in various songs and films.
In the Touhou fandom, do not ask the question, "What anime is this?" Just...trust us on this one, OK?
On the gomanga.com message boards, don't fuck with LordStyphon or else you're banned from the forum within the year.

Close Other

Jim Rome, in full Jerk Ass mode, kept calling quarterback Jim Everett "Chris" (after Chris Evert, the female tennis player). Everett attacked Rome by pushing him off his chair. Of course, this is widely believed to have been a hoax.
Even if he does agree with your views, Pete Townshend is still going to take you to school if you dare run across the stage stating your views during The Who's set.
Apparently, insulting Zinedine Zidane's sister may result in serious chest pain.
Never aim your camera at Guns N Roses unless you want to take a beating from Axl Rose, who will dive off the stage and lay the smackdown on you if he sees it.
- To press Steven Adler's Berserk Button, call Axl Rose Bon Jovi and try to hit him.
Don't tell Buzz Aldrin he didn't land on the moon, but especially don't call him a coward and a liar!
Audie Murphy had a rather famous Berserk Button - having his best friend killed by German soldiers who pretended to surrender. He pretty much Hulked out, killed them all (and they were armed with machine guns), then used their weaponry to kill every baddie in a 100-yard radius, including two more machine gun nests and a bunch of snipers. Yeah, don't make him mad.
NEVER call Russell Tavares AKA Pyro Dice a nerd.
Don't mention Vince Offer around Billy Mays.
William Wallace's Berserk Button is widely reported to be the murder of his wife. Kill his wife and he will become a walking machine of death and destruction against the British empire.
NEVER EVER insult the men of the Edmund Fitzgerald in ANY of the steel cities on the Great Lakes. You will be killed and the police won't look to hard for you. In case you were wondering it was a Iron ore Cargo ship that went down with all 29 crew members on November 10, 1975.

Close Real Life

Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing

Tools

Toys

Examples: