Troperville
Help us survive. All donations are anonymous on the wiki and unacknowledged, as we don't wish to create a hierarchy among Tropers.
Editing
Tools
|
The only relief for a headache like that is snide remarks.
"You realize, if you shoot me, you're liable to lose a lot of those humanitarian awards."
Irwin 'Fletch' Fletcher, to a philanthropist holding him at gunpoint, Fletch
"No, John, unfortunately we don't have a code for 'There's a man in my closet with a gun to my daughter's head.' Although we obviously should."
Supporting character given to gnomic, sarcastic, sometimes bitter, occasionally whimsical asides.
The Deadpan Snarker exists to deflate pomposity, point out the unlikelihood of certain plans, and deliver funny lines. Typically a Deadpan Snarker is the most cynical supporting character. In most cases, it is implied that the snarker would make a good leader, strategist, or consultant given their ability to instantly see the flaws in a constructed plan. More often than not, their innate snarkiness is the only thing preventing the other characters from comprehending this for themselves. In other cases, the Deadpan Snarker resorts to sarcasm because they're the Only Sane Man.
Often deconstructed by showing that the Deadpan Snarker is actually incapable of avoiding sarcasm due to their insecurity about expressing any genuine thought or feeling.
See also The Daria, The Ruri, Weasel Mascot, The Mean Brit, First Person Smartass
Examples:
Live Action TV
- Oz on Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a preeminent example, though his snark was not usually pointed. After Oz left the show, this role was taken by the unwillingly good (and unfailingly cynical) vampire Spike.
- Gil Grissom on CSI. He even has a trope named after him because of it. Jim Brass also fills this role quite regularly.
- Chandler on Friends.
- Stanley in the US version of The Office. Jim also responds this way to anything Dwight and Michael do.
- John Munch on Law And Order Special Victims Unit was once a classic Deadpan Snarker, back in the days when he actually had more than six lines per season.
- And before him, there was Lenny Briscoe, the ultimate snarky cop. Jerry Orbach's brilliant, world-weary, deadpan humor practically defined the TV idea of the New York cop.
- In Stargate SG-1, it's pretty easy to miss, but if you go back and play close attention to those 175 episodes (that's the number of times he shows up), you may just notice that in the course of over a decade, despite having more sense of humor than his remaining teammates put together, Jack O'Neill has rarely ever cracked so much as a smirk. When pointed out to him that a character "knows no fear", he exclaims, "but he certainly knows stupid!"
- "You dare mock me!" "Come on! Of course I dare mock you."
- Daniel Jackson had a fair few snarky lines as well.
Dr. Markov: If you're implying that everything Russian-made is of poor quality, actually, the sub is Swiss.
Jackson: So it occasionally catches fire but keeps perfect time?
- In situations of stress on Stargate Atlantis, Rodney McKay cranks up the snark, at one point sarcastically saying "I foolishly left my time machine back on Earth. Did you bring yours?" while in a ticking time bomb situation. He is also apt to point out repeatedly the sheer impossibility of the plans Sheppard comes up with. This tendency has actually been toned down since the character's original appearances in SG-1.
- O'Neill's successor Cameron Mitchell also gets his share of these moments in both SG-1 and The Ark Of Truth.
Prior: Foolhardy are those who do not follow the path.
Mitchell: Anyone want to bet what he's gonna say next?
Prior: Kill them.
Mitchell: Could've made money on that one.
- Edmund E. Blackadder does this a lot, although he's also occasionally fond of Spock Speak. He's the main character that commented on how stupid everyone else was, however.
- Salem from Sabrina The Teenage Witch (1996-2003 version) and its animated Spin Off.
- Michael Bluth of Arrested Development. He is in charge of the family business; it's just that no one listens to him. Often doubles as the Straight Man.
- The Doctor in Doctor Who sometimes slips into this, especially in the new series. For instance, in "The Girl in the Fireplace":
Reinette: Oh, this is my lover, the King of France.
The Doctor: Yeah? Well, I'm the Lord of Time.
- Former companion Ian Chesterton unexpectedly developed into one of these, though sadly not until his last episode on the show.
- Emerson Cod in Pushing Daisies.
- Dr. Gregory House on House is a very anti-social example of this trope (as well as a plethora of other tropes).
- James Wilson also acts as this, usually in conjunction with House and snarking right back at him.
- Laverne in Scrubs. Dr. Cox also gives one-liner snarkiness when he's not ranting.
- In season two of Torchwood, Ianto turned into one of these.
Tosh: If we knew how it worked, we could feed the world!
Ianto: We could release a single...
- One could argue that he always was, but was merely a lot quieter in season one. Note his attepted explanation of automatic doors in 'Out of Time'
Ianto: It’s automatic. It knows you’re there. There are wave-bouncing detectors which emit high-frequency radio waves…
Diane: Ooh look, bananas!
Ianto: Of course, bananas are far more interesting.
- Both Hyde and Red from That70s Show fit this trope perfectly.
- Geoffrey from The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air fits this so well that it's inconceivable how he kept his job as long as he did.
- Well, if Benson could do it for years, in two different series starting on Soap, then why not Geoffrey too? Of course, on Soap, Benson was the snarky butler side character. On the spin-off, he was the snarky main character.
- And, keeping with this theme, Mr. Moseby of The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody.
- Bova on Space Cases:
Harlan: I'm tired of running from the Spung! This time they're going to know they've been in a fight!
Bova: Oh, yeah, they'll be scraping us off their windshields saying, "Some fight, huh?"
- Simon on American Idol is wildly known for his insults and trademark sarcasm towards contestants. During the first season he was also known for getting into fights with Paula.
- They still get into fights, but now there's a hell of a lot more UST.
- Newman and Elaine on Seinfeld.
- Triumph the comic insult dog from Late Night with Conan O'Brian is an absolutely fine example of this. If he was here he would say "TV Tropes is good.....for me to poop on!"
- Drake from Drake and Josh to some extent, also Mindy (Josh's girlfriend) and most of the time Josh.
- Pick a character on Veronica Mars. Any character.
- Zoltan the stuffed wolf in Young Dracula.
- Zoe on Firefly. With extreme emphasis on the deadpan. Upon finding out the safe they broke into was apparently almost empty:
Zoe: At last, we can retire and give up this life of crime.
- Both the Supernatural boys are good at this, especially at giving adorable bitchfaces while doing so.
- Crown Attorney David Kaye on This is Wonderland, who also happens to be just a little Ambiguously Camp.
- Barb on The New Adventures Of Old Christine.
- Kerr Avon of Blake's 7.
- Dr. Crower of American Gothic.
- A certain character played by Jay Leno on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno during the 1990's...the genius Mr Brain.
- One word: Methos.
Anime and Manga
- Kyon of The Melancholy Of Suzumiya Haruhi (pictured above) fits this perfectly, as well as being (arguably) the main character and the narrator. Of course, since we aren't always sure if he's keeping a running commentary in his head or saying it out loud. This is made even murkier when other people reply to what they really shouldn't be able to hear...
- ...and immediately after Haruhi ended airing, he (that is, his seiyuu) jumped into Kanon 2006, to continue delivering snarky lines as Yuuichi (who at one point is asked "who are you talking to?" after delivering a line with his back to the camera as a Continuity Nod). Not that it's a bad thing.
- Before he went on to do the English voice of Kyon, Crispin Freeman deadpanned it up as Shannon Casull in Scrapped Princess.
- Misaki Matsuya in the manga version of Excel Saga. Excel herself also shows signs of this trope in the manga version.
- Despite being one of the two leads, Duzell in the manga Vampire Game exemplifies this trope.
- Shikamaru on Naruto is another character that started out as a Deadpan Snarker but developed into leadership roles. Thanks to his genius-level strategic thinking, he became the first of the Rookie 9 to receive the title of Chuunin. He stills speaks in deadpan though, and can be pretty snarky, even after the 2 1/2 year timeskip. In terms of adults, Kakashi Hatake is a good example, sheerly for the fact that he is so constantly deadpan it's questionable as to whether he's a this or an Unfunny.
Kakashi: Naruto, you can't kill the client. That's not how it works.
- It's explained in the guiden that Kakashi used to be hyper-critical of people he thought weren't performing up to snuff. After "seeing the light", deadpan is probably his only means of suppressing those old habits.
- Caren in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, until she joins up with Lucia for good.
- Hiroyuki Fujita, the main character, from To Heart seems to fit in this category, although it seems to be a result of his laziness and the fact that he wants to "eat, play arcade games, and sleep the rest his life away". Despite his dry attitude, laziness, and tendency to tease girls who annoy him at times, he shows his sympathy through his actions rather than his words, no matter who it is.
Nagase: In any case, if she does come out, we'll have to do something.
Lemmy: Okay! The Astral Busters are on the job, right?
Hiroyuki: Why do you have to attack her? When she appears we're going to talk to her.
Lemmy: Is that so?
Hiroyuki: Were you even listening to us before?
- Domeki in xxxHoLic, who seems to have the unusual ability to always maintain a deadpan and monotone expression no matter what happens in order to add to his snarking ability.
- Okara from Samurai 7.
- Jin from Samurai Champloo.
- Okazaki of CLANNAD likes playing pranks on anyone gullible enough to fall for them (Sunohara in particular - it's implied he does it just to see if he'll fall for them). He does this with a completely straight face, which makes it all the funnier to this editor. He's not above making wry comments either:
Sunohara: When the time comes, Okazaki, I trust you to watch my back
Okazaki: (Enthusiastically) Lucky! I'll be sure to stab you well.
- Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop is an unusual example in that he is a Deadpan Snarker given the role of the main character of an action show and is a defining Badass in anime.
- He retains his hero status despite his snark because Faye fits the role of lancer in most episodes.
- Kurama and Hiei in Yu Yu Hakusho, with Hiei being an out-and-out jerk and Kurama being a bit more subtle. They're at their best when they're snarking at each other.
- Ruri Hoshino of Martian Successor Nadesico does this so often that she, just like the examples in Western Animation and Live Action TV below, has a trope named after her because of it.
- Tsuyuri from Doujin Work keeps a straight face while saying the most outrageous things, mostly to pit other characters against each other and see what comes forth out of all the confusion she causes.
- Alice from ARIA tends to fulfil this role, especially in the first season.
Western Animation
- SpiderMan especially in the most recent series.
- Huey Freeman on The Boondocks.
- Frylock on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but Shake acts as the Deadpan Snarker in Total Re-Carl.
- Sokka on Avatar The Last Airbender initially fit this role like a glove, but as time went on, he developed into actually being the one to make the plans. Fortunately, Toph came in and was able to successfully fulfill, if not surpass him, in this role. The creators actually comment on the DVD commentary that she took the place Sokka had before he shifted to a livelier character from his voice-actor's performance.
Toph: I don't know if you've noticed, but things don't always go so smoothly for our little gang.
- Shego from Kim Possible:
- Rattrap from Transformers: Beast Wars fits this role perfectly. He is snide, cynical, and sarcastic. He's notable for his frequent use of the phrase "We're all gonna die", and constantly bickers with Dinobot, and, later, Depth Charge. He is, however, a capable soldier and, if need be, leader, though Jerk With A Heart Of Gold may be stretching it.
Rattrap: "Eh, command's a pain in the tail... Especially with this pack of hyenas. You can keep it."
- Slapper, Gas Skunk, and Dark Scream do this a lot to their boss, Sky-Byte, in Robots in Disguise.
- Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants.
- Mandy, from The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy. Grim has his moments, too.
- Daria from Daria is a deadpan snarker to the point of having a trope based off of her.
- Brian from Family Guy is an example. The fact that he is a dog is one of the show's MANY running gags.
- Raven in Teen Titans.
- Sgt. Mike Cosgrove from Freakazoid is a gruff, eyeless example of this trope and is thoroughly played for laughs. Examples of his deadpan nature include his catchphrase, a deadpan command of "Cut it out" which seems to have a supernatural ability to manipulate people into stopping whatever they're doing no matter what it is, similar to a Jedi mind trick, and a scene where he tries to comfort the main character, Freakazoid, for his Cloudcuckoolander based problems by saying, "You're not a failure kid. It's just that your ideas are silly and dumb."
- Hawkgirl from Justice League, who especially had a talent for dishing verbal ownage out on Flash:
Flash: Fastest man alive.
Hawkgirl: Which probably explains why you can't get a date
- Jamie from Megas XLR is, while being a strong coward and womanizer, a decent example of the trope. He is often well aware of and comments on the lunacy and danger of Coop's actions and, sometimes, dialogue. That being said however, he seems to enjoy the destruction Coop's actions brings, so may or may not comment if it dosen't directly affect him.
- Dougal in The Magic Roundabout, at least in the English language version. Adapter and voice artist Eric Thompson based his portrayal of Dougal on Tony Hancock's radio and TV persona.
- Lula the talking sword in Dave The Barbarian.
- Tecna in Winx Club sometimes acts like this.
- Limburger in Biker Mice From Mars.
- Schnitzel in Chowder, though since he's The Unintelligible, we hear all of his snark second-hand.
Video Games
- Sand in Neverwinter Nights 2.
- Garrett in Thief.
- Crypto in Destroy All Humans.
- Falco in Star Fox.
- Not a very good one, though. In the secret Star Fox taunts of Super Smash Bros Brawl, his attempted deadpan snarking was deadpan snarked. By Slippy.
- Gig from Soul Nomad And The World Eaters, who liberally throws around insults and sarcasm directed at you, your team-mates and the world in general whenever he's annoyed, smug, confrontational, or just plain bored (in other words, all of the time, except when he's offering exposition or being incredibly self-aggrandizing).
- GLaDOS from Portal gradually turns into this by the end of the game.
- At least one NPC in each Bioware RPG (Baldur's Gate, Knights Of The Old Republic, Jade Empire, Mass Effect) will be of this sort, and the game will occasionally allow the main character to snark it up too.
- Lawrence, the robot butler of Big Bad Dr. Nefarious in the third Ratchet And Clank game. Most of Lawrence's snarkiness is directed at his (largely oblivious) boss, but he manages to get off a few snide remarks at the heroes, as well.
Nefarious: So this is the mighty Q-Force? I could destroy the lot of you and it wouldn't even get mentioned in Supervillain Weekly!
Lawrence: Ah, but think of the favor you'd be doing the fashion world, sir.
- Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney is commonly the sole voice of reason in his world of spirit mediums, crazy dominatrix prosecutors, and wacky courtroom hijinks (despite being the cause of half of them).
- This even continues after he is no longer the lawyer in the newer games - if anything becoming even more snarky as he becomes a bit of a Chess Master.
- At one point in the third game, you get to play as Miles Edgeworth. He's much more of a Deadpan Snarker than Phoenix.
- Jade from Tales Of The Abyss is a textbook example of this. Snarkiness is just his way of showing affection, after all.
- Both The Bard and the unnamed narrator, in the 2004 version of The Bard's Tale. They trade barbs to each other about the ridiculous things that happen in the game.
- Trilby in 5 Days a Stranger definitely feels snarky... and can you blame him?
- Ishida Mitsunari in Samurai Warriors, and even more so in the spin-off game Warriors Orochi acting as Cao Pi's primary foil.
- Haskill from The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles. He's never not snarking at you.
- With all the shit Niko Bellic gives his clients, it's a surprise he gets work.
- Several characters from Neverwinter Nights 2 fulfill this trope, most notably Sand, Bishop (who only does it to wound people) and, sometimes, Neeshka.
- Disgaea games are guarenteed to have at least one per game.
- Morte from Planescape: Torment, who is such an aggravating snarker that he has a special ability called 'litany of curses' that can drive your enemies berserk with just the right comment.
- Zyzyx from Sacrifice, who incidentally is voiced by Rob Paulsen, the same man who voiced Morte above. Amongst the gods, Stratos can also get rather sarcastic at times, and even good ol' boy James displays a surprisingly dry wit at times.
- Saki Tsuzura from the all-female fighting game Arcana Heart has some win quotes that have her flatly criticizing an opponent's skill and/or mindset.
- In Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Spider Man *EPITOMIZES* this trope. 25% of his time is being useful, 75% is being an ass to Nick Fury.
- Deadpool is a close second, although much of his comments are a bit more on the surreal side.
- If you have them both in the same party, the former deadpan snarks at the latter about finally having someone whose jokes are worse than his.
- Grandia II uses the main character as its snarker, resulting in many wonderful conversations where the party wants to stop and help people in need, and Ryudo rolls his eyes, mocks them all, and reluctantly agrees to go along with it.
- Solid Snake, either in his own games or in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- In the Vampire: The Masquerade video game Bloodlines, Deb, the host for an in-game late-night radio talk show fits the bill perfectly.
Literature
- Snape from Harry Potter. His response when Dumbledore orders him to kill him: "'Would you like me to do it now?' asked Snape, his voice heavy with irony. 'Or would you like a few moments to compose an epitaph?'"
- The main character of George R. R. Martin's Tuf Voyaging really has no emotions except for sarcasm, but he disguises it with enough excessively formal language that many of his interlocutors never realize that they've been insulted.
- Also from George R. R. Martin, Tyrion and Jaime Lannister from A Song Of Ice And Fire fit the trope, but both are dwarfed (no pun intended) by Dolorous Edd. Still, practically all characters get a snappy line.
- Marco from Animorphs fits this trope to a T.
- He fits it rather poorly then.
- Vlad, Kragar, and Loiosh from Steven Brust's Taltos series all fit this one.
- Samuel Vimes and Esmerelda Weatherwax in Discworld, both of which are particularly Genre Savvy (and hate having to be).
- Lord Vetinari's snark is rumored to be so caustic that Sgt. Colon lives in fear of the patrician getting sardonic on him.
- In The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Udinaas, Samar Dev, Bugg and Fiddler are all deadpan snarkers to some degree.
- Harry from The Dresden Files sometimes acts like this.
- Eustace from The Chronicles Of Narnia, with his "habit of being dreadfully matter-of-fact."
- Prince Kheldar AKA Silk from the Belgariad and Malloreon books. Although most of the characters can be rather snarky at times.
- It'd almost be easier to list every major character who isn't either a Card Carrying Villain or a Deadpan Snarker. Even the Voice of the Prophecy (the speaking aspect of the cosmic force attempting to restore the universe to its original destiny) snarks it up almost every time it communicates with one of the characters.
- At the Super Hero School Whateley Academy in the webfiction Whateley Universe
 , a LOT of the main characters. Phase has a very dry delivery, but (quite reluctantly) admits that Chaka is even funnier. Jobe (an amoral side character) and Jericho (a newer main character) also fit this trope.
- Mephistopheles in Steven Brust's To Reign in Hell.
- The Russian diplomat Bilibin in War And Peace, known later in Petersburg society for what he calls his mots (French for "sayings").
- John, and to a lesser extent, Dave, from John dies at the end.
Film
- Willy Wonka, as portrayed by Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, had elements of this character. The most notable was whenever someone demanded he "do something"; his response was a monotone "Help. Police. Murder."
- Shrek.
- Riley Poole in National Treasure.
- Almost all of the main characters of Sin City.
- Hedwig from Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
- Margo in All About Eve.
- 'Fasten your seatbelts, everybody, it's going to be a bumpy night!'
- Any given film noir hero. Sam Spade is probably the snarkiest of the lot, but J.J. Gittes of Chinatown gets one or two good ones.
"Hey Gittes, what happened to your nose?"
"Your wife got a little excited. She closed her legs too fast."
- Scarecrow in Batman Begins
Rachel: You don't think a man who butchers people for the mob belongs in prison?
Scarecrow: Well, I would hardly have testified to that otherwise.
- Waldo Lydecker from the classic murder mystery Laura "You fail to understand that you're interrupting something far more important than your career. My lunch."
- Chevy Chase played a lot of these characters, but chief amongst them has to be Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher in his adaptations of the Fletch novels, and his particularly dry deadpan snark:
Corrupt Police Chief: Maybe I'm gonna blow your brains out!
Fletch: Now, I'm no lawyer, but I do believe that's a violation of my rights.
- Phil Conners from Groundhog's Day starts out as one, but Charachter Development leaves him more empathic as the film goes on.
Newspaper Comics
Comic Books
- SpiderMan embodies this trope to the point of deserving to have it named after him.
- Every single member of the Young Avengers displays this to some extent. They beat up about 1 enemy for every 10 lines of snarky dialogue and Witty Banter.
- Alfred Pennyworth, in various incarnations of Batman, constantly makes ironic (but highly polite and proper) comments on Master Bruce's lifestyle.
- In fact, the position of butler, particularly in British television, seems to include this character trait a lot. Such as:
- The Blackadder of Blackadder the Third:
Prince George: What can I do to a woman that I can't do to you?
Blackadder: I cannot conceive, sir.
- Jeeves of Jeeves and Wooster, although he was a valet, of course.
- Possibly the ur-example for snarky servants.
- Hovis from Doug Tennappel's Catscratch.
- Sir Humphrey Appleby of Yes Minister, while not actually a butler, was pretty much one in spirit.
- And whenever Batman (in any incarnation) isn't either moping around in Wangst or being the Unfunny, he's generally the one with a deadpan line.
- Or, as Jamie Reyes/Blue Beetle III put it, "Batman's actually pretty funny, in a scary kinda way."
- Just about every character who isn't Ax Crazy (or The Voiceless) in Sin City.
Webcomics
Web Animation
- About half the cast of Red Vs. Blue, especially Grif and Church.
Grif: So let me get this straight. We're going to steal a bomb from the enemy base - a bomb that can be remotely detonated, I might add - and then we're going to take it back to our base and all huddle around it. What a great plan.
Simmons: Well of course it sounds stupid when you say it like that.
- Lampshaded when the Reds ask Grif to come up with his own plan and he's unable to think of anything. "My skills lie more in listening to other people's plans and telling them what's wrong with them."
Theatre
- Ruth Sherwood from Wonderful Town, especially in her song "One Hundred Easy Ways."
- Phyllis from Follies.
Real Life
- Pretty much any character ever played by David Spade that isn't a dimwitted redneck.
- Winston Churchill.
- Stephen Colbert.
- Simon Cowell.
- Terry Wogan - British commentor on the Eurovision Song Contest.
- Oddly enough (and almost ironically), Spartans in real life, despite being intense Blood Knights and badasses are reknowned for their startlingly Deadpan Snarker nature (laconic wit originated from them). Examples include King Demaratus's response to someone asking him who the most exemplary Spartan was: "He that is least like you.", and the Spartans' response to both Phillip II and Alexander the Great's threat that if they bring their army into their land and win the war, then it will mean Sparta's destruction. They replied with a one word response: "If." (Subsequently, both Phillip II and Alexander avoided Sparta entirely).
- Another beautiful example of this is when, during the Battle of Thermopylae, the Spartans were told that the Persian arrows would be so thick as to blot out the sun. The Spartan response was "Then, we shall fight in the shade."
- And again, when asked by the Persian army to lay down their weapons, their response was "Molon Labe", Greek for "Come and take them." In fact, dry wit was pretty much invented by the Spartans. This would also make it one of The Oldest Ones In The Book.
- News examples: Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.
- The Daily Show isn't a news program!
- This is essentially comedian Dylan Moran's entire stage persona, and makes up the majority of his television and film roles.
- General Anthony Mc Auliffe famously reponded, "Nuts," to a German request for surrender during the Battle of Bastogne.
Web Original
|
|
