Harsh Talent Show Judge

Nigel St. Nigel: You're stiff. Inarticulate. Slightly jaundiced. Asymmetrical. You smell. The one on the right, there's something in your teeth. All in all, I'd say there's absolutely nothing worthwhile about either one of you.
Singer #1: But... we haven't even sang yet.
Nigel St. Nigel: Apples and oranges. Anybody else?

— Psych, "American Duos"

Most formats of the Talent Show and Talent Contest utilize at least one judge. Their job is to use their experience and reputation in the industry the show is about to evaluate the contestants' output and explain the goings-on to the audience. One common archetype is the Harsh Talent Show Judge, who has incredibly high standards and is critical and rude towards those who don't meet said standards. This judge will unforgivingly pick apart the contestants' offerings, point out all the flaws however minor, and won't mince words if the presentation is awful. They'll probably send the Hopeless Auditionees home in tears. Particularly vicious examples might stop just short of kicking the contestant out mid-presentation but will express a desire to spit on their grandmother's grave instead.

This archetype was popularized by Reality TV, and many in-universe examples are often based around a specific judging figure. Some works are a one-man show, with the mean judge handling the entire thing. Here, their approval is the only thing that matters, and the goal is to sufficiently impress them by the end of the episode/season. Others have a judging panel with (usually only) one harsh judge. In these cases, their meanness will be tempered by the others' willingness to gush over the contestant or kindly offer constructive criticism.

If the format of the show involves Hold Up Your Score, this one tends to grade low (or lower than everyone else), but when they do score something highly, it means the contestant has really succeeded. Indeed, some shows frame this judge as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who aims for Tough Love and gives credit where credit is due. Say your prayers, though, if the show's format is of the One Judge to Rule Them All type.

In American media, this judge is likely to be British, in part due to cultural perceptions of British attitudes and in part due to the influence of Simon Cowell (American Idol, The X Factor).

Compare the Caustic Critic, an external source of negative reactions. Not to be confused with Stern Old Judge, who can be strict and mean but within the context of legal proceedings. See also Immoral Reality Show, where the very premise of the show is nasty.

When troping Reality TV, please note that it is still a couple of degrees away from Real Life. Several examples are personas amped up for the camera, and the same entertainment figure might sport different "personalities" on different shows. Please take care to trope the hosts/judges within the contexts of their respective shows.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Yakitate!! Japan: Ryo Kuroyanagi is Pantasia's go-to examiner for new recruits, and judge for the Newcomer's Battle. He's infamous for his almost sadistic habit of demeaning aspiring bakers who doesn't fit his high standards. His Establishing Character Moment has him kick out three recruits before the exam even starts because he doesn't like their physical appearance (rather than anything to do with their skills), and he'd frequently call bakers who produce inferior bread as "trash".

Comic Books

• One Archie Comics story has Archie, Betty and Veronica participate in a "Dance with Celebrities" contest. The judge in red shirt is constantly mocking the contestants while giving them 0 to negative scores. Even when Veronica's performance impresses him enough to give her team a 10/10, he doesn't actually praise her, but simply expresses relief that it was enough to make him forget Archie's terrible one.
• Avengers: The Initiative: After the results of Secret Invasion, Gorilla Girl was noted as having quit being a superhero and moved to Europe, where she became the "mean" judge on a reality show.

Live-Action TV

Fictional Examples

• 30 Rock: Parodied. When Jenna is cast as one of the judges for the show "America's Kidz Got Singing", she acts as the mean in the Nice Mean And In Between trio of judges. However, rather than provide any kind of constructive criticism for the child performers, she cruelly and blatantly insults them, even telling one child to 'jump back up [her] mother'. When Jack begins feeling empathy for the kids, he briefly has Jenna treat them nicely, though this largely consists of her struggling to twist her rude remarks into something only vaguely resembling a compliment.
• In the Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits," the talent show Hot Shots is dominated by three of these: Wraith, Hope, and Charity — Hope being a pretty obvious parody of Simon Cowell and more than prepared to verbally rip contestants to bits. However, in the dystopian society in which this episode takes place, the Judges have enormous influence over society, as Hot Shots is the only desirable method for downtrodden members of the working class to achieve fame and fortune: They not only have the power to crush the dreams of contestants but to redirect them into the porn industry — where said contestants will spend their lives drugged-up and being raped on camera.
• In Girls 5 Eva, Wickie is tempted to quit music to be a full-time mean judge on the show "American Warrior Singer."
  Wickie: I just pray Gal Gadot never sees what you did to her song "Imagine."
• In the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode "The Gang Solves the North Korea Situation", Paddy's Pub is hosting a Talent Contest as part an annual pub crawl. After learning that the nearby Korean restaurant has taken their place as the "last stop" on the crawl, Frank and Mac hijack the show in an attempt to improve it and act as judges in the American Idol fashion. Mac takes the "Harsh Judge" role in the vein of Simon Cowell, while Frank acts as Randy and (a very drunk) Dee acts like Paula Abdul.
• The Office (US): In the final season, Andy tries out for a talent show whose gimmick is that all three of the judges are "the mean one."
• Psych: In the episode "American Duos," Sean and Gus are assigned the case of who's trying to kill Nigel Saint Nigel, notoriously nasty judge in charge of the eponymous talent show. Nigel takes pleasure in putting down contestants and belittling his costars. Sean and Gus are entered in the competition to keep a close eye on him despite their lack of talent and his constant criticisms and whining. At the end, after one of the costars overdoses, the other is arrested for causing her to overdose and admits to wanting to kill Nigel because his planned comeback was ruined by being overshadowed by Nigel judging the competition. As the guilty costar is dragged away kicking and screaming in handcuffs, Nigel just can't resist calling him a failure both as a musician and murderer. At the very end, when Sean and Gus give a genuinely good performance that earns them a standing ovation, Nigel shuts down the crowd's adulation, eliminates them from the competition by telling them they have no talent whatsoever, and rudely dismisses them by suggesting they kill themselves for being such failures.

Reality TV Examples

• American Idol's initial judging configuration was a Nice Mean And In Between trio. While Paula Abdul tended to fawn over contestants and Randy Jackson offered "firm but fair" criticism, Simon Cowell was the jerk who had no qualms with insulting contestants' talents to their face or even stopping performances in the middle if he wasn't sufficiently impressed.
• In America's Next Top Model's early seasons, Janice Dickinson was often the panelist who would deliver scathing personal insults to the aspiring models in addition to criticism of their modeling work.
• Len Goodman's judging style on Dancing with the Stars isn't quite mean-spirited, but much more demanding and critical compared to his fellow judges. He's more likely to base his comments on the actual dance: if Len says it was good, it was very good, and his criticisms virtually always relate to something the dancer needs to work on. On the other hand, if a performance was genuinely bad he won't pull his punches, as during the second season when he told Master P essentially, "You don't care, you aren't trying, you don't belong here, it's time for you to go home," in the third week.
• The Great British Bake Off has a two-man judging panel. In contrast to the sweet and grandmotherly judge Mary Berry and her replacement, the friendly Prue Leith, Paul Hollywood tends to be more snobby, critical, and pompous (though not outright mean) about contestants' outputs.
• Gordon Ramsay is the chef to impress on the Cooking Show Hell's Kitchen, and he's portrayed as a chef with an explosive temper. He's prone to bellowing at and insulting contestants who screw up, often with profanity-ridden rants.
• MasterChef: In the Brazilian version, presenting an underwhelming meal to any of the judges usually results in the cook being bombarded with rude comments, with one notorious example being Paola Carosella's rant at the start of season 4, where her only feedback consists of the sentence "It's horrible", repeated for twenty seconds straight. However, the judges have confessed to purposefully accentuating the negative, as they were subjected to the same treatment in the past. In other words, their harshness is a façade meant to encourage the competitors to improve.
• Law Roach of Legendary is far and away the harshest judge on the panel. He's prone to giving much lower scores than the rest of the judges, and on the rare occasion he says a House impressed him, it's treated as a huge event. More common is him making a show of giving harsh critiques for the hell of it, such as when he sang a few bars of "Amazing Grace" at a poorly-performing House before clarifying "I just sang at your funeral. It's over for y'all".
• My Kitchen Rules has Colin Fassnidge, who is one of the most critical and hardest to please among the 6 judges. Initially introduced as MKR's own version of Gordon Ramsay, he often pulverizes the contestants' confidence with his aggressive critiques and tends to score lower than the rest of the panels. However, he drops most of his aggressive attitude after becoming one of the main judges in season 6, is more willing to praise a good dish (or at least point out the positive aspects of a mediocre one), and is generally a pleasant guy to be around. His scores are still generally lower than the other judges' though.
• During the Telecinco years of Operación Triunfo in between the format's two stints on TVE, publicist and music producer Risto Mejide earned a reputation as the most vitriolic member of the jury table upon joining the show for Season 5, with extremely harsh put-downs that frequently offended the contestants. A particularly nasty one got him fired late in Season 7, but he still got to bring back his schtick on the Spanish versions of The X Factor and Got Talent, which also aired on Telecinco.
• "Nasty" Nigel Lythgoe on the Talent Show Popstars. He slid into the role of caustic, no-nonsense judge, who was prone to withering stares and harsh putdowns towards acts he didn't like. For example, he famously called Kym Marsh a fat goose and told her to lose weight on-air.
• RuPaul's Drag Race has Michelle Visage, who is notorious for her incredibly harsh (and often somewhat arbitrary) standards and tendency to not mince her words in the slightest during critiques. Her Brutal Honesty is so unending that other judges responding to her biting commentary with "I have to disagree with Michelle" and launching into a compliment-fest has effectively become a Running Gag.
• Strictly Come Dancing: Len Goodman retains his Tough Love judging style from Dancing with the Stars. The role of the harsh, critical judge went to Craig Revel-Horwood, who reveled in the boos he got from the audience. After Len departed the show, the role of the kind yet critical judge has gone to Motsi Mabuse.

Video Games

• Escape from Monkey Island includes a diving contest with three judges, one of whom consistently gives Guybrush very low scores and terse, useless feedback. By probing further, Guybrush can learn that the judge is being paid to ensure that the other diver wins.
• In a side story in Guardian Tales, the player can be asked to judge a talent contest. They are requested to act rude to boost the ratings. Their remarks can be so mean, such as calling one girl a gorilla, that the contestants retaliate as the screen Fades to Black. Thankfully, this is not a Non-Standard Game Over.
• Idol Manager: In the Nation of Idols show, the judges consist of a former idol who likes almost everything, a former music producer who's expected to give the fairest evaluation and the rival, who is the harsh one who only sees the flaws in each contestant. The music producer is expected to be the tie breaker in most cases, but the rival is rumored to give his rare thumbs up not only to the best, but also to groups he wants to see in the next round for personal reasons.

Western Animation

• OOglies: A recurring sketch includes an Immoral Reality Show show where the talent show judges consist of a highlighter pen, a pair of scissors, and a calculator, all of whom are none too impressed with the stunts the contestants display for them. They only give them top ten marks when the stunts go wrong and seriously injure the contestants.
• Robot Chicken: In the "Zombie Idol" skit, the roles of Randy, Paula, and Simon are filled in by three Monster Cereals characters. Frankenberry seems to have Randy's role, Boo Berry seems to act like Paula, and Count Chocula acts as the harsh "Simon Cowell" of the three, being the sardonic hard-to-please judge who says that zombie Bob Marley's song is "dreadful".
• In the The Venture Brothers episode "Fallen Arches", the Order of the Triad is holding auditions for potential villains. Much to the dismay of the optimistic Orpheus, Al spends most of the time making fun of the candidates as the "harshest" one of the group, clearly not taking it seriously. It doesn't help that most of the candidates are shown in a Terrible Interviewees Montage, meaning there is a lot to make fun of them for.
• World of Winx: The In-Universe Talent Show Wow! has two judges, Cliff and Margot. The latter's shtick can be summed up as destructive criticism — she's extremely hard to please, always nitpicking and looking for the smallest of flaws in the contestants' performances.

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