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I Take Offense to That Last One

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"Ugly Dog Theory: In a comedy, whenever someone is being pummeled with insults, it's always the last and most seemingly innocent insult that evokes a heated response. Example: 'You're ugly, your mother is ugly, your brother is ugly and your dog is ugly!' Response: 'You can't talk that way about my dog!'"

Someone accused of Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking only takes serious offense to the claims of jaywalking.

After being given a Long List of their flaws and transgressions, a character responds by selecting one of the flaws and saying "I am not (flaw)!" as if to imply that all the other flaws were all spot-on. For maximum comedic effect, offense is taken to the mildest one in the list, or the offended has to ask the offender to repeat the one he's insulted by ("Hey, I am NOT a... um, what was that last one again?") which insinuates that all of them may be accurate. Frequently, they'll be entirely justified. Despite the name, the character doesn't always pick the last one. If their Berserk Button comes up, it's going to offend them more than any other insult. It can be used sarcastically with Lovable Rogues, and a staple of the Deadpan Snarker. Sometimes refuting the most easily refuted charge can discredit the whole string for an in-story audience.

Alternatively, a character may take umbrage at all the insults, but address the one that bothers them most rather than getting into a point-by-point argument or address one that isn't a matter of opinion. Sometimes, it's just that only one of the set of insults actually matters, to either the speaker or target or both.

This can also be used for character exposition. A villain may not care about being called a brute or a sadist, but be offended by being called a wimp.

In Real Life, it's done as an Insult Backfire, as they respond to the petty insult while ignoring the larger ones as if to say "It's not worth my time".

A variation on this is for the character to claim that the string of insults is a half-truth, letting the viewer try to decide which parts are true or not. It's occasionally inverted with a bullying character playing the Jerk with a Heart of Jerk card and "apologizing" for an insult in a way that degrades the insultee(s) more. For example, calling an entire group of people "pigs" and then saying: "I'm sorry. I hope I didn't offend any pigs." Or calling someone "ugly" and, when an apology is demanded, saying: "Okay, I'm sorry you're ugly."

Compare My Friends... and Zoidberg, Insult Backfire, Non Sequitur Distraction, Wrong Insult Offence. This is a case of the character on the receiving end of Comically Missing the Point.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • A series of Coke Zero ads featured various animate body parts. One, in particular, had the French Jerk eyeball (who was earlier admiring his own beauty in a mirror) inform the pair of Cockney-accented tongues that they are actually drinking Coke Zero, not Coke like they think they are (because only the eyeball can actually see what is written on the bottle).
    Tongue: Y'know, we don't like you, Eyeball. You know why? Because you're a big. Fat. Liar.
    Eyeball: [gasp] I am not fat!
  • A TV ad for Helio mobile products had a daughter bring home a man of a different race. She doesn't care about the very offensive things her parents say, but she does get upset over their calling his Helio a "phone".

    Anime & Manga 
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Chapter 125 features an argument between Kusuri and Kishika. At one point Kusuri storms off yelling insults at Kishika directed at her tendency towards Emotional Regression. The only one Kishika objects to is the last one, because it is actually a bad habit of Kusuri's:
    Kusuri: You big dummy! You whiny brat! Thumb sucker! Adult baby! Boob licker! Panty wetter!
    Kishika: That one is pure projection!
  • In episode 10 of Anti Magic Academy The 35th Test Platoon, Ouka is pursuing two criminals, and lists the crimes, which are, "illegally trading a D-ranked magical artifact, obstruction of justice, illegal possession and use of firearms, and riding a motorcycle without wearing helmets." They object to the last one, on account of her not wearing one either.
  • In the first Bakemonogatari novel, Araragi is impressed by Senjougahara's vocabulary. She tells him that it's not that she's good with words, but that he's "an illiterate bum." Araragi is fine with her calling him "illiterate", but takes offense to her calling him a "bum". Senjougahara immediately upgrades the insult to "scum" in response.
  • Bleach:
    • Inverted when Ganju is offended in everything BUT the ugly comment by Yumichika — even better is that it's lampshaded by Uryu Ishida.
      Yumichika: Who might you be? It's not my nature to remember ugly faces?
      Ganju: The Hell?! Everyone knows I got more handsome with these bandages wrapped around! And even with these bandages, you can't even tell what I look like you dumbass!
      Uryu: So you're not gonna deny the ugly part...?
    • Straight when Hiyori is going off on Hitsugaya, throwing insults at his cool façade until something sticks. She tries calling him a stupid, crafty kid, then baldy (ad nauseam), but finally hits his Berserk Button with "midget".
      Hitsugaya: You're even shorter than I am!
  • In Bocchi the Rock!, after Seika upsets her much younger sister Nijika by telling her that Nijika's band can't play at Seika's live house unless they pass an audition, Nijika storms off, accusing Seika of needing to sleep with a stuffed animal despite being in her thirties. Seika retorts that she's only 29.
  • Digimon:
  • Don't Meddle with My Daughter!: Invoked by Athena while Heavy Metal's raping her. She was content to let him do it and even performs fellatio on him without coercion. Nor was she bothered by him gloating about the first time he and the rest of her enemies did it to her, 20 years ago. It's when he muses that her daughter might be his child that he finally crosses the line. Athena clamps her hand over his mouth long enough to set the record straight about who Clara's real father is, then uses her legs to crush his spine.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • In one episode of Dragon Ball, Bulma's dynocaps disappear and she blames it on Oolong the Pig:
      Bulma: I think you took our dynocaps just like you stole our lunch, you little porker!
      Oolong: Hey! I resent being called 'little'!
    • Dragon Ball Z Kai:
      Gohan: You're stupid and ugly and... YOU SMELL!
      Nappa: [screams] ... I smell?! Why — you — it's not my fault! [As Vegeta laughs] I've been cooped up in a space pod for a year, what do you expect?!
    • From the original Dragon Ball Z series, we have this exchange from a filler arc at the end of the Cell Saga:
      King Kai: Mind your own business, you nosy old hag!
      East Kai: You take that back! I am not nosy!
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric has several scenes in which his adversaries throw insults at him, which he takes coolly... until they point out his height.
    Edward: WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MICRO-SIZED HALF-PINT WHO DIDN'T GROW UP BECAUSE HE DOESN'T DRINK MILK?!
  • Gintama:
    Gintoki: Do you hope to get sympathy by faking insanity?
    Kagura: Feigning insanity? How rude! I'm not feigning anything!
  • The dub of the sixth season of Hetalia: Axis Powers (Hetalia The World Twinkle):
    America: Yo, Brit-face!
    Britain: Hmm? America?!
    America: Don't worry, dog, as liberator of the world, I'm here to effin' rescue you! After all, it's a hero's job to help out the weak and inbred!
    Britain: Hey! Who you calling weak?
  • Infinite Stratos, in the Light Novel:
    Some random girl: The way Orimura-kun is receiving it isn’t bad neither...
    Ichika: [in his mind] Hey, what’s the meaning of that last comment!?
  • Kamen no Maid Guy:
    Kogarashi: So the clumsy maid is easy too.
    Fubuki: Who are you calling "clumsy"?
  • Legend of the Galactic Heroes:
    Walter von Schenkopf: You seem to be saying that I'm a middle-aged scoundrel... I'm still not middle-aged.
  • In Rio's first scene of Muhyo and Roji, Muhyo calls Rio a "wanton hag." Biko, who's extremely fond of her old teacher, complains.
    Biko: H-Hag? She made your precious little book, Muhyo!
    Rio: It's okay. He got the rest of it right.
  • Naruto has this scene:
    Naruto: You're nothing but a lousy little pervert!!
    Jiraiya: I am NOT a little pervert!
    Naruto: Oh yeah? Then tell me, what are you?
    Jiraiya: Ah hah hah hah! ...I'm a BIG one.
  • In the manga adaptation of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Misato and Ritsuko discuss how Shinji seems depressed after talking to his father, to which Ritsuko replies by saying that it would be odd if Shinji was cheerful.
    Misato: You're just an old bitch.
    Ritsuko: The "old" part was uncalled for.
  • Nerima Daikon Brothers:
    Casting Director: You ugly slut!
    Mako: Ugly? UGLY?!
  • In the first episode of the English dub of Oh! Edo Rocket Genjiro refers to Akai, a Smug Snake Obstructive Bureaucrat as "Deputy Douchebag". Akai corrects him, complaining that his title is Special Agent, not Deputy.
  • In Ouran High School Host Club: Tamaki at one point declares that he and Haruhi are obviously the main characters (and love interests), and dismisses the rest of the Host Club as the "homosexual supporting cast". Later, after Kyoya gets revenge by pranking Tamaki, he declares "I just don't think I'm supporting cast, homosexual or otherwise".
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • In "Fire and Ice!":
      Misty: Stuff your selfish little face after we drop off your Pokémon to the Pokémon Center!
      Ash: My face is little?
    • In "Fighting Fear with Fear!", just after Gliscor evolved:
      James: That means our Gliscor will have someone to look up to.
      Ash: Gliscor is mine, right, Gliscor?
      Gliscor: Gliscor!
  • Ranma ½: Ranma just keeps begging for it.
    Ranma: Who'd want to date a stupid selfish cat girl like you?
    Shampoo: [pushing Ranma into Koi pond] Shampoo selfish, not stupid.
  • Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei:
    • In the episode dealing with "criticism training" (i.e. Nozomu has a guy show up and insult the students):
      Guy: [addressing Nami] You are uncute in a normal way.
      Nami: Don't say normal!
    • In one manga chapter, for reasons that make as much sense in context, Nozomu brings in his "second opinion" of his students, who are (mostly note ) gonk guys in wigs who imitate their mannerisms. When the one for Yaoi Fangirl Harumi shows up and announces a Slash pairing preference, Nami muses at how similar they are. Harumi, angrily indicates that she isn't like that- she prefers a different "top", and declares they (the pairings) aren't alike at all. Thus, she implies that this detail is the only one she contests and her response supports the depiction of her as an obsessive Yaoi Fangirl.
  • In Slayers, of all the names Xelloss gets called, he's only visibly offended when Filia calls him "garbage".
  • A variation from Space Pirate Mito. The Galactic Patrol is looking for the main character, Aoi Mitsukuni, and to flush him out, they announce his "crimes" to the general populace, hoping they'll hand him over. In order, this includes being the son of a wanted Space Pirate, seducing woman, being a ten-foot monster (and apparently a gremlin), and disrespecting his parents, since he injured his mother and ran away. Hearing the announcement, his classmates ask if it's true, and Aoi replies, "It's true," but stops short, leading his friends to have Imagine Spots based on the more outlandish claims. (He really meant the last one, though the first is also true).
  • Strike Witches:
    Perrine: You're like some kind of rabid raccoon-dog hybrid!
    Yoshika: Raccoon?
  • Super Robot Wars Original Generation: Toward the beginning, newly-Ascended Fanboy Ryusei gets a little too blunt.
    Ryusei: Great. My rival's a jerk, and the chick's a nag.
    Rai: Jerk?
    Aya: Chick?
  • Tokyo Godfathers:
    Miyuki: Eat shit, you old fart.
    Hana: "Shit" I'll take, but "fart" I won't!
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! episode "Trial By Red-Eyes" (4Kids version), we get this exchange between Mai Valentine and Rex Raptor when the latter tries to make a play for Joey's Time Wizard, which was used to defeat Mai earlier.
    Mai: Rex, you double-crossing snake! I know what you're scheming!
    Rex: I'm no lousy snake! I'm a dinosaur, you know that!
  • YuYu Hakusho:
    • When Yusuke and Hiei are confronted by two demon Mooks.
      Hiei: I believe these demons are technically classified as weak and ugly.
      Random demon: Who are you calling ugly?!
    • At the Dark Tournament, after Chu stumbles on stage, he drunkenly yells into the jeering crowd:
      Chu: So, the substitute's "a pathetic drunk", huh?! Take that back! I am not a substitute!
  • In Zombie Powder, when Gamma introduces Smith and Elwood to Wolfina:
    Gamma: ...The shrimp is my disciple.
    Elwood: What, who ya calling a disciple?!

    Comedy 
  • Jimmy Carr:
    "I've got a friend that got into an argument with a barmaid from Sunderland. Long story short, he ended up calling her a 'fat, ugly Geordie cunt.' And she said, 'I'm no' a Geordie!'"
  • John Mulaney uses this a lot in his comedy. For example:
    "When I was a boy I was often confused with a woman, sometimes, over the phone, because before puberty I had a voice like a little flute. I was once on the telephone with Blockbuster Video [...] I'd called them a couple of times in one day to ask about a movie. And I called for a third time [...] And the guy at Blockbuster went "Hey lady! I'll tell you when we get Addams Family Values!" But look, I wasn't offended as a boy being confused with a lady. I was offended as a lady, who was getting pushed around by this chauvenistic asshole who works at Blockbuster Video, talking to me like I'm some floozy!"

    Comic Books 
  • Happens sometimes with Obélix in the Asterix comics:
    Obélix: I may be a traitor, but I am not fat!
  • Batman and Robin #1:
    Bruce: Show some respect. They were your grandparents.
    Damian: Just names and dusty frames on the walls to me.
    Alfred: I take exception to that. There is not a speck of dust collecting on those portraits.
  • Disney Ducks Comic Universe: In the Don Rosa comic "Attaaack!", Donald Duck and Scrooge are listening to somebody else's phone-call, trying to discover attack plans against Scrooge's money bin that way.
    Caller 1: Is Scrooge McDuck really a greedy, cheap, stingy, miserly, cranky old wretch of a slavedriver?
    Caller 2: He sure is. At least that's what his nephew Donald said.
    Donald: Ulp!
    Scrooge: [completely deadpan] You think I'm old? You wound me.
  • Green Lantern: In Sinestro Corps War, a variant of this is done for Hal Jordan by someone else. Someone who, incidentally, despises Jordan.
    Amon Sur: It's ironic, isn't it, Jordan?
    Hal Jordan: What is, Amon? Me about to break your nose with your father's ring?
    Amon Sur: You dying here. Killed by Sinestro's army. Alone. You've been despised and abandoned by your corps.
    Off-panel voice: Despised is one thing. But abandoned?
    The Cavalry: That, the Green Lantern Corps don't do.
  • Harley Quinn: In Harley's Little Black Book #5, an alien conqueror tells Big Tony "Quiet, whimpering maggot!" Tony replies:
    "What? I don't whimper!"
  • In JLA (1997), supervillain the Key has taken over the Watchtower and is offended that the Justice League of America's latest recruit has never heard of him.
    The Key: I'm the Key, you junk-food-gobbling, MTV-watching moron!
    Connor Hawke: I don't even watch MTV.
  • In the Lucky Luke album Western Circus, Zilch (the baddie) is raising concerns about Mulligan's circus including a lion.
    Zilch: Are you going to let a drunk and a dilapidated cage be the only safeguards of your children's lives?
    Mulligan: The cage is not dilapidated!
  • Suicida of Gangreen once called Marshal Law, "A barbed-wire bondage freak, a leather-clad Tinkerbell, a posing asshole Soopah hero". His response? "Call me a fascist pig. Call me a barbed wire bondage freak. Call me a leather-clad tinkerbelle. Call me a posing asshole. Just don't call me a... a... that word." (The word "Superhero" is Marshal Law's Berserk Button. He really hates them.)
  • Ms. Marvel (2014): Ms. Marvel, during her confrontation with the Inventor, proceeds to deliver him a spectacular "The Reason You Suck" Speech describing in great details how sick she believes he is. He just stares at her blankly for most of the speech... until she calls him a bird, at which point he completely loses his shit.
  • In Robyn Hood #15, Robyn intimidates a group of skinwalkers. As she goes to leave, one of them calls her a "crazy bitch". Robyn turns around and demands "What did you call me?" As another skinwalker starts to say "He didn't mean b...", Robyn continues "Did you just call me crazy?" The next panel has all of the skinwalkers Pinned to the Wall with arrows.
  • Spider-Man: In The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski) #55, Peter had a job as a high school science teacher. This exchange followed after he met a particularly troublesome student:
    Melissa Coolridge: Sheesh! Forget it. I wouldn't expect an old nerd like you to understand.
    Peter Parker: Old?!
    Melissa Coolridge: I see you didn't argue with the nerd part.
    Peter Parker: Old?!
  • Star Wars: Doctor Aphra: While aboard Accresker Jail, Tam Posla calls Aphra a heartless, lying, cheating, partner-killing, fake-prisoner-trading scum. Aphra, who is still reeling from having to brainwash her love interest at the latter's request to hide herself from Darth Vader, specifically objects to being called heartless.
    Tam Posla: I, Tam Posla, do hereby arrest you on the authority of the Milvayne judiciary, in the name of all that is good. You heartless, lying, cheating, partner-killing, fake-prisoner-trading scum!
    Aphra: Wh-who... *snff* who are you calling HEARTLESS?
  • Supergirl: In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, several bullies pick on Linda, calling her "dorky", "big-headed", "egomaniac", "monkey-looking", "goofy", "crazy"… and joking that "her nostrils must be at least a foot in diameter, like caverns leading to a lost world". She doesn't appreciate any of their insults, but the last one sets her off.
    Student: Her nostrils must be at least a foot in diameter! Like caverns leading to a lost world...
    Linda: Okay... For the record, just so everyone knows, I have petite nostrils! They're tiny and cute!
  • Thor God of Thunder: When S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Roz Solomon accuses Corrupt Corporate Executive Dario Agger of building "toxic waste factories on wheels", Agger's response is to claim the agent is misinformed: their toxic waste factories FLY!
  • Tintin: In Tintin and the Picaros, the Kangaroo Court prosecutor for the Republic of San Theodoros, before calling for Thompson and Thomson to be sentenced to death, goes on a tirade calling the two "cheats," "imposters" and "assassins," who "carried their duplicity so far as to grow moustaches!" They indignantly speak up against this:
    "That's a lie!... We've been wearing moustaches since we were born!"
    "To be precise: we're worn bearing them!"
  • In an early issue of Ultimate X-Men, when the X-Men face Magneto's Brotherhood for the first time, Storm gets called a "fat American cow" while trading punches with Toad. Storm (who is Moroccan) promptly knocks him out with a swift high-kick to the jaw, then yells "That's for calling me American, you skinny English jerk!"
  • From Norman Osborn's fight with War Machine:
    Norman: Crazy? You bet! Evil? Debatable. But stupid? You wound me, sir.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): Julia accuses Myndi Mayer of quite a few unflattering things as she walks out the door after Myndi sauntered into her office; amusingly, the only thing Myndi seems offended at on the list is the accusation that she's cheap.
  • A variation on the theme from Xenozoic Tales: Jack calls Hannah judgemental and light-fingered. She swings the sails of the boat they are on, causing the boat to shift and deposit Jack in the water.
    Jack: Now why'd you do that?
    Hannah: I don't like being called judgmental.
    Jack: You don't argue with light-fingered?
    [Hannah swings an oar at him]
  • X-Statix:
    • Dead-Girl describes the Anarchist as "a scared, self-denying, guilt-ridden, washed-up excuse for a mutant" and follows up by saying he isn't even fun anymore. It was that last one that did it. This is naturally because he recognizes all the previous digs as completely factual.
    • Also, when watching a news montage that implicates X-Statix in illegal transactions involving drugs, land scams and MP3's, the Anarchist replies with "MP3's? That's a damned lie!"

    Comic Strips 
  • Bloom County: In one strip, Bobbie Harlow will only go out with Steve Dallas if he cooks her a meal, dedicates his life to charity, and gets a partial lobotomy. Steve's reaction: "Cook a meal?!?"
  • Inverted slightly in Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin receives insulting letters from an anonymous sender. It's Hobbes, naturally. When he receives one that says, "You look like a baboon and smell like one too," he replies.
    Calvin: What kind of sick freak would do something like this?!
    Hobbes: A reckless exaggerator. You don't look like a baboon...
    Calvin: Oh, you're a big help!
  • In one early Dennis the Menace (US) comic.
    Henry Mitchell: George, I've let you call Dennis some pretty nasty names, and said nothing but when you call our dog "mutt"...
  • Bam. Dilbert strip.
    Pointy-Haired Boss: You're either an idiot or you've never done business travel.
    Job Applicant: How dare you accuse me of not traveling.
  • In Doonesbury, when Jeff brings up his interview with a private security contractor:
    Joanie: Private security? You mean those big, lawless pinheads in black tees and Ray-Bans who are always creating mayhem.
    Jeff: Oakleys.
    Joanie: What?
    Jeff: They wear Oakleys, mom. Only State Department weenies wear Ray-Bans.
  • Garfield:
    • The March 4, 1987 strip has Arlene berate Garfield because he's rude, obnoxious, fat, selfish, egotistical and totally devoid of any charm. Garfield objects that he isn't egotistical.
    • In the July 10, 1999 strip, Jon describes Garfield as "a fat worthless cat". Garfield says "that fat part was uncalled for".
  • Peanuts:
    • A 1982 strip shows the latest effort from Snoopy the World-Famous Author:
      "'You love hockey more than you love me!' she complained. 'You love those hockey gloves, and shinguards, and skates and elbow pads more than you love me!' 'That's not true!' he said. 'I love you much more than I love my elbow pads.'"
    • From 1954:
      Charlie Brown: Nobody loves me. Nobody even likes me. In fact, nobody even tolerates me.
      Violet: We do, too!
  • This exchange in Zits:
    Jeremy: You're acting like a jerk, and your girlfriend is a parasite.
    Hector: Really? I'm acting like a jerk?

    Fan Works 
  • And the Giant Awoke: Fat Bastard (an analogue of sandwich) was named after Tyrion’s bodyguard Ranulf. But don’t mention it to the man himself because he really doesn’t like being called fat.
  • From The Black Bunny:
    Hermione: Stop trying to scare the poor gay Slytherin!
    Draco: I'm not poor!
  • In a Bleach fanfic, Yoruichi is brought in as captain of Squad 9, to the objections of most of the members who say they don't want an old, weak, traitor, coward, bitch as their commander. Yoruichi's response:
    Yoruichi: Just who in the fuck are you calling old?!
  • This Death Note fan comic:
    L: Hollywood will be doing a movie now? Does this make Raito-kun feel like a cheap prostitute as well?
    Raito: I'm NOT cheap!
    L: I am amazed at which part of that statement you find offensive.
  • In Diaries of a Madman, Pinkie doesn't mind when Nav compares her to a foal by suggesting she's loud, unmannered, and uncontrollable. She does, however, protest the assertion that she's "stinky".
  • From the Merlin fic The Dragon's Circle (and is followed by a lampshade):
    Merlin: I can go where I please, even if it is to visit a self-involved prat with no manners or sense of propriety.
    Arthur: No manners?!
  • Dub of the North Star: Rather than the last one, it's the first insult Shin is taking offense to.
    Yuria: You're so ugly and stupid and just... just gay.
    Shin: Ugly?
  • The Evangelion: ReDeath gagdub of Neon Genesis Evangelion gave us this immortal exchange between Misato and Ritsuko:
    Misato: Bitch.
    Ritsuko: Slut.
    Misato: Skank.
    Ritsuko: Tramp.
    Misato: Whore.
    Ritsuko: ...Minmay.
    Misato: You take that back!
  • In A Gem of a Day, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy get into a rare argument, during which Fluttershy calls Rainbow Dash an "insensitive, loudmouthed, unreasonable old slowpoke".
    Rainbow Dash: SLOWPOKE?!
  • In one Good Omens fanfic:
    Crowley: That vile angel wantonly seduced me.
    Aziraphale: [weakly] I don't think I was wanton.
  • Hands: Twilight at one point calls Andrew an "indecisive cowardly jerk". Andrew doesn't like being called indecisive.
  • From an Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic:
    Spain: [England] just said you'd be a pushover in bed. And also that you worship the ground I walk on.
    Romano: I am not a pushover, and — and I'm not a pushover!
  • Issei: The Gaming Gear: When Issei calls the Purifiers that want to kidnap Asia "suspicious old men in cosplay", three of them seem to be more affronted about the suspicious, old and cosplay parts than the other accusations.
  • In this Ivanhoe fanfic when Brian wants to take Rebecca with him to Tartus, Palestine, Isaac is afraid he’ll throw the girl out into the desert when he’s bored with her. Brian’s comment? "Balderdash! It’s not in a desert!"
  • Atter escaping from Cinder in Kidnapped, Jaune screams about how she's "some crazy woman who kidnapped him and had problems with men". Cinder's inner monologue makes it clear that she doesn't have any problems with men while not exactly denying the other parts of Jaune's accusation.
  • In Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox, Naruto lays out Ino's less desirable traits to her face. Guess what Ino's most upset by.
    Naruto: You're rude, you're bossy, you're impulsive, you're violent, and you drool over a guy who doesn't even give you the time of day!
    Ino: Hey, don't go insulting Sasuke-kun!
  • On the Kingdom Hearts fanon Wiki, there's an alternate reality called the Nightverse, essentially something along the lines of Kingdom Hearts meets Watchmen where the Darker and Edgier is taken Up to Eleven. In that reality, the group of villains is called The Midnight Syndicate, mostly consisting of the Nobodies of various Final Fantasy characters, but with a few original characters thrown in as well. Two members in particular, Nexko (original character) and Xertra (Terra Branford's Nobody) hate each other beyond any logic, at least by Nobody standards.
    Nexko: Get the hell out of my way, you arrogant, retarded, self-centered, immature, power-hungry, lying, reckless, treasonous whore!
    Xertra: I am not a retarded whore, asshole.
  • A Man of Iron: When attempting to stave her off, one of Yunkai's Wise Masters accuses Daenerys of having previously committed savageries against Astapor. She takes offense at this — what she did to Astapornote  was far more than mere savagery.
  • The Touhou Project fanfic Monsters In Paradise features this exchange between Kanako and Suwako, concerning the recreation that the latter seems to enjoy:
    Kanako: You're the size of the village children, and you're behaving like a crazed aerobics instructor. If it weren't for the power you emit, no-one would know that you were an elder goddess.
    Suwako: "Crazed aerobics instructor"? Take that back! I'm not crazed, just unusual!
  • My Old Kentucky Home:
    Lily: Well Sirius was my husbands blood brother and Harry's godfather. While he's an immature, scruffy looking nerf herder he is still a decent man. Snape is out for Snape. So long as everything benefits him he'll go whichever way the wind blows.
    Sirius: Scruffy looking? I thought I cleaned up nicely.
  • This Portal 2 fancomic has, like in the original, GLaDOS calling Chell a "dangerous, mute lunatic". Chell immediately speaks up, stating she is not mute.
  • Played with in the Red vs. Blue fanfic Recovery None when Epsilon-Church meets Alpha-Church for the first time:
    Epsilon: The Alpha. Oh my god, he’s a prick isn’t he? Goddammit. What’s my schtick supposed to be?
    Church: I’m not the Alpha, I’m fucking Leonard Church, and I’m not a prick! I’m a bastard and an asshole, but I am not a prick.
  • After having a good two-hour spar with Ichigo in Sight:
    Urahara: I've said it before, Kurosaki-san, though I don't believe you heard me last time — you really are quite a frightening child.
    Ichigo: Don't call me a child.
    Urahara: And you skip right over with the frightening part.
  • This Bites!: Chapter 7.
    Cross: Zoro, you're a lot of things: you sleep too much, you're focused on swords to an unhealthy degree, you're grumpy—
    Zoro: I am not grumpy.
    Soundbite: THAT'S what you PROTEST?
    • Chapter 25: After Robin accidentally insults everything about Shogun Octavio and his country (due to Vivi not reading the translation guide thoroughly), Octavio says he would have laughed off all of them except they insulted his surfing ability, which is unforgivable.
    • Chapter 25, after the chapter's events, a couple of listeners express their thoughts:
      Buggy: A Devil Fruit user being a natural surfer, better than someone who was literally born for the sport? That's just insane.
      Alvida: It does sound ridiculous when you say it like that, doesn't it? About as ridiculous as surviving an execution attempt thanks to a lightning bolt striking the tower.
      Buggy: Indeed.
      Alvida: Or as ridiculous as how losing some freckles can make a world of difference in helping people perceive your natural beauty.
      Buggy: Yes, that's... just as ridiculous.
      Alvida: Or as ridiculous as a nearly no-name clown-themed pirate from the East Blue managing to survive two days in the Grand Line, much less two months.
      Buggy: Okay, now that's just insa— WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST CALL ME, WOMAN!?
  • Total Drama All-Stars Rewrite has a variation, as the person is reacting to someone else being insulted. After officially revealing himself to Gwen and Zoey, Mal taunts Gwen by mocking her attempts to threaten him "Just like your pathetic boyfriend [Duncan] with the stupid mohawk!" Gwen's reaction in the confessional?
    Gwen: Ok, THAT’S IT!!!! You already crossed the line hurting my friends…. But NOBODY disses the mowhawk!! You know what, Mal? …Bring It!!
  • In Allen Ungar's 15-minute Uncharted movie, the captured Nathan Drake (played by Nathan Fillion, no less) has his captor introduce him to his mooks. Sure enough...
    Captor: Nathan Drake, in the flesh! Legendary treasure hunter, explorer, historian... thief.
    Nathan: Woah, he-..! I think you have me confused with somebody else, pal.
    Captor: The one responsible for finding El Dorado... Corvera... and Shambhala.
    Nathan: Oh. Then yes, okay. Then.. yeah, that's me.
  • A Very Potter Sequel:
    Draco Malfoy: My name is Draco Malfoy. I am a racist. I despise gingers and Mudbloods. I hate Gryffindor House and my parents work for the man who killed your parents. Do you want to be my friend?
    Harry Potter: Hate Gryffindor House? Get out of my face, Malfoy!
  • In Who Silenced Elly Patterson:
    John: What I wanna talk about is where the Hell do you get off talking about me like that to the cops?!
    Liz: Whaddaya mean "Like that?" Do you mean "He did it [killed Elly Patterson]?" or do you mean "He had a temper fit like a spoiled brat because Mom didn't wear herself out eating those awful greaseburgers he loves to choke down night after night?"
    John: The "greaseburger" crack, of course. You made me sound like an idiot!
  • The fanfic Rurouni Yahiko has this:
    Yahiko: You have a lot of explaining to do, Psycho-Kid!
    Soujiro: Oh? I'm not a psycho-kid. That's silly. I'm already twenty-four. I'm not a kid anymore.
    Yahiko: ... Which means he didn't deny the "psycho" part at all?
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series:
    Duke: They say you're a loser with a fetish for dressing up like animals.
    Joey: I am not a loser!

    Films — Animation 
  • Occurs near the beginning of Aladdin.
    Prince Achmed: You are a worthless street rat! You were born a street rat, you'll die a street rat, and only your fleas will mourn you!
    Aladdin: I'm not worthless. And I don't have fleas!
  • All Dogs Go to Heaven 2: "You contemptible canine!" "Don't call me canine!"
  • The Emperor's New Groove: After one too many exasperating moments with her Minion with an F in Evil, Yzma insults Kronk, calling him a "big stupid monkey," and then she says she never liked his spinach puffs! "Never!" In response to that, even Kronk's shoulder devil does a Heel–Face Turn!
    Shoulder Devil: That's it. [cocks trident like a shotgun] She's goin' down!
  • From Filmation's Happily Ever After:
    Sunburn: Who are you, anyway?
    Sunflower: One of the hired help, just like you.
    Sunburn: And just who are you calling "hired?"
  • The Lion King has Banzai, who only seems to have a problem with being called stupid after hearing a bunch of insults:
    Simba: But, Zazu, you told me they're nothing but slobbering, mangy, stupid poachers.
    Zazu: Ix-nay on the upid-stay...
    Banzai: Who you callin' "upid-stay"?!
  • The Princess and the Frog: Prince Naveen takes offense at being called a philandering bum who spent all his time chasing chambermaids in his ivory tower:
    Naveen: Actually, it's polished marble...
  • From Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. Note that in this case, lying is the most relevant. Because he told the truth, Eris has to give the book back.
    Eris: You're a selfish, unprincipled liar!
    Sinbad: Wait a minute. I didn't lie.
  • South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
    • A hilarious reversal of this trope:
      Cartman: Kyle, I'm sorry for all those times I called you a stupid Jew. I didn't mean it. You're not a Jew.
      Kyle: Yes I am, Cartman, I am a Jew!
      Cartman: No, don't be so hard on yourself.
    • And a borderline case from earlier in the same movie.
      Cartman: Don't call me fat, you fucking Jew!
      Mr. Garrison: Eric, did you just say the F-word?
      Cartman: ... "Jew"?
  • In The Spongebob Squarepants Movie Two gas attendants, Floyd and Lloyd laugh at SpongeBob and Patrick's car, the Patty Wagon (a car shaped exactly like a krabby patty) and then Floyd asks "Where are you two dumb kids headed anyway?"
    Patrick: Kids?!
    SpongeBob: Now, Patrick. (turns to Floyd and Lloyd) For your information, we are not kids. We are men.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • 25th Hour:
    Monty: You fat Russian fuck.
    Novotny: Fat Ukrainian fuck!
  • From the Professional Wrestling film ...All the Marbles, which is about a women's Tag Team and their manager. After the Mud Wrestling debacle, Molly tells Harry that he's "a lousy human being" and "a lousy manager." Harry says, "I am not a lousy manager."
  • Batman Forever has an example that leads to Disproportionate Retribution.
    Fred Stickley: You are going up on charges, to courts, to jail, and then to a mental institution for the rest of your twisted little life! But first and foremost, Nygma, you are fired! Do you hear me? Fired!
    Edward Nygma: *gives Death Glare to Stickley* Oooooh.....I don't think so! *pushes Stickley out of a window*
  • The Big Lebowski contains this exchange:
    Walter: You cannot carry all this negative energy into the tournament.
    The Dude: Fuck the tournament. Fuck you, Walter.
    Walter: "Fuck the tournament!?"
  • The Birdcage: During the opening scene Albert is having a melodramatic breakdown and blaming his fading looks on his partner, Armand.
    Albert: Whatever I am, [Armand] made me! I was adorable once, young and full of hope. Now, look at me. [upset] I'm this short, fat, insecure, middle aged thing!
    Armand: I made you short?
    Albert: [shrieks]
  • The Borrowers (1997):
    Arrietty: Peagreen, try to understand, there won't be a "here" unless we get this will to Pete before that nasty, cheating, thieving, evil, greedy, vicious, ugly bean destroys our house.
    Potter: (eavesdropping) Ugly? Who they calling ugly?
  • Bottoms: Josie's reaction to Jeff's insults:
    Jeff: Don't talk to me, you ugly bitch. Okay, I do not talk to girls in overalls.
    Josie: Okay, I may be ugly but these aren't overalls.
  • Done in Braveheart, when one of the king's advisors tells the princess in Latin that William is a lying savage. William pulls a Bilingual Backfire and replies in Latin that he never lies, but he is a savage. Then, for good measure, offers to continue the conversation in the princess's native French.
  • Car Wash:
    Duane: Will you please get out of my face, you sorry-looking faggot.
    Lindy: Who you calling "sorry-looking"?
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as Charlie is shining Wonka's shoes:
    Charlie: [not aware he is speaking to Wonka] I met him. I thought he was great at first. Then he didn't turn out that nice. And he has a funny haircut.
    Wonka: [throws down the newspaper he's reading] I do not!
  • Slight variation in Chasing Amy.
    Alyssa: So, for you, to fuck is to penetrate. You're used to the more traditional definition. You inside some girl you duped, jackhammering away, not noticing that bored look in her eyes.
    Banky: Hey, I always notice that bored look in their eyes, alright?
  • This was even done in Citizen Kane (1941). It should be noted that during the time period this scene takes place, being called an "anarchist" would be like being called a communist or a terrorist. Anarchism was a major revolutionary social movement and one anarchist was responsible for the assassination of William McKinley.
    Kane: You long-faced, overdressed anarchist.
    Leland: I am not overdressed.
  • From The Dark Knight Rises:
    John Daggett: You're a dumb bitch!
    Catwoman: No one's ever accused me of being dumb before.
  • In Death Becomes Her, Helen calls Madeline a home-wrecker and a man-eater, both of which Madeline shrugs off. But the insult that sets her off? Being called a bad actress.
  • From Death Note (2006):
    Lind L. Tailor: Kira, you yourself are a hypocritical, vile, and immature criminal.
    Light Yagami: Immature?
  • Die Hard: Hans Gruber is not a common thief, he is an exceptional thief. And since he's moving up to kidnapping, she should be more polite.
  • Famously done in The Empire Strikes Back.
    Princess Leia: Why, you stuck-up...half-witted...scruffy-looking...nerf herder!
    Han Solo: Who's scruffy-looking?
  • Freddy Got Fingered:
    Jim: You want Daddy to give you a spanking in front of this retard slut whore?
    Betty: I'm not retarded!
  • From The Great McGinty:
    McGinty: Listen, you fat little four-flusher!
    The Boss: Fat? [they start fighting]
  • The Grey Fox: After hearing that witnesses to the second train robbery described him as short, nervous, dirty, and unintelligent, Shorty scowls and says that's the first time anyone ever called him nervous.
  • In Gunless, being called "common" is a Berserk Button for Sean, as poor Jack keeps finding out, even when something else was the intended insult:
    Jack: You're being a common nuisance.
    Sean: What did you just call me?
    Jack; 'Nuisance'?
    Sean: No, the other one!
And later:
Jack: You're still just a common killer.
Sean: What did you call me?
Jack: 'Killer?'
Sean: No, the other one!
  • Happens in Hocus Pocus, though this has more to do with the witches being from the nineteenth century and not quite grasping modern slang.
    Jay: Man, how come it's always the ugly chicks that stay out late!?
    Winifred: Chicks?
  • In & Out combines this with Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking during a clip from the fake Oscar-winning movie To Protect and Serve (which is a spoof of Oscar Bait cliche). In the fake movie, Danny is a gay soldier who's being drummed out of the service after being outed. The following exchange occurs during a climactic military tribunal:
    Attorney: Your sergeant came across the following items in your footlocker. Will you kindly tell the court if they are yours. A letter to another soldier?
    Danny: Yes, sir.
    Attorney: A photograph signed "Danny, San Francisco"?
    Danny: Yes, sir.
    Attorney: An autographed copy of Beaches, starring Bette Midler?
    Danny: GIVE THAT BACK!
  • In Bruges combines this with Even Evil Has Loved Ones and a whole lot of crude language.
    Ken: Harry, I'm not being funny here, and I mean no disrespect, but you're a cunt. You've always been a cunt, you're always going to be a cunt, and the only thing that's going to change is you're going to become an even bigger cunt. And maybe have a few more cunt kids.
    Harry: You fucking retract that statement about my cunt fucking kids!
    Ken: I retract the statement about your cunt fucking kids.
    Harry: Insulting my fucking kids?! That's going overboard, mate!
    Ken: I retracted it, didn't I?
  • Iron Man 2: Inverted when Nick Fury and Tony Stark are going over the latter's evaluation for the Avengers Initiative. Stark is reading it, denying every flaw that is listed until he gets to...
    Tony Stark: "Textbook... narcissism"? [looks at Fury]
    Nick Fury: [level stare]
    Tony Stark: ... Agreed.
  • It's a Wonderful Knife (2023): When Winnie snaps that she got a "lesbian tracksuit", Gale (her aunt, a lesbian who's there with her wife) retorts "we would never wear that." Funnily enough, Winnie later falls for another girl herself.
  • Juan of the Dead: Juan and Lázaro need to get zombies to come out of hiding. Simple screaming does not do it. Lázaro tries name-calling, shouting "Iconoclasts!" and "Bastards!" Zombies don't appear until he yells "ANARCHO-DISSIDENTS!"note 
  • In Laurel Canyon, Christian Bale sarcastically thanks his mother (Frances McDormand) for encouraging his fiancee (Kate Beckinsale) to fit in, noting that she's spending her time getting stoned and reading Spin magazine. His mother retorts, "I've never read Spin."
  • Woody Allen's Love and Death:
    Anton: Grushenko? Isn't he the young coward all St. Petersburg is talking about?
    Boris: I'm not so young. I'm thirty-five.
  • In the Russian film Love and Pigeons, a woman insults the seductress of her husband:
    "You are dyed, bitch!"
    "Why, it's my natural hair color."
  • Love Stinks:
    Chelsea: All I ever wanted to do was spend my life loving you, you disgusting sack of shit.
    Seth: If that's all you wanted, then why did you hire the sleaziest lawyer in town, you pathologically deluded, morally bankrupt, in-denial, self-esteem-deficient bitch on wheels?!
    Chelsea: I am not in denial!
  • Major Payne:
    Emily: And I call you an insecure, overbearing, psychopathic, dictatorial, egomaniacal, frigid lunatic ASSHOLE!
    Major Payne: (sounding genuinely offended) ...I ain't frigid.
  • The Man Who Changed His Mind:
    Clayton: This may amuse you.
    [gives Laurience a newspaper with a gossipy article about his experiments.]
    Dr. Laurience: You told them all this!
    Clayton: Me? Why me?
    Dr. Laurience: How should I know? Your mind is just as twisted as your body. Don't forget, if I leave out one injection...
    Clayton: I don't mind dying, but to be accused of journalism!
  • In The Men Who Stare at Goats, we have Bill Django's trial:
    Larry: Lieutenant Colonel Django used funds from the project's black budget to procure prostitutes...
    Bill: [furious] THAT'S A LIE!
    Larry: ...and to get drugs for himself and his men.
    Bill: That... [a beat] ...well, the hooker thing is definitely a lie.
  • From Metropolitan:
    Jane: You're a snob, a sexist, totally obnoxious, and tiresome. And lately, you've gotten just weird. Why should we believe anything you say?
    Nick: I'm not tiresome...
  • MirrorMask:
    Helena: You useless, cake-hogging coward!
    Valentine: I did not hog those cakes!
  • Mister Roberts:
    Doug Roberts: Frank, I like you. There's no getting around the fact that you're a real likable guy.
    Ensign Pulver: Yeah? Yeah!
    Roberts: But...
    Pulver: But what?
    Roberts: Well, I also think you're the most hapless, lazy, disorganized, and in general most lecherous person I've ever known in my life.
    Pulver: I am not!
    Roberts: You're not what?
    Pulver: I am not disorganized!
  • In The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Simon confronts his friend Clary about her suspicious-looking, tattooed new associate Jace when Jace steps out of the room:
    Simon: [whispering] Your mom is gone, and you're hanging out with some dyed-blond-wanna-be-goth-weirdo?
    [...]
    Jace: [re-entering room with a phone] You need to check this. Oh, and for the record, my hair is naturally blond.
  • The Muppet Christmas Carol has a variation where the characters taking offense aren't the ones being insulted: Emily Cratchit (played by Miss Piggy) grudgingly assents to her husband's (Kermit the Frog) wish to toast his employer Scrooge at their Christmas dinner, with their daughters Belinda and Bettina nodding along to her insults until she gets to the last one.
    Emily Cratchit: Well. I suppose that on the blessed day of Christmas, one must drink to the health of Mr. Scrooge. Even though he is odious...
    Belinda and Bettina: Mm-hm.
    Emily: ...stingy...
    Belinda and Bettina: Mm-hm.
    Emily: ...wicked...
    Belinda and Bettina: Mm-hm.
    Emily: ...and unfeeling...
    Belinda and Bettina: Mm-hm.
    Emily: ...and badly dressed!
    Belinda and Bettina: (Gasp!)
  • In The Nice Guys has this as a Running Gag with Holland's hatred of a particular phrase. For example, when his teen daughter Holly sneaks into a sex party that he's casing:
    Holly: Dad, there are whores here an' stuff.
    Holland: Don't say "an' stuff." Just say, "Dad, there are whores here."
  • Played with in Ocean's Eleven (the remake):
    Tess: You're a liar and a thief.
    Danny: I only lied about being a thief. Besides, I don't do that anymore.
    Tess: Steal?
    Danny: Lie.
  • In the Laurel and Hardy short One Good Turn, Ollie discovers an (untrue) treachery of Stan's and rails at him:
    Ollie: You snake in the grass! You Judas! You...you...
    Stan: Stop! Don't call me a you-you!
  • In OSS 117: Lost in Rio, 117 is told that he's misogynistic and borderline racist, but objects to being called a tacky dresser.
  • Inverted in The Peacemaker (1987).
    Julia: You will not take action without authorization!
    Devoe: What do you think I am — some gung-ho, stupid son of a bitch?
    Julia: No! I don't think you're stupid...
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl:
    Jack: You sprung a man from jail, commandeered a ship of the fleet, sailed with a buccaneer crew out of Tortuga, and you're completely obsessed with treasure.
    Will: That's not true! I am NOT obsessed with treasure.
    Jack: Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.
  • Pretty Persuasion: When the English teacher is being accused of sexually molesting his students, Randa testifies that he told her "I'm gonna touch your boobs". He bursts out that he would have used "breasts".
  • In The Quick and the Dead, Herod is more offended at Cort telling the Lady to back out of the tournament—rather than how, immediately after that, they argue over which one of them will kill him.
  • In Revenge of the Nerds, Stan Gable taunts Ogre to get him to raise the barbell he's trying to lift:
    Stan: Get it up! Come on! You're shit! You're nothin'! You're scum! You suck! YOU'RE NICE!
    Ogre: [finally lifting barbell] NO, I'M NOT!
  • Robin and the 7 Hoods:
    Foreman: For four weeks, this jury has listened to the testimony. The defendant not only supposedly killed the sheriff...he started the Chicago Fire and killed Cock Robin.
    I've been a house detective for years and I've seen good ringers. I think the prosecution deserves congratulations for having the best collection of shifty-eyed, double-crossing two-faced liars.
    This jury declares the defendant innocent.
    Guy Gisborne: Who mentioned Cock Robin?
  • In The Room (2003), combined with an Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking. Though in all fairness, this was likely meant as "If you're lying about that, you might be lying about his hitting you" — except we do see him drink.
    Claudette: Well, at least you have a good man.
    Lisa: You're wrong. He didn't get his promotion. And he got drunk last night. And he hit me.
    Claudette: Johnny doesn't drink!
  • From Shaun of the Dead:
    Liz: You, hang out with my friends? A failed actress and a twat?
    Shaun: Well, that's a bit harsh.
    Liz: Your words, Shaun!
    Shaun: I did not call Diane a failed actress!
    • Justified in that calling a friend a "twat" would fall under Vitriolic Best Buds. Bringing up someone is suffering failure in their career, however, is low.
  • From Suburban Commando, after General Suitor suggests the President tell his men to surrender the battle which Suitor is clearly winning:
    President: I will not ask my people to give up everything they know, to serve a sadistic, egotistical, homicidal maniac!
    General Suitor: I do not consider myself egotistical! Proud, maybe...
  • Tall Tale: You can insult Pecos Bill to his face, or you can insult his mama or his horse. But don't ever insult Texas or you'll regret it.
  • Done in They Call Me Trinity where Trinity is explaining to Bambino (his brother) why they had to beat somebody up.
    Trinity: He called our mother an old... [whispers]
    Bambino: She is.
    Trinity: She's not that old.
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: When Robbie calls Mildred "an old cunt", Mildred snaps back "I'm not old!" (although it is done with good humour, to show that she didn't take the insult seriously).

    Literature 
  • Artemis Fowl, while traveling to the past, and finding Mulch before they met calls Mulch Diggums "my pungent friend". Mulch says, "Don't call me friend."
  • Betty Bunny Didn't Do It: After the title character breaks a lamp, she blames it on the Tooth Fairy. Her brother Henry calls her a big fat liar and she runs into the kitchen and whines to her mom "Mommy, Henry called me fat!"
  • Bobbie Faye: Bobbie's response to being accused of blowing things up is that she hasn't... recently.
  • A Chorus of Dragons: When Tyentso confronts Gadrith over having murdered a friend of hers and experimented on his soul, he is completely unfazed at her accusations — but he does take genuine offense at her claim that he botched the actual soul-binding.
  • Ciaphas Cain: Cain writes at one point that "Bribery and threats are popular methods for getting what you want, but the Inquisition is better at both and tend to resent other people using them." Inquisitor Amberly Vail replies in a footnote, "Entirely untrue. The Inquisition is most definitely above such petty emotions as resentment."
  • Code Name Verity: Queenie recalls when a German she was interrogating called her a "filthy English whore". "A whore— maybe I'll consider that in desperation; filthy, it goes without saying; but whatever else the hell I am, I AM NOT ENGLISH." In reality she was insulted because she's Scottish, but the anger was in character for her interrogation persona: a fellow German.
  • Discworld:
    • Making Money features this exchange between Cosmo Lavish and our hero, Moist von Lipwig:
      Cosmo half-turned, to make certain the crowd heard everything he said. "You are a thief, Mr. Lipwig. A cheat and a liar, and embezzler and have no dress sense whatsoever."
      "I say, that's a bit on the harsh side," said Moist as the men swept through. "I happen to think I dress rather snappily!"
    • In Interesting Times, the Agatean Empire's Master of Protocol is named Two Little Wang. He considers the worst part of having this name to be the unlucky number.
  • The Dresden Files:
    • In Death Masks, Thomas brushes off Ortega's contemptuous sneers and most of Harry's lip, but objects to being told his outfit looks like something Michael Jackson might wear.
    • In Proven Guilty, Harry calls Murphy a "savvy cop chick". Murphy objects to "cop chick" and Harry amends it to "police chick" and she is fine with that.
  • From the Honor Harrington series, specifically the fifth book, Flag in Exile:
    Honor: Gentlemen, in case you missed it, this is Captain Brigham, my chief of staff. Keep an eye on her and don't let that calm demeanor fool you. She has a low and evil sense of humor.
    Mercedes: A base libel, Milady. My sense of humor isn't low.
  • Hercule Poirot. You can call him annoying, you can call him meddling, you can call him troublesome, you can call him short, but don't call him French. Truth in Television: This is, indeed, a Berserk Button for many Belgians; like calling a Canadian American or a New Zealander Australian.
  • From Christopher Moore's Island of the Sequined Love Nun:
    "I get you out of typhoon alive and you just yell and say bad things. I quit. You get new navigator. Roberto say you mean, nasty, Chevy-driving, milk-drinking, American dog fucker."
    "I don't drink milk," Tuck said. Ha! Won that round.
  • Journey to Chaos: When Hanson is berating Eric for a paltry report (that Tasio wrote), Hanson says that "every other word is misspelled, it's poorly organized, and it is bordered with smiley faces". Tasio asks what's wrong with smiley faces.
  • Little Women: You can call Jo March just about anything and she'll huff a little and take it... but don't try to call her a young lady.
  • The Locked Tomb: In Harrow the Ninth, God-Emperor John Gaius's response to Mercymorn's slightly disconcerting fantasy of bathing him in acid repeatedly over a thousand years to punish him for making frivolous remarks, eating peanuts at Cohort Admiralty meetings and saying, "What do I know, I'm only God," is to protest that he only ate peanuts, discreetly, once.
  • In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero in Hell, Ulysses is deeply offended that an article describing him as a murderer says that his name came from James Joyce's book and not Homer.
  • In Snow (2004), when Ka sees that a local newspaper has printed a front-page article accusing him of being a spy and inciting civil unrest, he is most bothered by its referring to him as a "so-called poet."
  • Done brilliantly in a A Song of Ice and Fire, when Brienne calls Jaime a monster.
    "A man who would violate his own sister, murder his king, and fling an innocent child to his death deserves no other name."
    "Innocent? The wretched boy was spying on us."
    What makes it even funnier is that the king in question was insane and about to kill a lot of people so the regicide was justified.
  • A hilariously values-dissonant example in To Kill a Mockingbird: Jem is worried about a gang coming after his father, and Atticus assures him that there have never been any gangs in Maycomb. Jem says the Ku Klux Klan "got after some Catholics one time." Atticus says, "Never heard of any Catholics in Maycomb either."
  • In the Wizard in Rhyme series, following an unusual entrance and some accidental magic, Matt is accused of being an evil sorcerer on grounds of conjuring a thunderstorm, turning base metal to silver, flooding the job market with unskilled workers and turning an innocent baker into a toad. He's quick to point out that the toad story is slander.
  • In Iron Fist, one of the novels of the X-Wing Series, the main characters have pulled off one stage of a Zany Scheme in which surly, bad-tempered cyborg Ton Phanan has picked a fight with some drunken Imperial soldiers in a bar.
    Wedge: Face, run the credits in to the bartender. Tell him the cyborg paid off, instant compensation for the damage, so sorry, he's a miserable old drunk whose only entertainment is causing trouble at bars.
    Phanan: Hey. I resent the use of the word miserable.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In an episode of 30 Rock, Avery is detained in North Korea. Eventually, her captors let her appear on television to explain how she's being treated:
    Avery: For the past three weeks, I have been honored to partake in a political reeducation regimen. I have voluntarily taken several floggings for being an arrogant American.
    Jack: That's okay. She's tough. We do a lot of pirate-themed sexual role play. I'm a parrot.
    Avery: Also, I spend eight hours a day breaking concrete blocks to learn to be an obedient worker.
    Jack: No problem. She pays a thousand dollars an hour to do that with her trainer.
    Avery: And I have concluded that capitalism may be flawed.
    Jack: WHAT ARE THOSE MONSTERS DOING TO HER?!
  • From Absolutely Fabulous, Edina is concerned that when she dies, she won't leave a legacy behind:
    Edina: What will people remember me by? Through you? I'm supposed to live on through you? [points scornfully towards her daughter Saffy]
    Saffy: Would you like a statue?
    Edina: Yes!
    Saffy: A great big fat ugly armless statue?
    Edina: I've got arms! I've got arms! [waves both arms frantically in air]
  • Agatha Raisin: In "Agatha Raisin and The Day the Floods Came", Agatha Raisin is ranting about a suspect that called her "a dried-up, old spinster". Roy says that she's not dried-up. After a significant look from Agatha, he adds "Or old".
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • Angel is particularly sensitive to this.
    • Example in episode "Conviction":
      Bad Guy: You pathetic, little fairy.
      Angel: Hey! I am not little.
    • In the comics, Faith screws up. Again. This time working as a bodyguard for Kennedy. She's protecting a wannabe rock star, who is into underage girls, when her father storms in and Faith finds this out she attacks him, the rocker turns into a demon, and Kennedy has to intervene. When Faith explains what happened she is most upset not that their client was attacked but the suggestion she condones what he did.
  • A variation (possibly an inversion) from Arrested Development, after the publicist has just told the family that Michael is the most likeable member of the family:
    Publicist: There are very few intelligent, attractive and straight men in this town.
    Tobias Fünke: Well, that leaves me out.
    [silence, everyone stares]
    Tobias Fünke: She did say single, right? I-I-I thought she said single.
  • Barbary Coast: This exchange in "Funny Money":
    Jeff: If they think you're a beady-eyed killer...
    Cash: What do you mean 'beady-eyed'?
  • Battlestar Galactica:
    John Cavil: Yes, but Fives in general haven't been that impressive thus far. One of your counterparts managed to get himself outted back on Ragnar Station.
    Aaron Doral: I can't understand how he was discovered... I heard it was Dr. Baltar.
    Cavil: Well, I'm not talking about that exactly. I'm talking about the fact that you're walking around this fleet wearing that jacket, and more importantly, that face. You're recognizable.
    Doral: Uh... Well... His jacket was burgundy... This is teal...
  • On a Dutch channel, BNN, there was a short-lived spoof of Jerry Springer called Jimmy Hopper. One of the stagehands was a homosexual. When one of the guests refused to be calmed down by a "Dirty faggot", the stagehand jumped up and screamed "I'M NOT DIRTY!" and attacked the guy.
  • When Bones is accused by a judge of claiming a victim was murdered in order to drum up publicity for her "pulp mystery books" (The Double Death of the Dearly Departed) she objects:
    Temperance: That man is a fool! They are not pulp!
  • The Colbert Report:
    • Stephen Colbert, objecting to comparisons with Iranian president Mahmoud AhmacasualFridayejad:
      "I have nothing in common with that fanatical self-promoting jingoistic egomaniacal fundamentalist! I am at least three inches taller."
    • In a later episode, after gauging comparisons between WWII and the invasion of Georgia, he stated that "Putin is nothing like Hitler. He knows judo."
  • From Community:
    • This moment from "Physical Education":
      Jeff: God's sakes! What did I tell you guys?!
      Abed: (imitating Jeff) Oh, for god's sakes, everybody! Do whatever you want! Leave each other alone!
      Troy: Whoa! That's a good Jeff! How did you do that?
      Abed: 10% Dick Van Dyke, 20% Sam Malone, 40% Zach Braff in Scrubs, and 30% Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry.
      Jeff: ...Zack Braff?
      Abed: Sorry.
    • In "Cooperative Calligraphy", when Dean Craig Pelton sees the trashed study room:
      Craig: What the hell did you people do in there!?
      Abed: Something you and your puppies could only dream of, you non-miraculous son of a bitch.
      Craig: ..."Non-miraculous"?!
  • In the Corner Gas episode "Friend of a Friend", Lacey's friend Connie calls Oscar a "crazy homeless". Oscar's response?
    "I'm not homeless!"
  • From Coupling:
    Oliver: And you're not bisexual.
    Jane: I'm sorry?
    Oliver: I don't buy it.
    Jane: You don't what?
    Oliver: And I don't buy the "crazy, wacky Jane" thing. And I don't buy the you 'follow the philosophy of plants' thing. I think you're terrified you're not interesting enough, so you'll make up any old rubbish just to get attention. Do me a favour: look in the mirror. The way you look as if you have to try.
    Jane: I am so bisexual!
  • Daredevil (2015): In jail, Wilson Fisk makes an offer to Frank Castle. Frank's response?
    Frank Castle: Well, I don't help shitbag, has-been mob bosses.
    Wilson Fisk: "Has been"?
    Frank Castle: You heard what I said.
  • From Dead Like Me:
    Theo: Great, I've got a homosexual angel.
    Mason: I'm not an angel!
    [long pause]
    Mason: And I'm not gay, either.
  • Doctor Who: In "the Greatest Show in the Galaxy", Captain Cook doesn't mind being called a scoundrel or a meddling fool, but "crushing bore" cuts him to the quick.
  • Everwood:
    Ephram: Ever since Mom died you've been acting like a moron. You grow that ugly-ass beard, you uproot your family and move us out to the middle of Nowhereswille, and why? Because someone once told you it's pretty? You're insane!
    Dr. Brown: I can't believe you think my beard is ugly.
  • From Eureka:
    Jack Carter: It's only a matter of time before Allison sees you for who you really are: which is a smug, selfish, Einstein-wannabe with no moral compass and only one functioning kidney.
    Trevor: Both my kidneys function fine, thank you.
    Jack Carter: Day's not over, is it?
  • In an episode of Father Ted, Ted and Dougal are trying to hide a huge amount of rabbits from Bishop Brennan, who's terrified of them:
    Dougal: (shouting up the stairs) Ted! Did Len find the rabbits?
    Bishop Brennan: What did he say?!!
    Ted: Look, I'd better tell you . . .
    Bishop Brennan: Did he call me Len again?!
  • In Firefly:
    • Mal is offended at being called a "petty thief".
      Mal: Petty!?
      Inara: I didn't mean petty.
      Mal: What did you mean?
      Inara: Suoxi?
      Mal: That's Chinese for "petty".
    • Simon complains about life aboard ship, including, but not limited to, the food, the captain and his sister. Kaylee only takes offence to his description of Serenity as "garbage". He was just being ironic, is what.
  • Frasier: Frasier explains to his boss the reason Bulldog chewed him out was that he overheard Bulldog repeat a rumor that the sports host was fired.
    Frasier: And that's why he came up here and started telling you...
    Miller: That I'm a drunk, that I'm incompetent at my job, that my wife is a big fat slut!
    Frasier: That is indefensible! Your wife is not overweight!
  • In an episode of Full House, Stephanie was stood up for a date, and her father Danny ran into the guy while at school making a delivery for the food drive. Rumors circulated about Danny doing a long list of things, including threatening the guy with canned ham. He protested that it was, in fact, Spam, but took a while on dispelling the other rumors.
  • Friends: Ross bemoans "old windbags wearing tweed jackets with suede elbow patches". When it's immediately implied this could refer to him, Ross objects "these aren't suede".
  • Game of Thrones: Tyrion has this reaction a couple of times.
    • In response to Benjen's rant:
      Benjen: [wrapping up an impressive rant] Half of the boys you saw training out in the yard are going to die come winter. Maybe it will be a wildling that gets them, maybe sickness, maybe just the cold. They'll die in pain, and they'll do it so that plump little lords like you can enjoy their warm summer afternoons down south in the capital.
      Tyrion: [turning to his drinking companion] ... do you think I'm plump?
    • "'Dwarf?' Oh, you should have stopped at 'Imp.'"
  • On Gilmore Girls, Logan plays an embarrassing and public prank on Rory, and she's not amused:
    Rory: I have no words...
    Logan: It was just a joke!
    Rory: Oh, no, wait. I thought of some. Jerk! Ass, arrogant, inconsiderate, mindless, frat-boy, low-life, butt-faced miscreant!
    Logan: "Butt-faced miscreant"!
    Rory: Why would you do something like that?
    Logan: I'm sorry, "butt-faced miscreant"?
  • Subverted in The Goodies, "Caught in the Act". Context: Tim is in drag, calling himself 'Mitzi', and has gotten into a fight with a woman named Ms. Heffer regarding Graeme who Tim pretends is his lover.
    Ms. Heffer: He doesn't want you! You're fat and old and ugly!
    "Mitzi": Fat and old I may be, but ugly — [hissing]ugly... ...you're absolutely right, that's why he loves me. C'mere...
  • Haven, from the 2012 Halloween episode:
    Tommy: It's perfect. Ghosts. Anything else you people want to let me in on that goes on around here? Mermen? Aliens? Dracula?
    Duke: We're not sure about Dracula.
  • In one episode of Hawaii Five-0, a college girl assumes Steve and Danny are the gay parents of one of her sorority sisters. Steve doesn't bother correcting her about the nature of his relationship with Danny, but he's annoyed that she thinks he's old enough to have a college-aged daughter. Lampshaded by Danny:
    Sorority Girl: Kelly, your dads are here to pick you up.
    Kelly: Those aren't my dads.
    Steve: I'm sorry, you think I look old enough to be her father?
    Danny: Th... That's the part you bumped on?
  • In an episode of Hell's Kitchen (US Season 3):
    Gordon: You two-faced lazy little fucker.
    Vinnie: Lazy?
  • Highlander:
    • There's the incident where Amanda won a gambling club from its owner, and refused to give him the chance to win it back. The man loses his temper: "No thieving French harlot with a coiffure is going to cheat me out of my club!" Amanda slaps him hard, and says: "I'm not French!"
    • There's also this exchange:
      "He called me a cheap whore and a thief!"
      MacLeod: [just looks]
      "I was NEVER cheap."
  • In How I Met Your Mother, Robin tells Marshall that he has to learn that NYC is not all Sesame Street like his crime-free, podunk, backwater, inbred hick town in Minnesota, and Marshall insists that they are not crime free. In 1976, the general store cashier was held up at hoe-point.
  • I, Claudius:
    • In the second episode, Julia and Tiberius are unhappily married. When Julia wants sex:
      Tiberius: Let me go, you fat, drunken cow!
      Julia: FAT?! FAT?!
    • But then it gets a lot less funny...
      Julia: If I'm fat, I'm fat where a woman should be fat, not skinny like a boy! Go to bed, my dear, and I'll send you one up. He's very pretty, I promise you, I've had him myself. [cackles] He reminds me of your ex-wife. Not a hair on his body, and he's even skinnier behind. [Tiberius hits her]
  • In the mini-series John Adams, the title character is listening to his wife indignantly reading from Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Papers. After hearing himself being refered to as "old, querulous, bald, blind, crippled and toothless", Adams simply replies "I'm not crippled."
  • Justified: As Raylan and Winn Duffy are talking about Duffy's new boss:
    Raylan: He's got the ice-cold, remorseless, bottle-blond, shit-bag killer doing scut work.
    Duffy: Deputy, are you accusing me of being a fake blond?
  • German TV show Kalkofes Mattscheibe (Kalkofe's tube, meaning the TV) has comedian Oliver Kalkofe parodying other TV shows by dressing up as the protagonists. One of his spoofs of a reality show had the following dialogue:
    Frederic Prinz von Anhalt: [German b-list celebrity] You're a whore! An old whore!
    Kader Loth: [another German b-list celebrity] I am NOT old!
  • In the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Rocket Man", Detective Goren describes the suspect, an astronaut, as 'angry and obsessive'. Captain Ross retorts with, "So am I, so are you." Afterwards, as Goren and Eames leave the observation room:
    Goren: [to Eames, in a quieter voice] Do you think I'm angry?
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit:
    • In the episode "Responsible," a female teenage suspect tells Munch to "Shut up, you Dirty Old Man!"
      Munch: Who are you calling old?
    • From the episode "Inconceivable", a discussion between a couple of detectives and a religious woman on the subject of unused embryos. Overlaps with Comically Missing the Point.
      Victoria Grall: There are organizations out there that will arrange for the adoption of unwanted embryos.
      Detective Lake: That's great, especially for all those gay and lesbian couples in the market.
      Victoria Grall: They are only put in suitable homes.
      Detective Lake: Straight, Christian, and white.
      Victoria Grall: We're not racist! There are Christians of all colors.
  • In The League of Gentlemen, Pauline is called a "psychotic 50-year-old lesbian." Her response? "How dare you! I'm 48!"
  • Leverage: Sterling calls Nate a "common criminal". Nate is a criminal, but he objects to the "common".
  • At one point in Lexx, Zev describes Stanley as old, unattractive, self-centered, vain, weak-willed and treacherous. The only part he even tries to deny is the one about "unattractive."
  • From Life on Mars:
    Gene Hunt: Yeah, well, as for me, I slept like a baby! [flops back down onto the bed]
    Sam Tyler: Yeah, a twenty stone baby. Burps, snores and farts.
    Gene Hunt: [sitting bolt upright] I do NOT snore!
Subverted when Gene happily takes ownership of all Sam's insults:
Gene Hunt: I think you've forgotten who you're talking to.
Sam Tyler: An overweight, over the hill, nicotine-stained, borderline alcoholic, homophobe with a superiority complex and an unhealthy obsession with male bonding.
Gene Hunt: You make that sound like a bad thing.
  • Little Heroes was a mid-1970s show, locally produced by WXON-TV 20 in Detroit. It was an apparent attempt to do a modern version of Hal Roach's Our Gang, aka The Little Rascals. Sadly, the videotaped show probably no longer exists. But the show had two recurring characters of bumbling foreign spies with bad accents (probably Russian, but they never say exactly). A recurring line between them was:
    Spy 1: You are ze idiot, you are ze fool, you are za im-be-seel, you...are...za...NERD!
    Spy 2: I am NOT za nerd!!
  • A variation in Lost:
    Naomi: This is a high risk covert op in unstable territory. It's dodgy enough without having to babysit a head case, ghost buster, anthropologist and a drunk.
    Abbadon: [referring to Lapidus, the "drunk"] In fairness, he's also a pretty good pilot.
  • Lucifer (2016): When Trixie, Chloe's young daughter, misinterprets some advice and insults Lucifer.
    Trixie: Your hair is stupid and your jokes are immature and who puts a bar that big in their house?
    Lucifer: My hair is majestic and you know it!
    • In another episode, Chloe berates Lucifer for causing chaos and trying to control everyone. He just smiles. But whe she says that he has a God complex, he looks seriously offended.
    Lucifer: I most certainly do not.
  • Luke Cage (2016): In "Suckas Need Bodyguards," Luke comes upon Mariah Dillard while she's preparing for a TV piece.
    Luke Cage: New VH1 show? Criminal Spinsters?
    Mariah Dillard: Who you callin' a spinster? I'd wear your narrow ass out.
  • MADtv: There's a sketch wherein a criminal who's on trial for armed robbery readily confesses a laundry list of crimes that includes assault, murder, arson, drug dealing, counterfeiting, and slavery, but doesn't want to be known as a robber.
  • In one episode of Mama's Family, Naomi talks about the merits of exercise, and we get this exchange:
    Thelma: Naomi, your idea of a workout is a man, a bed, and a cigarette afterwards!
    Naomi: That's not true! I've never smoked a cigarette in my life!
  • Married... with Children.
    • In "The House That Peg Lost", Kelly's slumber party descends into a Cat Fight when Bud "innocently" reveals that Kelly has been pinballing between the other girls' various boyfriends. It's touched off by the following exchange:
      Lauren: Sow!
      Tasha: Trollop!
      Lauren: Tramp!
      Tasha: Slut!
      Lauren: Bundy.
      [Kelly hauls off and punches Lauren.]
    • In "Kelly Bounces Back" (Season 5, Episode 6, original airdate October 28, 1990), Kelly and Piper Bauman (Tia Carrere) are competing to be the model in a car commercial. They insult each other, leading to this trope.
      Piper: Slut.
      Kelly: Skank.
      Piper: Tramp.
      Kelly: Can't accessorize.
      Piper: That hurt.
  • A M*A*S*H episode has a variation of this.
    Hot Lips: [to Henry Blake] Why don't you stop masquerading as a commanding officer? You're nothing but a spineless, mealymouthed, fly-fishing impostor!
    Trapper: He's not an impostor!
    Hawkeye: Right. He's a genuine spineless, mealymouthed fly-fisherman.
    Henry: [chuckling] Pierce, you're the limit.
  • The Mentalist: When Patrick Jane finally has his confrontation with Serial Killer Red John, he describes him as an "evil, sexually perverted sociopath with delusions of grandeur", Red John responds, hurt, that they are not mere delusions.
  • The Middle: In "Dollar Days", when Frankie, after a fruitless day of job interviews, asks her kids for one word to describe her. They offer "lazy", "angry" and "tired", prompting Mike to defend her:
    Mike: The reason your mother is tired, lazy and irritable is because of you kids.
    Frankie: No-one... said... irritable. [walks offscreen]
  • The Middleman; in the pilot episode, Wendy and The Middleman share this banter:
    Wendy: Contractor? What do you do, build strip malls, kill people...?
    MiddleMan: I never build strip malls.
  • Mike & Molly: In "Fish for Breakfast", Carl's latest girlfriend (who thought she was going to a party) refers to Mike and Vince (Mike's mother-in-law's fiance) as "two gay guys eating a banana split". Mike protests that he hasn't had a bite of the banana split.
  • From the (in)famous "Gollum award rant" at the MTV Movie Awards (when Gollum won "Best Virtual Performance"):
    Gollum: Piss off, Serkis, you stupid, fat (BLEEP)ing turd!
    Andy Serkis: I'm- I'm not fat!
  • From The Monkees "Monkees à la Carte":
    Red O'Leary: Fuselli, you're a two-timing, double crossing, cigar smoking rat!
    Fuselli: Watch what you're saying, Red! I don't smoke cigars!
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus: One of the contestants in "Summarise Proust" lists his hobbies as strangling animals, golf and masturbating. This receives loud boos from the crowd, and the host comments "golf isn't very popular around here".
  • The third season of Mr. Mercedes, based on the book Finders Keepers, has this exchange between Andrew Halliday and Canon Foreigner Alma Lane:
    Andrew: You decrepit old cunt!
    Alma: I'm not that decrepit and I'm not that old.
  • My Wife and Kids:
    Michael: Go upstairs and take a shower, you smell like corn chips and ass.
    Jr.: I do NOT smell like corn chips.
  • Crow and Tom Servo write reviews of each other on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and it goes downhill fast:
    Crow: The verdict is in, and the world was not awaiting a chubby, pompous eunuch!
    Servo: Chubby? What do you mean, chubby?
  • Night Court:
    • In the final episode, Dan dreams he's being put on trial by all the women he's humped & dumped over the years. One of them yells, "Dan Fielding, you're a big fat liar!" Dan counters, "I am not fat!"
    • In another episode, a woman who is about to sleep with Dan reflects on her decision to have a meaningless one-night stand with a nondescript, morally bankrupt gigolo. An outraged Dan demands, "Hey, who are you calling 'nondescript'?!"
  • In Peep Show, Jeremy calls Sophie's father Ian a "fox-hunting, badger-baiting, tweed shirt, bumfuck homophobe", thinking he can't hear him through the headphones on his metal detector. Later, Ian reveals that he could hear him and tells him, "I may be a homophobe, but I'm no badger baiter."
  • Player:
    • Ji-hoon lists all the crimes Ha-ri and his team are accused of: identity theft, robbery, document theft, use of physical violence, and illegal computer use. Byeong-min immediately protests that he didn't use violence.
    • Ha-ri objects when A-ryeong calls him a scammer.
  • In one episode of Police Squad! Frank tries to taunt a boxer with all sorts of insults, to which the man smiles and turns the other cheek, and when Frank finally gives up and says, "Forget it!" that suddenly sets the man off and accidentally does the trick.
  • In the Porridge episode "A Day Out":
    Godber: You talk with your mouth full. You whistle out of tune. You snore. You spit.
    Fletcher: How dare you! I do not whistle out of tune!
  • Power Rangers:
    • In Power Rangers S.P.D., Anubis "Doggie" Kruger had barely survived nearly being assassinated and he's in the hospital unconscious. As he's there, Dr. Kat Manx is talking to him, trying to encourage him to wake up. In the end, she calls him a "stubborn old dog". The first words Doggie says coming to? "I'm not an old dog".
    • Power Rangers Jungle Fury:
      Casey: You're a pretty good teacher, for an uptight, egocentric neat freak.
      Theo: Hey. There's nothing wrong with being neat.
  • The Practice: In "The Cradle Will Rock", DA Walsh has this exchange with a female lawyer:
    Walsh: You, on the other hand, probably rent rooms by the hour. Little tramps coming out of law school these days. Look at you — cherubic little sperm magnet!
    Jamie: Did you just call me cherubic?
  • The Private Life Of Samuel Pepys: "I'm accused of spying for the French, and taking bribes. I never spied for the French!" (A slight variation, in that it IS the most serious charge he objects to.)
  • The Professionals:
    • In "Old Dog with New Tricks", Cowley deliberately gets himself taken hostage, then talks the villains into surrendering without loss of life.
      Bodie: Permission to be admiringly insolent, sir. You're a brave old bastard.
      Cowley: Permission denied. Anyway, it's inaccurate. I'm not brave.
    • And at the end of "Need to Know".
      Doyle: Permission to make an observation, sir. You're a ruthless old bastard.
      Cowley: Not so much of the old, sonny.
  • Psych plays with this in episode 3-4, "The Greatest Adventure in the History of Basic Cable":
    Shawn: [to Gus] ...Sort of like I call you "Black Star" or "Home Skillet" or "Big Baby Burton".
    Gus: Don't ever call me "Home Skillet".
  • In an episode of Queer as Folk (US), Michael, Justin, Ted, Vic, and Debbie have been reading aloud a newspaper article in which Brian is accused of, among other things, being a pedophile and a "miserable example of a modern gay stereotype." After several of them criticize the article and its author, Brian says he's going to sue the author.
    Michael: Take it easy, Brian.
    Brian: He said I'm 31. I'm 30.
  • Played with on Root of All Evil:
    Lewis Black: What if we got some more coke? The last time I heard someone say that, when I woke up I was on a beach in Thailand, lying naked on a sea turtle with a cowboy hat on. I can explain the cowboy hat.
  • The Sarah Silverman Program:
    Girl: What do you know about talent? You're unemployed, single, over 30 and you severely overestimate your cuteness!
    Sarah: I choose to be over 30!
  • During an episode of Saved by the Bell: The New Class, Rachel decides to run for student body president to pat her extracurricular activities for college application, and Ryan — her boyfriend at the time — volunteers as her campaign manager. Her election campaign struggles at one point, leading to the following exchange:
    Rachel: All right, Mr. Campaign Manager, now what? For my extracurricular activities, I'm not writing down "a big, fat loser".
    Ryan: Come on, Rachel, think positive.
    Rachel: OK. (beat) I'm not fat. I'm just a big loser.
  • From Scrubs:
    Keith: [to Elliot] Goodnight, you skanky, straw-haired pig whore.
    Carla: [consoling Elliot] C'mon, you're not straw-haired.
    Elliot: I know...
  • In an episode of Soap, Chester's mistress announces she's leaving him for someone "better." When he asks her to clarify, she state "better-looking, better-dressed", "better in bed." Chester is perplexed by the notion of someone being better-dressed than himself.
  • British cop show Spender has the eponymous Spender assigned to guard a politician whom he personally dislikes. After being called a fascist bastard by a protester and spat on, he corners the protester in the toilets later.
    Spender: Now, I don't mind being called a bastard, but I do mind being called a fascist and I take exception to being spat on.
  • From Sports Night:
    Dana: I don't think you're cute, I don't think you're funny, I don't think you're smart, and sometimes I don't think you're very nice.
    Casey: You don't think I'm funny?!
  • In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Citizen Joe", after a list of things O'Neill should be denying...
    Joe Spencer: You're Brigadier General Jack O'Neill. Head of Stargate Command at Cheyenne Mountain. You used to command SG-1, which is now led by Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter. You once visited a planet called Argos, and the nanites in your blood caused you to age artificially. You've had the entire repository of the Ancients' knowledge downloaded into your brain. Twice! You have a thing for The Simpsons, fishing, Mary Steenburgen, the color peridot, and you're a terrible ping pong player.
    [...]
    Jack O'Neill: Well, first of all, Joe, I'm not a terrible ping pong player.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series: One of the funniest parts of the already hilarious "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode, when Scotty explains to Kirk why he started a fight with Klingons on a space station.
    Scotty: Well, captain, er, the Klingons called you a tin-plated over-bearing swaggering dictator with delusions of godhood.
    Kirk: Is that all?
    Scotty: No sir, they also compared you with a Denebian slime devil.
    Kirk: I see.
    Scotty: And then they said that you were...
    Kirk: I get the picture, Scotty.
    Scotty: Yes, sir.
    Kirk: And after they said all this, that's when you hit the Klingons.
    Scotty: No, sir.
    Kirk: No?
    Scotty: No, er, I didn't. You told us to avoid trouble.
    Kirk: Oh, yes.
    Scotty: Well, I didn't see that it was worth fighting about. After all, we're big enough to take a few insults, aren't we?
    Kirk: What was it they said that started the fight?
    Scotty: They called the Enterprise a garbage scow, sir.note 
    • The incident is parodied in Space Quest V: The Next Mutation, where Cliffy starts a fight with a crewmember from the Goliath for doing the same thing. Roger then points out that their ship is a garbage scow.
  • A variation from Strangers with Candy that only that show could've produced:
    "YOU ARE A BIG, DUMB, STUPID, FAT ZERO FATTY!"
    "Fatty?"
  • The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, "The Summer of Out Discontent":
    London Tipton: Ew, you mean I'm on a date with a greasy bag boy?
    Cody's Boss: That's greasy assistant manager.
  • In an episode of Survivor: Panama, this happens.
    Shane: I'll drive up and I'll kill you in your shitty little apartment. And I'll drive over to my club and that'll be it.
    Courtney: That was really nice. [beat] I don't have a shitty apartment.
    Shane: WELL, OBVIOUSLY, DUDE! I'VE NEVER BEEN IN YOUR APARTMENT!
  • That '70s Show:
    Red: Kitty, every time we have an empty room, you wanna fill it up with a stray child. You’re like... the old lady who lived in a shoe.
    Kitty: Did you just call me old?
  • That's My Bush!
    • Used twice in the episode "Mom 'E'.D.E.A. Arrest":
    Barbara: Darling, I just don't want that slut messing it up.
    George: Now Mom! [Laura] is NOT...gonna mess it up.
    • Later...
      Barbara: Don't you tell me to relax, you stupid two-dollar truck-stop slut!
      Laura: ...Two dollars?
  • The Thick of It:
    • Any discussion with Malcolm Tucker is usually filled with insults, but even he has his limits:
      Oliver Reeder: Malcolm! You're bullying me, and I dunno why you're bullying me...
      Malcolm Tucker: How dare you! How dare you! Don't you ever, ever call me a bully! I'm so much worse than that.
    • More of an Insult Backfire that one... a better example would be Malcolm's attempt to derail Geoff Holhurst's leadership bid:
      Malcolm Tucker: First, you've got no credentials — you're so backbench you've actually fuckin' fallen off... secondly, I'm going to tell the Mirror about all the drinking... and thirdly, I'm going to tell the Mail about the affair... and fourthly, you've got a tiny head...
      Geoff Holhurst: No I haven't!
    • In The Movie, In the Loop, Malcolm Tucker has this response to being called a "little English bitch", then a "scary little poodlefucker", and finally a "squeezed dick" by an American general.note 
      Malcolm Tucker: "Don't ever call me fucking English again."
  • A flashback from Titus has Papa Titus standing up to defend his integrity from his then-wife.
    Wife: You lying, cheating, jackass!
    Titus: I cheated, I didn't lie! If I lied you wouldn't've known I cheated! Don't insult my integrity!
  • Top Gear: James May has reviewed a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe and commented that he thinks it suits him because it's stylish and contemporary.
    Jeremy Clarkson: Every time I see you, those are the words that pop into my head: stylish and contemporary.
    May: Thank you.
    Clarkson: ... After other words like, for instance: beige. Stannah Stairlift. The War. Can anyone think of any more? Homosexual.
    May: [Beat] I object to the beige.
  • Veronica Mars: Weevil is working at a car wash when Veronica pulls up.
    Weevil: Guess I'll go wash some spoiled bitch's graduation gift from Daddy.
    Veronica: I'm not spoiled, and technically it wasn't for graduation.
    Weevil: What about the bitch part?
    Veronica: That depends on who you ask.
  • Without a Trace:
    Jack Malone: You're a stalker, Mr. Hill. You are the principal suspect in a kidnapping case. You've written her I don't know how many letters. You're a drunk, and apparently, you're an idiot.
    Peter Hill: [indignantly] I am not a drunk.
  • In the first episode of The Worst Year of My Life, Again, Parker calls Simon "a sniveling little coward". When Maddy comments that he has a point, Simon responds "I'm not that little!"
  • Would I Lie to You?, on the subject of rider lists:
    Frankie Boyle: What a very particular list of things!
    Rob Brydon: Well, that's why it's a list, Frankie.
    Lee Mack: What's on your rider? "Aye, six cans o' bitter an' a knife!"
    Frankie Boyle: Yeah, six cans of bitter for a teetotal alcoholic!
    Lee Mack: Only Frankie Boyle could complain that I said bitter and not even mention the knife! "I'll take the knife, but don' accuse me o' drinkin'!"
  • Yes, Minister: In "Party Games", Hacker complains to Maurice from Brussels that one European official pays governments to grow more crops, and then another in the next office pays the governments to destroy them. Maurice replies: "It's not true! He's not in the next office - not even on the same floor!"

    Podcasts 
  • From the RiffTrax of 300:
    Theron: [to Gorgo] ...my little whore queen.
    [Gorgo lunges at Theron]
    Mike: [as Gorgo] I am not little!

    Pro Wrestling 
  • During a feud in ECW, Terry Funk attempted to provoke Cactus Jack into fighting him due to Foley relinquishing his hardcore ways and showing his support for rival company WCW. Funk's initial attempts to call out Foley were unsuccessful as he called Foley's wife, mother, and his children whores in succession. But he successfully managed to provoke Foley to the ring after calling WCW President Eric Bischoff a homo. note  The two did a reprise of this exchange in 2006 in the hype of their upcoming tag team match at ECW One Night Stand 2006. This time, however, Funk's final insult was that WWE sucked, causing Foley to cheap shot Funk with a punch.
  • After CM Punk calls John Laurinaitis a typical middle management, boring, out of touch, suck-up Yes-Man:
    Laurinaitis: First of all, I'm upper management.

    Radio 
  • A variation (or an aversion) appears in radio comedy About A Dog, after Muriel's lover turns out to be married. Sarah is her daughter:
    Sarah: Oh Mum, I'm so sorry.
    Muriel: Oh, it's my own fault. I'm just a silly old woman.
    Sarah: Mum, you're not silly.
    Muriel: [pause] And?
    Sarah: And you're not an old woman.
  • The Adventures in Odyssey episode "Aloha, Oy!" has an odd twist:
    Doris Rathbone: Oh great, we're stuck out on the ocean in a soggy, rickety old rust bucket!
    Captain Quid: Soggy, aye. Rickety, perhaps. Old rust bucket, maybe. But rat-infested?
    Doris: I didn't say rat-infested!
    Quid: I know, but she's also rat-infested.
  • This appears in a famous Sal & Richard prank call from The Howard Stern Show. While calling a public access television show, the caller asks the panel if he can "ask that fat white bitch a question". One of the male panelists responds with "She's not white!" after they cut the caller off.
  • Safety Catch:
    Simon: First up, I'm going to stop being an arms dealer! I fell into it in the first place, I've never wanted to do it, and it's basically a job for warped, amoral sociopaths!
    Boris: Hey! I'm not warped.
  • Ghost, from True Capitalist radio, is often accused of being a racist, shapeshifting Jew. His response is always "I'M NOT A JEW!" In one episode, he was assaulted by a caller who, in a parody of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, called him a racist, a fruitbowl, a hambone, and a reptilian. However, Ghost only raged once he brought up "Hannukah night," failing to even notice the line after it accused him of beating his son.
    • Another instance has a caller claim there's a party at Ghost's house with "free beer, a mountain of cocaine, and girls under 18". Ghost's response is "I don't do cocaine!". Knowing him, one would think he'd react to the "girls under 18" part.

    Tabletop Games 

    Theater 
  • A variation is used in the musical 1776. Abigail Adams recites a list of her faults that her husband sent her in a letter; John insists that he didn't mean most of them, but is forced to admit that "You are pigeon-toed". In a later scene, John begins to list his own faults and Abigail reassures him, but concedes, "You are pigheaded."

    An actual honest-to-god historical exchange; it's paraphrased from a series of letters written while they were courting. At first glance, the Adamses had an interesting and slightly tumultuous marriage, but it's only partly true. You just need to read the letters with the right mindset. John and Abigail were pretty much the only happy marriage of any of our founding fathers (the others were either full of tragedy or were political marriages), and they enjoyed the back-and-forth. Honestly, you could say they were the closest thing to soulmates you could find.
  • Inverted in the 2003 musical Avenue Q, when Lucy the Slut tells a jilted Princeton that she isn't going to cling to "some well-hung baby face kid, who leeches from his parents and can't get his act together!", and then stalks haughtily away. Princeton slowly faces the audience and says, "I think I heard a compliment in there!" and proceeds to follow her off-stage.
  • During one of their arguments in Boston Marriage, Claire calls Anna an "evil old bitch". Anna immediately and indignantly denies being old but lets the rest of the description pass without comment.
  • In Woody Allen's play God:
    Writer: May I remind you, you're a starving, out-of-work actor whom I've generously consented to let appear in my play in an effort to assist your comeback.
    Actor: Starving, yes... Out of work, perhaps... Hoping for a comeback, maybe — but a drunkard?
    Writer: I never said you were a drunkard.
    Actor: Yes, but I'm also a drunkard.
  • From Next to Normal:
    Natalie: Oh, you're one of those pretentious stoner types.
    Henry: That's totally unfair!... I'm not pretentious.
  • In The Norman Conquests, Ruth tells her husband that he's "deceitful, odious, conceited, self-centred, selfish, inconsiderate and shallow." Norman angrily denies being shallow.
  • From the 1974 musical adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera (by Ken Hill, not Andrew Lloyd Webber):
    Carlotta: And-a you keep your tubby torso out of this, you fat little faggot!
    Faust: What do you mean, "little"?
  • In The Scarlet Sails, Assol learns that Mrs. Menners and Menners Jr. refuse to drop their charges against her father. She is shocked but continues to plead with them. Menners Jr. tells her she has to marry him if she wants to get her father freed. She is mortified but stays around to listen to his love song and actually shows she feels somewhat sorry for him. Menners Jr. suggests she calls him Grey (the name of her not-so-imaginary Prince Charming)? Assol gasps in horror and breaks down, often running away.
  • Shine: A Burlesque Musical. After Richard Suit rattles off the Aristocrat theatre's many problems:
    Holly: Don't forget the incompetent alcoholic psychopath in the manager's office.
    Shine: Hey! I am not incompetent!
  • In both the film adaptation and the stage version of West Side Story, the Jets are hanging out with their girls and the girls are causing a fuss over being left behind while the Jets go to fight. Action asks while they're still hanging around with these "dumb broads", to which Graziella indignantly responds: "I and Velma ain't dumb!"

    Video Games 
  • In the "Remark Lark" quest in Archie Riverdale Rescue Midge calls Moose a "big overgrown knucklehead" for getting five F's on his report card.
    Moose: Midge, I resent that remark! I'm really not that big.
  • Assassin's Creed: Valhalla: During "The Siege of Paris", a corrupt monk orders his troops to kill an entire village of Vikings, except for Tokka, who is to be left alive as a messenger. Tokka, meanwhile, is just indignant he calls her a "stripling".
  • Blaze Union:
    Baldus: Nessiah... I have heard it rumored that you are a heartless false prophet.
    Nessiah: I can understand where the "heartless" part might come from, but I never thought someone would call me "false".
  • Cultist Simulator: Heart cultists can smooth over unwanted Reputation cards, such as Mystique (rumors about you that make hunters stick around longer), Notoriety (rumours that can be directly converted to evidence against you) and Human Corpses. They do so by grabbing a Reputation card at random and destroying it, so it's entirely possible they spend all their time explaining your meteoric rise as a painter or your dancing career at a weird cabaret while you're under investigation for several burglaries and murders.
  • Destroy All Humans!:
    Farmer's Wife: AAAH! Little green spacemen!
    Crypto: I am not green!note 
  • Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier:
    Henne: Looks like her report was right on. "Dumbass poser wearing a black trenchcoat, black hat, red bandana, and fingerless gloves."
    Haken: What...!? What's wrong with my gloves!?
  • Cid is part of one of these in Final Fantasy VII:
    Cid: ^$#&! Good for nothing, fat &$#$^@!
    Palmer: Don't say 'fat'!
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, during Maribelle and Brady's C-support conversation, when Brady asks Maribelle who she pissed off to make herself so proper, she takes offense not at the fact that he uttered "piss", but that he should have said "WHOM did you piss off?"
  • In Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, when Nepgear's gang encounters ASIC underling Linda in Lowee, Linda mocks each of the party members, while they respond in turn:
    Nepgear: A ditzy little girl? I'm not that little, am I?
  • Injustice: Gods Among Us during a clash between Solomon Grundy and Green Arrow.
    Green Arrow: Slow, stupid and ugly.
    Solomon Grundy: Grundy not slow!
  • Kingdom Hearts II:
    • From the final episode in Hollow Bastion, when the MCP (from TRON) is wreaking havoc in both that world and the computer world.
      Leon: Finished?
      Cid: Would be, if it weren't for that old loon's magic.
      Merlin: OLD loon, you say?
  • Early on in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Terra teases Aqua by saying "Oy, sometimes, you can be such a girl," after she tells him and Ventus that she made good luck charms for the three of them. You'd think a badass Action Girl like Aqua would be offended, right? Well, she is — at the word "sometimes."
  • In Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, when called a "dumb, sheltered skank", Fubuki only takes offense at the "sheltered" part.
  • Neverwinter Nights 2:
    • If you let Qara talk to the Caretaker at the Mages Guild, he'll insult her by calling her "that tavern wench who cleans tables at that dive in the docks district." If you choose the "Hey! The Sunken Flagon is not a dive!" response, Qara gets cross that you care more about the tavern's honor than hers.
    • A Dream Sequence in Mask of the Betrayer gives us this gem:
      Bishop: I take it you gathered up another circus sideshow, then? Does this one sing for his supper? Does he bark like a dog? Or maybe he does a little dance on your command?
      Knight-Captain: Gann is a good friend and a loyal ally. More than you ever were.
      Gann: And I can dance and sing quite well, as a matter of fact.
  • Grubba in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door tells the Iron Adonis Twins that Mario "said" a few insults about them. They're all pretty tame, but what really sets them off is Mario "accusing" them, particularly their mother, of having an outie belly button.
    Cleft with red shoes: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!? How does he know Mom has an outie? That jerk!
  • While in the English version of Pokémon Sword and Shield, Peony doesn't feel very troubled by Oleana mixing him with Rose, in the Italian version, he's promptly offended.
    Olena: So the Rose I heard of...
    Peony: Who're you calling Rose?! Don't offend!
  • In [PROTOTYPE 2], Heller's current hacker friend Athena finds a recording of a Blackwatch soldier making a drunken rant about Heller's wife and his own sexual prowess, ending with "You and that pasty hacker cunt will get what's coming to ya. Later, traitor."
    Athena: Okay, you need to kill this guy now. Pasty hacker cunt? I am not pasty!
  • Psychonauts:
    Raz: You can't let the junior varsity pep squad ruin your life!
    Dingo/Dean: Um, what's up with the "junior"?
    Lampita/Lana: Yeah, we were full-on varsity!
  • Inverted in The Secret of Monkey Island.
    Guybrush: I'm a foul-smelling, grog-swilling pirate.
    Shopkeeper: Foul-smelling, yes... Grog-swilling, maybe... But a pirate? Don't make me laugh. Come back when you've got some tattoos or a pegleg or at least an eyepatch, for crying out loud.
  • Sly 2: Band of Thieves:
    • In a rare example of a character genuinely admitting their flaws, there's Murray and Rajan's pre-fight banter:
      Rajan: Who is "The Murray"? All I see is a fat, pathetic, weakling!
      Murray: I may be... big, and not as smart as the other guys, but one thing I'm not is weak!
    • Earlier in the game, we have this exchange between Sly and Demetri, the first boss.
      Demetri: Show your bling and let me shine you!
      Sly Cooper: I have no idea what you're saying... and your suit sucks!
      Demetri: Auggh! Let's dance!
  • The Ultra Deluxe version of The Stanley Parable has an area where you and the Lemony Narrator look at reviews of the original game. One particularly scathing review calls the narrator “obnoxious and unfunny” and says that his dialog is “more irritating than entertaining”. The narrator's indignant response:
    Narrator: UNFUNNY?! I’m not trying to be funny! I’m trying to make a serious work of art!
  • Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom:
    Reimu: You're a talkative ghost.
    Youmu: I'm half non-ghost, you know!
    Reimu: That was what needed correcting?
  • Happens three times in a row in Welcome to Bummertown when Workman is trying to provoke some NPC's into getting mad at one of the other characters.
    Workman: He says, "You're so dense that light bends around you."
    Cliff: That explains a lot.
    Workman: He says, "You must have been born on a highway because that's where most accidents happen."
    Cliff: How does he know that? I was born because of a highway accident.
    Workman: He says, "Words can't describe your red hat, so he'll just throw up."
    Cliff: WHAT?! Nobody will insult my hat. NOBODY!
  • World of Final Fantasy: At Castle Cornelia, Reynn apologizes for the fact that Lann is acting like “such a royal idiot”. How does Lann take it?
    Lann: I’m not royal!

    Visual Novels 
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: Asahina says that Hagakure "stinks of stupidity", which he takes offense to. Then she takes it back and says he just stinks. He's fine with that. Then again, having Asahina call you stupid is a pretty grave offense (not that it isn't accurate in Hagakure's case).
  • Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Kokichi insults Miu by calling her a "dumb whore pig." Miu's response is to complain about being called a "dumb pig."
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney:
    Phoenix: This witness... is a big, fat liar!
    April May: F-fat!?

    Web Animation 
  • In Homestar Runner, after Homestar eats Strong Bad's "ice cream":
    Marzipan: Homestar, didn't anyone tell you? That's like cottage cheese and The Cheat hair!
    Homestar: What!? [spit take] Strong Bad told me it was sour cream and The Cheat hair!
  • In Episode 26 part 2 of If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, Leman Russ calls Ex-Inquisitor Kryptmann "another one of Fyodor's irrational carnage cronies". Kryptmann objects to two-thirds of that statement: He's perfectly rational, and his mass-murder is completely independent.
  • RWBY:
    • When we're introduced to Sun, who just ran off from a boat he stowed away on.
      Sailor: You no-good stowaway!
      Sun: Hey! A "no-good" stowaway would have been caught! I'm a great stowaway!
    • When an unimpressed Raven summarizes her impression of Cinder and her associates, Dr. Watts — who himself dislikes Cinder quite a bit — takes it in stride.
      Raven: Two children you've tricked into following you, a disgraced Atlesian scientist and a Fall Maiden with a name so appropriate she probably picked it herself. Something tells me you must have a slight case of egomania. Is that about right?
      Watts: Technically, I was also a doctor, but the rest was spot on.
  • Shmorky's "Breakfast Duck's Terrible Christmas" on Something Awful.
    Kevin: You know, there's no such thing as Santa.
    Cutie: Shut up! You're just being mean and gay.
    Kevin: Heyyy. I'm not mean.
  • This exchange from Space Tree.
    Speshdiv Robot: Meelord Marone, you are under arrest, for murder, conspiracy to conceal murder, kidnapping, and treason.
    Mee: Oh, come on man, I only did three of those.
  • In Indie Cross: The Series, Cuphead and Shovel Knight get into an argument (and some Snark-to-Snark Combat) over fleeing from a massive number of drones (Cuphead thinks they can take them, Shovel Knight doesn't want to take any chances). Eventually, a fight breaks out at the end of the exchange, with the "insult" that sends Cuphead ballistic and causes him to start shooting being, uh, unique.
    Cuphead: Stand... down.
    Shovel Knight: I'm afraid you'll have to remove my legs if you ever expect me to kneel, stranger.
    Cuphead: The name's Cuphead, and you're crossing the line!
    Shovel Knight: Cross it, foe!
    Cuphead: Alright, ya ding-dong!
    Shovel Knight: Absent-minded buffoon!
    Cuphead: Goofball!
    Shovel Knight: Magic flask!
    Cuphead: I'M! A! CUUUUP!

    Webcomics 
  • Played with in Ansem Retort, due to a misunderstanding.
    Darth Maul: Pandora? Is he calling us box openers?
    Marluxia: I think he's calling us box openers.
    Darth Maul: Let's kick his ass!
  • From Concerned #57:
    Sandy: I feel like every time I turn around you're doing something stupid, like holding a live grenade while standing knee-deep in radioactive sludge and setting yourself on fire.
    Gordon Frohman: For the record, I'm only ankle deep.
  • In Darths & Droids, Anakin and Padme were accused of numerous crimes, including murder, sabotage, and vandalism. Padme protests... the parking violation.
  • Dork Tower:
    Kayleigh: It's better than being a loser dweeb with no initiative, no fashion sense, no job, no prospects and a Buffy-hater to boot!
    Matt: THAT was a LOW blow!... I love Buffy.
  • Girl Genius:
    • Master Payne, leader of carnies and con artists, inflicts this trope on a soldier after a tough round in their poker game. Judging by the soldier's lack of reaction until the last shot, it's possible that Payne was triple-bluffing and managed to hit on the truth twice.
    • Mechanicsburg is a town of bandits and brigands who delighted in raiding and plundering Europa, so calling a Mechanicsburguer "bandit" is not what will set them off:
      Vanamonde von Mekkahn: ...and, according to that pack of old bandits behind me—
      Elder minions: Who's old, you insolent pup?!
    • Subversion regarding the problems with an escalating plan.
      Minsk: Gorb. Dis iz turnink into vun of dose plans... Hyu know — de kind vere ve keel everybody dot notices dot ve's killin' people?
      Gorb: It is?
      Minsk: Uh-huh. And how do dose plans alvays end?
      Gorb: De dirigible iz in flames, everyboddy'z dead an' I've lost my hat.
      Minsk: Dot's right. Und any plan vere you lose you hat iz?
      Gorb: A bad plan?
      Minsk: Right again!
  • Implied in episode 14 of Keychain of Creation. Secret calls Marena a "bossy overweight oversexed shapeshifting cow", and the comic's title (only visible in the archive page) is "I am not a cow!"
  • Wesley and Troi do this in Larp Trek:
    Wesley: Well, Odo was going to stop by Quark's anyway, because he doesn't trust that greedy, conniving, self-centered, big-eared, morally bankrupt Ferengi one bit.
    Troi: Hey! Who are you calling bankrupt?
  • Narbonic:
    Woman in Lost and Found: But who would claim a rotting, scarred, incredibly whiny zombie head?
    [...]
    Dave: Whiny? Really?
    Helen: HA! I knew the Daves had to have dealt with unsavory people!
    Caliban: Those are some old friends of mine you're insulting. Don't call them "people".
  • The Non-Adventures of Wonderella:
    • Reversed when Wonderella tells her sidekick an over-the-top story involving her baking a sentient gingerbread man who ran into a portal, having to fight off a giant slug with a salt shaker, and hitching a ride home with a giraffe, the only part Wonderita questioned...was Wonderella baking in the first place..
    • The comic two strips later has Wonderella's arch-enemy Hitlerella capture her, imprison her somewhere far away, and forces her to watch the destruction of New York City due to atom bomb through a satellite feed. What grinds Wonderella's gears? Well...
    Hitlerella: Out of this entire scenario. You have a problem. With the TV.
  • The Order of the Stick: Sabine (a succubus, and thus a demon and not a devil) gets one:
    Nale: Malack, is the Control Winds scroll you cast still active?
    Malack: Is your vapid devil-whore still keeping you aloft?
    Sabine: HEY! Who are you calling a devil??
  • Plush and Blood: Cole, at being called "...a special breed of batshit megalomaniacal incestuous clown...".
  • In this Schlock Mercenary strip, Karl Tagon is identified as a "nice old man". In the last panel, he shows up suddenly to object to the "nice" part.
    "If I had said "crotchety", you wouldn't have gotten any exercise."
  • Scarlet Lady: A Running Gag of the comic is Chloé overreacting when being insulted and only making reference to the least insulting part. For example:
    Marinette: I'm standing to all supervillains and a lowlife like you is no exception! I'm done taking orders from you and your stupid ponytail, so sit down!
    Chloé: How dare you insult my ponytail?!
    Sabrina: That's what you're mad about?
  • In Sluggy Freelance:
    Gwynn: Hi, "Hasn't Dated Since the Clinton Administration" and his sidekick "Captain Mommy Issues".
    Riff: I am not a sidekick!
  • Spacetrawler inverts this.
  • In the Stolen Pixels strip "+2 Shoes of Floppiness", Bann Teagan calls Leliana "a stripper with a gravy boat on her head."
    Leliana: It's a bateau de sauce!
  • From the sprite comic Totally Flaked:
    Flak: Flak smashes stupid mechanic with stupid hair!
    Andy: My hair is not stupid!
  • Unwinder's Tall Comics: Here.
    Unwinder: Reading some manga there?
    Barbecue Sauce: No.
    Unwinder: Reading some non-canon comic continuations of old, canceled, BBC science fiction shows?
    Barbecue Sauce: No! I mean, most fans consider them Canon, since they got some of the original writers.
  • Randall Munroe, who writes xkcd, has used such events as 9/11 and the My Lai massacre to tell a joke. But when he insulted anthropologists, the gloves came off!
  • In Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic:
    Baron Grayfort: You stupid, useless deserter! Traitor! Lout! Hooligan! Coward! Clumsy oaf!
    Lucas: I'm no coward.

    Web Original 
  • Ab3's popular Tabletop Games anecdotes, The Binder of Shame:
    Me: Not only are you a lousy Dungeon Master, but you're crazier than a crapfight in a monkey house!
    Psycho Dave: I am not a lousy Dungeon Master!
  • On a Channel Awesome forum, MarzGurl was described as "overweight, terribe [sic] hair, odd clothing, and her face resembles squirrel". Her response? The only thing I disagree with is the overweight thing."
  • In Farce of the Three Kingdoms, Sun Chen calls Sun Liang "evil, weak, stupid, and a pervert," upon which Huan Yi indignantly defends his Emperor, insisting that he's not stupid.
  • In Heart In Hand:
    Darryl: What criticisms of your game did you hear last year?
    Alex: Russian, dirty player, no defense, choker, predictable, dirty hitter, no defense, show-off, not team player, choker, Russian, dirty, selfish, bad fashion, bad dancer.
    Darryl: Whoa, whoa. Wait, what?
    Alex: I know, right? I dress great, and I'm good dancer!
  • Tales of MU combines this with Delayed Reaction:
    "You are the fat, loud girl's girlfriend," she said.
    "Puddy's not fat!" I said angrily. Then, my brain caught up with the rest of her sentence, and I added, "And I'm not her girlfriend."
  • A Warriors rp blog got an ask from anonymous saying "I'd date Ajax if he wasn't such a homophic [sic], sexist, misogynistic and racist individual."
    Ajax: ...? How the fuck am I racist?

    Web Videos 
  • In the Epic Rap Battles of History episode with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, Steve Jobs doesn't bat an eye at Gates calling him an "arrogant prick", talking about Jobs being abandoned at birth, etc., but Gates finally draws a reaction when he makes a rather playful jab about Jobs taking credit for the work of others and then asks if Steve Wozniak wrote the lyrics that Jobs is rapping.
  • The people behind The Gentlemen's Rant made a series of videos called The Gentlemen's Response, where they respond to comments left on their YouTube videos. One such comment was "blugh! what is with these same 5 boring, ugly, whiny, deep nasally-voice, depressing, lame joke, dead beat loosers." (sic) They responded by merely pointing out that there's only four of them (Although this is more about pointing out what an idiot the commenter is and disregarding their opinion since they can't count).
  • In the Half in the Bag video "Scientist Man Analyzes Ghostbusters", Scientist Man calls Rich and Jay "mouth-breathing, basement-dwelling women-haters". Jay counters that he doesn't live in a basement, and Rich proclaims to not hate women, although he admits that he does live in a basement.
  • Noob: La Quête Légendaire: Gaea has just recently become head of her faction's most powerful guild by getting the whole faction in debt to her, then going to see the guild's leader and basically telling him "Give me your job and I'll cancel the debt.". She finds several of her new subordinates conspiring to overthrow her and convincing other players that it is the right thing to do via mentioning how she ended up in power and the Manipulative Bitch reputation Gaea made for herself while she was saving seed money for her plan. They also suspect her to be a spy for another faction and to be keeping their former leader's cat hostage in real life. Gaea replies that she's not a spy and not keeping any cats hostage. Ash, the player who informed Gaea of the conspiracy and lead her to the room in which the conspirators were meeting, helpfully points out that she is guilty of everything else.
  • The Nostalgia Chick doesn't mind being called pitiful, judgmental, a shut-in or even facing the prospect of a painful death at the hands of her former best friend. No, all she cares about is the great insult of being called a nerd.
  • Outside Xbox:
    • During their Dungeons and Dragons playthrough, druid Merilwen reveals a power she was keeping a secret: A new Wild Shape that let her turn into a bear. Immediately, her compatriots launch into a wide variety of bear puns. Ellen plays along with them, but objects to Mike saying "top koala-ty", because koalas aren't technically bears.
    • During a social deduction game, Luke has Skewed Priorities.
      Luke: Look, you can accuse me a lot of things, including being a werewolf. But you can't accuse me of legalese.
  • A possibly unintentional Self-Deprecation variant in this memetic vine:
    Packie: Stop saying I look like Chicken Little, he's dumb, and he's a coward, and I am not a coward!
  • In the Thought Slime video Why is Twitter so toxic?, Mildred describes getting weird, venomous insults, like "This guy looks like he fucks bagels and then eats them."
    Mildred: And I certainly can't respond to those people. I can't be like, "No, I don't eat them."

    Western Animation 
  • From the 3-2-1 Penguins! episode "Give and Let Give":
    Flam Mingo: You pot-bellied hooligans have threatened to attack us and go back on the deal!
    Jeff: Who you calling a hooligan, bird legs?
  • Disney's Aladdin: The Series includes the following exchange:
    Iago: Don't ya get it, Einstein? You're a has-been!
    Frijeed: I may be a has-been, but I'm no Einstein!!!
  • In the American Dad! episode "You Debt Your Life", Roger discovers that Stan has rented out his attic to Andy Dick, which leads to this exchange:
    Roger: Oh my God! Another fey, pansexual, alcoholic nonhuman. I've been replaced!
    Andy Dick: Egads! Who are you calling fey? I have a son!
  • Archer:
    • Archer and Lana are in the middle of a gunfight, both in their underwear, and Lana catches Archer staring at her breasts.
      Lana: Now? Really?
      Archer: Oh, right! Because you walked into Strippers' Discount Warehouse and said: "Help me showcase my intellect!"
      Lana: Discount? Hello? This is Fiacci!
    • This exchange from "Skin Game":
      Archer: What is it with serial killers and skin?
      Krieger: I'm not a... serial killer!
      Archer: ...Wait, why'd you emphasize "serial"?
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • From "Bato of the Water Tribe".
      June: Oh great. It's prince pouty. Where's your creepy grandpa?
      Zuko: He's my uncle... and he's not here.
    • In "The King of Omashu":
      Sokka: So this crazy king is your old friend Bumi?
      King: Who are you calling old?!
    • Sokka doesn't like being portrayed as a one-note character who "only makes dumb jokes about food".
    Suki: Yeah. You tell bad jokes about plenty of other topics!
    'Sokka: I KNOW!
  • Batman: The Animated Series:
    • Harley Quinn uses this one, yelling it at Batman, no less!
      Harley Quinn: And here you thought I was just another bubble-headed blond bimbo! Well, the joke's on you, I'm not even a real blond!
    • There's also a variation of this in "Night of the Ninja". When Summer Gleason accuses Kyodai Ken of being a "common thief", he denies it, claiming proudly that he's actually a "great thief".
    • And in "Showdown":
      Arkady Duvall: You're either a liar or a fool.
      Jonah Hex: I've been known to be foolish, but ain't nobody calls me a liar and goes to bed happy.
  • A variation occurred in Danny Phantom episode "Bitter Reunions", when Jack gets overshadowed by Vlad Plasmius.
    Harriet: So, Maddie, when did you first realize your husband was a monster bent on destroying his smarter, more successful, and better-dressed peers?
    Maddie: What are you talking about? That jumpsuit is incredibly stylish!
  • This exchange from an episode of Daria:
    Tad: You're a mean old witch!
    Sandi: I am not old!
  • Darkwing Duck:
    • One at the start of the episode "Adopt-a-Con":
      Darkwing: I caught that hateful, underhanded, ham, Tuskernini, robbing a bank!
      Tuskernini: I object, your honour. I am not a ham.
      Judge: Darkwing Duck, do you have any evidence?
      Darkwing: These reviews of his performance in Son of MacBeth.
      Judge: I mean the bank robbery!
    • When Darkwing is called a second-rate jerk, he objects saying that he's a first-rate jerk.
    • Inverted in "Just Us Justice Ducks" when Darkwing is beating himself up over failing to prevent the Fearsome Five from taking over the city.
      Darkwing Duck: I'm dirt. I'm worse than dirt. I'm lower than low! I am not the Terror that Flaps in the Night! I am the self-centered boob who hands over the city at the drop of a dime! I'm a...a gipnoid, a slug, a sput-mothering jackanape!
      Launchpad: *sincerely* Ah, c'mon. You're not a slug.
    • An exchange also occurs at the end of the episode "Mutantcy on the Bouncy" after Darkwing and the Rubber Chicken defeat Cement Head.
      Rubber Chicken: And you did pretty good...for a vain, pig-headed, loudmouthed, snooty, egomaniacal waffle-brain!
      Darkwing: Hey! I am not vain!
  • In an episode of Dave the Barbarian, Uncle Oswidge suggests using his magic to deal with a zit that Candy is freaking out over, leading to the following exchange:
    Candy: Uncle Oswidge, I could kiss you! If you weren't so short, and old, and ugly, and smelly.
    Oswidge: I'm not that short.
  • From the Spinoff Babies episode of Drawn Together:
    Xandir: You ass-kissing adopted homo!
    Captain Hero: I am not adopted!
  • From an episode of Duckman:
    Medfly: You stupid clumsy idiotic brain-dead yellow imbecile!
    Duckman: Hey, wait, hold on there, buddy!... You really think I'm yellow? I've always seen myself as more a sallow ochre. Here, check the butt feathers.
  • In the Ewoks episode "Party Ewok", Kneesa rebukes the leader of a gang of punks called the Pugs by saying that he's just a dirty, no-good common thief. The leader of the Pugs replies "Who are you calling 'common'?"
  • Family Guy:
  • Futurama:
    • "Space Pilot 3000":
      Smitty: Keep your big nose out of this, eyeball.
      Leela: No one makes fun of my nose!
    • "When Aliens Attack", after Amy replaces her stolen bikini top:
      Amy: There. How do I look?
      Farnsworth: Like a cheap French harlot.
      Amy: French?!
    • "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?":
      Leela: Look at you two. No offense, Fry, but you've become a fat sack of crap.
      Fry: [whining] Sack?
    • Fry in "War is the H-Word", being dressed down by Zapp for cowering from battle:
      Zap: Look, Kif. While others were fighting and dying pointlessly, this man hid in a hole, wallowing in a pool of his own cowardice.
      Fry: That wasn't cowardice!
    • Played with in "The Farnsworth Parabox":
      Amy A: The Professor's right — you are evil. And shallow!
      Amy 1: I am not evil!
    • In "Bender's Big Score", when Professor's doomsday bomb is replaced with a rose and note saying "You've been scammed, sweetheart":
      Professor: Scammed? Me!? SWEETHEART!?
  • Grossology:
    Paige: I came for a party and no creepy, weirdo, Goth loser is going to stop me!
    Darko Crevasse: Oh, come on. I may be, as you say, "creepy", but calling me a Goth is going too far.
  • Invader Zim:
    • In "Tak: The Hideous New Girl":
      Zim: Despite his huge head, the Dib-monkey is quite stupid.
      Dib: My head's not big!
    • Apparently, people used that one on Dib a lot.
      Dib: My head's not big!!
      Zim: I... didn't say anything about your head.
  • The Jem episode "Kimber's Rebellion" has the Misfits hijack a television interiew that Jem and the Holograms are having. Pizzazz mocks her rivals' name and retorts that the Misfits' name actually means something. Jem replies by quipping that the name of the Misfits means rude, obnoxious and loud. Pizzazz snaps back that she is not loud.
  • From the Justice League story "The Brave and the Bold" (although the Flash would be insulted by that word in particular):
    Gorilla Grodd: Humans are slow, ugly, immoral, and have an unpleasant body odor!
    Flash: Hey, who you calling slow?
  • In the Kim Possible episode "Animal Attraction", Ron reads from a book that "The Pink Sloth is an outcast, a follower, socially inept, and smells of overripe fruit" and protests that he does not smell of overripe fruit. Then a rotten banana peel comes out of his pocket...
  • At the end of the King of the Hill episode "Traffic Jam", Hank and Roger are joking with each other using "Yo' Momma" jokes.
    Roger 'Booda' Sack: It's been so long since yo' momma's last bath, that her hairy armpits smell like propane gas!
    Hank: Now hold on there, fella, a joke's a joke but now you've gone too far. You see propane is actually odorless, what you smell was put there by man for safety reasons...
  • In the Loonatics Unleashed episode "Apocalypso":
    Queen Athena: I liked how you dealt with the obnoxious one with the big beak.
    Danger Duck: Hey! I'll have you know my beak is exactly the right size for my head!
  • Looney Tunes:
    • The 1948 short Daffy Duck Slept Here:
      Porky Pig: T-T-That does it! You web-footed, n-n-no good, two-timing, d-d-double-crossing, d-d-double-dealing, unsanitary old snake in the grass!
      Daffy Duck: Unsanitary?!
    • Daffy Duck goes to this well again in the 1953 short Muscle Tussle, after his girlfriend dumps him for a bodybuilder.
      Melissa Duck: Goodbye, you scrawny little nine-pound weakling.
      Daffy Duck: How do you like that? Calling me a scrawny little nine-pound weakling... when it's perfectly obvious I'm a scrawny little ten-pound weakling. Humph!
    • In Dumb Patrol, set during World War I: Bugs Bunny, sent by the Allied Nations to vanquish Germany's deadliest pilot, Baron Sam Von Schpamm (AKA Yosemite Sam), drops Sam a letter and a boquet of flowers:
      Sam: What's this? (reading) "Dear baron: Roses are Red / Violets are Blue / A Leghorn's a Chicken / And so are you"?! Why, that dummkopf! He even spelled "Baron" with a small "b"! (reads some more) "P.S., I enclosed a big "B" in the flowers."
  • In one episode of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Peppermint Larry refuses to extend credit to Flapjack and Cap'n K'nuckles because "Everybody knows you don't have any money!" K'nuckles indignantly replies "Stop lyin'! Not everyone knows that."
  • Once per Episode on Megas XLR, when Coop decides Let's Get Dangerous!, he gives a monologue listing off all the reasons that the Monster of the Week deserves the ass-whooping they are about to get. The last item on the list — and the one Coop is by far the angriest about — is always something extremely petty and trivial. Or something that was actually his own fault.
  • A slight variation, from Mission Hill:
    Andy: I run strip clubs and date sleazy women.
    Shelly: Hey, how's that supposed to make me feel?
    Andy: Sorry, not women. Woman. Just you.
    Shelly: Oh Andy, you say the sweetest things.
  • Variant in Moral Orel (note that he's on his seventh glass of liquor):
    Rev. Putty: You're amazing. The beer goggles you have on right now make crucifixion look like Marilyn Monroe.
    Clay: I never drink beer.
  • My Little Pony:
    • My Little Pony 'n Friends: In "The End of Flutter Valley – Part 10", Sting accuses Queen Bumble of being fat, greedy, and only thinking of her own selfish needs. Bumble only objects to being called fat.
    • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
      • "A Dog and Pony Show": Spike has an Imagine Spot in which he confronts the Diamond Dogs who kidnapped Rarity, and refers to them as curs and mangy mutts. The dogs object to being called mutts.
        Spike: Show yourselves, you dogs! You curs! Ah, there you are, you mangy mutts!
        Diamond Dog: Who are you calling mutts? Unleash the hounds!
      • "MMMystery on the Friendship Express": Twilight says Donut Joe is "big, gruff and messy" and he only yells "HEY!" after the last adjective.
      • "Testing Testing 1, 2, 3": Twilight attempts to teach Rainbow about reading and highlighting, but finds that Rainbow highlighted the entire book, as well as made an unflattering doodle of Twilight in the centerfold. Twilight is upset primarily about Rainbow drawing her too tall.
        Twilight: Hey! I am not that tall!
      • "To Where and Back Again – Part 2": Trixie and Discord constantly argue back and forth with each other while on their rescue mission with Starlight and Thorax. While they are powerless without magic and arguing over which of them is more useful on the mission, Discord says that, once the throne is destroyed and he has his magic back, he'll be all-powerful again and be able to easily save their friends, while she'll still be "a self-absorbed, below-average illusionist". Trixie is incensed at being called "self-absorbed".
        Trixie: Self-absorbed?!
  • Phineas and Ferb: A visual version comes up in an episode; Phineas mentions they've made a chariot for Candace that looks just like her... and is actually a repulsive gorgon. Candace responds while wearing a scowl that looks just like the chariot:
    Candace: Oh, that's ridiculous! I do not have wheels!
  • Pound Puppies (1980s): In "The Captain and the Cats", the leader of the Three Mouseketeers calls Cooler a silly bumbling mongrel. It's being called a mongrel that gets Cooler mad.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
  • Quack Pack: In "Phoniest Home Video", Daisy calls Kent Powers a bucket-headed old peabrain. The only part of the insult that gets to Kent is being called old.
  • Rocket Power: In one episode, Twister and his brother challenge each other to a go-kart race, featuring the following exchange:
    Lars: Get ready to eat my dust, you little dork!
    Twister: I'm not little!
  • From the "Moosylvania Saved" story of Rocky and Bullwinkle:
    Fearless Leader: Badenov, you are an incompetent, stupid, disgusting little nincompoop!
    Boris: Who's little?!
  • Played with a few times in The Simpsons:
    • "Hurricane Neddy": Ned Flanders goes berserk and insults several of the people who tried unsuccessfully to rebuild his house after a hurricane struck. One can tell he was starting to run out of good insults by the time he got to Moe:
      Ned: You ugly, hate-filled man!
      Moe: Hey, hey, I may be ugly and hate-filled, but I... um, what was that third thing you said?
    • "Simpson Tide". When Homer is suspected of having defected to Russia, Grandpa Simpson is interviewed as to whether his son is a Communist:
      Brockman: Could Homer Simpson be a Communist? His father spoke out on his behalf.
      Abe: My Homer is not a Communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, and a Communist, but he is not a porn star!
    • In a straight example (episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts"), Mayor Quimby was described as an "illiterate, tax-cheating, wife-swapping, pot-smoking Spend-o-crat", to which he was shown to reply: "Hey, I am no longer illiterate!" (while watering a cannabis plant in his closet).
    • An attempt by a cult to brainwash Homer has him being subjected to harsh criticism by several people at once. After gleefully agreeing with insult after hate-filled insult, Moe finally mentions Homer's armpit smell; Homer is about to object, but he gets a whiff himself and promptly changes his tune.
    • From "The Crepes of Wrath", Bart divulges to a French policeman the various injustices he's suffered while there: the owners of the chateau he's staying at work him to death, they make him sleep on the floor, and they put antifreeze in the wine. His response: "Antifreeze in the wine! That is a very serious crime!"
    • A variation on the theme was when Otto thought Homer called him a bum, and he didn't mind that; in fact, he admitted it. However, when Bart pointed out that Homer had actually called him a "sponge", not a bum, Otto really got angry.
    • In "Baby, You Can't Drive My Car", Homer calls Mr. Burns a crazy, wrinkly, short piece of garbage. Mr. Burns is only upset about being called "short".
    • Meta-example: in "Simpsons Confidential", John Ortved's oral history of the show, former showrunner Mike Reiss describes the Brazilian Tourist Council's complaint about the episode "Blame It On Lisa":
      "When the Simpsons came to Rio, they encountered grinding poverty, rat-infested slums, pickpockets, kidnappers, and wild monkeys. There are no wild monkeys in Rio."
    • In "Covercraft", after Apu leaves Homer's cover band for a bigger, more successful one, Lisa tells Homer he doesn't need to be jealous.
      Homer: I'm not jealous, I'm envious. Jealousy is when you worry someone will take what you have. Envy is wanting what someone else has. What I feel is envy.
      Lisa: (looking in a dictionary) Wow, he's right.
  • From South Park, in the episode "Ladder to Heaven":
    Congressman: Are you high or just incredibly stupid?
    President Bush: I assure you — I am not high!
  • Spider-Man: The Animated Series: Although this may be Hypocritical Humor on Doc Ock's part...
    Doctor Octopus: Back off, you pea-brained, uncoordinated, absurdly dressed excuse for a man!
    Scorpion: Who are you callin' absurdly dressed?!
  • In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Imitation Krabs", Plankton uses a Mr. Krabs robot to try and get the Krabby Patty formula from SpongeBob. Eventually, SpongeBob is faced with two Mr. Krabs and Plankton tries to claim the real Mr. Krabs is the robot, leading to this exchange:
    Mr. Krabs: Well, if I was a robot - which I'm not! - at least I'm well put together; not some rusted-up, steam-driven, pile of junk!
    Plankton in the robot: Who are you calling "steam-driven"?
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars has a scene where General Grievous confronts Jedi Master Eeth Koth:
    Eeth Koth: Your reputation precedes you, general. The reputation of a coward, and a murderer.
    Grievous: Murderer?
  • A variant from Sushi Pack: seeing his scheme working, Titanium Chef crows, "Soon the world will see I'm not a so-so sushi chef, I'm a so-so Evil Genius!"
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
    • From the classic cartoon episode "Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop". Although in this case, Donatello's just stating the facts: Turtles ARE reptiles, and they AREN'T slimy.
      Burne Thompson: Not so fast! You slimy reptiles! I'll bet you're responsible for this!
      Donatello: Hey, I deny that insinuation! Turtles are not slimy!
    • In "Turtles on the Orient Express":
      April O'Neil: Let go of me you big, ugly, bug-ridden, half-witted creep!
      Bebop: Aww.. I ain't no creep.
  • In the Total Drama Island episode "That's Off the Chain", Heather seems more shocked than insulted when Lindsay finally loses her temper and flips her off while calling her "a two-faced, backstabbing, lying little *bleep*", but what really seems to hurt is when Lindsay follows it up by telling her "And by the way, your shoes are tacky!"
  • From Total Drama Action:
    Izzy: If I can handle hand to paw combat with a polar bear, I can handle a bald emotionally withdrawn cook in a Halloween costume.
    Chef Hatchet: Who are you calling a cook?
  • Wander over Yonder, with a side of I Resemble That Remark!:
    Fortune-Teller: Wait! The skies have shifted! The stars do not say you will be a strong and powerful leader! Now the stars say you are immature, awkward, and emotionally unstable!
    Lord Hater: I AM NOT EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE!!! (flips table)
  • From the Young Justice episode "Satisfaction:"
    Original Roy: So, let me get this straight...while I was on ice, you found another Roy Harper, the sidekicks formed their own team, aliens invaded the Earth...and Ollie grew that dopey goatee?
    Clone Roy: (awkwardly) We try not to call ourselves "sidekicks."
    Ollie: You don't like the goatee?!
    Original Roy: SO missing the point!

    Real Life 
  • Not Always Right has conversations such as this and this.
  • When Michael Buckly made fun of rival figure skaters Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir on his YouTube show What the Buck?, declaring that the wannabe-macho Evan and flamboyant Johnny were "totally doing it" and probably texted each other all day, Johnny posted the following message to Buckley's MySpace in response: "Love it, bitch! We totally don't text!"
  • George V of the United Kingdom: When H. G. Wells' remarked at the beginning of World War I that the British royal house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (in addition to being a mouthful) was "alien and uninspiring",note  King George (allegedly) responded: "I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien!" (Considering how relations were with Germany at the time, he picked the right part to complain about.) George changed the name of the House to The House of Windsor, which it remains to this day. Not only that, but he relinquished all his titles outside of the United Kingdom, struck off all the royal honours of any member of the house that fought for the Central Powers, and demanded (and got) a bill from Parliament allowing him to strip those relatives of their British peerages as well.
  • Mike Tyson is attributed to have said "He called me a rapist and a recluse. I'm not a recluse." Considering that he was convicted of and spent jail time for sexual assault, the first bit is pretty much water under the bridge.
  • In an interview on the show The Screen Savers, Jhonen Vasquez (creator of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Invader Zim) responded to host Kevin Pereira's comment that fans considered him "a goth king", saying disdainfully: "King, yeah, but goth... I mean, that's just arrogant."
  • Sarah Palin called David Letterman's jokes about her daughter "sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old celebrity". Letterman responded: "I'm hardly a celebrity".
  • Max Mosley, Formula One boss and son of British Fascist leader Oswald Mosley sued The News of The World for alleging that he took part in a sadomasochist Nazi-themed orgy with five prostitutes on the grounds that there was no Nazi theme to the event. He did admit in court that the "sadomasochist orgy with five prostitutes" part of the allegation was essentially correct; it was the allegations of Nazism that constituted the defamation. Didn't stop people from invoking Those Wacky Nazis. Having German army jackets present and people speaking German might have had something to do with that.
  • Inverted in The Other Wiki's article on toilet paper orientation. The Weekly World News once alleged that, because dictator Kim Jong-il watches the Home Shopping Network, is a member of Oprah's Book Club, and complains about toilet paper that's over instead of under, he is secretly a woman.
    "The story's subhead reads, 'Dictator Kim Jong-il is a Woman', although North Korean officials have argued that Kim is not, in fact, a dictator."
  • Rue McClanahan had this to say about her iconic role on The Golden Girls: "People always ask me if I'm like Blanche. And I say, 'Well, Blanche was an oversexed, self-involved, man-crazy, vain Southern Belle from Atlanta. And I'm not from Atlanta.'"
  • During an interview, Tim Schafer once labeled Robert Kotick, Activision's CEO, as "a dick" and "total prick", and accused him of not actually being interested in games, but rather in the money to be had in them, Activision's response? "Hey, he does like games!"
  • On a darker note, the first commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Rudolf Höss. When accused of the murder of three and a half million people in The Holocaust, Höss replied, "No. Only two and one-half million—the rest died of disease and starvation."
  • Lady Gaga once went on The Tonight Show and was asked if there were any annoying rumors she'd like to dispel. Most people expected her to deny rumors she was a hermaphrodite, but she chose just to clarify that she wasn't from Yonkers.
  • The Westboro Baptist Church protested outside a Bill Maher stand-up gig in Kansas, handing out fliers that referred to him as "Christ-hating half-Jew pedophile rape-enabling Catholic Bill Maher." His response on Real Time? "How dare you call me a Catholic!"
  • William Wallace, when accused of a number of crimes by the English after being captured, only defended himself by saying he was not treasonous because he never swore loyalty to the English monarchy or any of its servants.
  • From ThinkGeek.com, in the product description for the d20 soaps: "We are NOT weirdo, basement-dwelling outcasts who never shower. We do so shower."
  • An anti-war British politician once called Christopher Hitchens "a drink-sodden ex-Trotskyist popinjay". Hitchens replied, "Only some of that is true." He later elaborated "He says that I am an ex-Trotskyist (true), a "popinjay" (true enough, since the word's original Webster's definition is a target for arrows and shots) and that I cannot hold a drink (here I must protest)."
  • After Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot, the shooter was linked to a white nationalist group known as American Renaissance. A government memo reported, "The group’s ideology is anti-government, anti-immigration, anti-ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government), anti-Semitic." Jared Taylor, the head of American Renaissance, responded that his group was not anti-Zionist.
  • Steven Seagal was accused of driving a tank into a man's house, flanked by dozens of police in Riot Gear, and shooting the man's dog because the man allegedly ran a cockfighting ring. Steven's response? He was outraged that someone would say he'd hurt a dog. (Turns out the dog bit wasn't true after all.)
  • South Park episode "Go God Go" portrayed Richard Dawkins as a hateful man who has an insane lover Mr. Garrison and a bad British accent. The actual man himself, after seeing the episode, complained about the bad British accent.
  • Howard Hughes was a highly controversial figure due to his eccentricity and, to some extent, his wealth. His synopsis of his fame:
    "I'm not a paranoid deranged millionaire. Goddamit, I'm a billionaire!"
  • One controversy that arose from DC Comics' New Universe reboot was Teen Titans member Starfire (featured in Red Hood and the Outlaws) being reduced from Action Girl into a slutty Ms. Fanservice. Even the 7-year-old daughter of a comics fan complained about how Star spent the whole comic posing in a bikini and never did anything remotely heroic. DC's response? "Thank you for talking about our comics, but maybe you should monitor what your child reads."
  • There's an English legal anecdote about a judge who was called a "big-nosed bastard cunt" by an angry defendant. When his wife was told about this, her response was "but you haven't got a big nose".
  • One of the British politicians jailed over expenses fraud was told by a journalist that people working with him had described him as arrogant, autocratic and rude. Right on schedule, he said he didn't think he was rude.
  • A YouTube commenter, responding to this video:
    I'm from Orange County, not The OC, people, and yes, we say like all the time. However, I'm sick and tired of everyone thinking that we're all blonde and dumb as a brick. Many of us are brunette :)
  • The English actress Nell Gwyn was The Mistress of King Charles II of England. When an angry mob stopped her carriage, calling her a "Catholic whore" (they mistook her for Charles' other mistress, Louise de Kérouaille, a French Catholic from Brittany) she replied "Pray, good people, be civil. I am the Protestant whore." It worked. The mob began to cheer for her instead.
  • Any celebrity who appears drunk or high in public and then goes on the record assuring everyone they were NOT drunk or high. It leaves very few options for the public than just assuming that said celebrity is just an idiot as their natural state.
  • A news report about a Londoner complaining about the missile launchers being installed to defend the 2012 Olympics quoted him as saying "The Ministry of Defence have tried to claim I am a lone nutter. But I am not alone."
  • A Conservative political group's magazine criticized Dominionist Theologian R. J. Rushdoony for his views- which, they said, included "mandating the death penalty for homosexuals and drunkards." Rushdoony responded with a letter saying he never called for the execution of drunkards.
  • In 1970, segregationist Georgia governor Lester Maddox walked off during an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show due to a comment Cavett made about the "bigots" who had voted for him. After Cavett received an angry letter from one Maddox supporter addressing him as "you little sawed-off faggot Communist shrimp", he replied by writing back and stating, "I am not sawed-off."
  • Sir Ian McKellen was given the script of a show entitled Vicious Old Queens. His response? "I'm not old!"
  • The British politician Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party which has faced plenty of criticism for racism due to the tone of their anti-immigration campaigning, was trying to persuade a woman to vote for his party in the upcoming election when he got heckled by a passerby:
    Passerby: Racist homophobes!
    Nigel Farage: Homophobes? [laughs] There we are. I don't think we're homophobes...
  • Another example from Farage, who on the day of the 2015 general election was quoted as responding to accusations of being a sexist, racist, homophobic former banker as saying that he "was, in fact, a former commodities trader."
  • In the 2010 New York gubernatorial election, there was an incident between two third-party candidates. Libertarian Warren Redlich accused Anti-Prohibition candidate Kristin Davis of circulating a libelous attack mailing about him, calling her a "dirty whore" with the "dirty" referring to her dirty campaigning tactics. Davis, the madam of the brothel that former governor Eliot Spitzer frequented (which is why he was the "former Governor") replied by denying the allegations that she was a whore and explaining that she was only a madam, never a prostitute. She never responded to the allegations of dirty campaigning.
  • Miley Cyrus said that she gets frequently called an ugly lesbian, but tweeted that she prefers not to be called ugly. note 
  • Alan Cumming demanded (and got) a retraction from The Wall Street Journal over an article that suggested that he wore a codpiece as the Emcee in Cabaret.
  • During the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs, Ottawa coach Paul MacLean accused Montreal players of trying to hurt his players. One Montreal player responded by saying he "doesn't care what that bug-eyed fat walrus has to say." At MacLean's press conference the next day, he addressed that remark: "Bug-eyed? I've never been called that before, that's a new one. Walrus? Nah, that's too easynote . But I'll tell you one thing: I'm not fat! I may be husky, but I'm not fat."
  • Donald Trump:
    • In the 1980s, Spy Magazine published an article in which it called Trump a "short-fingered vulgarian". Trump's response was to send the magazine pictures of his hands with the fingers circled in gold marker to prove they were not short. Apparently, he still holds a grudge about that insult, and satirists still reference Trump having short fingers or small hands to get under his (notoriously thin) skin.
    • When the Quartz website reported that Kiir's government (which has been accused of war crimes, torture, sexual violence, extrajudicial killings and the recruitment of child soldiers, by the UN) was endorsing Trump's candidacy for US President in 2016, a spokesperson for South Sudan’s foreign ministry told Quartz: There is no truth to [the story regarding support for Trump] whatsoever.
    • Kim Jong Un referred to Donald Trump as a lunatic old man who might start a nuclear war. Trump took issue with Kim's calling him old.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt pulled this with his "Fala Speech". Orson Welles suggested that FDR respond to a Republican story that he'd left his Scottish Terrier behind during a visit to the Aleutian Islands—and sent a warship back at great expense to pick him up—by turning it into a joke.
    "These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don't resent attacks, and my family don't resent attacks, but Fala does resent them...I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself...But I think I have a right to resent, to object, to libelous statements about my dog.
  • Julie Bindel quotes various nasty things that were written about her on Twitter, and ends with: "How dare they call me middle class?"
  • When the first McDonald's came to New York City, a reviewer stated that, among other things, their milkshakes taste like Kaopectate and they use a machine to take the flavor out of fish. The president of the company replied, "We assure you that our milkshakes do not contain Kaopectate."
  • A variation occurred during a comedic roast of William Shatner where, in spite of the situation theoretically being Played for Laughs, it was obvious at the time and corroborated by many interviews that his old Star Trek: The Original Series cast mates meant what they said, including Nichelle Nichols when she declared, "People say you’re a pompous, arrogant, egotistical, self-centered, narcissistic jerk. I don’t think you’re narcissistic."
  • Youtuber Steven Crowder set up a table declaring "MALE PRIVILEGE IS A MYTH CHANGE MY MIND". A whole bunch of people turned this into a meme in which the sign was digitally altered to say various things, with some nice burns in there. The last one in the article is "NICKELBACK DESERVES ALL THE GRAMMIES CHANGE MY MIND". To that one, Crowder replied, "This is now beyond poor taste."
  • A White-Nationalist fake news site attempted to accuse Mena Massoud of having partaken in a supposed Islamist terrorist attack against a supposed Texan church that supposedly claimed many innocent lives. Supposedly. His short and blunt response to this outrageous defamatory lie was simply that he had never been in Texas.
  • An urban legend describes the story behind Panama, by Van Halen as stemming from a negative review, where the band was described as having only songs about "women, drugs, and cars." David Lee Roth, after reading it, realized that they hadn't actually made a song about cars.
  • When Lucille Ball was asked about early attempts at colorizing I Love Lucy made during her lifetime, she was colored unimpressed, but the worst part of it, in her opinion and words, was "They didn't even give me red hair!"
  • The New Radicals' song "You Get What You Give" name drops several celebrities and threatens to kick their asses. Marilyn Manson once noted that he was fine with the song threatening to kick his ass, but he was absolutely furious with being mentioned in the same sentence as Courtney Love.
  • After the premiere of Sunset Boulevard, it was said that Mae Murray didn't mind the ladies of the silent era being stereotyped as sexually promiscuous so much as them being stereotyped as batshit ("None of us floozies was that nuts!").
  • John Mulaney's routine on JJ Bittenbinder, a former police detective who gave somewhat impractical advice on avoiding murder and kidnapping, and wearing ridiculous outfits was well-received by JJ Bittenbinder himself, except that he found it somewhat insulting that Mulaney insinuated that he would wear a cowboy hat with a three-piece suit.
  • When King Louis XVI was put on trial before the National Convention during The French Revolution, his accusers read a long indictment containing thirty-three counts against him. He sat impassive during thirty-two of them, but during the final accusation, in which he was charged with causing the blood of Frenchmen to be spilled, he cried out, "I have never shed the blood of Frenchmen!"
  • John Cleese complained about his reception in Hasselt, Belgium, by calling the audience “lazy, fat, beer-sodden, pseudo-French bastards.” Plenty of them objected to “pseudo-French”, pointing out the lengths Flemings will go to in order to avoid French-speakers, and he agreed to change it to “pseudo-Dutch”.

Alternative Title(s): I Take Offence To That Last One

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Harry, let's face it...

Ken tells Harry in no uncertain terms what his overriding character defect is.

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