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Bigweld: Gasket, you're a sick, twisted, evil robot. Madame Gasket: I try.
Character A makes a snide, sarcastic insult about a central and real trait of Character B's— but instead of being insulted, Character B feels complimented.
Usually, this is because Character B feels the "insulting" trait is actually a virtue that they have been trying to cultivate. Less commonly, they're The Ditz or have a poor grasp of the word or concept being insulted and take it to be a positive comment. Other times, it's simply a case of Character B having the attitude of "I'll just pretend that it's not an insult."
A variant is for the character to be insulted, not because they dislike what was said, but because they're obviously so much worse than that.
Related to Stealth Insult, but different in that an Insult Backfire is accidental and a Stealth Insult is sent over the target's head on purpose. Sometimes, it seems the only sure way to insult someones is to give them a compliment.
Not to be confused with Insult Misfire.
Common variations:
See also I Take Offense To That Last One, I Resemble That Remark, Card Carrying Villain, Tall Dark And Snarky and Its What I Do. Compare Geeky Turn On, I Would Say If I Could Say and Arson Murder And Admiration. Sometimes crosses paths with Misaimed Fandom. The complete opposite of Your Approval Fills Me With Shame.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Crest Of The Stars, Admiral Spoor's chief of staff is rather appalled at her attitude during combat and calls her Lady of Chaos - a title which she immediately adopts.
- Zelgadis from Slayers is always pleased when someone calls him a heartless magic-using swordsman. He's trying to cultivate the image.
- In Nadia The Secret Of Blue Water, the titular character snaps at Gargoyle by shouting "You're inhuman!!" (literally, in Japanese, "You're not human"). Of course, thinking he's a Sufficiently Advanced Alien and all, he thanks her affably for the compliment. The funny thing is, it eventually turns out that he's a human after all.
- A similar but less affable example occurs in Trigun: right after the Big Fall, Vash yells at his brother Knives that he's inhuman / not human. The latter proceeds to beat him up for daring suggest that he might be similar in any way to such inferior beings.
- The same character presents a similar reaction when Vash calls him a calamity at the end of the first manga. While he is peeved at the fact that Vash is insulting him, he is proud of being a calamity to humans and proceeds to prove it.
- A variant happens when Vash yells at Legato "From now on, YOU are the hunted!" and the latter answers with a creepy happy smile.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam, when Prince Gihren has his father Sovereign Degwin telling him "You're like Adolf Hitler" when they discuss how much of a Nietzsche Wannabe he is, Gihren says he takes that as a compliment.
- The Yu-Gi-Oh GX dub:
Chazz: I'm waiting for the insult.
- In an episode of Pokemon, a character of the week attempted to insult Misty by claiming that she was as beautiful as a Tentacruel
 . Tentacruel just so happens to be one of Misty's most desired Pokemon.
- Inverted in Bleach:
Renji: (after completely destroying the chamber) So... how was it(my tactic)?
Ishida: That's something Kurosaki would have done.
Renji: Don't say that! It's almost an insult.
Ishida: It WAS an insult!
- Afro Samurai has this exchange between Sio and Dharman:
Sio: "You're a wicked twisted, shit-faced genius scientist. You'll burn in Hell for your crimes against nature.
Dharman: "You praise me so wonderfully, Lady Sio! I am not worthy of your poetry!"
- Whenever someone calls Lupin III crazy. "I think you're bats." "Well, that's the first thing...that you've been right about." *Cuts the rope holding himself and Diana to her kidnapper's chopper.
- In episode four of Baccano, after Ladd Russo just randomly kills two of his uncle's men for own amusement, the uncle calls him a freak that even homicidal maniacs think is nuts. Ladd refers to this as "ham-handed flattery".
- In Shin Koihime Musou, Keifa says that all Enjutsu is good for is eating honey and singing, like a cricket. Rather than feel insulted by this, Enjutsu goes on to say that everyone should keep talking about how great she is.
Comic Books
- The Joker in Batman is always some combination of a Mad Hatter and a Card Carrying Villain, so he gets to do this a lot. For example, in Arkham Asylum
Batman: Filthy degenerate!
Joker: Flattery will get you nowhere.
- On The Batman.
Joker: Medical Report! Stat!
Doctor: Y-you had a bad accident. You're a very sick man!
Joker: Flattery won't save you!
- Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: You're insane!
Joker: Has it really taken you this long to notice?
- An early version of this (at least for the Joker), from Batman #321.
Robin: You're out of your mind, Joker!
Joker: Gloriously so! Isn't it wonderful?
- And an even earlier example in The Joker's Five-Way Revenge (Batman #251). Yeah, the Joker really likes this trope.
Batman: Joker — you realize you're utterly... hopelessly... insane!
Joker: It's my most charming trait!
- Subverted, however, in The Dark Knight.
Gambol: You're crazy.
Joker: I'm not... No, I'm not.
- Possibly played straight only a few minutes later, after Joker has shown the explosives in his jacket:
Gambol: "You think you can just steal from us and walk away?!"
Joker: [Deadpan] "Yeah."
Vicky Vale: You're insane...!
Joker: (feigning surprise) I thought I was Pisces.
- Wanted
Adam One: Fuck you, you fascist bastard.
The Future: You say fascist like it's some kind of insult, but people love fascists, man. You ever meet a woman who fantasized about being tied up and raped by a liberal?
- Probably a paraphrase of P.J. O'Rourke who was once called a Nazi by an offended listener. "I have often been called a Nazi... I don't let it bother me for one simple reason. No one has ever had a fantasy about being tied to a bed and sexually ravished by someone dressed as a liberal."
- Don't forget Mr. Rictus reply to Wesley calling him a "goatfucker."
"I do not fuck goats, Mr. Gibson. I make love to them."
- In Enki Bilal's Nikopol-trilogy the titular characters once calls the Egyptian god Horus an inhuman bastard. Horus doesn't take this as compliment per se, but still explains Nikopol that he is inheritly inhuman, that is, far above the pathetic human concerns, like morality.
- In the British comic book anthology, 2000 AD, Judge Dredd at one point confronted the evil Call-Me-Kenneth, a robot leading all the other machines into a rebellion against the humans. Seeing the horrors of what's in front of him, Dredd proceeded to insulting Kenneth:
Dredd: We had a human like you in the 20th century, his name was Hitler!
Call-Me-Kenneth: Oh yes, I'm a very big fan of Adolf Hitler!
- Which comes across as being hypocritical seeing Dredd's own Nazi-like law enforcement over the citizens he protects.
-
Lex Luthor: I've been. It's overrated.
- Exchange between Jean Grey and Emma Frost during Grant Morrison's run on New X Men;
Jean: What makes you such a bitch, Emma?
Emma: Breeding, darling. Top-class breeding.
- From the series Anarky the titular character confronts Physical God Darkseid and begins to lecture Darkseid on why everything he does is wrong. Just when he's about to use the E-word Darkseid cuts him off and proudly finishes the "insult" for him.
Darkseid: Evil? Yes. I am.
- In JLA, this exchange between Oracle and T.O. Morrow, after she learns that he lied about when the Amazo android would awaken:
Morrow: Letting you think you still had half an hour to assemble the troops was just my way of hanging onto a little criminal integrity, my dear. No hard feelings, I hope.
Oracle: You sick freak!
Morrow: One tries one's best.
Newspaper Comics
- Garfield employs this from time to time. One notable variation has Jon flatly saying "I don't think you could get any fatter."- which causes Garfield's eyes to widen as he dashes to the refrigerator. "That wasn't a challenge!"
- One exchange between Jon and Garfield goes like this:
Jon: "You have many flaws, Garfield."
Garfield: "Thank you!"
Jon: "One of which is thinking that insults are compliments."
Garfield: "You're too kind."
- Dilbert:
Dilbert: That is the most cynical thing I've ever heard in my life!
Dogbert: Thanks. I'm blushing.
- And:
Dilbert: Dogbert, that is the vainest, most superficial thing I've ever heard!
Dogbert: *Wagging* Thank you.
- Also, when the PHB hires a man-hating superwisor:
Man-hating supervisor: You're fired for being a man.
Asok: No one has ever called me a man before. This is the happiest day of my life!
- Sovisa has had a version of this crop up a few times as a running gag between Alexi and Travis. It typically follows a pattern like this:
Alexi: No you're [Same disparaging comment]
Travis: I hate it when that stupid comeback works...
Film
- Groucho Marx always responded to an accurate insult with the famous phrase: "Why, I resemble that remark!"
- Beauty And The Beast; because Gaston has the vocabulary of a third-grader and tends to hear only what he wants to:
Belle: Gaston, you're positively primeval.
Gaston: Well, thank you Belle.
She looks suitably disgusted.
- In Trading Places, corporate bigwig brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke argue over a meager sum of money, leadin to:
Randolph: Mother always said you were greedy.
Mortimer: She meant it as a compliment.
- Broken Arrow
Riley Hale: You're out of your mind.
Vic Deakins: Yeah. Ain't it cool?
- Quest for Camelot has this:
Juliana: You're mad!
Sir Ruber: I'm so glad you noticed! I've been working at it for years!
- Wet Hot American Summer: "Douchebags are hygienic products. I take that as a compliment."
- Kung Fu Panda
Tai Lung: You can't defeat me! You're just a big, fat panda!
- Road To El Dorado, amidst much Flynning:
Tulio: I've fought your sister, that's a compliment!
- The Fifth Element
Father Cornelius: You're a monster, Zorg.
Zorg: (*smiles*) I know.
- Perhaps a case of Your Mileage May Vary, but it seemed to me that he was genuinely ashamed. It didn't coma across as a smile, but a twitch.
- The Shadow
Lamont Cranston: You are a barbarian.
Shiwan Khan: Thank you.
- Hocus Pocus
Billy: Go to hell!
Winnie: I've been there, thank you. I find it quite lovely.
- Happy Gilmore
Shooter: I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast!
Happy: You eat pieces of shit for breakfast?
Shooter: .......No!
- This memorable line from Star Wars:
Leia: (I think you are a nice guy) ...occasionally, maybe, when you don't act as a scoundrel.
Han: Scoundrel? Scoundrel... I like the sound of that.
- Jack Sparrow does this in At World's End when he replies to a declaration of "You're MAD!" by saying "Thank goodness for that, because if I wasn't, this would probably never work."
- Clerks II
Pot-buying teen: Is that a fucking Bible?
Jay: Hey hey, the HOLY fucking Bible, son.
- Rock And Rule (Megalomaniac rock star Mok has coerced Angel into singing for him by torturing her friends/bandmates)
Angel: You're totally crazy!
Mok (with a truly creepy expression and vocal tone): Thank you. Shall we go?
- Casino Royale (1967). Daliah Lavi is held captive by archvillain Woody Allen:
Lavi: You're crazy! You're actually crazy!
Allen: They called Einstein crazy.
Lavi: That's not true; no one ever called Einstein crazy!
Allen: Well, they would have if he'd carried on like this...
- The Wicker Man (1973).
- From Demolition Man:
Taco Bell patron: What would you say if I called you a brutish fossil, symbolic of a decayed era gratefully forgotten? John Spartan: I don't know... thanks?
Literature
- In the Empire of Man series, one of the supporting characters is a Satanist. Her (originally Catholic) planet got this way during a religious civil war, in which one side demonized the other as Satanists. The other side accepted and maintained the term, having decided that given the evil of their opponents, Satan must actually be good.
- Calderon's Life is a Dream:
Clotaldo: Why, this is madness!
Rosaura: Yes it is.
- To Kill A Mockingbird applies this when Atticus is called a "nigger-lover."
- In Warrior Cats, Blackstar at one point starts going on and on about how generous ThunderClan was to give up a piece of territory, and how much good use ShadowClan has been getting out of it as a hunting ground, using the concession as an opportunity to mock ThunderClan for weakness. Firestar, who had simply not thought the piece of territory important enough to fight for, responds: "I'm glad to hear that you are getting so much out of a piece of land prey-poor by ThunderClan standards." Blackstar is not amused.
- In Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Hermione reappropriates the Fantastic Slur for wizards of impure blood, declaring herself to be "Mudblood and proud of it!"
- The Lost Library of Cormanthyr
Zyzll: I don't trust her.
Tweent: She's a drow. Don't trust her. She won't be offended. In fact, she may feel quite honored.
- And from Lord Of The Rings:
(Frodo's aunt Lobelia:) '''"You don't belong here; you're no Baggins-you-you're a Brandybuck!"
"Did you hear that Merry? That was an insult, if you like," said Frodo as he shut the door on her.
"It was a compliment," said Merry Brandybuck, "and so, of course, not true."'''
- Gerald Tarrant of the Coldfire Trilogy strives hard to be an absolute depraved monster (with good reason). Calling him any variant on 'evil' only tells him its working.
Live Action TV
- Star Trek The Original Series "Court Martial":
McCoy: You are the most cold-blooded person I've ever met.
Spock: Why thank you, Doctor.
- McCoy has just walked in on Spock playing 3D chess against the computer while Kirk is facing some serious criminal charges. It is revealed that Spock was testing a hypothesis that the computer he was playing against had been tampered with, producing some false evidence framing Kirk. He was correct.
- In "The Return of the Archons":
Spock: I prefer the concrete, the graspable, the provable.
Kirk: You would make a splendid computer, Mr. Spock.
Spock: That is very kind of you, Captain.
- Lampshaded in Star Trek V The Final Frontier:
Spock: As you are so fond of pointing out, Doctor, I am half human.
McCoy: Well, it certainly doesn't show.
Spock: Thank you.
McCoy: How do you like that? This guy never changes. I insult him and he takes it as a compliment.
- The Muppet Show had such an exchange between Sam the Eagle and Alice Cooper:
Sam: Mr. Cooper.
Alice: Yes?
Sam: Let me come right to the point. You, sir, are a demented, sick, degenerate, barbaric, naughty... freako.
Alice: Why, thank you.
Sam: (sigh) Freakos, 1 - Civilization, 0.
Alice turns to the camera, then licks his finger and holds it up for the gesture of "one point to me".
- Used in Doctor Who at various times over the decades:
- In "The Sound of Drums", The Master, upon being accused of insanity, just gives a thumbs up. Example here.
- In the serial "The Time Monster", the Master completely annihilates the Doctor (Jon Pertwee). Companion Jo Grant remarks that it was the most brutal, inhuman, monstrous thing she had ever seen. The Master gives a nod and says "Thank You" as if he were accepting a compliment on his new suit. (Roger Delgado was The Master, accept no substitutes).
- On the other hand, after it turns out the Doctor isn't dead the Master is somewhat lost for words (see Cargo Cult).
- In The Movie, a hospital receptionist who believes the Master is an ambulance driver named Bruce responds to his odd choice of words by commenting, "Bruce, you are sick." The Master responds, "Thank you."
- "You speak treason!" "FLUENTLY!"
- In "The Lazarus Experiment", Tish calls the Doctor a "science geek," and when Martha explains that it means he's "obsessively enthusiastic about it," the Doctor's flattered.
- In "The Ultimate Foe", Mel calls the Master "utterly evil" after learning his plot. His response? What else? "Thank you." Simple, but cute.
- "The End of Time":
Wilf: What have you done, you monster?!
- Wilf got his own back in "The End of Time part 2". When the Master condescendingly told the Doctor, "Oh, your dad's still kicking up a fuss,"(referring to Wilf) Wilf defiantly replied, "I'd be proud if I was."
- From Will And Grace:
Jack: You're evil and shallow.
Karen: Compliments? So early in the day?
- Top Gear: The "ignore the insult" variant is a fairly common element of the Odd Couple chemistry between Jeremy Clarkson and James May
May: [after reviewing a Rolls Royce Drophead Coupe] I believe deep in my heart that I look good in it and it suits me... 'cause it's stylish and it's contemporary.
[audience laughs]
Clarkson: [sarcastically] Every time I see you, those are the words that pop into my head: stylish and contemporary.
May: Thank you.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 used this trope as one of Dr. Forrester and Dr. Erhardt's catchphrases in the first and "zeroth" season, before it petered out later on. Joel would call them mad, or tell them that they were tampering in God's domain, or some such, and they would reply, in unison, "Thank you!"
- Earth vs. the Spider, largely considered an early years Shout Out by the fans, shows Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank using this phrase, only to look confused at the occurrence immediately after. (This episode also contained an explicit reference to Dr. Erhardt, who was put on a bus between seasons one and two, and the a sketch of the 'Bots being given RAM chips as rewards for complimenting the film—a running gag that had been long since phased out.)
- House had plenty. Such as:
Dr. Wilson: That smugness of yours really is an attractive quality.
Dr. House: Thank you. It was either that or get my hair highlighted. Smugness is easier to maintain.
...
Dr. Wilson: Be yourself: cold, uncaring, distant.
Dr. House: Please, don't put me on a pedestal.
- From Red Dwarf
Rimmer: You're totally egocentric, you flee at the first sign of danger, you only look after number one, you're vain, you're selfish, you're narcissistic and you're self-obsessed.
The Cat: You just listed all my best features.
- And in another episode, after Rimmer double-crosses them:
Lister: "...you're a total scum-sucking, two-faced, weaselly weasel!"
Rimmer: "Ah, my entry in "Who's Who."" [Walks out]
- Yet another Cat example:
Lister: "You really are gullible."
The Cat: "Thanks!"
- Life On Mars:
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.
- This example from Angel is somewhere between this trope and a Stealth Insult depending on how mean it was meant to be (probably not very given the person speaking). When Harmony Kendall goes to see Lorne for help she gives a rather painful rendition of "Memories" so that he can read her future from the song. Lorne comes to talk to her afterwards and says "I can't help you, my little Cacophony". She's disappointed, then a second later says "Cacophony... that's pretty... what's it mean?"
- From the Comic Relief skit with Catherine Tate as Lauren and David Tennant as her English teacher.
Mr Logan: You are the most insolent child I've ever had the misfortune to teach.
Lauren: Thank you.
- Speaking of Tate and Tennant... Well, I could see a similar exchange to that happening in Doctor Who. Both ways.
- Dr. Ellingham in Doc Martin on multiple occasions responds to insults with a hasty "thank you". It seems he's either being sarcastic or just saying it to shut people up and get the last word.
- From No Heroics episode "Origin and Tonic":
Alex: You look like a right slag today.
Sarah: Aww, cheers, Alex.
- Alex has walked in too late to hear that Sarah's dressing slutty on purpose to annoy her parents, who are visiting the pub.
- Monk episode "Mr. Monk Goes To Vegas":
Natalie: (to Stottlemeyer) He gets hooked on everything. He's the most compulsive person I've ever met!
Monk: Thank you.
- The opposite happens in 'Mr. Monk And His Biggest Fan':
Natalie: Mr. Monk, you're not flustered - you're flattered! Who wouldn't be? She adores you; she knows everything about you. After all, you're only human.
Monk: There's no need for name-calling.
- One episode (can't remember the title) had someone pointing out how lonely Monk must be. His response? "Yes, I am, thank you."
- A milder variation from Numb3rs, when Don Epps confronted his senior supervisor McGowan in order to reinstate Charlie Epps' security clearance.
McGowan: You and your brother have the same way of looking at things, you know that?
Don: (laughs) I haven't heard that but... I'll take it!
- From The Thick Of It:
Olly Reader: "Malcolm, you're bullying me..."
- ...and after Malcolm wins the job that Nick Hanway wanted, via numerous Xanatos Gambits:
Nick Hanway: "Fuck you very much, you unscrupulous bastard!"
Malcolm Tucker: "Scruples? What are they? Those low-fat Kettle Chips?"
- Most insults aimed at Malcolm backfire as he is already fully aware of his bastardry. The tables are turned however when he finds himself in a meeting at the BBC, trying to offend two TV producers with inappropriate comments. One tells him "that's exactly the sort of banter we're looking for!": Unused to such butt-kissing, he responds by looking absolutely terrified.
Music
- Hip hop example: In the song "Second Round K.O.," Canibus included in his disses of LL Cool J, "99% of your fans wear high heels." The intention was to insinuate that LL was not "hard" enough to appeal to men, but the impact is considerably weakened by the fact that the name "LL Cool J" stands for "Ladies Love Cool James." LL Cool J responded in the song "The Ripper Strikes Back" with the following lyric: "Ask Canibus, he ain't understandin' this/'Cause ninety-nine percent of his fans don't exist."
- A musical at Six Flags called "Love at First Fright" featuring an evil sorceress who wanted to hero's brain for her creation. At one point all the protagonists chorus, "WITCH!!" This is followed by a long beat, after which she gleefully replies, "Guilty!"
- Savage by Helloween:
They just call us savage
That's what I like to be
Radio
- The Goon Show regularly uses these:
Seagoon: You are a coward.
Bloodnock: Seagoon, you surprise me.
Seagoon: Why?
Bloodnock: I didn't know you knew.
Greenslade: Mr. Eccles, we are not doubting your sincerity for one moment. It's just your intelligence that's in question.
Eccles: Oh... well, I accept your apology.
- Inverted on Adventures In Odyssey:
Connie: Why don't you live in a style more befitting your financial status?
Whit: You're beginning to sound like Eugene.
Connie: There's no reason to get insulting.
Tabletop Games
- Shakespeare did this with Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing. Note, however, that this is because Dogberry doesn't understand he's being insulted.
Leonato: Neighbours, you are tedious.
Dogberry: It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor duke's officers; but truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in my heart to bestow it all of your worship.
- The Running Gag of Shakespeare's Falstaff was the fact he was a drunken, bawdy, cowardly, charismatic, corpulent thief/scoundrel/adventurer, and loved being one out loud.
- An indirect example: In Molière's play The Miser, title character Harpagon wants his daughter, Elise to marry a much older man, because he'd take her without dowry. When Harpagon's steward, Valére, who's secrety in love with Elise, hears this, he comments: "When a man offers to marry a girl without a dowry, we ought to look no farther. Everything is comprised in that, and "without dowry" compensates for want of beauty, youth, birth, honour, wisdom, and probity." Harpagon takes it completely seriously.
Video Games
- From Kingdom Hearts II:
Sora: Lowlife!
Hades: Eh, you're too kind, kid.
- A complicated version of this trope appears in Tales Of Symphonia between Zelos and Sheena, when Zelos is revealed to have betrayed them all to several enemy factions.
Sheena: I can’t believe you! You were always a pervert, but I never doubted that you were a good person when it came down to it.
Zelos: Why, thank you, my sweet, voluptuous hunny.
- Which seems to imply he's thanking her for calling him a good liar.
- There's a longer version of an Insult Backfire in Neverwinter Nights 2 when the player first enters the Sunken Flagon after recruiting Qara (a red-haired sorcerer with a short temper and a penchant for fire spells).
Khelgar Ironfist: By my reckoning, the Flagon's never had a finer table-cleaning goblin-wench.
Qara: What, since your mother lost her job?
Khelgar: Eh? Now don't be bringing my mother into this! You'd best be careful, you simpering little father's girl, or you'll learn a thing or two about Ironfist honour and manhood!
Qara: Oh, you mean the two smallest things in all of Faerûn? From what I hear, no woman could learn about Ironfist manhood from you, Khelgar.
Khelgar: Wh-what?! I'll have you know plenty of women know about Ironfist manhood! Plenty! They just all live up... around Waterdeep... or they'd tell you!
- Monkey Island lives this trope, although it's not as much agreeing with the insult as putting a spin on it and coming up with a riposte that literally makes it backfire at the person who made the insult.
You fight like a diary farmer!
How appropriate, you fight like a cow!
- And:
There are no words for how disgusting you are.
Yes there are. You just never learned them.
- And
Have you stopped wearing diapers yet?
Why, did you want to borrow one?
- Inspired Kingdom Of Loathing's 'Insult Pong'. The player has to match insults against Old Don Rickets, eg:
When I'm through with ye, ye'll be crying like a little girl!
It's an honor to learn from such an expert in the field.
- In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, the Judge tells Alita Tiala that she is not being a good fiance, she responds that she's flattered.
- Happens many times on Sam and Max series of games, concerning Max and his tendency for mass destruction, to put things in perspective: when Max is elected President of the United States, Impeach Max Weekly becomes a regular publication,
surprisingly unsurprisingly Max enjoys reading it.
- In ''Sonic Adventure'', Sonic calls Dr. Robotnik an "Eggman" thanks to his obvious love of egg-shaped Giant Mecha. Robotnik spites Sonic and takes it as a term of endearment, asking everyone to call him "Dr. Eggman" from now on. (Er, at least if you played the US version.))
- In-game example from Valve in Team Fortress 2. Due to people using external programs to idle for in game item drops, valve removed all such ill-gotten items from those players inventories, and gave all legitimate players a new, free hat, in the form of a (fake) halo called Cheater's Lament. The Result? All players who DIDN'T have a halo, ceased to assist players who did. Nice punishment for cheaters, valve.
Webcomics
- In Erfworld, shortly after being summoned, Parson is told that he must refer to his lord and master in a respectful manner. He says that in his world, the highest term of respect is "tool"; Stanley the Plaid, being on a quest to gather divine artifacts called the Arkentools adopts "Tool" as his new title.
- Professor Madblood's Von Boom award acceptance speech.
Lupin Madblood: [...] I plan to use the cash prize to rebuild my lair, which was destroyed by bumbling buffoons, with the goal of crushing you all beneath my heel. Good night and God bless.
Artie: I have to say, he gave it a lot of class.
Helen B. Narbonic (grinning): He mentioned us!
- Brian Clevinger was on the receiving end of this when he published the "ending" to 8-bit Theater. He subscribes to the philosophy that the funniest jokes are on the audience (thus the bogus No Ending). He expected a deluge of hate mail for that, but found he was on the receiving end of a tidal wave of compliments for writing the perfect ending to the comic. Clevinger was very deeply upset by his audience's reaction.
- Happens a lot in Something Positive.
- Weregeek character Joel always was a bit of funny jerk, so it should not be very surprising:
Abbie: Dude!! That's... That's nefarious!
Joel: Aww, thanks. You're making me blush!
- The expert Jerkass Mike, in this strip from Shortpacked!, encounters a customer who is utterly oblivious to Mike's repeated, and increasingly vulgar, attempts to insult his mother.
Western Animation
- The poster for the ultraviolent movie Boogie el Aceitoso has the poster call Boogie sexist, racist and disgusting, and Boogie thanking the poster for the compliment.
- In the Bugs Bunny cartoon Devil May Hare, Bugs tries to shoo away a fawn by warning it about the Tasmanian Devil, not realizing that the latter is right behind him:
Bugs: He's a mean, vicious, nasty, no-good, baggy-eyed, marble-headed ignoramorous. He's a stupid... (turning and seeing Taz) Eyee...
Taz: Flattery'll get you nowhere.
- Inverted in Futurama Bender is trying to compliment a fellow soldier (Leela in disguise), but doesn't quite grasp the concept:
Bender: You hard fightin', hard fartin', ugly, ugly, son of a...
Leela: Stop, stop flattering me!
- It probably wasn't that Bender didn't grasp the concept of complimenting so much that the scene was a parody of Testosterone Poisoning.
- Also used by Fry when trying to defend himself and his friends who felt insulted from Leela's new boyfriend dislike of abnormality:
Fry: Zoidberg is a horrible monster who smells like he eats garbage, and does!
Zoidberg: Damn straight!!!
- Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love? is chock full of these.
Dr. Zoidberg: How do I look?
Bender: Like whale barf.
Dr. Zoidberg: Then the illusion is complete.
Dr. Zoidberg: You seem malnourished. Are you suffering from internal parasites?
Edna: Why, yes! Thanks for noticing!
- That one's a bit of a subversion, as it actually was intended as a compliment; Fry had advised Zoidberg to tell Edna she looked thin.
Fry: I'm flattered, really. If I was gonna do it with a big freaky mud bug, you'd be way up the list.
Edna: Hush, you romantic fool.
- Avatar The Last Airbender used this with a non-villainous, but rather crazy, old herbalist:
Aang: ...You're insane, aren't you.
Herbalist: That's riiight...
- Probably done more than once in The Simpsons, but this example stands out. When Bart was working for money in order to save up for something, he worked at a barber shop. He gets his pay and it's hair instead of money. Bart asks the barber about that and asks if the barber's crazy, and the barber smiles widely and nods, also laughing in a creepy way as a disturbed Bart backs out of the barber shop.
Homer: Hey, Flanders, you stink!
Flanders: (cheerfully) Oops. Thanks for the nose-news. I'd better cancel that dinner party tonight.
- And Justice League had the following exchange between the time-travelling Superman and Vandal Savage, now a few thousand years older and the last human left, stuck on a barren and ruined earth for all eternity:
Vandal Savage: Like you have anything better to do.
- Superman The Animated Series, episode "Girls' Night Out". Batgirl and Supergirl fight Livewire, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn. Harley rescues Livewire by spraying her with water. Livewire gets up and grabs Harley, preparing to fry her:
Harley Quinn: <thinks hard for several seconds, then smiles broadly> Yes!
- Example from The Super Mario Bros Super Show:
Mario: Koopa, you're the meanest, ugliest lizard that ever slimed its way across Cramalot!
Bowser: Flattery will get you nowhere.
- Darkwing Duck:
Darkwing: Well, from you, that's a compliment.
- Mildly subverted in Voltron where Allura insults the evil Prince Lotor and Lotor does feel insulted...but for the wrong reasons.
Allura: You're a monster just like your father!
Lotor: That old fool?! Why I'm twice the monster he is!
- Used in an episode of Sushi Pack that introduces Sir Darkly, the "source of all sadness in the world."
"Some people call me a jinx. That's so nice of them."
- The Fairly Oddparents:
Wanda: You evil little boy!
Remy: Why thank you.
- Done again in Abra-Catastrophe, with Timmy's mother calling out on Crocker:
Timmy's Mom: You great evil monster!
Crocker: Thank you!
- Happens on Duck Tales after Glomgold previously accused Scrooge of being "too soft":
Flintheart Glomgold: You're a low-down, ruthless rat!
Scrooge: What can I say, Glomgold? You bring out the best in me.
- Beast Wars gives us this exchange:
Rattrap: You're nothin' but a schemin' snake-in-the-grass!
Starscream: Flattery will get you flattened, vermin.
- Also a version where a genuine complement is basically taken as a backfired insult:
Blackarachnia: What are you looking at?
Silverbolt: That star. It's a planet really. It's Venus. It reminds me of you.
Blackarachnia: Dark, hot, deadly, and poisonous? You're sweet.
Silverbolt: No, wait. That's not what I meant...
- Winx Club gives us this:
Mirta: You're mean!
Icy: Mean? Try diabolical!
- Adventures Of The Gummi Bears:
Grammi: The Gummis will stop you yet, you— you evil, monstrous villain!
Igthorn: <clasps hands in joy> Why, thank you!
Real Life
- Post-Civil War America suffered from a rash of corrupt Republicans in the White House and corrupt Democrats in the cities. Cartoonist Thomas Nast was so disgusted he drew cartoons portraying Republicans as giant elephants fat on their embezzled dollars and Democrats as stubborn donkeys. Over the years, the animals became the two parties' unofficial mascots and have lost all negative connotations.
- In its early days, Long Beach State University's baseball team was called "dirtbags" because financial circumstances forced it to practice on an all-dirt infield. The insult was re-purposed to be a reflection of hard work and hard-nosed play. It is now an unofficial nickname for the (highly successful) team.
- It has been told that Winston Churchill - England's prime minister during WW 2 - liked alcohol a bit too much for a man of high authority. Once during a party one of the female guests commented to Churchill in a rather disrespectful way that he was drunk. His response? "Why indeed I am drunk, good madam, but tomorrow I shall be sober, while you will still be ugly."
- Then there Churchill's famous cocktail party exchange with Anglo-American socialite Lady Astor:
Lady Astor: "If you were my husband, Winston, I'd put poison in your coffee."
Churchil: "If I were your husband, Madame, I would drink it."
- Other Real Life examples include labels such as Gothic, Baroque, Impressionist, Christian, Methodist, Mormon, Prime Minister, and Yankee. They all started out as insults but were adopted by the targets as their own.
- Similarly, the pretty much universal "Tory" for British Conservatives originally meant something like "Papist Irish Bandit". The less well known today, but still embraced "Whig" for a Liberal meant "Puritan Scots Pleb".
- Puritan was also an insult to begin with, then was accepted by those it targeted.
- Baroque still retains its negative meaning, though, and has even expanded it beyond architecture metaphorically.
- Since you mentioned "Yankee", it's worth noting that "Yankee Doodle" was originally written by the British to mock American soldiers. The Americans instead co-opted the song, and it's now one of the most popular American patriotic songs.
- To a far lesser extent, the song "American Woman" (
also BritCanadian-penned) seems to have gone the same way...
- When around 250 Dutch nobles presented a list of grievances to the Spanish ruler of the Netherlands, one of her councillors expressed surprise that she was worried about "these beggars" (ces gueux), which became "geuzen" in Dutch. Less than a decade later, the watergeuzen (Water Beggars) had proceeded to seize several key cities in the north, raid several Spanish fleets, and set off a full-scale religious and political rebellion against the Spanish crown that would last eighty years before ending in Dutch independence.
- A Truth In Television example: historically, new but unpopular mathematical ideas were given pejorative names by the people intent on adhering to the status quo, and then happily adopted by the people proposing the new idea. Math terms most of us have heard in school came about that way: irrational numbers, imaginary/complex numbers, pathological cases. This has been going on long enough to makes this trope Older Than Radio at least.
- That is also how the Big Bang was named. The term was coined by Fred Hoyle, a proponent of the competing steady-state hypothesis.
- Similarly, Schrödinger's Cat was originally supposed to demonstrate how absurd the idea of collapsing the wave function was.
- Likewise, the Mpemba Effect (that under certain circumstances warmer water will freeze before colder water) was originally a pejorative term.
- There are also the lesser known ideal numbers, which were later just called ideals.
- Black was traditionally a derogatory phrase when applied to African-Americans, with "Negro" regarded as the more proper and acceptable term. This was more or less inverted in the 1960s.
- The word queer, once an insult leveled against homosexuals, has largely been adopted by the community for self-description.
Homer Simpson: And another thing! "Queer". Why did you take that word away from us? That was the word we used to make fun of you!
- Similarly, many gay women choose the word "dyke" as self-definition and find "lesbian" an insulting or dirty word. Similar examples exist in various languages.
- Ellen De Generes intially preferred to called a "gay woman" rather than "lesbian", as she considered the latter term at the time to be unintentionally alienating to stright people, and, more simply, didn't like the way it sounded to the ear.
- Redneck, though still mainly used pejoratively, has increasingly been embraced as a proud self-identifier in recent years (as in Gretchen Wilson's country hit "Redneck Woman", for example).
- In World War II, where General Rommel called the Australian soldiers in Libya 'the rats of Tobruk' (Tobruk being a location in the east of Libya). Guess what nickname the Australian soldiers wore as a badge of pride...
- May have been intended as an analogy rather than outright insult. After all, rats are hard to get out of a place once they move in...
- The source of the term was actually the Nazi broadcaster Lord Haw-Haw, mocking the Aussies defences as 'rat holes'. He also named the 'Scrap iron Flotilla', who kept the garisson supplied, in a similar fashion; his success as a propagandist generally left something to be desired.
- During the Height of the Jack Thompson phenomenon, Mr. Thompson started labeling people who played video games "Pixelantes". Needless to say, it didn't take long before the T-shirts emblazoned with "I'm a Pixelante" started showing up.
- An interview with the famous liberal psychologist Karl Menninger on the News Hour ended with the question "Does it bother you when you're called a bleeding heart"? He responded, "Not in the least. I'm flattered."
- Have you self-identified as a pirate lately due to your habit of downloading illegal files on the internet? Thank the RIAA; they dredged that label out of the bins of history to try and tar the public perception of copyright infringers.
- I've heard it hypothesized that if the RIAA had picked a less-romantic label than "Pirate", software piracy itself wouldn't be as popular. Now if they had labeled it "Software Pedophilia"...
- Seriously, who wouldn't want to be called a pirate? Pirates are super cool.
- People wanting to be called pirates now include political parties in several European states.
- "Geek" used to be an insult until geeks, like pretty much everyone else in this section, took the insult and started wearing it as a badge of honor. These days, magazines throw terms like 'geek chic' around without even the slightest tinge of irony. Ditto with "nerd."
- It's not too hard to figure out, you see it everyday; And those that were the farthest out have gone the other way; You see them on the freeway, It don't look like a lot of fun; But don't you try to fight it—"An idea who's time has come." Don't tell me that I'm crazy, don't tell me I'm nowhere: Take it from me—It's hip to be a square!—Huey Lewis (and the News)
- There is a button from the early '70s that says "Hi. I'm an effete, impudent intellectual snob", a reference to VP Spiro Agnew's claim that the antiwar movement was led by an "effete corps of impudent snobs."
- Many Conservative attacks to Liberal Cities/Institutions have been adopted as well. "The People's Republic of Boulder/Austin/Santa Monica" "Berzerkley" (The University of California-Berkeley), "Mad City" (Madison, Wisconsin), and so on.
- This You Tube video (Warning: contains the N-word).
- When the New Zealand rugby team toured England in the early 20th century, an English newspaper commented negatively on their "somber all-black outfits". They have been known as the All Blacks ever since.
- When Jon Stewart appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly claimed that 87% of Daily Show fans were intoxicated while watching and repeatedly referred to them as "stoned slackers". The fans adopted it as a Fan Community Nickname and now there are "I'm one of Jon's stoned slackers" T-shirts.
- In Australian Rules Football, North Melbourne were nicknamed the "Shinboners" due to their reputation for kicking opposition players in the shins. Their fans proudly adopted the name.
- Geelong's nickname of the Cats came from a story about a black cat crossing the ground, and Geelong winning the match.
- Slight Variation: Abraham Lincoln, when called "two-faced", reportedly fired back "If I had two faces, do you think I'd be wearing this one?"
- In youth the eccentric greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope was banished from his hometown. He later remarked: "The Sinopans have condemned me to banishment. I condemn them to stay at home!"
- Abraham Lincoln once used the term Michigander to insult Lewis Cass. People in Michigan now use it to refer to themselves.
- Jesus freak.
- 'Christian' was originally a less than complementary term bestowed on the followers of Jesus by the pagans. You'll notice that for most of Acts the text refers to 'The Way'.
- "Chicano" was originally a derogatory term for the American children of Mexican immigrants, meant as a reminder that they did not quite belong in either the U.S. or Mexico. Chicanos eventually adopted the name as a symbol of pride for their heritage.
- When President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe was compared to Hitler, he had this to say: "This Hitler has only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources… If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold."
- The words "guy" and "dude" were both originally insults. The former referred to Guy Fawkes, a failed royal assassin. The latter was originally a clueless newbie on a ranch.
- Fan Wank. Many non-Brits understand what Fan Wank is; few understand what it means without the first few letters and many use it as an abbreviation. A few Brits, aware of what it means, have jokingly or otherwise mentioned their honour if someone assumes a claim is wank material. After all...
- In World War I, the kaiser commented on Britain's "contemptible little army", the BEF called themselves the old contemptibles in honour.
- Australians have this reaction to comments about our country's origins as a Penal Colony. As one T-shirt put it, "Bet you wish your great-great-great-grandfather pinched a loaf of bread."
- When Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the colonel in command of the all-black 54th Regiment during the American Civil War, died at Fort Wagner, he was stripped and buried with his men while the bodies of other Union officers were returned as an insult for daring to lead black troops. His father, however, proclaimed that he was proud to know that he rests with his brave and devoted soldiers.
- A snappy insult backfire is popularly attributed to Chinese premier Zhou Enlai during an exchange with his USSR counterpart Nikita Krushchev. Although China and Russia were nominally allies, at the time relations between the two countries were very tense, particularly on the issue of who was adhering more closely to Communist principles.
Krushchev: The difference between the Soviet Union and China is that I rose to power from the peasant class, whereas you came from the privileged Mandarin class.
Zhou: True. But there is this similarity. Each of us is a traitor to his class.
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