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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 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".
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. "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.
- —> Superman: Go to hell
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.
Newspaper Comics
- The strip 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.
- 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).
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.
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 TheMovie, 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.
- 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]
- 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."
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!"
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 KingdomOfLoathing'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. Valve decided to remove items people idled to get, and give people who didn't idle a halo over the head as a take that against the people who did idle. The result? The people who did idle seized to heal people wearing halos, and instead first and foremost focused on the ones with halos above their heads. So much for a punishment against idlers.
Webcomic
- 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 Eight 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.
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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Winx Club gives us this:
Mirta: You're mean!
Icy: Mean? Try diabolical!
Real Life
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