Church: You want to give out the symbols of Olympic victory to losers? That doesn't sound much like you, Sarge. So what will it be? Gold, silver, bronze and...
Sarge: Enriched uranium! The losers will be forced to wear radioactive isotopes, making sure they die the excruciatingly slow and painful death they deserve!
You're being given an award, but not for something you're proud of. In fact, it's for something of which you're very, very
not proud and for which you
certainly don't want an award.
There are two kinds of Medals of Dishonor:
- The purposeful kind - The award is a joke specifically meant to make the recipient's life miserable, such as an "award" for "ugliest hair" or "tiniest brain".
- The accidental kind - The award is honestly meant as an honor, but it isn't received as such due to an ethical dissonance between the awarder and the awardee.
Either way, this can be played for angst, comedy or even both.
Examples:
Film
- In Hannibal (book and film) Clarice Starling gets a letter from the Guinness Book of World Records congratulating her on being the female FBI agent who has shot and killed the most people.
Live Action TV
- The M*A*S*H episode "Bombshells" saw B.J. being forced to leave a man behind. The Army decided to give him the Bronze Star for Doing What Was Necessary. B.J. wasn't amused.
- In the 30 Rock episode "Rosemary's Baby", Liz was awarded a "Followship Award" (not a Fellowship Award) for effectively becoming a cog in the corporate machine.
- On the U.S. version of The Office, Pam's awarded for "World's Longest Engagement".
- In Battlestar Galactica, Lt. Shaw is the first person to start the massacre on the Scylla and is promoted to captain for it.
Western Animation
- South Park had the school nurse given an award for her birth deformity, when she just wanted everyone to ignore it.
- Not to mention John Edwards taking The Biggest Douche of the Universe award.
- On The Simpsons, Homer went to his high school reunions and got all kinds of rewards that embarrassed Marge, like "Most Weight Gained" and "Least Distance Traveled to Get Here".
- Dick Dastardly gave Muttley two such medals on Dastardly And Muttley In Their Flying Machines: the Doghouse Medal and the Sour Grapes Medal.
- On Futurama, Leela enters Nibbler in a dog show and wins... for Dumbest Pet in Show.
- Also, Leela is elected to the Blernball Hall of Fame... as "The Worst Blernball Player Of Al Time".
- On the Looney Tunes short "What's Cooking, Doc?" Bugs Bunny lobbies relentlessly for the Oscar, and gets a booby prize instead. He embraces it anyway.
- Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy: Eddy, for his efforts to beat Rolf in the Urban Rangers' toughest challenge (that by the way came only one measly second away from happening despite his being told earlier in the episode by the Morality Pet that Rolf surpasses him in every area), was given....the Crybaby Boo Hoo Badge..........okay. Anybody who gets this troper started on that is just asking for trouble.
Real Life
- The Darwin Awards, given to Too Dumb To Live people who improve mankind by "removing themselves from the gene pool" out of stupidity.
- Don't forget their Honorable Mentions, which go to people who couldn't even get themselves killed properly.
- The Golden Raspberry Awards. Halle Berry, BTW, had the good grace to actually collect her award in person for Catwoman. Tom Green, on the other hand, spent his acceptance speech for Freddie Got Fingered insulting the promoters. Bill Cosby had his Razzie made from marble and gold at the studio's expense when he won for Leonard Part 6.
- The Ig Nobel awards are usually given to silly-sounding (but real!) scientific research. However, they are sometimes given as criticism, such as the Medicine award that was given to several tobacco company executives who testified under oath that they believed that nicotine was not addictive. (Most winners who are actual researchers do, in fact, collect their awards at the annual ceremony. The Take That targets don't.)
- Browse through the Guinness Book of World Records sometime. There are records in there that few people should want to have, such as "Most Facial Prosthetics" or "Largest Kidney Stone".
Video Games
- Advance Wars Dual Strike gives medals for having units destroyed and being defeated, in additon to more positive awards. To get all the awards in Days Of Ruin you have to lose a bunch and get some C ranks (the lowest rank)
- Tactics Ogre Knight of Lodis has at least 2 unflattering medals with penatly effects.
- Fake Hero, if you gain 20 or more levels while sparring your own units and Don Quixote if you attack someone and the counterattack damage kills you (irrc, its been a while since this Troper has played that game)
- There are a number of Achievements on X-Box Live that mock you for having gained them. Usually they have zero points.
- World Of Warcraft's next expansion, jumping on the bandwagon, has at least one achievment that mocks the ones that have it:Obtain the Bloodsail Admiral's Hat... and try to get some fresh air every now and then.
Literature
- The Star Wars Expanded Universe X-Wing: Wraith Squadron has character Kell Tainer awarded with the Kalidor Crescent (the highest existing military award) for the spectacular maneuver he pulled to save his teammate Jesmin Ackbar. Kell doesn't agree to that and looks like he's going to throw up... because, well, the maneuver actually failed to save Jesmin at all.
