Seated at a table full of food, a character is being a complete slob—shoveling food into their mouth, eating way more than they need, sometimes chewing with their mouth open and other such disgusting habits. But this person isn't usually a slob or a glutton—no, this is a deliberate act to spite a second party, who may or may not be present.
Spiteful Gluttony has two primary motivations:
None For You: In this case there is someone present who cannot eat, whether due to diet, poverty, etc. and our exhibitionist gourmand is deliberately rubbing it in their face. For obvious reasons, this is a Kick the Dog moment, and is usually only done by a Jerkass, if not an outright villain.
If You Won't Join Me, I'll Enjoy It Alone: Someone has snubbed our subject by declining to join them in a meal (for reasons which may or may not be justifiable), and this is a reaction borne out of bitterness and to prevent the feast from going to waste. Given the hurt feelings involved, a good character may be able to indulge in this pettiness and still remain sympathetic.
If there are others also eating, expect anything from awkward silence to a confrontation. Sacred Hospitality may be put to a severe test.
See also Enemy Eats Your Lunch, in which food is not merely withheld, but flat-out taken from someone and eaten in their presence just to spite them.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Fist of the North Star, sadistic villain Souther holds an elaborate feast for himself as the orphaned children he enslaves are forced to watch. After messily devouring his fill, he kicks over the table to waste the rest of the food. Bear in mind this series takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where food in any amount is a luxury.
- Record of Ragnarok: In Adam's backstory, Eve rejected the serpent's attempt at rape, so he tries to frame her by accusing her of having eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, correctly expecting the gods to side with him over a flawed human being. Right in the middle of her trial, Adam storms in, carrying a whole basket of forbidden fruit. But he's not eating them — he's just chewing them up, then spitting it out, just to waste it in order to spite the gods. It worked.
- The Rising of the Shield Hero: While staying at a hot spring resort, Raphtalia purchases two bottles of a drink she wants to share with Naofumi, but as she walks into his room, she finds him brushing the hair of Filo. Bitterly reminiscing about the time he used to do the same for her before her Plot-Relevant Age-Up, she scarfs down one of the bottles. Filo sees her and asks Raphtalia for the other bottle, prompting Raphtalia to angrily drink that one too just to spite Filo.
- Yakitate!! Japan: This is the reason why Sophie Balzac Kirisaki hates her father so much. Yuichi abandoned them as children, forcing the siblings to fend of for themselves as Street Urchin. One day, their father comes to visit the hungry children with several loaves of bread, only to eat them for himself, before leaving them once again, this time for good.
Comic Strips
- Foxtrot: Downplayed in one Horrible Camping Trip arc: After the boys decline to get up at 4AM to go fishing, Roger says that some people will be eating fish that evening and others won't. Cut to the Fox men around the campfire...
Peter: Are you sure you don't want any tuna, dad?
Jason: It's pretty good if you spread it on these crackers.
Roger: [giving the food a Death Glare] I said I'm not hungry. - Peanuts: In an early comic strip, Charlie Brown is standing by a door, eating "spite candy".
Charlie Brown: Snoopy's on the other side of this door... I'm eating all this candy just to spite him!
Film — Animated
- In Aladdin, Aladdin and Abu successfully make off with a stolen loaf of bread. Just before they can eat, however, Aladdin spots two urchin children just as hungry as they are. Abu senses what Aladdin wants to do, and defiantly takes a big bite, chewing messily to make plain to Aladdin and the children that he is not sharing. He relents after Aladdin gives them his half, however.
Film — Live-Action
- In Groundhog Day, once Phil has become accustomed to the idea that he is stuck reliving the same day, he becomes a hedonist. Why shouldn't he eat as much as he wants, as the time loop means he'll never run out of money, suffer health problems, etc.? He also shows his contempt for the citizens of Punxsutawney; if he's going to be forced to deal with them every day for the rest of eternity, they're going to have to watch him stuffing entire slices of cake into his mouth.
- Home Alone: Buzz McCallister (the Big Brother Bully to Kid Hero Kevin) wolfs down the cheese-only pizza that was meant for Kevin so he won't have any and furthers his prank by pretending he is going to give it back by barfing it out. Kevin pushes him in a rage, spilling soda all over the tickets to Paris of the family and beginning the accidental chain of events that lead to Kevin being left alone at the family home for a week.
- In Signs, Graham cooks a special supper where everybody gets their favorite meal — with the unspoken reason being that the family does not expect to survive the night's impending Alien Invasion. When the food is on the table, the rest of the family is too upset to eat. Graham, not wanting to admit how worried he is, calls them ungrateful, piles all the food on his plate, and begins chowing down. Finally the fear and helplessness overwhelms him and he breaks down crying, leading to a family Group Hug.
- In You've Got Mail, Joe and Kathleen, still antagonistic to one another, are at a cocktail party.
Joe takes a larger than usual portion of caviar, which annoys Kathleen ("It's a garnish!"). When she disapproves, he pointedly takes more caviar. One hopes he at least ate it.
Literature
- Bart Simpson's Guide to Life, in a segment discussing table manners, advises readers to keep chewing to a minimum and force everything down with lots of carbonated water in order to eat more than a normal person can in the same amount of time, all for the goal of keeping their siblings from getting anything.
- Captain Underpants: In "The Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers", younger George and Harold buy pizza for the kindergartners, but Kipper, Finkstein, Loogie, and Bugg steal the pizza and eat it in front of the children to bully them. As such, George and Harold buy pizza with very spicy ghost peppers. Kipper and his pals eat the pizza in front of the kids, bragging about how they can't have any of it. And then they feel the spiciness of the peppers and humiliate themselves trying to douse their mouths.
- In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, during Harry's first feast at Hogwarts the narration notes that he's never really had enough to eat in the past because Dudley would always take whatever food Harry wanted, even if it made him sick.
- In The Hunger Games, Effie compliments Peeta and Katniss for having proper meal etiquette, unlike the two kids that were sent to the Games the previous year. Katniss and Peeta eat very sloppily from then on to embarrass Effie because they know the aforementioned kids were starved (and then, of course, died brutally in the Games).
Live-Action TV
- In one episode of Drop the Dead Donkey, reporter Damien Day is spending time undercover as a homeless person as part of a report. When the cameras stop rolling, the film crew, none of whom are fond of him, deliberately start eating burgers around him as he's starving, as he's doing the story authentically and not allowed to have anything a real homeless person couldn't get.
- Fargo Season Three: V.M. Varga is a criminal mastermind who stockpiles wealth by any means necessary, simply to prevent anyone else from having it. His greed extends to his appetite, and he is shown having developed an eating disorder out of malice towards his fellow man; we see him consuming large quantities of food at a restaurant simply to prevent anyone from getting it, and vomiting in the men's room afterwards (a habit that leaves him painfully thin and with rotted teeth)
Video Games
- In season one of The Walking Dead, Lee has just discovered that the dinner he and his starving group are going to eat is the flesh of a fellow survivor. As he tries to warn everybody not to eat, Larry starts chewing him out for perceived ingratitude and troublemaking. The player has the option of, instead of stopping Larry, to spitefully tell him to eat up. Larry declares, "I will, thank you, and I intend to enjoy every bite!", taking a nice big helping of Mark's leg and chewing voraciously in Lee's face. This is not a wise choice on the player's part, as Larry will be even more hostile towards Lee when he learns the truth, and getting into a pissing match with him will leave no time to warn Clementine not to eat.
Western Animation
- In Bao, one of the Pixar Shorts, the protagonist, a Chinese mother, is upset that her son is drifting away from her. She cooks an elaborate Chinese feast to entice him, only for him to completely blow her off and go out with his friends. We see the mother sitting alone at the table, on the verge of tears, bitterly shoving the food into her mouth.
- In the Family Guy episode "He's Too Sexy For His Fat", after Chris attempts to diet, Stewie can't resist gloating by eating sloppily and excessively to his face. This backfires onto him however, since eventually he starts getting an eating disorder and becomes the butt of fat jokes himself.
- King of the Hill: In "And They Call It Bobby Love", Bobby goes through a bad breakup with a girl who was a vegetarian. Later, he gets back at her by eating a 72 oz. steak at their local steakhouse, while looking her straight in the eye the whole time, and orders his huge steak rare for maximum spite. He does end up paying the price when he gets sick later, though.
