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Narrative
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Daffy Duck: How's this for a new team name: The Ducks!
Bugs Bunny: Please! What kind of Mickey Mouse organization would name their team The Ducks?
"Fans, as Hollywood Hogan walks away and you look at forty thousand plus on hand, if you're even THINKING about changing the channel to our competition, fans, do not, because we understand that Mick Foley, who wrestled here one time as Cactus Jack, is gonna win their World title. Ha! That's gonna put some butts in the seats, heh."
— Tony Schiavone, making a move that would seriously backfire. WCW Monday Nitro, 4 January 1999
I can't bear to imagine what Elmer Fudd singing "Love Me Tender" must sound like. Oh wait, it'd probably sound a lot like Cyndi Lauper.
— Book of Ratings, "More Useless Crap We Get In the Mail" No, not them.
Every so often a TV Series, Film, or even radio talk show will make a reference to another one, usually in the same market niche or genre. Most of the time it's just a simple Shout Out or an Homage, and if it's a Comedy Series, you can expect at least a little spoofing. Sometimes, though, it's a little more... mean spirited than that. Whether it's because of a perceived rivalry, jealousy, bitterness or pride, the mention will be derogatory and boastful. More often than not, rather than be a "Take that!" to the disparaged show, it'll reflect even worse on the joker, it'll actually make a good production turn sour, and it makes a bad production look like a monumental act of hubris. It can be especially jarring (and often hilarious for reasons the producers didn't intend) if the show being mocked goes on to win popular and / or critical acclaim, awards, and respect from its audience, while the show doing the mocking becomes widely reviled or forgotten.
"Take That" is something you hear a lot on DVD commentaries. Whenever the show gets to a gag that's at the expense of some real-life group(s), the commentator says, "Take that, organized religion!" Or whoever the butt of the joke was.
It is more likely to occur if the creators of the work are relatively confident they won't suffer any significant backlash from the insult; for example, someone who has Protection From Editors, or the writer of a Fan Work or Webcomic. When different creative teams working in the same shared universe use their stories to lob Take Thats at each other, they're Armed With Canon. If the producers of the show are using Take That to respond to criticism of the show, then it's Take That Critics.
This trope is sometimes known as a "potshot" in normal parlance.
Note if this is directed at yourself or your group, it's Self Deprecation.
A common element of commercials. Often uses Brand X / No Celebrities Were Harmed / Scapegoat Ads.
Not to be confused with You Suck.
(A note: This trope seems to have turned into a wildly overspread meme, and presently, there are over a hundred lame, completely unnecessary insults that pothole to this article. Try to remove any you come across, including the ones that don't pothole to this article, unless it's on a special page, such as WMG or Troper Tales. There's some rather funny stuff here, and we'd hate for it to go the way of I Am Not Making This Up.)
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