The Heckler

The Heckler is someone who interrupts some type of performance or activity with their own commentary, disrupting the way it was originally intended to go. Usually it is intentional, a way to get attention and possibly discredit whatever they are heckling.

This character is a good way to involve conflict, as their very nature is about disrupting the intended activity they were involved with. Thus they may either be used to help poke holes in the bad guy's claims or are put into place so the heroes can knock down their claims.

Naturally Truth in Television. It should be noted that 90 percent of the time when someone gets the courage to heckle, it does not end well for them. The reason being is that often they make their move on private property where they can be asked to leave for disruptive conduct. Even if they're not thrown out, they are trying to heckle someone who has a microphone, thus few people can hear their comments, but everyone can hear the responses. It is part of the business with stand-up comics, who are usually prepared for it; incidents like with Michael Richards are really fairly rare. (Let's face it, anyone who tries to heckle a professional Insult Comic probably deserves what they get.)

Compare Off the Rails, Insult Comic and MSTing. Overlaps with I Shall Taunt You if the intention is to provoke the target into doing something stupid. Not related to the firearms company Heckler&Koch.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• The end of Lenny Henry's graphic novel Lenny Henry and the Quest for the Big Woof portrays comedy as a warzone, with "incoming fire" of "Who writes your jokes? Noah?" and Lenny returning fire with a lobbed grenade and "Sit back in your chair, pal — We'll plug it in!"
• Shadow of the Bat #38, Tears of a Clown, The Joker celebrates his anniversary of the day he was a still sane, but hapless comedian, and was thrown out of an exclusive Stand-Up Comedy club for an unfunny act the patrons mercilessly heckled. Being desperately poor, this marks his Start of Darkness as he agreed to provide to his family by pulling a job for the Red Hood gang. So the Joker kidnaps all the patrons and reenacts his act with control collars that will kill them when they laugh. The funny thing is that the patrons are really hardcore Stand-Up Comedy fans, so they have seen (and heckled) so many acts that nobody remembers the act of a bad comedian. Given the Joker has a Multiple-Choice Past, he cannot even be sure that this Start of Darkness really happened.
  Joker: They throw me out, and I had a wife and an unborn child… or it was two cows and a goat? Sometimes it's so confusing…
• An Archie Comics story had Reggie try Stand-Up Comedy. Unfortunately, he suffered Performance Anxiety when he was on stage and froze up. Jughead saved Reggie by heckling him, knowing that it would make him mad enough to fire back. Insulting Jughead broke Reggie's stage fright and let him continue his routine.

Comedy

• Andy Kaufman did a bit where he got heckled for repeating material, including the heckler informing the audience that he was a plant and the whole thing was scripted, including the part where the heckler tells the audience that he's a plant and it's scripted.
• Comedian Billy Connolly went to town on a heckler at one of his recorded gigs. His comeback was "I'm the man up here with the microphone, Jimmy. You are the one that's got to shout yourself hoarse. Nae contest. In fact, the only reason why I'm talkin' to ye now is so as the bouncers can get a fix on ye. You've only got one line left before you're oot on your arse, so you'd best make it a guid one!"
• In the audio recording of Christopher Titus' special "Neverlution" he went on to talk about America's obsession with medication for everything and in response to his comment "We all have highs and lows" an audience member called out "This show is a low." Titus' comeback was "Wow, you must have a lot of stock in Pfizer." His subsequent mockery of the guy for trying to heckle him was met with rapt applause.
  "I love when somebody nuts up and thinks they're gonna heckle me. I do this for a living, motherfucker!"
  • He later comments in The Voice in My Head that the most effective way to throw off a comedian is not to heckle, since that means you're engaged in their act, but to simply not respond. As soon as you do that, you get their full attention, because comedians are Attention Whores, and they will do whatever they can to provoke a reaction, and they can't easily call you out because you're not being disruptive. This thought process led him to going off on one woman doing so - only to learn from his fellow comedian, who's dying backstage, that she was blind.
  • His other advice is for someone to utilize an Annoying Laugh whenever there's a lull, as it disrupts the flow and is harder for comedians to counter due to it being just a noise.
• Monty Python:
  • During a performance in New York, a fan let a firework off in the theatre. This ruined the act until the security guards hustled the pyrotechnician out of the theatre, Graham Chapman reminded everyone that they were doing the Argument sketch by going into the bit where you walk into the office and the man behind the desk starts abusing you. "Snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings!" was the least of it, as an angry Chapman really went to town with some of the most fulsomely obscene insults ever heard, even in New York.
  • On another New York performance, the Pythons were in the middle of the Bruces sketch when an eighteen-inch long sex aid was thrown onto the stage. John Cleese picked it up, examined it from every angle, and said in an Australian accent:
  John Cleese: What the bloody hell's this, Bruce?
  I think from the look of it, it's one of those tiny American penises, Bruce!
  You could be right, Bruce. Blooody small, isn't it?
• Bill Burr is famous for his swift and brutal responses to hecklers. After an audience booed every other comedian offstage and pissed him off something fierce, one set in Philadelphia consisted of nothing but Burr tearing the crowd a new asshole for his entire eleven-minute set, even counting down each minute to let them know he wasn't leaving 'til he was done. By about the halfway mark, most of crowd had started cheering him on.
• Bobcat Goldthwait tends to attract a lot of (usually drunk) hecklers. Including this gem.
• Bo Burnham hates people like this, for the very serious reason that he has panic attacks and one person screwing with his act can totally throw him off his groove. One time a single heckler singing along to a song forced him to rewrite the entirety of "I'm Bo Yo" from scratch, live onstage.
• David Cross also tends to attract drunk hecklers, for some reason.
• Michael Richards (of Seinfeld fame) became embroiled in a major scandal when his response to a heckler veered off into hardcore racist territory.
• Rodney Dangerfield's trademark rapid-fire one-liners were very easy to turn around from insulting himself to insulting the crowd. Forget about hecklers, if he felt a joke didn't get a big enough laugh as it deserved or was met with a disgusted groan, he'd start mocking the crowd for being a bunch of prudes. If you actually did try and heckle, God help you.
  Heckler: What do you do for a living?
  Dangerfield: What do I do for a living? I get guys fer yer sister, okay? Don't be a wiseguy. Just remember, don't fuck around with a comic who can't get laid.
• George Carlin despised hecklers with the white-hot fury of the sun. Depending on where he was in his set, he would go off.
  Carlin: Somehow, "Pope Corky the first" doesn't command a lot of authority. Now —
  Heckler: Yeeeeaaahh!!!
  Carlin: Would somebody just put a dick in that guy's mouth, please? Cause that's what he wants, he's a cocksucker in disguise. He's got his mouth open 'cause he wants someone to cum in it. Now do you wanna keep making noise, motherfucker, and we can FIND you that way, or are you just a punk coward asshole bullshit loud motherfucker, and you're gonna shut up now so we don't find out where the fuck you're sitting? Cause if you keep it up, we'll grab your ass and throw you on the fuckin' street where you belong, with your MOTHER! And I'm fuckin' her in the asshole every night anyway, so fuck you and your sister and your wife! If you got a kid, I hope your fuckin' kid dies in a car fire! How do you like that, you stupid cocksucker? Shut the fuck up and get the fuck outta here!
  Audience: [cheers and applause]
  Carlin: See? See? You gotta use psychology! You gotta be a bit of a psychologist up here and know how to appeal to a person.
• Robin Harris would do this as well, including once on his landmark Be-Be's Kids album.
  Harris: All a' ya'll could be from Compton, but I'm from a small town called "Freshoffanigga's ass". And ya'll all makin' me homesick!
• Jimmy Carr has a weirdly casual relationship with hecklers, usually only being mildly surprised when someone did it and laughing it off. Half the time he seems to find hecklers Actually Pretty Funny and will gently egg them on for some back-and-forth. Once particular heckle he got early into his career was such a harsh burn he later told the anecdote in his stand-up.
  Jimmy Carr: Was about eight, nine years ago, still pretty new to the game. Then this guy from the side shouts, clearly, loudly, confidently, just as I'm halfway through a joke "MY MUM DIED OF CANCER!" I thought "shit the bed, what the fuck?" So I deal with it logically and in order; I said "Firstly I wasn't talking about mums, secondly I wasn't talking about cancer." And he came back with the epically harsh, "No, but it was funnier than this!"
  • Jimmy says that the best heckle he ever got was not when he was on stage, but when he was in the audience at another comedian's show. After the comedian's jokes made him break out in his trademark Annoying Laugh, the comedian stopped, looked at him, and said in a very offended tone, "All right, Jimmy, knock it off. I don't laugh when I go see one of your shows!"
• Adam Hills has told a few stories about hecklers in his routines. In one case, he was complaining about a sports commentator trying to coin the word "bouncebackability" and get it into the dictionary by getting enough people to use it. Adam stated that this wasn't an appropriate criteria for a word making it into the English language, to which someone in the audience pointed out that he meant "criterion", the singular as opposed to the plural. Adam says his is the best heckle he's ever received: being called on his misuse of the English language in the middle of a rant bemoaning the misuse of the English language. The heckler replied "Yes. That's irony."
• Patton Oswalt has a few notorious heckler takedowns under his belt.
  • From the track "Two Dumbest C*nts in the World", he tears into a woman on her cell phone, pointing out how stupid it is to pay good money to see a comedian only to spend the time talking on your phone. When she flips him off, he comments that he's already been paid, so it doesn't really matter to him - he just enjoys getting the wealth of free material she's providing him.
    Patton: Oh my god, she's still talking to him, look at this! "Sweetie, there's something I've got to tell you. Let's wait until we pay for a comedy show and then I'll tell you all about it."
  • And from Werewolves and Lollipops, a heckler ruins a quiet moment during his set, right before the punchline, and Patton spends the next two minutes tearing into him, explaining in detail how moments like that work when it comes to comedy, and capping off with this after having finished the joke.
    Patton: See?! See how it got fucking louder? Literally a moment after you made that fucking noise, you stupid douchenozzle! You truly don't fucking get it, do ya? You poor motherfucker. You're gonna miss everything cool and die angry.
• Milton Berle had a routine where he teamed up with Irving Benson playing the heckler Sidney Shpritzer.
  • He also performed the routine on The Muppet Show, with Statler and Waldorf doing the heckling.

Comic Strips

• A problem faced by politicians in more than one instance in Bloom County.
• The title character in Andy Capp regularly heckles Guitar Bob, a folk singer who plays out at Andy's favorite pubs.

Fan Works

• All That Dwell Within Your Gates: A righteous Crusader calls Miri a godless heathen for singing the Hedgehog Song. She responds by cheerfully informing him that he left out the part about being a bastard half-breed.
• In Ultra Fast Pony, every time Mayor Mare gives a speech, a voice in the crowd shouts insults at her. When she tries to call the heckler out, he goes quiet and blends into the crowd.
• Used to good effect by George in The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World when he and John heckle a really terrible bard at the Border Crossroads Inn. George proceeds to get onstage and massively show up the guy, which leads to some interesting consequences regarding their secret mission at the BC.

Films — Animation

• The flies at P.T. Flea's circus in A Bug's Life.
• In the climax of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Terry was struggling to fend off The Joker and asked Bruce for advice, being told about Joker's penchant for talking and to ignore it. Terry opted for the complete opposite, becoming a heckler to mock the various tricks Joker used and calling him pathetic for his fixation with the original Batman. The clown's usual smugness is replaced with white-hot rage.
  Joker: Funny guy...
  Batman: Can't say the same for you. [shoves the Joker so that his gut hits a table]
  Joker: Impudent brat. Who do you think you're talking to?
  Batman: Not a comedian, I'll tell you that.
  Joker: [draws a laser pistol] Shut your mouth!
  [Few lines later, Batman is hiding in the shadows]
  Batman: I mean, joy buzzers, squirting flowers? Lame! Where's the "A" material? Make a face, drop your pants, something!
  Joker: Show yourself!
  Batman: You make me laugh. But only 'cause I think you're kinda pathetic. [mimics the Joker's laugh]
  Joker: Stop that!
  Batman: So you fell in a tank of acid, got your skin bleached and decided to become a supervillain. What, you couldn't get a job as a rodeo clown? [laughs mockingly]
  Joker: [grabs some grenades] Don't you dare laugh at me!...
  Batman: [laughs harder] Why? I thought the Joker always wanted to make Batman laugh!
  Joker: [throwing grenades] YOU'RE NOT BATMAN!!!
• In Shrek the Third, the titular ogre ends up heckling Prince Charming's play/execution of him, which gets the audience laughing a few times.
  Shrek: If you don't mind, could you kill me, and then sing?

Films — Live-Action

• The Eddie Murphy remake of The Nutty Professor has his character have to deal with the same Insult Comic (played by Dave Chappelle) twice. The first time the comic goes on a "You so fat" monologue that he is too shy and mild-mannered to fight back. Following his transformation, he encounters the same comic and proceeds to heckle him, having such outlandish energy nobody can keep up. After the comic uses a "Your momma so fat" joke, he responds by exhausting all possible fat jokes to the point the comic is about to cry.
• In the film Mr. Saturday Night, young Buddy Young goes on the vaudeville stage and gets heckled, almost chickening out until he starts heckling back. This becomes his stage persona. He and his brother were supposed to go on as a team, but his brother did chicken out before even getting on stage and ends up becoming his manager.
• In Happy Gilmore "Shooter" McGavin hired one of his rabid fans to heckle Happy while he golfs, knowing Happy did not have the discipline to ignore him. This leads into the most beloved scene of the movie where instead of taking his anger out on the heckler, Happy ends up in a fight with his golfing partner Bob Barker.
• When Steve Madden steps up to the microphone at Stratton Oakmont during The Wolf of Wall Street and holds up the latest model of his shoes, one of the female brokers calls out "They're fat girl's shoes!"
• A Night at the Opera: Driftwood heckles the opera shamelessly while Tomasso and Fiorello are disrupting it in the pit and on stage. Boogie boogie boogie!
• In Tokyo Godfathers, one of these was the reason Hana ended up homeless after she left the bar her foster mother owned where she worked as a Drag Queen. The heckler called her an old fart and after she attacked him she was too ashamed to stay there any longer.
• In the film Who the Hell is Bobby Roos, a comedic impersonator is blackballed from clubs after he beats up a heckler at one of his shows (while never breaking character as Robert De Niro during the beating).

Literature

• Great Expectations: After Mr. Wopsle moves to London to pursue his dream of professional acting, Pip and Herbert go to see him as the title character in a terrible production of Hamlet. The rest of the audience — particularly "a sulky man" in the front row of the gallery — heckles the players mercilessly, to Pip's embarrassment.
  On his taking the recorders, — very like a little black flute that had just been played in the orchestra and handed out at the door, — he was called upon unanimously for Rule Britannia. When he recommended the player not to saw the air thus, the sulky man said, "And don't you do it, neither; you're a deal worse than him!"
• In Hidden Talents and its sequel, Flinch decides using his precognition in sports would be cheating, but uses it to anticipate hecklers' jeers in his amateur comedy routine and come up with sassy retorts.

Live-Action TV

• One sketch on A Bit of Fry and Laurie involves a politician delivering a speech who keeps getting heckled by an audience member who keeps shouting accusations of the politician's villainy that make him sound like he's a Robin Hood villain. The bemused politician tries to ignore him and press on... until he learns that the heckler is "Tony of Plymouth", who apparently is Just Like Robin Hood, and promptly turns into a sneering matinee villain. The two end up in a sword fight.
• Subverted on an episode of Bones, where a repeat heckler who seems like he might have been stalking a murdered comedian turns out to have been part of the act.
• Bo' Selecta!: When Richard begins to describe his difficulties with the Bear. The Bear seizes a perfect opportunity.
  Richard: My name's Richard—
  Bear: —and I'm gay.
  Richard: I recently—
  Bear: —found out I'm gay.
  Richard: Anything I say or do, he thinks I'm a—
  Bear: —That he's a bender.
• Spanish late-night show Buenafuente had its own recurring heckler in "El Follonero" ("The Troublemaker"), played by Jordi Évole, who was a snarky plant who would interrupt Andreu Buenafuente to voice his displeasure on something that had happened recently on the program. Évole stopped appearing on the show in late 2007 and has moved on to bigger — and more serious — things ever since.
• In an episode of Home Improvement Randy wrote an article in the school paper based on the poor pollution record of Tool Time's sponsor and Tim's employer Binford Tools. It was a rather damning article that eventually got the Tool Time audience riled up during a Q&A session because of one insistent person. One particularly funny response was one person complaining about "all that smoke coming out of that stack" and Tim and Al glance at each other before exclaiming together "It's a smoke stack!"
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "Is My Very Nature That of a Devil", because Lestat de Lioncourt is frustrated by Louis de Pointe du Lac's decision to become a Vegetarian Vampire, he interrupts Jelly Roll Morton's piano playing at the Azalea to cause a scene in order to rile up Louis, and the crowd doesn't appreciate the disruption to their entertainment.
  Lestat: Mr. Morton, you have played the same melody, the very same way, for two weeks now. Your talent is immense, but your mind is elsewhere.
  Man: Think you could do better, Jack?
  Lestat: Well, I'm not being paid a small fortune on top of that tip jar to perform. My skills are irrelevant.
  Morton: People didn't come to hear you jabber, Mr. Lioncourt.
  Lestat: Well, they didn't come here to hear you play, either. Otherwise, you'd be in a concert hall and there'd be fewer prostitutes!
  Man: Shut the hell up and let [Morton] play!
  (Lestat stands up from his seat and is about to head towards the stage)
  Louis: (grabs Lestat's right arm to stop him) This ain't your kinda music.
  Lestat: You can pretend you're a vegetarian. I can pretend the fool.
• The Larry Sanders Show discusses this trope at one point. Hank wants to take the role of host of a celebrity roast that's being planned for Larry. Artie points out that the host has to deal with and shut down the hecklers from the audience who might want to interject, and argues that Hank isn't cut out for it. Hank boasts that he can handle it, and asks Artie to set him up with a really bad heckle to prove it, leading to this:
  Artie: Listen, I'm very busy, and I got a sore throat...
  Hank: C'mon, heckle me! Don't worry! Hit me hard.
  Artie: [Without missing a beat] GET OFF THE STAGE, YOU FUCKIN' MORON! I'VE TAKEN SHITS MORE INTERESTING THAN YOU ARE! YOU'RE NOTHIN' BUT LARRY SANDERS'S PERSONAL BUTT-BITCH! SO SHUT YOUR FUCKIN' FAT FACE AND GET YOUR GODDAMN BLOATED ASS OFF THE STAGE, MOTHER FUCKER!!!
  Hank: [Deeply hurt, almost in tears] ... Jesus, Artie!
  Artie: Good comeback.
• Famously made into an entire series through Mystery Science Theater 3000. The show is staged as though the audience members at home are watching a bad movie in a theater, with the characters silhouetted in the bottom corner cracking jokes at the expense of the movie's poor writing, acting or production values.
• In one episode of Seinfeld, Kramer takes his Girl of the Week to see Jerry's act and she starts heckling him for no reason. Jerry can't bring himself to deliver any comebacks or insults to Kramer's girlfriend with Kramer right there next to her, so his show bombs as a result. Later, George brings up the usual response comedians give to hecklers — "How would you like it if I went to where you work and heckled you?" — and convinces Jerry to actually do it. He goes to her office and heckles her until she runs out in tears, becoming a legend amongst his fellow comedians as a result.
  Ronnie: Jerry, you're like Rosa Parks. You opened the door for all of us. I can't wait until the next time somebody heckles me!
  Jerry: Yeah, well, won't be long.
• In an episode of Welcome Back, Kotter, Mr. Kotter goes to an Open Mic night at a club to try his hand at standup comedy. He gets heckled and loses his nerve, until he starts talking about his students.
• WKRP in Cincinnati: During an Imagine Spot, Venus becomes a famous tv comedian a la Johnny Carson and gets heckled in his opening monologue. He realizes partway through that it's Johnny Fever, his fellow DJ, who is heckling him.

Music

• The song "The Heckler" by Primus.

Pro Wrestling

• In a sport with live audiences, clear cut good guys and bad guys, and an audience where half of them think they're in on the joke, audience reactions are considered part of the world. The Heel often wants the audience to heckle them, since it's a sign they're doing their job of making the crowd hate them and want the Face to win. The only problem wrestlers and other fans usually have is when unless an audience member is trying to mess with kayfabe itself, or is using family-unfriendly language at a family-friendly show. There are some specific examples, though.
• X-Pac Heat is its own form of heckling, where heat (an audience reaction) is not directed at the performance, but the performer, irrespective of the performer. It basically amounts to saying "I don't care how well you may or may not do your role, I have a problem with you, personally, outside of the boundaries of the story.
• The Big "WHAT?!" chant is an instance ("WHAT?!") that can be used as genuine Heel heat, but some wrestlers ("WHAT?!") and people in the wrestling community see it as the fans ("WHAT?!") trying to get themselves over, ("WHAT?!") and make themselves more important than the show. The use of "WHAT?!" ("WHAT?!") yes, that, started as a "Stone Cold" Steve Austin insult ("WHAT?!") to interrupt other people's sentences ("WHAT?!") as a part of his disrespectful rebel persona. ("WHAT?!") It then became a Borrowed Catchphrase used by audiences, ("WHAT?!") particularly the Smart Mark type, ("WHAT?!") to interrupt heels, ("WHAT?!") babyfaces, ("WHAT?!") promos, ("WHAT?!"), punctuate a comma or other pause in a sentence, ("WHAT?!") or whatever they were indifferent to, ("WHAT?!) even if they like the performer or performance. At it's worst, it's to the point where WWE could put out a 7-minute video of wrestlers beating the heckle itself.

Puppet Shows

• Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show. Their whole schtick is to make fun of how bad the show is, and it is implied that it's the only reason they go to the show at all. Usually they keep their comments to themselves, except when Fozzie takes the stage; their insults get more laughs from the audience than Fozzie's jokes.

Sports

• Munster Rugby fans are famous for taking pride in averting this trope, maintaining a respectful silence (and even hushing each other) when kicks at goal are being taken by either the home or visiting teams, and even applauding if they score. However it's possible that a stadium packed with 26,000 people staring at you in complete silence might be even more unnerving to someone who is not used to it than a roaring chorus of boos and jeers.

Theatre

• In Cirque du Soleil's Mystère, which has No Fourth Wall, the Non-Ironic Clown Brian Le Petit is this rather than an actual resident of the Magical Land the show is set in (All There in the Manual material explains he wandered into the theatre by mistake, and he's the most "normal"-looking character in the show). He mocks the emcee during the "No Talking or Phones" Warning and disrupts the show several times with hijinks, culminating in a Disappearing Box act with an audience participant that turns out to be his ploy to woo the man's date while he's locked up. In the end, he's not only escorted out of the theatre, but does not participate in the curtain call.

Visual Novels

• Steins;Gate: Okabe attends Dr. Nakabachi's and Kurisu's speeches at the beginning of the story and upon hearing something he doesn't like instantly begins heckling them. The difference between the two is obvious: His objections to the former are completely valid and is nearly escorted out before Kurisu pulls him aside, and the latter knows exactly what she's talking about, stops someone from removing him and turns it back around on him to make him look like a complete fool.

Web Original

• John Cheese has written at least one article for Cracked documenting the best comedian takedowns of hecklers, including some of the ones listed in the Comedy section above. You can find it here.

Western Animation

• Batman: The Animated Series:
  • In the episode "Feat of Clay", Roland Daggett is promoting a new miracle facial cream that can turn your face into putty on an infomercial show. During the Q&A a woman from the audience goes on a long rant about its rumored addictive qualities and becomes violent over it, eventually revealing herself to be Clayface.
  • In "Joker's Favor", Charlie Collins realizes the only way to truly inspire fear into the Joker is stealing his act by menacing Joker's only dream: his The Only One Allowed to Defeat You Final Battle with Batman.
• Best and Bester: In "Stage Struck", Mr. Putt Putt and Grumpy pants sit in the the theatre balcony while making snarky comments to each other about what they think is wrong about the play a la Statler and Waldorf.
• The Simpsons:
  • Bart, and often Homer act as such, usually for petty attention-seeking reasons or one of their rivals being in the spotlight. In "Bart Star", Flanders becomes coach of Bart's football team, leading Homer to chastise him relentlessly during each game, until Flanders finally snaps and makes him coach instead.
  • Another Simpsons example shows Reiner Wolfcastle doing stand-up comedy. Hecklers are killed off with various ordnance.
  • In "Judge Me Tender", Moe heckles Krusty's lackluster judging stint at an ugly dog contest. Krusty responds by letting him be the judge, and Moe ends up being praised for his punchlines.
• Done by Peter in an episode of Family Guy after he gets completely drunk during a comedy show. Similar to the above, the comedian finally loses patience and goads him to give it a shot himself, with the expected results.
• Classic Disney Shorts:
  • In "Magician Mickey", Mickey Mouse is a Stage Magician being heckled by Donald Duck. Mickey responds by making Donald part of the act and performing humiliating magic tricks on him.
  • The 1930 short "Fiddling Around" has a Running Gag of an offscreen heckler laughing at Mickey's violin performance. Finally, Mickey mocks the heckler's laughter, and he razzes him in response.
• Drawn Together did this occasionally, with an off-screen man's voice answering rhetorical questions with a loud "YOU SUCK." He also interjects in the episode where Toot says she knows what will fix her problems: "Yeah, ice cream, lardass!"
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In the episode "Boast Busters", Applejack, Spike Rarity and Rainbow Dash all heckle The Great and Powerful Trixie's act (or at least complain about it loudly in audible distance), believing her to be an egomaniac. She retaliates by daring them to better her in feats, of which she humiliates them all one by one.
  • Applejack acts as a more playful variant in "Sleepless In Ponyville", pointing out the plot errors in Rainbow Dash's campfire story sentence by sentence.
  • "Make New Friends But Keep Discord" has Maud Pie doing this to Discord's Epic Fail of a stand-up routine. To Discord's consternation, her deadpan wisecrack is the only thing getting the laughs.
• Brickleberry: Woody becomes one at a rally for a female governor candidate. His behavior results in her approving a highway that runs straight through Brickleberry.
• Metalocalypse: In one episode one causes Pickles to have a complete breakdown.
• The Scotsman's wife in "Jack and the Scotsman II" of Samurai Jack, who makes the taunting of the Scotsman seem rather tame by comparison.
  "This rescue stinks! I've never been so humiliated in me life! I have a dullard for a husband with a scrawny tree for a sidekick. I'd be better off saving meself!"
• Thomas & Friends: Diesel is usually to be found making fun of whatever the spotlighted engine is doing, often triggering their insecurities.

• The House of Mouse episode "Jiminy Cricket" opens with Pain and Panic heckling Mickey's opening monologue.

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Statler: You know, it's a great honor to be included alongside the world's best hecklers.
Waldorf: Too bad we're stuck with the rest of them!
Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!

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