In Full Metal Panic, Sōsuke gets this way (in a more violent, angry way) whenever Gauron starts describing how beautiful, wonderful, or saint-like Sōsuke is when he nonchalantly kills people. Especially when Gauron refers to him by "Kashim" — his past alias and what Gauron clarifies as being his "Assassin-Saint" persona. Sōsuke's reactions to this tend to range from angrily yelling that That Man Is Dead (despite the fact that he still works as and has the personality of a stoic assassin mercenary) to violently trying to kill Gauron. This Your Approval Fills Me with Shame reaction tends to only be provoked by Gauron, since Gauron is pretty much the person that disgusts Sōsuke the most in the entire series.
Inukami!: Keita is disgusted by the genuine respect minor antagonists like underwear theif and Peeping Doctor and can't stand the title they refer to him with: King of Nudity. Although he IS just as perverted as they are, and did such an act in the episode, the title is actually Yohko's fault.
In the manhwa, Noblesse, the previous Lord praises the Noble, Karias, for the way he doesn't think like a Noble, and how he reminds him of himself when he was younger. Normally this would be a cause for pride, but the previous Lord was infamous for what essentially came down to trolling, and taking great amusement in doing so. This makes Karias comment that his praise brings him no happiness, and to wonder if there's something wrong with his personality.
Comedy
Jim Gaffigan has a bit about this. He claims that his skin is so white and pale that strangers will come up to him and tell him racist jokes. "Gee, thanks for reminding me I look like Hitler's wet dream."
Dara O'Briain used to tell a joke about Elton John's homosexuality as part of his act. He defended the joke when a gay rights group called "Outrage" targeted him with a letter-writing campaign, but a letter of support from a homophobic organisation that congratulated him on "Standing up to the forces of sodomy" persuaded him to remove the joke from the act. He mentioned this incident in a later show and accompanied it with a fear of the image of him playing golf with Jim Davidson (a British comedian widely despised among his peers for being a lowbrow racist).
Discussed by Stewart Lee in a routine about Political Correctness Gone Mad and his reluctance to make jokes about Islam; he doesn't much care if Muslims are offended by anything he says, but he doesn't want the sort of people who find Islamophobic humor funny to be a part of his target audience.
In the anti-hunger comic Heroes for Hope, Magneto is among those experiencing horrific visions, in his case, of a world where his dream of mutant supremacy has come true, at the cost of killing every other human, whose corpses then rise up to devour him. As this unfolds, he is complimented on his genocide by Hitler, who praises what a good student he was. Magneto, a Jew whose family died in Adolf Hitler's camps, has no trouble seeing the connection. The glazed yet horrified look on Magneto's face when Hitler congratulates him is priceless.
There was once a similar exchange between him and The Red Skull. This trope is pretty common with Magneto, to the point that any direct compliment made to him has a decent chance of being this.
As mentioned, this trope can occasionally occur among protagonists. In a story of the Uncanny X-Men in the late eighties, Havok is disturbed at the growing ease he's feeling in killing bad guys to save innocents. After their recent battle, Wolverine congratulates him for not hesitating to kill, offering to shake his hand. Havok isn't exactly flattered that he is being congratulated by the patron saint of anti-heroes.
In DC's Elseworlds' The Golden Age, Al Pratt, The Atom, is among those stunned to learn that the would-be icon Dyna-Man, the former Dan The Dyna-Mite, is not at all who he seems. Pratt, who has never questioned the ever more sinister tone of the movement he's been in, is complimented by Dyna-Man, saying he would have made a perfect Nazi. Note that Pratt was a member of the Justice Society of America and had been actively fighting the Nazis in World War II.
In Preacher, Jody tells Jesse Custer that he's proud of him. Jesse seems less ashamed and more royally pissed.
In one Archie comic, Principal Weatherbee hires Jughead to write jokes for his assembly speech when a particular kind of joke is really popular. Then Weatherbee hears two girls complaining about the jokes. When he asks Jughead what happened, Jughead tells him that the jokes are completely lame now. When did they become uncool? "Oh, yeah. When word got around that [Weatherbee] was telling them."
Pete Wisdom: Brilliant... The %#@&%#$ Green Goblin thinks I'm a bit like him.
Fan Works
In the Pony POV Series Origins Arc, this happens several times with Discord being the one giving the praise. Being that Discord in this fic the hero in question Princess Celestia knows he's a sadistic psychopath with no regard for life in any form and has already caused untold suffering for his own amusement, having him praise a hero normally results in a My God, What Have I Done? moment on their part.
In Over The Hedge, the Vincent the bear compliments RJ when he let his friends get captured by Animal Control.
Vincent: So I was just on my way down here to kill you, and I stopped to watch the show, and I gotta say... that right there, is a thing of beauty. That is the most vicious, deceitful, self-serving thing I've ever seen. (chuckles maliciously) Classic, RJ. You take the food, and they take the fall. You keep this up, your gonna end up just like me.
Films — Live-Action
Inverted in Aliens, when Burke expresses serious disappointment in Ripley wanting to destroy the Xenomorphs.
Ripley: Happy to disappoint you.
The Dark Knight very nearly plays both versions of the trope at once, in that the Joker, being an Ax CrazyManipulative Bastard, gives Batman a likely-honest compliment while attempting to play mind games with him:
Batman: You wanted me. Here I am. The Joker: I wanted to see what you'd do. And you didn't disappoint! You let five people die!
That's more of a What the Hell, Hero?. He's calling Bats out for letting people die, and then he says "Then you let Dent take your place. Even for a guy like me, that's cold."
At the climax of Return of the Jedi, the Emperor grabs the Villain Ball as tightly as he can by congratulating and encouraging Luke each time he lets his anger take control of him, and each time Luke realizes that he is falling into the dark side and stops himself.
An example of the first variety occurs in the Prince Caspian film: when Caspian is about to kill Miraz, the latter compliments him on being a "true Telmarine king."
Interview With The Vampire (the movie, at least) has this with Lestat applauding Louis and singing his praises upon finding the latter bent over the neck of a child. Louis's shame and disgust with himself is counter to Lestat's rather enthusiastic approval.
Lestat: My philosopher! My martyr! "Never take a human life." This calls for a celebration! Louis:(runs off, weeping) Lestat: Come back! You are what you are! (to himself) Merciful Death, how you love your precious guilt.
To add to the evil there, Lestat was Waltzing with the little girl's long dead mummy. And enjoying himself.
Lestat: There's still life in the old lady yet!
Colonel Quaritch in Avatar tells Jake that the intel he's provided about the Home Tree will make destroying it easier, and that the video log saying the Na'vi don't want anything the humans have will give them the excuse they need to destroy it. Way to make the soldier that's spent two months with the natives feel bad.
In Return To Oz the Nome King shows Dorothy that he's wearing the ruby slippers she lost when she went back home. "They just fell out of the sky one day. You were so anxious to get home. They're very powerful. They made it possible for me to conquer The Emerald City. Thank you." Dorothy gives her best What Have I Done look.
Played with in Revolutionary Road. The protagonist couple, after they tell their plans of the husband quitting his job and moving to Paris so that they can have a dream bohemian life with only the wife working to support them, the only person who approves it is the mentally challenged son of his neighbors. Later, they both wonder if it means something that the only one who agrees with them is mentally unstable.
Near the end of the Vince Vaughn/Reese Witherspoon vehicle, Four Christmases, Vaughn's character Brad tells his misanthropic father (who often belittles him and questions his masculinity) that he just broke up with his girlfriend Kate because she wanted to settle down and have children. The father says, "Good for you! I didn't know you had it in you!" and invites him in for a beer. Brad stops and realizes that he's made a terrible mistake, and later returns to ask for Kate's forgiveness.
Literature
A Series of Unfortunate Events: both our protagonists and their arch villain are in dire straits. Sunny then proposes to set the building they are kept in on fire, despite the hundreds of people still being in it. Their past guardian Olaf then rejoices at Sunny's creativity: "it seems I've been a good educator after all!" Since he's spent the rest of the series killing their relatives, mistreating them and framing them for his own crimes in order to steal their fortune, putting them in that desperate situation in the first place and even allegedly killing their own parents by setting their house on fire... It has to be the most horrifying line of the whole series.
Early on in the Animorphs series, Marco saves an old man from a bunch of gangsters by morphing gorilla, and beating the snot out of the gangsters. Later, when everyone else starts giving Marco crap about it, Marco firmly sticks to his belief that he did the right thing. Then Rachel agrees with him, and says (with conviction) that she also thinks Marco did the right thing. Marco quips, "Okay, now I know I did the wrong thing, if Rachel agrees with me." Rachel is not amused.
Close to the end of The Magicians, Quentin meets Emily Greenstreet, another magician who chose to leave magic behind. She congratulates him on doing so, blames everything that went wrong in their lives on magic — including the death of Emily's boyfriend and Alice's Heroic Sacrifice — and accuses the same magicians that allow her a One-Hour Work Week of being menaces to society. Once they've parted ways, Quentin realizes that he can't blame magic or anyone else for his troubles like he has been for the past couple of chapters, setting up the ending when he abandons his life in the real world and returns to Fillory.
In the fifth book, Hermione starts questioning her own idea after Sirius supports it. Sirius is a good guy, but he's known to be dangerously impulsive at times.
There's a straight version in the same book, involving Percy, who had walked out on his family in favor of supporting the corrupt Ministry. After Ron is made prefect (which he did not even really want in the first place), Percy sends him a letter of congratulations, saying that "I must admit that I have always been afraid that you would take what we might call the 'Fred and George' route, rather than following in my footsteps, so you can imagine my feelings on hearing you have stopped flouting authority and have decided to shoulder some real responsibility." He then advises Ron to "sever ties with Potter" as "nothing could put you in danger of losing your badge more than continued fraternisation with that boy." Ron immediately tears it up, saying "he is — the world's — biggest — git" in a Punctuated! For! Emphasis! fashion.
In the Star Trek Novel Verse book Day of the Vipers (part of the Terok Nor trilogy), Cleric Hadlo has a little of this. He proves willing to make a deal that involves sacrificing breakaway sects of his faith as scapegoats, to secure the safety of the mainstream religion. The fact that he's getting rid of troublesome elements to his church in the process, thus strengthening his position further, is praised by another character. She decides that maybe he is a modern Cardassian after all, despite his clinging to the Good Old Ways.
The turning point in Hollow Men is Sisko being assured he did the right thing in "In The Pale Moonlight" (see Live Action TV below) by the ex-admiral whom Sisko himself prevented from staging a military coup of the Federation in the episode "Paradise Lost".
The "Bowling for Vampires" incident in White Night. Harry does something particularly clever in his duel with Madrigal Raith and follows it up with one of his patented wisecracks. The White Court vampire audience cheers. Harry is discomfited.
In Ghost Story, Harry and his Godmother have a conversation about what happened at the end of Changes.
Harry: I saw the opportunity. If I'd stopped to think about the trouble it would create, I don't know if I'd have done it any differently. They had my girl. Leanansidhe: Spoken as someone worthy to wield power. Harry: Coming from you, that's... a bit unsettling, actually. Leanansidhe:How sweet of you to say so.
And then in Cold Days, Harry is quite disturbed when Mab compliments him for manipulating Molly into being his loyal minion.
The Gunslinger: When the two finally meet, Walter, the man in black, congratulates Roland on letting Jake fall to his death in order to reach his goal. Roland's responds by attempting once again to shoot Walter.
In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero Regained, Eramus is unsettled when Antonio congratulates him on everything he's most ashamed of.
America (The Book) showcases a graph that displays how fundraising proceeds are invested - with the cost of a stamp always set aside to return the donation N.A.M.B.L.A sends the candidate.
In Lord Of The Clans, Thrall's feelings of triumph when he finally slays Blackmoore are ruined by Blackmoore's final words: "You are...what I made of you...I am so proud..."
Live-Action TV
Ally McBeal: Ally is horrified that Nelle joins Cage&Fish because of Ally's description of the law firm. Later, Ally is seen as wonderful by Ling, something that upsets her.
Frasier. This happens every time Bulldog expresses pride in any one of Frasier's embarrassing public sex scandals.
In "The Adventures of Bad Boy and Dirty Girl", Frasier has just had sex live on the air, making the papers ("I Won't Fink Says Kinky Shrink").
Bulldog: Doc? I got one thing to say to you. Frasier: Go ahead, take your best shot. Bulldog:(admiration) I am so proud of you, man. (Bulldog hugs Frasier warmly) Frasier:(dripping with sarcasm) Well, doesn't that just put the cherry on the parfait.
In "The Harrassed":
Roz: Hey, Frasier! Thanks for ruining my weekend. Frasier: Oh, Roz... come on, you know it was just a mistake. What do you think I am, some kind of disgusting Lothario? Bulldog: Hey, there's my man! (Frasier has a priceless look of despair on his face)
In the season 4 premiere Annie notes the marked change in Jeff's demeanor, to which Jeff replies: "Don't ruin it by approving".
In Supernatural, Alastair tells Dean that he was brilliant — at torturing souls in Hell. Dean is disgusted and ashamed by what he did down there, and Alastair makes it even worse.
An interesting example where the approving party wasn't a villain, or even evil.
Aeryn:(after Zhaan had killed an extremely evil man in order to rescue her friends) Zhaan, I feel I must apologize to you for mocking your courage. I see now that you're more of a warrior than I ever thought. (Zhaan looks like she is about to burst into tears and walks away) Aeryn: What is the matter with her? D'Argo: You called her a warrior. You could not have cut her more deeply.
The later episode "Liars, Guns, and Money" features Bekhesh, who had previously found religion and quit being a mercenary, only to be dragged back in by Crichton, leaving with the words, "Farewell, my friends! Thank you for teaching me to kill again!" The look on Zhaan's face is priceless.
In the episode "Dalek", the title character tells the Doctor, "You would make a good Dalek." This happens again in that season's finale, when the Doctor runs into some more surviving Daleks and the only way he can find to stop their fleet involves killing everyone on Earth as well as them. The Emperor almost seems to want him to use it, just so he can see the Doctor become like them.
Dalek Emperor: Hail the Doctor, the great exterminator!
In "Asylum Of The Daleks", the Doctor is disgusted when the Daleks tell him that they find the hatred of insane Daleks to be 'beautiful'. The Dalek Prime Minister then goes on to add that this might be the reason that they've never finished the Doctor off.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: There's "In the Pale Moonlight", which does this three times: once with Garak, who congratulates Sisko on being willing to tricking the Romulans to turn against the Dominion and later, Sisko congratulating himself. When Sisko bribes Quark to keep him from pressing charges against the man Sisko needs to fabricate damning evidence of a Dominion plan to betray the Romulans, Quark thanks him for reaffirming his faith in the 98th Rule of Acquisition: Every Man Has His Price. Sisko subsequently looks like he feels the need to shower.
In an earlier episode, Gul Dukat voices his disappointment in Sisko for not being able to destroy the ship of his former friend. Sisko replies to it, that he "won't be loosing any sleep over this".
Wings: The episode "Ex, Lies, and Videotape" involves Brian going on a talk show and being depicted as a sexist, chauvinist pig. When he returns to the airport following the broadcast, Fay gives him a bunch of phone messages he received: "You got three death threats, ten calls from women who think they can change you, and an "Atta Boy" from Andrew Dice Clay."
On Angel, the good guys are enthusiastically praised by villainess Lilah for defeating the fourth season's Big Bad Jasmine, because they have "averted world peace." (Jasmine was brainwashing everyone in a case of Utopia Justifies the Means.) In fact, she rewards them with the entire operation of Wolfram & Hart's L.A. branch.
Season five has a non-morality related example. Angel likes Spike's poems. In fact, he's the only person - other than Spike's own mother - to voice approval of Spike's poetry while sober. Spike isn't flattered, because Angel also likes Barry Manilow.
A few minor cases on The West Wing, such as the early episode where the president's personal aide's decision to pass on the option of screening an intentionally gratuitouslysexual and violent new film at the White House is praised by the right-wing Christian Moral Guardians who are normally their worst political enemies. Before he even knows the reason for the praise, Sam says, "I don't like who we're being congratulated by."
A better example might be the praise that Nate receives from his father. It's not stated that it fills him with shame, but give their relationship and what's said, it seems likely.
"You're more ruthless than me, crueler than me. Maybe you are better than me. I'm proud of you, son."
In the 7th season of 24, the captured Big Bad tries the Not So Different number on Jack Bauer. But, beyond trying to save his own butt, he goes on to say that he feels that Jack "is a hero", and that the earlier Senate inquiries into his deeds was wrong. Jack shuts him down real quick and tells him that they are nothing alike and that if he doesn't cooperate, Jack is personally going to nail him.
In Jake and the Fatman, after McCabe wins gangster's trial, said gangster's lawyer congratulates him and calls his inspiration.
Lawyer: There's very few people I told such compliment. McCabe: That's not a compliment. That's an insult!
A running joke on The Good Guys involves rookie, by the book detective Jack Baily coming up with plans in desperate situations and his washed up, has-been Cowboy Cop partner Dan Stark commenting on their brilliance, saying "That sounds like something I'd come up with!". Jack will usually reply with a worried "That's what scares me."
Played for laughs on The Red Green Show. On the rare occasions when Red does something that his nephew Harold is proud of him for, he's typically even more ashamed than he was in the first place.
Boston Legal: When Alan fears that he is sexist, Denny's deeply chauvinistic attempt at reassurance does not help one bit.
In the June 5th 2002 episode of Coronation Street Roy apologizes to Fred, noting that he has done so in large part because their tiff earns him the approval of Les Battersby.
Brainiac is impressed that Chloe, a member of a "weak-willed" race, would be brave enough to use kryptonite on Kara.
Tess ousts Earth-2 Lionel from LuthorCorp, which he had previously stolen from her. After she explains how she proved that he's not Earth-1 Lionel, she adds that she had spiked his drink with nanotrackers so that if he tries to hurt her or the rest of the Justice League, she'd know where to find him. As Lionel leaves he takes one parting shot by telling her that no matter how hard she tries to change for Clark, she'll always be a Luthor (which is one of the few if not only times he acknowledges that she more his daughter than just by DNA). Given the nervous and almost-ill look on Tess's face as he walks away, she was clearly thinking this trope.
In Boardwalk Empire, bootlegger Chalky White's daughter spurns her straight-laced boyfriend, saying that she wants to marry someone interesting, like her father. White is furious. When she chances to see her father deliver a horrifying No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, he sneeringly asks if she still finds him "interesting."
In the fourth episode of Commander In Chief, President Allen is disgusted with herself after her political enemy, Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton, congratulates her on her ability to "understand the burden of the necessary evil" after she accidentally orders a terrorism suspect tortured for information, thinking that she was finally showing the backbone to get the job done. (She told the Attorney General, "I don't want to hear about any torture", and the Attorney General interprets this to mean "go ahead and torture him, but don't tell me about it" when she meant "torture is out of the question").
Implied in Game Of Thrones: Jorah Mormont explains to the exiled former prince Viserys that the death sentence he fled was for selling poachers to a slaver, something that's left Jorah with a lasting sense of shame. Viserys replies that under his reign Jorah wouldn't be punished for "such nonsense." Jorah's expression implies that he'd rather face the punishment than live in the kingdom Viserys would build.
Happens on House of Anubis when Sinner!Alfie is praising Jerome for breaking Joy's heart. An odd case, in which Jerome and Alfie are best friends, and Alfie is usually the nice one- Jerome didn't even know he was evil then. But even then, when Alfie explained how much Jerome hurt Joy, Jerome was ashamed and in shock.
Alfie: You ripped her heart up into tiny pieces, then ripped those up too. Respect man, respect.
Sports
In the 2010 German GP, Felipe Massa was not-so-subtly told to give the victory to his team mate Fernando Alonso, who was better placed in the drivers' championship. Such blatant "team orders" are banned because they're a bit dickish. Under a barrage of criticism, Ferrari found a defender — none other than Michael Schumacher, their legendary former driver. But he's famous for two things: winning lots and lots of races — and playing very dirty to do so. In fact, this instance drew parallels to the 2002 Austrian GP, when Rubens Barrichello was ordered to let Schumacher past for the win.note This is the incident that led to the team order ban in the first place. Congratulations, you have the blessing of the anthropomorphic personalization of "the ends justify the means".
What makes that second one even worse was that the Singapore crash had taken the race's leader at the time all the way down to a 13th place finish, who ended up losing the overall world championships that year by one point. Said screwed leader? Wait for it... Felipe Massa. So, the guy who screwed Massa for Alonso the first time congratulated Massa's own team on feeling the need to do it too.
Video Games
Compliments from HK-47 in the Knights of the Old Republic games are generally a sign that the player character is falling to The Dark Side, although whether the PC is startled back to a lighter path or genuinely takes the compliments as they are meant is up to the player.
Appears if you take a more trigger-happy approach to the early missions. Wiping out the terrorists in Castle Clinton or executing a surrendering terrorist leader will earn you the approval of Anna Navarre, your near-psychotic trigger-happy partner and the foot soldiers of UNATCO.
Later, in Paris, if you break into a stranger's apartment to steal weapons, Icarus says "Observe your motivations for breaking the arbitrary laws of the current government. Do not miss your chance to be one of us and create the new world order."
In the later half of Part 3 in Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn, Micaiah ambushes the Apostle's escort as it travels through a deep canyon. After crushing most of her forces, she orders her men to pour oil down the ravine (which ended up being quite damaging itself, incapacitating many of the Apostle's pegasi), with the intent to light it on fire, burning Sanaki and company alive. When Tibarn and Ike's men interrupt, Soren tells Micaiah how impressed he is with her strategy.
Though it's impossible to speak of the reactions of a practically Heroic MimePlayer Character, something like this is clearly aimed at in the Death Knight starting quests in World of Warcraft, trying to give the PC something approaching Character Development justifying their later Heel Face Turn. Once a hero, the Death Knight character now must (really must) bow to the will of the Lich King and slaughter innocents. However, they are presumably shocked into remembering who they once were when they are asked to execute a prisoner who turns out to be someone they knew back in life. After this, their superior compliments them for their blood lust. It can be safely said this compliment is not meant to be taken as positively as it is given.
In Ultima VII, the Guardian will congratulate you heartily if you kill Lord British. If you do it with the blackrock sword, the demon in the sword will react enthusiastically and taunt Lord British as you strike the killing blow.
In the video game for I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, AM makes it clear that he considers Nimdok (who was a Nazi in the Holocaust) to be an inspiration. Nimdok is far from happy with this.
If you ever see the text "Morrigan/Zevran approves" in Dragon Age: Origins without having given them something shiny or flattered them in conversation, odds are good you just did something evil or immoral. There are some exceptions, but at a whole approval for these characters = evil. Shale and Sten hold this true to a lesser degree.
In Fable II the evil option for the "return the warrants" quest in the prologue involves giving the warrants to career criminal Arfur instead of the guard. If you take this option, when you go back to Bowerstone Old Town as an adult you'll be greeted by Arfur, who will congratulate you for helping to make the place a crime-ridden dump. Likewise, if you choose to take the million gold at the end of the game (instead of reviving your family or all the people who died making the Spire), Reaver will voice his approval.
In Mass Effect 2, a Paragon Shepard will repeatedly try to instill this upon Grunt, bemoaning the fact that he's clearly In Love with Your Carnage and that he's still not learnt that, while they often blow the living hell of things, Shepard honestly doesn't want to do it and hates being forced to most of the time.
Messiah has Satan comment on Bob the angel's (the protagonist's) questionable ethics a couple of times, with obvious pleasure.
It appears again in "The Secrets", with Belkar earnestly complimenting LordShojo on the latter's use of degrading tasks to manipulate the paladins under his command.
In "Convenience Story", Elan deliberately invokes the trope in the same manner, using an illusion of Belkar to sarcastically call out Vaarsuvius.
That comic also features a sort of delayed effect of playing it straight. After Redcloak goes all We Have Reserves, Big Bad Xykon approves of the actions. Much later in the comic, Redcloak realizes just how much he's been acting like Xykon and is so horrified by that epiphany that he immediately begins changing his behavior and worldview.
Wario: Alright, so here's the scoop: after I kicked the bucket and you gained full control of the coin bank... You've become GREEDY, BITTER, and SELFISH! Well done!
In an early Info Dump of Freefall, it's mentioned that the planet was designed to have two moons. It already had one with a diameter of about 1500 km, and Earth's moon has a diameter of 3476 km, so someone decided that, to even it out, they'd add a moon with a diameter of about 2000 km.note That damn Square/Cube Law means that, if I've done my math right, they'd want a second moon about 3300 km in diameter, assuming of course that they had the same average density and that two moons would "even out" that way at all.Helix asks if that was a good decision. Sam says that it's what he would have done. Helix immediately says that there should be safeguards against that kind of thing.
Narbonic: When Artie tells Helen that Helen's mother had said she was proud of her, Helen freaks out and wonders what horrible thing she could have done. Keep in mind that Helen is a Card-Carrying Villain and Mad Scientist—her mother is just that evil.
Web Original
Shamus Plays World of Warcraft is told from the perspective of a Chaotic Evil demon who got suckered into becoming the familiar of a warlock who tries to be Lawful Good. After he admits that he fulfilled the requirement of becoming a warlock ("kill a virgin") by bringing a virgin sheep to a butcher to be slaughtered, the demon compliments him for being "a devious cheat". This trope is invoked.
The entire concept behind Pedobear. While often simply inserted into images of running or frightened children as a simple joke, adding Pedobear to advertisings and similar indicates that it includes over-sexualization of minors or implied pedophilia. Taken one step further with the "Pedobear Seal of Approval".
Western Animation
In the Ed Edd N Eddy episode "For Your Ed Only", where the Eds take Sarah's diary, Edd suggests they plant the diary back in Sarah's room while she's not looking and play innocent to avoid her wrath. Eddy compliments him on how underhanded that sounds.
In the Gargoyles episode "Hunter's Moon," when Goliath wants revenge on the Hunters, Demona tells him, "At last, you're thinking like a true gargoyle" — and, judging by the expression on her face, thinking, "You're so sexy when you're full of rage and blood lust!" Considering that they were lovers before the start of the series, that might really be what she was thinking.
Happens in Transformers Animated. If Starscream compliments you, you know you're doing something wrong. (Of course, it turns out that that was his sycophantic clone, but when it's your ruthlessness that he's approving of, still...).
And it's similar to a scene in Beast Wars where Megatron compliments Cheetor on his sneak attack while Megs was attempting to negotiate. (Of course, not expecting Megatron to keep his word and striking first can hardly be held against him.)
The Monarch pulls this one intentionally in The Venture Brothers to keep Dean from reporting his break-in. He hastily acted as if the act of tattling would put Dean down the path to evil, just he wanted.
After Spidey gets rid of a bomb that was going to blow up Tombstone's party in The Spectacular Spider Man, Tombstone claps for him. Spidey responds: "You know, applause from you... makes me want a shower."
Haley: Oh Daddy, I just knew you couldn't be a cold-blooded killer! I'm so proud of you. Stan:NO!
Played With in Moral Orel: During their father and son hunting trip, Orel loses all respect for his father after he shoots him in the leg. As his father lies asleep in a drunken stupor, a bear enters their camp, and Orel, hesitant to shoot anything all day, kills the bear to save his father. Once Clay wakes up, he sees the dead bear and asks if Orel shot the bear, saying "Make me proud son, tell me you shot that bear". Orel thinks on it for a few seconds, and not wanting to make Clay proud, claims that Clay shot the bear while he was drunk.
Jimbo and Ned have doubts about their reluctance to change the town's official flag when the KKK show their support. Rather than change their minds, though, they try to convince the Klan to show support for Chef's bid to change the flag.
When Stan and the boys barricade themselves inside a room with a load of veal calves they're trying to save from slaughter, Cartman is appalled to learn that their efforts have attracted the support of group of hippies.
In the Avatar The Last Airbender "The Puppetmaster", Katara instinctively uses the manipulative power of bloodbending to protect Aang, much to the delight of the bloodbending villain. The episode ends on Katara wearing the trope's expression on her face.
Leela: As unclean as it makes me feel, I agree with Bender.
In one episode of The Simpsons, Bart is being pressured by Nelson into shooting a bird with a BB gun. Bart doesn't want to hurt the bird and decides to deliberately miss, but kills it anyway because the sights were crooked. Nelson is impressed, and compliments Bart for being a 'cold-blooded killer', making Bart feel worse about the incident.
Real Life
Phocion, regarded as the most honest politician in Athens at about the time of Alexander the Great, was making a speech. When the listeners cheered, he supposedly paused and asked a friend, "Have I inadvertently said something evil?"
After Swedish pastor Åke Green was accused of homophobic hate speech and later acquitted, the Westboro Baptist Church proclaimed him a martyr and erected a monument to him. Green found it appalling, which led the WBC to deem him unworthy and take the monument down.
Mary Whitehouse, patron saint of Moral Guardians, wrote to the BBC praising The Goodies for its wholesome, family-friendly content. (It's not clear what episode she watched.) They responded with an episode called "Sex and Violence", featuring a parody of Mrs. Whitehouse herself.
In his manifesto, Chris Dorner praised a number of prominent politicians and celebrities, including Piers Morgan, Wolf Blitzer, Joe Scarborough and Anderson Cooper, all of whom could probably have done without an endorsement from a mass murderer.
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, reported head of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, ranked 701st on Forbes' yearly report of the wealthiest men alive, and worth an estimated $1 billion, officially thanked United States politicians for making sure that drugs remain illegal.
