Sandbox / Damned By Faint Praise Wick Check

Click here to jump to the wick check down below.

Intro

As I was maintaining a TLP draft for Half-Baked Niceness, someone came to me with an objection claiming that it wasn't different from Damned by Faint Praise and that it could become a misuse magnet. While I considered the feedback, I ultimately disagreed with the former claim because the definition read fundamentally different from Half-Baked Niceness - praise that points out in some way that a thing is bad vs. a compliment that is weirdly or badly done. As the claim felt disturbingly inconsistent with the definition, I took to doing a wick check and discovered something ironic: what supposedly was Damned by Faint Praise already covering the concept of Half-Baked Niceness turns out to be, in reality, one of several ways the former is itself being misused, and that is not even touching on the ways it is frequently potholed.

The trope

Damned by Faint Praise clearly defines that it is when you praise something in a way that points out its flaws. It has this sentence:

To damn something with faint praise is to point out that something is mediocre or worse by praising it in ways that make its weaknesses clear.

There is even an article on Wikipedia explaining the term, which explicitly states that "half-hearted or insincere praise may act as oblique criticism or condemnation". Furthermore, the last paragraph clearly says it is related to many insult tropes and is in the given index (Insult Tropes), and the first paragraph specifically mentions insults as well.

I also have a more thorough analysis in this folder, just to ascertain what the definition is.

Deeper analysis of the description

"Sometimes, we can't just say something is bad. Perhaps we are being nice, or perhaps we are in a situation where negative comments are frowned upon. It could be that we are expected to give a positive response. Or maybe we’re just Trolls or Caustic Critics who feel like being clever with our insults. Break out the faint praise!"

Opening of the trope: Example as a Thesis.

"To damn something with faint praise is to point out that something is mediocre or worse by praising it in ways that make its weaknesses clear. To say that a computer "looks sleek" as the primary point of praise would indicate that it is not that amazing when you actually use it as a computer, for example. To describe a person as punctual when asked about how they perform at work carries the heavy implication that this is their only valuable trait."

This is the part that defines the trope. Notice the first sentence, which was brought up already; it says exactly what this trope is. What this part means is that you criticize or insult something of poor quality by seemingly saying something positive, but what it really does is Accentuate the Negative. Then it provides two examples, such as the sleek computer - the "praise" claims it is sleek, and while on the surface it is a compliment, what it actually means is that it only looks nice but is otherwise just bad or otherwise not very good (e.g. the computer is slow or outdated). Ergo, it is an insult or criticism because it does not so much praise as it highlights the item's issues.

"An alternate version of the trope (frequently used in Caustic Critic reviews) is to condemn something by praising it in comparison to something else that's widely accepted as being not at all good. For example: "This movie has a more coherent plot than Plan 9 from Outer Space.""

This part defines an alternate usage of the trope, where you criticize or insult a thing by comparing it to something that itself isn't of good quality. The example implies the movie in question is not coherent, though ideally an example should elaborate further because not everyone will be familiar with the universally bad thing.

"Related to many Insult Tropes; can be the result of a Compliment Backfire. May take the form of an Overly Narrow Superlative or a Trivially Obvious statement. May also, in a funeral setting, result from Never Speak Ill of the Dead if the deceased is not particularly missed. The Four-Point Scale may result in this, as high scores are given to things that are just okay so that fans see a 7 or 8 as a "bad" score. Second Place Is for Losers is also related, as a second place trophy by definition means you didn't do as good as the first place winner."

Trope relations. Let's break these relations down:

• Can be the result of a Compliment Backfire: This likely refers to a compliment going wrong by being insulting in the manner described in prior paragraphs, turning it into this trope.
• May take the form of an Overly Narrow Superlative or a Trivially Obvious statement: Means it can be very simple/obvious and, as such, deceptively nice when it's really not.
• May also, in a funeral setting, result from Never Speak Ill of the Dead if the deceased is not particularly missed: The deceased can be criticized or insulted through praise that, ironically, reveals something bad about them instead of being a positive message.
• The Four-Point Scale may result in this: The wording seems a tad confusing here. I think this means that reviews done in this manner will seem positive but in reality are condemning the work anyway because it isn't rated very highly. Someone will probably need to check it and confirm the meaning.
• Second Place Is for Losers is also related: Defines the trope in question is a similar case, but without "praise"; instead, getting second place and not first is a subtle criticism to one's abilities.

"Compare Damned By a Fool's Praise and The One Thing I Don't Hate About You. See also Wants a Prize for Basic Decency, So Okay, It's Average, Not Like Other Girls, and You Are a Credit to Your Race. Contrast with Stealth Insult, which also damns people through "praise" – in that case, though, the praise is illusionary rather than merely weak. Sarcasm Mode is also a sister trope. Those who confuse faint praise with actual praise will claim that It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars. If the "praise" itself is of bad quality rather than damning something of bad quality, then it's Half-Baked Niceness - an overlap can happen if both the praise and the subject it's damning are poor."

Trope comparisons. This clearly denotes its relation to insult tropes, solidifying it as a form of negativity. I did add the last sentence - because I sponsored that trope and it's a different sort of "bad compliment" (bad as in literally bad, not bad as in negative) - but the rest was left as is. The only thing to note is the description of "the praise is illusionary rather than merely weak" after Stealth Insult; it is kind of murky, but given that "weak" has many different meanings and the rest lays out a clear definition, this most likely uses it in the sense of it being weak as a praise, because it's not really praise at all.

Definition in a nutshell: It is about deceptive praise, because it only sounds like a compliment but in reality insults, criticizes or otherwise condemns something of bad quality by making it clear what its flaw is.

The problem

In spite of the above definition, a lot of examples misuse it in several ways:

• Comments or compliments that are merely dodgy/evasive, bad or weird in some way.
• Cases where the only real "flaw" is that the character doesn't like something or someone, thereby making it subjective.
• Comments that are really just… comments or otherwise a fairly neutral statement, or outright positive or negative instead of, well, faint praise.
• Miscellaneous misuse, including examples that belong to a different trope.
• Dubious potholing, particularly instances where adjectives, single words and irrelevant statements serve as potholes to the trope.

In short, a lot of examples are either not faint praise or not damning (it doesn’t point out a flaw) or both, or they lack the context needed to help qualify them.

Tropes and indexes linking to it also don't seem to agree with what's defined on the page, with these being some examples:

• Weasel Words: Praising something you don't actually like by pointing out something that may be true but is so mundane/weak/beside the point that pointing it out isn't really a compliment. (OG trope is not about disliking something and/or giving a bad compliment, it is about something of bad quality that is criticized through praise that highlights its flaws)
• Dialogue: Insulting something by only praising a minor aspect. (OG trope defines pointing out flaws via faint praise, not necessarily praising minor aspects)
• Insult Tropes: Somebody dislikes something, but wants to compliment it to be polite or insult it in a creative way, so they only praise a minor aspect. (Again, nothing about disliking the thing or praising a minor aspect, in addition the compliment part directly contradicts its definition as an insult)
• Compliment Backfire: Potholes through "The compliment wasn't strong enough." (This is used as just a reaction to an insufficient compliment, which is also not what the OG trope is about)
• Advertising Tropes: For whatever reason it's indexed here (and without a description at that), despite having absolutely nothing to do with advertising and commercials.

To further wit, even the laconic and Playing With pages aren't consistent with the main - both say it is about praising minor aspects when the main page really doesn't outright mention it (it just mentions pointing out flaws and names several examples of this occurring), and the straight example on Playing With opens with "Critic Bob doesn't like Alice's novel" even though the main page says nothing about disliking a thing. In fact, it doesn't mention what the flaw of the novel is and instead implies the critic is being evasive rather than clever. In other words, they appear to misrepresent the trope.

Another problem that possibly exacerbates the misuse is that the title used for the trope is an idiom - already mentioned via the Wikipedia page linked prior when defining the trope - that online dictionaries describe differently. For example, Merriam Webster says damning with faint praise means "to give praise without enthusiasm in a way that shows one really dislikes someone or something". The trope does not use this definition (the analysis of the description shows this to be the case), but the misuse does; a portion of it fits the actual idiom instead of what the trope article says, leading me to think the title might be a misuse magnet. Even then, there is a problem with other forms of misuse that fit neither.

Taking all of this into account, it's to me a telltale sign that people are stretching the trope too far.

Wick check

I gathered 100 wicks; I got this many because I wanted to make sure the usage is properly gauged. I utilized my own judgement to categorize them the best I could.

According to what's defined in the article itself (not pages linking to it), out of all of them, only 18 (literally less than 20% of the sample; one of these was in a different category but got corrected after the wick check) are valid and the rest are either some form of misuse, lacking context, sinkholing or something too murky for me to figure out by myself. These are the stats:

• (Possibly) correct use: 18% (18/100) (1 corrected post wick check)
• Insufficient context: 9% (9/100)
• Misuse: 37% (37/100)
  • Evasive/bad compliment: 5% (5/100)
  • Not faint praise/Just a statement: 13% (13/100)
  • Non-damning: 9% (9/100)
  • Miscellaneous: 11% (11/100)
• Questionable pothole: 15% (15/100)
• Other/Multiple: 5% (5/100)
• ZCE: 8% (8/100)
• Unsure/Difficult to classify: 7% (7/100)

(Possibly) correct use: 18% (18/100)

1. Characters.Bloom Into You (Akari Hyuga): The Volume 7 bonus listing the cast's grades has her as the worst student, with the description saying, "Decent at biology." Her science grades are on par with Yuu, who's much better than her at every other subject. Counts because it highlights that biology is the only thing she's at least somewhat good at, and that even that is pretty meaningless.
2. Videogame.Hotel Mario: Despite everything, this was actually the best-selling game for the Philips CD-i, which goes to show... something. CD-i was poorly received, so it counts because it highlights that. However, it should mention this as not everyone is going to know CD-i was a bad product.
3. StevenUniverse.Tropes A To D: Mayor Dewey in "Dewey Wins", when he enlists Steven's help to seek re-election as mayor: The dialogue provides sufficient context - Steven tries to be positive about Dewey but accidentally points out he is not doing his job.
   Steven [at a press conference by Mayor Dewey]: ...So, in conclusion, Mayor Dewey had nothing whatsoever to do with the abductions. Everything was my fault because I unknowingly provided some space Gems with a list of names and put everyone in danger. Mayor Dewey would never do anything to purposefully endanger the town. He basically just keeps a low profile and doesn't get involved in much of anything.
   Woman: Yeah, maybe he should be involved!
   Man: He's the mayor!
4. Characters.Fawlty Towers: He leaps to Basil's defence when an American guest declares the hotel the worst in Great Britain... if only because "There's a place in Eastbourne" that he considered worse. This all but says that the place is still bad - it just isn't the worst.
5. ComicBook.Clone Wars Adventures: In "Appetite for Adventure", Obi-Wan once claimed a plate of Dractuvian Cave Slugs to be the best thing he ate on Dractuv, only to then readily declare them disgusting the next time he has such a plate. Apparently every dish from Dractu is plain horrible, and the Cave Slugs are merely the least awful of these. Self explanatory.
6. CodexEquus.Tropes C To D:
   • Moon Ray Vaughoof's reasoning for buying the highly controversial Cosmic Cataclysm comic was "Ah like the art". Notably, it was the only compliment he gave due to being an artist himself, despite taking issue with the comic's flanderized portrayal of him and his friends/family as incompetent idiots who were horrifically killed off by Cosmos for the sake of plot. A bit murky, but it seems like this works as the compliment implies the art is the only thing good about the book.
   • This happened in one notable occasion when Prince Blueblood was tasked with overseeing his birth parents' funerals — he couldn't be openly honest about his parents because funerals required proper decorum, so he made adoring and reverent speeches for each parent that ironically exposed their worst flaws. Those who caught on were greatly amused to the point where a few, like Luna, quickly collapsed laughing.
7. Literature.Elephant And Piggie: In "Listen to My Trumpet!", when Piggie asks Gerald what he thought about her trumpet-playing, he tactfully says that her trumpet is loud and shiny and that she holds it very well. Another entry provides the context (Dreadful Musician) and it should be provided here too.
8. Literature.The Iliad: One of the biggest signs of Paris's uselessness is his comparative lack of epithets — while everyone else gets "man-killer", "brilliant", or "leader of men", the only epithets Paris receives refer to his good looks and his birth, suggesting they're all he has going for him.
9. Characters.The Stalking Zuko Series (Teo): He thinks that sea prunes aren't the worst thing he's eaten. Considering that he's eaten grass as a refugee, this is not saying much. Highlights that sea prunes are actually bad, just not as bad as grass.
10. Videogame.Impossible Creatures: Rex and Lucy are both this in the campaign and if either one dies you lose the mission. Lucy is essentially a more efficient henchman (though she moves more slowly), while Rex initially... has good HP and runs quite fast. He can also collect samples from wild animals to induct into your army, but that's the extent of his initial usefulness. As the campaign goes on he gets a plethora of useful special abilities, though. Good use of potholing the trope because the entry highlights this is his only virtue (initially anyway).
11. WebVideo.Dank Pods: Whenever he compares multiple products, he usually names one to be the best of the bunch. Which is usually undercut by the fact that he's talking about bad products. Self explanatory.
12. Funny.Ted Lasso: Ted's description of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies:
    Hallmark Christmas movies are films that feature women from the big city falling in love with their childhood crushes. It's usually some fella that owns a Christmas tree farm. Sometimes he's also Santa Claus or a prince. They suck, but they're great. But they also mostly suck. But they're also kinda great. They're good with the sound off.
13. Recap.Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 19 Lifesigns: After being rejected by Danara, the Doctor goes to Paris' Marseille tavern to seek his advice: The "advice" definitely doubles as a criticism to his abilities, helping it to qualify for this trope.
    EMH: Mr. Paris, I assume that you have had a great deal of experience being rejected by women.
    Paris: Oh, thanks a lot, Doc.
14. Literature.The Bunker Diary: When listing off the group's best qualities, Linus describes him and Russell as smart, Fred's strong, Jenny's kind, Anja's beautiful, and Bird's... fat.
15. TroubledProduction.Star Trek: By his own admission, Baird was only there for the paycheck. He had no prior experiences with the franchise and held no fondness for it, and so wasn't inclined to ask Logan for rewrites ^note Logan's contract meant Berman couldn't fire him without junking his screenplay and starting afresh, or have Logan's screenplay rewritten without his permission, but there was nothing stopping Berman, Baird or the studio just asking him to change the script. Reportedly, Baird mistakenly thought that Geordi was an alien instead of a human with artificial eye implants, and repeatedly mispronounced Levar Burton's name as "Laverne" during filming. Marina Sirtis, while considering the film overall a slight improvement on Insurrection (as did Burton)^note and it cannot be understated how much this is Damned by Faint Praise, as her exact quote is "it didn't suck as much as Insurrection", in response to Burton saying that Nemesis sucked, didn't have too many kind words to say about Baird afterwards, and even Stewart and Frakes, while liking him personally, later admitted him to be a poor fit for the series. Trope is listed in the second note. I think this works?
16. Fanfic.Dust And Echoes: Remnant was "lightly" glassed by the Covenant during their invasion, and while the damage is noted to be relatively minor, it's still pretty hideous. Most of the western desert of Sanus was reduced to glass, as was the unnamed northwestern continent, and enough of the glaciers of Solitas were melted away to cause a massive rise in sea level. Most notably, however, Lake Matsu on Mistral was completely boiled away... revealing extensive Forerunner structures below on the lakebed. I think this works because it implies that the "minor damage" is the best that came out of it, and that it otherwise still ruined it pretty badly.
17. WebAnimation.Metropolis 2023: After some careful consideration, Clipboard picks Harmonica to be a part of Flamora in spite of their criminal background and being quite proud of it. The only reason why so is because the five candidates are all unqualified idiots that would have been immediately rejected on the spot in any other company so Harmonica was just the best of the worst.
    Clipboard: Note's annoying, Latte is incompetent, Lamp has too many future plans, Snotty is a health violation and Harmonica's our best option.
18. WebVideo.Space Ice: In the Neil Breen vs. Steven Seagal video, he lauds Breen as the best thespian in Neil Breen's own movies- the joke being that this is not very hard when none of the other actors featured in his movies are professionals, or even all that competent. Originally did not explain how it was damning. Context was provided sometime after the wick check was finished and the entry was edited to add it.

Insufficient context: 9% (9/100)

1. WebVideo.Game Grumps: Nickelodeon Guts broke Arin. Jon wound up taking the controller from his paralyzed hands. Potholed with next to no context to make the sentence damning.

   Arin: You beat me, Jon... You're better, Jon. ...You're better than me at Nickelodeon Guts...

2. Literature.Phryne Fisher: Regarding Phryne's brother Thos Fisher, "the future Baron of Richmond-upon-Thames would be a worthy heir to the present one." Does not explain how this is damning.
3. Videogame.Cookie Clicker: One headline that can appear on the news ticker says that (Your Name)-brand cookies are slightly less terrible than your competitors', according to a customer survey. Reads like a badly structured comment. Is there missing context?
4. Recap.Martha Speaks S 3 E 20 T Ds Myth Take: After T.D.'s myth adaptation fails to impress everyone except Martha, Skits, and Jake, Truman says it's a story fit for dogs and babies. Unclear if the subject is genuinely bad or if the cast just didn't like it.
5. Awesome.Some Jerk With A Camera: One small one for Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood: This is the only Universal Studios review that Jerk opens with "To all who come to this happy place, welcome." In all his other Universal reviews, he describes it as a "reasonably content place." Is this faint praise, or just a lukewarm opinion compared to one particular ride?
6. Quotes.Medal Of Dishonor: Not enough context to determine if this works or not.
   What is this plaque on the wall? You are recognized for presence? Way to go.
7. Funny.The Nostalgia Critic 2016 Episodes: He then has to say something nice about the film as punishment. Perhaps? I don't know about Santa Paws and it doesn't note whatever issue with it is, so it's not clear how it qualifies.
   Critic: ... At least it's not Santa Paws?
8. Recap.Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia S 10 E 06 The Gang Misses The Boat: Dennis repeatedly insists that his Range Rover is this, even though the guy he's trying to sell it to considers it to be "a good starter car." Potholed under Cool Car. There isn't much to explain what makes it damning by faint praise.
9. Recap.A Thing Of Vikings Chapter 119 Dust To Dust: In the future, the best defence Mac Bethad's apologists can come up with is that he was ignorant of the consequences of his actions. It feels as though this is kind of missing something to complete the damning.

Misuse – Evasive/bad comment or compliment: 5% (5/100)

1. Funny.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Season 9: Before that, Cozy tries to convince Tirek and Chrysalis to say nice things to each other. It goes about as well as you'd expect. The pothole is an overlap between Trivially Obvious (stating something very obvious for comedy) and Half-Baked Niceness (being bad at complimenting), not praise that points out the subject's flaws.
   Cozy: Chrysalis, say something nice about Tirek!
   Chrysalis: UGH! He's…red.
2. Film.The Princess Diaries: Dialogue below indicates this to be just a bad compliment.
   Clarisse: You look so... young.
   Mia: Uh, thank you. And you look so... [long pause] ...clean.
3. WesternAnimation.Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer 1964: The rehearsal of "We Are Santa's Elves" is met with a lukewarm reception by Santa, but praised by Mrs. Claus (which doesn't help much) and the Boss Elf criticizes the elf choir afterwards: Appears to be evasive rather than damning, especially as only the actual criticism really points out the issue.
   Santa: Hmm... Well, it needs work, I have to go. [Santa leaves the room]
   Mrs. Claus: What does Papa know? It's beautiful! You keep it just the way it was. Papa? Papa?
   Boss Elf: [after Mrs. Claus leaves] That sounded terrible! The tenor section was weak!
4. Main.I Have Boobs You Must Obey: One episode begins with the cast discussing who's going to say what about Joey's new show without hurting his feelings (they pass around the Damned by Faint Praise standbys like "the lighting was good."). Phoebe doesn't have to say a word — she just presses him against her chest. His response? "... It wasn't that good." Trimmed the irrelevant part. This is being evasive (it explicitly states they're trying to avoid hurting his feelings) and doesn't really say anything about what is wrong with his show. "It wasn't that good" doesn't indicate the show is bad or what its flaws are; it could just as easily mean that it was still good, just not amazingly good.
5. Anime.Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight: Futaba and Claudine bring up the Bobotie dish Junna made for their class in Overture at the beginning of the "Hello to Halloween" event story, complete with Futaba recalling it as "that weird dish from our first year", and Claudine once again calling it the dish they were all too immature to appreciate at the time. This admits that it was an issue with appreciation rather than something highlighting the flaws. Calling a dish "weird" doesn't reveal what is wrong - it could just mean it's different or otherwise interpreted as strange.

Misuse – Not faint praise/Just a statement: 13% (13/100)

1. Fanfic.Horde Champion: There is a common statement from Anevay, and the small number of people sympathetic to her, that Sylvanas was the only one in the Horde to show her any compassion. This is less a Pet the Dog moment for Sylvanas as it is a What the Hell, Hero? moment for the Horde in general. This sounds more like normal praise that happens to also criticize a group.
2. Videogame.Pokemon Vietnamese Crystal:
   • Bugsy does this to himself: "I'M NOT DEFEATED BY EVERYONE" Shoehorning something that isn't even praise, and neglecting to elaborate.
   • From one of the trainers in the fighting gym: "OUR FIGHTERS ARE NOT TERRIBLE!" Appears to just be a declaration.
3. Series.Mad TV 1995: The entire point of "One True Impact", a spoof trailer uniting Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal in a dramatic film about two brothers reuniting to cope with the impending death of their terminally ill father. Considering these two action stars' limited dramatic range, you can probably guess how this turns out. The trailer's narrator describes it as "a sensitive story about feelings and emotions never before captured on film". And he was ''right''. Potholed under Dull Surprise. This reads less like praise and more like an ironic description.
   Steven Seagal: [bored monotone] I'm your brother. Why don't you believe me?
4. Characters.White Snake 2019 (Ah Xuan): The General is amused by his claim he can stop Blanca's rampage, and decides to give him a shot at it despite scoffing that he's only a demon — and a weak one at that. Confusing faint praise with giving someone a chance, which is not the same thing.
5. Recap.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic S 2 E 16 Read It And Weep: Rarity tries to reassure Rainbow Dash by pointing out "The hospital gowns, they... match the curtains!" Does not read like faint praise.
6. WebVideo.None Piece: In Episode 1, one of the passengers being terrorized by Alvida's crew screams "I thought Battlefield Earth was an okay movie!" Liking a movie is not faint praise, or even a compliment.
7. Funny.Heroes Of The Storm: The context of the pothole reads like a statement, not praise.
   D.E.R.P.A.: Thanks to the Defensive Extraneous Research Program Assembly's grant, our combat automaton is ready for testing! As of patch 51.2.4, it now climbs up stairs and doesn't trip over its legs... as much. Welcome to the future!
8. Main.I Let Gwen Stacy Die: In the Doctor Who mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor", the Eighth Doctor meets a prospective companion, Cass, a young gunship pilot of undetermined allegiance, during the Time War between the Daleks and Time Lords. When he shows her the TARDIS, she realizes what he is and refuses to board, despite his lame protestations that he's "one of the nice ones." Cass' ship goes down, and she is killed in the crash. This turns out to be the lever which causes the Doctor to join the war: Finally accepting the necessity of taking action, Eight takes her bandoleer and regenerates into the War Doctor, a soldier with no particular allegiance to either side in the war — only its victims. Not faint praise, just a statement that doesn't land.
9. Film.Dance Of The Dead: An accidental version. While they're surrounded by zombies, when Gwen finds out Steven had wanted to go to prom with her before learning she wanted to ask Nash, she tells him that he should have asked anyway. Steven says that she would have said no and Gwen replies (with an earnest smile) that if it was a choice between being at prom with him and being chased by zombies, she would have chose him. Gwen is not praising Steven, and even if she was, what does choosing Steven over the zombies reveal about any flaws?
10. Recap.The Nostalgia Critic S 10 E 15: The Critic claims he finds more personality from the peach in James and the Giant Peach (Henri Selick's previous directorial effort before this film) than Monkeybone. This is just straight up derision.
11. Characters.The Omnitrix Hero: He is dating Twilight, Shining Armor's younger sister, yet the best thing Shining can say about Timber is "I don't don't like him". Saying you don't dislike someone is a double negative and subjective, not necessarily faint praise that reveals a flaw.
12. Funny.Chuggaaconroy Animal Crossing New Leaf: "You're Tolerable" becomes Croque's new greeting. How is this damning? It's just a statement.
13. Manga.Monster Musume: Centorea is shocked when Ren says that her room smells like a barn. When she asks Miia for confirmation, she simply says that she's gotten used to it. How is this an example? Saying someone's room smells like a barn is not faint praise (or even valid praise at all), and neither is the claim afterwards.

Misuse – Non-damning: 9% (9/100)

1. Characters.Bloom Into You (Sayaka Saeki): After backhandedly telling Chie that she has no idea how she fell in love with her in the first place, Sayaka then says that she's grateful to Chie "in a way." Nothing about pointing out a flaw.
2. Film.The Disaster Artist: This effect is clear when Greg and the crew members applaud Tommy enthusiastically when he gets his first scene right after what seems like endless takes. Why is celebrating after finally getting a take right considered being damned by faint praise?
3. Characters.Vampyr 2018 Citizens (Dr. Thoreau Strickland): After Jonathan learns what kind of substances Thoreau had ordered for his research, he'll subtly lecture Dr. Strickland by saying his formula would best be used as a placebo after much dilution. How does this expose any flaws? It reads more like backhanded advice.
4. Garfield.Tropes D To G: Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes once tactfully described Garfield as "consistent." What is damning about this? This also seems like Trivia, not a trope example.
5. Wrestling.Carlito Colon: When Eddie Kingston pinned him after kicking Carlito in the balls when the referee was not looking, Carlito congratulated him "For beating someone who used to be on TV" and then giving him the backstabber. How does this damn him with faint praise? It looks more like a sarcastic compliment.
6. Tsukiuta: When Mattsun ends up dancing right in the center of Zekkei Saiya, he happily comments that it feels nice that he's the center of attention. What he neglects to mention is the fact that he was left alone because no one else was dancing with him, so You drily comments that Mattsun's self-esteem is something to be admired. What is exactly damning about this?
7. Recap.Psych S 02 E 09 Bounty Hunters: Lassiter apparently holds absolutely no fond feelings towards bounty hunters, but sees Shawn and Gus as only a slightly better alternative. That said, he does see them as an improvement. "Slightly better alternative" doesn't really damn, especially if the improvement is genuine and the only flaw of the bounty hunters is that Lassiter doesn't like them.
8. Literature.Men At Arms: Colon is feeling intellectually inferior to Carrot, Angua and Cuddy, so Nobby tries to comfort him by pointing out that he's at least smarter than Detritus. Colon morosely says that the same can be said about yeast. Doesn't really reveal any flaws, it's just praise that's rendered meaningless.
9. Characters.Carmilla The Series: The rabbi at her bat mitzvah apparently told her, "There's no shame in being humble and predictable." Ouch. This really doesn't sound damning. It seems more like a comment of reassurance.

Misuse – Miscellaneous: 11% (11/100)

1. Film.Moonstruck: When Al tells Loretta that he's a genius, she retorts that if he's such a genius, why are his receipts and taxes a complete and utter mess? She eventually admits he makes good coffee. Shoehorning a legitimate compliment. Possibly also fits better under The One Thing I Don't Hate About You.
2. Characters.Fresh Meat (Howard McCallum): Referred to as 'not dangerous' by Josie during her first vlog. Just a declaration/description, not praise, with little context to boot.
3. Characters.Splatoon Idol Groups:
   • Squid Sisters – Marie: After completing the main story in Splatoon 2, Callie mentions that Marie has been tracking Agent 4 throughout the game and has put together an Agent 4 Factopedia. According to Callie, it's "totally not creepy". This is Suspiciously Specific Denial.
   • Off The Hook – In General: One of their conversations regarding Inkblot Art Academy has Pearl ask Marina to tell the viewers about the school. All Marina can come up with is "It's a place that exists". In another conversation, Pearl admits that they can't badmouth the Academy because it's one of their sponsors. The first half is just Trivially Obvious. The second half is shoehorning.
4. Fanfic.The Cadanceverse: Twilight tells Vinyl (completely seriously) that she could be good enough at magic to be one of Twilight's students. Vinyl gets very upset by this - goofy personality aside, she's a very hard-working pony who spends almost all her time improving her music, perfecting her equipment, and advancing her magic, as well as being the Element of Magic, and does not enjoy being patronized. This seems more like Compliment Backfire.
5. Series.Dickensian: At dinner with the Bumbles, Mr Gradgrind describes everything with a variant of "not unpleasant", which Mr Bumble rather desperately interprets as great praise. Seems like just a reaction to a weird compliment/description.
6. Podcast.Three Bean Salad: A favourite tactic of Sperbs (see Manipulative Bastard). In his first email he described the show as 'mildly funny.' Highly dubious, especially because it redirects to another entry and does not elaborate how "mildly funny" is faint praise.
7. Angel.Tropes P To Z: Potholed in dialogue under Volleying Insults. The dialogue straight up indicates the pothole is more likely to be either The One Thing I Don't Hate About You or simply a non-damning comment.
   Spike: Never much for small talk, were you? Always too busy trying to perfect that "brooding block of wood" mystique. God, I love that.
   Angel: Not as much as I loved your non-stop yammering.
   Spike: The way you always had to be the big swingy, swaggerin' around, barkin' orders—
   Angel: Never listening.
   Spike: Always interrupting.
   Angel: And your hair, what color do they call that? "Radioactive"?
   Spike: Never much cared for you, Liam, even when we were evil.
   Angel: Cared for you less.
   Spike: Fine!
   Angel: Good!
   (long pause)
   Angel: There was one thing about you.
   Spike: Really?
   Angel: Yeah, I never told anybody about this, but I liked your poems.
   Spike: You like Barry Manilow!
8. Film.X Marks The Spot: Joe meekly notes he never hit-and-run. Gee, Joe, you're a freakin' angel! This is… This is NOT how you write an example. Should be cut.
9. Recap.The Good Place S 4 E 01 A Girl From Arizona Part 1: Subverted, because Brent is actually bragging about being the "top half of the bottom half of my class" at Princeton. How is this a subversion of the trope? The example straight up says he is bragging about something, which is not the same thing as faint praise being subverted.
10. Recap.South Park S 20 E 6 Fort Collins: When Kyle says that Heidi is smart, and Cartman is offended that he didn't also say she was funny. Not a valid example.
11. YMMV.The Ice Age Adventures Of Buck Wild: There are some who can see past the film's flaws and budget constraints, and appreciate it for being a fun, silly romp with some surprisingly heartwarming moments. Even some who dislike it consider it a step up from Collision Course and breaking the curse of the movies doing progressively worse over the box office, if only very slightly by having a critic score 1% more positive on Rotten Tomatoes, for whatever that's worth. Possibly misuse if the improvement is actually genuine, if just slight by the critics on one website, rather than universally meaningless.

Questionable pothole: 15% (15/100)

1. Music.Stray Kids: Seungmin is a downplayed combination of this and The Quiet One. While having chaotic moments of his own, they're slightly more restrained than the others, plus is generally more emotionally reserved than everyone. And as for the latter, he doesn't talk that much unless he wants to screw with someone and often keeps his voice at a normal volume, while the others tend to be very loud and often pretty shouty. These traits were more apparent in the group's rookie days. What is the context here? How does the word "slightly" apply?
2. WebVideo.To Boldly Flee: They conquered Molossia (for about a week). "About a week" does not correlate to the trope.
3. Take That!.Futurama: A subtle one against Family Guy: in 1999 Pizzeria Panucci has a FG calendar with Brian and Stewie on the cover, which says "One laugh a month!". Part of a chained sinkhole, and the relevant pothole is just an amount of time.
4. YMMV.The Emoji Movie: The ire against this film was so incredibly potent and widespread (with many saying that it would start a trend of __ movies that would revolve around current popular trends and be just as terrible as this movie, thus resulting in the end of cinema as an art form) that several reviewers felt the need to point out that it's "merely" just regular "run-of-the-mill" bad, not "the-end-of-all-cinema" bad, and even then, there are some people that honestly didn't think the film was really that bad as others believe it to be, as well as questioning whether or not the critics in question are projecting their hatred of the film's target audience and smartphone culture in general onto the film. Sinkhole.
5. YMMV.Spenser Confidential: In addition, it's been regarded as slightly better than his previous collaboration with Peter Berg two years earlier. Sinkhole.
6. WesternAnimation.Dr Katz Professional Therapist: Ben taking a fire extinguisher to the burning Thanksgiving dinner. He actually has walking animation! Potholed under Animation Bump. Appears to be a sinkhole without proper context.
7. GenshinImpact.Tropes A To D: Lisa is the most useful among the three when it is constantly raining or on a body of water. Otherwise, her reliance on charged attacks becomes much more of a liability than anything. While she does synergize with fellow newbie starter Kaeya, as Kaeya can freeze enemies and Cryo reacts explosively with Electro, or any other Hydro character, you've likely already got another Cataylst user who can DPS harder. Chained sinkhole that doesn't even make sense, potholing the word "when" to this and the rest of the statement to a completely different trope.
8. YMMV.Last Night In Soho: The old man disappears from the plot after he dies and is revealed to not be Jack's future self, and the scene with his younger self suggests he was trying to help women like Sandie escape a life of prostitution, but a lot of his behaviour towards Ellie still comes off as creepy, even knowing that he's not actually who she suspects he is. Was he truly Good All Along, or was he just another creep like the cab driver who happened to not be a murderer? What relevance does this pothole have to damning with faint praise?
9. YMMV.The Fantastic Four: Despite a lot of its flaws many fans still consider it the best attempt at a Fantastic Four movie. Make of that what you will. Sinkhole. It doesn't really explain how it fits.
10. Characters.Friendship Is Magic Redeemed: She sings part of "Pinkie the Party Planner" where she admits Pinkie is good at throwing parties. Pinkie isn't sure how to react but settles for a thank you. Chained sinkhole under Not Bad. "I suppose she passed the test" does not really indicate it follows the definition.
    Diamond Tiara: She planned my cute-ceañera, my dad made me, I won't lie. I demanded all the best, I suppose she passed the test. Sure it was pretty good all thanks to Pinkie Pie.
11. HighTierScrappy.Jurassic World Alive: Dishonorable mention includes Ardontognathus. [...] true to its name, takes the abilities of both moves, and switches out Limited Evasive Strike to Defense Shattering Rampage which can do the same thing as the former two, but stronger ^note Thankfully, it doesn't attack twice or revive like Definite Alert Frenzy. Sinkhole in note.
12. WorseThanItSounds.Fan Works: Both of the below examples are sinkholes, using "unique take" and "unique" respectively to pothole to this trope with little else.
    • Carrie and Ben 10: The Green League: A writer offers a unique take on a beloved story by giving its protagonist love and support in the form of a set of characters that bare similarities to her.
    • Descendants: Eleanor the Snow Princess: A beloved film is given a unique twist by introducing two strong-minded young cousins who develop a close bond with the movie's male protagonists, as well as an adopted sister for one of said male protagonists in the form of a spunky, genie-like creature who can create portals.
13. Trivia.Rosss Game Dungeon: In Ross's follow up episode regarding Test Drive III, he got very annoyed by his fans for several reasons. [...] Next, Ross brings up how people were calling him an idiot for complaining about the steering, and that he should have used a steering wheel, while also pointing out to him that he was running the game too fast. Ross responds by wondering how everyone suddenly became an expert at the game, and wonders how the game got so popular all of a sudden. The entry is very long, so I trimmed it to the relevant part. Anyway, this is improper potholing; what does this statement have to do with the trope?
14. Funny.The Dom Reviews 2018 Episodes: The only slightly charitable thing the Dom can say about the book is that, in comparison to the first book, Fifty Shades Darker "is like being kicked hard repeatedly in the arse instead of the genitalia." Sinkhole.
15. Funny.Call Of The Night: When Yamori tells Akira that he wants to become a vampire, the best reply she can come up with is that it's great he has a dream for the future. Sinkhole.

Other/Multiple: 5% (5/100)

1. BetterCallSaul.Tropes A To E :
   • In the flashback for "Rico", Jimmy already looks rather crestfallen when Chuck is evasive about being proud of him, and whether or not he'll get hired, but takes what he can get and hopes anyway. Nothing about pointing out a flaw.
   • In "Fifi", Chuck meets with Mesa Verde to supposedly vouch for Kim and damns Kim with faint praise, ultimately convincing Kevin to return to HHM. Zero context example.
2. Recap.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic S 1 E 14 Suited For Success:
   • Rarity's friends' reaction to the original designs is tepid. Bad/evasive compliments. The first line is also Wrongfully Attributed.
     Twilight Sparkle: They sure are... um... something.
     Pinkie Pie: I love something! Something is my favorite.
     Fluttershy: It's... nice.
   • Rarity does the same regarding the redesigns, which she's privately declared the ugliest things she's ever made; she has to resort to claiming that she's happy that her friends are happy with them. Shoehorning.
3. GameOfThrones.Tropes C To D:
   • Shae mentions that every man she cooks for compliments what a good whore she is. Not enough context; this reads like a weird compliment.
   • Qyburn lampshades it when he is described as a better healer than Pycelle. Does not explain how it fits.
   • In "Mockingbird", Jaime praises Tyrion's epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech from the previous episode as something all of King's Landing will be talking about for days to come. What makes this damning?
4. Main.Quote Mine:
   • Parodied in this Lasagna Cat video, in relation to the Garfield Live Action Adaptations. After a straight quote from Roger Ebert's positive reviews of both movies, the video begins quote mining from other, more negative reviews. The quotes start out saying nice things about the movies, then become vague, then scathing, then outright ridiculous. What does "vague" refer to here? As it stands, it's just a sinkhole at the moment.
   • The Bugsnax "Snakkolades" trailer features, among other more sincere accolades, a quote from The Onion's AV Club saying "Looks like [...] honestly [...] one of the [...] best games for the PS5.". The full version of the quote? This does not really reveal any flaws, especially as "Looks like shit honestly" indicates it's a subjective opinion rather than an objective fact.
   Looks like shit honestly but for a window of several weeks it will be one of the nine best games for the PS5.
5. Funny.Saints Row The Third: This. What the person is responding to may or may not qualify, though in any case the reaction is potholed and not the "praise".

   Burt: Hey, you're that girl with the reality show.
   Shaundi: Yeah I'm Shaundi.
   Burt: You know you look less like a slut in person.
   Shaundi: ...thanks?

ZCE: 8% (8/100)

1. Creator.Stewart Lee: The premise of 41st Best Standup and frequently worked into other parts of his routine.
2. ComicBook.Johnny Turbo: Johnny's heroic claim that the Turbo CD got Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (one of the earliest FMV based games) first comes across as this nowadays.
3. Music.The Offspring: The whole point of "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)", considering the titular white guy is obviously not fly at all. "Obviously not fly at all" does not really make sufficient context.
4. Recap.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic S 2 E 25 A Canterlot Wedding Part 1: Twilight sees Princess Cadance's actions towards the other ponies like this. Too bad the other five are too caught up in the wedding plan to notice it.
5. Characters.The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Columbia's assessment of Rocky? "He's okay!" Frank is not amused. Literally just a quote and a reaction to it.
6. Manga.Princess Jellyfish: "I almost kissed a girl who is practically a Shigeru Mizuki character!". Literally just a quote with no other context besides a pothole to another work.
7. Heartwarming.Pokemon Go: The appraisal system—your team leaders talking about how strong your Pokémon are, and often ending it with a So Proud of You type message. That is, if the Pokémon is sufficiently strong. Pokémon with weaker potential may instead be Damned by Faint Praise. Only mentions the trope but doesn't really explain how it happens. It is also on the Heartwarming page, which should not be a place for an insult trope because Heartwarming encompasses positive and happy moments.
8. Literature.Dis Acedia: Doc the Troll is the smartest of his kind in Dis which is Damned by Faint Praise. It manifests as this trope. Potholed under Cloudcuckoolander. ZCE for that trope (it uses a variation of "is this trope"), and it doesn’t explain how being the smartest of his kind is Damned by Faint Praise either, only that it is.

Unsure/Difficult to classify: 7% (7/100)

1. Fanfic.Viridian The Green Guide: Iida gets a moment or two like this. A bit murky.
   "Please refrain from comparing our classmates to animals." Iida reprimanded. "Bakugo is a human, not a hedgehog or a pomeranian no matter how apt those comparisons may be!"
2. Manga.My Monster Secret: In Chapter 155, the class is choosing a play to perform for the school festival. One play, which is obviously Youko's, is so bad/cheesy that it looks like it's physically painful to read (except Miss Ryokuenzawa, who calls it a masterpiece). Thankfully, Akari comes in and says "Like...you know...the penmanship is nice." The rest of the class seizes on that, and thankfully Youko buys it. Correct use? Bad compliment? I can't tell. Does it damn?
3. Alas, Poor Villain.Webcomics: Miko Miyazaki's slide from holier-than-thou Knight Templar to a Tautological Templar has her murder her lord, lose her Paladin powers, and accidentally kill herself in fulfilling what she had decided was her divinely ordained destiny. The ghost of her order's founder tells her that her efforts were... adequate... but not worthy of redemption, which she accepts with uncharacteristic grace as she dies. It's still debated whether she deserved it. Pothole that I have no idea if it works or not.
4. DarthWiki.Hetalia Emblem: Unlike his World Flags counterpart but very much like in canon, Arthur/安阿佐 cannot cook whatsoever. And he’s completely oblivious to it (pending). Though to Kiku’s relief, Francisco’s condor apparently likes Arthur’s cooking (though it really doesn’t take much to please an actual vulture) so the food doesn’t completely go to waste whenever Arthur is… Potholed under Lethal Chef. Unsure whether this counts (i.e. only a vulture would eat it) or is a sinkhole (as it is just a statement and there seems to be no praise). Tropes Are Flexible?
5. Characters.Robot Wars Heat Finalists: One of Judge Shred's few claims to fame is that it's the only robot to have been able to ring out an opponent (Corkscrew 2 in its Series 7 melee) while still registering a negative win/loss ratio. A bit murky. Does this work?
6. WesternAnimation.Hazbin Hotel: During "Alastor's Reprise", Alastor states that, "here below the ground / I'm sure [Charlie's] plan is sound", or in other words, he thinks Charlie's plan literally only has a chance in Hell. Potholed under Stealth Pun. Doesn't appear to explain further than this. Needs a check.
7. Characters.Dragon Age Anders: He goes back and forth between having this vibe and a Vitriolic Best Buds one with Aveline, depending on the day and topic of discussion. Aveline might have gotten along better with him if some of their first conversations didn't involve her calling him better than she would have expected from someone like him (though she then clarifies that she was talking about the refugees in Darktown) and later asking him for tips on how to take down apostates. He returns the favor tenfold with some nasty comments about Aveline's sex life and making fun of her dead husband. Hard to classify whether it works or not.

Conclusion

Based on these findings, the non-sinkhole examples and pages linking to it are pretty torn between what the trope is; only a small portion actually matches the description, and the others generally misuse the trope for any weird-sounding comments and moments where the subject is just disliked instead of it being genuinely bad, either way missing the part where the flaws are pointed out in the process.