History Main / LetsSeeYOUDoBetter

Just imagine if this were applied to all forms of criticism: 'You think I don't do a good job raising my own children, and you think their grandparents should handle them? How can you even say that when ''you've'' never been a parent?' 'You think this cake tastes bad and is undercooked? How can you even say that when ''you've'' never been a chef?' Clearly, you need not be good at something yourself in order to be able to tell whether someone else is good or not. This objection is rarely (if ever) raised to deflect ''positive'' criticism, but very few people are particularly inclined to reject positive criticism or praise in the first place, regardless of the source.

[[Administrivia/TropesAreTools On the other hand]], while all opinions may be ''valid'', this does not mean that all opinions are equally informed or useful. Media criticism is usually a mix of opinion over what makes a good work and objective facts about the text presented. This means that getting the details wrong can undermine the quality of a review. For instance, somebody might mistakenly assume a trope is being played straight when the opposite might be true. This legitimately affects the credibility of the reviewer and the review, since it suggests that they simply weren't paying full attention, or even that they may be a KnowNothingKnowItAll.

There is a common misconception among fans and people having worked in a particular field that non-experts are not qualified to comment on their work. While it helps to have some background information or experience, it is certainly not required. It doesn't take a carpenter to recognize a poorly-made table, after all.[[labelnote:note]]If a table spontaneously falls apart, things probably didn't go according to procedure.[[/labelnote]] Besides, films are usually made to entertain audiences, so of course it is acceptable for people to have opinions over which movies fail to accomplish this. And even if it wasn't made for your demographic, [[PeripheryHatedom then that does not exempt it from criticism either.]] Targets for audience mockery are especially vulnerable to this phenomenon, as is the person with a SmallNameBigEgo. Let's all remember what Baldassere Castiglione said in ''The Courtier'':

Administrivia/ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike can be fun. [[AccentuateTheNegative Picking apart works]] and trying to find and explain (and [[{{MST}} make fun of]]) some of the things that went wrong can be deeply satisfying, and at the same time strangely therapeutic. Of course, [[SeriousBusiness some people take some of these criticisms to heart]], and won't hesitate to [[FlameWar chew you out]] if you suggest that something may be wrong with their personal SacredCow. That person will usually rebut your criticism with something like, 'Oh, yeah? [[TitleDrop Let's see YOU do better!]]'

* ''Film/BruceAlmighty'', where God basically tells Bruce this; he's been complaining about how He does things, and so he's going to get a chance to put his money where his mouth is. God then gives Bruce all of His powers for a week. Bruce makes a mess of things because he's a flawed human being.

* The Bob Rivers Christmas parody song "The 12 Pains of Christmas" has, at #2, a frustrated husband setting up Christmas lights and as a result of faulty wiring, causes a blackout. Finally, on the final verse, he says the following to someone (probably his wife, or someone else otherwise in the peanut gallery chuckling at his difficulties), obviously fed up with the whole thing.
-->'''Frustrated husband:''' FINE! IF YOU'RE SO SMART, '''''YOU''''' RIG UP THE LIGHTS!!''

* It's almost a given that during any ''Series/AmericanIdol'' audition phase, at least one particularly awful auditioner will say this to the judges, which is funny when you consider that Music/PaulaAbdul is a Grammy Award-winner[[note]]and, per ''Simon Cowell'', is a "''brilliant'' spotter of talent"[[/note]] and that Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell have both won awards for managing music. In other words, those two know more about what makes popular music than popular musicians do.

* The ''VideoGame/{{MUGEN}}'' fandom's got this BAD. in response to criticism of a character on any ''M.U.G.E.N'' forum (usually criticism by WildTengu), at least one noob is likely to say 'You can't judge, you haven't made a character!' It would be a good argument, if not for the fact that if someone who's had no character-creation experience can note when something's ''very'' wrong, then the argument becomes redundant.

* The ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' exists because ZUN didn't like existing shooter games.

* A variant, where this was invoked by the critic himself: after the infamously horrible ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' [[GameMod WAD]] called [[http://www.doomworld.com/11years/others.php "Doom: Rampage Edition"]] (involving the player taking on a role of a [[BreakoutMookCharacter Baron of Hell]]) was released, one of the players commented that "he could pull a better wad out of [his] ass". A week later, he did indeed release a WAD based on the same concept, which gathered warm reviews. To rub it in: the name of this WAD? "[[http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=12713 A Better WAD I Pulled Out Of My Ass]]".
* [[WordOfGod A developer]] for ''VideoGame/MechWarrior Online'' replied with "Let's see you make a better game" to a thread on the ''Online'' forums criticizing the gameplay. The response by user was "[[ScrewedByTheLawyers We did until you shut us down]]", referring to ''[=MechWarrior=] Living Legends'', a free mod for ''[[VideoGame/{{Crysis}} Crysis Warhead]]'' which was killed off through legal means by ''Online'' [[note]] and (formerly) [[FanSequel officially licensed]]. ''Living Legends'''s release predates ''Online'' by two years. The ''Living Legends'' franchise license was effectively [[ScrewedByTheLawyers yanked]] by the ''Online'' developers, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen ending the mod's further development]].
[[/note]]

* ''Website/{{Newgrounds}}'' used to be the king of this trope. It seemed that unless you had a movie that was rated in the top 10, you had absolutely no right to criticize any movies. There were even movies made making fun of those people who left comments or even ''rated'' movies down. But most of these were made about the types of people who made comments like 'Your movie stinks' or 'You used sprites, therefore you sucked' or attacked the author without good reason. Sometimes, even pointing out a bug in a flash game got the same thing.

** Also note that Linkara ''has'' [[{{Webcomic/Lightbringer}} written his own comic.]] Of course, [[http://badwebcomicswiki.shoutwiki.com/wiki/The_Lightbringer to some,]] this doesn't help.

* [[http://tropesmirrorwiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page The Trope Wiki]] was founded as a StartMyOwn version of this very wiki because one of the Admins of ''Website/TVTropes'' challenged the founder of the Trope Wiki with the line, "If you think you can do better, then let's see you try." So he did.

* The webmaster of Lousy Book Covers apparently received this retort so frequently that he devoted [[http://lousybookcovers.com/?page_id=8805 an entire subpage]] to rebutting the argument... as well as showing his own work in cover design to prove that why yes, he ''can'' do better.

* Often {{Invoked}} by mobile game developers, who release quick, 15-30 second ads showing their games being played through horrifically. The idea is to get the viewer riled up at such blatantly idiotic decisions, that it inspires them to download the game and try for themselves.

* In Season 10 of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', when Carolina demands to be implanted with a new AI, after giving the one originally assigned to her to Maine, the Director lets her choose which one she'll obtain (and therefore take from one of her teammates) under this basis.

The idea that you need some expertise in a subject matter in order to adequately judge and criticize it is actually substantially true; scientific studies have found that the ability to do some task correlates directly with your ability to comment on, criticize, and judge the performance of others usefully. This is known as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect Dunning-Kruger Effect]]; people who are bad at performing a task not only are incapable of judging how well others do on it but are incapable of judging how good they themselves are at the task at hand and will frequently wildly overestimate their own ability not only to do the task at hand but to judge the capabilities of others.

The idea that you need some expertise in a subject matter in order to adequately judge and criticize it is actually substantially true; scientific studies have found that the ability to do some task correlates directly with your ability to comment on, criticize, and judge the performance of others usefully. This is known as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect Dunning-Kruger Effect]]; people who are bad at performing a task not only are incapable of judging how well others do on it but are incapable of judging how good they themselves are at the task at hand and will frequently wildly overestimate their own ability not only to do the task at hand but to judge the capabilities of others.

* Jim Sterling of ''WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}'' has been told this after criticizing some buggy, poorly made games that were slapped together using unaltered video game assets and sold on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. His response was to point out that he indeed could not make a decent video game, but nor was he trying to, where as many games were mediocre and buggy, but developers tried to sell them anyway.

* ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novelist Keith Topping, responding to critics on the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Website/{{Usenet}} groups:

-->-- '''Creator/JeanLucGodard'''

* [[http://tropesmirrorwiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page The Trope Wiki]] was founded as a StartMyOwn version of this very wiki because one of the Admins of ''Wiki/TVTropes'' challenged the founder of the Trope Wiki with the line, "If you think you can do better, then let's see you try." So he did.

* In 2019, Chicago Bears kicker Cody Parkey missed a game-winning 43-yard field goal [[labelnote:*]]after hitting the goalpost and the crossbar, leading to the nickname "double-doink"[[/labelnote]], knocking them out of the playoffs. The following week local beermaker Goose Island Brewing Co. held a promotional in front of the brewery, inviting fans to try themselves to win various prizes. [[HilarityEnsues The results]] were [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR7pcRVm_Hc amusing]]

* After ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'' responded to criticisms regarding the quality of the art in some issues with this, the artist [[http://pencilsponyforge.tumblr.com/ Pencils]] accepted their challenge and [[https://derpibooru.org/1333295 blew them clean out of the water.]] IDW took it in good stride, being impressed enough that they actually [[HireTheCritic hired him]], initially to do some alternate covers and eventually to [[https://itunes.apple.com/ie/book/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-69/id1420689488?mt=11 draw full issues.]] Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, indeed!

-->'''Dilbert:''' ''[[[UpToEleven swimming half-naked through sewage]]]'' [[LampshadeHanging Maybe I should just learn to keep my mouth shut.]]

* WebVideo/ChrisStuckmann criticized ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', then had a go at rewriting the final confrontation. The rewrite was widely derided, with the dialogue spawning memes of its own.

* This is the basis of Democrats' defence of Obamacare: Want Obamacare repealed and replaced? Replaced with what? It should be noted that during the first year after Obama left the position, there have been several attempts to replace the bill, all of which have failed. (Mostly because they would remove insurance from millions of people currently protected by the ACA.)

* It's almost a given that during any ''Series/AmericanIdol'' audition phase, at least one particularly awful auditioner will say this to the judges, which is funny when you consider that Music/PaulaAbdul is a multi-Grammy Award winner[[note]]and, per ''Simon Cowell'', is a "''brilliant'' spotter of talent"[[/note]] and that Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell have both won awards for managing music. In other words, those two know more about what makes popular music than popular musicians do.

* It's almost a given that during any ''Series/AmericanIdol'' audition phase, at least one particularly awful auditioner will say this to the judges, which is funny when you consider that Music/PaulaAbdul is a multi-Grammy Award winner and choreographer[[note]]and, per ''Simon Cowell'', is a genius at spotting talent[[/note]] and that Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell have both won awards for managing music. In other words, those two know more about what makes popular music than popular musicians do.

* It's almost a given that during any ''Series/AmericanIdol'' audition phase, at least one particularly awful auditioner will say this to the judges, which is funny when you consider that Music/PaulaAbdul is a Grammy Award winner and that Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell have both won awards for managing music. In other words, those two know more about what makes popular music than popular musicians do.

Administrivia/ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike can be fun. [[AccentuateTheNegative Picking apart works]] and trying to find and explain (and [[{{MST}} make fun of]]) some of the things that went wrong can be deeply satisfying, and at the same time strangely therapeutic. Of course, [[SeriousBusiness some people take some of these criticisms to heart]], and won't hesitate to [[FlameWar chew you out]] if you suggest that something may be wrong with their personal SacredCow. That person will usually rebut your criticism with something like, 'Oh, yeah? [[TitleDrop Let's see ''you'' do better!]]'

Administrivia/ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike can be fun. [[AccentuateTheNegative Picking apart works]] and trying to find and explain (and [[{{MST}} make fun of]]) some of the things that went wrong can be deeply satisfying, and at the same time strangely therapeutic. Of course, [[SeriousBusiness some people take some of these criticisms to heart]], and won't hesitate to [[FlameWar chew you out]] if you suggest that something may be wrong with their personal SacredCow. That person will usually rebut your criticism with something like, 'Oh, yeah? [[TitleDrop Let's see]] ''[[TitleDrop you]]'' [[TitleDrop do better!]]'

* There was a ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode where Cartman made the morning announcements and relentlessly and mercilessly picked apart everything Wendy did as a class president. As her way of asking Cartman if he could do better, Wendy simply resigned from her spot and let Cartman take over. This actually got Cartman to shut up, as he was prepared to only criticize, not ''act''.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''; "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE56HarleyAndIvy Harley And Ivy]]": Harley Quinn halfheartedly defends herself against ComicBook/TheJoker when he blames her for blowing their last caper ([[NeverMyFault ignoring his own mistakes]]). Joker says: ''Maybe I should let YOU run the gang! Maybe YOU are a better crook that the rest of us put together!''. He then expels Harley, and Harley decides to do exactly that with Poison Ivy.

* The 1940 film ''EdisonTheMan'' has Edison offer up a rather good rebuttal to this trope:

* The Movie ''Bitter Feast'' has the life of Peter Grey, a celebrity chef ruined by caustic blogger JT Franks (he loses his TV show, his job as head chef at a fancy restaurant, and an endorsement deal). Grey takes revenge on Franks by kidnapping him, chaining Franks up in a basement in the Hudson Valley and forces Franks to cook dishes with total perfection: anything less and not only does Franks starve, but Grey beats him up with [[FryingPanOfDoom a hot skillet.]] Needless to say, in this BlackComedy of ''Saw'' meets Creator/FoodNetwork, HilarityEnsues.