History Main / NotHelpingYourCase

* ''Series/TheGoodPlace:'' When Chidi expresses horror at Eleanor's job (telemarketing of fake supplements to sick elderly people) she tries to defend herself mentioning how good she was at it. Chidi rightfully points out that being good at something terrible makes it worse.

** In general, Jaime and Tyrion Lannister tend to use this trope in a "ThenLetMeBeEvil" kind of way. They're constrained by bigotry (Tyrion) or unfair judgments (Jaime) and are unable to escape them despite their best efforts, so they tend to stop giving their "best" efforts and instead use an evil reputation to get their way.
** One of the many things that Jaime and Tyrion Lannister share is a total and crippling inability to keep their big mouths shut when a clever remark occurs to them, no matter how many weapons are pointed at their heads at the time, or how testy the people holding them are. That tendency does more to nearly get them killed over the course of the series than all the Stark soldiers combined.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad'', everyone at the court notices Mr Toad's attempting to walk out the door of the court house in the middle of his own trial when Wimky's finishes his testimony against him, made Mr Toad more guilty in everyone's eyes.

'''Panzerfaust: Is all in past. Was also very competent filmmaking worthy of repeat viewing. A++++. Would watch again.\\

Compare IResembleThatRemark, though it can go hand-in-hand with this trope. Somewhat related are YouHaveToBelieveMe (a character makes bizarre statements in [[FreakOut a hysterical tone]]), DiggingYourselfDeeper (the character tries to sound [[ThatCameOutWrong less creepy]] by justifying the original creepy remark), RevealingCoverUp (the character attempts to cover up their bad deed only to draw more attention to it), ThenLetMeBeEvil (the character decides to live down to people's low expectations) and StickyFingers (habitual petty theft puts the character under a constant aura of suspicion). Contrast with WrongfulAccusationInsurance, where the character is not implicated for crimes committed while trying to [[ClearMyName clear their name]]. The tropes may overlap, though, if the character is called out for their crimes as they happen, yet [[EasilyForgiven unceremoniously pardoned]] after their name is cleared. Not to be confused with DontShootTheMessage. For moments where someone or something else doesn't help your case, see ContrivedCoincidence and InstantlyProvenWrong.

** Speaking of General Eiling, after Cadmus is shut down he decides to inject himself with a SuperSerum and show himself as the ultimate deterant against Superman and the other super-powered members of the Justice League. Not only does he attack a parade and put numerous civilians in danger, he spent his time fighting {{Badass Normal}}s that fought to protect the people ''from him'', which one kid calls him out on.

* [[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Frankenstein's Monster]]. Seriously, there's a bit in the book where a kid insists that the monster is an ogre who wants to kill him. The monster denies this and then kills the kid for not listening. The monster is trying to abduct him at the time, so that would be an extra dose of ''really'' not helping his case.

** Legion insists that the geth have no ill-intentions towards organics and just want to be left alone. The fact that the geth exterminated the quarians down to single-digit millions, long after they would have been broken as a military power, mostly successfully attempted to destroy ship that entered geth space, which included diplomatic envoys, and let their heretic faction cut swaths of destruction across organic space, makes this rather difficult to take at face value.

* During the 2018 Christmas holiday, Creator/KevinSpacey surprised everyone by releasing a brief video of him declaring his innocence of sexual harrassment allegations while in the character of Frank Underwood from ''Series/HouseOfCardsUS''. While diehard Spacey fans thought it was brilliant, everyone else thought it was in poor taste and further proof that the man is a {{Jerkass}} if nothing else.

* A year after the release of ''[[Film/TheLastJedi Star Wars: The Last Jedi]]'', ''Esquire'' writer Matt Miller wrote [[https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a25560063/how-fans-ruined-star-wars-the-last-jedi-2018/ an article]] discussing & criticizing the [[VocalMinority toxic subsection]] of the Star Wars Fandom who spent the past year attacking the film, the actors, its crew, the creators, and the other fans who enjoyed the film; often using racist and/or sexist rhetoric in their attacks. Soon after the article was posted online, said toxic fans [[IResembleThatRemark began to harass Miller & Esquire online with extreme language, petty insults, racist and/or misogynist comments, all while demanding he be fired]]. Miller then wrote a [[https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a25617513/toxic-star-wars-fans/ follow-up article]] a week later thanking them for proving his point.

* Adolf Hitler was not fond of Himmler's archaeological expeditions because of this. Italian fascists thought that the Germans were just an upstart and not a proper MasterRace since the Italians had built the Roman Empire back when Germany was an insignificant backwater ruled by a bunch of illiterate barbarians living in mud huts and hitting each other with stone axes. (Modern archaeologists believe Teutonic society was more sophisticated than that, but they did indeed lack any state approaching the Roman Empire's level of complexity.) Himmler made dozens of expeditions around the world to prove the contrary... and each time, what they mostly found were mud huts and stone axes, all of which were proudly reported on as if they were signs of some great ancient Germanic society. Before long, Himmler started [[{{Ghostapo}} switching to a blatantly supernatural track]], claiming that the Aryans descended from Atlantis, of all things. Hitler quickly realized that all this did was confirm the Italian mockery.

* A Rhode Island man who was arrested under suspicion of [[https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/01/18/Police-find-change-theft-ring-suspect-tries-to-pay-bail-with-coins/3420030866385/ stealing money from vending machines]] didn't do much to alleviate those suspicions when he tried to pay his bail in quarters.

* British protest group "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fathers_4_Justice Fathers 4 Justice]]" felt that parental access rights are unfairly biased towards the mother under British divorce laws. That is up for debate. What is not up for debate is when arguing that "we too can be trusted to look after young children," participating in wacky hijinks [[NoodleImplements involving hilariously cheap superhero costumes, flour-filled condoms, and various national monuments]] to make your point is counter-productive. Even The Other Wiki mocked them for it in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_climbing_the_Reichstag_dressed_as_Spider-Man an editorial]].

* The infamous antics of the British protest group [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fathers_4_Justice "Fathers 4 Justice"]], who felt that parental access rights are unfairly biased towards the mother under British divorce laws. This is up for debate. What is ''not'' up for debate is that, when the general thrust of your argument is "we can ''too'' be trusted to look after young children", participating in what can only be described as wacky hijinks involving [[NoodleImplements hilariously cheap superhero costumes, flour-filled condoms and various national monuments]] to make your point is definitely counter-productive. Even Website/TheOtherWiki has made fun of them with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_climbing_the_Reichstag_dressed_as_Spider-Man an editorial about just that]].

* Lawyers berated an editorial by Creator/IsaacAsimov in which he said they were the only high-powered profession that [[EverybodyHatesMathematics doesn't involve math]] (as opposed to engineers, doctors, etc). The lawyers said that they absolutely do have to calculate billable hours, figure taxes, and perform other examples of comparatively simple arithmetic, to which Asimov replied: "I rest my case."

* According to Adolf Hitler, he was not fond of Himmler's archaeological expeditions for this reason. The attitude among Italian fascists was that the Germans were just an upstart and not a proper MasterRace, since the Italians had built the Roman Empire back when Germany was an insignificant backwater ruled by a bunch of illiterate barbarians living in mud huts and hitting each other with stone axes. (Modern archaeologists believe Teutonic society was more sophisticated than that, but they did indeed lack any state approaching the Roman Empire's level of complexity.) Himmler made dozens of expeditions around the world to prove the contrary... and each time, what they mostly found were mud huts and stone axes, all of which were proudly reported on as if they were signs of some great primeval Germanic society. Before long, Himmler started [[{{Ghostapo}} switching to a blatantly supernatural track]], claiming that the Aryans were actually descended from Atlantis, of all things. Hitler recognized fairly quickly that all this did was confirm the Italian mockery.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': In ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderMan2018'', it's revealed that this is one of the main reasons Spider-Man is a HeroWithBadPublicity. As [[JerkassHasAPoint J. Jonah Jameson]] points out, whenever he made a false accusation against Spider-Man in the past, Spidey's response was usually to insult, antagonize, and even ''threaten'' Jameson for doing so rather than simply reach out and try to set the record straight, which, if anything, just made the situation worse and convinced people he was even ''more'' of a menace.

Compare IResembleThatRemark, though it can go hand-in-hand with this trope. Somewhat related are YouHaveToBelieveMe (a character makes bizarre statements in [[FreakOut a hysterical tone]]), DiggingYourselfDeeper (the character tries to sound [[ThatCameOutWrong less creepy]] by justifying the original creepy remark), ThenLetMeBeEvil (the character decides to live down to people's low expectations) and StickyFingers (habitual petty theft puts the character under a constant aura of suspicion). Contrast with WrongfulAccusationInsurance, where the character is not implicated for crimes committed while trying to [[ClearMyName clear their name]]. The tropes may overlap, though, if the character is called out for their crimes as they happen, yet [[EasilyForgiven unceremoniously pardoned]] after their name is cleared. Not to be confused with DontShootTheMessage. For moments where someone or something else doesn't help your case, see ContrivedCoincidence and InstantlyProvenWrong.

* ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Season Eight'': The government fears that [[BewareTheSuperman Slayers are dangerous]] and may [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers act above the law]]; Buffy herself contributed to that image when it's revealed that she robbed a Swiss bank account in order to fund her Slayer Organization, [[CaperRationalization reasoning that it was a "victimless crime" due to the bank's insurance.]] Willow even calls her out on it.
* In ''Franchise/TheFlash: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues,'' people are disqualified from the 25th-century time-traveling police by [[VillainousLineage any criminal ancestry]] (going back at ''least'' to "present day"). One member, unbeknownst to the others, is descended from a murderer. Feeling it's unfair to hold someone else's crimes against him, he decides the solution is to make sure no one ever ''realizes'' it was his ancestor who committed the crime, by going back in time and perpetuating the frame job that keeps an innocent person in prison. He does this with ''more'' murder.

* ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManNickSpencer'' reveals that this is one of the main reasons Spider-Man is a HeroWithBadPublicity. As [[JerkassHasAPoint J. Jonah Jameson]] points out, whenever he made a false accusation against Spider-Man in the past, Spidey's response was usually to insult, antagonize, and even ''threaten'' Jameson for doing so rather than simply reach out and try to set the record straight, which, if anything, just made the situation worse and convinced people he was even ''more'' of a menace.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: When the Golden Policewomen capture the Holliday Girls, thinking they're Green Geni due to the coating they're wearing, the earth gals already have reason to suspect the Golden gals are villains due to a plea for help they intercepted. Then one of the Golden women keep cutting off Etta's explanations and saying things which make them seem to be unmistakably overbearing conquering dictators instead of police, leading to a much deeper misunderstanding than was already in place.

[[caption-width-right:348:Ellen is just [[DiggingYourselfDeeper digging herself deeper]].]]

-->-- ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', "Everything is Fine"