History Main / OpinionFlipFlop

A YesMan is an assistant (in a business or political capacity) whose ''job'' is to make a lot of Opinion Flipflops. FavouritismFlipFlop is a subtrope where Bob openly says he hates something until Alice says she likes it. VerbalBackspace is a related trope where subsequent dialogue forces someone to change opinion on the fly, which can overlap (eg."It's hideous!", "I made it myself.", "Hideously beautiful!"). Compare ConfessionDeferred.

-->'''Graeme'''': It's an absolute travesty.\\

* ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'' has a game called 'Critic's Forum (or against 'em)', which asks the contestants to do this. They give a review to a play/film/tv programme and must flip opinions whenever the buzzer is sounded.
-->'''Barry''': His performance makes me feel at home, like I'm one of the family *buzz* but then I've never liked my family...

** While it can arguably be considered more a combination NegativeContinuity and her repeated portrayal of being the OnlySaneMan but Lisa has repeatedly flip flopped on her views. Despite showing religious beliefs in the past to the point of being HolierThanThou, in "Lisa the Skeptic" she is extremely emphatic that religion and science cannot coexist. She will call the other kids out for trying to grow up too fast, then admonish them for acting like kids when there are so many problems in the world. She's even gone so far as to pretend to be a college student.

--->'''Yes-Man''': Good morning, Mr. Griffin. Nice day.\\

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has several examples.
** There's this expert parody:

'''Yes-Man''': But... not you the... president, the you who said you hated you, you who love hate Yankees, clouds... ''([[LogicBomb the yes-man explodes]])''
** There's also the episode introducing [[NakedPeopleAreFunny the Campbell family]]; in one scene, Meg and Jeff are together, apparently comparing facts about themselves by blurting them out at the same time. Meg, however, waits a split second and just says the exact same thing Jeff says, to which he responds "That's 19 things we have in common!"

* There is an UrbanLegend that UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat once boasted that she had managed to achieve equal responsibility of all her subjects before the law. So Aleksandr Naryshkin, a man well known for his sharp tongue, dressed up in an old coat taken from one of his stokers and started an argument with a fowl seller over prices.[[note]]He asked how much his chickens cost. The trader said "One ruble for two living, half a ruble for two slaughtered". So Naryshkin asked to slaughter him four living ones, and tried to pay the price for slaughtered while the seller insisted on the price for living ones.[[/note]] A policeman came over and took the trader's side, even threatening to arrest Naryshkin... until the man "accidentally" opened his coat, revealing a ChestOfMedals beneath it. Of course the policeman stared threatening the trader instead that very second... Naryshkin paid well over the price to the trader and later made a one-person-show about it before the empress. Everyone laughed except for her.

-->'''Orthopedix' wife:''' ''[to Unhygienix the fishmonger]'' Orthopedix says that there should be days when you can eat only fish.\\

** It comes up again much later in the movie: [[spoiler:while in the meateroid, Sam and Flint come across a pit lined with [[SpikesOfDoom shards of peanut brittle]]. Sam comments that "If either one of us touches it, we'll go into anaphylactic shock." ]].

* In the ''Film/SpiderMan1'' movie, Mary Jane comments on how gross the spiders are. Harry tries to agree with her, saying he hates them. She then says that she loves them, and he immediately agrees.
* In the Creator/EddieMurphy film ''Film/ComingToAmerica'', the Prince seeks a different wife after the one betrothed to him had been trained from birth to agree with everything he says.
* In ''Film/TronLegacy'', Clu's right-hand-man Jarvis cowers before Sam Flynn as he walks into the command center to recover the stolen disc, declaring "Long live the Users!" When Clu arrives a bit later and finds the disc missing, Jarvis starts to say "Death to the Users!" but is [[KilledMidSentence decapitated mid-sentence]].

''[{{beat}}]''\\
'''Austin Powers:''' ''[with feigned enthusiasm]'' Oh. Smashing! Groovy! Yay, capitalism! ''[chuckles nervously]''

--> '''Leo''':... unless you're a vegetarian. It's OK, I am too.
* ''Film/ThorRagnarok'': PlayedForLaughs. Thor tells Hulk that he likes him more than Banner. Shortly after, he tells Banner that he prefers ''him'' to Hulk.
* In ''Film/BangBoomBang'', Keek, Andy and Schlucke go pick up the [[CoolCar Mercedes-Benz 500 SEC]] for Keek's former partner-in-crime, Kalle. Keek just wants to close the deal and get lost before the sellers -- whom you certainly wouldn't want to mess with -- find out that most of the cash in his BriefcaseFullOfMoney is badly-made CounterfeitCash. In the meantime, Andy, a professional automobile mechanic, lies under the car and finds out that it must have been totaled at some point in the past and then kludged back together. He absolutely refuses to close the deal and take this car. Then Keek whispers into his ear that most of the money he brought is fake. And what do you know, all of a sudden Andy agrees to the deal.

* Gaheris, in T.H. White's ''[[Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing The Queen Of Air And Darkness]]'', is described as agreeing with whatever his older brothers Gawaine and Agravaine think. Since they disagree a lot, this is difficult for him.
* British statesman Lord Chesterfield wrote in ''Literature/LettersToHisSon'' against people who are like this: "On the other hand, the cunning, crafty man thinks to gain all his ends by the '[[GratuitousLatin suaviter in modo]]' only; HE BECOMES ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN; he seems to have no opinion of his own, and servilely adopts the present opinion of the present person; he insinuates himself only into the esteem of fools, but is soon detected, and surely despised by everybody else." (letter 133)
* Creator/AntonChekhov has a hilarious story about a police officer going through these. Quite appropriately, it's called "[[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Cook%27s_Wedding_and_Other_Stories/A_Chameleon A Chameleon]]".

* ''{{Literature/Chrysanthemum}}'': Jo, Rita, and Victoria think that Chrysanthemum being named after a flower is simply dreadful. But after Mrs. Twinkle, the music teacher everyone admires, reveals that she's named after a flower too, they decide they want flower names of their own — Marigold, Carnation, and Lily of the Valley.

->'''Daemon:''' Well, perhaps when we are wed we could make that [story about you being pregnant] true?
->'''Mysaria:''' I ensured long ago that I would never be threatened by childbirth.
->'''Daemon:''' Good. Children can be such irritating creatures.

* Musical example: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u18bdI6zW4A Brad Paisley's "Me neither"]]. A man approaches a woman in a bar, asks if she believes in love at first sight, then thoroughly agrees when she shoots him down. The theme continues throughout the song - words don't do it justice.

* ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'': As part of the "taming", Petruchio forces Kate to be like this with him. This can appear to be dark and disturbing... [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation or hilarious]].

* [[http://www.violentacres.com/archives/84/if-you-dont-have-the-balls-to-be-hated-then-you-dont-deserve-to-be-loved This blog post]] implies that most respondents to blogs are like this.
* ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'''s first book, ''Armageddon?'', gives us this bit of dialogue between UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and [[UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRustingRockets Vladimir Putin]], after one of the demonic generals surrenders and requests asylum:
-->'''Bush''': Vladimir, this is Dubya. I have urgent news. General Abigor has just surrendered and defected.\\
'''Putin''': That filthy Vlasovite bastard.\\
'''Bush''': Sorry, Vladimir, you misunderstand, he's a baldrick, he's defecting to us.\\
'''Putin:''' What I meant to say of course was that he is a heroic champion of freedom and liberty who has overcome his corrupt upbringing so that he can rally to the side of truth honor and justice.\\
'''Bush''': That's right Vladimir, he's a filthy Vlasovite bastard, but he's our filthy Vlasovite bastard.

-->'''Vegeta''': You… you cut through my armor! This was a gift from my FATHER!\\
'''Yajirobe''': I’m sorry, I’m sure your father was a great man!\\

'''Yajirobe''': Oh, well then I’m sure your father was a total prick.\\

** There's also the episode introducing [[NakedPeopleAreFunny the Campbell family]]; in one scene, Meg and Jeff are together, apparently comparing facts about themselves by blurting them out at the same time. Meg, however, waits a split second and just says the exact same thing Jeff says, to which he responds "that's 19 things we have in common!"

** While it can arguably be considered more a combination NegativeContinuity and her repeated portrayal of being the OnlySaneMan but Lisa has repeated flip flopped on her views. Despite showing religious beliefs in the past to the point of being HolierThanThou yet in “Lisa the Skeptic” is extremely emphatic that religion and science cannot coexist. She will call the other kids out for trying to grow up to fast then admonish them for acting like kids when there are so many problems in the world. She’s even gone so far as to pretend to be a college student.
* Pöysti occasionally inverts this trope in ''WesternAnimation/{{Pasila}}''; if someone agrees with him, he might state the exact opposite of his previous argument.
* There was an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' where Buster started agreeing with both sides of an ongoing argument. When Francine called him out on it, he said "I'm good at having opinions... I'm just not good at keeping them."
* Done in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' whenever Jimmy is around his crush, Betty Quinlin.
-->'''Jimmy:''' Magic...what a bunch of nonsense.\\
'''Betty:''' I love magic.\\
'''Jimmy:''' Me too. I've been doing it for years.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' episode "Art Crawl", Bob doesn't want Gayle's painting of animal butts to be put on display in his restaurant, but he starts venomously supporting them after the local Art Council protests against them (mostly because he despises their president [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior Edith]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "Best Gift Ever," Rainbow Dash goes to [[MadGod Discord]] for advice on getting a present for Fluttershy. He tricks her into antagonizing a monster which almost destroys the castle, and Fluttershy [[FriendToAllLivingThings has to calm it down]]. Discord says that was his gift to Fluttershy. Just as Rainbow Dash is starting to tear into him, Discord points out that Fluttershy is enjoying her new animal friend, and is still in the winner garb Discord gave her. Rainbow Dash then says the gift was from both of them.

* Creator/AntonChekhov has a hilarious story about a police officer going through these. Quite appropriately, it's called "[[http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/achekhov/bl-achek-chameleon.htm A Chameleon]]".