History Main / PretenderDiss

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': In the [[AdaptationExpansion anime adaptation]] of the [[WarArc Thousand-Year Blood War arc]], [[MagnificentBastard Aizen]] accuses [[BigBad Yhwach]], the Father of the Quincy, of pretending to be a Shinigami, and refuses to join forces with him for that reason.

* ''ComicBook/FreedomFighters'': In the 2006 miniseries, Miss America contemptuously tells each Freedom Fighter that she fights that the people they are {{Legacy Character}}s of are dead and that they are pale imitations. This gets turned on her when the real Miss America shows up and reveals that the one serving Father Time is an imposter who knows nothing of true heroism.

* ''Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks'':
** Shirou [[spoiler:and Archer]] use copied weapons in a copied combat style fighting for borrowed ideals in a battle ''way'' out of his league. Several characters have issues with this, especially Gilgamesh, who repeatedly calls them both fakers. Shirou does score points, however, in that he has no illusions about it; he has no pride in his creations, but he knows that they aren't worthless at all. "Who says a copy can't surpass the original?"
** Shirou also ends up doing this to Gilgamesh, calling the King of Heroes a one-trick pony like him because he uses his Gate of Babylon just as a weapon while not knowing how to use any of the huge number of weapons in it. That just pisses Gilgamesh off, since he ''does'' know how to use the two weapons within that belong solely to him and no other.
* ''Manga/FateKaleidLinerPrismaIllya'': In both this and the ''Oath Under Snow'' movie, Angelica says Shirou's ability to copy weapons and fighting styles is nothing but a mockery of real mages like her. This may be because she was channeling Gilgamesh's powers and personality. Interestingly, the real Gilgamesh, who had been turned into a child and is much nicer as a result, compliments Shirou's abilities.
* ''Literature/FateApocrypha'': After Siegfried sacrificed his life to save the Homunculus, the being names himself Sieg in his honor. Sieg later discovers he has inherited Siegfried's power and can temporarily transform into Siegfried. Mordred mocks Sieg as nothing but a faker and a cheap knockoff. Like Shirou, however, Sieg is under no illusions about this, though he declares it still won't stop him from fighting to pay tribute to Siegfried's memory.
* ''Literature/LordElMelloiIICaseFiles'': Hephaestion mocks Waver Velvet and says he's so weak and average that he does not deserve to call himself one of Iskandar's followers. While Waver is very shaken up by this, he manages to retort that he never saw her when Iskandar summoned his BadassArmy, Ionian Hetairoi, back in ''Literature/FateZero'', so she's not a real follower of Iskandar either.
* ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'': At the end of the first route, Roa plays SmugSnake, trying [[NotSoDifferentRemark to say he's similar to Shiki]] since they've both died and they both see and can manipulate death. With Roa having royally pissed him off at that point, Shiki calmly asks whether Roa can see the "lines of death" on inanimate objects, and from that Shiki realizes that Roa really doesn't understand death at all. Afterwards, [[TranquilFury he calmly and quietly]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge tears Roa apart]]. "I'll show you what it truly means to kill something."
* ''Anime/{{Hellsing}}'': Alucard absolutely disdains Millennium's "Freak" artificial vampires. He disses ''most'' vampires, including his own fledgling. He even disses ''himself'' because he really does value humanity in his own warped way.
** His opinion is that one must ''earn'' immortality. Becoming a vampire either through submission to dark forces or artificial means[[spoiler: including Walter]] seems to be more taking it than earning. As for his fledgling Seras, that was more toward her reluctance to drink blood and complete her transformation, but also fully admitted she had a point in her reasons and such. In all honesty, he does admire humanity and may find himself to be a facsimile of the man he once was.
--->'''Alucard:''' Only a human can destroy a monster. Only a human can hope to.
** A traitorous officer who became a vampire barges in on a Round Table meeting and holds a gun to Integra's head, she reminds him that he's only a mere fledgling vampire and her organization has been hunting vampires for over a century before Walter dices him to pieces.
* Xanxus from ''Manga/Reborn2004'' constantly insults Tsuna and his [[TrueCompanions family]] about not being real mafia. Granted they are all junior high students.
* One early episode of ''Manga/VampirePrincessMiyu'' includes a subplot where a young man suspects there's something otherworldly about her. After she's dealt with the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Shinma of the Week]], he '''demands''' she [[VampireVannabe make him a vampire, too]], gushing about how amazing her powers are. Miyu calmly but firmly refuses, calling him out for just wanting power so he can abuse it, then turns to leave. He chases after her into the fog... [[spoiler:and runs right off the building. Splat.]]
-->'''Miyu:''' At least you won't be bored anymore.
* At ''Manga/RamenFighterMiki'', Miki and Akihiko discover a high school student out of school drawing pathetic graffiti and ask him what is he doing:
-->'''VictimOfTheWeek:''' Isn’t that obvious? Being a {{Delinquent}}.\\
'''Akihiko:''' So you call yourself a delinquent with doodles like that? Your delinquency is still lacking. These days, the popular thing would be, a drawing like this, and a curve here... Basically, something like this.\\
(''a screaming skull shouts: "Welcome!! To Hell"'')\\
'''VictimOfTheWeek:''' Senpai, you're amazing!

* When Kenshin is fighting Senkaku in ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', Senkaku tries to do a BadassBoast about how dangerous he is because he's killed 99 people (quite a few of which were probably helpless civilians, incidentally) and wants to make [[MasterSwordsman Kenshin]] number 100. [[GoodIsNotNice Saito]], who is sitting on the sidelines during the fight and has done everything from fighting bloody civil wars to putting down rebellions and conspiracies against the government, responds by snorting in derision and saying something along the lines of "Only 99? And you even bother to call yourself a warrior?"
* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': People like Seto Kaiba and Siegfried von Schroeder who treat Duel Monsters as SeriousBusiness tend to mock Katsuya Jonouchi as not a real duelist because of his relative lack of skill and experience and his use of luck-based cards.
* ''Manga/YuGiOhR'': Seto Kaiba mocks the Wicked God Cards and says they are nothing but cheap knockoffs of the Egyptian God Cards.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions'': Seto Kaiba duels a holographic simulation of Yami Yugi. When Kaiba easily wins, he says the simulation was nothing compared to the real Yami Yugi.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Edo Phoenix constantly calls Judai Yuki's Elemental Hero monsters fakers and inferior to his Destiny Hero monsters. Edo also hates Judai for only dueling for fun and not treating the card game as SeriousBusiness like he does, and says he doesn't deserve to use Hero monsters at all. Judai eventually manages to win Edo's respect.
* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Light looks down on L's successors, Near and Mello, contemptuously regarding them as inferior to L and unworthy of his mantle. He's especially enraged to see Near wearing a mask of L's face.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** On death's door, Whitebeard tells Blackbeard, whose crew just ganged up on him, that he's not the man Gold Roger was waiting for, though we have yet to fully understand the meaning behind his words.
** Kaido does this to Kidd [[spoiler: after easily defeating his crew]] by telling him to send a message to the rest of "the worst generation" that they've just been playing "little pirate games" so far. Further, after beating up [[TheHero Luffy]], Kaido downright says "The Worst Generation. Screw 'em."

* ''Literature/TheDetectiveIsAlreadyDead'': When Nagisa says she is the deceased Siesta's successor as a detective, Charlotte mocks her as a little girl playing make-believe cops and robbers and that only Charlotte herself deserves that title. Nagisa gets pissed off and roars that Charlotte doesn't know how much she worked and sacrificed to get to where she is.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13441807/1/Date-a-density Date a density]]'': Ellen Mira Mathers attacks and reveals her PoweredArmor named Pendragon and weapons named after King Arthur's. Shido Itsuka, who is a reincarnated alternate Shirou Emiya, thinks to himself that she is nothing compared to Saber.

* ''{{VideoGame/Cyberpunk 2077}}'':

** A villainous example from ''[[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender The Last Airbender]]'':

** In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' episode "The Voice in the Night", Tarrlok brings up Aang's defeat of a man named Yakone 42 years before the start of the series during his speech calling for an anti-Amon task force, resulting in Tenzin chewing him out for it. Considering that Tenzin is Aang's son, he was rightly outraged by Tarrlok's comparison. Ironically, it would turn out that [[spoiler:Tarrlok and Amon are ''both'' sons of Yakone]].

** In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'', the Joker calls the Jokerz gang, "A disgrace to the name Joker." This also comes up during the climactic fight, and gets an IronicEcho when [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond Terry, the new Batman]], [[IShallTauntYou taunts the Joker]] with "I thought you ''wanted'' to make Batman laugh!"
--->'''Joker:''' '''''[[VillainousBreakdown YOU'RE NOT BATMAN!]]'''''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' has Buddy, a [[{{Muggle}} powerless]] (though [[GadgeteerGenius talented]]) fanboy of Mr. Incredible. Bob brushes him off for several reasons, among them that he was just a kid, that he followed Mr. Incredible around to incessantly harass him (which put Buddy and others in very real, life-threatening danger), and that he was really, ''really'' irritating. Unfortunately, Buddy took the brush-off as Bob saying he'll NeverBeAHero because he hasn't got superpowers [[spoiler:and [[StartOfDarkness grew up to massacre innocent Supers]] ''specifically'' to screw over Bob in revenge]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'':
** 2003 Raph tries to suck up to the more badass Mirage Turtles by ripping on the 1987 Turtles' initialed belt buckles. This causes his Mirage counterpart to roughly twist his arm behind him before shoving him. The Mirage Turtles first comments to the others are mumblings about "colored bandanas" and "wannabes". As a kind of BrickJoke, Mirage Michaelangelo says he kinda dug the belt buckles in the ending scene.
** 2003 Shredder is disgusted by 1987 Shredder and says he takes the Shredder's name in vain.

-->'''Vegeta''': ''"Wow... what a ripoff."''

** The prequel book ''Recap/StartOfDarkness'' has one as a Hannibal Lecture from Xykon to [[WellIntentionedExtremist Redcloak]]: Xykon mocks Redcloak for being "whiny, 'evil, but for a good cause'" rather than "capital-E Evil" and explains to him that he'll never be as effective a villain as Xykon because he, unlike Xykon, has lines he won't cross.

** "Birds of a Feather" has the Penguin being mocked for trying to pass himself off as one of Gotham's cultural elite (and failing miserably). He doesn't take it well.

** In the pilot, "Rebirth", as the Jokerz, a street gang styled after The Joker, face Bruce Wayne, [[MuggingTheMonster thinking he's just some old man]].

'''Bruce:''' ''Sure'' you are. (''decks him with a bit of CaneFu'')

** In "The Call", Superman invites Terry to join the Justice League, but the other members say he's not the real Batman, just some punk. Terry manages to win their respect by saving the world.
** In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'', the Joker calls the Jokerz gang, "A disgrace to the name Joker." This also comes up during the climactic fight, and gets an IronicEcho when [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond Terry, the new Batman]], [[IShallTauntYou taunts the Joker]] with "I thought you ''wanted'' to make Batman laugh!"
--->'''Joker:''' '''''[[VillainousBreakdown YOU'RE NOT BATMAN!]]'''''

** A thug, being threatened by the Flash, in the episode "Secret Society" [[spoiler:just before Flash drops him off a building to get some information]]:
--->'''Thug:''' Look, buddy, I know Batman. I once ratted out a counterfeiter to Batman. And believe me, you are no Batm--[[spoiler: AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!]]
** Another variation shows up in "Hereafter" when Lobo tries to invite himself into the League to replace Superman after his [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated apparent death]]:

*** Though in the end, it's revealed she ''does'' have some marginal Native American heritage from Homer's side of the family. [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot She never thought of asking him anything]], and her response to Homer mentioning that fact of his family tree is a deadpan [[LampshadeHanging “yeah, I think I should have”.]]

** The ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' movies had just become popular, and quite a few of the "cool" kids at school begun dressing like vampires (complete with fangs and capes, and drinking tomato juice while pretending it's blood). The Goth quartet already seen in earlier episodes is annoyed at this, especially since they now get mistaken for vampires themselves due to their [[AwesomeAnachronisticApparel antiquated black clothing]] and LooksLikeCesare face paint. They angrily tell the "little Justin and Britney wannabes" to stop pretending to be somebody they're not... but, ironically, [[YouAreWhatYouHate the Goths fit this description themselves]]. In fact, it's revealed that the only difference between them and the "vampire" kids is that they chose to become "Goth" not as the result of a fad, but because they were social outcasts who were picked on by the other children and so decided to embrace their outsider status as dramatically as possible -- that, and also the fact that they presumably made their costumes and makeup at home rather than buying them prefab from Hot Topic at the mall. They end up giving a speech before the entire school in which they pointedly explain the differences between Goths and "vampires". [[DisproportionateRetribution And burning Hot Topic to the ground so the vamp-kids can't buy their clothes anymore.]]

* People who read pre-''Twilight'' era vampire books feel this towards ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' and its FollowTheLeader style books. Of course, some of them can get just as vehement about what vampires are and are not ("scary!" "romantic!" "nocturnal only!" "sparkles during the day!" etc.) that they're almost as bad.

* ''LightNovel/LordElMelloiIICaseFiles'': Hephaestion mocks Waver Velvet and says he's so weak and average that he does not deserve to call himself one of Iskandar's followers. While Waver is very shaken up by this, he manages to retort that he never saw her when Iskandar summoned his BadassArmy, Ionian Hetairoi, back in ''Literature/FateZero'', so she's not a real follower of Iskandar either.

* ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'': After Siegfried sacrificed his life to save the Homunculus, the being names himself Sieg in his honor. Sieg later discovers he has inherited Siegfried's power and can temporarily transform into Siegfried. Mordred mocks Sieg as nothing but a faker and a cheap knockoff. Like Shirou, however, Sieg is under no illusions about this, though he declares it still won't stop him from fighting to pay tribute to Siegfried's memory.
* ''LightNovel/LordElMelloiIICaseFiles'': Hephaestion mocks Waver Velvet and says he's so weak and average that he does not deserve to call himself one of Iskandar's followers. While Waver is very shaken up by this, he manages to retort that he never saw her when Iskandar summoned his BadassArmy, Ionian Hetairoi, back in ''LightNovel/FateZero'', so she's not a real follower of Iskandar either.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Brunhild Eiktobel is one of the {{Valkyries}}. When she meets GREMLIN member Hel, who emulates the Norse Goddess Hel, Brunhild mocks her as an idiot and says ''she'' used to have that title.

* ''LightNovel/TheDetectiveIsAlreadyDead'': When Nagisa says she is the deceased Siesta's successor as a detective, Charlotte mocks her as a little girl playing make-believe cops and robbers and that only Charlotte herself deserves that title. Nagisa gets pissed off and roars that Charlotte doesn't know how much she worked and sacrificed to get to where she is.
* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Since Shiori and Kanae are agents of the ancient Lion Steel MegaCorp who used to employ only ArtificialIntelligence androids, when one of them, Olivia, meets them, she gives them one of these. Considering said androids are each a OneManArmy due to their LostTechnology, one can see her point.

* ''Fanfic/CharlemagneAndAsiasMagnificentJourney'': Lancer Artoria Alter mocks the ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'' verse's Excalibur, calling it a fake because it broke and is much weaker than the ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'' Excalibur, which is indestructible and is the crystalization of mankind's wishes.

* In a similar fashion, there have been many homeless people and homelessness activists who have criticized [[LivesInAVan van-life culture]] (which, as its name suggests, involves people choosing to live in renovated vehicles such as vans and recreational vehicles) as essentially "[[PovertyPorn gentrified homelessness]]". Namely, many homeless people feel that van-lifers - many of whom are middle- to upper-class - are essentially choosing to appropriate a lifestyle that many homeless people have been ''forced'' into live, and taking all of the perks of living in a van (e.g., freedom of movement and avoiding to pay rents or mortgage on traditional housing), without the socioeconomic stigma or drawbacks of genuine homelessness.

* At the climax of ''ComicBook/CivilWar'', Hercules delivers one to the Pro-Reg side's evil Thor clone.

** Luffy sees ComicBook/TheJoker as no real threat, dismissing him as a lesser version of both [[CriminalMastermind Doflamingo]] and [[MonsterClown Buggy]].

* In ''Fanfic/{{Justice}}'', [[Manga/OnePiece Jinbe]] sees [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Aquaman]] as a spoiled child compared to King Neptune and Queen Otohime who resorts to threats of violence to protect his people as opposed to the diplomacy his royalty strived for.

* ''LightNovel/FateRequiem'': Erice Utsumi dislikes fighting in tournaments, saying fights that are not to the death are not real fights and are nothing but a mockery. Karin scolds her and says tournament fighters still give it their all and deserve respect.

* One of the most famous examples: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senator,_you%27re_no_Jack_Kennedy "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."]] Context for this example since it is cited so many times in this article: just before the debate, the Democrats were making an issue of Quayle's young age, and whether he was old enough to be president. He pointed out that JFK had been not much older when he became president. It seems plausible that much of Senator Bentsen's outrage at Quayle daring to compare himself to Kennedy was feigned, since mentioning Kennedy was an obvious counterargument to the age argument. The age issue quickly disappeared from the campaign; the "no Jack Kennedy" meme was more effective anyway. "More effective" being a relative term, since the Bush/Quayle ticket defeated Dukakis/Bentsen by a large margin. Also, Bentsen was in private business during much of Kennedy's political career (they ''did'' in fact serve together in the House from 1948 -- when Bentsen took his seat -- to 1953 -- when Kennedy was elected to the Senate) and never was a friend of John Kennedy, as annoyed Kennedy people pointed out.

* In the ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' series, we had [[BigBad Albert Simon]] of the first game as the ultimate in opponents for protagonist, Yuri [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "God Slayer"]] Hyuga. However in the sequel ''Shadow Hearts: Covenant'' we have the terrorist cult Sapentis Gladio who fancy themselves even greater opponents than dear old Albert, their leader even makes the phenomenal mistake of putting down Simon prior to his boss fight with Yuri, following the fight he lays broken and dying with Yuri immediately dissing him for even remotely comparing himself to a true Big Bad.
--> ''"Albert was a hundred times stronger than you!"''

* Series/TheMandalorian offers several looks into what a Mandalorian really is. Din at first declares Bo-Katan to not be a real Mandalorian for removing [[SignatureHeadgear her helmet]], and she dismisses him as [[TheFundamentalist a zealot]] for keeping his on. He also insists on retaking a set of Mandalorian armor from marshal Dune, who doesn't pretend to be Mandalorian but recognizes a good set of armor when he sees one, and then returns the armor to Boba Fett, who also doesn't profess to be a Mandalorian but wants the armor as a family heirloom; because his adoptive father was a Mandalorian foundling, Din believes Boba to be a legitimate owner of the armor, whereas because he is [[TrulySingleParent a clone of his adoptive father]], Bo-Katan believes him to not be a Mandalorian and [[CloningBlues barely even a person]]. Some time later, Bo-Katan's old lieutenant Axe Woves again calls Din "a misguided zealot" and claims he has not one drop of Mandalorian blood, but [[CharacterDevelopment Bo-Katan now defends Din]], as he took the Creed and Mandalorians are a people defined by their ethos, not their race or home planet.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'': After Simba blames Kovu for the Outsiders' attempt on his life and banishes him from the Pride Lands, Kiara urges him to give Kovu another chance. Simba defends his decision, saying that he's following in the late Mufasa's pawprints, just like Kovu is apparently following in Scar's. Kiara is furious that he'd even dare bring him into this, and yells that he'll never be the king his father was. As you can imagine, Simba, who loved and admired Mufasa so dearly, is deeply hurt by this statement.

* Wrestling/JimCornette really hates {{Garbage Wrestler}}s (he's called ECW "hardcore bullshit") and comedy wrestlers like Wrestling/JoeyRyan, Wrestling/KennyOmega, Wrestling/OrangeCassidy, and Wrestling/ChuckTaylor, saying they make a mockery of the business and are not real wrestlers. He used to feel this way about Wrestling/ColtCabana, but later admitted that Cabana is a real wrestler; he just wishes he'd stop doing comedy skits in the middle of matches. He's criticized Marko Stunt and Wrestling/JohnnyGargano (he's acknowledged Gargano's legitimate skills, but says he doesn't belong in the ring and should just be a trainer instead) for being short and Wrestling/KevinOwens and Wrestling/JoeyJanela for being fat. He's also called Wrestling/TheYoungBucks less talented [[Wrestling/MattHardy Hardy]] [[Wrestling/JeffHardy Boyz]] imitators, mocking them as the "Hardly Boys". He gave a rant denouncing Wrestling/LuchaUnderground as fake. He ''really'' hates Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling and derides them as nothing but cosplayers pretending to be wrestlers. He is also not a fan of wrestlers with supernatural gimmicks like Wrestling/BrayWyatt and several of the GimmickMatches. Though he hated Wrestling/TheUndertaker's supernatural gimmick, he admitted he has real talent and was happy when Undertaker made it into the WWE Hall of Fame.