History Main / TauntButton

[[caption-width-right:350:Draw me like one of your Street Fighters]]

** The ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' games have a dedicated taunt button; ''Brawl'' has three dedicated taunt buttons, in fact. Of interest is Luigi's taunt, more of a quirk, a bashful scuffing of the ground but it is the only one to do some damage - 1%. In ''Melee'', if you managed to [[FingerPokeOfDoom KO someone with a taunt]], you got a trophy, but if Luigi did it to someone hanging onto a ledge, [[EpicFail they would burst into flames and be sent hurtling downwards]].
*** In ''Brawl'', every character has three different taunts. Fox, Falco, and Snake can also access [[EasterEgg Easter Eggs]] on their home stages through taunting (Corneria/Lylat Cruise and Shadow Moses Island, respectively); these are [[http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/howto/technique/technique11.html known as Smash Taunts at the official Smash Bros. DOJO!!]]. In addition, Snake's taunt can hurt people too, but it's not as effective as Luigi's.

* The ''Franchise/DevilMayCry'' games have a Taunt button that, when used within a certain distance of enemies, raises your [[AwesomenessMeter style rating]] and gives you extra [[SuperMode DT orbs]]. The taunt animations themselves change based on what your current rank is and/or how long you hold down the button.

** [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Then there's the Soldier's Equalizer taunt which consists of him blowing himself up with a grenade.]]

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'' included prerecorded audio taunts that could be accessed by typing a number into the chat bar, which had a few lines from the campaign characters. The best are undoubtedly [[BigBad Gargarensis']] "Turn back now, mortal!" and [[TheBigGuy Ajax's]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome "You may feel less like fighting]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny after I pull off your head!"]]

** Parodied in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' by first by Spider-Man and making him the resident taunter of the Marvel side before regular [[BreakingTheFourthWall Fourth Wall Breaker]], {{Deadpool}}. His taunts consist of him merely yelling out, "Taunt button!" and "This is my taunt! (Heh! Get it?)"[[note]]The part in brackets does not appear in his speech bubble. He just says it without one.[[/note]] Hitting the opponent with the speech bubble also does a sliver of damage. Amusingly, it comboes into his "Shootin' Time" super.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dedede_taunt.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Draw me like one of your Street Fighters]]

* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' features Morte's Litany of Curses, where Morte insults an opponent with a chance of driving them berserk and making them target Morte with melee attacks, which is good either for making Morte the party tank or for neutralizing spellcasters.

* ''50 Cent: Blood in the Sand'', has a button relegated just to swearing and trash talking. You get bonus money for taunting people you've killed, moreso if you buy upgraded ones.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsEpisodeIRacer'' had a useless taunt function that had to be assigned to a button, whether you employed it or not. Unfortunately, since only one playable character (Anakin) was human, ''every single other racer'' taunted in an alien language, and half the time anakin himself yelled his taunts in Huttese (and the other half contained [[{{narm}} such gems as "Eat fumes, wormo!"]]), which basically turned it into a PardonMyKlingon Button.

* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}} 2: The Chosen'' had a button relegated to making the player character quip something at nearby enemies/corpses. Served absolutely no purpose other than letting the player hear the character talk about death and destruction more than he would on his own.

* In the Jetstream DLC of ''Videogame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', Sam can taunt enemies, which causes them to be more aggressive but also decreases their defense. This works on everyone, including bosses.
* In ''Videogame/NierAutomata'', A2 has a taunt that works just like the above, enraging enemies while also making them take more damage.

* In [[GameMod Brutal]] ''VideoGame/{{DOOM}}'', there's a button to laugh at the demons, as well as a button to FlipTheBird at them and shout something vaguely incoherent and obscene at them. Neither has much of a practical purpose, since all it does is just alert them that you're there--you might as well fire a gun at one of them if you really need to do that. What it does do, however, is [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu let you flip off all the various huge, powerful bosses in the series]] just because you ''can''.

* Tournament {{fighting game}}s with {{Taunt Button}}s are so common that it's almost a [[IncrediblyLamePun tauntology]] and not worth listing every example of.

** The ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' games have a dedicated TauntButton; ''Brawl'' has three dedicated taunt buttons, in fact. Of interest is Luigi's taunt, more of a quirk, a bashful scuffing of the ground but it is the only one to do some damage - 1%. In ''Melee'', if you managed to [[FingerPokeOfDoom KO someone with a taunt]], you got a trophy, but if Luigi did it to someone hanging onto a ledge, [[EpicFail they would burst into flames and be sent hurtling downwards]].

** Dan Hibiki of ''StreetFighter'' often has multiple taunts. [[JokeCharacter He even has a super that is basically an extended, glorified taunt that does nothing other than raising his and his opponent's super gauges.]]

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsEpisodeIRacer'' had a useless Taunt function that had to be assigned to a button, whether you employed it or not. Unfortunately, since only one playable character (Anakin) was human ''every single other racer'' taunted in an alien language, which basically turned it into a PardonMyKlingon Button. Half the time Anakin himself yelled in Huttese, and the few English taunts contained gems such as [[{{Narm}} "Eat fumes, wormo!"]]

The earliest and most common form of this trope is the ability to make the player's character [[IShallTauntYou perform a taunting gesture]] (hence the title), this context occuring earliest in 2D arcade fighters and their ports. (In some cases the taunting action is allowed to inflict ScratchDamage if it connects with another player, but the effect is so trivial that it may be ignored, save for the occasional CherryTapping.)

** One ''TheDukesOfHazzard'' racing game featured [[RuleOfCool a "Yee-haw!" button]].

* Some games in the ''TalesSeries'' have a taunt that characters can perform, usually to fill one AwesomenessMeter or another. For instance, in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', it fills the Unison Attack gauge, which when activated pauses the enemy in its tracks to allow each character in the party an uninterrupted special attack move; in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'', which has no Unison Attack, it instead brings the taunting character closer to [[LimitBreak Over Limit]].

** Taunting in [[VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2MarkOfTheMillennium Capcom vs. SNK 2]] actually builds YOUR OPPONENT'S super meter, pretty much discouraging anyone from taunting for any reason (other than maybe they feel charitable.)

* The characters in ''Videogame/KillingFloor'' can openly mock either enemy specimens or allies alike in three short keystrokes. Made even funnier with their ridiculously [[LargeHam hammy]] BritishAccents.

*** Spiritual predecessor ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' had Taunts on one button... and if pressed with the Forward button, they became ''Respects''. These were, of course, indistinguishable to non-Japanese speakers.

** In ''Looney Tunes Racing'' for the PlayStation, characters have taunts that they do when the player presses the button that is used for firing weapons if they don't have any. Examples:

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' has Gestures, which cannot be cancelled and are, overall, pretty useless. Doesn't stops people from using the fan favorite "Well! What Is It!" when facing other players.

* ''VideoGame/{{Myth}}'' and ''{{Oni}}'' have a unique taunt for each unit which can be activated manually, and is also used as a victory cheer at the end of each level in ''Myth''.
* Racing games may allocate one button for sounding the vehicle's horn. While this is to be expected from any vehicular SimulationGame, it occasionally turns up in other vehicular subgenres.

** ''Earthbound'': While riding the bicycle, you can ring the bell. Enjoy.

* Typing "/rude" in ''WorldOfWarcraft'' will cause your character to make a funny or insulting gesture at their target. For instance, blood elves make silly faces and female trolls mime 'kiss my ass.' There's also /spit, /golfclap (Sarcastic clapping) /slap.

*** [[TheMightyThor Thor]], meanwhile, takes this trope UpToEleven and beyond with his "[[FanNickname Mighty Speech]]", a taunt so long and so powerful that it builds his super meter. Of course, [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim very few opponents would actually let you complete it in a fight]], but it's fun either way.

** It's also a mild game play mechanic as taunting enemies enrages them and combos against enraged enemies grant a small halo bonus. Also holding down the taunt button will make Bayonetta start a long-winded taunt a la [[TheMightyThor Thor]], which also fills a bit of her magic meter.