History Main / YouBastard

If done not-so-well, however, it can be quite {{Narm}}y and {{Anvilicious}}... And also somewhat hypocritical. After all, if the ''viewer'' is a bastard for passively enjoying this great evil, then what does that say about the ''[[CorruptCorporateExecutive producers]]'', who ultimately are actively churning out and ''exploiting'' said evil for [[EvilPaysBetter profit]]? What does that say about the ''creators'' who claim moral superiority by artificially creating a scenario, then [[BlamedForBeingRailroaded getting offended that player did exactly what was expected]], when, really, all the violence, pain, death, and suffering is on the part of the creator? And aren't ''other'' games really to blame for drilling the "everything is a target" and "[[{{Railroading}} your orders]] [[ButThouMust are absolute]]" messages into players' heads for 30 years?

* An issue of ''[[ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman Batman, Inc.]]'' ended with Comicbook/{{Catwoman}} and a young woman named Misaki being [[AllAnimeIsNaughtyTentacles wrapped up by an octopus]]. Earlier in the same issue, Catwoman had been disgusted by a {{hentai}} book she'd discovered, and asked what men found so appealing about women being tied up and groped by tentacles.

* The opening text in ''[[Comicbook/AvengersVsXMen A-Babies vs. X-Babies]]'' mocks the reader for buying a book about small children beating the crap out of one another.

** [[SympathyfortheDevil Who killed the Kennedys? You and me.]]

* In ''Theatre/TheTrailtoOregon!'', the Father swallows snake venom and gains awareness of the audience while tripping out. He hears a voice saying the "Watchers" have chosen a family member to die of dysentery, and promptly calls out the audience.

** Creator/ELFCorporation's infamous ''Shūsaku'' plays around with this trope, in keeping with the game [[BreakingTheFourthWall playing fast and loose with the fourth wall]]. The game begins with the titular character AddressingThePlayer, straight up telling them that the goal of his EvilPlan is to infiltrate a women's dormitory for promising, affluent conservatory students, disguised as the building's kindly old caretaker whose identity he has stolen, and use [[SinisterSurveillance hidden cameras]] to gather {{Blackmail}} material which he will then use to perform SexualExtortion upon the students, and he wants the player to aid him in this nefarious scheme. The player is then offered several dialogue choices, there is, of course, the one where the player agrees to help him and the story proper starts, but there is also one where the player can straight up tell him that they absolutely refuse to partake in these kinds of morally abhorrent activities and declare that it is their intention to go back to the game store to trade the game in for "pure love" story. Shūsaku himself is taken aback by this reaction, and starts to increasingly desperately beg the player to assist him, but if the player continues to persist in their refusal, he eventually gives up, calls the player a "{{hypocrite}}", upon which the game crashes to desktop.

** While Hanako's path was intended from the very beginning to drop this trope on the player (according to WordOfGod), Rin's can also be interpreted similarly. If you really give it some thought, you will realize very quickly that from the very moment you first meet her, [[spoiler: it's incredibly obvious that something is off about Rin's behavior. But she's just so charming, isn't she? Her quirkiness is just so adorable, it's probably just a sign of true intelligence!. And then you go, and, as Hisao, push her further and further into insanity ''despite her constant (in the beginning) objections and the fact that she obviously isn't interested'', because ''she's so smart and cute, right?'' One of the endings implies that she'll ''kill herself'' because of the "lessons" you taught her]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* You don't even need the cast to help you along in ''WebComic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal''.

* ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' regularly uses this when covering niche games, [[AuthorFilibuster directly attacking]] the audience for choosing games like ''Videogame/{{Halo}}'' over ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'', ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' or ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''. Especially you, Adrian! And this is his alternate title for ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter3Tri''.

And you're left to wonder in shame. Or, [[SturgeonsLaw perhaps]], [[MindScrew confusion]].

-->-- '''Creator/BenCroshaw''' (reviewing ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter Tri''), ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''.

This trope is when the ''work'' calls out the audience. See YouMonster for when this line is used on a character. For video games, it can overlap with VideoGameCrueltyPotential and/or VideoGameCrueltyPunishment. See WhatTheHellPlayer.

* Wrestling/MickFoley in general has become famous for doing this. Take, for example, his EnemyMine teamup with Wrestling/{{Edge}} against the {{reviv|al}}ed Wrestling/{{ECW}} promotion in the spring of 2006. Foley declared that he hated ECW because it had forced him to shed blood for the company. Although he was technically lambasting Wrestling/PaulHeyman and not the fans, it was hard not to feel a little soiled if you were an ECW aficionado. Mick actually suggested the Mankind name expressly so he could ambiguously do You Bastard material, talking about the evil and ugliness of Mankind in a way in which he may be referring to himself, or to all humans in general.

* A less mean version in ''Film/TheTrumanShow'', with 'audience' characters watching the show-within-the-show clearly also representing the film's viewers, who will be caught up in the events of someone else's life, claim to be deeply moved, then flip channels to see what else is on.

* In ''Machinima/FalloutLoreTheStoryteller'', the Storyteller at one point calls out ''Fallout'' players who play the game as murderous senseless lunatics while showing what the true aftermath and reaction to such a person's actions would be like.

** ELF Corporation's infamous ''Shūsaku'' plays around with this trope, in keeping with the game [[BreakingTheFourthWall playing fast and loose with the fourth wall]]. The game begins with the titular character AddressingThePlayer, straight up telling them that the goal of his EvilPlan is to infiltrate a women's dormitory for promising, affluent conservatory students, disguised as the place's kindly old caretaker whose identity he has stolen, and use [[SinisterSurveillance hidden cameras]] to gather {{Blackmail}} material which he will then use to perform SexualExtortion upon the students, and he wants the player to aid him in this nerferious scheme. The player is then offered several dialogue choices, there is, of course, the one where the player agrees to help him and the story proper starts, but there is also one where the player can straight up tell him that they absolutely refuse to partake in these kinds of morally abhorrent activities and declare that it is their intention to go back to the game store to trade the game in for "pure love" story. Shūsaku himself is taken aback by this reaction, and starts to increasingly desperately beg the player to assist him, but if the player continues to persist in their refusal, he eventually gives up, calls the player a "{{hypocrite}}", upon which the game crashes to desktop.

** ELF Corporation's infamous ''Shūsaku'' plays around with this trope, in keeping with the game [[BreakingTheFourthWall playing fast and loose with the fourth wall]]. The game begins with the titular character AddressingThePlayer, straight up telling them that the goal of his EvilPlan is to infiltrate a women's dormitory for promising, affluent conservatory students, disguised as the place's kindly old caretaker whose identity he has stolen, and use [[SinisterSurveillance hidden cameras]] to gather {{Blackmail}} material which he will then use to perform SexualExtortion upon the students, and he wants the player to aid him in this nerferious scheme. The player is then offered several dialogue choices, there is, of course, which is to agree to help him, which starts the game proper, but there is also one where the player can straight up tell him that they absolutely refuse to partake in these kinds of morally abhorrent activities and declare that it is their intention to go back to the game store to trade the game in for "pure love" story. Shūsaku himself is taken aback by this reaction, and starts to increasingly desperatedly beg the player to assist him, but if the player continues to persist in their refusal, he eventually gives up, calls the player a "{{hypocrite}}", upon which the game crashes to desktop.

** ELF Corporation's infamous ''Shūsaku'' plays around with this trope, in keeping with the game [[BreakingTheFourthWall playing fast and loose with the fourth wall]]. The game begins with the titular character AddressingThePlayer, straight up telling them that the goal of his EvilPlan is to infiltrate a women's dormitory for promising, affluent conservatory students, disguised as the place's kindly old caretaker whose identity he has stolen, and use [[SinisterSurveillance hidden cameras]] to gather {{Blackmail}} material which he will then use to perform SexualExtortion upon the students, and he wants the player to aid him in this nerferious scheme. The player is then offered several dialogue choices, once of which is to agree to help him, but there is also one where the player can straight up tell him that they absolutely refuse to partake in these kinds of morally abhorrent activities and declare that it is their intention to go back to the game store to trade the game in for "pure love" story. Shūsaku himself is taken aback by this reaction, and starts to increasingly desperatedly beg the player to assist him, but if the player continues to persist in their refusal, he eventually gives up, calls the player a "{{hypocrite}}", upon which the game crashes to desktop.

* Some ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' missions are designed to set this up, where for once the [[PlayerCharacter PCs]] ''did'' have the knowledge and skills to do the right thing, but instead chose to screw things up for their own personal gain. In particular, two of the missions in ''WMD'' turn it UpToEleven, giving the [=PCs=] the opportunity to be promoted ''multiple'' clearance levels while most of the population [[spoiler:starves to death]] or [[spoiler:gets memory-wiped every few days]].

** The final case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Justice for All'' takes this trope UpToEleven. [[spoiler:First, Phoenix has to essentially [[BreakTheCutie accuse the innocent]] [[IronWoobie Adrian Andrews]] of murdering the victim...and then it gets worse. Phoenix is then forced to make the SadisticChoice between getting Matt Engarde [[KarmaHoudini acquitted]], or having Maya's kidnapper, the assassin Shelley de Killer make good on his threat to kill her.]] It hits ''hard'' on both sides of the fourth wall. That's part of the reason why it is [[spoiler:such a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome when Phoenix is able to turn de Killer against Engarde]].

** Part of Hanako's fanbase and, on her route, Hisao, are attracted to her because she is TheWoobie, [[UpToEleven even more than the other girls]]. But in her worst ending, [[spoiler:she snaps at Hisao, telling him that she believes he, Lilly and everyone else see her as a "broken" individual and pity her, declaring that she hates him and Lilly]]. These comments can just as easily apply to some of her fans.

* ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' regularly uses this when covering niche games, [[AuthorFilibuster directly attacking]] the audience for choosing games like ''Videogame/{{Halo}}'' over ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'', ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' or ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''. Especially you, Adrian! And this is his alternate title for ''Monster Hunter Tri''.

* The true crime documentary "Don't F**k With Cats" ends on this note. The person responsible for first the animal abuse videos and then more serious crimes was doing them for the attention that people pay to horrible things. And you just watched an entire documentary about him. Isn't that giving him exactly what he wanted?

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': "[[GrandFinale The Finale]]" received a lot of criticism that it seemed like co-creator/writer Creator/LarryDavid was lecturing the audience that they were wrong to be finding the protagonists funny for nine years, as they were put on trial where [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters every single person they dealt with and/or screwed over]] returned [[ContinuityCavalcade to remind everyone of their long history of shameful deeds]], ending with them being sentenced to prison time.

** In ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', Monokuma again points out that "Nobody wants to see a story where a bunch of students [[TastesLikeDiabetes hang around on an island and get along]]!", and implies that ''you'' only started playing because you wanted to see how the massacre went.
** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' takes it UpToEleven. [[spoiler:The game is a MetaSequel where the previous games and anime are just that: games and anime. The ''Danganronpa'' property is so popular that it got adapted into a reality show where real high schoolers are mindwiped, implanted with the false identities of ''Danganronpa'' characters, and thrown into a real killing game; and they all signed up for it willingly, either for fame, money, or simply to live out every ''Danganronpa'' fan's fantasy of being a part of that world. The entire second half of the final trial is a massive "You Bastard!" to the fanbase for deriving entertainment from watching teenagers slaughter each other and suffer heartbreak and loss over and over again, or worse, wanting to actually ''be'' one of them. Have you ever wondered what you would do if you were in the same situation as the students of any given ''Danganronpa'' game? Ever imagined, drawn, or commissioned a drawing of yourself as a ''Danganronpa'' character? Wondered what your Ultimate talent would be? Wondered what your ''execution'' would be? Wrote a fanfic where you create a whole new bunch of kids and put them through the same paces? The game calls all of it out and then [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun ends with you fighting against the]] ''[[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun Danganronpa]]'' [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun fanbase with the explicit goal of pissing them off with a lame ending so that they lose interest in]] ''[[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun Danganronpa]]'' [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun and stop watching]], thus preventing future killing games from happening since the franchise is no longer profitable. Needless to say, [[BrokenBase this ending is very polarizing amongst the real-life fanbase]]]].

* ''Anime/ReCreators'' kind of implies it in-universe. The only way to stop the BigBad Altair/Military Uniform Princess (an evil fictional character who entered the real world) was to give her everything that she wanted; as a popular and charismatic villainous character, the power of fandom made it so that people were never going to accept her being defeated and gave her enough abilities to make her functionally omnipotent, even if the result was going to be the destruction of their real-life world. In our real world, however, it [[CreatorsPet did not]] [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic really work.]]

This works especially well in video games, in which [[ShootEverythingThatMoves murder]] and [[KleptomaniacHero theft]] are the generally accepted ways to advance, without thought to moral consequences. If done well, it can be thought-provoking and unsettling, giving the reader / viewer / player pause to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone consider the moral implications]] of what they may have previously considered just a bit of fun. It may prompt them to examine both their motivations in reading this and the motivations of the hero -- who, if they engage in numerous acts [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality that would be condemned if done by anyone else]], [[MoralDissonance may look less and less heroic]].

* ''Series/{{Oz}}'': When a PrisonRiot breaks out and the prisoners wind up taking hostages, [[GreekChorus Hill]] chides the audience for rooting for the prisoners and having forgotten that they're all criminals, which is immediately followed by a scene of the prisoners, including the initially sympathetic [[TheAtoner Alvarez]], abusing their captives.

* There's a genre of porn in which a woman continuously berates the viewer for having ADateWithRosiePalms, allegedly having no social life and tiny genitals, all while doing a striptease. It can be a bit jarring if you're not familiar with it.

So you've read the whole thing, haven't you? By [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife wasting your time reading this page]] made up of zeros and ones that only matter to evil nerds, instead of donating to charity or reading a book, you have killed '''THOUSANDS''' of starving Somali children by reading trivia for fun. [[YouMonster I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY!]]

* Franchise/{{Batman}} examples:

* Done beautifully several times in ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'', most memorably in a [[WholeEpisodeFlashback Whole Issue Flashback]] that gives ADayInTheLimelight to a helmeted {{Mook|s}} who died in the first issue or two, showing a rather sad life that ran down to that conclusion. It's less {{Anvilicious}} than it sounds, largely because the series makes a point of showing the GreyAndGrayMorality behind a seemingly black-and-white conflict.

* Done indirectly late in ''[[ComicBook/EarthX Paradise X]]'', as Loki berates Odin for making him (and a large portion of the other Asgardians) evil. "We fought and died and were brought back to life over and over again for your damned comic book need for excitement!"

* OlderThanFeudalism: In [[Literature/TheBible the New Testament]] a very nice guy named UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} with holy, life-saving powers is tortured and executed in the most brutal way possible. And whose fault is it? Not the Jews, not the Romans, it's all YOUR fault!

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', when telling the story of the rape of Tom Riddle Sr., Dumbledore gives one to Harry, and by extension, the readers, who thought that using a LovePotion was entirely harmless.