Dispense with the Pleasantries

Jerjerrod: Lord Vader, this is an unexpected pleasure. We're honored by your presence.
Darth Vader: You may dispense with the pleasantries, Commander. I'm here to put you back on schedule.

— Return of the Jedi

Let's say a conversation that's supposed to be about a particular subject is starting up. Perhaps it's part of a meeting at work. Perhaps you're being confronted about something you did in the past. Perhaps you're just chatting with a friend who is hell-bent on quickly discussing that subject.

One side of the conversation will start it with flattery and/or small-talk, perhaps out of fondness for such things, perhaps to suck up, or perhaps simply as a way to put off addressing the relevant subject. The other side, however, will have none of it; they want to get straight to the point, and won't let flattery or small talk distract or delay them. They tell the other side to dispense with the pleasantries and get down to business right away.

Often overlaps with Don't Call Me "Sir". Shut Up, Hannibal!/Shut Up, Kirk! moments may qualify as this if the corresponding Breaking Speech or Kirk Summation is polite in tone. It's one reason for Talk About the Weather.

Sister trope to Hates Small Talk.

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But enough of the description, let's get to the examples.

Anime & Manga

• Dragon Ball: When a squadron from the Red Ribbon Army comes to recruit Master Roshi, thinking he is a scientist, The Leader of the group utters this phrase word for word after an extended conversation where Roshi is mocking the organization.
• In Cross Ange, Ange is not a fan of small talk when Misty is distraught at the fact that the former is a Norma.
• In Goodbye, My Rose Garden, near the end of the story, Edward, Alice's fiancé, asks to speak with her maid Hanako. Hanako starts to thank Edward for hosting her at his mansion in Hastings (in order to separate her and Alice), but he tells her, "Let us dispense with the forced pleasantries" and gets to the point- he knows that Alice is in love with Hanako and the rumors about her sexuality are true.

Comic Books

• The Sandman (1989): At one point, Morpheus sends Lucifer a message, wrapped up in highfalutin' diplomatic language. Lucifer cuts the messenger off midway through his recital of Lucifer's full list of titles and asks for "just the content".
  Cain: From the Lord of the Dreamworld, Prince of Stories, Monarch of the Sleeping Marches, His Darkness Dream of the Endless, to His Infernal Majesty, Lucifer, called Morningstar: greetings. Our right trusty and well-beloved cousin—
  Lucifer: No. Not the message. Just the content.

Fan Works

• The Night Unfurls:
  • In Chapter 20 of the original, Olga wants to meet Grace in hopes of making amends. The latter, who has a grudge towards the former, coolly tells her to ditch the platitudes and tell her what she wants.
  • Chapter 28 has Kyril and his apprentices entering a bar to find any leads to Mandeville. Not wasting any time, he takes out his pistol, fires at the ceiling to get everyone's attention, and says the following.
    Kyril: I killed quite a few of the Black Dogs and their orcs with this weapon. So... let's dispense with the welcome.

Films — Animated

• In Oliver & Company, when Fagin is visited by a mafia loan shark named Sykes; one whom Fagin owes money to and is implied not to be able to pay it back in time; he tries to put off admitting this by talking about the weather and about Sykes' dogs.
  Fagin: Oh, lovely evening, I was just saying this to your two lovely pure-bred...
  Sykes: ... the money, Fagin.
• Kung Fu Panda 2
  Lord Shen: Good afternoon, gentlemen. Now, we've got the pleasantries out of the way. Please leave my house.
  Storming Ox: Your house?
  Lord Shen: Yes, didn't you see the peacock on the front door?

Films — Live-Action

• The Fifth Element, Korben asks the President to stop thanking him and tell what the problem is now.
• Conspiracy (2001): Variation. When Heydrich walks into the villa to chair the Wannsee meeting, the other senior Nazis all perform a Hitler salute. Heydrich orders everyone to forego the greeting for the remainder of the discussions to cut down on time. This immediately sets the tone for the rest of the film: Heydrich's sole objective is to remove all red tape standing in the way of the Holocaust, not to discuss policy in any meaningful sense.
• D.E.B.S.: Ms. Petrie (the team's boss) arrives for a visit.
  Max: I just want to say what a pleasure it is to meet you.
  Ms. Petrie: No time for pleasantries.
• James Bond
  • From Russia with Love. When Rosa Klebb arrives by helicopter to recruit the SPECTRE assassin Red Grant, Morzeny says what an honor it is to meet her, and that Grant will be brought to his office. Klebb however replies that her time is limited and insists on being taken to where Grant is now.
  • The Spy Who Loved Me. Bond makes contact with a fellow agent in Egypt, who turns out to be a former classmate at Cambridge. When he offers refreshments, Bond prefers to get down to business. However when their business is concluded, an attractive Bedlah Babe enters their tent and Bond figures he might linger after all.
• In Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Gamora won't be distracted by the pleasantries:
  The Collector: Oh, my dear Gamora. How wonderful to meet in the flesh.
  Gamora: Let's bypass the formalities, Tivan. We have what we discussed.
• In Lean on Me, Clark makes abundantly clear at a teachers' meeting that flattery isn't going to work on him.
  Mr. O'Malley: We want to welcome Mr. Clark to Eastside; we've heard so much about you; and tell you what we have done in anticipation of your arrival. Mrs. Levias, your other vice principal, and I have appointed an executive committee to oversee certain areas where we have noted a need for improvement, and Mr. Zirella, for example...
  Joe: You may sit down, Mr. O'Malley.
• From the 1997 Leave It To Beaver movie:
  Eddie Haskell Jr.: You looked as though you just walked out the runway.
  June Cleaver: Eddie?
  Eddie Haskell Jr.: Yes Mrs. Cleaver?
  June Cleaver: Cut the crap.
• God to King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
  GOD: Arthur! Arthur, King of the Britons! Oh, don't grovel! If there's one thing I can't stand, it's people groveling.
  Arthur: Sorry—
  GOD: And don't apologize! Every time I try to talk to someone it's "sorry" this and "forgive me" that and "I'm not worthy". What are you doing now!?
  Arthur: I'm averting my eyes, O Lord.
  GOD: Well, don't! It's like those miserable Psalms— they're so depressing. Now knock it off!
• Murder on the Orient Express (2017). Ratchett has been getting anonymous death threats and wants to hire Hercule Poirot as a bodyguard, but he's been ignoring him. Eventually, Ratchett sits down at Poirot's table, saying he hates dining alone. Poirot quickly sees through his attempt at small talk.
  Poirot: I am of an age when I know what I like and what I do not like. What I like, I enjoy enormously. What I dislike I cannot abide. For instance the temporary pleasantries before what is determined to be a business discussion.
• Used in The Naked Jungle. It's a bad sign when this happens at your first meeting.
• Downplayed in Pretty Woman, where it at first seems to be this but turns out to be about redirecting the flattery to someone else.
  [After Edward informs salesclerk Hollister that he will be spending an obscene amount of money buying clothes for Vivian at Hollister's shop]
  Hollister: Mr. Lewis? How's it going so far?
  Edward: Pretty well, I think. I think we need some major sucking up.
  Hollister: Very well, sir. You're not only handsome but a powerful man. I could see the second you walked in here, you were someone to reckon with...
  Edward: Hollister.
  Hollister: Yes, sir?
  Edward: Not me. Her.
• At the end of Smokey and the Bandit, where Sheriff Justice and the Bandit are in virtual arm's length and communicate by C.B. radio:
  Bandit: Before I tell you where I am, I just want to tell you something. You must be part coon dog. 'Cause I've been chased by the best of 'em but you make 'em all look like they're running in slow motion. Just want to tell you that.
  Justice: (a little humbled) Well, thank you kindly, Mr. Bandit. And may I just say that as the pursuer, you're about the God damndest pursuee I ever pursued. Now that the mutual bullshit is over...WHERE ARE YOU, YOU SOMBITCH??!!
• Snatch. features Cousin Avi, a Jewish gangster from New York travelling to London to find the diamond stolen by his associate Franky Four Fingers. Upon arriving in London, he's greeted by his English cousin Doug the Head, who pretends to be Jewish purely to improve his reputation:
  Doug the Head: Avi!
  Avi: Shut up and sit down, you big bald fuck!
• Star Wars:
  • As implied by the page quotation, Darth Vader's blunt dismissal of Jerjerrod's flattery in Return of the Jedi provides the trope name.
  • Count Dooku when he calls Osi Sobeck, tells him to "dispense with the proprietaries".
  • General Grievous says these exact words to Hondo Ohnaka after the latter tried to make small talk with him.
  Hondo Ohnaka: General Grievous, I presume? What a surprise. Have a seat. What may I ask is the honor?
  Grievous: You can dispense with the pleasantries, pirate. This planet is now under Separatist control.
• Tenet. When Barbara meets the Protagonist, she says they should avoid small talk so they'll know as little as possible about each other for security reasons.

Literature

• Afterglow (2015): Brooke quickly grows tired of Shannon's attempts at small-talk when she interrogates her.
• In The Count of Monte Cristo, this is a typical trait of the Baron Danglars's conversations; he's a very strict man with little tolerance for small talk.
• Evidence of Things Not Seen: When Sheriff Caldwell acts excessively formal towards Hallie Stillwell, the owner of the highway pull-out where Tommy's motorbike was found, she says, "For crying out loud, Eugene Caldwell, I have known you since you were a spit of a thing. Don't give me any of that 'Ms. Stillwell, I need to ask you a few questions' baloney. If you get all official on me, I'll official you right off my property." Later, she gets annoyed at him for trying to chat about the weather.
• A Frozen Heart: The King of the Southern Isles doesn't like to waste words and scolds Hans for not getting straight to the point.
• Haruhi Suzumiya: In the short story "Remote Island Syndrome", Haruhi starts out extremely polite to the owner of the mansion. He then mentions that he's surprised since he has heard she's rather... direct. At this point, she dispenses with the pleasantries and launches a barrage of questions about how many mysterious events, murders, etc. have taken place there.
• In The Hobbit, Beorn loses patience after the first handful of dwarves bow to him and say, "At your service," proceeding to brush the next ones off before they can say anything by telling them he doesn't need their service and they should just say their names.
• Inverted by Agatha Christie in The Pale Horse where Mr. Bradley is shocked at Mark Easterbrook dispensing with the pleasantries.
• In Pyramids, Pteppic keeps asking Dios to say something without prefacing it with all of his titles, which are extremely lengthy and Dios insists on announcing at the start of every sentence. Dios ignores him.

Live-Action TV

• On 30 Rock, Josh's sleazy agent does this with Jack, phrasing as it as the lovely analogy, "Let's skip the foreplay and get right to the penetration."
• Blake's 7. Used for an Establishing Character Moment when the audience is first introduced to Supreme Commander Servalan and Space Commander Travis. Servalan tells her aide to have Travis wait outside just to show him who's boss. Travis, however, pushes his way into her office, an act of insubordination which Servalan takes entirely in stride.
  Travis: Your aide said I was to wait. He was obviously mistaken. He doesn't realize the urgency of the matter.
  • This gets a Call-Back in "Deliverance" when Servalan makes Travis wait to speak to her again. She points out that Travis would never have put up with that before, so the fact that he's willing to do so now is a sign of how desperate he is to regain her favour.
• The Boys (2019). In "What I Know", Billy Butcher has arranged a meeting in a restaurant with Stan Edgar, CEO of Vought Industries.
  Stan Edgar: (as the waiter leaves) Would you like an order? They're worth a cheat day.
  Billy Butcher: (points out the window) I assume you've got a man out there with a clean shot? (taps his forehead)
  Stan Edgar: More than one.
  Billy Butcher: Then I'll skip the fucking hors d'oeuvres, if you don't mind, and we'll just cut straight to it, yeah?
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In "Amends", Buffy manages to combine this trope with "Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?":
  The First: You think you can fight me? I'm not a demon, little girl. I am something that you can't even conceive. The First Evil. Beyond sin, beyond death. I am the thing the darkness fears. You'll never see me, but I am everywhere. Every being, every thought, every drop of hate—
  Buffy: Alright, I get it. You're evil. Do we have to chat about it all day?
• Cowboy Bebop (2021). In "Galileo Hustle", Vicious is meeting with Mao at Santiago's vineyard so the three of them can organize The Coup to take over The Syndicate. Hearing Mao praise Santiago's wine, Vicious gets annoyed and says, "Shall I come back after the mincing and preening part is over?" So they get down to business and after they've finished Santiago suggests they now "mince and preen" to celebrate their new partnership.
• The Crown (2016). When the young Queen Elizabeth has her first meeting with Prime Minister Churchill, she offers him a seat and refreshments. Churchill refuses, saying one should never be seated in the presence of a monarch, a rule established to keep meetings short. "If there is one thing I've learned in fifty-two years of public service, it is that there is no problem so complex, nor crisis so grave, that it cannot be satisfactorily resolved within twenty minutes." However on their last meeting when Churchill announces his decision to stand down as Prime Minister, he's shown sitting down and drinking tea with the Queen.
• Farscape. In "The Flax", Space Pirates board Moya and Zhaan offers them refreshments. Their captain curtly responds that if they wanted something, they'd have taken it already.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Walder Frey has no problem getting straight to the unpleasantries.
  • Bronn cuts Jaime's chit-chat short, telling him to get to the inevitable proposal.
  • Lady Olenna Tyrell's title as the Queen of Thorns is well-earned. She often has no patience for pomp and circumstance, and dismisses any pleasantries or attempts at flattery. Especially from the people she doesn't like. A notable example is when she tells off Littlefinger's attempt at being courteous in "The Gift" when they meet at his brothel.
  Littlefinger: [referring to his trashed brothel] I'm sorry about the locale.
  Olenna: No you're not.
  Littlefinger: It seemed like the safest place.
  Olenna: [observing the devastation the Faith Militant left in their wake] Not for your clientele, clearly. [...]You've always been rather impressed with yourself, haven't you?
  Littlefinger: The past is the past. The future is all that's worth discussing, the future of House Tyrell-
  Olenna: Don't pretend to have any concern for my House, my grandchildren or me! I should have known you'd return to the capital as soon as things started to go wrong!
  • Lady Sansa and Jon Snow must appeal to the ten-year-old ruler of House Mormont for armed support in attacking Winterfell. They try to flatter Lady Mormont by comparing her to her namesake Lyanna Stark and talking about her uncle Jeor, but she will have none of it and demands to know what they want.
  • Cersei cuts through Tycho Nestoris's attempts to offer the Iron Bank's condolences over Tommen's death, given that she no longer cares about her younger son and is aware the Iron Bank is more interested in business.
    Tycho Nestoris: My condolences, Your Grace, on the death of your son. From all reports, he was a fine young man.
    Cersei: The Iron Bank didn't send you here to offer condolences.
  • As everyone is going through the formal introductions and conversation when Daenerys arrives in Winterfell, Bran gets impatient and tells everyone they don't have time for all this. The Wall has fallen and they need to focus on getting organized for the coming fight.
• Inverted in the Henry Danger episode "Escape Room". Mr. Frittleman calls his mook to complain about the bomb having a timer when he didn't want one. However, his mook had him be more polite and ask how he was doing, up to and including having Frittleman talk to his dog on the phone.
• From Malcolm in the Middle, when Mr. Herkabe tries to give a villainous speech, but gets interrupted as such:
  "Can we just skip the evil speech and explain how you're gonna try to torture me?"
• The Vocational Guidance counselor sketch in Monty Python's Flying Circus begins with the client opening up with attempts at pleasantries before the councillor cuts him off with "enough of this gay banter".
• In the NCIS episode "Doppelganger", as Not-Tony tries to hit on Kate, inviting her to dinner:
  Kate: Why not just go right back to your place?
  Not-Tony: Are you serious?
  Not-Gibbs: [gives him a Dope Slap] She's not, but I am.
• Inverted in Stargate SG-1 episode Full Circle when Daniel (who has at this point Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence) shows up again and immediately launches into a detailed explanation of what Anubis is up to and what they need to do about it. O'Neill gets upset because Daniel didn't even bother with such basic pleasantries as saying hello to him first, and forces the conversation to restart with greetings and pleasantries.
• Person of Interest. In "Mors Praematura"
  Root: We're on a bit of a clock here, so let's dispense with the temper tantrum.
• Seinfeld. Jerry is perplexed at the forwardness of a woman he encounters in a store—asking him out, suggesting that they go back to his place, immediately jumping on him—without any lead-in to any of these activities, until she breaks down and tells him her husband asked her to behave like this.
• Tony Soprano usually has little tolerance for beating around the bush, particularly when in an irritable mood (which is a lot of the time). He's very much a "let's get straight to business" kind of guy.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: On more than one occasion, Commander Sisko has told Weyoun that he can skip his whole Affably Evil act.
    Weyoun: How delightful. You feel comfortable enough around me to make jokes. I'm so pleased to see our relationship evolving beyond the stale adversarial stage.
    Sisko: No it's not. But before you twist that into a compliment, let me be blunt. I don't like the Dominion, I don't like what it stands for, and I don't like you. So let's dispense with the hollow pleasantries and stick to business.
  • A somewhat more amiable version in the pilot episode when Sisko first meets Major Kira, his hot-tempered Bajoran liaison officer.
    Sisko: I'm Benjamin Sisko.
    Kira: I supposed you want the office.
    Sisko: Well I thought I'd say hello first, and then take the office, but we can do it in any order you like.
  • Star Trek: Voyager. When Captain Janeway first encounters Seven of Nine, the Borg drone cuts short Janeway's questions about her pre-assimilation past. "Do not engage us in further irrelevant discourse."
  • In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Face of the Enemy", Troi is forced to impersonate Major Rakal, a Romulan Tal Shiar officer, aboard a Romulan Warbird. The Warbird's commander, Toreth, already distrusting of Tal Shiar officers, tries to pull this on Troi by asking about Rakal's life story, e.g. where she went to school. Troi gets out of this by telling Toreth to just get to her point.
  • In the Star Trek: Enterprise Mirror Universe episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", Mayweather helps Archer oust Captain Forrest and become The Captain himself, and is rewarded by becoming Archer's personal bodyguard.
    Mayweather: And Captain...I'd like to be the first to congratulate you on a brilliant stratagem. I'm certain that in years to come—
    Archer: You've already got the job, Sergeant. Don't talk yourself out of it.
  • In the Star Trek: Discovery episode "Choose Your Pain", Burnham needs to convince Stamets that using Ripper the giant tardigrade as a component in Discovery's spore drive is harming the creature and they need to find a substitute. She starts by trying to butter him up, but he sees through it straightaway.
    Burnham: Lieutenant Stamets. Your spore drive is genius. Beyond genius. What you've achieved for the war effort, for the whole of science itself, it's a contribution...
    Stamets: I know I'm brilliant. What are you trying to get out of me?

Newspaper Comics

• Parodied in one Spaceman Spiff adventure. When Spiff is brought before the Zorg despot, it tells him that if he cooperates in handing over the information they need, his death will be quick and painless. He tells the twisted space crustacean to dispense with the pleasantries and just tell him what information they want.

Tabletop Games

• From the Magic: The Gathering novel Agents of Artifice:
  Tezzeret: You do us great honor with your presence. It is my hope, Nicol Bolas, that together we can come to a mutually beneficial—
  Nicol Bolas: Shut up. I hate you, artificer, and I find rare cause to bother hating anyone anymore. The only reason I'm not currently picking your spine out from between my teeth is because you were smart enough to arrange these wards ahead of time. More to the point, I know full well you feel the same about me, no matter how you choose to doll up your words and trot them out like perfumed trollops. So perhaps we can save the pleasantries for those who actually care about them, and simply tell me what you propose?

Theatre

• In Twelfth Night, Olivia will not allow Viola to continue with Orsino's declaration of love to her. In her case, it's that the message is nothing but pleasantries, and nothing she hasn't heard from Orsino's messengers a hundred times before.
  Viola: Most sweet lady, —
  Olivia: A comfortable doctrine, and much may be said of it.
• In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Act Two's first song is "Strike That, Reverse It", in which Willy Wonka is determined to greet each of his guests and get the adults to sign an incomprehensible contract as quickly as he can so he can start the tour. Since most of the participants are obnoxious kids and coddling parents, what little small talk he is willing to make in the process of this is peppered with teasing, Stealth Insults, Ice Cream Koans, etc. Typical example:
  Mr. Salt: Wonka! Sir Robert Salt! Salt's Salty Nuts!
  Willy Wonka: (very quickly) Pleased to meet you, Bob. Peanut business treating you well?
  Mr. Salt: Well, actually...
  Willy Wonka: How interesting. We could talk all day except we won't. I'm joking of course. I'm fascinated by nuts. I used to be one myself.
• A recurring motif in West Side Story, especially in interactions between the two gang leaders:
  Riff: Set ’em up, Doc—Cokes all around!
  Bernardo: Let’s get down to business.
  Riff: Bernardo hasn’t learned the procedures of gracious living.

or

Riff: (before the planned fight) Come center and shake hands.

Bernardo: More gracious living?

Video Games

• From Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Dracula responds to Richter's Shut Up, Hannibal! with this:
  Dracula: What is a man?! A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk, have at you!
• Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade: In Chapter 16, right when Narcian's having a breakdown as the Lycian Army comes to his doorstep, he's informed by a soldier that General Murdock has arrived. Narcian orders the soldier to send an escort and ensure Murdock gets every hospitality, but he's already there, and it goes without saying he's not one bit happy as Narcian has been shirking the duties he'd been assigned to.
  Narcian: S-Sir Murdock... What a pleasant surprise! What brings you all the way from Ilia?
  Murdock: Enough of your squirrelly pleasantries, Narcian. I want an explanation for this embarrassment.
• From Kingdom Hearts II, Luxord begins his battle saying, "I'd rather we just skip the formalities."
• This trope surfaces in a number of sidequests in Mass Effect.
  • One sidequest, "Our Own Worst Enemy," involves Shepard coming across the aggressively pro-human political party Terra Firma. Their party leader, Charles Saracino, comes up to greet Shepard, with the brusque Renegade response as follows...
    Saracino: Commander Shepard? I'm Charles Saracino of the Terra Firma party. It's an honor to meet you. (reaches out to shake his hand)
    Shepard: (swats his hand away) Cram your honor. What's this riot about?
  • After returning to the Citadel for the first time, Rear Admiral Mikhailovich will greet Shepard with a surprise inspection. A Paragon Shepard can reply that they would have prepared a formal greeting if he knew about this meeting, but an unimpressed Mikhailovich quotes the trope almost verbatim as he gets to the point.
• The World of Warcraft dungeon "Trial of the Champion" makes the player party fight a series of encounters on a tournament arena. Normally, when you say "I am ready" to the announcer, he will start introducing each of the enemy champions separately in colorful expressions, in a scripted scene that takes about two minutes to play out. Naturally, since players tend to run the same dungeons over and over for loot, they quickly got bored from listening to the same announcements for several times in a row. Eventually, Blizzard added the option to tell the announcer to "skip the pageantry", letting the party proceed straight to the combat.
• Kefka does this in Final Fantasy VI during the scene on the Imperial base outside Doma. Where some of the other examples are intended to underscore the workman-like nature of the characters who do this, Kefka's example just underscores his barely-concealed psychosis.
• In Detroit: Become Human, Connor can be on the receiving end of this trope if he joins Hank in his meeting with Detroit police captain Fowler. If the player picks the [POSITIVE] dialogue choice when Hank leaves the office, he'll tell Fowler how happy he is to have joined the team and makes sure to do his best. Uninterested, Fowler simply points towards the door and interrupts him mid-sentence, telling him to close the door on his way out without even bothering to look up from his computer screen. Connor gives a dejected look as the police captain takes a sip from his coffee mug before finally leaving.
• In Ratchet & Clank (2002) Chairman Drek opens his communication with his Mook Lieutenant on Eudora with the page quote.
• At the end of the Urban Warfare Flashpoint for Harebrained Schemes' Battletech, the player's mercenary company finds itself in possession of a prototype Raven, a completely new Battlemech that practically every Successor State wants to get its hands on. As a result, the player gets called up by every one of your House contacts, who try to give you a good reason why the Raven should go to them. Marina Liao opens her pitch with the trope name before stating her argument, verbatim: "That prototype was ours, we want it back, we'll pay you a lot of money for it".

Western Animation

• Parodied in the Futurama episode "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back", Hermes receives an inspection from the Central Bureaucracy which he fears demotion thanks to Bender's antics. Sure enough, the inspector, Morgan Proctor arrives and the two introduce themselves and their grades (19 and 35, respectively) before reading, signing, and stamping several pages of each others' folder reports. The ever stoic Proctor announces that the time for small talk is over and she would like to begin the inspection.
• Justice League Unlimited. In "Task Force X", after seeing Sans Souci teasing Lawton, Captain Boomerang and Clock King prefer to talk business:
  Harkness: Enough of this, now. Let's get stuck into the business at hand, eh?
  Fugate: Agreed. Time is of the essence.
• Jackie Chan Adventures:
  • After being freed, Po Kong the Mountain Demon tells her sibling:
    "Enough fanfare. What's for supper?"
  • Later in the season when it's her brother Tso Lan the Moon Demon's turn as Monster of the Week, Tso Lan almost quotes Darth Vader directly when Shendu welcomes him; getting right to his goal of taking control over the Moon's gravity and wrecking the Earth.
• In the pilot episode of The Legend of Korra, Korra has been arrested by the abrasive Chief Lin Beifong who refuses to cut her any slack despite the fact she's the reincarnation of her mother's best friend. Tenzin arrives and begins to barter with Lin, starting by saying she looks "radiant", only for Lin to immediately growl at him to cut the crap. The gruff response also partially stems from the fact that the two used to be in a serious relationship which ended in a nasty breakup.
• Miraculous Ladybug: When Hawk Moth Akumatises his victim of the week, he typically starts with a telepathic speech in the format of "[Akumatization's name], I am Hawk Moth. You [thing that angered/scared/saddened the victim]. I will give you the power to [complete overreaction to what angered/scared/saddened them]. I only ask you for one thing in return. Bring me the Miraculous of Ladybug and Cat Noir." Some characters, like Alpha Bitch Chloé, have been akumatized so often that in the later seasons, they start to interrupt and tell him to just give them their powers already.

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