If you belong to a Proud Warrior Race, then it goes without saying that unless there's something wrong with you, you're proud of it. Make sure you remind everyone, constantly, that you are a member of this race.
Dwarves seem to suffer the most of this habit, but it's an equal opportunity trope. Any character that loudly and near-constantly preempts any confusion there would be as to their race or culture as a matter of principle, or even just brags about belonging to a Proud Warrior Race, is an example of this trope.
Kind of a passive variant of Fantastic Racism. May involve Cultural Posturing if they go on to talk up their own background relative to other people's. A character who does this because he's pretending to be what he constantly proclaims he is (such as a gnome trying to blend in as a dwarf) is instead a form of the Most Definitely Not a Villain trope.
Compare Race-Name Basis, where the race is used when a name would work (either a character towards someone/everyone else or everyone else towards a character). Compare also You Know I'm Black, Right? when they do this in response to someone obliviously (or deliberately) making a negative statement towards them.
See also Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?, Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?, and Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?, though the last two are usually by people who are not what they're claiming to be.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z not only likes to point out that he is a member of the proud Saiyan warrior race, but that anyone else with an ounce of Saiyan blood in them is too, creating a sort of "Have I Mentioned That You're A Dwarf Today?" scenario.
- Brook, in One Piece, likes to point out that he's a living skeleton (directly or indirectly), even to his own friends who should know this by now as his "Skull Jokes". If he uses any kind of expression alluding to body parts, he'll point out that he's missing that one. ("This really gets my heart racing! Even though I don't have a heart, hoo hoo!")
Comedy
- Comedians Jay Mohr points out that his Jewish friends seem to be unable to get through a conversation without referencing the fact that they're Jewish.
Comic Books
- The Guardians of the Galaxy has Groot who, to us at least, only ever says "I AM GROOT" making him a constant reminder of his status as Groot though in actuality he is much wiser and wordier than those three words allow.
Films — Live-Action
- Batman says "I'm Batman!" at least once in every film, and the Nolan movies also include a lot of self-congratulatory talk about what a "symbol" he is.
- Inverted in Get Santa. While the Christmas Elves are played by dwarf actors, Warwick Davis also appears as an actual little person whom Santa Claus initially mistakes for an elf. At one point they're explaining the plot to Tom's mom and stepfather, at which point he jumps in with "I'm not an elf."
- Gimli in The Lord of the Rings movies does not deal with other people. It's always a dwarf dealing with an elf or a human. He almost completely refers to other people not by their name, but only by their race. He does refer to both Aragorn and Legolas by their names at times, but usually only in life-threatening situations, such as when he shouts Aragorn's name during the battle of Helm's Deep when the wall is breached and he jumps off the ramparts into the Uruk-hai horde to prevent them from killing the downed human.
- In 300, the Spartans are constantly addressing each other as "Spartan", reminding others that they're speaking to Spartans, informing visitors that they're in Sparta, and so forth. Even Gorgo calls her husband Leonidas "Spartan" when trying to catch his attention.
Let's Play
- Simon Lane frequently reminds the audience that he is a dwarf.
Literature
- Played with on the Discworld:
- Corporal Carrot, as a 6-foot-tall human who was raised by dwarves, still identifies as one. As the dwarves themselves consider dwarfdom a cultural identity instead of a physical race, they agree (a later book involves a human who actually converted). Although, "agree" may be a strong way of putting it; it's more like they can't find a logically consistent way to prove him wrong. After all, he knows how to ha'lk his g'rakha correctly, and claiming that he's not a dwarf despite that puts one's own dwarfhood in question.
- And then there's Nobby Nobbs, who's just so ugly and disreputable that no-one can tell what he is. He has to carry a card around certifying that Lord Vetinari, having examined all available evidence including testimony from the midwife who delivered him herself believes that the balance of probability leans slightly towards him being human. Later books have hinted he may be part goblin, and a goblin woman is the only one to ever seriously court him without extenuating circumstances. Even then, several characters remark that she's out of his league.
- Lance-Constable Cuddy (who is unquestionably a dwarf, just in case you're not keeping up) of Men at Arms inverts the trope. Throughout the book, people give him the rather credulous inquiry, "Are you a dwarf?" (Generally close-minded people, and he was the first dwarf in the City Watch, so it's fair to be surprised to meet him.) He maintains a reasonable sense of humor about the whole thing — if by "reasonable sense of humor" you mean "unrestrained sarcasm".
- In general, with the Watch this trope gets subverted and played straight at the same time. Once you put on the uniform, you are no longer a dwarf, troll, or whatever, you are a member of the Watch, and that's all that matters. It was originally "a man of the watch", but later they got more female members.
- Near the end of The Truth, as William's housemate Mr. Windling goes off on yet another racist rant, one of the other people at the table peels a boiled egg, salts it... and then pulls out a very small ax and very precisely cuts the top off. At this point Mr. Windling realizes he probably shouldn't complain about there being too many dwarves in Ankh-Morpork, at least not until after breakfast.
- It's mentioned that dwarfs in general feel the need to be more "dwarf-like" (i.e. wear chainmail all the time, quaff beer at every opportunity, violently attack anyone who questions their dwarfishness, etc) the farther they go from home; by comparison, mountain dwarfs are usually perfectly sensible individuals with no need to prove anything. Trolls who move to the city also become more stereotypically trollish (being stupid and thuggish, mainly), although that's justified by the fact that the relative hot climate (compared to the cold mountains) impair their silicon-based brains.
- In the later books it becomes a major recurring plot element that different dwarf factions do not agree on exactly what it means to be a real dwarf; the ones we mostly see are from the liberal faction, the conservatives think it taints their own dwarfdom to even talk to a non-dwarf. It's to the point that the current Low King got the job mostly because he's not associated with either major faction, even though it's no secret that Llamedos is at the far liberal fringe (the human and dwarf communities are almost entirely integrated and intermarriage is fairly common). In the last book of the series this boils over into a brief civil war.
- In the Star Trek: Klingon Empire novel series, a great many characters are somewhat obsessed with "being Klingon", and make a point of it routinely. It's relatively justified, in that Klingon society has recently undergone tremendous upheaval and is now trying to reaffirm a sense of what being Klingon means. Characters evaluate their own behaviour, and that of their fellows, against the expected conduct of the ideal Klingon. This is particularly true of Toq (who grew up ignorant of his heritage and now embraces it enthusiastically — perhaps a little too enthusiastically), and Klag (who takes his obligations to the "Order of the Bat'leth" extremely seriously).
- In The Secret of Platform 13, one character is a water nymph who repeatedly notes that she's not a mermaid, pointing out her feet. It's Lampshaded at one point that nobody knows why being mistaken for a mermaid would upset her so much (especially since nobody actually does it).
- While not especially smug about it, the thranx from the Humanx Commonwealth series constantly make mention of their insectoid traits, either commenting on the physiological differences between themselves and humans or voicing perplexity at how humans cope without insect-like bodies (too few limbs, skin not hard enough, etc).
- Animorphs: Ax (an Andalite, a telepathic centaur-like alien with a bladed tail and no mouth) doesn't exactly always refer to himself as an Andalite, but he frequently draws comparisons between both cultures' way of doing things, usually judging the Andalite way better or the human way incomprehensible. The fact that humans can move around on two legs never ceases to amaze him (he had a lot of difficulty adapting to it in human morph), he loves pronouncing new words and tasting things that aren't always meant to be eaten, and has a tendency to forget that while he's strives to be the best Andalite he can be, other Andalites might not hold themselves to such standards.
Live-Action TV
- Star Trek:
- Worf in The Next Generation even annoys his fellow Klingons with his inability to speak like a normal person and irritation over not following every old tradition to the letter. He was raised by humans and therefore has an idealized vision of his race and a need to be more Klingon than Kahless.
- Cardassians make it a habit to remind everyone of the superiority of their race and explain that everyone just misunderstands their superior culture. But then, Space Nazi is their hat. In one of their first appearances it was explained that this is actually genetic, and a Cardassion outside a clear chain of command will instinctively seek dominance.
- You could make a drinking game out of how often Spock (the Proud Scholar Race Guy) says, "I am a Vulcan." This could be over-compensation at work — Spock is only half-Vulcan, and the few full-blooded Vulcans we meet in TOS stray surprisingly far from his ideals, and he acts even more stereotypically Vulcan when his father is around. In the episode where an alien materializes historical people from their memories, Spock apologizes to Surak, the legendary father of the currently existing Vulcan culture, for experiencing a moment of joy upon seeing him. Surak doesn't care.
- "We are the Borg." When confronted by a gigantic cube, that frequently in the series has sparked a feeling of cold dread, their introduction is unlikely to be necessary. Their actions are highly ordered and regimented, and this and the rest of their standard hail is basically their way of informing you of how utterly screwed you are!
- Chakotay from Voyager has a habit of connecting every topic of conversation to some spiritual or cultural element of his Native American heritage.
- Picard was almost as bad in the early episodes of The Next Generation, never letting anyone forget he's French. Which, with Patrick Stewart's accent, never failed to be humorous.
- Game of Thrones:
- If Tyrion doesn't mention his status as a dwarf (in this case, an actual little person, not a fantasy dwarf) during a conversation, rest assured that almost anyone he's talking to will bring it up. He has a rant about this late in season six, mostly about how everybody uses the same five or six jokes about him being a dwarf.
- Jon Snow being recognized as Lord Eddard Stark's bastard son is brought up by almost every person he meets for the first time. One would almost think that bastard children were rare in Westeros (considering how people always recognize Jon as Ned's illegitimate son and address him as such) but these illegitimate children are all over the place. However, Jon — as the acknowledged illegitimate son of a lord raised by his lord father — is the most famous illegitimate child in this series and, with his love and admiration of Ned Stark, introduces himself by saying Ned is his father in multiple instances.
- Doctor Who:
- Once per Episode Madame Vastra and Jenny point out that they're lesbians even though this fact has been well-established by now.
- Almost every line out of Proud Warrior Race Guy Strax's mouth involves either suggesting unnecessary amounts of violence or declaring that he's doing something "for the glory of the Sontaran Empire."
- In Wizards vs. Aliens, Randal Moon makes a point of reminding everyone that he is a hobgoblin, not a goblin, with the implication that the latter may be Always Chaotic Evil.
Music
- In the song "Country Boy," Aaron Lewis wants to remind you that he's a country boy by calling up every country cliche he can in the span of 4 minutes or so. It's basically a Jeff Foxworthy routine played straight and set to music.
Tabletop Games
- Variant, but pretty much any member of a Clan in BattleTech will often declare that they are Clan or sometimes a particular Clan (there's even a BattleTech Expanded Universe novel called "I Am Jade Falcon" that is specifically named after the main character's constant invocation of her Clan as a mark of pride and identity) as a means to voice their pride in their culture and lineage and to disparage rivals and lessers (which to most Clanners is usually "anyone not of my Clan"). Even more mellow Clans such as Sea Fox can still be like this when engaged in a negotiation. The Clans are genetically human, but have undergone so much genetic engineering and cultural restructuring that they were initially taken for alien invaders during their first appearances.
Video Games
- Deep Rock Galactic will have the Dwarven mining crew constantly assert their dwarfiness and that only Dwarves could get this kind of job done right, the job being 'burrowing kilometers underground in search of rare minerals and blasting alien life forms into gross smears on the terrain, possibly while drunk off our asses.'
- Mass Effect 2: "I am KROGAN!" Although Grunt, at least, means it not as identity but equivalence. That is, he's not saying "I am a krogan"; he's saying "I am what it means to be krogan". (He was genetically engineered to be the "perfect" krogan warrior, so it's hard to argue.)
Grunt: (matter-of-factly) I am pure krogan. You should be in awe.
- Inverted by Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, which sees fit to remind you that you're a Lombax at every opportunity. Makes sense if you're meeting a new character, but even ones you see multiple times continue to remark on your Lombaxness, and Ratchet never acts like he's tired of being reminded of his own species or comments on it at all, despite being a Deadpan Snarker. Of course, this comes the territory of being among the Last of His Kind (at least in his dimension, at any rate).
- Magnus Shalefist in Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura is always reminding you of how awesome it is to be a native mountain dwarf affiliated with one of the major clans. While he is a dwarf, he's from the city, real name Malcolm Schulefest. All the usual stuff about gold, beards, and fighting he got from an Almanac of All Things Dwarven - written by a human no less - and he talks it up to cover his own insecurities at being too far from his heritage. In the end, it turns out he is related to a clan, the legendary Iron Clan, which he leads or even becomes king of all the dwarves.
Web Comics
- In the "Federation" arc of Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger, Groonch the G'norch makes a point of emphasizing his warrior-race pride (his hat, given by Captain Pidorq, is "token noble savage"), only to have it subverted when it's pointed out that his "race" has dozens of languages and hundreds of cultures, and "noble warrior" isn't even in the top ten....
- Parodied in the Homestuck Paradox Space strip Summerteen Romance, in which Dave is reading Karkat's script for a romantic comedy starring the trolls out loud, and adding his own "improvements". After Karkat explains he adapted it for human culture, Dave starts reading the scored out troll concepts (for instance "lusus" crossed out and replaced with "dad"). Then he gives Feferi a line where every second word is Have I Mentioned I'm A Troll Today? with a line though it. Karkat is not amused.
Western Animation
- In nearly every episode of Dinosaur Train, the Conductor mentions one of his Troodon traits, such as his large toe claw, his intelligence, or his night vision.
- Futurama’s Bender will boast his inherent superiority to the humans on his team (and to biological organisms in general) whenever possible.
Bender: When will man learn that all races are equally inferior to robots?
- Star Trek: Lower Decks: Mesk from "Hear All, Trust Nothing" constantly plays up being an Orion pirate, much to Tendi's annoyance, because he's overcompensating for being a human-raised Orion whose sole source of knowledge on his people are smutty holonovels.
