You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With

Liam Hennessy: You have no idea who you’re dealing with.
Quan: Yes, I do. Do you?

— The Foreigner

A common Stock Phrase often spoken to a character who, well… you know. Can be played for laughs or as a threat (especially when the "who/what" in question is really a Not-So-Harmless Villain). Someone who can easily mop the floor with the fool who's trying to pick a fight, but doesn't feel like doing so at the moment, might say this as a final warning to back off.

Can also work with three characters, usually The Villain, The Hero, and someone else who's picking a fight with the villain, not knowing who they're dealing with — while the hero does, having faced them before, and tries to warn the third character before they get themselves killed.

It can often also be said by those who intend to Screw the Rules because they have connections, noney, superpowers, or because they make them. Very commonly heard by a person suffering (or believing themselves to be suffering) from Recognition Failure at a place that only allows the famous and the wealthy entry when they realize they are Not on the List.

Occasionally inverted as a bluff, when actually they're nobody the challenger would be impressed with anyway. Still, it's Truth in Television.

Another variant is someone saying this phrase for the other as a warning that you're dealing with someone that could be dangerous, serving as an indirect Badass Boast in the person's stead.

See also Actually, I Am Him, Mugging the Monster.

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Examples

Advertising

• This lottery commercial plays it for comedy.

Anime and Manga

• In The Heroic Legend of Arslan, a group of pirates were fighting Daryun and didn't realise who he is until Gieve did the introductions. The captain who tried to reassure his men moments ago is utterly terrified
• One Piece:
  • Post-time skip had the fake Straw Hat crew attempting to hunt down a girl who refused to drink with them and the boy who attacked them with a plant who happened to be the real Nami and Usopp. The Fake Luffy later "captured" someone who had earlier humiliated him who was none other than the real Luffy himself. Interestingly, none of the real Straw Hats openly broadcasted the fact that they were the authentic ones, and when the Fake Straw Hats found out that they had interacted with the real ones, their reactions were appropriately stunned and terrified.
  • Also the Straw Hats (minus Robin) when they first met Aokiji didn't fully understand how powerful the Marine's top people could be and how far Luffy and the others had to go before they even remotely stood a chance against one third of the Greatest Military Powers. Not long after that, the Straw Hats meet Kizaru, and then Luffy meets Akainu; those three remain the only ones who have ever made the Straw Hats seriously angry – while actually being their enemies – and gotten away with it.
• A variant serves as one of the Catch Phrases in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: "Who the hell do you think I am/we are?"

Comic Books

• In Gotham Knights #31, part of the Bruce Wayne: Fugitive story arc, Batman tangles with an elite black-ops team:
  Team leader: You don't know who you're dealing with.
  Batman: Deren, Robert. Age twenty-three. Gave a kidney to his diabetic sister two years ago. Probably needs the other one.
  Wilson, Scott. Thirty-four. Football knee injury.
  Kellerman, Dana. Twenty-nine. Took shrapnel in the shoulder during the Gulf War. Still takes painkillers for it.
  Goldman, Eli. Thirty-one. Allergic to penicillin. Joint wounds are slow to heal and prone to infection.
  Baithswaine, Gregory. Twenty-eight. Perfect medical record. So far.
• In the Malibu Mortal Kombat comic, the Earthrealm heroes face a ninja named Siang, who warns them, "You have no idea with whom you deal." At this, Raiden begins crackling with thunder and warns, "Perhaps the same could be said of you."
• In the first arc of Garth Ennis' The Punisher MAX, Frank's old partner Micro is trying to dissuade a trigger-happy CIA spook that, if they want to take Frank alive, swarming him with Special Forces simply won't work.
  Man: Some of these guys are meant to be pretty good. Delta Force, I think.
  Micro: I don't care if they're God's own anti-son of a bitch special forces. He'll go through them like a buzzsaw.
• During the "Season of Mists" storyline of The Sandman, the demon Azrael seriously underestimates Morpheus and gets a lecture about it from the Shaper of Dreams for his troubles.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1942): When Rita Novelle refuses to pay the Blue Seal Gang ten grand for their "support" of her campaign the two members in her office tell her she has no clue what she's getting into and warn her she's going to end up in the morgue.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): Circe murmurs "You've got no idea what you're getting into." with a little smirk when Medusa has Circe teleport her outside the embassy so that she can kill Athena's current champion.

Fan Works

• Heart of Ashes: When Kathryn decides to stop being submissive in front of Lord Beronor when he tries to intimidate her into obedience, she uses this line. His response is to backhand her and calmly make his exit while throwing the line back to her.
  Kathryn: You are little more than a dog scrounging for food at the King's chair! I am more than what you or that weakling of a king could ever dream of! You have no idea who you're dealing with — ARGH!
  Lord Beronor: And apparently… neither do you.
• A Yakuza Mook tells this to Kyon in Kyon: Big Damn Hero. Since he's time traveling to the past, he already knows exactly whom he's dealing with.
• Leave for Mendeleiev: After Marinette transfers into Ms. Mendeleiev's class, her longtime bully Chloé assumes that she can just waltz in and start harassing her whenever she likes, since Ms. Bustier never did anything to stop her and she's used to everyone caving under threats of getting her father involved. When Ms. Mendeleiev actually intervenes, Chloé tries to invoke this, only for the teacher to counter with a Badass Boast:
  Chloé: I-I'm the mayor's daughter!
  Mendeleiev: And I'm the meanest teacher in this school, and if I find you disrupting my class again, I'm going to see to it that you get suspended. Now out! Out!
• Megami no Hanabira: In order to win the Flock's favor in the war against the demons, Mai decides to lead her friends in helping them fight the Yakuza. Unfortunately, the Flock members they aid decide to bail on them when they first jump in, leaving them to fight the now extremely angry mobsters who utterly outmatch them. One of the Yakuza makes his thoughts toward the girls quite clear:
  Thug: You...so...you bitches have a death wish, is that it?!? HUH?!? Who do you think you are?!? Buncha stupid kids...do you have any idea who you're fucking with?!? Garm, KILL!
• Patterns of the Past has Olesya offering a variant on the phrase when challenging the Patternista to a pattern duel.
  Olesya: [thinking] You have no idea what I have in store for you.
• In Pokémon: The Great Adventure, Mew says this to Mewtwo after the latter turns Ash into stone. She doesn't speak about herself, she's talking about the boy's mentor/surrogate father, Silver, who is a massive Papa Wolf and an extremely powerful Ice Aura Master.
• Throw Away Your Mask: Used by Tsuyoshi when Akechi brushes off his taunts in January 2010.
  Akechi: I might be a selfish bastard, but even if I wanted to forget everything that’s happened, I wouldn’t be selfish enough to take the choice away from the others. So why don’t you crawl back to the hole you spawned from?
  Tsuyoshi: I’d be very careful, if I were you. You don’t realize who you’re dealing with.
• Weight Off Your Shoulder: Faced with an angry mob, Gabriel busts out this line. Unfortunately for him, they're fully aware of who they're dealing with — especially since Gabriel had just outed himself as Shadow Moth.

Films — Animated

• Said at the end of Minions by Scarlet Overkill to a young Gru after he freezes her and Herb but he responds with a Badass Boast:
  Scarlet: You have no idea who you're messing with! I am the greatest supervillain of all time!
  Gru: Oh, were you?
• In Shark Tale, when Don Lino arrives at the sit-down with Oscar at the climax, this is the very first thing he says. Subverted and inverted; Oscar knows exactly who Don Lino is, while Don Lino has no idea that Oscar isn't a real shark-slayer.
  Don Lino: Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am?! I'm the Don! I've been runnin' this reef since before you were born!

Films — Live-Action

• The Avengers: Thor breaks Loki out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet, hoping to make him see reason and return to Asgard. When Iron Man interrupts his "stop this take-over-the-world nonsense and come home, brother" speech, he's not happy.
  Thor: You have no idea what you're dealing with.
  Tony: Uh, Shakespeare in the park? "Doth mother know you weareth her drapes"?
• Back to the Future Part II: "Kid, I own the police."
• Happens in Blade II when Blade says, before setting off the UV light grenades:
  "You obviously... do not know... WHO YOU ARE FUCKING WITH!"
• Victor Maitland's line to Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop:
  "Now listen to me, my tough little friend. I don't know from under what stone you crawled, or where you get these ridiculous ideas about me, but it seems painfully obvious you haven't the slightest fucking idea who you're dealing with. Now, my advice to you is crawl back to your little stone in Detroit before you get squashed."
• The bank manager in The Dark Knight.
  Do you have any idea who you're stealing from? You and your friends are dead!
  • Later it turns out that, the man he was talking to, the mob had no idea how dangerous he was.
• The Deaths of Ian Stone:
  Gray: You have no idea what you're dealing with here. They can alter reality, control minds. You only see what they want you to see.
• John McClane in Die Hard tries to warn Ellis that he can't negotiate with the terrorists:
  McClane: Ellis, Ellis, you don't know who you're dealing with. They're going to kill you! Tell them you don't know me!
  Ellis: Oh, John, how can you talk that way after we've known each other for years!
• In El Dorado there is an example of the antagonist using this as a caution to one of his underlings after John Wayne's character (a famous gunfighter) shoots the gun out of a mook's hand during a conflict in a Cantina. Wayne approaches the man, taunting him to pick up the gun. As he moves to do so the mook's boss, another infamous gunfighter named Macleod speaks and the following exchange occurs.
  Macleod: Don't do it Bill...I can't afford to lose another man.
  Mook: You got a lot of faith in me, don't you Macleod.
  Macleod: Faith can move mountains Bill, but it can't beat a faster draw. There's only three men I know with his kind of speed. One's dead, the second's me. And the Third Man is Cole Thorton.
  John Wayne: There's a fourth.
  Macleod: Which one are you?
  John Wayne; I'm Thorton. (cue the mook with an Oh, Crap! face)
  Macleod: See Bill? Aren't you glad I didn't let you draw?
• The Hand That Rocks the Cradle: Claire warns her husband about just how lethal Mrs. Mott (her obstetrician's widow) is: "Michael, you don't know what she's capable of!" He finds out.
• The Incredible Hulk: "Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
• This happens in John Wick. Unusually, it's the Big Bad telling his moronic son just whose wrath he has brought down upon them.
  Viggo: It is not what you did, son, that angers me so. It's who you did it to.
  Iosef: Who? The fucking nobody?
  Viggo: That fucking nobody... is John Wick.
• Inverted in Left Behind: The Movie. A Too Dumb to Live Big Bad Wannabe tries to intimidate the wrong person. Bonus points for getting paired with an all-but-literal case of Mugging the Monster and Do Not Taunt Cthulhu.
  Jonathan: Do you have any idea who you're dealing with?!
  Nicolae: [smiles] Do you?
• In Little Shop of Horrors, Audrey II sings in "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space":
  Ya don't know what you're messin' with.
  You got no idea.
  Ya don't know what you're lookin' at
  When you're lookin' here.
  Ya don't know what you're up against,
  No, no way, no how.
  You don't know what you're messin' with,
  But I'm gonna tell you now!
• Said in the Nicholas Sparks movie The Lucky One, by the boorish ex-husband of the female half of the featured couple to the male half. The man counters his threats by informing him that he does know what kind of a person he's dealing with, having spent years in the military.
• The Matrix: A lieutenant who is prosecuting a "little girl" early on in the film doesn't realize that the "little girl" in question is Trinity, a hardcore operative of the Resistance against whom normal humans are simply out of their league.
  Lieutenant: I think we can handle one little girl. I sent two units, they're bringing her down now.
  Agent Smith: No, Lieutenant, your men are already dead.
• Men in Black does it with a dramatic zoom on Kay after he dismisses the "illegal aliens" in order to interrogate the ALIEN, and he's had enough of the protests from Border Patrol.
  Kay: Don't "Sir" me young man, you have no idea who you're dealing with.
• Mr And Mrs Smith: John and Jane Smith say this to each other after they tumble to the fact that they're assassins for rival organizations.
• Although he doesn't say the trope exactly, in No Country for Old Men Carson Wells tries to get the gist across to anyone who asks him about Anton Chigurh. He has mixed success.
  Moss: If I was cuttin' deals, why wouldn't I go deal with this guy Chigurh?
  Wells: No no no. You don't understand. You can't make a deal with him.
• In Pitch Black, Riddick uses this twice.
  • First when Fry tries to convince him to come back to save the other survivors, and he suggests she abandon them and come with him instead.
    Fry: You're fucking with me, I know you are.
    Riddick: You know I am? You don't know anything about me. I WILL leave you here.
  • And a second time, retroactively, after killing a vicious alien in hand-to-hand combat:
    Riddick: Did not know who he was fuckin' with!
• Predator 2: This speech is given by Harrigan, but it's not meant as a Badass Boast but a statement that the hero really doesn't know what he's dealing with, because aliens are involved.
• The villain of Red tries this on his captors while he's strapped to a chair, thinking his connections will keep him safe. They quickly prove him wrong. Similarly, Cooper is introduced by having a man strung up in a noose and standing on a chair while planting evidence to make it look like a suicide. The victim says, "Don't you know who I am?!" Cooper responds "Of course I do. Why do you think I'm here?", and kicks the chair out.
• Road to Perdition. Subverted when Sullivan goes on a robbery spree to force Al Capone to hand over Connor. When he barges into a bank, guns drawn, and specifically demands the off-the-books money they're holding for Capone, the teller's reaction is:
  You obviously know exactly who you're messing with... but... why?
• A sex slave broker in Taken tries to use this line verbatim on Bryan. Bearing in mind that Bryan has already torn through half the broker's associates to find him and is currently in the process of shooting out the creep's arms and legs to cripple him, it's safe to say Bryan knows exactly who he's dealing with, and he does not care — if anything, the slaver doesn't know who he's dealing with, if the speech about his "particular set of skills" is any indication. The sequel reveals the sex broker's threat wasn't empty as his family comes gunning for Bryan, but Bryan is just that bad-ass and ends up tearing through them as well.
• The Usual Suspects. The protagonists are doing an armed robbery of New York's Finest Taxi Service.
  Cop: DO YOU KNOW WHO THE FUCK I AM?
  Robber: (yanks off his badge and nametag) We do now, jerkoff.
• When Kitty Pryde traps Juggernaut in the floor in X-Men: The Last Stand, he has this to say:
  Don't you know who I am?! I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!

Jokes

• There is a fairly old joke that goes as follows:
  A university class is writing an exam. At the end of the exam period, all of the students pass in their exams and leave, except one. He stays there for two more hours finishing his exam before going up to the professor to hand it in.
  Professor: You can't hand in your exam two hours late! You get a zero!
  Student: What?! This is an outrage! Do you have any idea who I am?!
  Professor: Not really, no.
  Student: Good.
  The student then sticks his exam in the middle of the stack and leaves the room.
• Opens up an Eddie Izzard routine about a cafeteria on the Death Star.

  Canteen worker: You need a tray.
  Darth Vader: Do you know who I am?
  Canteen worker: ...Do you know who I am?
  Darth Vader: THIS IS NOT A GAME OF "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU"!

Literature

• Artemis Fowl - "Stay back, human. You don't know what you're dealing with."
  • Gets even funnier in the Time Paradox when Artemis says to his younger self: "Stay back, you don't know what you're dealing with." It didn't work that time either.
  • Done again in the Last Guardian: After Artemis's spirit goes back in his clone, Artemis says this to Holly before he gets his memories back - "Stay back. You don't know what you're dealing with."
• The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. A Communist Party official makes the mistake of saying this to Captain Belov, only to end up against the wall with a rifle across his neck while Belov points out that he doesn't know who he is dealing with.
• Discworld:
  • In Thief of Time, Lu-Tze has this done for him by the dojo master, who offers to provide "the name of the man you are about to destroy," but is dismissed by the martial arts student facing Lu-Tze down, who doesn't think he needs to know a sweeper's name. The dojo master chastises the student and states that the question wasn't directed at him, whereupon Lu-Tze introduces himself and the student fills his pants.
  • The History Monks demonstrate their awareness of this trope in their first rule of martial arts: "Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly smiling men."
  • In Snuff, Sam Vimes apparently gave a speech about this, stating that the only facet of a suspect's identity a copper should care about is the fact that they are a suspect. He gets his words thrown back into his face after attempting to invoke this trope on the rookie cop who's trying to arrest him.
  • Averted when Susan rides her grandfather's horse to find a witch. The witch immediately recognizes Death's horse (whose name is Binky) and says, "Ooh, miss, if you've stolen that horse, you've got no idea the trouble you're in."
• In the first novel, after Erast Fandorin is captured by a baddie for the nth time, said bad guy proceeds to explain that the conspiracy Fandorin is targeting is much bigger than he thinks.
• In Peter David's Knight Life, when Gwen (Queen Quinevere reincarnated) summons a demon, it tells her that she has no idea what she's screwing with. She says just enough to prove she knows exactly what she's screwing with and then binds it to her will.
• The Lord of the Rings: if you are familiar enough with the series cosmology, this is basically what Gandalf's famous "You cannot pass!" speech to the Balrog amounts to. He is announcing himself as a Maiar, a being of equal stature to the Balrog itself; making it clear he knows exactly who and what the Balrog is; and telling it to go away or risk its death at his hands. The Balrog does not listen and ultimately pays the price.
  "I am a servant of the secret fire! Wielder of the Flame of Arnor! Dark fire with not avail you, Flame of Udun!"
• Mindstar Rising: Greg Mandel breaks into the residence of a Knowledge Broker who coordinated a hacker attack on Event Horizon, who responds this way. Greg just grins and points out that's exactly why they've turned up—to find out who The Man Behind the Man is. Shortly after someone fires an Energy Weapon through the window to make sure the broker doesn't reveal this information.
• In Prince Roger: The titular prince gets to use the phrase verbatim at a petty gangster. The gangster doesn't know who the prince is and assumes he's a petty criminal setting up a restaurant as a front for petty crime with a group of ex-military and scary-looking aliens for muscle; he's right until the word "front". The team is instigating a counter-coup, the ex-military are very much current military, and the scary-looking aliens don't just look scary.
• Professor Moriarty says that to Sherlock Holmes in The Final Problem referring to himself and his organization.
• Star Wars:
  • Used and subverted in one of the X-Wing novels. Two mooks are scared off from hassling Corran Horn and Mirax Terrik when they find out that Mirax is the daughter of notorious smuggler "Booster" Terrik. One of the mooks had initially tried this line on Mirax, who retorted that she doesn't care who he is, and then the bartender warns them about who her father is. Later, Corran tries the same thing on someone bidding against them for some parts and weapons, only to find that the other bidder is "Booster" Terrik.
  • In Darth Plagueis, Darnada, the son of a local crime boss, says this to Magister Hego Damask. Hego says it right back and, given he is one of the galaxy's wealthiest beings and sponsors their criminal organization, a more senior member slaps Darnada for the insolence and forces him to apologize to perform damage control. And unbeknownst to both of them, Hego is the civilian identity of Darth Plagueis himself, meaning Darnada really didn't know who he was dealing with.
• We get this marvelous subversion from Graham McNeill's Ultramarines series. An important merchant tried to invoke this on Sergeant Learchus, whom he had just witnessed picking up a supply truck by himself and placing it back on the road, then forbidding the convoy from leaving the city.
  Merchant: Don't you know who I am?!
  Learchus: No. Nor do I care.
• In Rivers of London, Peter mentions that with certain haughty civilians, this is a regular occurrence, much to the point that it has become a Running Gag in police circles.
  Troublemaker: Do you have any idea who I am?!
  Copper: Yeah: You're nicked.

Live-Action TV

• 24 - "Day 5: 2:00 a.m.-3:00 a.m."
  Bill Buchanan: You have no idea what you're dealing with, you little ass kisser!
• Altered Carbon. Takeshi Kovacs says this line to Colonel Carrera as the Colonel prepares to subject him to the Mind Probe. Carrera spits back, "Neither do you." It's played for Dramatic Irony as they're both wearing new sleeves so neither is aware the other person is their old enemy from many years ago.
• Boba Fett employs this in The Book of Boba Fett with merely saying his name terrifying a rat-catcher droid enough to turn itself off.
• Breaking Bad: The morning after Walt drunkenly implies he had some connection to Gale's death, Skyler starts to worry their lives might be in danger with Walt's employers and tries to convince him to give up cooking meth. In a now-legendary retort, Walt furiously rebukes her, stating that she clearly doesn't know the scale of what he's doing and how important he is to his employers.
  Walter: No, you clearly don't know who you are talking to, so let me clue you in. I am not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger. A guy opens his door and gets shot, and you think that of me? No. I am the one who knocks!
• Buffyverse:
  • Angel. People say this a lot to the title character; of course they don't know who they're dealing with either.
    Cordelia: You don't know who he is. Oh, boy... you're about to get your ass kicked.
  • Detective Kate Lockley finds a criminal ring that is secretly run by demons, who naturally assume she really doesn't know who she's dealing with.
    Head demon: Do you know what walks this city? (Kate shoots him four times; he barely flinches) You have no comprehension! You do not understand what stands before you!
    Angel: A big, ugly drug-running demon, who thinks he is a lot scarier than he is, maybe? Yeah. She knows.
  • And subverted in typical Joss Whedon style.
    Mr. Ashet: You have no idea who I am, do you, Miss Raiden? Or of the dire importance of recent events.
    Gwen Raiden: I know enough to go to Tahiti.
    Mr. Ashet: Well said. Perhaps, then, I won't kill you for your— (The Beast punches his fist through Ashet's chest)
  • A rare dead serious use comes up in the Series Finale, "Not Fade Away". Wesley blasts Cyrus Vail with a fireball, only for him to shrug it off and then cancel Wesley's magic leaving him defenseless.
    "You don't know who you're dealing with, do you, boy? I mean, really. I crap better magic than this."
  • And a similar character moment in the Series Fauxnale of Buffy:
    Buffy: You ever heard the expression, "biting off more than you can chew"? ...Okay, um, how about the expression "Vampire Slayer"?
    Vampire: What the hell are you talking about?
    Buffy: Wow. Never heard that one? Okay, how about, "Oh God, my leg, my leg?" (Breaks his leg)
    Vampire: Oh God, my leg! Ah!
  • Buffy also has the First Evil who says this quite a lot.
    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?
    The First: You have no idea who you are dealing with.
    Buffy: Let me guess. Is it...evil?
  • And again in "The I in Team", when Buffy survives an ambush.
    "Professor Walsh? That simple little recon you sent me on wasn't a raccoon. Turns out it was me, trapped in the sewers with a faulty weapon and two of your pet demons. If you think that's enough to kill me, you really don't know what a Slayer is. Trust me when I say you're gonna find out."
  • Another serious case in "Never Leave Me". Spike's chip and soul seem to be failing, and he begs Buffy to kill him, citing she has no clue what he can really do.
    Spike: Do you have any idea what I'm capable of?
    Buffy: I was in the cellar with you. I saw what you did.
    Spike: I'm not talking about the cellar. The people in the cellar got off easy. I'm talking about me. Buffy, you have never met the real me.
    Buffy: (crosses arms) Believe me, I'm well aware of what you're capable of.
    Spike: No, you got off easy too. (stands) Do you know how much blood you can drink from a girl before she'll die? I do. You see, the trick is to drink just enough to know how to damage them just enough so that they'll still cry when you ...[snip] You wanna know what I've done to girls Dawn's age? (beat) This is me, Buffy. You've got to kill me before I get out.
• Burn Notice — "Fight or Flight":
  Bruce Gellman: You have no idea who you're dealing with.
  Michael Westen: No, I read the article. Most of it anyway. Scary guys, drugs, guns. Did I miss something?
• Played for Laughs in The Dick Van Dyke Show episode "Buddy, Can you Spare a Job?" as Buddy's replacement Jackie Brewster heckles Mel.
  Mel: Listen, do you know who I am?
  Jackie: Don't you know who you are?
• Doctor Who:
  • This trope crops up from time to time, especially in the revival. Usually about the Doctor, of course.
    Dorium Maldovar: All those stories you've heard about him? They're not stories, they're true! Really, you're not telling me you don't know what's coming?
  • The antagonist of "The Woman Who Fell to Earth" tries to do this to the Doctor:
    Tzim-Sha: You're interfering in things you don't understand.
    The Doctor: Yeah, well, we all need a hobby.
  • Invoked by The Doctor against the Vashta Narada. It works.
    The Doctor: I'm The Doctor! And you're in the biggest library in the universe! Look me up.
• In a scene from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
  Police Officer: Now wait a minute, buddy, who the hell do you think you're talking to?
  Phillip Banks: Who the hell do YOU think you're talking to?!
• In Hannibal, this crops up when Devil in Plain Sight Hannibal Lecter is discussing Jack Crawford's FBI investigation into his activities with Bedelia Du Maurier, his thoroughly cowed ex-psychiatrist who already has intimately personal reasons to be terrified of him.
  Hannibal: It would seem Jack Crawford is less suspicious of me than you are.
  Bedelia: Jack Crawford doesn't know what you're capable of.
  Hannibal: [Beat] Neither do you.
  Bedelia: [Swallows uncomfortably]
• Kings — "The Sabbath Queen":
  William Cross: You insist on keeping Andrew in the cold, you'd better learn to live in the dark.
  Queen Rose Benjamin: You have no idea what you're dealing with.
• The Librarians: Jenkins in "And the Broken Staff", when confronted by the season's Big Bad, comments, "I usually resist playing this card... well, at least in supernatural circles... do you know who I am?" As revealed in the previous season finale, Jenkins is actually Sir Galahad of the Round Table, and immortal.
• Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman — "The People vs. Lois Lane":
  D.A. Clemmons: I suggest you keep your emotions in check, Mr Kent. You obviously have no idea who you're dealing with, here.
  Clark Kent: Yeah, neither do you.
• Played straight most of the time in Lucifer as people don't really believe that Lucifer Morningstar is the Devil, despite him being quite open about it. However, it is played for laughs in one scene where Lucifer is being evicted from his nightclub. He advances on the moving crew in fury and gives this trope, but instead of a terrifying display of supernatural power, the next scene shows that Lucifer has brought out the girls and booze and got them all drunk.
• Merlin:
  • Merlin uses variations of this whenever he has to use his powers on people.
    Bad Guy: You don't even have a sword.
    Merlin: I don't need one.
  • Also, when Merlin is cornered by Agravaine and his men in a cave:
    Merlin: (reluctantly) Be careful.
• Person of Interest:
  • In the pilot, John Reese rescues fires a tear gas grenade into a carload of criminals, removing their wallets and the Victim of the Week they were kidnapping, who gives this quote. Reese looks in a wallet and finds a police badge. "I do now."
  • When Root hears this from a government bureaucrat who is threatening her about the powers that would go after her in her quest to find The Machine, she merely shoots him.
  • In "Dead Reckoning", Reese and Snow are forced to break into a software company that turns out to be a covert front for the National Security Agency. When they take an NSA technician hostage he says incredulously, "Do you guys have any idea where you are?"
• In the first episode of Once Upon a Time, Regina threatens Emma to mind her own business and leave Storybrooke by saying "You have no idea what I'm capable of." Near the end, after deciding to stay, Emma boasts back to her, "You have no idea what I'm capable of!"
• The Professionals. In "Look After Annie", Bodie and Doyle are assigned to guard an American politician, so introduce themselves by infiltrating her security disguised as waiters and then drawing their firearms. Her aide is not impressed.
  Stanley: What kind of a joke is this? Do you know who you're dealing with?!!
  Doyle: I know who we might have been dealing with—three corpses.
• The second season finale of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has a slight variant. A Dominion agent is confronted at weapon-point about who she is and what she wants. She tells the heroes "You have no idea what's begun here," before teleporting away. She's right: the Dominion later nearly lays waste to the Alpha Quadrant.
• In one episode of Veronica Mars, Logan pulls exactly the subversion listed under "jokes" (asking angrily if a teacher knows who he is, then turning in an exam late when the teacher says no and he doesn't care).
• A variant appears when the cast of The Walking Dead is captured in Terminus:
  Rick: They're gonna feel pretty stupid when they find out.
  Abraham: Find out what?
  Rick: They're screwing with the wrong people.
• The West Wing: In "Mr. Willis of Ohio", several of the White House staffers are out at a bar with Zoey, the President's daughter, when a group of guys start hassling Zoey (thinking her just an attractive young woman). Josh grabs Zoey's Panic Button (which she had left at the table) and activates it before going to confront the drunks.
  Josh: You guys don't realize it, but you're having a really bad night.
• A drunk Balowski tries this in The Young Ones.
  Balowski: Do you know who I am?
  Mike: Yes!
  Balowski: (Beat) Who am I?

Video Games

• Irenicus in Baldur's Gate II seems irritated any time anyone is foolish enough to try to attack him. In particular: "You dare to attack me here? Do you even know whom you face?" (Then everyone dies.) Being a level 30 mage in a world where level 20 means legendary power (at least until the BG 2 expansion), he can hardly be blamed.
• In The Force Unleashed II, when Starkiller faces corrupt ruler Baron Merillion Tarko, Tarko angrily says he has no idea who he is dealing with. Of course, since Starkiller is an uber-powerful Jedi and Tarko is just a guy with a bunch of mooks and droids, Tarko was the one who didn't know who he was dealing with.
• Said in Freelancer by Governor Tekagi, whom Trent thinks is just a corrupt Kusari politician, who suddenly develops a bad case of Voice of the Legion and Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Inverted in one mission, which involves terrifying a Mafia goon strapped to the hood of a car so that he'll reveal which family is behind a criminal operation.
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: When Ganondorf meets Link for the first time.
  "Pathetic little fool! Do you realize who you're dealing with? I am Ganondorf and soon I will rule the world!"
• In the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC for Mass Effect 2, Shepard can invoke this towards a hostage-taker (a Spectre gone rogue for the Shadow Broker), listing off some of their more infamous accomplishments so far. And the following is the Paragon version of the threat;
  Shepard: I sacrificed hundreds of human lives to save the Destiny Ascension. I unleashed the Rachni on the galaxy. So for your sake, I hope your escape plan doesn't hinge on me hesitating to shoot a damn hostage.
• In Max Payne, when Max confronts the cop traitor B.B., the latter keeps repeating that Max "has no idea how huge this is", referring to the conspiracy that Max has already caught wind of at that point.
• Said almost word-for-word in Popful Mail when the fake king reveals his true form.
  Fake King: You don't know who you're dealin' with! Let me show ya somethin'!
• In Portal 2, this is part of Cave Johnson's famous rant.
  Cave: Alright, I've been thinking... When Life Gives You Lemons..., don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back. GET MAD! I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?! Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it tried to give Cave Johnson lemons! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that BURNS YOUR HOUSE DOWN!
• In Shop Heroes, Mojian gives a line like this if you increase your prices on him. (He still pays, though.)
• Delivered by Hades to Ryoma Nagare, when they fight in Super Robot Wars Z3: Jigoku-Hen:
  Hades: You who use that destructive power, dares to oppose me!? You have no idea what the Getter rays can do!
  Ryouma: Shut up! I'm tired of false gods! I believe in the Getter Rays! Unlike you, I'm not afraid of them!
  Hades: Getter Rays will be the end of us all!

Webcomics

• Subverted in this Cyanide and Happiness strip, in which a diner repeatedly asks a waiter, "Do you know who I am?". It seems like he's using it to get his own way, but the punchline is that he's suffering from amnesia.
• Dominic Deegan:
  • When Miranda Deegan shows up at the climax of an early arc, the infernomancer sent to kill her boasts that by coming out in the open, she's just signed her own death warrant. She responds that he clearly has no idea just who he's messing with, and quickly shows just why she's considered one of the world's most powerful wizards.
  • In a different story arc similar words are spoken to a ruthless gang of cutthroat thieves when they almost without intending to kill Dominic's GF, with a reference the readers will get to this incident as he tells them how they don't want to know what she did to the last person to hurt a family member.
• Billy Thatcher from morphE tries pulling this card when he wakes up in a crate. He believes his status as a genius celebrity will make his captors regret their decision. His captors are mages. Powerful mages who couldn't care less what mundane wrath Billy could conjure with his wealth and fame.
• Weak Hero:
  • Rowan tries to instill fear in a possible opponent by asking them "Do you know who I am?" Rowan isn't actually anyone of note, but he does excel at bullshitting his way out of his problems.
  • When Forrest tries to intimidate Wolf, Wolf grabs him by the hair and reminds him none-too-politely that he's fucking Wolf Keum. Unlike Rowan above, the name is very much one to be scared of.

Web Original

• Decker: President Davidson says "Do you know who I am?" in response to getting captured by terrorists.
• Epic Rap Battles of History:
  • Justin Bieber vs. Beethoven.
    My name's Beethoven, Motherfucker, maybe you've heard of me?!
  • Also Albert Einstein vs. Stephen Hawking.
    Hawking: You've got no idea what you're messing with here, boy.
• The Navy Seal Copypasta:
  What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.
• This exchange in RWBY episode "The More The Merrier";
  Raven: All that time spying for Ozpin and you still have no idea what you're dealing with; There is no beating Salem!
• In Worm, PRT Director Tagg explains to Skitter, who murdered his predecessor and who he ordered attacked in her civilian identity, why she can't win against the PRT, and against him in particular.
  Director Tagg: All of this goes someplace. Do you really see yourself making it five more years without being killed or put in prison?
  Skitter: I haven't really thought about it.
  Director Tagg: I have. Bad publicity fades with time. So do welts and scabs. Five or ten years from now, provided the world makes it that long, nobody will remember anything except the fact that we fought back. Good publicity will overwrite the bad, carefully chosen words and some favors called in with people in the media will help whitewash any of our mistakes. We’re an institution.
  Skitter: So you think you automatically win? Or you're guaranteed to win in the long run?
  Director Tagg: No. They didn’t pick me to head this city's PRT division because I’m a winner, Ms. Taylor. They picked me because I'm a scrapper. I'm a survivor. I'm the type that's content to get the shit kicked out of me, so long as I give the other guy a bloody nose. I'm a stubborn motherfucker, I won't be intimidated, and I won't give up. The last few Directors in Brockton Bay met a bad end, but I'm here to stay.
  Skitter: You hope.
  Director Tagg: I know. You want to fight this system? I'll make sure it fights back.
  • Turns out Tagg had it the wrong way round. It was him who had no idea who he was dealing with.
• Melvin says a variant of this to Joey while his Millenium Rod turns into a lightsaber in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series.
  Melvin: You really have no clue what your fucking with here, do you?
  Joey: Uh, yeah, I'll just be getting out of the way now.
  Melvin: Yeah that's what I thought.
  • And later, after killing his own abusive father in horrible fashion:
    Melvin: The man did not know what he was fucking with.

Western Animation

• Animaniacs:
  • In "Bagdad Cafe", Yakko provides the perfect cheeky comeback:
    Sodarn Insain: Do you know who I am?!
    Yakko: Why, did you forget?
  • And in another episode:
    Beethoven: Do you know who I am?
    Yakko: No, but maybe if you hum a few bars...
• From Archer:
  Colombian Narco: [whose plane is being stolen] Do you have any idea who we are?
  Archer: Nnnnooope. Do you know who I am?
  Narco: Nnnnooope.
  Archer: Oh. Then blow me.
• Beast Wars — "Optimal Situation":
  Blackarachnia: No, Bowser Boy. You have no idea what you're dealing with.
• In the Defenders of the Earth episode "The Gods Awake", Ming teams up with a humanoid being known as Mystic (who's really the destroyer god Shiva) to seek a sacred borje, with which he hopes to conquer the world. Mandrake, however, is able to sense Mystic/Shiva's true nature and, along with the other Defenders, hastens to warn Ming:
  Mandrake: Ming, do not let it have it!
  Ming: Have you lost your senses, conjuror?
  Mandrake: He is not who he seems! He wants to destroy everything!
  Ming: Is this true?
  Mystic/Shiva: All true — and more.
  Ming: Then perhaps I should withhold this from you.
  Mystic/Shiva: Impudent mortal! Do you think you can keep that which is mine by destiny?! Give it to me! Give — it — to — me!
  Ming: No!
  Mystic/Shiva: Give it to me!
  [Mystic/Shiva uses his telekinetic powers to take the borje from Ming, then transforms into his true form.]
• Invoked by Adam DeCobray in G.I. Joe: Renegades to James McCullan, moments before revealing himself to be Cobra Commander.
• In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, when Gladys attacks Grim with a mop, she gets a few hits in due to his surprise (probably because she's attacking The Grim Reaper), then when he protests "Do you know where that mop has been?!" But after one more whack, he finally gets fed up with it.
  Grim: Foolish mortal! I don't think you know who I am... Let me give you a hint! (conjures up his scythe and chops off the head of the mop before looming closer with a Blade Reflection, leaving Gladys suitably terrified.)
• Jackie Chan Adventures: The Arc Villain of the 4th season, Tarakudo, uses this line while revealing his identity to the heroes, disproving Uncle's assumption that he's yet another magical threat of Chinese origin.
  Tarakudo: You have no idea who you are dealing with.
  Uncle: Enlighten me.
  Tarakudo: Bow before Tarakudo, King of all Shadowkhan, Lord of all Oni!
  Uncle: (gasps) So you are Japanese!
  Tarakudo: (knocks Uncle down with a telekinetic strike) Consider yourself enlightened.
• The Ren & Stimpy Show episode "Stimpy's Fan Mail" has Ren imagine what it would be like to be president:
  "What do you MEAN you don't agree with me?! Do you know who you're DEALING WITH?!"
  (slams down 'the Button' and blows up Australia, laughing maniacally)
• Steven Universe - "Jailbreak":
  Jasper: I've seen what you really are.
  Garnet: (chuckles) No, you haven't.
• Young Justice: Red Volcano shrugs off being dropped from a great height and blasted with Blue Beetle's plasma cannon.
  Red Volcano: Burning plasma; really? You don't seem to have grasped whom you are dealing with. The name is VOLCANO! (calls up fire and earth to stomp Blue Beetle...to no effect)
  Blue Beetle: You don't seem to have grasped what you're dealing with either!

Real Life

• During the early 1990s in Britain, a traffic policeman stopped a guy speeding in a Mercedes-Benz SL and before taking the ID papers asked sarcastically: "Who do you think you are, Nigel Mansell?" The driver answered calmly: "No, officer. My name is Ayrton Senna da Silva."
• Amateur boxer Ronnie Pickering is famous for this trope, using the very similar meaning phrase "Do you know who I am?" when trying to intimidate someone in a road rage argument that went viral.
• A Twitter user once tried to correct a joke Gail Simone had made about The Punisher's personality. When he didn't make the connection even after having it pointed out to him that she was a comic book writer, Gail replied, "Dude, between the two of us, which one has actually written the Punisher, do you think?"

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