Basic Trope: A character challenges another with the phrase, or some variation of the phrase, "You and what army?" in which afterwards, an army then shows up.
- Straight: Bob challenges Alice to stop editing a trope entry. Alice asks "You and what army?!" Bob points to a legion of tropers as they march over a nearby hill with Torches and Pitchforks, and says "That army!"
- Exaggerated: It literally is an army; tens of thousands of people with embedded support, helicopters, artillery, armor, all to stop Alice from editing TV Tropes.
- Downplayed: A small group, such as the TV Tropes administration team, shows up.
- Justified:
- Bob knew Alice would not be easily convinced without a superior display of force, and made sure he had an army beforehand.
- Bob is a general and literally has an army at his command.
- Inverted: The person who asks this question is the one who has the army.
- Subverted:
- Bob says "That army!" and points to empty space. The army doesn't show up, having run off when he wasn't looking.
- Bob says "That army!" and points to the troopers... who then turn on him. Alice had blackmailed them all along.
- Double Subverted:
- They come back.
- They hadn't run off, they were just invisible.
- The army was stalled so they do arrive, but just a little later than Bob had planned.
- The army did run off... to invade Alice's house.
- Parodied: A good number of gun barrels/blades are put up to the characters' neck midway through their attempt to say the phrase.
- Zig Zagged: The army doesn't arrive... but then it actually does, after a fair bit of time. But then, the newly-arrived soldiers realize it's lunch time and call a break.
- Averted: The phrase isn't used at all, or there is no army.
- Enforced: "We need a moment to bring in The Cavalry and people have seen it already, write it in."
- Lampshaded:
- "Where were you hiding all these guys?!"
- "Why did I say that? It never ends well."
- Invoked: Charlie sets this up as he knows Alice and Bob will go through this exchange...
- Exploited:
- ... and uses it to wipe out Alice, Bob and Bob's army all in one fell swoop.
- Alice uses this as a way to get Bob's forces out in the open rather than risk an ambush.
- Defied:
- Discussed: "Dude, you probably should have told me he was an army general before you let me say that."
- Conversed: "You know, is there ever any actual time when someone says 'You and what army' and it just ends there?"
- Played For Laughs: The army retreats, is incompetent, is composed of bizarre elements, or is otherwise a bother.
- Played For Drama: The army is there to enforce things. Violently.
- Played For Horror: It's not an "army", it's a lynch mob one million strong.
So you wanna go back, huh? You and what back button?