Overly Narrow Superlative: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* A Fox Sports Detroit commercial heard one year in May: "Winner of more Emmys than any mid-Michigan sports network this year".

* Used all the time in commercials promoting TV shows. They seem to try to find some way to refer to the show as #1 somehow. They'll mention usually the genre (#1 new comedy), time (#1 new show of the year), location (#1 show on cable), and any combination of these getting more and more specific as you go.

* Advertising for ''[[Dexter]]'' frequently cites the title character as "America's Favourite Serial Killer".

 

* Played with in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's]]''. In the last chapter, {{spoiler|Reinforce}} claims to be the happiest magic tome in the world. However by that point she has a very good reason to feel the happiest, [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|not mattering if she is the only magical tome shown in the series]].

 

* [[Detective Animal|Detective Chimp]] sometimes refers to himself as the world's greatest chimp detective.

** He's also called [[Batman]] the world's second greatest detective.

 

 

* In ''[[The Lion King]]'', Scar mentions [[Blatant Lies|wanting to look out for the well-being of]] his favourite nephew. Simba's response: "Pff - yeah, right; I'm your ''only'' nephew."

* The DVD cover of ''[[Happy Gilmore]]'' has a quote referring to it as "the best golf comedy since ''[[Caddyshack]]''!" So that means it's better than ''Caddyshack II'', I suppose.

* In ''[[Mr Baseball]]'', [[Tom Selleck]]'s baseball has-been, Jack Eliot, resorts to one of these to try to avoid being traded.

* [[James Cameron]] is known for describing his [[Old Shame|directorial debut]] ''[[Piranha|Piranha 2: The Spawning]]'' as "the finest flying piranha movie ever made".

* One tagline for the cult classic Jean Reno movie ''[[Wasabi]]'' is "Quite possibly the greatest French-language, English-subtitled, Japanese action-comedy of all time."

* ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'' does this a few times.

** Ramona tells Scott that he's the nicest guy she's dated yet. Considering that her dating history consists of the Seven Evil Exes...

* ''Apogee of Fear'' has been called "[http://www.space.com/14234-1st-scifi-movie-space-nasa-garriott.html the best science fiction film ever made in space]".

 

* ''The New Yorker'' reviewed Jeff Lindsay's "[[Dexter]]" novels by saying "Dexter Morgan is one of the most likable vigilante serial killers in recent literature." This is weird on many levels. First, "in recent literature," as if that statement would be any less valid if they just said "in literature" given how few characters fit that crazily specific criteria. Then they complicate things even further by saying he's just "one of" the most likable, as if to cover their tracks in case there are other characters that fit his exact description who are more likable. This description is kind of like saying "[[George W. Bush]] is the best president whose father was also president and also likes Dr. Pepper."

* In ''When You Are Engulfed in Flames'', [[David Sedaris]] ponders how sometimes the sins we haven't committed can be all we have to cling to, and some people really need to reach to find sins they haven't committed: At least I never killed anyone ''with a hammer''.

* In a short scene in ''[[Lensman|Children of the Lens]]'' that shows how close the Kinnison family is, Kimball Kinnison tells his only son that he's Kim's favorite son. Kit takes the comment in the good humor that it's meant in.

 

{{quote|But that was my favorite Egyptian mortuary based nutritional diagram}}

* In ''[[Brothers and Sisters]]'', the following exchange happens:

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'':

{{quote|'''Kendra''': That's me favorite shirt! That's me only shirt!}}

** This trope is also a running gag in the audio commentary. "This is one of the top five dwarf-based arctic sick jokes" and "He's one of the great London tent-shakers."

* ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' has a few examples:

* In the first 2010 episode of the ''[[Ellen DeGeneres]] Show'', Ellen proclaims to her audience, "you are the best audience of the year", and adds "no, you are the best audience of the DECADE!" The audience starts off laughing at the joke, and then cheers for themselves.

* There was a History Channel documentary on the Black Plague where one analyst referred to it as "Surely one of the most important events in European history where over fifty percent of the population died in such a short time." (Yeah, there's probably supposed to be a comma after history...)

** In the 11th-season episode "Who Knew?":

{{quote|'''Col. Potter''': The best damn cartoon strip in the world is 'Li'l Abner.'

* ''[[NCIS]]'' had an undercover set up blown apart by the FBI. Fornell and Gibbs start in on each other about it before heading off to Gibbs' "office". The FBI agents worriedly mentioned to the NCIS team that they hadn't seen Fornell this mad since... (other FBI agent finishes) the last time they saw him.

 

* When [[Flight of the Conchords]] are performing for an audience that's unfamiliar with them, they'll usually bill themselves as some variation of "formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo". The third most popular is a Flight of the Conchords cover band. They play all the same songs, but they're just slightly better.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84EoBQfdrb0 "The Most Beautiful Girl (in the room)"] is this trope from beginning to end.

* Inverted in a [[John Lennon]] quip, who, when asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world, replied, "He's not even the best drummer in ''[[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]]!"

 

* In ''[[Conquering the Horizon]]'' Hsthressis telepathically told Evelyn:

{{quote|Out of everyone who’s ever murdered me, you’re my favorite.}}

:In case you're wondering how many times Hsthressis got murdered, the answer is once. And it was an [[Murder by Mistake|accident]] (kinda)!

 

* In ''[[Dilbert]]'', Dogbert is acting as a shady, bribe-collecting movie critic, and a customer wants to know how much the review "Best movie so far this year" will cost for a film released on New Year's Day.

** Inverted in another strip where Dilbert's company manages to claim that their engineers are paid above the median salary for their industry by defining their industry more and more vaguely until the average salary drops below what they're paying their employees. Dilbert's company is officially in the industry of "High technology, textile workers, teenagers and dead people."

* ''[[The Boondocks]]'': [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Caesar]] [https://www.gocomics.com/boondocks/2001/10/07 brags] about being "the freestyle rhyme champion in [[Stepford Suburbia|Woodcrest]]!!", which [[Deadpan Snarker|Huey]] [[Lampshade Hanging|points out]] is not that hard to be.

 

* A running bit on Dan Cole's radio show on KFAN is to state that a given show is "one of the top five shows on the station." There are only 5 shows on the station.

* ''[[Just a Minute]]'': "Very good chairman, very good chairman! Best chairman we've got, best chairman we've got!"

 

* [[The Very World of Milton Jones|Milton Jones]] is often introduced as "Britain's funniest Milton".

* [[Tim Minchin]]'s ''So Live'' DVD describes him as "without a doubt one of the top 7 pianist-singer-songwriter-comedian-actort-pervert-wannabe-rockstars born in Western Australia in the mid-seventies."

* Drag performer Cashetta calls herself "The world's most fabulous drag magician." And follows with, "And the genius of that is that [[Lampshade Hanging|you've got nothing to compare me to!"]]

 

* From the opening of ''[[Ragtime]]'' [[The Musical]]: "''And although the newspapers called the shooting the Crime of the Century, Goldman knew it was only 1906...and there were ninety-four years to go!''"

* In ''[[1776 (musical)|1776]]'' Martha Jefferson, upon meeting Adams and Franklin, says that she is honored to meet "The two greatest men in America." Franklin replies, "Certainly the two greatest in earshot."

** In several places on this wiki, we refer to the line "[[Exit, Pursued by a Bear]]" as "the most famous piece of stage direction ever".

 

* The radio programs in ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' use these, such as in Vice City where the hosts defends himself by saying his old clown act 'Saul the wheat-free clown' was voted "Best up and comming dietery-restricted comedic act" in Vice City. The slimy politician points out he lost that one to the 'Mary the meat-free mime'.

* In ''[[Pokémon XD]] Gale of Darkness'', [[The Renfield|Chobin]] does this to himself when he describes himself as the local [[Mad Scientist]]'s best assistant. "Chobin is only assistant, so Chobin must be best assistant."

* The English site for ''[[Hatoful Boyfriend]]'' dubs the game "the world's greatest pigeon dating sim."

 

* [http://www.amptoons.com/ Barry Deutsch] describes his webcomic ''[[Hereville]]'' as being "Possibly the best comic about a troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl that you'll read all week."

* Used in [https://web.archive.org/web/20120526214704/http://dresdencodak.com/wp-content/gallery/stickman/a_hourly.gif this] ''[[Dresden Codak]]'' stickman comic ("Easily the greatest Jeff Bridges [[Sci Fi]] film of the early 80's") <ref>For the record: John Carpenter's ''Starman'' in 1984 is the only possible competition to ''Tron'' (1982) in this category.</ref>

* ''[[Head Trip]]'' had a case of [http://headtrip.keenspot.com/d/20141006.html Mal appreciating her appliance], who made mistake of talking about this ''before'' she had her morning coffee. Then again, that's Mal - she ''could'' know more than ten coffee makers possessed by dead guys' spirits. And/or personally deprive them of their previous bodies. 'Tis best not to ask.

 

* Averted when [[Diamanda Hagan]] described Zombeak as "the world's worst zombie chicken movie," because [[Poultrygeist|another one actually does exist]]. And it is [[Guilty Pleasures|amazing]].

* [http://www.youtube.com/user/cutewithchris Cute with Chris] often calls his site/show, "The number one cat website on the internet today... With the word "Chris" in the title. So proud."

* Sally Kohn, a lawyer, former contributor at [[Fox News]] and now an "expert" on everything, bills herself as "America's second favorite cable news lesbian" (according to her Twitter profile).

 

* From ''[[Garfield Specials|A Garfield Christmas Special]]'':

{{quote|'''Jon''': Doc Boy, how's my favorite brother?

** In "The Ghost of Plankton", Plankton ([[It Makes Sense in Context|who had become a ghost]]) stumbles upon his funeral at the Chum Bucket and calls it "the worst funeral of mine I've ever been to".

 

* A standard joke: "You're the best Sunday afternoon audience we've had all week!" (change date and time as appropriate).

* Used often in movie advertisements. Your film didn't open #1 at the box office? No problem. Just say it's the #1 action-adventure/comedy/family comedy/romance/fantasy/etc of the week. The sad part? It's usually said non-[[Irony|ironically]]. A similar usage is movies in January being billed as "one of the best movies of the year".

** The Minnesota Wild have never lost a home opener in franchise history.

* Websites like Fark.com often contain links to items such as "The most amazing picture/video of (extremely specific object or event that you aren't likely to see ever again) you'll see today."

* Some of the materials run on the [https://web.archive.org/web/20101107043550/http://oddlyspecific.failblog.org/ Oddly Specific] spinoff of Failblog. Others edge into [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]. [http://oddlyspecific.failblog.org/2010/10/01/funny-signs-good-luck-finding-the-coldest/ This one, for instance].

* [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] is the best gubernatorial candidate in the cast of ''[[Predator]]''. Some may disagree on whether he's truly better than [[Jesse Ventura]], but the funny thing is, no matter which of them you prefer, neither of them is the worst. That distinction goes to [[wikipedia:Sonny Landham|Sonny Landham]].