Sarcasm Failure

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

‘I wonder what else lives down here that we don't know about?’ said Carrot.
 ‘Well, there's always the invisible squid-like creature that sucks all the air out of—’ Rincewind began, but sarcasm did not carry very well out here. The universe diluted it. The huge, black, solemn eyes in the sky withered it.

—The Last Hero

Sarcasm Failure is, to put it simply, when a character who you'd expect would be able to deliver an irreverent, sarcastic or deadpan comment on just about anything fails to do so because of the nature of the current situation. This trope can be Played for Drama—if the writers want to show that a situation is particularly dire, having the funny guy go completely serious is one way of showing that—or Played for Laughs, by having the character encounter a situation so completely, utterly and patently absurd that he or she is rendered temporarily incapable of responding coherently. (Basically their Snark short-circuits.)

Comedy versions may be reduced to gawking, stuttering or incoherent babbling rage at the sheer idiocy of it all, a Beat, or just greet the situation with stunned incredulity, often Lampshaded with some variation of "words fail me".

Not to be confused with Sarcasm Blind, Cannot Convey Sarcasm, nor with Insult Backfire, though an Insult Backfire may well take the form of a sarcastic insult that fails to be appreciated as such. Compare OOC Is Serious Business, Flat What, I Have Nothing to Say to That. Compare also Shoo Out the Clowns, when this is an indicator the entire story is taking a turn for the serious.

Examples of Sarcasm Failure include:

Examples of the first kind (serious)

Anime and Manga

  • In Mahou Sensei Negima, Albireo Imma, the man with the perpetual Cheshire Cat Grin who never stopped acting with a strong whimsey, reached a point of utter horror as the (Magic) world was about to come to an end. Telepathically, Princess Arika made sure to tell him to stop being a defeatist fool. This was the only time he ever seemed without his usual joking demeanor (and with his eyes widened).
    • More recently, Asakura was rendered completely speechless upon seeing several people get wiped from existence.
  • In the first season finale of Code Geass, when Nina completes her super-bomb, Lloyd does this. The fact that the "Pudding Earl" got deadly serious is enough to convince Rakshata that he's not bluffing when he says how dangerous it is.
  • November 11 of Darker than Black is infamous for his twisted sense of humor. However, he has moments when his True Companions are in danger/has just escaped danger where he becomes serious and sincere.
  • Deadpan Snarker Kyon is momentarily reduced to incoherent choking sounds in the Haruhi Suzumiya movie when Ryoko Asakura shows up in class acting like she'd never tried to kill him. Considering he can ordinarily keep up, verbally at least, with Nagato, Koizumi and Tsuruya, it's a memorable moment.

Comic Books

  • In the DCU, it's often considered that the ultimate way to show just how bad things have gotten is to have The Joker stop laughing.
    • Or that something is exceptionally satisfying (possibly disturbingly so) when Batman smiles.
      • The best example being when Harley Quinn, who spends every waking moment with (and fawning over) the Joker, Ax Crazy king of maniacal laughter, reacts to Batman's laughter with a meekly frightened:

Harley: ...I've never seen you laugh before... I don't think I like it! Cut it out, you're giving me the creeps!

    • When the Justice League of America nearly got taken out by Batman's contingency plans in the Tower of Babel arc, someone shouted an order at Plastic Man and he replied with "On it." The response was "...What, no jokes?" "This is not funny."
  • Marvel's Spider-Man is famous for his habit of quipping his way through fights. If he's not joking, it probably means the villain has really pissed him off, and is in for quite a bit of pain. There's also this line from the Ultimate Spider-Man video game, right before the boss fight with the Rhino:

Spider-Man: Is that a horn on your head, or are you happy to... (Rhino looms over Spidey) Oh my God, I am so scared I can't finish my lame joke.

    • And from the Ultimate Clone Saga, Jessica Drew puts it well:

Spider-Woman: No, that's how you know he is serious!

  • Similarily to Spidey, and that smiling fellow from Gotham, yours truly is typically a Motor Mouthed, wise cracking mutant amongst X-Men (shaddap, don't interrupt me) who always knows how to put the pancakes in peoples' pancreas, to such an extent, in fact, that talking non-stop might actually be a distinguished sort-of tactic that I utilize since it distracts and frustrates my opponents to such a degree they cannot focus properly on the fight. HowEVVUHR, when coprolite really has hit the fan, I will shut my cookie cove, the little yellow boxes will disappear and very, very bad things happen to those wretched writhing worms who have wrought my wholesome wrath.
  • Lenny in Shade the Changing Man was always good for a snark, no matter how dire the situation. Her Sarcasm Failure was a result of an author, an unwitting personality plunderer, who had written her into his book, and shocked her enough to drive her to a suicide attempt.
  • In Watchmen, even the Comedian can't crack jokes about Ozymandias' plan, which also serves as his Despair Event Horizon.
  • New Warriors: Speedball (a looong time before his Penance days) starts makes a sneeze joke about somebody called 'Ashu' (or similar), but when he starts explaining, he gives up with "even I can't make jokes right now".

Film

  • Kup, the grizzled veteran in 1986's Transformers: The Movie, often told war stories comparing situations to battles he'd been in. Eventually they discover Unicron devouring their home planet.

Hot Rod: Doesn't it remind you of something, Kup?
Kup: Nope...never seen anything like it.

Han: Oh, yeah? Watch this!
[nothing]
Leia: Watch what?
Han: I think we're in trouble.

  • In Manhattan, Woody Allen gets dumped when his girlfriend reveals that she's going back to his (married, though soon to be divorced) best friend. You can see him clearly reaching for a standard Woody one-liner, but instead he can only stammer, "I'm... I'm stunned, I'm, I'm, I'm...."

Literature

  • You know the situation is either particularly dire or somehow personal when Marco stops making sarcastic jokes in Animorphs.
  • Similarly, you know things are bad when Richie Tozier stops cracking jokes in IT. (Though sometimes averted - as a Motor Mouth with poor impulse control, he slips up from time to time, notably mouthing off to Henry Bowers twice in a row, straight to his face when the big lummox falls over.)
  • In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Fred Weasley is reduced to this after he sees that George's ear has been blown off. George, however, is not.

"Pathetic, With the whole wide world of ear-related humor before you, you go for holey?"

    • On the other hand, when Fred dies, we can safely assume George doesn't start cracking jokes about it.
      • Likewise, Mad Eye's death made the twins shut up.
  • In American Gods, Mr. Nancy (Anansi) starts out as a Cool Old Guy who is perpetually joking. When things start going bad for the old gods, the protagonist notes that Nancy complete stops smiling and telling jokes. Only when things are settled does he return to his former carefree attitude.
  • In the true-crime book Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets (upon which Homicide: Life on the Street was based), one of the recurring observations is that homicide cops can be very, very snarky on crime scenes, as they have to deal with a great deal of unpleasantness in their day-to-day working lives and use wit as something of a defense mechanism. This, then, serves to make the discovery of the body of eight-year-old Latonya Kim Wallace and the investigation into the scene of the crime particularly powerful; it's simply noted that there's no jokes, no sarcastic comments, just a lot of grim and serious-faced cops doing their jobs.
  • In Small Favor, Harry is unable to deliver any of his trademark snark when confronted by Queen Mab of the Winter Court, and for good reason: he's too damned scared to snark.
    • This was later shown to be a good reaction: when he does start cracking jokes, it annoys her. And because it annoys her, she freezes the water in his eyes. He's reduced to whimpering in pain and crying Tears of Blood for a while.
    • Harry generally goes light on the sarcasm around Nicodemus as well, for much the same reasons. Nicodemus is too much of a No-Nonsense Nemesis to get affected by it anyway.
  • Wes Janson is something of an Adult Child much of the time. He's always irreverent, always making some quip. When he's not, well...

Live-Action TV

  • House: When the title character starts wearing a serious expression and talking respectfully to the patients and their relatives, it's an extremely ominous sign.
    • Unless he's doing it consciously to mess with the other's heads, of course.
  • CSI: Gil Grissom almost always makes some kind of quip at each murder scene that takes us into the credits. When he doesn't, it's an indication of how disturbing the murder is.
    • Or just...weird. In the opening of the infamous "Fur & Loathing in Las Vegas", Grissom and Catherine come across a dead man in a furry costume; both of them perceived it to be a dead animal from afar. When seeing what it actually is, both are weirded out. Catherine looks to Grissom for the requisite one-liner, perceiving Grissom to not be weirded out by anything, but Grissom continues to look weirded out silently into the opening credits.
    • Horatio in CSI: Miami does this also. One such example: when his old friend is blown up and instead of his usual quip he just stares at the smoldering house in horror.
  • Mash: This show attempted this with Hawkeye, but overdid the seriousness.
    • The Futurama parody, where Hawkeye is a robot (named 'iHawk') who switches between IRREVERENT and MAUDLIN modes, is an indication of the result.

iHawk (maudlin): This isn't a war, it's a murder.
* flip!*
iHawk (irreverent): (as Groucho Marx) Dis isn't a war, it's a moider!

  • The West Wing: The entire cast, to varying degrees.
  • Subverted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Anya's irreverence comes out of genuine cluelessness, not an attempt to be funny. So when Buffy's mother dies, Anya behaves as normal, and infuriates the other characters. However, her explanation of why she isn't acting like any normal human with normal sensitivities would act (she's not a normal human, and she doesn't "understand... how this all happens... how we go through this...") is one of the most heartfelt of her character arc, and does basically follow this trope.
    • At least until it's revealed that Anya, when she was still a normal human and hadn't become a vengeance demon yet, acted just as cluelessly.
      • Yet even Anya-as-a-human probably didn't have the attitude of "It's mortal and stupid!" towards death.
    • Xander is a better fit to the original trope.
      • One example of Xander playing this one for comedy (there are probably many others): in the Season 4 episode "Something Blue," Willow accidentally, and unbeknownst to the rest of the gang, casts a spell that makes Spike and Buffy fall in love and become engaged.

Buffy: Spike and I are getting married!
Xander: How- What- How?
Giles: Three excellent questions.

      • As is Giles, who can usually be counted on for a dry remark. In the seventh season, as the cast falls once again into mocking Xander's dating habits, Giles rather sharply points out that they are fighting a war for their very survival.
  • From Dexter: The usually lecherous Masuka becomes stone serious when investigating the crime scene where a cop was attacked.

Deb: What, no jokes about providing gross sexual comfort in a time of crisis?
Masuka: My friend was stabbed, and he might die.

    • It's actually used as a barometer of Masuka's mental wellbeing at times. Later that episode:

Masuka: Hey Morgan, wanna sit on my lap when we're done and tell me what you want for Christmas?
Deb: And he's back!

    • Similarly, we get an impression of how gruesome a murder scene is when Dexter himself (a blood-spatter analyst who is also a serial killer who chops up his victims) gets nauseous at the sight of it. It's also a hint that the scene had been constructed specifically to remind him of his repressed memories regarding his mother's brutal murder.
    • In Season 3, Masuka gets one of his articles published. He's very happy and proud about this and gives autographed copies of the journal to his co-workers who, we later learn, never bothered to read the article. Masuka's personality undergoes an abrupt change after this. When the officers ask him why, he tells them "You hurt my feelings."
  • A good deal of the characters from Scrubs (in fact, the entire show seems to follow this trope).
  • Blackadder does this at the end of the fourth season. The main character, who is probably sarcasm made flesh, remains serious when Darling, Baldrick and George admit to being scared. Plus one point since his very last line actually marks him as someone who seems at least gentle\concerned. What's so special in this? The character is selfish and Machiavellian in the blood.
  • An inversion of this can be seen with Simon Cowell. If he stops being mean or sarcastic even with his body language, you know the person he's watching is good. From Britains Got Talent alone: Paul Potts, Connie Talbot, Susan Boyle, and Julian Smith.
    • For example, take Hollie Steel. Simon's not thrilled with her because she looks like a typical wannabe-ballerina, and has his hand over the buzzer. The camera cuts to her beginning to sing, and the next shot is him absolutely shocked.
    • Susan Boyle. From rolling his eyes, to shock, to fawning.
    • In all fairness though, it's been indicated as fairly likely that these reaction shots aren't always the ones from those contestants, since, you know, it's a TV show and everything (Skip to about 05:20 for the relevant chunk)
  • As Boy Meets World went on Eric got sillier, more erratic and just plain damn weird, but when he did get serious you knew things were bad. Like the time a prank war caused a serious fault in the friendship and he was the only one willing to work it out, the silliest thing he did was pick up Rachel and drag her back into the classroom Mr. Feeny had locked them in and sit on her so she could read what he had written.

"Lose one friend, lose all friends, lose yourself."

  • The Middleman subverts this in "The Vampiric Puppet Lamentation":

The Middleman: Dubbie, did he just turn into a bat puppet?
Wendy: Man, I don't even have an opinion.

  • Psych played this straight, then subverted it, when Shawn is targeted by a Serial Killer. Shawn quickly loses his snark as he was overwhelmed by the pressure. As the situation grows more dire, Shawn convinces Gus that he should joke around for both of them. Which Gus does, resulting in hilariously awkward and terrible prop comedy.
    • Technically, it was subverted, then played straight. Shawn never lost his ability to crack jokes while crime-solving (in fact, he outright states that if he isn't able to joke, the bad guy wins) and that is why Gus starts behaving ridiculously. The trope is then played deadly straight later in the episode when the bad guy kidnaps Shawn's mom.
    • Shawn also plays this trope out during the episode Gus Walks into a Bank, when Gus was in serious danger and Shawn couldn't be there with him.
  • Early on in Firefly when Malcolm discovers River stored in a crate, his initial response is a dull "Huh". He recovers more or less instantly and begins snarking at Simon, however.
  • Certain news stories on The Daily Show can get this reaction out of Jon Stewart.
  • Whenever Morgan and Garcia of Criminal Minds aren't bantering and flirting, you know things are bad.

Reid: (On the phone, sick with anthrax and getting worse.) What, no goofy Garcia nickname for me this time?
Garcia: No. I can't be my cheery self when you are where you are.

Music

  • Music example: Dead Kennedys' 12" single In God We Trust Inc. is the bands Sarcasm Failure. The Single includes rants against the religious right, Ronald Reagan (We Got Bigger Problems Now, sung to the tune of California Uber Alles from their first album) and against neo-nazis that flocked their gigs after misunderstanding some of their songs (Nazi Punks Fuck Off, arguably the Sarcasm Failure of the band).
  • While Rammstein's music can be described as Indecisive Parody, they are deadly serious in the self-titled song Rammstein, which is about the Ramstein airshow disaster.

Video Games

  • Throughout Disgaea, Etna has delivered descriptions of the next chapter that are nothing like what happens. The one time she did, nobody believed her. Then for the final chapter, when things have hit the fan, her description is perfectly accurate. Everyone panics. She is less than amused.
  • Legacy of Kain has a particularly amazing example. Throughout the entire, multiple-game-long series, main character Kain has always spoken faux-Shakespeare dialogue, and he always mocks his opponents; he's the equivalent of the game universe's Dracula, and he's so powerful that in a normal series he'd be a Game Breaker. However, when he sees the Elder God, a horrific Lovecraftian monster responsible for everything he's suffered in the series, his only response is a genuinely bewildered, "What in the hell?" It's a sign of how utterly overwhelming the truth is that even Kain can't come up with a good taunt.
    • And just before that, you get to see one of the few times Kain genuinely smiles, because Moebius is there, and has no idea that Kain is about to kill him. Again. As one Fauxtivational Poster put it, "Kain is smiling. Run for your lives."
  • Beckett from Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines id a vampire who spend most of his encounter eith the player being sarcastic. But he suffers Sarcasm Failure in the endgame, after he (presumably) learns the truth about the Ankharan Sarcophagus. He flees town immediately afterwards.
  • Garret from Thief is usually a prime Deadpan Snarker and has wry, or at least interested, insights into a lot of things you see during your missions and cutscenes. He usually shuts up during the more frightening areas of the game. The Shalebridge Cradle from the third is especially notable: Garret speaks exactly two lines during the entire mission, and both of them are more to the effect of Oh Crap.
  • One of the routes you can take in Dragon Age 2 is to turn Hawke into a snarker who turns every situation into a joke, no matter how appropriate that may be. One mission in the second act involves someone stealing qunari gunpowder, except it's not gunpowder, it's a poison gas that makes all non-qunari go insane and kill everything. The elf responsible tries to make bombs to blow up a street to frame the qunari, but instead winds up poisoning lots of people, and doesn't entirely see it as a setback. Upon learning this, Silly!Hawke's response is:

"You were going to kill lots of people anyways? That's... not funny at all, really."

    • There's also the quest in which Leandra is taken by a serial killer and Hawke has to follow a trail of her blood to find her. Every version of Hawke, be they The Paragon or a Deadpan Snarker or a Blood Knight, will sound horrified and panicky.
  • Iji has the Scrambler, a Silliness Switch that either turns the game into a Blind Idiot Translation or makes the lines even crazier ("You promised me a pony... with missiles... I want a missile pony!"). However, near the end of the game, Asha tries to kill your Voice with an Internet Connection, Iji's brother Dan. When Iji finally kills Asha, she screams, "That's what you get, you bastard! That's what you get for trying to kill him!" Even with the Scrambler on, this line is almost untouched.

Web Comics

  • Looking for Group: Richard can usually be trusted to have a snarky comment or off-beat action in most situations. But after seeing a vision of his past self and asked if it was really him, all he can come up with a simple "Pass".

Western Animation

  • Danny Phantom: Happens twice in one episode. At first, it was Skulker, completely ignoring Danny and not saying a word. Later in the episode, it's Danny, who is searching for his sister. He attacks Skulker and demands answers, no quips involved.

Skulker: That's odd, no witty banter?
Danny: Not in the mood!

  • In The Spectacular Spider-Man, when the Green Goblin's glider slams into a building while flying backwards, just before impact the Goblin jumps off the glider, does a backflip in midair, and lands on the glider on the other side of the building.

Spider-Man: Okay, wow. Just... wow.

Cyborg: Whoa!
Slade: Whoa? That's it? No clever comment? I was looking forward to that.

  • In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, The Joker spends most of the film quipping, laughing, and generally being his usual Monster Clown self (with a bit of anger on the side). The only scene that makes him drop it all is when Tim Drake shoots him.

The Joker: That's not funny... That's not...

  • In Avatar: The Last Airbender, near the end of the series, Sokka and Toph are dangling off an airship. Sokka's space sword and boomerang are gone, and things look really bad for them. This may be the only point in the whole series that Toph and Sokka, the two snarkiest characters in the series, are both acting serious.

Real Life


Examples of the second kind (funny)

Comic Books

  • Lampshaded in one early Hack Slash story, just after the normally cynical and caustic Cassie is hit on by a bunch of drunk college kids, and can only manage a sputtered refusal.

Vlad: I have never seen you without a oneliner.
Cassie: [blushing] Yeah, let's never speak of that again.

Fan Works

Pinkie: Hmm... What element could you be?... OH! OH! OH! I got it! "Phoenix Wright, with his nifty do, represents the spirit of... HAIR GEL!"
Phoenix: ... (No comment...)

Goku: Are you that freezer guy?
Freeza: I am Lord Freeza, yes.
Goku: Awesome! Imma deck you in the schnozz!
Beat
Freeza: I'm sorry, that's a new one.

Film

  • Ghostbusters: The normally deadpan Egon Spengler delivers this classic example just after Gozer incarnates as the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man:

Peter Venkman: Egon, what have you got left?
Egon: Sorry Venkman, I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.

Live-Action TV

  • In Friends, Chandler gets one of these when he sees Joey dressed as an elf.

Chandler: So... many... jokes... (Laugh Track) Must... mock... Joey...

    • He also does this when he accidentally spills to Rachel that Ross is in love with her. He sputters "crystal duck" a couple of times and then descends into meaningless babble.
    • And in a Throw It In example: at one point Chandler mocks Ross' attire by saying "Donald Trump called and he wants his blue blazer black" (instead of "back"). Matthew Perry genuinely messed up the line, but the other actors took advantage of it and went with it, pointing out the mistake and making fun of snarky Chandler. (Monica: "No, no, you messed it up! You're stupid.")
  • Every so often on Cash Cab. Most hilariously and unbelievably:

Ben Bailey: An alternative to permanent tattoos, what plant dye, popular in India, is used for temporary body art?
Contestant: I know this!
Ben Bailey: You do?
Contestant: Hentai!
Ben Bailey: ... (Aside Glance)
Ben Bailey: ... The correct answer was henna.

    • Although if you had Hentai drawn on your body, I'm sure you'd want it to be temporary.
  • In one episode of Dads Army, the platoon are covered in mud after saving Pike from a bog and are marching back into town when they spot Hodges (the local greengrocer/ARP Chief Warden and Captain Mainwaring's rival), Mainwaring mentions that he's probably got some "smart-alek remark" and tells the platoon to march smartly and just ignore him. Hodges is practically quivering with anticipation at being given such a prime opportunity to try and take the wind out of Mainwaring's sails, only for him not to think of anything to say as the platoon marches past un-snarked. The verger (who was with Hodges at the time) remarked that he looked like he was about to have a heart attack.
  • A gag-oriented version occurred on Penn & Teller: Bullshit! during the episode on fast food. When the issue of the "Soda Tax" was raised they cut to a scene of Teller fiddling with a wide array of props. Penn went on to explain that the two of them found the concept of taxing the sales of soft drinks made with government-subsidized ingredients so asinine they couldn't come up with a magic trick to adequately express it.
  • Certain news stories on The Daily Show can get this reaction out of Jon Stewart. His reaction to Newt Gingrich using a "describe yourself in one word" question to describe himself as "cheerful" (after using an entire debate prophesying doom, gloom and general unpleasantness if he's not elected)? Walk off the stage.
  • The Rachel Maddow Show: Rachel Maddow was reduced to this in an attempt to respond to a somewhat poorly worded Republican speech, as seen here.

Rachel Maddow: I know that I am paid to talk for a living. I am incapable of doing what I'm paid to do right now.

Newspaper Comics

  • A Dilbert comic ended with Dogbert telling Dilbert that "I'd mock you, but the challenge is gone."

Recorded and Stand Up Comedy

  • Occurs during Jeff Dunham's routine with his puppets Peanut & Jose Jalapeno on a Stick. Peanut and Jose begin conversing in Spanish, and Jeff asks them to stop because it leaves him left out. The usually smart-assed Peanut is reduced to a "HUH?!", and when Jeff's explanation is that he can't speak Spanish, Peanut stops his sarcastic comment before it can even begin to just stare at him.

Video Games

  • Played with in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. ".......Ack! I've run out of snide comments!"
  • The World Ends With You. After Beat betrays the Reapers for Neku in the first day of the third week, Kariya and Uzuki warn him that 'he's treading on thin ice'. The character responds triumphantly that it couldn't possibly happen; Shibuya is too hot for there to be any ice for him to tread on. Despite both Neku and Kariya being prime Deadpan Snarkers, Sarcasm Failure immediately strikes everyone present.
  • Also in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, Beckett suffers a humorous form of Sarcasm Failure if you end up having a discussion on Kindred origins with him as a Malkavian. While the 'normal' player characters have theories he's already well-acquainted with, the Malkavian ones are a bit more... Unique.

Beckett: ...Can't say I've heard *that* one before...

  • Throughout God Hand, Gene has a mocking quip for pretty much every scenario... except the first time he meets the Mad Midget Five. After a stunned second, the best he can do is to choke out, "Douchebags!"

Web Animation

Web Comics

  • 8-Bit Theater:
    • This happens to Black Mage a lot when he spends too long around Fighter or Red Mage.
    • And notably, Fighter's mention of becoming the "Drownball" Champion reduced the omniscient wizard Sarda to muttering under his breath at the sheer absurdity of it.
  • Likewise, several members from The Last Days of Foxhound, most notably Psycho Mantis.
  • Abel, the Deadpan Snarker of Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, is struck senseless by the idea that "clothes make the manlove."
    • "...Ow. Just... ow" is still his only response upon recovery.
    • Not uncommon responses in Real Life... at least, among the empathetic crowd.
  • Erfworld: In this strip, they are in a deadly serious situation...but what finally makes Jack stop joking is Parson's absurd suggestion that they might actually win.

Web Original

  • The Nostalgia Critic This happens to the Critic a bit, at which point the Running Gag of him literally aborting the joke occurs. Thinking about this (perhaps a little too much) leads to wondering how often these are unintentional and put in during editing, vs. how many of these are pre-scripted. Fantastically done in the Bio-Dome review

Joey Lauren Adams: (affectionately) "There is something about a man who can lick his own back..."
Nostalgia Critic: (beat, stunned) "What am I supposed to say to that?"

"I am sure that someone wants me to come up with something witty to say to this guy, but he is just faaaaat."

Western Animation

  • In The Ant and the Aardvark cartoon "Technology Phooey," the Aardvark's quicksand trap backfires on him, prompting him to quip "I'd say something right now, but it would only be censored!"
  • The Batman: The Animated Series episode "Almost Got 'Im" involves several members of Batman's Rogues Gallery telling each other stories of their most brilliant attempts to kill Batman that almost succeeded. The Joker, who is saving his story for last, spends most of the episode quipping at and mocking the other villains' attempts. However, Killer Croc's 'brilliant plan' is so dumb Joker can only stare dumbfounded at him, with this sort of "what-the-hell-is-this-guy-even-doing-here" expression frozen on his face.
    • For those of you who are curious, Killer Croc's "brilliant attempt" at trying to kill Batman was throwing a rock at him.

Croc: It was a big rock...

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Sarcasm_Failure?oldid=2028955"