Shamed by a Mob

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"Burns, yer scurvy schemes will earn ye a one-way passage to the boneyard."

Some kinds of villains are so clearly undeserving of respect that the only appropriate response to them, after all that they have done, is for that cold stare and unforgiving tone they are so fond of using themselves to be directed back at them instead. Especially from a large group of characters all at the same time, since the dramatic impact of combining their hatred with the prior reason for it (at least to those who are familiar with the context) can create an especially epic feel, though in a darker and angrier way.

Sometimes the cold stare of the mob can be directed at good characters, whether they messed something up or are mistakenly believed to have done something they didn't.

Often overlaps with Shut UP, Hannibal, because it's based on a similar theme.

Contrast Shaming the Mob.

Examples of Shamed by a Mob include:

Comic Books

Film

  • Pan's Labyrinth, where even after Captain Vidal gave his son to the army waiting for him outside the maze, this was (understandably) not considered near enough to make up for his heinous evil deeds, nor even close enough to it to convince people to respect his last wish; he doesn't even get to finish expressing it.
  • In Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, when when Kovu is mistakenly believed to have been part of the plot to attempt to kill Simba, and a huge crowd is singing about their hatred for him. This is the song.
    • Of course, not even getting into the original, when the lions shame Scar after Simba returns, the hyenas and Scar shame Simba after Scar returns to his piece of equivocation, then after Scar gets confronted by his backstabbed hyena minions, they shame him before literally tearing him apart.

Western Animation

  • The page image is from The Simpsons, in the episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns, Part 1". There is a big meeting at the town hall about Burns's oil drilling operation. When Bart is showing everyone at the meeting how crippled his dog was as a result of Burns' drilling, Burns walks in at just that moment and says "oh, those wheels are squeaking a bit... perhaps I could sell him a little oil!" Bart shouts "you twisted old monster!" and runs towards Burns, who in turn reveals that he brought a gun to protect himself. Then a large crowd of people gets up, staring especially angrily at Burns, and taking turns telling him off... Which doesn't affect him the least bit, as he activates his plan to block out the Sun over Springfield.