They Call Me Mister Tibbs: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

** In several of the later books, ''[[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]]'' and ''[[Discworld/Thud|Thud!]]'', to name two, his junior officers call him Mister Vimes (always Mister, never Mr.) as a measure of their respect for him. It's implied that they've earned this right by dint of their long-standing and hard work.

** He also goes by Blackboard Monitor Vimes.

** He is occasionally "Sir Samuel, if you must," if calling a duke by his job title is giving someone apoplexy.

** ''Mistress'' Weatherwax. She won't let you forget it. Unless you come from her home country of Lancre and/or have known her for a ''really'' long time; then she generally won't object to being called "Granny." Only Nanny Ogg is allowed to call her by her first name, though.

* Happens in several [[Warhammer 40000]] novels:

** In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Gaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''Necropolis'', Curth's first meeting with Dorden starts with his calling her "Ana" and her snapping "Surgeon Curth". She realizes a bit later, as they discuss the complete inadequency of the rooms he has been given to work with, that he was not coming on to her, and feels guilty. (Between her commandeering the resources to make the rooms adequate, and his volunteering to work on her wounded refugees before the fighting actually starts, they patch things up, leading to a [[First-Name Basis]] request at the end of the novel.)

** In Gav Thorpe's ''13th Legion'', a navy lieutenant refers to "Schaeffer" and gets told "That's ''Colonel'' Scaeffer" to you.

** In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Ultramarines (novel)|Ultramarines]] novel ''Dead Sky, Black Sun'', when Pasanius calls Uriel "Captain" in the beginning, Uriel says that does not apply while they are under the death oath; at the end, he calls him it again, and reminds him that they have fulfilled their death oath, and so Uriel is his captain again.

* In ''[[Holes]]'', the kids all insist on being called by their nicknames, even if said nickname is insulting ("My name is '''Armpit!'''").

** Which leads to a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] when Squid tells Stanley to tell his mother that "Alan" says he's sorry.

* This is [[Serious Business]] ''[[The Lords of Creation|In the Courts of the Crimson Kings]]''. A human Eastern-bloc ambassador nearly suffers a nasty fate when he refers to their "fraternal aid" to the Emperor, implying a blood relationship where none exists.

* In [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Sylvie and Bruno]]'', Bruno overdoes it:

* Referred to in an early book in the [[Master and Commander]] series. When Dr. Maturin asks why Jack so desperately desires promotion to the rank of Post Captain, as he is already called "Captain". Aubrey replies that it is only a courtesy, as he is in fact merely a commander.

{{quote|'''Aubrey''': How would you like it if some fellow could call you "Mister" whenever he chose to come it uncivil?}}

* In the Lisa Gardner novel ''The Third Victim'', Rainie addresses Richard Mann as "Mr. Mann" only to have him respond "Please call me Richard. Mr. Mann was my father." In his case, he is not only discouraging formality, but making a disdainful comment about his father, {{spoiler|which becomes significant when Mann turns out to be responsible for the murders.}}

* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Prospero's Daughter|Prospero in Hell]]'', after Mab calls Miranda "[[First-Name Basis|Miranda]]", she kicks herself for not realizing he was [[Not Himself]] and the shapechanger; he always calls her "ma'am" or "Miss Miranda". {{spoiler|Later, after he is freed, Mab carefully watches himself and corrects himself from "Miss Miranda" to "Miranda" and "Mr. Prospero" to "Ludovico."}}

* In the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Edge of Battle'', Sergeant Major Ray Jefferson does not appreciate being called a mere Sergeant. It becomes something of a [[Running Gag]].

* Michelle Henke from the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' books prefers to be addressed as "Admiral Henke" or "ma'am" rather than by her noble title of Gold Peak or "milady", though she will deign to use the latter in official communiques.

{{quote|"That's Lord Auditor Coz to you, for the duration."}}

** After Miles gets a permanent post as Imperial Auditor, both Ivan and Miles' clone brother Mark address him as "Lord Auditor Coz/Brother" on occasion to needle him.

** Roslin was originally going to be referred to as ''Mr.'' President, but the creators decided against it. Strange, considering they regularly refer to military women as ''Sir'', and Roslin, as President, is technically commander-in-chief no matter what bargains she's made with Adama.

*** Not necessarily; that's a trait of modern American politics ([[We All Live in America|and some other countries]]; I'd get more specific, but I [[Did Not Do the Research]]). It might be her inexperience with such matters, but in dealing with Adama she arranges for him to handle certain concerns, herself to handle others, and (later) still other concerns to be tandem efforts of the military and civilian government. Her power over the military may be exclusive to deployment; that is to say, as soon as she authorizes military force, she steps back and lets the them handle it. Zarek claims Adama doesn't have such power, but as a longtime jailed revolutionary he may not be correct; the Colonies were only unified with the Cylon war, meaning the Colonial Military is the oldest, most visible and likely one of the strongest aspects of the Colonial System.

* The second variant is parodied on an episode of ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'':

{{quote|'''Earl''': Excuse me, Mr. Covington-

{{quote|Katie: Nice to meet you, Mr. Wolf.

Mr. Wolf: Please, not that! My dad was Mr. Wolf. Call me Grampa. }}

** Annie switched to calling him "Renard" after she discovered how he became "Reynardine".

* ''[[The Dreamland Chronicles]]'': [http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/chapter-08/page-495/ Nicodemus insists on acknowledgement]

== Western Animation ==

 

* A Pimp Named Slickback in ''[[The Boondocks]]'' is possibly the weirdest example of this. You can't just call him Slickback, a Pimp, or even [[Rule of Funny|"this person"]] apparently, it's like A Tribe Called Quest: you have to say the whole thing, [[Overly Long Gag|all the fucking time.]]

* In a ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode, Brian Griffin (the dog) is made the teacher of Chris' class. Brian tells the class not to call him "Mr. Griffin" because "that's my father's name". Chris speaks up and says, "I thought your dad's name was Coco (a dog), and he got hit by a milk truck!", [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] the fact that Brian is a dog who took the last name Griffin from his owner.