Verb This
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You've Seen It a Million Times. We know this. But it's still a joy to watch.
A bad guy will taunt, cajole, or in some way try to deceive the good guy/s with big words, possibly flowery language, or good ol' fashioned Trash Talk. But the good guy/s will have none of it. Instead, they'll snatch a word out of the enemy's tirade, tack a hard, defiant, "THIS!" to the end of it, and unload on their enemies.
In lowbrow games of Volleying Insults, "this" is one's crotch, indicated with a gesture so the other doesn't miss the point.
Compare/Contrast with I Will Show You X, in using someone's own wording in a retort to them, except that I Will Show You X is more specifically about what the character saying it will DO, whereas in Verb This there's no "I" in it and it could just as easily be referring to some external circumstance.
Usually doubles as a Facing the Bullets One-Liner, Pre-Mortem One-Liner and/or Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner as well. Can be someone's Moment of Awesome if pulled off properly.
Compare Shut UP, Hannibal and Punctuated! For! Emphasis!. Also, Talk to the Fist and I Will Show You X. Not to be confused with Notice This - which, though the phrase fits the bill, is a different trope entirely.
Anime and Manga
- Code Geass R2: In the last episode of the English dub, after Anya blows up his unique Knightmare and states "committing to memory", Jeremiah Gottwald yells "MEMORIZE THIS!!" as he jumps out of the Knightmare in a smaller Knightmare, and lands on her robot.
- Transformers Energon: TF Wiki keeps what it calls the "pain count," each episode's uses of any piece of the series' repetitive dialogue. Turns out in the Japanese version only, someone will yell "Eat this!" before attacking at least Once an Episode.
- Naruto Shippuden: Naruto says "Eat THIS!" before slamming a Rasen Shuriken in Kakuzu's back. Much later on, in the manga, he reacts to the Kyuubi's rant on how Naruto will never be able to control his power by yelling "Control THIS!" and ramming him into the ground and throwing a Rasen-Shuriken at him.
- To date, really any shonen anime uses this, if not alot. Just know that someone will eventually say "KURAE YAGARE!"
- Or just "Kurae!", really.
- From Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Simon attacks the enemy with a giant drill - just for a change - in a legendary display of Ham-to-Ham Combat:
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Simon: Eat this!!! |
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Comic Books
- Ultimate Spider-Man: "Define this, Fuzzball!" It was All Just a Dream in an Imagine Spot, though.
- Subverted in Iron Man (v1) #279 - when Iron Man confronts the alien overlord Ronan the Accuser, his enemy at one point utters the perfect set-up line "None may defy the judgment of -" to which Iron Man responds with "Judge this!" and gives him all hell with his repulsors at full power (Normally enough to level, oh, a medium-sized office building). Unfortunately, this barely manages to make Ronan stagger a single step backwards, and he responds, seemingly even without sarcasm: "I find it... insufficient."
- In Archie Sonic issue #74, the page image is provided after the freedom fighters discover Robotnik after previously thinking he was dead, and later discover Robotnik's plan to deprive creatures of their free will to get them to work in his factories.
- Empowered: "Mong this, motherfucker!"
Fan Works
- Kuyou Suou in Kyon: Big Damn Hero, when an Alternate Universe version of herself tries to force her to "synchronize" (read: being assimilated):
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Kuyou: Synchronize with that! Activating chibi-mode! |
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Film
- Trinity in The Matrix. After watching an agent effortlessly dodge a hail of gunfire, she sneaks up behind him as he's preparing to finish Neo off, puts the barrel of her pistol right up to his head, and tells him to "Dodge this" right before blowing his brains out at point blank range. He does dodge it, mind you, but not in the traditional manner. His former host, on the other hand...
- A similar example occurred in Reloaded, when Persephone asks Neo to kiss her, because she wants to "sample" the feeling of love again. Trinity responds with "Why don't you sample this instead?" and the gun comes out. Unlike the first example, however, she does not fire the gun.
- And then, in Revolutions, the original scenario is repeated during the battle for Zion - Charra shoots the Huge Digger with a rocket launcher and "Dig this!"
- A guy points out in a YouTube video showing errors in TheMatrix that there is a continuity error in this scene. Trinity points the gun at the guy's temple on the side of his head, but when she pulls the trigger, we see that the guy falls backwards...
- Star Trek: First Contact:
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Worf: Assimilate this! (shoots recently severed and explosive nav deflector full of Borg Drones and a comm beacon of doom) |
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- Analyze This.
- Pledge This!: an awesome movie with super-actress Paris Hilton.
- Mortal Kombat: Sonya vs. Kano:
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Kano: Give it up, baby. I've studied all your moves. |
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- Team America: World Police: "Hey terrorist. Terrorize this!"
- Evil Dead II: "Swallow this."
- Die Another Day:
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Miranda Frost: I can read your every move! |
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- The SyFy film Path Of Destruction has the colonel saying this during his Heroic Sacrifice:
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Colonel Thomas Miller: "Dematerialize this." |
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- Grease has a particularly nice example. While Rizzo is freaking out because she thinks she might be pregnant we get this nice scene:
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Rizzo: Don't start with me! |
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- Variation in Spaceballs: The villain, at first just passive-aggressively sniping at his overly cautious underling, finally decides he's had enough:
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Colonel Sandurz: Sir, shouldn't you buckle up? |
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- Aliens When an alien is trying to open to doors to the APC:
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Hicks:(inserts shotgun into mouth) Eat THIS! |
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- Similarly, The Rock:
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Goodspeed: (shoves Deadly Gas pellet into mouth): Eat that, you fuck! |
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- So Bad It's Good slasher flick, Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 has the following exchange before Ricky dispatches Mother Superior with a fire axe.
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Mother Superior: I am your Mother Superior! As I raised you from a child, I order you to drop that weapon and take your punishment! |
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- Iron Man 2:
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Tony: Iron Man doesn't need a sidekick. |
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- The Scorpion King: "Catch This!"
- The first Blade movie.
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Badguy Mook: Go fuck yourself. |
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- In Childs Play 2, Chucky takes out his aggression (and boy does he have aggression!) on a Good Guy doll by saying "Hug this!" before bludgeoning it.
- A variation occurs towards the end of the third X Men film, Wolverine is fighting one-on-one against a mutant with regenerating limbs. After the third or fourth attempt at dismemberment, he changes tack and kicks his adversary in the crotch instead, remarking:
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"Grow those back." |
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- This might be a homage to "[verb] these!" being Wolverine's catchphrase in the 90s, as noted below.
- In X-Men: First Class, Sebastian Shaw says "Adapt to this." before using a 'Cherry Bomb' to kill Darwin.
- Spawn: Eat THIS!
Literature
- The Animorphs like using this one.
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Marco: Negotiate this. *punches Visser Three in the face* |
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- In Halo: Fall of Reach, Captain Keyes tries to destroy a Covenant stealth spaceship with archer missiles. After the missiles are defeated, he mutters "Try and jam this." before running his ship into the smaller craft.
Live Action TV
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy vs. The Initiative: "Target has been contained!" "Contain this." PUNCH!!
- From "Living Conditions":
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Buffy: So then she's like, 'It's share-time.' And I'm like, 'Oh yeah? Share this!' [mimes taking a milk carton out of the fridge] |
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- From the first episode of NYPD Blue: "Ipso this, you prissy little bitch!"
- Power Rangers SPD, against a mirror-themed villain: "Reflect on this!" [White Ranger smashes mirror, releasing trapped Rangers]
- Doctor Who in "The Time of Angels": an image that holds a weeping angel becomes itself an angel and the one in the TV is starting to attack. Cue Amy's "hold this" along with the most epic use of a pause button ever.
- The Doctor himself had already done it in "The Sontaran Stratagem", shortly before bouncing a shuttlecock off a wall into a Sontaran's weak spot.
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General Stall: We stare into the face of death! |
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- Also done by Captain Jack in "Journey's End", after a Dalek makes some comment about not feeling anything.
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Jack: Feel this. [repeatedly shoots the Dalek, to no effect] |
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- Scrubs has a subversion:
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Turk: That was a finder's fee! |
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- Played straight by Londo in Babylon 5:
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Centauri Beaurocrat: I'll be in touch. *ends call* |
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- Married... with Children: Kelly is in an archery competition and is trying to shoot an apple off her brother's head. She's so touched that he volunteers that she realises she can't risk it and forfeits the game, congratulating her opponent on winning.
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Opponent: Knew you couldn't do it, candy-ass. |
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- Young Blades: In the first episode, Gerard's response to "Kneel and kiss the dust [Mazarin] might deign to tread" is "Kiss this." Leads to him getting arrested and his father getting murdered in a stunning display of Disproportionate Retribution.
- Breaking Bad: Walter White tends to use this when enraged. When quitting his job at the car wash, he tears several products off of the shelves, grabs his crotch, and shouts, "WIPE DOWN THIS!" before storming out.
- In a later episode, he also shouts, while grabbing his crotch again, "I'VE GOT YOUR RESTRAINING ORDER RIGHT HERE! RESTRAIN THIS!"
Music
- Madonna's "Die Another Day": "Analyse this!"
- Korn's "Twisted Transistor": "Anaesthetise this, bitch."
- Sex Pistols' "New York": "Kiss this!"
- Michael Jackson's "Black or White" music video: "Eat this!"
Theatre
- Done self-consciously in Back to The Eighties.
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Feargal: These are not just hands; they are defensive weapons. |
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Video Games
- The fourth level of the first Marathon game is called "Defend THIS!" It is focused on activating the titular ship's defense mechanisms (which somehow aid you in the level before they are activated). Bungie has not forgotten this phrase, and has made it the name of an achievement in Halo 3 and there is a medal in Halo Reach called "Reload This!"
- Near the very end of Destroy All Humans!!, just after Crypto has defeated Silhouette, she goes on about how Majestic is all over the world, and as long as Majestic exists, they will resist the Furon invasion. Crypto doesn't think so, and proceeds to stomp on the fatally wounded human, to finish her off.
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Silhouette: We will continue to resist you! |
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- Banjo-Kazooie's successor Banjo Tooie.
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Gruntilda: Revenge is mine, I cannot miss, let's see that furry fool dodge this! |
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- At the end of Headhunter: Redemption, Leeza shouts "Compute this!" to the AI final boss, before delivering the Coup De Grace.
- At least two random bits of dialogue in Star Wars Battlefront 2 qualify for this. Rebel soldiers sometimes tell the Imperials, who have gotten in the habit of calling them "Rebel scum" frequently, to "Rebel scum this!", in a similar vein, Imperial Stormtroopers, when encountering Obi-wan, sometimes say "It's Obi-wan! Shall we put a disturbance in his Force?"
- In Kingdom Hearts 1, Sephiroth LOVES to say this. Over. And over.
- Also, the game seems to lampshade the fact that you heal constantly, having the late boss Riku say "Heal this!" before attacking you.
- Dissidia didn't forget. "Dodge this." is the quote Sephiroth says before he uses Fervent Blow and sends several beams of light flying at you, and then he pretty much reappears in front/behind you to slash you again. And if he hits you with the attack? He'll just say "Here."
- Funnily enough, he doesn't say "Dodge this." on the aerial version of the attacked, which is called "Godspeed". He says "Fly." and "Not there."
- Following up on the Sephiroth example, Dissidia fighters frequently use Verb This in their battle quotes, mostly as "Take this!" but Lightning shares "Dodge this!" with Sephiroth. Golbez, however, is the only one who says "Endure this!" before he blasts you with electricity.
- Prototype: "Regenerate this."
- Tales of Monkey Island In Chapter 1:
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LeChuck: Do ya mind? I be in the middle of an unholy ceremony here! |
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- And in Chapter 4:
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Guybrush: LeChuck! My new best pal! How'd you get out of jail? |
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- Also referenced in Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 4 - Beyond the Alley of the Dolls:
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Max: Unholy THIS! |
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Margaret: Withstand this! |
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- Enkindle THIS!
- Hark! A Vagrant: "Handcuff THIS"
- Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete, Hiro when using a sword technique.
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Hiro: Dodge THIS! |
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- Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Dark Phoenix's fireball spam. "Dodge THIS!"
- Also said by Morrigan in her Finishing Shower Hyper Combo, which here is a Macross Missile Massacre instead of the Beam Spam from previous games.
- In Team Fortress 2, several of the Scout's domination lines are in this form:
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"(to Demoman) Blow that up, cyclops!" |
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Web Comics
- Questionable Content: Marigold tries, but doesn't get any better than "I'll wash you more than twice a year!"
Web Original
- A College Humor short named "Cell Phone Reunion" where iPhone and BlackBerry start fighting. At one point, BlackBerry says, "At least I know what I'm hitting. Look at you. Ooh. Touch-screen. Look at my touch-screen. I've got something you can touch." *grabs crotch* "Right here!" *points at it with his other hand* "Dial this up!"
- Near the end of the Star Trek episode of The Angry Video Game Nerd, the Nerd is ready to blast the NES game to bits with a gun, but after a few seconds he decides not to, saying that the game designers "did the best they could, given the circumstances" but should get their entertainment someplace else. Then we get this exchange with a Metron that even surprises the Nerd:
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Metron: By sparing that shitty game, you have demonstrated the advanced restraint of mercy. |
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Western Animation
- Coop from Megas XLR, during his fight with the R.E.G.I.S. Mk. V, who refused to stay down no matter how much Coop wailed on it.
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R.E.G.I.S. Mk. V: The R.E.G.I.S. Mk. V mocks your futile attempts at destroying it. |
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- Less heroic example: Cyborg from Teen Titans, telling his robotic counterpart (he was disguised as "Stone" in order to infiltrate H.I.V.E. Academy) "Booyah this!"
- Can't forget Robin during the Apprentice arc. "MOTIVATE THIS!"
- Or Starfire when she saved her friends from the Cironielian Chrysalis Eater. "Devour THIS!"
- Frylock vs. WWWYZZERDD.com in Aqua Teen Hunger Force
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WWWYZZERDD.com: But it comes in this decorative tin! |
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- A spoof trailer for the sequel to The Passion of the Christ in Family Guy: "Passion Of The Christ 2: Crucify This!"
- The Batman vs. Dracula has Alfred essentially recreating the Matrix example by shooting Dracula in the head with Batman's vampirism-cure needles and saying, "Bite this!" It doesn't work.
- Transformers: Beast Wars: In the series finale, Optimus Primal and Megatron face off on the bridge of the Nemesis.
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Megaton: Oh well, come on, let's have it. The usual "destiny and honor" speech... |
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- Spoofed in ReBoot's episode Firewall.
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PC Santa Claus: Ho ho ho! |
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- For Wolverine, it's "[Verb] these." Here instead of in Comic Books because while he probably says it at least once in everything, it was practically a Catch Phrase in the 90s 'toon.
- A Sentinel orders Gambit to stand aside in order to "apprehend" Jubilee. He punctuates his reponse with a playing card to the face.
- Finn in Adventure Time exclaims, "Chew on this!" in the episode, Slumber Party Panic!. It's become one of his well-known phrases.
- Done in El Tigre by Frida Suarez when she is told to install a censor.
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Frida: "Install this!" |
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- The Penguins of Madagascar: Private gives us this little gem after Kowalski tells him how good he is at detecting things:
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Private: Detect THIS! |
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Real Life
- The program Hijack This has an appropriate title as a response to computer hijackers.