F Minus Minus: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Strong Bad:''' Not good enough, [[Trope Namer|F Minus Minus]].|'''''[[Homestar Runner]]''''', sbemail "for kids"}}

 

 

In the United States and some of Western Europe, an F is the lowest grade possible. There are no additions to it, not a plus or minus. F simply means failure, no matter how bad. However, this is not always the case in the world of fiction. Sometimes, the only way to really say "stupid" is to slap a minus on the F and let the rest take care of itself.

 

 

{{examples}}

 

* Happens to ''[[Billy Madison]]'' when he answers a question about the industrial revolution with a rambling, incoherent [[Metaphorgotten]] about a lost puppy. The principal grades him thusly:

 

== Folklore ==

 

* There is an [[Urban Legend]] about a student complaining to his university lecturer about his grade.

'''Lecturer:''' Neither do I, but it is the lowest grade the university will allow me to award. }}

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[Captain Underpants]] and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman'', Ms. Ribble tells George and Harold she's lowering their grades to Fs and Gs.

'''Ms. Ribble:''' There is now, bub! }}

* ''[[Harry Potter]]'': Students taking their OWLs can receive grades of O, E, A, P, D, and T ([[The Smart Guy|Outstanding]], [[Smarter Than You Look|Exceeds Expectations]], [[So Okay It's Average|Acceptable]], [[Book Dumb|Poor]], [[The Fool|Dreadful]], and [[Too Dumb to Live|Troll]]). When Harry first hears of the T grade, he thinks [[Those Two Guys|Fred and/or George]] might be pulling his leg (i.e. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|trolling]] him), but there it is listed among the others on the form. Even Hermione, who normally seems to know all about such things, seems initially surprised by the existence of this grade.

* At the end of the picture book ''Bronto Eats Meat'', by Peter Maloney and Felicia Zekauskas, the protagonist of the story writes a school report about Bronto and is given an F- because his report is said to be not realistic.

 

== Live Action TV ==

 

* On ''[[Smart Guy]]'', TJ tutors a basketball player. After taking the test, the student claims he got a G, which he says is worse than an F, but it turns out it was actually a C-.

* In one episode of ''[[That's So Raven]]'', Eddie raps at a bully, "''Your grades are so low, you get straight Zs!''"

** They later gave E.T. a 0 based on its disastrous effect on the industry.

** Pokemon Channel was given a 1 out of 5, but they later said it should've been left unscored since it too wasn't technically a game.

* [[The State]] advertised the fact that the New York Times gave them a negative two stars.

* ''[[Boy Meets World]]'''s Mr. Feeny once threatened to give a student a G for turning in a paper late.

 

 

 

== New Media ==

* [[Dread Central]] reviewer Scott Foy's "FUCK THIS MOVIE" rating. It's especially significant since Foy doesn't use profanity often so when one of his reviews contains the phrase (and now rating) "Fuck this movie" it means that the film in question is ''really'' bad.

 

* In one ''Squirt'' strip, Squirt's homework was so bad that his teacher extended the alphabet 15 letters past Z in order to aware him an accurate grade.

* From German comic ''Haiopeis'':

'''Fish clerk:''' Why study? That was our entry test for the cleaning staff. }}

* In one ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' comic, Susie is happy with the smiley face sticker she got on her test. Calvin however is less than thrilled. When she asks what he got, he refused to tell her, leading her to accuse him of getting a frowny face sticker. Calvin promptly denies it, then comments to himself that he never knew they even ''made'' [[Crowning Moment of Funny|barfing face stickers]].

== Video Games ==

* In the flash game [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/229014 Stick Avalanche 2], you can get grades of F-, F-- and F---.

** The same is true of the first generation of 5-key ''[[Beatmania]]'' games.

* In ''Confidential Mission'', shooting civilians and using continues subtract from your score. As shown in the [[Attract Mode]] tutorial, it is possible to have a negative score; if achieved, ''your score turns red.''

* Most 3d [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] Games have the "E" rank which is basically saying you did really horribly. It's most evident in [[Sonic Unleashed]] where getting an E-rank causes the grade to ''go tumbling off'' and has Sonic falling down and asking to try again. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yODLkaF8F-Y&feature=related Even the music knows how epically you failed!]

* In the flash game [[N]], your score for each episode of 5 levels is how much [[Timed Mission|time]] you had left at the end. You start at 90 seconds and can gain more time by collecting gold. The game also records your best individual level scores, which are the times you'd have left at the end of them if you'd started at 90 seconds - and allows you to play back your best runs. So if you have more than 90 seconds to start a level, you can get a negative score for the level. If this happens, your score shows up as "---.---" and you won't be able to replay yourself completing that level. (You still can for the whole episode.)

 

 

 

== Web Comics ==

 

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* [[Fairly Oddparents|Timmy Turner]] has a history of getting these.

* In the ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'' episode "Sheen's Brain", Sheen gets [[Up to Eleven|FOUR]] minuses on a test. One of the things he wrote down was that [[You Fail History Forever|Ultralord was the first president of the United States]].

* Discussed in ''[[The Weekenders]]''.

* Otto of ''[[Rocket Power]]'' gets in trouble with his dad for earning a "check minus minus" in Classroom Citizenship.

* On ''[[The Jetsons]]'', Elroy gets his report card switched with a student who gets an H.

* On an episode of ''[[Muppet Babies]]'' where the characters were pretending to go to school, Piggy ends up giving Gonzo a "W" on his report card. Although it more than likely stood for "weird" and Gonzo was very pleased with his marks.

* In an episode of ''[[Kids Next Door]],'' Numbuh One recieves a Double F Minus for a report. In a later episode, Numbuh Five gets a Double F Minus for claiming a dog ate her homework (which actually happened), and then warned by the teacher that it is possible to get a '''Triple''' F Minus in her class.

 

 

== Other ==

* [http://www.zazzle.com/f_student_t_shirt-235350529424621463 This shirt.]

 

 

== Real Life ==

* In Ireland, you can also be "awarded" an NG, which stands for <s> [[Sarcasm Mode|Natural Genius]]</s> No Grade, meaning that you performed so badly that you don't even deserve an F.

* Most US universities allow a grade of "I", meaning "incomplete." However, this is usually just a temporary placeholder, indicating the student has a certain amount of time to make up for missed work. If that is not done then the grade converts to an F.

*** Except that in some (most?) schools it counts as a neutral grade, i.e. no effect on GPA, no penalty other than wasting part of your tuition for that term. Otherwise it'd just be the same as a normal "F"!

*** If you really screw up badly before or after midterms, some professors will encourage you to withdraw from the class since you stand no chance of getting enough high grades to make the final grade of the class a passing grade. A W is always better than having an F.

** Most standardized tests with a grading system will have some kind of "ungraded" designation, like the "hyphen" on the AP exams, which is what you get if, for instance, you leave the multiple-choice section blank and draw a rocket ship on the essay paper.

* There is, in some Canadian Universities, the FD. Fail with Dishonesty. You plagiarized or cheated in one way or another, [[No Fair Cheating|and you get this S.O.B on your record]].

** At the [http://ugradcalendar.uwaterloo.ca/page/uWaterloo-Grading-System University of Waterloo], it was once possible (before 2001) to get a literal "F-minus" grade for anything 34% and below. Now they just use percentage grades for everything.

[[Category:Index Failure]]

[[Category:F Minus Minus]]