Fighting Irish/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: An Irish character with a Hair-Trigger Temper.

  • Played Straight: Patrick walks into a bar and gets into a nasty fight with another guy.
  • Exaggerated: The fight involves several (supposedly) upstanding members of the community, such as Father O'Brien. And even a few women.
  • Inverted: Patrick walks into a bar and quietly orders a beer for himself, before having a nice, civil, friendly chat with his buddies.
  • Justified:
    • Patrick was drunk (and had lost some inhibitions), and somebody said something like "I Banged Your Mom" or something equally incendiary.
    • The other guy started the fight by throwing a punch; Patrick is defending himself.
  • Subverted: Patrick seems nice, serene, and respectable in the public eye.
  • Double Subverted: But in private, he drinks like a fish and takes out his violent temper on his wife and children. Or attack him or his friends, and learn the hard way why it's a good idea to Beware the Nice Ones.
  • Deconstructed: Not everyone of Irish descent is like this. Most, in fact, are not much more tempermental than any other randomly selected person, and are no more likely to be alcoholics than anyone else.
  • Reconstructed: Patrick learns to control his temper (and his drinking).
  • Parodied: There is always a Bar Brawl going on at the pub. The bartender doesn't even care anymore.
  • Lampshaded:
  • Averted: Patrick doesn't get involved in any fights. (He may even be an Actual Pacifist.)
  • Enforced: National Stereotypes
  • Invoked: See "Justified"
  • Defied: Patrick decides to just ignore the other guy and instead plays games on his phone, drinks quietly, or talks to his friends.
  • Discussed: "An Irish guy walks into a bar...and a fight breaks out..."
  • Conversed: "I wonder why it's always an Irish guy?"
  • Played For Laughs: Almost always is.
  • Played For Drama: See "Double Subverted"

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