Hannibal Lecture: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Only a fool tries [[Perp Sweating]] on a [[sociopath]]ic [[Manipulative Bastard]]. He knows all the tricks of psychology, and will turn the tables.

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[X 1999]]'', at least the manga, Satsuki Yatoji [[I Always Wanted to Say That|Hannibalizes]] Yuzuriha Nekoi into nigh-catatonia by explaining why she thinks killing people is alright. She then proceeds to put theory into practice and it takes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] by {{spoiler|Inuki}} to save Yuzuriha.

* In the ''[[Berserk]]'' manga, both Griffith and Guts do this to antagonists who have captured them, proving that they don't need any weapons to get the better of people.

** In the manga, Natsuki gets one from {{spoiler|her mother}}, chiding her for letting Yuuichi help her, and saying that because he has kissed Mai already, he is only doing so out of pity.

 

* The graphic novel ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' (which [[Older Than They Think|pre-dates]] ''[[The Silence of the Lambs]]'' by two years - but is predated by ''Red Dragon'', the first Hannibal book) has a classic "psycho prisoner out-psychs the psychiatrist" scene. The prisoner in question evades the standard psychiatric evaluation questions, giving false responses to such things as a Rorschach test. The psychiatrist is hopeful for his progress, until a few days later, when he asks the prisoner to give true statements this time... at which point, the prisoner relates the entire story of how he mentally snapped and became {{spoiler|Rorschach}}, a story so horrifying that [[Critical Psychoanalysis Failure|he is left sitting in his chair stunned long after the prisoner is led out]].

** [[Sociopathic Hero|The Comedian]] also gives one to Dr. Manhattan, in a flashback scene in Chapter 2. The Comedian {{spoiler|[[Moral Event Horizon|gunned down his pregnant Vietnamese girlfriend]] after she slashed his face,}} and pointed out how Dr. Manhattan did nothing to stop him, therefore proving Dr. Manhattan that he doesn't care about humanity anymore.

* In a 1990 story in ''[[Suicide Squad]]'', the Israeli superteam Hayoth captures arch-villain Kobra. Since he is an extremely talented escape artist they assign their team AI, Dybbuk, to maintain a 24-hour watch on his cell... which was his goal all along. If the AI is monitoring him then it can overhear him, and if it can overhear him then he has an opportunity to monologue to it at will. Kobra soon enough gets the AI to wonder whether it has free will, and ''almost'' convinces it that the only way it could ''prove'' to itself that it has free will would be to do something its creators would never have wanted... like, say, [[World War III|launch a missile attack on the Dome of the Rock]].

 

{{quote|But what do kids know of strain, anyway? They don't know a thing. They just play all the time. Even their work is play. Not like your work. Your work... is work. Isn't it?}}

* ''[[Fairly English Story]]'': Minato ends up giving one of these to Junpei, specifically to make Junpei see him as the villain.

* In ''[[Forward]]'s'' first "episode", River delivers one of these to Niska's henchman Volsky, and while doing so informs Niska that Volsky [[The Starscream|was about to betray him]]. Niska promptly has him executed on the spot, {{spoiler|allowing Jayne to snatch Volsky's knife and use to free himself.}}

* In ''[[Prinz von Sommerhoffnung]]'', when Sommerhoffnung tries to pull a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] on Ywiu and Romea, the two shut her down with this, centred on accusing her of being a [[Wide-Eyed Idealist]] [[Know-Nothing Know-It-All]].

** Actually, an even more memorable example is the one he delivers during [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6072033/6/Dragon_Age_The_Crown_of_Thorns Chapter 5], when he {{spoiler|is on trial and completely dominates the entire assembly, throwing Bhelen's pet nobles at each other and completing his epic [[Zero-Approval Gambit]] by destroying the focus of the gathering, which means that no one ever got around to questioning exactly why he didn't try to defend the innocence he'd so vehemently proclaimed earlier that day.}} Of course, the reason was because {{spoiler|he'd [[Faking the Dead|faked Trian's death]] and ''wanted'' to be seen as the murderer.}} [[All According to Plan]].

* {{spoiler|[[GLaDOS]]}} uses this on {{spoiler|Wheatley}} in the ''[[Portal 2]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6953776/1/Test_Of_Humanity Test Of Humanity]''.

{{quote|"How amusing. You're not even a real human. All you are is just a computer brain using a human as a meat puppet. That body isn't the real you. It never was. You honestly believe she would love you, anyway? After all you've done to her. She could never love you. You're nothing but a pathetic moron living a lie."}}

* The [[Serial Killer]]/[[Deadly Doctor]] of ''[[The Ghost Map]]'' delivers one to [[Sherlock Holmes]], [[Smug Snake|smug]] in the knowledge that Holmes cannot hurt him and that he (the [[Serial Killer]]) will get off scot-free. Holmes gets more and more desperate and can't even deliver a proper [[Shut UP, Hannibal]] - he ends up playing the [[Deliberate Injury Gambit]], instead, to convict the man.

 

* Brilliantly done in the [[Trope Namer]], of course. Hannibal Lecter (the cannibal lecturer) gives several little speeches during the film about human nature, and easily reduces FBI agent-in-training Clarice Starling to tears. Throughout the film he continues to control her much more effectively than her boss can.

** Although she gives as good as she gets.

* Parodied in ''[[Cop Out]]''. In that movie, unsophisticated criminal Dave drives even simpler-minded police officer Paul Hodges nuts, mostly by saying (in a number of different ways) that his wife is cheating on him.

 

* In an extreme example - while bound and essentially helpless, Shen-Ji Yang from the first ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'' novelization calmly Hannibal Lectures a professional soldier who is holding him hostage into ''putting her gun to her own temple and shooting herself'', all in a time period of less than ten minutes. The sequence was presumably made to show just what an incredible [[Badass]] he is, but went, perhaps, a bit over the top... (In his defense, Yang is a master psychologist, and his entire agenda throughout the game is social experimentation. If anyone can do it...)

* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]: Blood Rites'', Harry Dresden pulls off a Hannibal Lecture on the book's [[Big Bad]] Lord Raith. By the end of it, Raith is incredibly furious that Dresden viciously deconstructed him so well.

** On another occasion, the ubervillain Nicodemus tried to do something along these lines to Harry in an effort to corrupt him over to his side, and scores some hits, though Harry ends up resisting it. On a later occasion, Harry does a version of this on the shadow of the demoness Lasciel in an attempt to subvert her away from evil, and may have succeeded (the debate remains ongoing in fandom whether Lash changed, and whether she still lives.)

* Fanny Price, the heroine of [[Jane Austen]]'s ''[[Mansfield Park]]'', frequently gets these from her aunt, Mrs. Norris (no, not ''[[Harry Potter|that]]'' Mrs. Norris), due to being [[The Unfavorite]].

* In ''[[Narnia|The Silver Chair]]'', the Lady of the Green Kirtle uses this trope (backed up by a little magic) to persuade Eustace, Jill, Puddleglum and {{spoiler|the Prince}} that the surface world is just something they made up.

 

* From ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', Khan delivers one while being interrogated by Kirk, mocking how little man has changed between the three hundred or so years between his exile and reawakening, in an attempt to justify his lust for power.

** And true to form, she gets her own back a few episodes later in "Mars Vs. Mars", stealing his medical records and using information in them to deliver a Hannibal Lecture of her own.

* Subversion: in ''[[The Shield]]'', Dutch (the station's [[Butt Monkey]]) seemingly gets verbally torn to pieces by a serial killer he is 'interrogating'; the killer tries to demoralize Dutch at every turn, deriding him as being "a lowly civil servant" who is trying to get the respect he doesn't deserve; insinuating that Dutch's father lied to him about being proud that Dutch became a cop; and that not only did Dutch never get a date in high school, he's still having problems now. However, in one fell swoop, Dutch turns it around, beginning by saying that he did have girlfriends in high school, and that he also has one now, who's "hot". When the killer demands to leave, Dutch ridicules him for the fact that instead of leaving earlier when they didn't have any solid evidence, he chose "to stick around and make fun of" Dutch. Dutch and his partner then reveal that Dutch was just feeding the killer lines to buy out-of-town cops time to search the killer's aunt's house, where they find the bodies of over a dozen of his victims. With the killer arrested, Dutch leaves and finds that the entire station has been watching through the interrogation room's cameras. Impressed, they applaud him. But true to the trope, some of the killer's barbs struck a note, and as soon as he gets into his car, Dutch breaks down in tears.

** This was also the Seventh Doctor's hallmark in the classic series. Notable examples include talking a Dalek into committing suicide in ''Remembrance of the Daleks'', and even talking down a guard who was ordered to execute him in ''The Happiness Patrol''.

* In the fourth-season ''[[Angel]]'' episodes "Soulless" and "Calvary", Angelus is trapped in a cage most of the time, but throughout his interrogations by the members of team Angel he disdainfully probes their points of mental or emotional weakness. On other occasions in [[The Verse]] he demonstrates the same zest for breaking people's minds apart, like when he put Drusilla through the [[Break the Cutie]] treatment, but these episodes are when he does it ''just'' with words.

** A leviathan tries to pull one on Bobby in ''Slash Fiction'' - with the extra bonus of just having shifted into Bobby and therefore having access to all of his deepest insecurities and darkest secrets. Amazingly Bobby manages to mostly shrug it off.

* Subverted in ''[[Dexter]]''. When Lt. LaGuerta is interrogating Neil Perry (who has confessed to being the Ice Truck Killer), he tries to psych her out by discussing the reason she received her promotion (specifically the fact that she wasn't the hero cop the press portrayed her as). {{spoiler|1=This allows LaGuerta to realise that Perry (who is a computer technician) must have hacked into the precinct database, which is where he got his "proof" that he was the Ice Truck Killer. She then gets him to admit his deception, by psyching him out with a severed head.}}

** Not only does it not stick, but it's actually inverted because their conversations cause Doakes to realize that, like him, Dexter actually does have a [[Serial Killer Killer|conscience]] and {{spoiler|won't actually kill him, from there he actually persuades Dexter to release him and turn himself in.}}

* This trope is both played straight and inverted in one episode of ''[[The Pretender]]''. In the episode, Jarod has to interrogate a imprisoned serial killer to try to catch a copycat killer. The killer convinces Jarod to take him to the house of the victim. At the house, the killer talks Jarod into removing his handcuffs, after which he escapes. However, it turns out that this was all part of Jarod's plan to get the killer to lead him to the site where the copycat is dumping the bodies. It then turns out that the copycat killer is a psychiatrist writing a biography of the [[Serial Killer]].

* An inversion of this takes place in the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "Objects in Space," where River pulls one of these on Jubal Early, using a combination of her [[Psychic Powers]] and {{spoiler|actually being on his ship the whole time}} to comprehensively outline just how much a sick bastard he is, and tear apart all his pretensions that "[[Even Evil Has Standards|he has a code]]". Somewhat monkeywrenched, as she isn't the prisoner, but her brother Simon ''is,'' and midway through the Hannibal Lecture, Early finally catches on—though that itself is probably part of the Lecture too, as River uses Early's realization to ''really'' turn the tables on him.

** River is actually quite good at these. While being questioned by Badger in "Shindig," she turns around and instantly deconstructs his gangster facade, outlining just what a pathetic little thug he really is, and then casually dismisses him....''in his own Cockney accent''.

{{quote|Sure, I got a secret. More'n one. Don't seem like I'd tell 'em to you now, do it? Anyone off Dyton colony knows better than to talk to strangers. But you're talking loud enough for the both of us, ain't tya? I've known a dozen like you, skipped off home early, minor graft jobs here and there. Spent some time in the lockdown, but less than you claim. And you're what? Petty thief with delusions of standing? Sad little king, of a sad little hill. [to the others] ...call me when someone interesting shows up.}}

*** Badger is initially very shaken by River's assessment, but at the end he settles down and says that "I ''like'' her."

* Being a cop show that deals specifically with serial killers, ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' does this occasionally.

** In an early season one episodes, the UnSub gave an angry analysis of each of them over the phone...and got it completely wrong. One of the agents has to stifle her laughter. {{spoiler|It also proves to be vital in identifying him.}}

* ''[[Oz]]'': Beecher and Schillinger do this to each other on separate occasions, mainly to provoke the other into some bad behavior to mess up their chances at parole, or to just torment each other. Keller also does this to Beecher a few times.

{{quote|"Keller: (to Beecher) You know what? Oz didn't make you a bitch. You were born one."}}

** Data, however, ''does'' make the decision to shoot him, and is only stopped when the unsuspecting Enterprise crew beams him to safety just as he begins to pull the trigger.

** Picard himself tends to have this effect. In ''[[Star Trek: Insurrection]]'', he convinces [[The Dragon]] to switch sides.

* Subverted in ''[[Lost]]''. In the episode "Confirmed Dead", Ben Linus attempts to do this to Sawyer, but Sawyer beats the crap out of him halfway through.

** On the other hand, Ben has done this successfully (repeatedly, even) with Locke and Jack, among others.

* ''[[MacGyver]]'s'' own version of Hannibal Lector, Dr. Zito, gave these during his two appearances on the show.

* Parodied in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'', when Tobias, former psychologist turned acting-hopeful, manages to talk his prison bunkmate, White Power Bill, into suicide by questioning him about, "where the hate comes from."

* In ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'', Malcolm's mother comes with him to an interview for a university, much to the chagrin of the titular character (considering he is the ''only'' one there with a mother). She ends up butting heads with the RA who is a massive jerkass. In response to his locking of the vending machine, she escalates the situation in an attempt to get him fired (as opposed to what her son wanted to do, which was go to another floor where the vending machines wouldn't be locked). However, when she confronts him, he nonchalantly points out that this job means nothing to him and there are a hundred other places he could do what he does. Then he quite savagely points out how Lois is a control freak, how she's a failure at life, and how pathetically she's trying to live vicariously through Malcolm, and suggests that if she isn't sure about what he's saying, she should talk to the ''other'' parents that insisted on staying with their kids in the dorm rooms. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

* Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck on ''[[Monk]]'', after Monk's spoiled his plan for revenge and gotten his [[Luxury Prison Suite]] privileges revoked: "It's true, Adrian Monk. I may be in prison, but ''you're in a worse prison!'' You're trapped! Trapped by your own demons! You're in your own private Hell! I wouldn't trade places with you for another billion dollars!"

* In ''[[Leverage]]'', "The Experimental Job", a [[Breaking Speech]] by an interrogator is turned around into a Hannibal Lecture. A career CIA interrogator tries to break Eliot by getting him to talk about how many people Eliot has killed. Eliot convinces the CIA man that he's killed far more, and remembers far more details, and that it already haunts him far more, than the CIA man could possibly have imagined or could possibly invoke. The CIA man is so shaken that he ends the day's session right then and there.

 

* Referenced in the Black Phillip Show in this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXZggIKLmrg&feature=related youtube clip]. He says "I just had to "Hannible Lecter, -- just talk this bitch till' she die," while explaining how his girlfriend's moodiness affects him.

 

* Eve from ''[[Parasite Eve]]'' really enjoyed giving these, usually combined with [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|The Reason You Suck Speeches]] to [[Mind Screw]] Aya into either giving up or joining her.

* The prequel videos for ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.]]'', which feature a psychologist trying to interview [[Creepy Child|Alma]], have an ''almost completely silent'' version of this, coupled with a savage series of [[Mind Rape|mind rapes]]. By the end of it, the hapless doctor is crawling around on the floor crying, while Alma is playfully dancing around her.

** Cut content of the second game has [[GLaDOS]] delivering some pretty [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE0zP5QNoRk devastating] ones. It makes you wonder if they were cut simply for being too nasty compared to the generally humourous tone of the game.

 

* The main character's current situation in ''[[Flipside]]'' appears to be one of the Good variety. Which is impressive since the villain just ate her arm off!

* A [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] subversion in ''[[Fans]]!'' since seemingly every single prisoner that Rikk ever dealt with has attempted to [https://web.archive.org/web/20090301050828/http://faans.com/index.php?p=1839 do this on him].

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'': In "Oceans Unmoving", Murdock (the weirdest of [[The Greys]] in the story) manages to do this accidentally when interrogated about what has been going on by going into details that make the interrogators uncomfortable and generally freaking them out. {{spoiler|In a sense [[Subverted]], since he's not so much "being interrogated by his captors" as "willingly giving a record that is being recorded by his former captors who are now prisoners to his side."}}

 

* At the end of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' v1, the only survivors are {{spoiler|Jack O'Connor and Adam Dodd}}. {{spoiler|Jack}}, having finally killed the terrorist who {{spoiler|wiped out his group and killed his teammates}}, found himself driven insane by the guilt of the act. His moral and intellectual code unable to withstand the stress, he comes to the conclusion that each of the final four survivors is a criminal, and that the only right way for the game to end would be with the death of all the contestants. With his belief that each of the finalists need to be punished for their "crimes" by death established, he went into the endgame with one goal: make sure all three of the others died, then kill himself. At the beginning of the final duel between him and {{spoiler|Adam}}, he launches into a Hannibal Lecture about how Adam is a criminal no better than Cody Jenson and therefore doesn't deserve to go home, comparing him to a serial killer. Needless to say, this pisses {{spoiler|Adam}} off.

** One memorable (and ongoing) scene has Lenny Priestly and Bobby Jacks ([[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] and [[Anti-Villain]] respectively) each giving the other one of these. ''At the same time''.

* When the heroes of the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' finally captured The Confessor (a [[Serial Killer Killer]]) they promptly pointed out to The Confessor that he, himself, was a serial killer. The Confessor delivered the Hannibal Lecture to end all Hannibal Lectures about the ineffectualness of superheroes in stopping really determined murderers.

* Played with in [[The Nostalgia Critic]]'s call to the director of ''My Pet Monster''. While we don't hear what the director says, but the Critic's forced to admit that he watched the movie willingly, that he's not babysitting anyone and that he's a twenty eight year old man who watches kid's movies for a living. The resulting pity causes a [[Heroic BSOD]] that apparently lasts a bit more than a week.

 

* ''[[South Park]]'', "Toilet Paper." Parodies ''Silence of the Lambs'' scene-for-scene. For example in "Toilet Paper" Officer Barbrady interviews Josh, who gives him a calm and pressurising lecture involving toilet paper.

** Cartman's utterly unsympathetic deconstruction of one of the nannies in "Tsst" is an example of the Hannibal Lecture as well.

* The evil wizard in ''[[The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland]]'' gives Alice one of these, over how neither he nor she thinks she can pass for a princess.

 

* The [http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox AI-Box experiment]. One person plays a trans-human AI who is contained, and wants unrestricted access to the world, the other an experimenter who wants to keep the AI in its "box". The AI has two hours, using text communication only, to convince the researcher to let it out. Both times the experiment has been run so far, the researcher has been convinced to let the AI out. More experiments have been done by various informal parties as well. Though not a perfect 100%, the results are much much higher than one would expect. Notably, all the gatekeepers are chosen specifically for their steadfast belief that they would not allow the AI out.

** Hilariously, one site about the experiment links back to this very article.