Ironic Echo: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Yzma:''' Just think of it as, you're being let go. That your life's going in a different direction. That your body's part of a permanent outplacement!

'''Yzma:''' [[Don't Explain the Joke|I know.]] It's called a cruel irony, like my dependence on ''you''.|''[[The Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]''}}

 

* Can't forget a gem from ''[[RahXephon]]'', regarding the [[Lost Technology]] that lets [[The Hero|Ayato Kamina]] teleport into the cockpit of the [[Humongous Mecha|RahXephon]]:

{{quote|'''Megumi:''' So how does that thing work, anyway?

'''Dr. Kisaragi:''' [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Really, I wonder how that thing works.]] }}

* In ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', during the Frieza Saga, Frieza remarks that it's a good day to die, in reference to his opponents when deciding which one he will kill. Later on, when the Namekians have evacuated to Earth via the Namekian Dragon Balls due to Namek's destruction, Saichoro says the exact same thing when accepting that he is dying of old age.

** This same sentiment is voiced by Syndrome in the third act.

{{quote|'''Syndrome:''' And when everyone's Super... no-one will be.}}

** After Buzz disbelieves "[[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|You. Are. A. TOY!]]" in the first movie proclaimed by Woody, he tries to persuade Woody to come with him by using the same line.

** "You have saved our lives. We are eternally grateful."

** As well as "nobody's that heartless."

{{quote|'''Pacha:''' Deep down, I think you'll realize that you're forcing an entire village out of their homes just for you.

'''[[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|Kuzco]]:''' What's the big deal? Nobody's ''that'' heartless! }}

* From ''[[Pocahontas]]'': Upon seeing Wiggins, his manservant, not realizing what a "proper English greeting" was ("Ooh! gift baskets!"), Radcliffe sighs, "And he came so highly recommended." Cut to the end, where Radcliffe is arrested for attempted murder and being carted back to England in chains. Wiggins dabs at his eyes with a handkerchief and sighs, "And he came so highly recommended." Bonus points for [[Talking to Himself|Wiggins and Radcliffe having the same voice actor]].

{{quote|'''The Nome King:''' ''STOP!!!''

'''Dorothy:''' But we haven't finished guessing yet! You promised that if we guessed correctly--

'''The Nome King:''' NEXT... PUMPKINHEAD! }}

* In ''[[The Ghost and the Darkness]]'', Remmington says to Patterson. "You've just been hit. The getting up is up to you." Patterson later repeats it back to Remmington.

* In the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'', [[The McCoy|McCoy]] says to Kirk at their introduction, "I may throw up on you", referring to his air sickness. Later, when he injects Kirk with a vaccine that makes him nauseous, Kirk repeats this line back.

** Earlier, Kirk referred to another cadet as "Cupcake". Later in the movie, when trying to escape from the security, the same cadet appeared to prevent Kirk from escaping, calling him "Cupcake".

{{quote|'''Decker:''' Moving into that cloud, at this time, is an unwarranted gamble.

'''Kirk:''' How do you define unwarranted? }}

* In ''[[Blue Thunder]]'', [[Big Bad]] Colonel Cochrane's [[Catch Phrase]] is "Catch ya later", which he uses to annoy [[The Hero]], Frank Murphy. At the end of their climactic helicopter duel, Murphy says the line back to the (now violently deceased) Cochrane as a [[Bond One-Liner]].

* In ''[[Key Largo]]'', Rocco spends most of the movie armed and dangerous, threatening to shoot the hostages on the slightest whim, taunting Frank as a coward for surviving the war. When the hurricane starts turning Rocco into a quivering mass, Frank taunts back: "You don't like it, do you Rocco, the storm? Show it your gun, why don't you? If it doesn't stop, shoot it!"

* In ''[[Empire Records]]'', Warren is being dragged out of Empire Records kicking and screaming after being arrested for shoplifting, when Lucas delivers a parting shot. "Take care of yourself, Warren. Don't let the Man get you down." At the end of the movie, Warren returns to the store and {{spoiler|scares everyone by pretending to shoot up the place. Though the gun is real, the bullets aren't.}} As the situation gets resolved, Warren finds himself in the employees' good graces after dropping the whole macho routine, to the point of even being given a job there. When the cops arrive to deal with Warren, Lucas again says, "Take care of yourself. Don't let the Man get you down." The irony is that Lucas is clearly mocking Warren when he says that the first time, but he sincerely means it when he says it the second time.

* In the first ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]]'' movie, Peter is ripped off by his wrestling promoter, and when he protests that he needs the money the promoter sneers back, "I missed the part where that's ''my'' problem." Then, as Peter's leaving, the promoter is robbed, and Peter lets the robber slip past him. The promoter is outraged and demands to know why Peter didn't stop him from getting away with the promoter's money. Peter's response? "I missed the part where that's ''my'' problem." This chance to have an ironic echo backfires big-time for Peter when [[Harsher in Hindsight|the robber he let get away ends up shooting his uncle]].

{{quote|'''George:''' You and your whole rotten class!

'''Dexter:''' Oh class my ''eye''! }}

** Also, Xenia Onatopp tries to do this to Bond with another line that's repeated twice. When they first meet during a card game in Monte Carlo, she tells him "The pleasure is all mine." Later, after she's established herself as [[The Dragon]] and tries to kill Bond, he has a fight scene with her and makes her take him to Janus. Bond asks if she had a nice evening, and she replies, "Well, once again the pleasure was all yours". The line comes a third time later in the movie when she attacks him again, and says "This time, Mr. Bond, the pleasure will be all mine." However, this being a [[James Bond]] movie, he gives her a [[Karmic Death]].

* In ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]] 2'', Justin Hammer tells Ivan Vanko to not get too attached to things in reference to his bird. Vanko soon offers Hammer the same advice in reference to Hammer's drones.

* "Someone stole that man's face" from ''[[Mystery Team]]''. Originally said to convey disgust at an image by one character; later said to describe {{spoiler|what the characters did to the ''[[Big Bad]]''}}. Played very much for laughs.

* In the Schwarzenegger movie ''[[Raw Deal]]'', Kaminsky was forced to resign from the FBI after beating the shit out of a guy who had murdered a little girl. The district attorney's words to Kaminsky were "Resign or be prosecuted." Near the end of the movie, after Kaminsky has taken out the mob boss villain and his men, he finds the district attorney, who it turns out was on the boss's payroll. Kaminsky [[Leave Behind a Pistol|leaves behind a pistol]], telling him to "resign or be prosecuted." As Kaminsky leaves, a single gunshot is heard as the attorney [[Ate His Gun|chooses to "resign."]]

* In ''[[The Ten Commandments]]'', Pharaoh says "So let it be written, so let it be done" when enacting his [[A God Am I|divine]] will. After the tenth plague, where his son was killed along with all the first born of Egypt, Pharaoh finally tells Moses to take his people and leave. As Moses walks away, he says "So let it be written...".

* In ''[[I Spit on Your Grave]]'', Jennifer has [[Rape and Revenge|taken revenge on all but one of her rapists]], who begs for mercy as she closes in for the kill. Jennifer responds with the line that he gave her during their assault on her -- "Suck it, bitch!"

** Later on, "You forgot it's only a wooden sword."

* ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'': Guan Yu says to Cao Cao "I trust you have been well since we last parted?" Later Cao Cao says the same thing to {{spoiler|Guan Yu's severed head}}.

* This occurs repeatedly, and often somewhat wittily, in ''Full Tilt'' by Neal Shusterman. For instance, the main character tells a traitorous friend that "I wouldn't climb over the backs of my friends to save myself." -- {{spoiler|and in flashback, as a school bus teetered on the edge of a cliff, he literally climbed over their backs to reach the door.}}

* In [[Jim Butcher]]'s ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' novel ''Death Masks'', Ortega explains he drinks beer, though he doesn't need to, because life is more than survival. Then he offers to call off [[Combat by Champion|the duel]] [[Not So Different|if Harry becomes a vampire]]. Harry fishes, establishing that he preys on [[Children Are Innocent]], and refuses; he explains that life is more than survival.

* In ''[[Watership Down]]'', Hazel taunts a farmyard cat, saying "Can you run? I think not." Many chapters later, the cat has Hazel pinned to the ground and hisses "Can you run? I think not.".

* Used a couple of times in the early [[Myth Adventures]] books, minus the time-delay: Gleep does something clumsy and Skeeve scolds him for it, only to turn around and do the same clumsy thing himself and get scolded (with exactly the same words) by Aahz.

* There was a short story called ''In 50 Years Who Will Know'' or some such, where a girl is constantly told this by her mother whenever something goes wrong, trying to teach the girl not to take misfortune so seriously. Eventually, the girl starts telling herself this (and hating herself for it, as she finds no comfort in it at all). When the mother tries to bleach her hair and ends up dying it "maybe even glow-in-the-dark green", the girl uses this line on her mother. Her mother finds it no more comforting than her daughter did.

* In ''[[Warrior Cats]]'', there are a couple:

== Live Action TV ==

* In the ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' episode "True Night", Johnny McHale is suffering from a psychotic break due to the trauma of being attacked by gang members. During that incident, the gang leader told him "You're not gonna wanna miss this" before killing his pregnant girlfriend. Eventually, Johnny McHale hunts down the gang leader and just before killing him says "You're not gonna wanna miss this."

{{quote|'''Riker:''' Pinocchio is broken. Its strings have been cut.}}

** Consider that this is, effectively, the same as knocking a person unconscious when they're sitting at a table minding their own business. Worse, in fact, given that turning him off effectively renders Data ''dead''...

'''Crichton:''' Flies.

'''Einstein:''' Time.

'''Crichton:''' ''(solemnly)'' Time ends. }}

** In the episode "Liars Guns And Money Part 1", Crichton leaves Scorpius to die in the Shadow Depository, while singing ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' as a form of [[Psychic Static]]. Two episodes later, Scorpius briefly hums a verse of the song before entering the Diagnosan's surgery, taking the neurochip and leaving Crichton [[And I Must Scream|paralyzed and incoherent.]]

{{quote|'''Gus:''' But I'm the guvner! You know my face!

'''Security Guard:''' It doesn't say "Identity cards must be shown, unless it's the guvner and I know his face". }}

* ''[[Leverage]]'': "My name is {{spoiler|Nate Ford}}, and I am a thief."

** ''Leverage'' seems to be good for these. The season one finale starts out with a scene that echoes the beginning of the previous episode, with Nate parroting the villain's line from that episode -- "Are you here to kill me?"

{{quote|'''William Boone''': It was ''you''. You killed my wife.

'''Agent Ronald Sandoval''': You don't have to thank me.

'''William Boone''': I can assure you that she felt no pain. [[Beat]] You don't have to thank me. {{spoiler|He's lying; she's still alive, but Boone wanted Sandoval to feel the pain that he felt before the CVI took hold.}} }}

* In the ''[[Burn Notice]]'' episode "No Good Deed", quoth Eve, the villain of the episode, "Remember that part about me letting you live if you helped me rip off my buyer? [[I Lied]]." Quoth Westen back at her a minute later, after Fiona's rescue is a success and Eve is on the ground and disarmed, "You remember the part about ''me'' helping ''you'' getting away with the money and the drive? ''I'' lied."

'''Penny''': Hey, wait a minute!

'''Howard''': Hang on, let's see where he's going.

'''Penny''': Hang on, let's see where he's going. }}

* A recurring riff on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', where the guys will intone a film's title in a pompous, mock-important tone of voice when it's not living up to its premise. Examples include ''[[Manos: The Hands of Fate]]'' (during the long, boring sequences), ''[[Horrors of Spider Island]]'' (when it's not focusing on horror or spiders), and ''[[Puma Man]]'' (when the titular hero isn't particularly heroic).

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' had:

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Luke Atmey'''}}: [[Laughing Mad|Hee hee hee ha ha ha aha ha ha ha ha ha ha!]] [[Overly Long Gag|Ho ho ho hee hee hee!]] Take a good look, everyone! Unable to find a rival worthy of my genius, I was forced to create one by myself! Here I am! The tragic clown...}}

* In ''[[MadWorld]]'', Jack meets with a doctor named Leo twice. The first time, Leo asks Jack to help him escape the city. Jack responds with. "I don't help people. I kill them." and continues competing in the games. {{spoiler|The second time, Jack figures out that Leo was behind the games all along and fatally wounds him. Leo explains the whole story and points out that Jack won't be able to arrest him without helping him before he dies. Jack's response? "I don't help people... (Chainsaws Leo and watches him fall into the abyss) I kill them."}}

* In ''[[Pokémon]]'', trainers you meet will often start by saying something like, "I'm surprised to meet you here", and then when they lose the battle say, "I'm surprised at how strong you are!"

{{quote|'''Tassadar:''' So long as you continue to be so predictable, O Queen, I need not face you at all. You are your own worst enemy.}}

** Later, when Kerrigan doublecrosses her allies...

'''Fenix:''' That's ironic, I can remember Tassadar teaching you a very similar lesson on Char.

'''Kerrigan:''' I took that lesson to heart, Praetor. }}

** At the end of the UED campaign in ''Broodwar'', Kerrigan tells Dugalle that he'd be surprised how many "special interest groups" in the sector want to see the UED stopped. In the briefing of the last mission of Kerrigan's campaign, after she has betrayed everyone else, Arcturus Mengsk contacts her to let her know he's gunning for her. When she asks him how he scrounged up three fleets to attack her, he says he made a few deals and tells her she'd be surprised how many "special interest groups" in the sector want to see her dead. Bonus points since one of the groups is the remainder of the UED fleet led by Dugalle.

* In ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]'', at the beginning of chapter one, when Guybrush stabs LeChuck with the Cursed Cutlass of Kaflu, he yells "Unholy THIS!". {{spoiler|1=LeChuck says the exact same at the end of chapter four when stabbing Guybrush to death.}}

* As a soldier, [[Metroid|Samus]] used to give her C.O. a thumbs-down (instead of the Federation's usual thumbs-up) when acknowledging a mission, just to be cheeky. {{spoiler|Anthony}} gives the same gesture at the end of ''[[Other M]]'' as a sign of camaraderie.

* In the 'Shade Impulse' campaign of ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'', [[Final Fantasy II|the Emperor]] dismisses the heroes' resolution to continue fighting, by claiming that 'Insects will swarm, but they are insects nonetheless.' Later, when they actually defeat him for good, he asks disbelievingly who they are. Several of the characters have their own echoes for him, if you defeated him with them:

'''[[Final Fantasy VII|Cloud]]:''' Just another bug. }}

* In ''[[Portal 2]]'', when Wheatley attempts to hack he says, "Let the games begin". However, once he {{spoiler|performs a [[Face Heel Turn]], he says the same line after he fails to kill you, though he sounds more menacing}}.

** [[Unskippable]] was so amused by this that they turned it into a [[Running Gag]] where the "death" counter goes up every time the point of view character dies or falls unconscious.

* ''[[Kid Icarus: Uprising|Kid Icarus Uprising]]'' begins with Pit telling Palutena ([[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|and the player]]) "Sorry to keep you waiting!" referencing the 25 years between that game and [[Kid Icarus|his first adventure]]. Later on, when {{spoiler|[[Bigger Bad|Hades]]}} appears for the first time, {{spoiler|he}} repeats this line word-for-word to them after {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Medusa]] is defeated and before Act II begins}}.

* In the opening of ''[[Tomb Raider]]'', Larson asks Lara Croft "What's a man gotta do to get that sort of attention from ya?" Since Lara Croft is obviously sexy looking, that kind of comment was inevitable. Later on, when Larson attacks Lara outside of Qualapec's Tomb and Lara defeats him, Lara retorts "Well, you have my total attention now. I'm not sure if I got yours, though. Hello?"

 

 

== Web Original ==

* RPG Example: During a story line on the ''Prodigy City of Supers'' forum, my PC reptilian mutant and another player's genetically engineered human were taking on two NPC thugs. One attempts to make a run for it, telling his partner, "Sorry, buddy, but I ain't gonna defend you against supers and freaks." After being tackled and on the verge of being eaten by my PC, the thug cried out for help. Only to have his partner throw his words back at him, complete with mocking tone of voice. The fight didn't end well for the thugs.

* In a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2EHpf1TBvU Katers17 YouTube Video], this happens at the halfway point, when the main character is told not to wear the dress.

{{quote|'''Cartman:''' Jimmy, you really believe that you came up with it all on your own? Oh my God, wait. I totally get it now.

'''Jimmy:''' What? I, I still don't get anything.

'''Cartman:''' I thought you were just trying to Jew me out of my part of the credit, but now I realize that... some people just have egos that are so out of whack that no matter what people tell them, they can't accept the truth of who they are. Jimmy, I owe you an apology. I realize now you can't help believing you created the entire joke, because your ego won't let you think otherwise. I just have to accept that. }}

** And in "Coon 2: Hindsight" and "Coon vs. Coon and Friends." You got poop, don't you?

* In [[Pixar Shorts|''Tokyo Mater'']], Kabuto actually threatens [[Cars|Mater]] that if he loses the race to [[Tokyo Tower]], then Kabuto will strip him of his modifications and as a result Mater will become "stock." At the end of the short, Mater beats Kabuto to the top of the tower, and as a result it's Kabuto that ends up being stripped of his modifications. As the other cars in Tokyo start laughing at him because of his nudity, Kabuto immediately screams "I'M STOCK!!!"

* In the first song of the [[Dr. Seuss]] special ''[[Halloween Is Grinch Night]]'', Grandpa Josiah repeatedly sings, "I wouldn't go out on a night like this for" a given amount of money that increases with each verse, such as "six dollars and sixty cents!". Later, the Grinch starts poetically talking about what a wonderful night it is in the same rhythm as Josiah's song, ending with "I wouldn't stay home on a night like this for sixty dollars and sixty cents!"

{{quote|'''Gantu''': Quiet! I do not want to hear anything more about 113.

'''625''': But—

'''Gantu''': ''(covers his ears)'' I'm not listening! Na na-na na-na-na. }}

** And then later, when 625 tells him what he found out, we get one of the best instances of this trope ever thought up:

'''Gantu ''(recording)''''': I'm not listening! Na na-na na-na-na. }}

** Blasting the recorder didn't do much to mollify him, either.

[[Category:Alice and Bob]]

[[Category:Chekhov's Gun]]

[[Category:Ironic Tropes]]

[[Category:Hentai Tropes]]