Ironic Echo: Difference between revisions

'''Kronk:''' Hey, [[Captain Obvious|that's kinda like what he said to you]] [[Lampshade Hanging|when you got fired]].

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

 

[[Alice and Bob|Bob]] makes a comment in the presence of [[Alice and Bob]]. Much later on, Alice makes the same comment in a different situation, often giving it an unexpected meaning in the new context.

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', minor villain Bellamy condescendingly asks Luffy (who he believes to have a 30 million belli bounty, as compared to Bellamy's 50 million) "Do you even know how to throw a punch?" Luffy, who doesn't care much what an idiot like that says, doesn't reply until Bellamy ''really'' pisses him off by further insulting the friends he'd already beaten up. In a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] (of the entire series), as Bellamy rockets around on his springs while dramatically taunting him, Luffy calmly lifts up one fist and echoes "Do I know how to throw a punch?" He then takes the guy out ''[[Curb Stomp Battle|with one punch.]]''

** When Marshal D. "Blackbeard" Teach reveals the [[Power Nullifier]] aspect of his Devil Fruit powers, he states that all of the overconfident fruit users of the world will be powerless against him. He later tries this against {{spoiler|Whitebeard}}, and promptly gets a chunk gouged out his shoulder for his trouble. {{spoiler|Whitebeard}} then notes that Blackbeard is too reliant on ''his'' Devil Fruit Power.

 

 

* [[Alan Moore]] uses this one a lot, but never more than in ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]''.

** A good example: advertisements for Ozymandias' training system promise "bodies beyond your wildest imagining". {{spoiler|When Ozymandias commits his attack on New York, the advertisements are liberally scattered around amidst the piles of corpses.}}

* Kind of an extended one for Human Flame. When he asked Libra to kill the [[Martian Manhunter]] in ''[[Final Crisis]]'', he didn't do anything except take a picture of the deed on his mobile phone. Later, when the heroes caught up with him and trapped him in a [[Cardboard Prison]] forged from his own stupidity, [[Green Lantern]]'s final act before shutting the door is to create a mobile phone using his [[Green Lantern Ring]] specifically to take a picture.

** Similarly, while the first issue of ''Final Crisis'' has said character (a horrible degenerate) saying "This is what happens to anyone who ****s with the Human Flame" while Martian Manhunter (a straight-up hero) burns, it ends with Nix Uotan (the 'Judge of All Evil' and a straight-up hero) saying "No-one ****s with the Judge of All Evil" while Mandrakk (a horrible degenerate) burns.

* In ''[[The Sandman]]'' Dream has a flashback of his last meeting with Destruction, during which he gave somebody [[Disproportionate Retribution]]. Destruction [[What the Hell, Hero?|asked if that was absolutely necessary]] to which Dream responded by asking if he tells Destruction how to do his job. Later, Dream asks Delirium if the [[Disproportionate Retribution]] she gave a policeman was necessary and gets the same answer.

* One ''Cthulhu Tales'' comic had this with two shots of the same people in the same positions. Image 1: they're arranged around a living room holding an intervention for the protagonist's drinking. Image 2: they're wearing cult robes and waiting for the [[Demonic Possession|demon]] that was being kept [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed]] ''in'' the protagonist by said drinking.

* A truly dark version appears in the narrative of a story from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Tales of the Slayers]]''. In a small village during [[The Dark Ages]], a young, devoutly Christian girl discovers she is this generation's Slayer. Reluctant at first, she fulfills her duties as the Slayer, saying, "God is good, and God is kind." After the town's priest, jealous of her heroism, declares her a witch and rallies the town against her, leading to her being [[Burn the Witch|burned alive]], her Watcher took his revenge by opening the city gates, allowing a horde of vampires to enter and massacre the entire town. His last words were, "For God is good and God is kind, but God's not welcome here!"

** When Terra is {{spoiler|depowered and imprisoned by the Mane Six}}, she tells Fluttershy that she does cruel things because "It's what I do. It's who I am." Shortly after, Fluttershy performs an act of kindness for Terra and when asked why, she replies with the same line.

* In ''[[The Ghost Map]]'', [[Sherlock Holmes]] and [[Big Bad|Colonel Moran]] face off in Camden House, [[Continuity Nod|where Holmes trapped Moran some time ago.]] Now it's the other way around - Holmes acknowledges the irony.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* In ''[[Changing Lanes]]'', Ben Affleck's character pulls a Type 2 of sorts near the end—following the advice, but in a way which the advice-giver didn't intend.

* In ''[[The Machinist]]'', Trever first says "I know who you are!" repeatedly and angrily when he thinks he has worked out the identity of Ivan, and then later in a terrified tone when he actually has worked out Ivan's identity ( {{spoiler|a sort-of personification of his guilt}}).

** And in the third: "best defense is a good offense", as well as Wolverine throwing Magneto's us vs. them rhetoric right back in his face {{spoiler|when he gets shot with the mutant cure}}.

{{quote|'''Magneto''': I'm going to count to three, and then I'm going to [[Pretty Little Headshots|move the coin]].}}

** Also from ''First Class'': "Mutant and proud."

 

 

* 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."

* Played with between series on ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''. Upon meeting [[Emotional Emotionless Person|their android commander, Data]] for the first time, and hearing of his desire to be human, Will Riker ascribes him the nickname "[[Pinocchio]]". In the next series, when Riker is forced into playing against Data in a courtcase which could, if Data loses, very well see him dismantled beyond repair (i.e. killed), he plays out a devastating scene culminating in switching Data off:

** Also, when J.D. feels responsible for a patient's death, and Dr. Cox explains it as a slippery slope and when you start going down that line, "you never come back." Later, when Cox's hasty actions kill three patients (one of which could've waited another month), J.D. states "Once you go down that road, you never come back." Cox then flatly states "Yeah... you're right," and walks out the door, not planning to come back.

* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' episode of ''[[That '70s Show]]'', Donna gets mad when Eric says David, the Vader character, has only been spending so much time with her talking to her, and listening and sharing ideas ("What's that about!?") because he wants to see her naked. In a later argument, Donna's trying to prove him wrong, and David gives the exact same examples Eric did, ending with "What's that about!?" in the same tone as Eric.

** "Is that an order?"

* In ''[[The Office]]'' (American version), when Michael is fired for starting {{spoiler|a competing company}} and tries to say his goodbyes, Charles tells him "No more, Michael. You're done." However, when {{spoiler|Michael gets his job back and Charles is sent back to corporate in the ensuing deal}}, Michael cuts off his goodbye with "No. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|You're done]]."

* ''Still healing'' by Uprise uses this. The first half of the song is lamenting the fact that the singer is "still healing" from some childhood trauma. The second half uses the same line - with the context changed to highlight that he is, in fact, healing, while the offender will always be miserable.

* The chorus of the Mark Wills song "Wish You Were Here" describes a postcard which has the word "Heaven" on the front. The postcard's message has a completely different tone when sung after the first verse (where the postcard's writer is boarding a plane) and after the second (where he {{spoiler|dies when the plane crashes}}):

* Act 1 of [[Green Day|Green Day's]] ''[[21st Century Breakdown (music)|21st Century Breakdown]]'' opens with "Know Your Enemy," in which the protagonist rails against the establishment and encourages others to do likewise; Act 2 ends with Gloria realizing that her life's been ruined:

* ''Ghosts and Spirits'', a CD of songs based on [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]' [[The Great Divorce]], has a song ("Bleeding Charity") that's an ironic echo. First, a ghost protests, "Can't you see that I'm only human?" and can't be expected to be perfect (as he thinks is necessary to enter Heaven), and refuses to accept any "bleeding charity"; in the second verse, a spirit explains he is not perfect either - "Can't you see that I'm only human?" and begs him to accept the [[The Bible|Bleeding Charity]].

* At the beginning of "A Complete History of the Soviet Union, Arranged To The Melody From ''[[Tetris]]''" by Pig With The Face Of A Boy, the "man who arranges the blocks" muses that "The Tsar puts gold on his bread" when noting the unfairness of the old regime. At the end, having gone through [[Red October|revolution]], [[Stalin]], [[World War II]], the [[Cold War|Space Race]] and [[The Great Politics Mess-Up|the fall of the Berlin Wall]], the same worker bitterly notes that while he has more than enough gold, he's reduced to standing in line for the chance to get a loaf of bread.

== [[Myth and Legend]] ==

* From [[Norse Mythology]]: When Hagen suggests to king Gunther/Gunnar to accept Walther's gift of 100 golden rings (instead of taking all his treasure), Gunther mocks him: "You are truly a son of your father Aldrian. He would talk a lot so he wouldn't have to fight." After Walther has killed the other eleven knights of the king, Gunther tries to make Hagen fight again. But Hagen says: "I am truly a son of my father Aldrian. He would talk a lot so he wouldn't have to fight."