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Let's See You Do Better: Difference between revisions
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Criticism can [[Snark Bait|be fun]]. [[Accentuate the Negative|Picking apart works]] and trying to find and explain (and [[MST|make fun of]]) some of the things that went wrong can be deeply satisfying, and at the same time strangely therapeutic. Of course, [[Fan Dumb|some people]] take some of these criticisms [[Serious Business|to heart]], and won't hesitate to [[Flame War|chew you out]] if you suggest that something may be wrong with their personal sacred cow. That person will usually rebut your criticism with [[Viewer Stock Phrases|something like]], "Oh, yeah? Let's see ''you'' do better!"
There is a common misconception among fans and people having worked in a particular field that non-experts are not qualified to comment on their work. While it helps to have some background information or experience, it is certainly not required. It doesn't take a carpenter to recognize a poorly-made table, after all. Whenever an ordinary fan calls out another person to try their hand at something (making a film, creating a videogame, or writing a book) before criticizing it, that person has lost the argument. Sort of like [[
{{quote| ''And if [the author] does not attain to such a perfection that his writings should merit great praise, let him take care to keep them under cover so that others will not [[Narm|laugh at him]], and let him show them only to a friend who can be trusted...''}}
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In some circles, this is erroneously called "Ebert's Law", named after the famous film critic [[Roger Ebert]]. This is not an actual trope about his version of Ebert's law, which is "It's not what a movie's about, but how it's about it."
"Those who can, do; those who can't, criticize," is also a common variant. Compare [[Don't Like Don't Read]], when this trope is applied to [[Fanfic]]. Also compare [[He Panned It, Now He Sucks]].
A specific case, where [[Let's See You Do Better]] can be applied with impunity is when the critic claims "Everyone can do better" or something to the tune, directly claiming a group they could belong in, indeed can do better.
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The most feared response to this statement is "All right then, I will!"
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
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== Film ==
* The best known example of the above law that actually involves [[Roger Ebert]] comes from a [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050811/REVIEWS/50725001/1023 review] of ''[[Deuce Bigalow]]: European Gigolo''. Actor Rob Schneider took offense to an article by Patrick Goldstein of the ''Los Angeles Times'', pointing out that several major studios turned down the chance to finance the year's Best Picture nominees while financing a sequel to a crude sex comedy. After reading it, he took out a full-page ad in the ''Hollywood Reporter'' and called Goldstein a "hack" because he had never won any Pulitzer Prizes. In Ebert's review of the film, he taunted Schneider and said that he himself actually ''did'' win a Pulitzer, and thus was fully qualified to tell Schneider that he thought the movie sucked. The story took an [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|unexpected]] turn after several back-and-forth barbs in the press. After one of Ebert's cancer surgeries, Schneider sent Ebert flowers. Ebert conceded that while Schneider may make bad movies, he's a good man. Aww.
** Roger Ebert himself is an [[Averted Trope|aversion]] of this; he's a revered, Pulitzer-prize winning film critic, [[Beyond the Valley of The Dolls|but his actual filmography]] [[So Bad
* Uwe Boll, "[[Small Name, Big Ego|ze only genius in ze hole fahking beeznez]]", engages in this. The thing is, his targets were [[Michael Bay]], [[George Clooney]], and [[Eli Roth]]. Now say what you will about the savagely, critically trashed ''[[Transformers Revenge of the Fallen]]'' or ''[[Hostel]]'', but at least one of them is certainly better than ''[[Alone in The Dark (Film)|Alone in The Dark]]''.
* According to [http://ineptculturalcritic.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/a-glossary-of-pseudo-scientific-and-derogatory-terms/ this blog] Mark Ruffalo invoked this trope when his directorial debut was panned at the Sundance Film Festival.
* ''[[Bruce Almighty]]'' provides an in-universe example, where God basically tells Bruce this...then gives him all of His powers for a week.
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* [[Chuck Palahniuk]] once [http://dir.salon.com/story/books/letters/2003/08/26/chuck/index.html responded] to a review like this.
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] author Karen Traviss generally has this reaction whenever readers point out some of the inherent silliness of her work, such as [[Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|her ridiculously low estimate of the number of clone troopers in the Grand Army of the Republic.]] [[Serious Business|Then again, people have flat out threatened her over this.]] [[Word of God|Even though she repeatedly claimed she got her figures from her bosses.]] [[All There in the Manual|For numbers that first appeared in the]] ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'' [[All There in the Manual|Movie Novelization]]. [[Scapegoat Creator|So she was taking flak for figures that predated her by several years in a tier of canon her critics ignorantly claimed she had no right to alter, not realizing that said claims undermined their own positions.]] Seriously, the whole thing is one massive messed up piece of idiocy.
* [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novelist Keith Topping, responding to critics on the [[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]] [[
{{quote| Just one tiny question? What's are the titles of either of you guy's novels again? Just so, you know, I can specifically look out for them in the shops and use the stunning quality writing therein to put right all the numerous things I'm so obviously doing wrong. }}
* [[Inverted Trope]] by John Updike, both a prolific author and a prolific critic, who was fond of saying that all writers should write criticism once in a while just to remind themselves of how hard it is.
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