Let's See You Do Better: Difference between revisions

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* 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 It's Good|is something else]].

* 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]]''.

* 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 (2005 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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* [[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.

* [[Al Franken]] wrote some funny political satire. Then people started launching this at him. So then he went and got himself elected to the Senate...

* An in-universe example: [[Sherlock Holmes]]' criticism of Watson's written records of his adventures is almost a running gag in [[Arthur Conan Doyle ~~(Creator)~~|Doyle]]'s works. Eventually, Watson basically told him the name of this trope enough times so that Holmes grabbed a pen and wrote "The Blanched Soldier" (where he acknowledged that it wasn't as easy as it looked at first sight).

* An in-universe example: [[Sherlock Holmes]]' criticism of Watson's written records of his adventures is almost a running gag in [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doyle]]'s works. Eventually, Watson basically told him the name of this trope enough times so that Holmes grabbed a pen and wrote "The Blanched Soldier" (where he acknowledged that it wasn't as easy as it looked at first sight).

* Another in-universe example from [[David Eddings]]: an administrator in the Tamul Empire (an ersatz Imperial China) explaining that the appearance of revolutionaries in a province of the empire was an indication that something had gone seriously wrong (as Tamul acted as [[Benevolent Tyrants]]). Since the revolutionaries had already identified the problems the pragmatic solution was simply to replace the incompetent imperial governors with the revolutionaries. This was also an [[Ironic Punishment]] as being an imperial governor was one of the most thankless jobs in the empire. NO-ONE liked the governor.

* [[Ray Bradbury]] harnessed the power of metaphor to...make this very point:

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== Music ==

* [[~~Avenged Sevenfold (Music)|~~Avenged Sevenfold]]'s song, "Critical Acclaim" is more or less this trope as an angry, ridiculous screed against people who criticize ''[[Eagle Land|The USA]]'' because "they've never contributed a fucking thing to the country they love to criticize." Apparently, the songwriter believes that criticizing the country or the war, etc. (not the soldiers) when you've never served your country [[Patriotic Fervor|insults those who have]]. What's even funnier is that the song calls these critics self-righteous and hypocritical without a hint of irony.

* [[Avenged Sevenfold]]'s song, "Critical Acclaim" is more or less this trope as an angry, ridiculous screed against people who criticize ''[[Eagle Land|The USA]]'' because "they've never contributed a fucking thing to the country they love to criticize." Apparently, the songwriter believes that criticizing the country or the war, etc. (not the soldiers) when you've never served your country [[Patriotic Fervor|insults those who have]]. What's even funnier is that the song calls these critics self-righteous and hypocritical without a hint of irony.

{{quote| So how does it feel to know that someone's kid in the heart of America<br />

Has blood on their hands<br />

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== Video Games ==

* While reviewing [[The Problem ~~With~~ Licensed Games|the official PC game]] based on ''[[Dirty Dancing]]'', [[The Spoony Experiment ~~(Web Video)~~|The Spoony One]] pre-emptively mentioned that [[Informed Ability|he already has]], in fact, coded games that are better than the minigames in the game ''as homework for his software engineering course''.

* While reviewing [[The Problem with Licensed Games|the official PC game]] based on ''[[Dirty Dancing]]'', [[The Spoony Experiment|The Spoony One]] pre-emptively mentioned that [[Informed Ability|he already has]], in fact, coded games that are better than the minigames in the game ''as homework for his software engineering course''.

* The ''[[MUGEN]]'' fandom's got this BAD. in response to criticism of a character on any MUGEN forum (usually criticism by [[Wild Tengu]]), at least one noob is likely to say "you can't judge, you haven't made a character!". It would be a good argument, if not for the fact that if someone who's had no character-creation experience can note when something's ''very'' wrong, then the argument becomes redundant.

* Games that let you [[Game Mod|mod]] them are also a target for this trope. There are always some people who simply need to tweak a few things before their custom content is considered good or they just need some guidance in the right direction to make something work. However, if the criticism against the creator's work is strong and the creator does not react to kindly to it, they may dismiss all criticism by saying that they put a lot of hard work into it and they don't see them doing any better. This reaction can also occur within the fans of the creator's work(s) since they may see any form of criticism as a sign of bashing.

* This was reportedly how [[Steve Meretzky]] got his job at [[Infocom]]. He sent them a letter criticizing their work, and they asked if he could do better. He responded by writing ''[[~~Planetfall (Video Game)|~~Planetfall]]''.

* This was reportedly how [[Steve Meretzky]] got his job at [[Infocom]]. He sent them a letter criticizing their work, and they asked if he could do better. He responded by writing ''[[Planetfall]]''.

* ''[[Touhou]]'' exists because ZUN didn't like existing shooter games. Amusingly, the fandom also likes doing this with his art (good designs, bad execution).

* According to [[Word of God]], this is how ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'' was born.

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** Sometimes, even pointing out a bug in a flash game resulted in this...

* ''[[The Onion]]'', in its [[News Parody|usual style]], applied [http://www.theonion.com/content/news/well_you_try_to_reconstruct_iraq this trope in an unexpected way to fantastic results.]

* ''[[~~Atop the Fourth Wall (Web Video)|~~Atop the Fourth Wall]]'' was flooded with these kinds of comments after Linkara introduced "Miller Time," a series of reviews of [[Frank Miller]]'s worst comics. He responded that he's only been at this for a couple years, while Miller's been working for three decades.

* ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'' was flooded with these kinds of comments after Linkara introduced "Miller Time," a series of reviews of [[Frank Miller]]'s worst comics. He responded that he's only been at this for a couple years, while Miller's been working for three decades.

** During the ''Wolverine: Adamantium Rage'' review, Spoony (who was watching in the background) mocks Linkara's decision to use cheat codes during a particularly difficult part of the game. Linkara's response is to step away from the keyboard and let Spoony try. After a half-dozen failures and an abortive suicide attempt, Spoony lets Linkara cheat.

** Inverted, during an episode of ''[[History of Power Rangers]]'', Linkara notes that Lord Zedd's evil Rangers were just the [[Mook|Puttys]] painted in the Rangers's colors, and ''he'' could make a better costume than that. A few months later, he unveiled a [[Power Rangers ~~ZEO~~|White Zeo Ranger suit]] in the style of his normal Linkara attire.

** Inverted, during an episode of ''[[History of Power Rangers]]'', Linkara notes that Lord Zedd's evil Rangers were just the [[Mook|Puttys]] painted in the Rangers's colors, and ''he'' could make a better costume than that. A few months later, he unveiled a [[Power Rangers Zeo|White Zeo Ranger suit]] in the style of his normal Linkara attire.

* Yahtzee of ''[[Zero Punctuation]]'' gets this a lot, despite that he actually has programmed [[Chzo Mythos|some freeware PC games]] before his rambling gaming reviews gained him the following he has today.

** Having also done some minor webcomics criticism, Yahtzee may also have received these from webcomic supporters. Yahtzee, however, always remarks that [[Old Shame|his old webcomic efforts]] were hardly any better than the ones he openly criticizes, and is very aware of the hypocrisy in pointing out other webcomics' flaws. And at least Yahtzee stopped making his horrible webcomic.

* Kippurbird also got this at least once due to her sporkings of ''[[Inheritance Cycle ~~(Literature)~~|Eragon]]''.

* Kippurbird also got this at least once due to her sporkings of ''[[Inheritance Cycle|Eragon]]''.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeHsSmQdkzE Lost Parody] did this for their final episode, after 14 completely nonsensical episodes of jabs at ''[[~~Lost (TV)|~~Lost]]'''s failings, in the last episode they managed to pull the entirety of depicted events together into something that came very close to making sense.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeHsSmQdkzE Lost Parody] did this for their final episode, after 14 completely nonsensical episodes of jabs at ''[[Lost]]'''s failings, in the last episode they managed to pull the entirety of depicted events together into something that came very close to making sense.

{{quote| '''Hurley:''' Now it's your turn, ''[[~~Lost (TV)|~~Lost]]''! '''You only have ONE. EPISODE! LEFT!'''}}

{{quote| '''Hurley:''' Now it's your turn, ''[[Lost]]''! '''You only have ONE. EPISODE! LEFT!'''}}

* If anyone criticizes an articles on ''[[Cracked]]'', expect to see this trope show up.

** Except for when the author admits that his article sucks, and apologises for putting it up.

* Criticisms of ''[[Twilight (~~Literature~~)|Twilight]]'' will often be met with, "well, let's see ''you'' write a best seller." It turns out that [[Moving the Goalposts|they won't actually care if you've written anything or not]], as when an [[Stephen King|author who met this criteria]] criticized ''Twilight'', fans were quick to declare that [[You're Just Jealous|he was just jealous]] because he hadn't written anything popular lately.

* Criticisms of ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' will often be met with, "well, let's see ''you'' write a best seller." It turns out that [[Moving the Goalposts|they won't actually care if you've written anything or not]], as when an [[Stephen King|author who met this criteria]] criticized ''Twilight'', fans were quick to declare that [[You're Just Jealous|he was just jealous]] because he hadn't written anything popular lately.

* This happens occasionally on high-traffic wikis, especially TOW. In this case, however, because of the nature of the medium, it's a perfectly legitimate request.

* This trope is the basis for the ''[[~~How It Should Have Ended (Web Animation)|~~How It Should Have Ended]]'' series.

* This trope is the basis for the ''[[How It Should Have Ended]]'' series.

* On [[~~Dragon Cave (Web Game)|~~Dragon Cave]], a popular adoptables site with dragon sprites, fans will occasionally criticise the art- with things ranging from genuine explanations about not liking colours, poses, shading styles etc to others who just say "It sucks, get rid of it!" Some artists and fans have responded with this trope; others of course understand that everybody can be a good spriter and sketcher, and they're perfectly entitled to having an opinion on art.

* On [[Dragon Cave]], a popular adoptables site with dragon sprites, fans will occasionally criticise the art- with things ranging from genuine explanations about not liking colours, poses, shading styles etc to others who just say "It sucks, get rid of it!" Some artists and fans have responded with this trope; others of course understand that everybody can be a good spriter and sketcher, and they're perfectly entitled to having an opinion on art.

* This is referenced by [[Cleolinda Jones]] at one point. She responds to it with "You don't need to be a farmer to know if the milk's gone bad".

* A common reaction for subjects of [[Retsupurae]], going so far as to call out Slowbeef and Diabetus asking to see them make a better [[Let's Play]]. Even though they have none up on [[YouTube]], they're [[Something Awful]] regulars with several finished LPs- in fact, Slowbeef himself is [[Did Not Do the Research|the one who started Let's Play to begin with.]]

* [[~~The Nostalgia Chick (Web Video)|~~The Nostalgia Chick]] often lampshades that she'll have nowhere near the success of the people she's bitching about, and that's why it's so fun to tear their stuff apart in the first place.

* [[The Nostalgia Chick]] often lampshades that she'll have nowhere near the success of the people she's bitching about, and that's why it's so fun to tear their stuff apart in the first place.

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== [[Western Animation]] ==

* There was a ''[[South Park]]'' episode where Cartman made the morning announcements and relentlessly and mercilessly picked apart everything Wendy did as a class president. As her way of asking Cartman if he could do better, Wendy simply resigned from her spot and let Cartman take over. This actually got Cartman to shut up, as he was prepared to only criticize, not ''act''.

** And, of course, there was the fact that the class president had no real authority to begin with. Since Cartman convinced everyone in school to "ask questions"(i.e. Blame the most prominent authority figure available for anything and everything), he was left [[Hoist By His Own Petard|with everyone in school blaming him for all manner of problems that he in no way had the power to solve.]]

** And, of course, there was the fact that the class president had no real authority to begin with. Since Cartman convinced everyone in school to "ask questions"(i.e. Blame the most prominent authority figure available for anything and everything), he was left [[Hoist by His Own Petard|with everyone in school blaming him for all manner of problems that he in no way had the power to solve.]]

* On ''[[The Simpsons]]'' when Bart is kicked out of Mr. Burns' casino and notes the martinis suck, the Squeaky Voiced Teen challenges him to have his own casino in his treehouse. Bart does just that, leading the teen to note how he was shown up.

** In "Bart Star" Homer constantly taunts Ned about his coaching.