Little Miss Snarker
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Calvin and Hobbes © Bill Watterson.
The Deadpan Snarker comes in many forms; it could be the non-action guy, the sidekick, the Weasel Mascot, and even the cat. This trope deals with snark coming from a little girl.
The humor here is that we don't usually think of an adorable little kid as being sarcastic, and this character type is both smart and perceptive, capable of pointing out exactly what other characters keep concealed - often their feelings for one another.
Expect her to be Wise Beyond Their Years. Compare The Snark Knight.
Examples of snarky little kids include:
Anime and Manga
- Iris from Pokémon.[context?]
- Kiri Koshiba from Beauty Pop.[context?]
- Hoshino Ruri of Martian Successor Nadesico, whose Catch Phrase is "Baka bakka" ("I'm Surrounded by Idiots"). So much so that this trope used to be named after her.
- Yurikasa Chika from Asagiri no Miko.[context?]
- Morino Ichigo from Please Teacher and Onegai Twins (much more so in Onegai Twins). In OneTea, it's a defense mechanism (she's Older Than She Looks and uses the snark to hide her loneliness); in OneTwins she's Flanderized into the snarker role.
- To an extent, Yue Ayase from Mahou Sensei Negima when combining being a bookworm with being the Only Sane Woman of her group. In later arcs, Chisame takes this role (being the Only Sane Woman of a group appears to induce snark in this setting), thanks to some liberal use of age changing pills so she's a bespectacled (or not) 10 year old. Before her abuse of age pills, she didn't fit the body type requirement.
- Kisaka Rui in Jinki Extend.[context?]
- Imai Hotaru in Gakuen Alice.[context?]
- Karin Kurosaki from Bleach, despite being older than Yuzu (but she's still way younger than Ichigo).[context?]
- Guu from Haré+Guu is a Little Miss Deadpan Snarker taken to its (il)logical extreme. It annoys or terrifies Haré (sometimes both at once), which appears to be why she does it.
- Kirino from Ai Kora.[context?]
- Akira from Lucky Star, once her Kawaiiko exterior cracks, though she quickly does away with the "Deadpan" part and starts with the shouting and physically abuse.
- Hinata from Amaenaideyo!!. It says something about her that her pet is a miniature fire-breathing demon.[context?]
- Kotoko in Chobits, who's actually a super-intelligent robot about the size of a guinea pig. She uses the snark to lampshade her companions' illogical moments (of which there are many).
- Chiaki from Minami-ke.[context?]
- Rio in Spiral and its prequel.[context?]
- Miura from Yotsuba&! has hints of this, though she's more likely to use her insights to manipulate others rather than just snark.
- The Really Seven Hundred Years Old Vita of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, who takes the role of the prickly officer to the new recruits after she joins the Space-Time Administration Bureau.[context?]
- Anya Alstreim from Code Geass. C.C.'s also a pretty good fit, not so much in the short or undeveloped part, but she does contrast child-like mannerisms (like playing with a stuffed animal) with being so snarky that Lelouch initially thinks of her as downright inhuman.
- Momoka from Daa! Daa! Daa! is a three-year-old little girl whose first scene in the series has her berating the heroine, Miyu, for aiding global warming by not recycling. From the back of a tricycle. Her snarkiness only increases as the series goes on.
- A Rare Male Example is Naota from FLCL. The light novel explicitly mentions that his body hasn't kept up with his mental maturity. In the anime, his pajamas don't even fit a 12-year-old girl. He overuses 'ore' to compensate.
- Jin in Kannagi has... let's call them 'body issues'. He acts older than he is, and a lot older than he looks.
- Saki in Shikabane Hime. She has a habit of speaking aloud her contracted monk's inner thoughts.
- Another Rare Male Example: Ryoma Echizen from The Prince of Tennis.[context?]
- Loco in MAR. Her aloof, gloomy attitude is sort of justified because she's actually much older than she appears, a curse induced by her choice weapon keeps her adult self looking like a very coldhearted 10-year-old.
- Felli Loss from Chrome Shelled Regios fits this rather well, with a bit of Emotionless Girl mixed in, which is promptly subverted in her introduction, where she is seen her screaming and shouting insults down one of the city's ventilation shafts to relieve some frustration.
- Mayuko from Sola.[context?]
- Ai Haibara from Detective Conan.[context?]
- Ar from Iono the Fanatics. "Pedophilia is a crime, you know."
- Eve from Black Cat[context?]
- Anju from Karin, who is a near-epitome of Emotionless Girl as well.[context?]
- Coco from Basquash.[context?]
- Rika from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni fits the trope since she's actually centuries old if you count the years she was stuck in the time loop. She also fits into the Oracular Urchin category.[context?]
- Cute Witch Bernkastel also fits this, since she sort of is Rika, almost-ish.[context?]
- Rima in Shugo Chara.[context?]
- Micchon in Eden of the East.[context?]
- Saki Amano from Kanamemo, who, despite being in elementary school, knows when the employees at her office act out of line and isn't afraid to tell them so.
- Ciel Phantomhive of Black Butler is another male example.[context?]
- Played with in The Twelve Kingdoms where the local Little Miss Snarker is Shushou, a child queen who is actually Really Seven Hundred Years Old, since she became sovereign and stopped aging when she was 12.
- Shokatsuryou Koumei from Ikki Tousen lives and breathes this trope, which is to be expected from an eight year old reincarnation of Zhuge Liang.[context?]
- Pan in Dragon Ball GT.[context?]
- Luna/Luka from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's fits this to an extent, especially when it comes to her Half-Identical twin brother's schemes.
- Kotori Makino from Koe de Oshigoto!, with a good amount of Emotionless Girl thrown in.[context?]
- Saori from Wandering Son became this around volume 4 of the manga.[context?]
- Kana from Soul Eater Not! is a Fortune Teller who snarks with Tarot cards.
- Rokujo Miharu from Nabari no Ou fits this one, at least in the beginning of the series.[context?]
- Hanaukyo Maid Tai: The maid Grace does this a lot.
- Chibiusa from Sailor Moon during Sailor Moon R, when she's trying to put herself between Usagi and Mamoru.
- Wy from Axis Powers Hetalia is this as the Only Sane Man Woman of the micronations.[context?]
Comic Books
- Jubilee of the X-Men began as one of these. Boom Boom tended this way as well.[context?]
- Earlier example: Mafalda[context?]
- Molly from Runaways is one of these when she's not intentionally acting more innocent and naive to lower people's defenses.[context?]
- Several Love and Rockets characters as kids, especially Carmen, Casimira, and Luba's niece Angel.[context?]
- Amelia McBride from Amelia Rules.[context?]
Fan Works
- This is what you get when you Gender Flip Kyon.[context?]
- ToyHammer's shrunk-down, Fun Size -ified Gender Flipped God Emperor of Mankind is a deadpan loli. Better Than It Sounds and It Makes Sense in Context here.
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Michael: "Can we all behave like adults here?" |
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Film
- In Beautiful Girls a young Natalie Portman plays one of these.[context?]
- Dakota Fanning's characters in the movies Push and Uptown Girls[context?]
- Dakota Fanning portrays another snarky little girl as the voice of Coraline.[context?]
- Drew Barrymore's character in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is Gertie, Elliott's mischievous five-years-old sister. She makes several snarky remarks throughout the film that nobody remarks upon.
- 10-year-old Devon from Lawn Dogs. Snark is by far the most wholesome of her methods for dealing with the artificial, stuck-up, pretentious world she inhabits.
- Dani from Hocus Pocus.[context?]
- Addie from Paper Moon.[context?]
- Ironically, Shirley Temple becomes a bit of a Little Miss Snarker in the film Little Miss Marker, after hanging around the gangsters who've unofficially taken her in, after she was left with them by her suicidal father. (Punning from this film's title gets us this trope's name.)
- Mattie Ross from True Grit.[context?]
- Sarah Altman from Panic Room.[context?]
Live-Action TV
- Dr. K in Power Rangers RPM. A little old at nineteen or so.[context?]
- Stephanie Tanner, and Michelle as well in later seasons, in Full House.[context?]
- Julie Mayer when she was young.[context?]
- Shannon Clemens from Rita Rocks.[context?]
- Alex from Modern Family.[context?]
- Bridgette DuBois from Medium.[context?]
- Iris, the little girl in the Dollhouse episodes "Epitaph One" and "Epitaph Two" once she's been imprinted with Caroline's personality.
- The little girl on Friends (played by Dakota Fanning) that lived in the house that Monica & Chandler were going to buy.[context?]
- There was a little girl, but she died 20 years ago. (spooky music)
- Raj's little sister Dee on What's Happening.[context?]
- Stargate Atlantis episode "Harmony", the eponymous heroine fulfills this trope because she is a Royal Brat.
- Katie Knight from Big Time Rush can occasionally fit this trope.[context?]
- Megan on Drake and Josh.[context?]
- Morgan Matthews from Boy Meets World.[context?]
- Zuri Ross is a little girl version from Jessie.[context?]
Literature
- Elva from the Inheritance Cycle.[context?]
- Adah in The Poisonwood Bible.[context?]
- Jenny Wren in Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. She has a good reason for being so jaded, since her father's irresponsibility and severe alcholism leave her, at the age of about thirteen, to be the responsible adult of the household.
- Elani from Broken Sky.[context?]
- Several child characters in Dean Koontz's works would definitely qualify. Lelani Klonk from One Door Away From Heaven and Regina from Hideaway, to name a couple.[context?]
- Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter.[context?]
- Hermione also gets her moments.[context?]
- Ivy aka The Archive from The Dresden Files makes an attempt at this on behalf of the incapacitated protagonist. He notes that she's not very good at it yet, but he gets choked up nonetheless.[context?]
- While her childish curiosity or perceived psychological instability are the character traits usually played up in adaptations, Alice in Wonderland could be surprisingly sarcastic and was never one to suffer fools gladly. Her opinion of the Queen of Hearts is a prime example.
- Percy Jackson: Artemis, Zoë Nightshade and Thalia. Also subverted, since Artemis and Zoë turned out to be Really Seven Hundred Years Old.[context?]
- Rachel from the Sword of Truth series. Has no problem calling out Chase when he complains about the poultice he's forced to apply by telling him that if he'd just listened to her in the first place, he probably wouldn't have been hurt by the Eldritch Abomination he was surprised by and he wouldn't have to take the burning medicine.
- The Cadpig from "The Hundred and One Dalmations" and "The Starlight Barking" by Dodie Smith. Okay, so she's a puppy, but that just adds to the cuteness.[context?]
- Pippi Longstocking combines this with being a Genki Girl and Cloudcuckoolander. Her snarky moments are most frequent in the original books, but she has her moments in most of the adaptations as well.
- Young Wizards: Dairine Callahan.[context?]
Newspaper Comics
- Heart Lamarr, the title character of Heart of the City.[context?]
- Susie Derkins, from Calvin and Hobbes, provides the page image.
Radio
- Baby Alice in The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show[context?]
Theatre
- Little Mary in The Women.[context?]
- Little Red in Into the Woods.
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"Ahahaha, you can talk to birds?!" |
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Video Games
- Vanilla H. of Galaxy Angel, though in the anime, she is a bit more nonsensical than most deadpan snarkers.[context?]
- Etna from Disgaea. She's almost never without a snarky comment about her traveling companions.
- Setsuna Kiyoura from School Days.[context?]
- Shiori Momono in 11eyes, a returnee from Italy who spends most of her time reading. The other part of her time is spent berating Tadashi. Everyone berates Tadashi, but she does it in a manner that hits him where it hurts.
- Lieselotte of Arcana Heart, especially in her story route.
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Heart: Hey-o! Miss Kidnapper-Person! Are you ready for an awesome rescue~? ♪ |
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- Jacqli of Ar tonelico 2. Also Really Seven Hundred Years Old, and the Big Bad of the previous game.[context?]
- Anise from Tales of the Abyss.[context?]
- Presea fills this role in Tales of Symphonia as well, when the situation requires it.[context?]
- Suzu does this in Tales of Phantasia, though this only becomes obvious in later remakes of the title/Tales of Fandom II.[context?]
- Jay from Tales of Legendia could be considered a Deadpan Shota.[context?]
- Beryl from Tales of Hearts combines a Hurricane of Puns with a great deal of bemoaning the Hot-Bloodedness of her companions.[context?]
- Rita from Tales of Vesperia.[context?]
- The Legend of Zelda: Oh, Tetra, how sensible of you to put Link down for being a Knight Templar Big Brother with Chronic Hero Syndrome on every given opportunity. Probably also the only Princess Zelda to ever point out to Ganondorf that an Evil Laugh doesn't exactly make you seem sane.
- Twilight Princess: Midna is also this.[context?]
- Shantotto is this in Dissidia Final Fantasy. Technically she isn't a little girl, she's 35, but as a Tarutaru she's diminutive. And almost all of her battle quotes are insults, specially her greetings to the other characters:
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To Exdeath: Inside your head is the Void! |
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- Sheba from Golden Sun.[context?]
- Dinah from Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 is both this and a Noble Demon. She makes a good foil to the sensitive and kinda ditzy Player Character.[context?]
- Rachel is this in spades. And when she sees a spade, she simply calls it as such.
Web Comics
- Rose from Homestuck has this as a major part of her personality.[context?]
- Tycho's niece Anne from Penny Arcade has her moments.
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Galahad: You're breaking up with me? |
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Web Original
- Marie Swanson in Erikas New Perfume, post regression. There's something to be said about the most snarky (and for that matter, arguably most clever) character in the series being three years old.[context?]
Western Animation
- Toph of Avatar: The Last Airbender.[context?]
- Jinora from the Sequel Series The Legend of Korra has also shown shades of this too.[context?]
- Fang from Dave the Barbarian.[context?]
- Gosalyn from Darkwing Duck[context?]
- Lisa Simpson.[context?]
- Arguably Maggie as well, though Maggie is more so of the Silent Snarker variety.[context?]
- Kimi Finster from Rugrats would eventually become this in All Grown Up!, contradictory to her lovable self in the original series (with the exception of the newspaper comic strips), more less towards her brother, Chuckie Finster (and sometimes the other "Rats") on separate occasions.[context?]
- Gwen Tennyson from the original Ben 10, frequently.[context?]
- Tanya Mousekewitz in the direct-to-video sequels of An American Tail.[context?]
- Mandy of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
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"Power tools in the dark? Darwin should be paying you two goons royalties." |
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- Heloise of Jimmy Two-Shoes[context?]
- June from KaBlam!!.[context?]
- Wendy Darling's daughter Jane in the Peter Pan sequel Return to Neverland, contrasting with Wendy's Team Mom.[context?]
- Helga from Hey Arnold!!.[context?]
- Upon being virtualized into the real world, Aelita developed into this in Code Lyoko.[context?]
- Stacy Stickler from Stickin' Around.[context?]
- Cadpig from 101 Dalmatians: The Series.[context?]
- Beebe Bluff from Doug, of the Rich Bitch variety.[context?]
- Anais from The Amazing World of Gumball.[context?]
- Spinelli from Recess[context?]