Misery Poker/Playing With
Basic Trope: When someone responds to another person complaining about their problems by bringing up their own issues, with the implication that the other should be grateful that their issues aren't as bad.
- Straight: Bob complains to his buddy Dick about his recent problems dealing with his two Love Interests, Alice and Eva. Dick responds by revealing that his last date stole his wallet and went on a spending spree with his credit cards, leaving him struggling to recover his finances.
- Exaggerated: Bob complains about his girl problems. Dick proceeds to rant about how he lost his own girlfriend, his house, his job, his father disowned him, he's living out of his Alleged Car, and is barely scraping by and wishes he only had to deal with a couple of hot girls fighting over him.
- Everyone narrates their own Deus Angst Machina over the other.
- Justified: Compared to Dick's problems, Bob's own troubles seem relatively petty, and Dick is helping him put things in perspective.
- Dick is very self-centered and thinks Bob's problems aren't nearly as bad as his.
- Dick is trying to sympathise with Bob by sharing his own worries, but it comes across as trying to one-up him.
- Inverted: "...now I feel guilty that I was going to complain about the terrible coffee I had this morning."
- Subverted:
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Dick: Oh, come on, Bob! Your problems are so trivial, I can't believe anyone would complain about them. Ask yourself this: who do you want to spend your time with, Alice or Eva? Then ask her out. |
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- Double Subverted:
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Bob: Look, it's not that easy. What if it turns out badly? |
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- Parodied:
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Eva: "Ow! Damnit, a hangnail!" |
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- Deconstructed: Dick refuses to show any sympathy for Bob's problems, and Bob stops telling him about them, even when he really does need help dealing with it all.
- Reconstructed: ???
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Dick lets Bob vent without bringing up his own issues, even if they're comparatively worse.
- Enforced: Bob is far less stoic than Dick and it would be out of character for him to not complain. However test audiences found him too whiny so they threw this in to give him good reason to be quiet.
- Lampshaded: "What is this, a contest?"
- Invoked: ???
- Defied: Bob realizes that his issues are lesser compared to the epic trauma Dick suffered through. Dick is sympathetic and points out that just because he suffered worse doesn't mean Bob's suffering is any less real.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Plotted A Good Waste: ???
- Played For Laughs: Dick replies to Bob's lament with "You think that's bad! [Laughably Minor Complaint!]"
- Played For Drama: Up to this point, Dick hasn't given any indication that anything was going wrong with his life. But Bob's complaining about his laughably minor-by-comparison issues has finally pushed him too far, and he snaps, revealing all his issues and calling Bob on never asking how he was doing.
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