Revenge of the Nerd: Difference between revisions

An unbelievably hot woman appears to seduce the protagonist, but ends up humiliating and rejecting him. He then finds out she is the acne-ridden wallflower he ridiculed in [[High School]] -- [[She Is's All Grown Up|all grown up]], but [[Woman Scorned|still bitter]].

* ''[[Empowered (Comic Book)|Empowered]]'' gives a gender-flipped example. Most superheroes in the setting are [[Designated Hero|assholes with undeserved praise heaped upon them.]] At a superhero award show, the heroes nominated an unpopular, D-list superhero for a major award, only to humiliate him onstage. The guy used his shapeshifting powers to create a new identity for himself, and his new persona let him become a respected superhero. At first he was content with his new life, until he learned that heroes who humiliated him were planning to pull the same trick on the protagonist. As a result, [[Reunion Revenge|he snapped and attempted to kill everyone during the ceremony.]]

* A one-shot antagonist ([[Black and Grey Morality|protagonist?]]) in ''[[ItsIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' was getting engaged to and then breaking it off with everyone who ever turned him down in high school due to his acne problem, including {{spoiler|the Waitress}}, and had been planning on going after Dee next. It is unknown if Charlie {{spoiler|giving him a box of hornets after finding out his plans for the Waitress}} detered him, because [[Snap Back|we never hear of it again.]]

* ''[[Married... Withwith Children]]'' inverted by having Bud (the protagonist/nerd) winning over the girl for the purpose of humiliating her (usually it is the guess character who wants revenge), also inverted in the sense that it is gender-reversed. Then it is averted by having Bud relent at the last moment because he falls for the girl again. {{spoiler|She then proceeds to humiliate him again, an example which probably belongs in some school bitch trope.}} Bud might be justified in seeking revenge because they are still close to the humiliating event (7th grade vs high school) and people still make fun of him (one of those things that happens frequently but we only see once). The pure trope involves the avenger holding on to her pain for years, sometimes even decades.

*** There was another example from ''[[Married... Withwith Children]]'' and a gender-reversed one. This time it was Kelly who played the part of the bitch, standing up a nerd late at night outside in the middle of winter so that he lost some toes to frostbite. Years later, Kelly attends a class reunion only to find that the nerd has become a handsome millionaire whom Kelly and all of her [[Alpha Bitch]] friends fall for. The former nerd enacts his revenge by standing Kelly up on a date out in the cold and by arranging for Bud to secretly take his place on a date under the bleachers with one of the other bitchy girls. Oh, and then once that date is over, a nerdy girl whom Bud had blown off earlier that night traps ''him'' under the bleachers and starts having her way with him.

* ''[[Sports Night]]'': Bobbi Bernstein is a substitute anchor who rails against Dan for having slept with her in Spain and then never called her. Dan claims to have never met Bobbi before she started working on his show--andshow—and, in fact, insists he's never been to Spain. Bobbi is presented as a nutcase for a couple of episodes, but it turns out that she was right all along. Dan was on a trip to France, got drunk, he and his friends crossed into Spain for a night...and Bobbi was far less attractive and went by "Roberta." When he figures all this out, Dan's apology is sincere and quite moving.

* ''[[That '70s Show]]'' in an episode where Eric's attractive female cousin convinces Eric that she's not really his cousin and pretends to be interested in him, then humiliates him when he makes advances on her.

* Interesting variation in ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' where it happens to Alan of all people. The girl was very attracted to him in high school, and gave him many not so subtle hints. Alan wasn't mean to her, in fact they were great friends, but his general obliviousness towards women kept him from making a move. Still, she was quite pissed.