Self-Deprecation: Difference between revisions

** They may have taken inspiration from Marmite's famous "[[Love It or Hate It]]" campaign.

* Some years ago, a Dutch brand of condiments had a special offer where their products would come with free napkin-rings with funny limericks written on them. In the commercial, a lady was shown reading the napkin-ring with an increasingly obvious lack of interest, then ''throwing it in the trash.''

* [[Stan Freberg]] created a memorable series of ads for the Sunsweet prune company, emphasizing what people dislike most about the dried fruit: the wrinkles and the pits. They boasted that they'd gotten rid of the pits; the wrinkles were another matter.

* Vince Offer, previous commercial pitchman for the Sham Wow!, also made commercials for a product called the Schticky. At one point in the commercial, he said, "Use it during moments you'd like to forget!" as a mugshot is taken of him, referencing his earlier arrest for assaulting a prostitute.

'''Alexis:''' Why don't I have a catchphrase?}}

:* The whole idea of [[Recycled IN SPACE!| "Card Games on Motorcycles!"]] always struck fans as kind of... unorthodox. However, in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V]]'', Zuzu reacts far more realistically than anyone in 5Ds when she realizes Yugo is dueling while driving a motorcycle at high speed - she ''screams''.

 

== Audiobooks ==

* [[Ben Templeton]] appears in the ''[[Wormwood Gentleman Corpse]]'' issue "Segue to Destruction" at the Dead Alley, where Wormwood describes him as "my biographer". ''None'' of the cast have any respect for him at all, and mock his defensively citing his three Eisner nominations: "No idea what those are, but he seems obsessed with them."

* The Black Bomber was likely one of [[DC Comics]]' worst ideas. This was a hero who was once a white man and a bigot, who would turn into a black man with super-powers under stress; with no memory of his other identity while in this state, he would fight crime as the Black Bomber. [[Sarcasm Mode| Great idea]], right? [[Dude, Not Funny| Uhm, wrong]], Comics historian Don Markstein later described the character as "an insult to practically everybody with any point of view at all.” The title was never released, but fortunately a lot of it inspired the creation of groundbreaking character [[Black Lightning]]. Still, DC has made light of this mistake at least once; as [[Dwayne McDuffie]] had a similar character - called the Brown Bomber - try to impress [[Vixen (comics)|Vixen]] in a ''[[Justice League]]'' comic. She wasn’t impressed, brushing him off as a lame joke.

 

== [[Fan Works]] ==

'''Earl:''' Oh, we deny everything.}}

* A common criticism of [[Stephen King]]'s works is that the endings to his novels tend to have unsatisfactory endings, such as the ending to ''[[IT]]''. In the 2017 remake of ''IT'' (part 2) a [[Running Gag]] involves characters - including King himself, making a [[Creator Cameo]] - telling Bill that the ending of his book stinks. Obvious self-deprecating humor there on King's part.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Robert Goldsborough wrote a number of ''[[Nero Wolfe]]'' novels after [[Author Existence Failure|series creator Rex Stout's death]]. The final one features a victim who had [[Continuation|been writing another author's character]]. At one point, Archie Goodwin slams the victim's writing. {{spoiler|The motive for the murder is that said victim plagiarised his last novel.}}

* ''I Am A Cat'', Natsume Soseki's social satire of late Meiji-era Japan, not only features a major character bearing more than a passing resemblance to the author who comes off about as well as any other character in the book (i.e. not at all), but has a passage in which this character and several others directly bash Soseki's other work. (Since none of these characters are at all likable, it may be that we're supposed to disagree with them, which would make this either a [[Take That]] at critics or a roundabout form of self-praise. It's hard to tell.)

* [[Edward Lear]] engages in a few pot-shots directed at himself in his nonsense-filled poetry. At least one of his poems is a spot of Self-Deprecation.

* The loser protagonist of [[A Confederacy of Dunces]] is, when you know his life story, very very clearly based on the author, John Kennedy Toole.

'''Waldorf:''' I don't believe you!

'''Both:''' Doh-ho-ho-ho-ho!}}

 

== [[Radio]] ==

** "Bear put these on vehicle so float. If not enough, vehicle sink, like this game at market." -- Mumbo

** In fact, almost all of the humor in the game is derived from how much the game sucks, gaming has left Rare behind, etc. Is it just a show of typical sardonic Brit humor, or did the company truly have no confidence in their own product whatsoever?

{{quote|'''King Hippo:''' Do you like my new trunks? They are size XXX Large! Ha, ha, ha!}}

* ''[[Ace Attorney|Ace Attorney Investigations]]'' features Miles Edgeworth as protagonist instead of Phoenix Wright. This is used to make fun of some of the weirder things that happened in previous games. For example, upon examining a fire extinguisher Edgeworth muses how silly it would be to get hit on the head with it and lose your memory. {{spoiler|This is the framing device for the first case tutorial of ''Justice For All''.}}

** ''[[Apollo Justice]]: [[Ace Attorney]]'' constantly makes fun of the series cliches. For example, Apollo gets told of off for shouting out "HOLD IT!" to loud in court. Phoenix also reminisces on the times when he used to present evidence to people through the present button and how he would shout out "hold it" for no apparent reason just to scare people.

{{quote|"'''Postal'' has vehicles now!' Thanks a lot, ''assholes.''"}}

* In ''[[Super Smash Bros Ultimate]]'', many characters seem to be mocking Nintendo itself with some of their dialogue. For example, questioning why ''[[Metroid]]'' isn't named after Samus, or why ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' doesn't star Zelda. They also seem to point out how Daisy seems to be a [[Captain Ersatz]] of Peach in all but name.

* An optional area in ''[[Epic Battle Fantasy]] 5'' lets you fight monsters from earlier games in the series as a bonus challenge. As expected, monsters from games that were made years earlier look dated and somewhat primitive in design, and the main characters make scathing comments about them during battle. NoLegs' very simplistic early design, eyeball monsters barely having moving parts at all and the Beholder's infamous tentacle rape attack get the most criticism.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[Key of Awesome]]''{{'}}s "Moves Like Jagger" parody illustrates the apparent difficulty of imitating [[Maroon 5|Adam Levine]] by having Mark sing about being too fat to perform the parody, and Todd about being too weak. They end the song by calling themselves "attention whores" who will "do-o-o-o-o-o anything for laughter."

* [[Brows Held High|Oancitizen]] does this quite a lot.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Wreck-It Ralph]]'' - and the sequel, ''[[Ralph Wrecks the Internet]]'' - is full of this, most of the humor being lighthearted pot-shots at Disney's vast collection of properties.

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' takes a few shots at itself in "[[Who Would Want to Watch Us?|The Ember Island Players]]", where the Gaang goes to see play done in tremendous detail about everything that happened to them since Aang's awakening. In an early episode ("The Great Divide"), the group stopped at a canyon and wound up trying to resolve the differences between two feuding clans. Many fans felt it was the worst episode in the series. In the play when the actors playing them spot the canyon they point out its existence... [[Discontinuity Nod|and then decide not to stop and just keep going]]. There's also Sokka saying that {{spoiler|whether or not Jet died wasn't very clear}}.

:* A famous meme with Milhouse that first appears in "I Am Furious (Yellow)":

{{quote|'''Milhouse:''' I'm not a nerd, Bart. Nerds are smart.}}

** Then ''Family Guy'' DID become preachy and up its own ass with messages. Either that's a [[Funny Aneurysm Moment]] or [[Hilarious in Hindsight]].

** In the episode where Stan and Kenny go to Mel Gibson to get their money back for ''[[The Passion of the Christ]]'', Stan says "This is just like when we got our money back for ''[[Baseketball]]''," a film starring Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

** In the episode where Randy is going for the "Biggest Crap" Record along with a few jabs at Bono they would occasionally flash the words "Emmy Award Winning Series" on the bottom of the screen during the moments where the episode was reaching absurd levels of stupidity.

** [[The Movie]] features the kids going to see in-universe TV show Terrence And Philip's own [[The Movie]]. At the end they complain about the film's lame animation, and then have an especially badly-animated walk away from the theater.

* Find a ''[[Drawn Together]]'' episode in seasons 2 and 3 that doesn't do this. Try.

* ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' frequently takes shots at its own writers. In addition to all the examples listed on [[Who Writes This Crap?]], there are the lyrics for the theme song to the ''[[Wonderful Life]]'' Christmas special: "Our writers aren't gifted!/ [[Stock Parodies|The story has been lifted]]..."

* ''[[Animaniacs]]'' is fond of this, and have one in the opening credits:

** The debut episode of ''[[Freakazoid!]]'' has a similar zinger as they do a theme for the show using the ''Animaniacs'' melody:

* ''[[Family Guy]]''

** Quagmire is starting to become this, pointing the flaws and many things disliked by the fans. It reached its peak in an [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|spectacular]] [[Take That, Scrappy!]] at ''[[Author Avatar|Brian]]'', of all people.

'''Bullwinkle:''' (''looking at us'') Neither did they, apparently. }}

* ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' usually avoids any fourth-wall breaking, but in the episode "Operation: S.A.F.E.T.Y.", a Senator proposes a law that bans cartoons that make fun of adults. Which is the whole idea of ''this'' cartoon.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* [[Woody Allen]] uses this throughout his work, most often against himself but occasionally against Jews or New Yorkers generally. For instance, from ''[[Annie Hall]]'':

{{quote|'''Alvy:''' Don't you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we're left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes and I ''live'' here. }}

{{quote|'''Stewart:''' I don't watch it, myself. I find it crass. }}

* Irish humour, when it's not about drinking, fighting, or religious conflict; is all about the Irish predilection for drinking, fighting, and religious conflict.

* No episode of ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' goes without it. Usually he's joking about his hair and/or awkward body.

* In Conan O'Brien's opening song when Conan hosted the Primetime Emmys (a parody of "Trouble" from ''[[The Music Man]]''), one of his examples of NBC's [[Biting the Hand Humor|decline in quality]] was that the Emmys were opening with a song-and-dance number "performed by a host with ''limited musical ability!''" (The chorus then shouted, "He can't sing!")

* [[The Marx Brothers|Groucho Marx]] famously stated, "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members."

* Bnet.com's Geoffrey James gives us [http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachine/the-10-worst-business-books-of-all-time/11814 The 10 Worst Business Books of All Time]. The #5 entry, ''Success Secrets from Silicon Valley'' [[Old Shame|was written by James himself in 1998]].

* [[Hugh Laurie]] once mentioned that the reason he keeps acting is because he hates himself and doesn't believe he deserves to be happy.

* A big part of Icelandic humor, common factors include bad driving habits, cutting in lines, extremely frequent bodily noises and an Icelandic tourist attempting to speak English but constantly peppering his language with Icelandic-exclusive idioms (Venus pronounced as "weenis" and riding on horseback replaced by "fucking".)

** [[Blizzard Entertainment]]. It seems that successful game companies that can afford to push back release dates for the sake of quality have come to use Soon™ as a way of mocking both themselves ''and'' their fans.

** Used by CRS, creators of [[World War II Online]] to the point where it has become a [[Memetic Mutation]].

** When he hosted ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', joked that he would be endorsing John McCain in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election because every candidate he ever supported lost.

** When promoting the film ''[[Gigli]]'', which by that point, was infamous as one of the biggest flops of the decade, he went on ''The Tonight Show'' and read his "favorite" parts of the movie reviews, namely, the most scathing and brutal quips from film reviewers about how bad the movie and Affleck himself were.

** During the commentary for ''[[Mallrats]]'' where he describes himself as desperate and suicidal during the production of the movie, coming home at night with a bag of sleeping pills and preparing to just end it all. It's funnier than it sounds.

* The British channel E4 is mostly composed of British soap operas, American drama and comedy, and reality shows. Its advertising mocks the melodrama of British soaps and American drama, the ridiculousness of American comedy, the stupidity of reality TV and itself for broadcasting them.

** Highlights the national stereotypes of stubbornness, drunkenness and quietness. For example, two men went camping for a week with several bottles of vodka. The last day one of them raised a glass and said: "Cheers!" The other angrily responded: "Did we come here to drink or talk?"

** There's a whole category of jokes starting "A Swede, a Norwegian and a Finn..." that tend to paint the Finn as hardy, if a bit thick in the head. A pair of illustrative examples:

** "My uncle once dropped ten pence; he bent over to pick it up, and it hit him in the back of the head."

** "You may have heard that nasty rumour floating around that copper wire was invented by two Scotsmen fighting over a penny."

* [[Kevin Smith]] describes his wife as a man-hating feminist, "which explains why she married the guy with the tiniest dick on the planet."

* Brian Regan uses this in a lot of his comedy acts as well, usually to make him look stupid. The best example is his skit "Stupid in School"

* John Oliver does this a lot, most notably in his Comedy Central special.

{{quote|''What I wanted to be, when I was growing up, was an athlete. [...] Really? An athlete, John? And the word athlete means the same in Britain as it does here, does it? [...] What sport was it in Britain that rewards a concave chest?! Did you, perhaps, plan on becoming a sail?''}}

* [[Daniel Radcliffe]] seems to be this way, especially in this conversation about how he needs help getting dressed:

{{quote|'''Interviewer:''' You can't tie your shoelaces?

* [[I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue|Barry Cryer]] tends to engage in this a lot, joking about his lack of talent, inflating his reputation for heavy drinking, and claiming that people who come to see his gigs have confused him with Barry Took. He's stated in several interviews that this can be traced back to [[Oop North|Yorkshire tradition]].

{{quote|I've just sung to you! I don't know why, you've never done anything to me...}}

* Actor [[Victor Mature]] famously said, "I'm not an actor — and I've got 64 films to prove it!" and later, "I never was an actor. Ask anybody, particularly the critics."

* After controversial British Prime Minister [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Boris_Johnson Boris Johnson] announced his resignation, a report stated that the previous night "Johnson joked to staff he’d acted like a Japanese soldier fighting in the woods after the end of World War II by trying to cling to power last night".<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-07/defeated-johnson-jokes-to-staff-about-his-doomed-bid-to-cling-on?sref=yMmXm5Iy</ref>

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Abridged Series Tropes]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Insult Tropes]]

[[Category:Self-Referential Humor]]