Let's See You Do Better: Difference between revisions

There is a common misconception among fans and people having worked in a particular field that non-experts are not qualified to comment on their work. While it helps to have some background information or experience, it is certainly not required. It doesn't take a carpenter to recognize a poorly-made table, after all. Whenever an ordinary fan calls out another person to try their hand at something (making a film, creating a videogame, or writing a book) before criticizing it, that person has lost the argument. Sort of like [[Godwin's Law]], except usually without the invocation of Hitler. Targets for [[Snark Bait]] are especially vulnerable to this phenomenon, as is the person with a [[Small Name, Big Ego]]. Let's all remember what Baldassere Castiglione said in ''The Courtier'':

 

 

Just imagine if this were applied to all forms of criticism; "You think the president's doing a bad job, and want to vote for the opposing candidate? How can you even say that when ''you've'' never been president?" "You think this cake tastes bad and it's undercooked? How can you even say that when ''you've'' never been a chef?" "[[Rule of Three|You think]] [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] [[Refuge in Audacity|could have done a better job during]] [[World War II]]? How can you even say that when ''you've'' never been a leader of Germany who sparked a war and a Holocaust?" You clearly don't have to be good at something yourself in order to be able to tell whether someone else is good or not. Perhaps strangely, however, this objection is rarely (if ever) raised to deflect ''positive'' criticism.

== Anime and Manga ==

* A rather positive, even ''encouraging'', version of this came when Kubo Tite, of ''[[Bleach]]'' fame, answered some criticism in early 2010 through his Twitter. He said to his fans:

 

 

* In ''[[Happy Gilmore]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlazKFGxohM&feature=related this is what leads to Happy discovering his talent.]

* From the 1940 film ''[[Edison The Man]]'':

'''Thomas Edison:''' Well, a fellow can tell a bad egg without being able to lay one. }}

 

* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] author Karen Traviss generally has this reaction whenever readers point out some of the inherent silliness of her work, such as [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|her ridiculously low estimate of the number of clone troopers in the Grand Army of the Republic.]] [[Serious Business|Then again, people have flat out threatened her over this.]] [[Word of God|Even though she repeatedly claimed she got her figures from her bosses.]] [[All There in the Manual|For numbers that first appeared in the]] ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'' [[All There in the Manual|Movie Novelization]]. [[Scapegoat Creator|So she was taking flak for figures that predated her by several years in a tier of canon her critics ignorantly claimed she had no right to alter, not realizing that said claims undermined their own positions.]] Seriously, the whole thing is one massive messed up piece of idiocy.

* [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novelist Keith Topping, responding to critics on the [[Doctor Who]] [[UseNet]] groups:

* [[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...

* 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:

 

 

** A similar example from the Swedish show "Let's Dance" (the Swedish adaption of ''[[Strictly Come Dancing]]''). When a turned-down contestant said this, the show lampshaded it by cutting to a montage, explaining the judges past experience in the field, showing that they are in fact qualified for the position.

* Known to ''[[The Daily Show]]'' fans as the "Tucker Carlson defense", after Jon Stewart criticized ''Crossfire'' for being bad journalism, and Carlson complained that Jon's show [[News Parody|wasn't proper journalism either]].

* Wynton Marsalis on ''[[The Colbert Report|Stephen Colbert's Hiphopketball: A Jazzebration]]'': "You should be a music critic."

* This is sometimes Fozzie Bears response to [[Statler and Waldorf]]'s heckling on ''[[The Muppet Show]]''. It tends to backfire.

== 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.

They've never contributed a fucking thing to the country they love to criticize }}

** Also, keep in mind that M. Shadows said that A7x wasn't going to force its religious or political views on anyone.

* 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]]'''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.

* 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.

* 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.

'''Homer''': Fun, too. }}

** When Flanders has enough, he gives Homer the position.

'''Homer''': Me? But you were doing such a great job! }}

* Used during an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]''. Mere minutes from his [[Executive Meddling|horrible television pilot]] going on the air, Brian notices the cast of ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' standing there.

** Bonus points for actually getting Sheen to do the voice.

** Another episode had Meg and Chris claim they could be better parents than Peter and Lois, who gladly oblige. Then it turns out that the kids are right: Meg does the chores in a fraction of the time Lois takes and prepares a delicious dinner, while Chris actually earns a promotion in his father's job at the brewery. Then the stress of his workload causes Chris to have a heart attack, and [[Status Quo Is God|everything goes back to normal]].