Who Writes This Crap?: Difference between revisions

* In an issue of ''[[Booster Gold]]'', Rip Hunter refers to Superboy Prime's reality-altering tantrums in the same way that many fans had already done. "Punching time? Ridiculous."

* Would occasionally crop up in Giffen and DeMatteis's ''[[Justice League of America|Justice League]]''.

* Done '''literally''' in the final issue of [[Grant Morrison]]'s run on ''[[Animal Man]]'', when Animal Man ''meets'' [[Author Avatar|Grant Morrison]].

* During her [[Meta Guy|"meta" phase]], [[She Hulk]] would often despair at the crap she was forced to act out.

{{quote|'''James Earl Jones:''' ''(introducing the Carnival of the Animals)'' Here the sensitive strains of impressionistic music combine with the subtle artistry of the animator to finally answer that age-old question: What is man's relationship to nature? ''(is handed a note)'' Oh, sorry... that age-old question: What would happen if you gave a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos? ''([[Beat Panel|beat]], turns to look off-camera)'' Who wrote this?}}

** FYI, the flamingoes use the yo-yo string to clean their beaks. Just... don't ask how I know that.

* In ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]],'' Ms. Packard complains about one of the bad jokes on the intercom announcements:

{{quote|"Attention. Tonight's supper will be baked beans. Musical program to follow... Who wrote this?"}}

* ''[[Red Dwarf]]: Back to Earth'' has Rimmer reading what {{spoiler|the back of the DVD box}} says about him and exclaiming, "Neurotic? Neurotic?! I'm not neurotic! Who writes this stuff?!"

* In an episode of ''[[So You Think You Can Dance]]'' the host Cat Deely asked this after joking about a dancer's name that's pronounced "a day" -- "It was Ade to remember..."

{{quote|'''Female client:''' I can't believe you came all this way just to make a stupid sex joke.

'''Butch:''' ''(also played by Lawrence)'' Just think how the writer feels. }}

{{quote|'''Sheppard:''' I don't know. It's almost as if somebody in a warm, cosy room typing onto their computer sent us here for their own amusement.}}

* Fox Mulder in the fifth season ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "Post-modern Prometheus"; "This isn't the way the story is supposed to end... I want to speak to the writer!"

* And now for something completely different: one episode of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' had this caption with the last four words crossed out:

** '''THE R.S.P.C.A. WISH IT TO BE KNOWN THAT THAT MAN WAS NOT A BONA-FIDE ANIMAL LOVER AND ALSO THAT GOLDFISH DO NOT EAT SAUSAGES. THEY ARE QUITE HAPPY WITH BREADCRUMBS ANTS' EGGS AND THE OCCASIONAL PHEASANT.'''

* A potential example occurred in the fifth season finale of ''[[Lost]]'': after leading the Others to the statue where {{spoiler|Jacob}} lives, Richard suddenly claims that only Locke (the leader) can speak to {{spoiler|Jacob}} when Locke asks if both he and Ben can go inside. Locke angrily accuses Richard of simply making things up as he goes along. This is likely a reference to one of ''Lost'''s most famous criticisms in popular culture; the idea that (especially during earlier seasons) the writers had no long-term gameplan and made things up with no intention of resolving them.

** Although this has a slightly different meaning when you find out later that {{spoiler|this Locke is actually the Anti-Jacob and therefore already knows all the rules, meaning that Richard *did* make this up.}}

** The episode "Normal Again" had several lines of this nature during the [[Cuckoo Nest]] scenario -- such as the psychologist saying that Dawn's existence created "inconsistencies," and commenting almost snidely that Buffy went from fighting a god to a bunch of losers from high school.

** In the episode ''Shadow'', Glory comments on the writing of a magic spell she's performing: "Dark incantations. Always overwritten."

* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in ''[[Ratchet: Deadlocked]]'', since Dallas, the commentator in question, is...[[Too Dumb to Live|not quite the smartest person in the game]]. Even ''he'' can spot the key bad writing:

{{quote|"Too bad the shields took a direct hit... too bad I said 'Bingo-bango', who writes this junk?!?"}}

* In one of the non-canon side stories in ''[[Tsukihime|Kagetsu Tohya]]'' Akiha suddenly remembers her twin sister! At which Shiki points out that's ridiculous, there was absolutely no foreshadowing or buildup and crummy as this story is that's just too dumb to let slide.

** You sure it wasn't [[Kara no Kyoukai:|Kokutou Azaka]]?

== Web Comics ==

* Even greater variation in ''[[L's Empire|Ls Empire]]'' where one of the authors asks this question, only to answer themselves.

* ''[[Ansem Retort]]'': Red XIII playing scrabble with [[The Ditz|Sora]].

'''Wolf:''' [[Incredibly Lame Pun|'T ain't]] [[Catch Phrase|funny]], [[Fibber McGee and Molly|McGoo]]! ''(beat)'' What corny dialogue. }}

* The makers of ''[[Dragon Tales]]'' once produced a [[Gag Dub|parody video]] of their own work, dubbed ''Dragon Tales: Too Hot for TV!''. It ended with the male lead exclaiming "Who ''wrote'' this '''*BLEEP* '''?!"

* ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]'' did this in its sixth ([[Too Good to Last|and final]]) episode. Dante and Randall find a door marked "Writers' Room" and inside are what appear to be a bunch of morons whose next great idea is "Let's stick them on Gilligan's Island and make gay jokes about them."

** They got the idea from [[Take That|Seth]] [[Family Guy|MacFarlane]].

** One of them is Shakespeare. Stereotypical clothing and everything.

** More specifically, in one cartoon Slappy asks Skippy why he's delivering bad dialogue. He says that's what's in the script, to which she reminds him that scripts are only good for lining the bottom of bird cages.

{{quote|'''Timmy:''' Some forty-year-old who lives with his mom.

'''Crimson Chin:''' Any money in it?

== Real Life ==

* Truth in Television: Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada once was giving a speech, and in the middle, he looked up and said, "Who wrote this crap?" on National Public Radio. Ironically, he's a notorious [[Malaproper]] whenever allowed to speak extemporaneously.

* [[Mark Twain]] once wrote at the end of a chapter in the novel Heavenly Twins “A cat could do better literature than this.”

* There was a moment on New Zealand TV when Leighten Smith, the "colour" presenter for the then relatively new [[TV 3]] channel, interrupted a lead-in to say, without changing his serious tone of voice; "Who writes this stuff? [Long Pause] I did". He then went on as though nothing had happened.