With Friends Like These...: Difference between revisions

[[File:friend batman 3712.jpg|link=Batman|frame]]

 

{{quote|''"I love Dora. Sure, I might fantasize about smothering her in her sleep sometimes, but that doesn't mean we aren't friends!"''

 

 

Two people are supposedly friends, except they seem to hate each other. Like, a lot. They're always [[Vitriolic Best Buds|bickering, insulting each other]] or outright whupping each other, which leaves the audience wondering, [[No Accounting for Taste|"How the ''hell'' are these people friends?"]] This is often because one or both are [[Jerkass]]es, though sometimes it seems that they reserve all their hostility for one other. Once in a while they'll have a heartwarming moment which will make the audience go "[[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other]]." Then it's back to business as usual. The other option is that one will eventually go for [[The Uriah Gambit]].

Note that the conflict does not create serious problems when dealing with worse enemies—that is [[Divided We Fall]] (which is often enough also polite).

 

 

{{examples}}

* [[Big Eater|Meeko]] and [[Butt Monkey|Percy]] (somehow) become friends at the end of [[Pocahontas]]. Enter the [[Direct to Video]] [[Sequelitis|sequel]], and [[Jerkass|Meeko]] is still tormenting Percy by stealing his food.

* ''[[Cry Wolf]]''. The group of friends in the film love scaring each other very often for several reasons and don't have complete trust in each other. Despite all that, they're still friends.

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' - Holmes takes every opportunity to belittle Watson, sends him off on fact-gathering missions only to tell him he's brought nothing back of any use, tricks him into thinking he's dead for three years, and often uses him as an intellectual punching-bag. Watson, however, remains faithfully devoted. This dynamic is recreated by a number of later mystery authors, notably Agatha Christie's Poirot and his sidekick Hastings. But for all his snarking, Holmes does actually deeply care for him—see "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs". He trusts Watson is watching his back and trusts no-one else so implicitly. He also appreciates him for giving him an insight into how a normal person would interpret a situation.

* Lampshaded in the [[Dragaera]] novel ''Five Hundred Years After''. A character mentions that Sethra Lavode and Aliera e'Kieron seem to have become very good friends in the last few days. When someone else expresses confusion, saying that he'd heard they were challenging each other to duels to the death roughly every 10 minutes, the first replies, basically, "They're from [[Planet of Hats|Houses]] [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Dragon and Dzur]]. Why ''wouldn't'' that make them friends?"

* After 'The Lost' arc of Dan Abnett's ''Gaunt's Ghosts'' series, {{spoiler|Gaunt and Rawne}} now fit neatly into this trope. {{spoiler|Surviving Gereon, the two became remarkably close for men who still take great joy in issuing death threats and sarcastically undermining one another}}.

* Unknowingly sharing a name with the Trope, is the short story "With Friends Like These" by Alan Dean Foster. Several alien races come in search of humanity and Earth after the planet and its inhabitants had been locked away for for millenia for being unable to play nice with the rest of the universe. Now they were desperately needed to defeat agressive aliens known as Yops. {{spoiler|At first the aliens are disappointed because the humans are hospitable and friendly, but appear utterly defenseless and technologically backwards. Until they find out mankind has... [[A God Am I|evolved]]. It's pointed out near the end of the story that the problem exists of what to do with the [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Humans]] (and the rest of their planet) once the Yops have been defeated. (At this point it's obvious that the question is no longer ''if'' the Yops will be defeated but only how quickly. One character even remarks that the poor Yops won't know what hit them.)}}

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Okay, Jack Emery and Harry Wong have a relationship where they supposedly love each other like brothers, but you might have a hard time believing that! Ted Robinson and Maggie Spritzer are both reporters, which is a dog-eat-dog career, and despite them living together, having sex and all that fine stuff, they have resorted to stealing stuff from each other. Later, Maggie becomes Editor In Chief of the ''Washington Post'' and Ted's boss, and she loves to ''boss' him around! Honestly, it's hard to believe those two are on good terms!

 

* Col and Frank from ''[[The Adventures of Lano and Woodley]]'', though this is one-sided (i.e. Col -> Frank).

* House and the entire hospital in ''[[House MD]]'', but especially House and Wilson. The [[Ho Yay]] crowd will claim this is actually [[The Masochism Tango]] at work.

** And in the early episodes, the answer to the question "Why does Freddie put up with Sam?" is [[Girl Next Door|Carly]].

** Also, Sam and Gibby.

* On ''[[Diff'rent Strokes]]'', Dudley and Arnold's other friends would turn on him for any reason at any time in a heartbeat. Throughout the series run. After watching the [[TV Movie]] based on the cast's backstage story, one wonders if this wasn't another source of script frustration for the late [[Gary Coleman]].

* Lucille Bluth and Lucille Austero from ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''.

* [[The Ferals]]. They smack each other upside the head and insult each other at a moments notice. But break down a have a tearful goodbye when it looks like they'll have to split up.

* The four main characters in ''[[Will and Grace]]'' (Will, Grace, Karen, & Jack) treat each other horribly, despite apparently being each others BFFs.

 

== Music ==

* Anberlin quotes this trope almost verbatim in the chorus of "To the Wolves" (it's phrased "Who needs enemies when we've got friends like you?")

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** And the people you should fear the most are your "fellow party members" who will kill you faster than you can say "Commie Mutant Traitor" the moment your back is turned.

 

* [[Zeroth Law of Trope Examples|Shakespeare did it first]]. As per the first page quote, ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'''s Beatrice And Benedick can't be in the same room without [[Volleying Insults]], and they end up as an [[Official Couple]]. See also [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]].

* ''[[Hamlet]]'' has the title character's "old friends" Rosencratz and Guildenstern, who have no trouble spying on their friend for his uncle/stepfather. Hamlet, in turn, has no trouble {{spoiler|forging his uncle's orders to have England kill them in his place.}}

* Kendra and Lucy in ''Thirteen''. Poor Kendra is too much of a [[Spoiled Sweet]] to realize that Lucy is trying to usurp her position as Queen Bee and steal her [[Love Interest]].

 

== Video Games ==

* This can cross over to real life with the ''[[Ju-On]]'' game for the Wii. Its multiplayer mode is comprised of player 1 playing the game as normal, and player 2 adding to the haunting the player is experiencing with timed button presses.

 

* Gabe and Tycho in ''[[Penny Arcade]]''.

* To some extent, the entire cast of ''[[Something*Positive]]''.

* the Light Warriors of ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' push this trope to the breaking point. Whenever they're not bickering, insulting, swindling, and trying to kill each other, they're...doing the same, only to other people. They have very rare bonding moments, usually in the form of [[Casual Danger Dialogue]]. The only exception is [[Token Good Teammate|Fighter]], but only because he's such a [[Horrible Judge of Character]] that he doesn't notice he's teammates worser (IE, True) natures.

* Almost the entire cast of the [[Mega Crossover]] [[Fanfic|fan]][[Web Comic|comic]] ''[[Roommates 2007|Roommates]]'' and its [[Spin-Off]] s ''[[Girls Next Door]]'' and ''[[Down the Street]]''.

 

== Web Original ==

* Why does Nella put up with [[The Nostalgia Chick]]'s abuse? Because she gets paid to, of course.

 

== Western Animation ==

* The entire cast of ''[[Looney Tunes]]'', most notably [[Bugs Bunny]] and [[Daffy Duck]].

** Daffy is this with pretty much any protagonist, due to his [[It's All About Me|selfishness]], overambitiousness or just [[Screwy Squirrel|out and out screwiness]]. When not Bugs, [[Porky Pig]] or [[Speedy Gonzales]] are the ones to suffer.

* Phil and Lil DeVille of ''[[Rugrats]]'' can be like this at times, mostly to Tommy.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Friendship Tropes]]