"By the way, I'm aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it, so don't bother pointing that out."
— Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons, "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming"
So, you want to criticize something, and you could be viewed as hypocritical for doing so, since some of the criticism would apply to you, as well. How do you avoid being called a hypocrite? Quite simply, by saying, or implicitly noting, the hypocrisy of what you're saying.
This works on the same principle as a Lampshade Hanging; it dismisses a problem by bringing it to the fore briefly. Pointing it out yourself keeps your opponents from using the hypocrisy as a flaw in your argument. Whether it works or not depends on exactly how hypocritical you're being.
It should be noted that, in logic and debate at least, hypocrisy isn't a factor in whether a person is right or wrong. The "Ad Hominem Tu Quoque
" fallacy (also known as the "Appeal to Hypocrisy") is a logical error; just because a person is being a hypocrite about something doesn't necessarily make them wrong about it.
See also Self-Deprecation, Biting-the-Hand Humor, Hypocritical Humor, Start X to Stop X.
Not to be confused with At Least I Admit It, which describes characters who do not criticize their own behavior, and instead openly embrace it while accusing those who do criticize it of hypocrisy.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In first season finale of Code Geass, when Lelouch is confronted by Suzaku about his methods, Lelouch simply brushes him off stating that he doesn't have time to debate which of them is the bigger hypocrite. In fact, what is ultimately the biggest difference between Lelouch and Suzaku is that though they're both hypocrites, Lelouch is perfectly aware of it and never tries to justify it, whereas Suzaku is almost in complete denial about it.
- In Delicious in Dungeon, although he doesn't say it aloud, Shuro goes from friendly to ready to kill Laios after learning they used The Dark Arts to revive Falin. Though he admitted that in the same situation, he probably would have done the same thing.
- Dragon Ball Super: Future Zamasu grows to hate mortals and believes that their complete destruction will create a utopia. Yet, he ends up allying himself with Goku Black, the Evil Twin of the very mortal Son Goku. Zamasu acknowledges the inconsistency in one sentence and just moves on with his plan. Not only that, but Goku Black is actually an alternate version of Zamasu from the mainstream timeline, who became so fixated on the real Goku after being defeated by him that he used the Dragon Balls to steal his body.
- Later, Zamasu and Goku Black end up using the Potaras to fuse together, with the resulting Fusion Zamasu continuing to spew hate at mortals despite the fact that one of his fusees is mortal. Fusion Zamasu freely admits this, and states that it was intentional on his part; as far as he's concerned, Goku is everything selfish and evil about mortals, and he took Goku's body so he'd never forget the gods' mistakes and failures.
Zamasu: What is good when done by gods, becomes sin when done by mortals.
- In an early manga chapter, a group of bandits try to rob Goku only to be swiftly knocked out for their trouble. Goku advises them to find a job and stop fooling around, then comments to himself that it's not very convincing when he's the one saying that.
- Later, Zamasu and Goku Black end up using the Potaras to fuse together, with the resulting Fusion Zamasu continuing to spew hate at mortals despite the fact that one of his fusees is mortal. Fusion Zamasu freely admits this, and states that it was intentional on his part; as far as he's concerned, Goku is everything selfish and evil about mortals, and he took Goku's body so he'd never forget the gods' mistakes and failures.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Lacus Clyne acknowledges the biggest hypocrisy many have accused Gundam of: the fact that it's a series about awesome battles with giant robots with a strong anti-war message. "We are calling out for peace with guns in our hands."
- in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the various members of Celestial Being know fully well the hypocrisy of their actions to try and end all wars with armed force.
- In episode 3 of season 2 of Kiniro Mosaic, after talking to Kouta and Mitsuki about being more honest with their older sister Youko, she immediately responds to herself, aware of her own situation regarding Youko.
- In Overlord (2012), Momonga is angry enough with Clementine for torturing Ninya to death that he deliberately takes his time destroying her ego before slowly crushing her to death. This is despite his earlier claims that he didn't care and would have killed them himself if needed, saying he'd be a hypocrite if he blamed her for their deaths.
- The titular Akumetsu admits that using political assassination and terrorism to combat political corruption is hypocrisy and ensures that he pays for it by dying with his victims. Of course considering that there's an army of clones to be Akumatsu ensures that he can do it again and again.
- Used early in My Hero Academia. All Might advises Deku that, being Quirkless in a society filled with superheroes, he should avoid superhero work because as a professional superhero he'll be putting his life on the line against people who badly outmatch him. Later in that chapter, All Might's Hour of Power has run out and he's stuck as a bystander watching a villain take a hostage when Deku jumps in and attempts to rescue the hostage. Realizing that he isn't putting his own life on the line, All Might goes into Heroic RRoD mode, saves the day, and points out to Deku that he has absolutely no standing to tell him not to be a hero. He then offers Deku the position as his apprentice. We later learn the hypocrisy was double-layered because All Might used to be Quirkless as well: His Quirk was passed to him by someone who found his Chronic Hero Syndrome inspiring.
- In Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, after false rumors spread about Anaru going into a love hotel with an older man, resulting in an argument between Anaru and her mother, she considers not going to school. Jintan, who's spent a lot of time skipping school due to being traumatized by the loss of Menma, advises Anaru not to do so. Anaru notes that it's hypocritical of him to say this, and Jintan acknowledges it, but says that the longer you skip school, the more difficult it is to come back; Jintan had tried to go back in an earlier episode, but hadn't been able to follow through. Anaru ultimately accepts that Jintan has a point.
- In Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, Rudeus is disgusted to learn that his father Paul not only had an affair with the family maid Lilia (admittedly, Lilia seduced him, but that doesn't excuse Paul for giving in to his lust), but had also sexually assaulted Lilia in the past. However, Rudeus is the reincarnation of a 34-year-old NEET who masturbated to child pornography and apparently peeped on his young niece, so he realizes that he's not the best person to judge Paul.
Rudeus: (Internal Monologue) Paul's a scumbag, all right, but we speak the same language. What am I now, 40-something? I was hot garbage back in my day, too; I can't judge.
- In Yuri is My Job!, Hime chides Sumika for staring at Hime's friend Kanoko while they're bathing together, prompting Sumika to apologize. Hime then mentally notes that she's been staring at both Kanoko and Sumika the entire time (but can't so much as look at Mitsuki naked without getting uncomfortable).
Comic Books
- DC 2000: When the Justice Society of America debates on whether or not they should allow time to take its "intended" course, one of the complaints The Spectre has is about the proliferation of disrespect for "spiritual thinkers". Doctor Fate immediately points out, albeit with some degree of subtlety, that what the Spectre really is complaining about is disrespect for Christianity, since he's perfectly fine with non-Christian people of faith like Doctor Fate being treated in that way.
- Hellblazer: In some of his moments of self-reflection, as much as he loathes to admit it, for all John's raging against supernatural and mundane forces using people for their own ends, he isn't much better. Despite how often it ends terribly for those John drags into his schemes and how bad it may make feel, he doesn't blink to involve and manipulate innocent people into his plans, be it something grand like protecting free will or as simple as saving his own hide.
- The first issue of Warren Ellis' 2014 Moon Knight run has this golden moment when Marc is in his Mr. Knight persona for the first time:
Mister Knight: So I've got this straight: you go up, you hide, you track fit people, and then you kill them, take pieces of them down here, and paste them into your body with obsolete, exotic machinery. And you think this is the purpose of their lives and your time and skills.
Slasher: No offense, buddy, but you're a mile underground wearing a white suit and a bag on your head.
Mister Knight: Fair point. - Scooby-Doo! Team-Up: Sam Simeon meeting Thpot the Dog (actually a monster that a little boy mistakes for a dog):
Sam: So, you're a dog, eh?
Thpot: Sure and you're a perfectly normal detective.
Sam: That's right.
Thpot: And a cartoonist.
Sam: Yes.
Thpot: And not at all an ape.
Sam: ...fair point.
Fan Works
- A nod addressed to the reader happens in the Katawa Shoujo fic From Shizune's Perspective, Shizune, a deaf girl who can often be manipulative, gets angry when Emi plays a prank on her by ducking below her field of view and moving around out of sight so that she can't find her. As Shizune lays into Emi for being "manipulative," she realizes the hypocrisy in doing so.
Shizune narrating: In case you were wondering, no, the irony hadn’t struck me quite yet.
- In Boys und Sensha-do!, after Miho gets hit in the chest by a shell and implies that this happened to her before, Akio tells her that sticking her head out of the tank to look around is dangerous. She tells him that he does it, too, and he concedes it, but says he's following her lead.
- Bait and Switch: Eleya mentions to Gaarra the morning after their second night together that she feels more than a little hypocritical about sleeping with him, since she's going to have to break up a Battle Couple composed of two of her Mauve Shirts for violating Starfleet fraternization policy the exact same way (having sex with one's direct subordinate).
- In Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- fanfic Shatterheart, Fai calls Syaoran out for keeping his relationship with Kurogane a secret and gives him an ultimatum to make him tell the truth to Sakura. Fai realizes that he's being a massive Hypocrite since he lied to everyone the whole time.
- In the Harry Potter and Star Wars crossover The Hidden Empire Series, Harry (secretly Darth Revan) hates any attempts at invading his mind, due to events that occurred in his past. But he acknowledges the hypocrisy in his actions when he reprograms Fudge's mind.
- Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria: Delia Ketchum admitted to Talia Cerise that she is afraid Ash and Chloe will forgive her for her role in Goh's departure, despite refusing to give Chloe any kind of forgiveness. She acknowledged the hypocrisy in her being forgiven. At the same time, she refuses to do the same. Delia even refuses to use the parent's card to justify her hypocrisy by pointing out she did that before, and she afraid that her son Ash will start second-guessing everything she says and does.
- In The (Questionable) Burdens of Leadership of a Troll Emperor Naruto and Xanna both freely admit their hypocrisy whenever it comes up (such as still creating and eating meat and dairy products after turning their empire vegan for productivity reasons). Oma notes this is in stark contrast to the Ascended who will punish a fellow Ascended for giving someone Alteran technology but not stop the Goa'uld who built their empire on scavenged Alteran technology.
- While he is uncomfortable with the idea, Keitaro in Tug-of-War does admit it's hypocritical of him to not want Kitsune or Naru to have sex with other men when they allow (and often encourage) him to have sex with other women.
- In Don't Look, Ritsuko is uncomfortable with Misato and Shinji's relationship considering the age difference between them but then admits she doesn't have room to talk given there's a roughly equal age gap between her and Gendo and even she acknowledges how unhealthy her relationship with the man is.
- Misty has one in Chapter 31 of Pokémon Reset Bloodlines. She and Iris have both admitted to feeling attracted to Ash, but the latter is more than willing to share him with Misty, as she was raised in the wild by Dragon Pokémon and doesn't know Polyamory isn't the norm for humans. Misty muses that she'd be more okay with Iris' lack of seeing relationships as exclusive if it was Iris who was officially with Ash instead of her (Misty) being the one with him, and is well aware of the hypocrisy of it.
- In My Huntsman Academia, Toshinori acknowledges that he was being a Hypocrite when he told Izuku that he couldn't become a Huntsman. He had the power to give a Broken Soul who shared his ideals the chance to make his dreams a reality, but Toshinori didn't want to let go of One For All's power, justifying it to himself by saying that he could save more people that way. He's especially hard on himself for this because he was in Izuku's shoes once as a Moon Child himself.
Toshinori: Young man... I knew I had One For All. I knew that I could give you my power and that you could be a Huntsman. I knew that so well because... because I was in your shoes exactly so long ago. Standing in front of a person I admired, someone I considered to be not just a hero but my hero... and pouring my heart out. Telling them how badly I wanted to be a Huntsman, how badly I wanted to save people... to be a Symbol of Peace for them. You were me in that moment, young man... and I knew that all too well. Even in that moment... you were showing me what I showed Nana Shimura so many years ago... And I completely blew you off... I saw a reflection of myself standing before me... and instead of doing my master proud by having the same confidence she had in me... I was scared. Like I was so often then... [raises an arm] Because even in that moment when I knew I should've been looking for a successor... when someone who held the same heroic ideals that I did when I was a lad walked up to me... I couldn't tell you the same thing Nana told me. I couldn't have the confidence in someone that my own mentor, the person I admired, had in me... I couldn't tell you, in that moment, that you could be a Hero... but I could say that I was still doing the right thing.
- Played for Drama in Stress Relief. Cinder, being a firm believer in Love Makes You Dumb, repeatedly calls Jaune a fool for trying to maintain their... less than perfect relationship and for refusing to kill her even when his own life depends on it. Later on, Cinder allows herself to be killed by Pyrrha for the sole purpose of protecting Jaune from Salem. Before passing away, she solemnly remarks that Jaune has made her a fool as well.
- In 50% OFF, Nagisa's Author Filibuster about yaoi and gay stereotypes that come from it has him mention that it all ends up sounding moot coming from a wisecracking hedonistic Gayngster.
- Hellsing Ultimate Abridged episode 9 has Alucard give this to Walter during their fight, as Alucard is getting tossed around like a rag doll.
"Okay, I know it's filthy rich coming from me... but'cha powers are bullshit!"
- In Black Flames Dance in the Wind: Rise of Naruto, Naruto admits he's a hypocrite for telling Hinata not to hold onto her anger, given that he's fully embraced The Power of Hate, but that just means Naruto knows what he's talking about when he tells her it's an unhealthy way to live.
- Epiphany: In chaoter 5, Aerith has an erotic dream about Sephiroth. Later, when he attempts to get Aerith to tell him what her dream was about, pointing out that since it was about him, that would make it his business, she acknowledges the point, but still refuses to tell him.
Sephiroth: Your acknowledgment of your hypocrisy is refreshing.
Aerith: Yup! I’m just a bundle of contradictions and deceptions! I try to keep a realistic image of my flaws. - The Slayer really hates the fact that Ozpin deliberately keeps important secrets from his students and peers in Remnant Inferis: DOOM, which also means he's Locked Out of the Loop as well. When the Slayer decides not to inform Ruby about everything regarding the Silver-eyes all at once, he muses that he really isn't that different from Ozpin in this regard.
- The irony isn't lost on Dagur in The Dragon and the Butterfly: Whiteout that he had declared war on Berk for "conspiring with a dragon army" when that is exactly what he's doing with the Northern Alliance.
Films — Animated
- Coco: About halfway through the film, to the hypocrisy behind the Thicker Than Water mentality that is such a big part of Miguel's family. Miguel is running away from Imelda, who is saying that he has to pick a side between his family and music. He responds asking why nobody from his family is on his side. All he wants is to play music, is it really so unreasonable that a family who is supposedly so into loyalty support what makes him happiest? The question is never really resolved, or even brought up again, but the point still stands that Miguel makes a valid argument.
- In Incredibles 2, as Helen "Elastigirl" Parr is waiting around on her Elasticycle for criminals and listening to a police scanner, she recalls how in the previous film, she got on her husband's case for using a police scanner and thwarting crimes, wryly noting to Winston and Evelyn, "I am such a hypocrite."
- In Shrek 2, for the majority of the film, Fiona's father King Harold expressed his disappproval of her marrying Shrek. Near the end of the film, it's revealed that Harold was actually a frog that had been enchanted to be human, with Donkey exclaiming on how Shrek had gotten a bad time from him. While Shrek gets on Donkey for being Innocently Insensitive, Harold states that Donkey was right and apologizes to Shrek and Fiona.
Films — Live-Action
- Fahrenheit 451: The Film of the Book plays this straight by having an announcer read the opening credits instead of putting them on-screen. In a very stylish moment, at the end when Montag is among the Book People, words appear on the screen for the first time to say The End.
- In Network, Howard Beale tells a passionate speech against television, while on television. At the end he says: "turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off! Turn them off right in the middle of the sentence I'm speaking to you now! TURN THEM OFF!"
- In Serenity, Mal attempts to call the Operative out on his ideal of creating a perfect world. The Operative fully admits that he has no place in the world he is trying to build.
- In X-Men: Days of Future Past, a young Charles Xavier and Logan are trying to recruit Peter Maximoff for their mission to break into the Pentagon. Amidst the room full of food and goods that he stole, Peter mentions how breaking into prison is illegal.
- During Rocky's Narmy speech promoting peace after beating the bejesus out of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, he acknowledges the hypocrisy of it after such a brutal fight:
Rocky: In here there were two guys killin' each other... but I guess that's better than 20 million.
- In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Hope mocks Scott for referring to Captain America as "Cap" ("what, are you two best friends now?"). When she finally meets Captain America in Avengers: Endgame, she too reflexively calls him "Cap", causing her to share an embarrassed grin with Scott.
- In the climax of Talk Radio, Barry Champlain bluntly admits that he's a hypocrite exploiting America's social problems and fringe groups to get famous, that he won't apologize, and that he's still better than his listeners because he owns what he is.
Barry Champlain: I should hang; I'm a hypocrite. I ask for sincerity, and I lie. I denounce the system as I embrace it. I want money and power and prestige: I want ratings and success. And I don't give a damn about you, or the world. That's the truth: for that I could say I'm sorry, but I won't. Why should I?
- In West Side Story (2021), Bernardo doesn't want Chino to join a gang, despite being a gang leader himself. When Chino says he wants to help protect the community, Bernardo emphasizes that the gang life is "stupid," but Chino isn't, and he wants and expects better for him.
Literature
- Yaoi Genre Ai no Kusabi has second in command of Tanagura, Raoul telling Iason, the top ruling Blondy, he's a hypocrite for strictly enforcing laws yet breaking a few laws himself for his Pet. Iason doesn't deny it as a means to shrug off and end the conversation.
- In Stranger in a Strange Land, Valentine Michael Smith says that in his capacity as a preacher, he's been rushing around to tell people not to hurry in life.
- When Jagged Peak from Warrior Cats runs without looking where he was going, Gray Wing scolds him for it... before doing it himself by accident. He realizes he's being a hypocrite and resolves on not becoming one.
- In Stephen King's memoir/style manual On Writing, after a chapter about getting rid of as many unnecessary adverbs as possible, he admits he's just an ordinary sinner, and that he will "go on writing in spite of such lapses as 'You can't be serious!' Bill said unbelievingly."
- Animorphs: Two years after the war, Jake has been hired to train a UN morphing team, and he warns them to never take an untested morph into battle, lest its instincts overwhelm you. His students point out that the Animorphs did that all the time. He says that he's pretty sure he's supposed to be passing along his good habits, not his bad ones.
- In The Dresden Files, Harry Dresden's almost compulsive inability to talk to his friends about problems or ask for help for such problems is almost always causing him problems. He also tends to run his mouth around potentially dangerous beings and does a lot of shooting first and asking questions never. He is aware of this. He once returns home to find his various houseguests in a standoff that's just barely being kept from violence by his dog Mouse keeping the peace for the third time that day and is well aware of the irony when he's criticizing their lack of communication.
I can't believe I'm about to say this... So think real careful about where this is coming from. Have you people ever considered talking when you've got a problem?
- Harry's internal monologue notes that pissing off Ebenezer McCoy is an incredibly, devastatingly stupid thing to do... after Harry has just been involved in a ten-minute shouting match with the man.
- The Supervillainy Saga: Gary Karkofsky AKA Merciless: The Supervillain without MercyTM is an anarchist supervillain who hates the rich and wants to liberate the masses. He's also someone who is obscenely wealthy due to his various heists by the end of the third book and has frequently mentioned his desire to conquer the world. Several volumes have Gary noting he's aware of the irony and just sort of brushes it off.
- Judge Dee: The judge tells Tao Gan that the most important part of being a criminal investigator is remaining emotionally detached from the case, adding that personally he's never managed it.
Live-Action TV
- On the "Lawns" episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, Penn says that chemicals should not be used on plants. They intersperse this with a clip from an earlier episode on organic food where Penn said that chemicals should be used on plants. However, Penn points out that food is a necessity, and lawns aren't. He also points out the difference between the pesticides, fertilizers, etc being used by professionals who know what they're doing, and the same chemicals being used by random yahoos with no consideration for safety or environmental concerns.
- Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. Tim and Eric recruited David Liebe Hart, a down-on-his-luck California public access TV icon, and they make fun of the acts he takes seriously by putting them in the context of a show on [adult swim]. Later on, during the fake Distant Finale, another actor impersonates David Liebe Hart and makes fun of this very practice.
- On Good Eats, Alton will note when the advice he's giving contradicts something that he's said in a previous episode, and explain the reasons for the change. The most notable example is his "stuffing is evil" stance; he originally decried stuffing as being a horrible cooking method, and since has multiply clarified his views to mean specifically that stuffing turkeys is a bad idea, while it works quite well with some other foods. And then he did an entire episode devoted to finding a non-evil method of stuffing turkeys.
- On Star Trek: Enterprise, John Paxton is an extremist who seeks to drive all alien influence from Earth. His idol is a man from Earth's post-WW 3 period who arranged for the mass execution of people who were supposedly genetically-damaged by radiation from the recent war. Paxton himself is suffering from a genetic condition which can only be treated by freely-shared alien medical knowledge, meaning his idol would have had him put to death. He admits that he fails to live up to his own standards.
- One episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip had a flashback to just after September 11, 2001. Matt was writing a sketch making fun of Dick Cheney for having a meeting with Hollywood executives about how they could help the government. Harriet asks Matt what he would do in the same situation if there were a Democrat in the White House. Matt realizes that he'd support the President in that case, but writes the sketch anyway, because "that's the way it goes".
- Frasier: This gem during one of his debates with Cam Winston, who drives an SUV.
Cam: You do your share of polluting with that substitute for masculinity you're driving.
Frasier: If mine's a substitute for masculinity, then what is yours?
Cam: Bigger! - From Hardware (2003), when the characters are talking about a customer who they suspect may be building his own makeshift weapon:
Julie: I hate violence. Which is ironic, because I am actually quite violent.
- On Madam Secretary, the team are trying to get LGBT refugees out of Abkhazia. They manage to secure a deal to get Turkey to accept the group. However, the deal falls through as one Turkish official reported the refugees to the Abkhazian government. Why? Because while he's a champion for LGBT rights, the man utterly despises the Kurds. Lampshaded by Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: You see, being righteous in one area does not mean you are righteous in all areas.
- An episode of Proven Innocent explores how, in the 1980s, gay and lesbian groups tended to turn away supporting transgender people as they felt that lifestyle was "too much" for mainstream society to take and would hurt their own progress. The Victim of the Week was a trans advocate outraged to be told she was being banned from the very protest she pushed as they felt it was better for homosexuals to be accepted first. In the present, a gay bar owner admits how wrong it was for a group that had faced countless prejudices refusing to accept someone else's lifestyle because it was too different.
- Done by Don in NUMB3RS, when he expresses frustration to his father about his girlfriend, an AUSA, being skeptical of the story he's telling her, despite having notorious trust issues of his own.
Don: I don't like not being trusted. And yes, I get the irony.
- In the Murdoch Mysteries episode "Fine Upstanding Young Women", in which the murderer is a man who accosted the dancers after a burlesque show, and was tied naked to a lamppost by them, who killed another man they'd treated likewise in order to frame them for it, his Motive Rant derides the idea he killed "an innocent man", expressing utter contempt for the way the victim found himself in that situation, before adding with self-loathing "Just like me."
Roleplay
- Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues:
- Irene wonders what kind of parents would name their child Destiny, then admits that she doesn't have much stones to throw since her own name translates to "peace".
- Jenna screams in terror as she sights Benjy and his new, monstrous bug form for the first time. She then reminds herself that she, too, was turned into bugs, and that screaming at him is rude.
Stand-Up Comedy
- George Carlin once prefaced a routine called "Advertising Lullaby" by noting that he was attacking advertising while, at the time, being on television in commercials for collect call service 10-10-220. He told the audience that "you're just gonna have to figure that shit out on your own." He later explained in an interview with The AV Club that that was the quickest way for him to get rid of an IRS debt.
- Also:
"Jesus, he's not gonna attack children, is he? Yes he is! He's going to attack children. And remember, this is Mr. Conductor talking; I know what I'm talking about!"
Video Games
- Fate/stay night, Heaven's Feel: Played for drama (and technically after the fact). After berating Shirou the entire route and the two before it for being too soft to kill, Tohsaka realizes she is too as she can't bring herself to stab Sakura and is nearly killed instead. 'I guess I can't get mad at Shirou anymore.'
- Yuri Lowell in Tales of Vesperia openly admits his vigilante actions are quite hypocritical when he's called out on them (and continues his vigilantism anyways since the law isn't effective).
- In Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, the Big Bad despises the Force and those who are reliant on it. However, all the Big Bad's attacks are Force-reliant, and she's too frail to fight with anything but the Force. If the player calls her out on this, she'll attempt to explain her behavior. However, she'll also admit the player makes a very good point, and it's possible that the explanation she just gave is just an excuse.
- Saints Row: The Third seems to be an elaborate parody of the commercialised glorification of "gangsta life" in modern culture. The Saints, originally a street gang led by the player character with increasingly omnicidal tendencies, have become an established brand name complete with clothing stores, an energy drink, a movie about their life, and random fangirls asking for your autograph or snapping pictures of you after you turn a busy intersection into a pile of corpses and burning car wrecks. Even the Saints themselves realize they sold out. Of course, the game itself is a commercialised glorification of gangsta life and provides you with weaponry specifically intended to express your own omnicidal tendencies. This duality seems to be intentional.
- The endings. In one, it shows the saints being media sellouts and producing a B-movie grade deal, after taking the affable option, giving up revenge for their friends, and playing up their name for it. The hypocrisy of of playing game where where you routinely kill people for fun while still trying to be a "good guy". The other one shows the captive die and the saints basically give a dare against a military force to bring it on. Much less in this ending, as you are playing the game more or less as intended, but compared to the rest the game it's rather dark and completely serious.
- In Pokémon Emerald, Maxie, the leader of Team Magma, calls out Archie, the leader of Team Aqua, for awakening Kyogre and causing heavy rainfall that will flood the continents, even though Maxie's own team awakened Groudon to expand the world's landmass. Maxie then admits to the protagonist that he has no right to be critical of Archie, but asserts that this is beyond the matter of who is to blame and that stopping the two legendaries is their top priority at this point.
- RealityMinds: Astrake inspires his friends with his optimism, but notes that he's harboring his own self-doubts and wonders if what he's saying is hollow. That said, others note that his encouragement does help to bring out their potential.
- Sword of Paladin: In the Ginnugugap, Nade offers to spare Lancelot, but the latter points out how hypocritical this is because the former already killed many enemies for the greater good. Nade admits that he has blood on his hands, but he doesn't enjoy killing and he believes Lancelot has the potential to redeem himself.
- If you complete a non-Pacifist Run of Undertale, and spare Flowey after defeating him, Flowey will remind you after you reset that you can only get the Golden Ending by not killing anyone. Seeing as he's been a murderous sociopath the whole game (plus a Time Abyss of resets before you showed up), he finds it absolutely hilarious that he has to tell you this.
- Injustice 2 has Harley Quinn engaging in this. After chastising Wonder Woman for trying to break Batman's no killing rule, Diana asks Harley how much blood she's spilled.
Harley Quinn: Oh, buckets full, honey. I was trying too hard to impress the wrong guy. Kinda like you and Superman.
- At the start of Highway Blossoms, Amber encounters Marina stranded by the side of the road, with her car broken down and her cell phone out of power, and Amber chides Marina for being willing to accept rides from random strangers. Near the end of the game, Amber's RV breaks down, and Amber ends up trying to flag down a tow truck. She remarks to herself that "Even I can't follow my stupid advice."
- The first Galaxy Angel has a small one in Forte's route. Tact doesn't want to send her to what could possibly be a suicide mission (destroy an enemy attack satellite to clear the path for the Elsior). Forte replies that "The Tact I know wouldn't put his personal feelings above the mission", only to immediately acknowledge that she volunteered for the mission out of personal feelings, namely that she wants to protect the man she fell in love with.
Webcomics
- VGCats
- This strip pokes fun at non-Japanese animesque works which overuse anime tropes. Works such as VG Cats itself being the implication.
- A character, angered by the delayed release of a Super Smash Bros. game, declares people who miss deadlines should be shot. The strip itself often misses its update deadline: as a nod the characters stare nervously at the Fourth Wall. The strip came out after a long time with no updates.
- This strip pokes fun at Family Guy and its ratings-boost stunt at the time (Brian's death)... only to bring back a character that was Killed Off for Real in the strip years ago, in a similar stunt lampshading the strip's own situation.
- This
- In This Backward Compatible strip we discover the terrible consequences of the average Resident Evil fan putting the official shirt over his head to reveal the zombie image printed on the inside: zombies with man-boobs. The artist states he is aware he shouldn't wear one like this either.
- In this The Order of the Stick strip, Heroic Comedic Sociopath Belkar argues against including vampire-Durkon in the party:
Belkar: I just don't trust the idea of using a horrible bloodthirsty savage to fulfill our goals while we - oh, I get it.
- In General Protection Fault, while in college, Fooker passes out for several days when Ki kicks him in the crotch while he's drunk. Fooker realizes that he has a drinking problem.
Ki: It's not my place to comment, but you should try to quit.
Fooker: Says the woman with a pack of cigarettes in her pocket...
Ki: I said it's not my place to comment... - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: "Anger" is about a man who's made angry by a media personality who makes his living doing that, but refuses to be provoked. His tombstone says "Never clicked that link." Then the artist adds his own tombstone, which says "Clicked those links but did comics about how other people shouldn't."
Web Original
- When Linkara reviewed Sonic Super Special #7 in late 2014, he lampshaded the fact that he's broken the list of his Top 15 Comics I'll Never Review several times.
- Noted comic book writer/artist Keith Giffen did it in this column:
14) Just because you don't know what to do with a character is no reason to kill the character...15) ...unless it's Karate Kid.
- And again:
21) Here's a horrifying thought, retell "Watchmen" using the Charlton characters. The horrifying part is, I'd bet money that something along those lines has already been floated past the powers that be at DC.22) Okay... It was me. I'm a whore. Sue me.
- And again:
- Zero Punctuation does it sometimes, most times with a Credits Gag line amounting to, "I'm aware of the hypocrisy of this."
- One instance was his complaint about death in an Adventure Game (Zack & Wiki) and overzealous dependency on inventory-based puzzles and the items needed to solve them in Adventure Games in general, since he himself had made an adventure game where the player could get killed and puzzles were solved in this exact way.
- The other instance was his critique of webcomics, since he himself has had several series over the years (which "came out of a dark time in his life from which he has determinedly moved on without a backward glance").
- Review of Murdered: Soul Suspect has Yahtzee complain how stupid the protagonist's fedora with a vest looks. An imp then holds up Yahtzee's well-known publicity photo in which he's wearing a fedora and a vest.
(Beat, as Yahtzee looks at the picture) "...Well I never said I wasn't a hypocrite."
- In his review of South Park: The Fractured but Whole, he decries show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker as grown adults who make their living off of making jokes about excrement. His next two sentences are an Expospeak Gag about throwing stones in glass houses, in acknowledgement of the fact that that's exactly what he does as well.
- The Spoony One's response to Roger Ebert's review of the movie Fanboys involves acknowledging his own pot-shots at various geek fandoms (not the least of which is the Final Fantasy crowd) but ends with a rousing speech telling geeks not to be ashamed of who and what they are.
- This poster shows us Hasbro doing a Hypocrisy Nod in one of its ads and then... slipping.
- Dr Insano's review of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. "I may be evil, but at least I'm not full of shit!"
- The Cracked article "5 World-Famous Products That Are Shameless Rip-Offs" begins with the following lines:
You know a product or brand has become a big deal when cheap, generic knockoffs start showing up everywhere: Transformers had Go-Bots, Bruce Springsteen had John Mellencamp and MAD magazine had Cra ... um, you get the idea.
- In Worm During a fight with Scion , Taylor tries to help apply first aid to one of Bitch's dog's instead of another cape who's dying not far away. She looks at this situation and realizes that despite all her attempts to justify it, she admits that she's just being selfish, arrogant and above all a hypocrite because she's more afraid of losing her team and herself in the process then an actual person dying.
- The Angry Video Game Nerd:
- In one of specials he begins complaining about thrift stores and the like that slap stickers all over video games, or used games in general that are in terrible condition, and yells "Who would do this?! I take good care of my games!" When he's saying this, however, it shows the clip from his Dick Tracy episode where he destroys the game cartridge in a fit of rage.
- The only reason he reviewed the video game adaptation of Alien3 on NES was to promote his Cinemassacre's Monster Madness review of the movie, which he openly admits in the beginning. However later in the review, he criticizes the video game for being a poor adaptation of the movie and just an excuse to promote it, and...
Nerd: The game was nothing more than an advertisement for the movie! And how shameless is that to do something just to promote something else? (Covers his mouth) Monster Madness.
- When reviewing The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man he criticizes The Simpsons for how it's gone on for way too long... and then admits his own show has been going on since 2004. The best part is you can see him struggling not to laugh while he says it.
Nerd:The Simpsons is a show that's been running for a long long time! It was great back then but it's gone on way too long and it needs to stop!
Beat
Nerd: Okay, onto AVGN episode 180-something.
- James Rolfe As Himself does this during his list of "Top 10 Reasons Blu-Ray Sucks" where he dunks on the format for a solid 14 minutes, but then puts on a big smirk and cuts to a two-minute long over-the-top commercial for the AVGN Blu Ray collection:
James: Blu-rays? You can just forget about them!
(Beat)
James: Unless you wanna buy the Angry Nerd Blu-Rays! - Kingdom Smarts, a Hey! Jake and Josh podcast, features Shannon telling Jake about Kingdom Hearts, with Shannon being a huge fangirl of the series, and Jake knowing nothing about it. During their re-telling of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Shannon describes part of the fight with Marluxia as "a mech wearing a cape", which results in Jake mocking the mental image and the general overdramatics of Organization XIII. However, Jake later acknowledges that if a Megazord were to drop in wearing a cape he, as a Power Rangers fan, would be all-in on that.
- Played for Laughs during Ghostbusters 2016 - It's As Bad As I Remember by The Critical Drinker when he acknowledges his own tendency to use fart jokes after criticizing the movie for its use of them:
The humor feels like it came from the mind of a five-year-old! "This is funny because the lady's being puked on! This is funny because fart jokes!"
(Cuts to the farting clip from Not Another Teen Movie he practically uses Once per Episode)
It's only funny when I do it! - The Game Grumps:
- During their playthrough of Super Mario Bros. 3, they express their frustration with people who add commentary to video game walkthroughs, believing that it's clear what is happening from the video game footage and that players should keep the walkthrough about the game rather than themselves. They then immediately lampshade that they're saying this on a show where the core premise is their commentary over video games.
Danny: "When I was a kid this was the hardest—" NO ONE FUCKING CARES!
Arin: Y'know, when I was a kid this level was really fucking hard, dude.
Danny: Even though we're on a show that does exactly that all the goddamned time!
Arin:Nobody cares about your stupid life! Dan, how was your day?
Danny: Pretty good, thank you.
Arin: Good. I'm glad. I'm glad we could share that moment with fans. - Similarly, another one has the two of them discussing how it's just uncool to trash-talk other people online, only to have Ross come in, demand the mic, and explain how there is a "Dan and Arin shit-talk Ross" compilation on Youtube that is an hour and a half long. Arin and Dan concede the point, apologize for creating the "Goddammit Ross" meme that got out of control, and even explain how that was 6 years ago and they've since learned to be better than that, though they do acknowledge that friends dunking on friends is different than people dunking on perfect strangers.
- They've similarly acknowledged their tendency to insult Family Guy and, ironically enough, rip on it for being unoriginal and stealing all its jokes... with their own habit of using jokes from Family Guy. They've openly admitted it's hypocritical of them to do so and have admitted that, while they do think Family Guy is fairly trashy and unoriginal, they actually do find a lot of its jokes to be pretty funny in spite of it.
- During their playthrough of Super Mario Bros. 3, they express their frustration with people who add commentary to video game walkthroughs, believing that it's clear what is happening from the video game footage and that players should keep the walkthrough about the game rather than themselves. They then immediately lampshade that they're saying this on a show where the core premise is their commentary over video games.
- Played for Laughs in PARTY.MOV when Pinkie Pie is spiraling down the drain into substance abuse. Spike comments on how he would never do drugs and hits a bong... and then wheezes "This isn't a drug!!!"
- Internet Historian, during his Costa Concordia Q&A, points out that former Captain Schettino was somewhat scapegoated for the whole tragedy, pointing out that every officer on the bridge as well as some faulty safety equipment on the ship were at least somewhat at fault for the ship sinking as well. When calling out the legal system and media for how they made a big deal of the affair Schettino was having with Domnica Cemortan, while it actually had nothing to do with the tragedy, he does admit he made a big deal of it too:
"The court also focused quite a bit on the affair with Cemortan, even though it basically had nothing to do with the tragedy and was fairly incidental. To be fair, we did that too, we thought it was funny, but they turned it into a media circus and the claims about her 'distracting the captain', as far as we can tell, are just untrue."
- Minilife TV: In "Chris and Ian Shamelessly Promote Themselves", after winning a game show where the losing contestants are (seemingly) dropped from a plane into shark-infested waters, Chris Salaises is horrified that one of the contestants, The Armless Guy, was (seemingly) dropped from the plane by the game show's host, Chris Hardware. Chris Salaises then admits that he made The Armless Guy fall from a plane in an alternate timeline that no longer exists from a previous episode.
Western Animation
- Rarity from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic loves to be dramatic, and even has her own couch just for fainting on. One time Twilight Sparkle was overreacting due to Sanity Slippage, and when Rarity called her a drama queen, the other ponies glared at her. Rarity quickly corrected herself with "Relatively speaking."
- During "Ponyville Confidential", she tells off her sister Sweetie Belle for snooping through her possessions, pointing out that Sweetie Belle didn't like it when Rarity went through her stuff just a bit earlier.
- The Simpsons: Sideshow Bob's quote from the top of the page.
- An episode of Brandy & Mr. Whiskers has Whiskers obsessed with a portable video game. At the end, he states that he's learned his lesson, that there's better things to do then spend hours after hours staring at a flickering screen. Brandy pauses, looks at the screen, and nervously asks if the moral applies to television. Whiskers, realizing the Broken Aesop, immediately says one can never watch too much television. A cartoon remote then turns them off.
- Justice League:
- In "Wild Cards", after previously establishing how he takes Don't Explain the Joke as Serious Business, the Joker visibly expresses annoyance in having to explain the joke himself.
- In "Patriot Act", General Wade Eiling uses a Nazi Super-Soldier serum to turn into a HULK MASH!-Up in order to defeat Superman as a show of America's strength. Instead, he runs into seven human Leaguers with various trick weapons and completely wipes the floor with them, all the while ranting about how superpowered beings are dangerous. He's eventually called on being the only one present with actual superpowers, and acknowledges that he's become the very thing he seeks to destroy. He then retreats and is never heard from again.
Eiling: All right, I've become what I hate, I'll give you that. But in the long run, you'll see I was right. You'll see you need the likes of me to protect you from them [superhumans].
- Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender does this when the other members of Team Avatar plan on going to the Earth King's party to talk with him. Toph immediately points out that they have no concept of the higher-class manners that they would need to fit in (she pegs Aang and Sokka as servants, but figures Katara could manage). When called on her own terrible manners, Toph confidently states that she has been taught proper manners... and chooses to ignore them.
- Especially prevalent in South Park episodes "200" and "201", in which creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had to wrestle with Comedy Central over discussing the Mohammed portrayal controversies; Comedy Central demanded several hoops be jumped through, including censoring the character outright (along with the ending moral about how it's wrong to use threats to force an agenda). Parker and Stone thus viciously lampshaded the double standards of the broadcaster, such as mocking several reappearing celebrities and other religious figures without a fuss:
Kyle: Oh come on! This is ridiculous!
Joseph Smith: Boys! You need to understand that people get very offended when Mohammed is mocked because he's a religious figure.
Jesus: Buddha! Don't do coke in front of kids!
Real Life
- This is the whole idea behind the the phrase, "Do as I say, not as I do."
- George Orwell's famous essay "Politics and the English Language" opposes abuse of the English language for political purposes (particularly Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness as a means of obfuscating the truth) — yet he admits in his very own essay to having "again and again committed the very faults I am protesting against."
- The page on this wiki for Annoying Pop-Up Ad specifically asks tropers not to cite or mention or draw attention to the annoying pop up ads you get on Tv Tropes.
