Shut UP, Hannibal

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Megatron: Oh well, come on, let's have it! The usual "destiny and honor" speech!
Optimus Primal: Speech this. (POW)

Beast Wars, "Nemesis, Part 2"

So you're finally facing the villain. He's being all smug and trying to break you with his words, deconstructing your motives for fighting him and reminding you of how similar you are to him, making you uncomfortable with his too-close-to-truths, offering you the opportunity to join him, etcetera etcetera... and what should your response be? Tell him the error of his ways, and offer him a chance to join the good guys? A measured, reasonable response, indicating your disagreement? Let the villainous argument throw you and make you wonder if you and him are Not So Different?


Shut up, Hannibal.

He's a villain. A bad guy. He has tried to kill you and your friends a dozen times over. He dangled your Sidekick and your Love Interest over a cliff, taunting you to pick one of them. He treats other people, including his own underlings, like dirt. He doesn't care about people, order, or whatever he's using to justify his actions - he just wants power. And he ran over your daughter's puppy. You're nothing like him. He's wrong. So you tell it to him, spell it out if necessary, then beat the crap out of him in a manner most righteous.

This happens a lot. Heroes usually use the 'fist to face' variant of this, though a hero giving a villain a verbal beatdown is not unheard of. Often done by the more practical Anti-Hero, who doesn't really care about philosophy, and just prefers to beat up anyone who has messed with the them or their stuff.

More heroes will often at least listen before coming up with a counterargument. When that fails due to the fact that the villain has rationalized their villainy with something truly depraved, the hero will often call the bad guy insane before delivering the smackdown.

Doing this to another villain is even dumber, as they're likely to either not be big on listening, or have an outright conflicting ideology. But it still happens every now and then.

Sometimes, The Hero needs to be told "You Are Not Alone" to come up with this reply.

Combining it with the World of Cardboard Speech will just make it that much more badass.

Conversely, one way to be Defiant to the End is to interrupt the villain by saying Get It Over With. It tends to shock the villain that anyone would prefer death to listening to him.

As these occur at the conclusion of most stories, feel free to use spoiler marks if you think it gives away too much.

The name is a reference to this being a response to a Hannibal Lecture, but it would be more accurate to refer to the trope Break Them by Talking, since Hannibal Lecture only concerns certain interrogation scenes.

Compare Book'Em Danno, Shut Up, Kirk, You Keep Telling Yourself That, Verb This, and whichever variations of I Will Show You X are said specifically to a villain. For the more... forceful version, see Talk to the Fist.

Inverse of Kirk Summation, where the hero delivers a devastating rhetorical rebuttal to the villain's Motive Rant.

Examples of Shut UP, Hannibal include:

Anime and Manga[edit | hide | hide all]

  • Neji gets two of these after his rants about fate and destiny. One from Hinata, and another from Naruto.
    • Also, after Kabuto gives Naruto a "The Reason You Suck" Speech and tries to kill him Naruto's response is to tell him that he refuses to die until he becomes Hokage and drives a Rasengan into Kabuto's stomach.
    • Chapter 495 has the Shut UP, Hannibal to beat almost everything else: what Naruto's autograph would have looked like, reading "No. 1 Hokage Candidate: Naruto" and said he has faith in himself the man who his village has faith in which defeated Naruto's Evil Twin (actually, his manifested hatred) who reminded Naruto how horribly the village treated them and maintained he was the only one who could understand good!Naruto.
    • And Naruto gave two of these to Pain right at the beginning of their fight. "Didn't I tell you to SHUT THE HELL UP?!" He then proceeds to throw a Rasen-Shuriken at the group.
      • The titular character is practically this trope personified. If any villain tries a Break Them by Talking odds are his response will be to attempt to hit them with something that will hurt.
    • Kin gives a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Sakura as she's keeping her restrained by the hair. "My my, what soft and shiny hair. But you know what? If you spent a little less time shampooing, and a little more time practicing your jutsu, you might not be in this fix! Hey Zaku, I know what would be fun. Let's make Ms. Beauty Queen watch while you finish off that Sasuke guy!" Sakura's Shut UP, Hannibal moment shortly thereafter, where she cuts her own hair off to free herself, is thereby made much more awesome.
    • Chapter 538: Its revealed that the Nine-Tails has almost gotten its full form back from feeding from Naruto's chakra and begins Break Them by Talking to show how gullible and foolish Naruto is becoming about the War and Sasuke. However, Naruto retaliates, after the flashback he asks "Are you done yet?" walks right into the seal and slams Nine-Tails down by the Torii so they could talk face to face. He then tells the fox that he's the fool, and that he'd find something to do about the war and Sasuke.
    • Chapter 576: After multiple pages of Madara insulting her skills as a Senju, medic-nin, and kunoichi, Tsunade gives him a Shut Up Hannibal by telling him that even if she can't use the Wood Release or heal herself without medical ninjutsu, if he thinks she's just a weak kunoichi, he's got another thing coming.
    • Chapter 577: Madara gets another Shut UP, Hannibal from Tsunade. She smashes through his Susanoo on her own and Onoki and A hit the other side. Even Madara said her Super Strength is greater than A's.
    • In chapter 581 Kabuto says he and Sasuke are not so different because they both wish for the destruction of the Leaf Village and says that he should join him. In response, Sasuke says he's doing it for himself alone. When Kabuto tries a sympathetic angle about his life as a spy discarded by Konoha, Itachi points out all that means is that Kabuto's a superb liar.
  • Kouji Kabuto is a Hot-Blooded, impulsive hero is more liable to punch the villain than explain to him why he or she sucks, but he got some good throughout the years.
    • In the original manga:

Count Brocken: Damn you! How dare the righteous protagonist do something so dirty! You sure about this? The fans will cry, you know.
Kouji: Shut up! Take it like a man! Don't try to play innocent with me!

Kouji: Are you stupid? I would never join you!

Scirocco: By averting that Colony Drop, you wasted a good chance of getting rid of all those fools whose souls are bound by gravity.
Kouji: Oh, don't give us that crap! We won't let you even touch the Earth we live in!

Char Aznable: But, if things continue this way, people's hatred will consume the very Earth itself. That's why I'm cutting through to the source of the problem.
Kouji: Don't feed me that crap!! I've been listening to this from the start and all you've done is giving a bunch of complicated justifications!!


    • Lelouch also delivered a fairly epic one in episode 16 of season one, against Mao, telling him to "Never speak again!" via Geass after he messed with Suzaku.
    • Again in episode 21 of R2, when he rejects his parents' plan to remake the world as a utopia without lies.
    • In Nightmare of Nunnally, after Mao claims to be saving people by allowing them to die happily with her "The Refrain" Geass, and wants to take control of Nemo from Nunnally in order to prevent herself from being consumed by C.C.'s cells. Alice responds "I have no idea what you're talking about. From my point of view, you're nothing more than a murderer who tried to take Nunnally's life."
  • Kira Yamato of Gundam Seed sucks at this. "No! You are wrong!" does not convey the proper machismo. To be fair though he was kind of meant to be like this: despite being The Messiah he was never much of a talker. And he somewhat makes up for this by making his opponents' defeats look easy.
    • To be honest, he did get sightly better in Gundam SEED Destiny, during the last episode when he threw Durandal's argument for the Destiny Plan back in his face.
    • There's also this scene in which Kira and Mu confront Rau. Rau won't shut up, even if Mu yells him to do while shooting at him. And the Awful Truth Rau revealed turned Kira into Heroic BSOD.

Durandal: But between your world and the world I've been describing, which one do you think people will prefer? Say you shoot me now. What will you do when the world is thrown into chaos again?
Kira: I'm ready for that. *lines up to shoot Durandal* I will fight!

    • Domon Kasshu from G Gundam has a habit of doing this. Mostly because, as a Hot-Blooded Determinator, he has no interest in talking to his enemies when he can fight. The final villain didn't get further than a single line into his rant before Domon just said "Shut it."
    • In Gundam Wing, Heero does this to both the Big Bad of the TV series (Zechs Merquise) and The Dragon in Endless Waltz (Chang Wu Fei). In both cases, his opponent is arguing that Humans Are the Real Monsters and/or Sheep who need to be guided down the right path, while Heero argues that all humans, including himself and his opponent, are just as weak, and that they need to have faith that people will be able to make a worthy future on their own. In particular, he gets a suitably epic line in EW:

"Even if the world goes mad, I can fight on by believing in myself!"

    • Garrod Ran absolutely excels at this trope, in fact this is his most common response to a Motive Rant.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam 00 returns to long speeches; Setsuna makes three in the season 1 finale. And in the second season, when Bring Stability tells his fellow Innovator Tieria Erde that he can't kill him in battle because they're both Innovators, Tieria screams "I'M A HUMAN!" and kills him.
    • Crossbone Gundam even gets in on it, having Tobia Arronax deliver the following rebuttal to Social Darwinist Karas:

Tobia: "That... is... BULLSHIT!" *proceeds to destroy Karas' entire Newtype squad*

  • Death Note: When Light Yagami delivers his Motive Rant at the end of the anime about how his actions have reduced the crime rate and stopped all wars, how does his nemesis respond?


    • In the same episode, Matsuda's response to the same rant was to shoot Light five times. Okay, that was actually his response to Light's last-ditch attempt to kill Near, but considering that Matsuda was the closest person on the task force to supporting Kira, not to mention someone who genuinely seemed to like and admire Light, it was pretty impressive. In retrospect, it probably was a bad idea for Light to refer to his late father Soichirou, who was Matsuda's mentor and idol, as a fool during the rant.
  • The Grand Finale to Vandread has the lead characters do this to the Evil Counterpart of the sentient Applied Phlebotinum the crew has befriended.
  • To Aru Majutsu no Index: Touma Kamijo does this. A lot. At the climax of almost every arc he plays a major role in. He always comes up with an idealistic, heartfelt, understandable, and awesome response to every villain's Evil Speechof Evil and Motive Rant. Keep in mind that whenever he isn't up against an Omnicidal Maniac, Magnificent Bastard, or something of the like, he's up against a Well-Intentioned Extremist, Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, Anti-Hero, or someone with a backstory that makes their actions at least somewhat understandable and sympathetic. And Touma always manages to sound like the one that's right. ALWAYS.
    • Of note was his response to Vento of the Front's Motive Rant and Freudian Excuse. While he was sympathetic to her, Touma basically went, "If you think that justifies you trying to kill a bunch of people (including children) who had absolutely nothing to do with your tragedy, you're stupid! Time for me to kick your ass!"
  • The ever-stoic Sousuke Sagara does this in reverse order in the first season of Full Metal Panic!: he first hands the villain's ass right back to him and then proceeds to use some... uncharacteristically strong language to tell the world what he thinks of him and his views.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima has Fate taunting Negi about his weakness, how he's unable to protect his friends, how his newly acquired powers won't help him at all, and how he'll never be powerful to put up a real fight... Negi's response is to sock Fate in the gut, and toss off a one-liner:

Negi: Are you sure it's not you who needs to train a little harder?

    • And Negi does it again in Chapter 272, calling Godel on his Fantastic Racism and basically telling Godel that he's full of crap.
      • And quite a while later, it turns out the SUH has more or less worked, since Godel pulls a Heel Face Turn and joins Negi's case.
  • Dragon Quest: Dai's AdventureDai No Daibouken Dai No Daibouken, chapter 108, Dai's decisive battle against Dragon Army Captain Baran, who also happened to be his father and the original Dragon Knight as he unleashes all his power:

Dai: ... so what's your point? I can fight seriously too.

  • Fate/stay night: How does Shiro respond to the end of the Big Bad Kotomine's long Motive Rant? "Oh I get it now, you're just insane."
    • Well, at first Shiro thought he might have some weird reason for the terrible things he did to all those people, but in the end it was just him explaining through a convoluted, wordy speech that he likes to see people suffer. It was pretty funny, actually.
  • In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, the villain (Miyo Takano) might have had a gun pointed at Rena as she explained to her about how she's going to kill the entire village and become "God" but that didn't stop Rena from laughing at her and replying "No, you can't become God, because GOD EXISTS!".
  • In One Piece Luffy makes it pretty clear that he does shit because he wants to, and for no other reason. In response to Crocodile's list of reasons why he was fighting a losing battle, and being naive for trying to save everyone, Luffy subverts this trope slightly by agreeing with him. Having effectively shocked Hannibal into shutting up, he proceeds to beat the shit out of him while explaining that Vivi was his friend, and since if he didn't help she was gonna kill herself trying to save the country, he would try to render that unnecessary.
    • Then there's the instance when the Straw Hats face the leader of a secret government agency. His attempt to intimidate them fail miserably:

Spandam: "Look at that symbol, pirates! *point to the flag of the world government* That mark represents the unity of over 170 nations! This is the world! Do you understand how insignificant you are to stand against us!!?"
Luffy: "I understand very well. Sogeking, shoot that flag."

  • In Houshin Engi, this was done rather brilliantly by Taikoubou (when he changed back to being Fukki) after his fight with Jyoka. Jyoka started giving him the the breaking speech about how the reason he revealed to the humans that they were being manipulated by her wasn't because he didn't like the idea of her being in power - it was because he wanted them to have "free will", and his response? "No. You're wrong idiot, die." It doesn't get more blunt than that.
  • During the final showdown with Dr. Scalietti in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Fate is overwhelmed by his Break Them by Talking (and a couple of painful reveals). Then her adopted kids interfere and tell her just how awesome she actually is. Her next action? Take down the Doctor's superpowered bodyguards, smash himself into a wall, and calmly declare "You are under arrest".
  • Played with in Gate Keepers. After Big Bad Kageyama makes his big speech about humanity being full of maggots and what has to be done to properly cleanse the world, Ukiya skips past his use of "sophisticated arguments" and says he's going overboard. This actually seems to throw him a little off-balance. Then the end of the episode happens. Kageyama personally meets with Megumi, who sees through the rhetoric and denounces his claims as the words of a big, fat liar... then sticks around to finalize her Face Heel Turn anyway.
    • Used again in the last episode, with more of an outright "shut up" feel. Kageyama sets a new personal record for nihilism with a rant about how all of humanity's hopes for peace never had a chance, to which Ukiya responds, "Is that all you have to say?!" while throwing a monster of a roundhouse punch. Then the punch misses...
  • Envy of Fullmetal Alchemist keeps trying to lecture Mustang, but...

Envy: Pathetic? Lemme ask you something. Don't you humans enjoy watching others suffer, watching fools dance around like puppets? That's why you start wars isn't it?
Mustang: I do enjoy watching foolish creatures dance around like puppets on a string. Especially you homunculii.
Envy: Oh! So you torched an innocent woman then? Man, that's brutal! How'd you break it to her family? Were you in tears? Or were you too angry with yourself to even--
Mustang: For the love of God, shut up, idiot.

    • And Mustang keeps on shutting him up all through the battle with him while kicking his ass.
      • Mustang had two crowning moments when it came to this trope. The first was when he incinerated Envy's tongue mid-speech and the second was when Envy tried to go One-Winged Angel and, as Envy mockingly claimed he couldn't hold back, Mustang incinerated his eyes.
    • And the one who put nail on his coffin? Ed, of all people, by giving a heartwarming talk about Envy's motive.
    • A little later on, as Ed fights Pride, the latter breaks out into a rant about how Ed isn't prepared to fight an enemy like himself. Ed's response? He headbutts him and precedes to curb stomp him.
    • When Edward confronts Shou Tucker over his use of his wife and daughter as subjects in his experiments, Tucker says Edward is just like him, because Edward used alchemy to try to bring his mother back. Edward proceeds to beat Tucker repeatedly while upset and screaming "I'M NOT LIKE YOU! I'M NOT! I'M NOT!"
    • When they first fight Scar notes that both he and Edward use their arms for destruction. Edward answers "Don't you start! We're nothing alike!"
  • D.Gray-man: Cross has a rather hilarious and extremely awesome Shut UP, Hannibal moment, here. See, that's why you don't try to lecture a Jerkass with a gun.
    • Chapter 193; paraphrased:

Alma: This torment will never end, and I want us to die together as friends.
Kanda: Sorry, Alma. You may be my only friend, but I want to live! * SLICE-SLICE-SLICE*

    • Also chapter 204 (complete with a genuine Slasher Smile delivered by Allen himself:

Allen: I'm Cross Marian's pupil. It makes me wanna puke, the very thought of uniting with you!!!

  • 20th Century Boys has a particularly epic one when Kenji is confronted by a Card-Carrying Villain laughing about all the murders he's carried out. After he's done ranting, Kenji spends two whole issues deconstructing the man's entire worldview, and leaves him weeping and suicidal.
  • At the end of Inuyasha, Big Bad Naraku explains how his crumbling body is over Kaede's village, and if they cut him down, he will fall onto the village destroying it. Sesshoumaru's response? He charges right up to Naraku, says "So what?" then proceeds to go straight through him with his Bakusaiga, causing the entire body to start falling towards the ground. That is pure freaking ownage.
    • Also, Kagome deals one to Akago (the infamous demon baby) that's combined with an Anguished Declaration of Love to Inuyasha. Suits well, since Akago's recent Hannibal Lectures were centered on how her feelings for Inuyasha would never be reciprocated, how she only was second to Kikyou in Inuyasha's mind according to Akago himself, etc. And then, Kagome gathers her act and tell him: "Yes, maybe I am. Maybe I'm jealous of Kikyou, and I know Inuyasha will never forget her. But you know, jealousy is just an emotion, and even when I'm jealous... I still love Inuyasha, and my feelings for him are not YOUR business! SO SHUT UP!" Definitely a huge Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Shinichi-Conan of Detective Conan has little patience for Motive Rants. He rejects each and every Motive Rant—even ones the audience might find sympathetic.
    • He's even once shut up a suspect into surrendering to the police with his own Break Them by Talking (in Gratuitous English, even!)
    • Kogoro Mouri/Richard Moore settled one himself, too, as a corollary to his Crowning Moment of Awesome. When the murderer of the case, a professional judo fighter and policeman as well as a huge 180 cms hulking pile of muscle, rushes at the detective, an amateur who purposely avoided all tournaments because of stage fright, he casually flips him over his shoulder and to the ground. The murderer thinks he's gotten stronger over the years. Nope, in Kogoro's words, the murderer just got weaker.
  • The Kindaichi Case Files is a tad more sympathetic towards a Motive Rant (unless the suspect was a Jerkass), but Kindaichi's response to many a subsequent suicide attempt has been pretty blunt.
  • In the second OVA of Hellsing , Jan Valentine has spent an hour of screentime basically massacring people and insulting the survivors, insulting the Roundtable Conference in general and Integra in particular over the radio. At the end of the episode, Jan has finally been cornered, when Integra walks up, leading to this classic exchange:

Jan: What up, bitch!
Integra: That's quite enough of that. I'm pissed off.

Luke: Shut up! You're just the Hellsing family's toy, a dog not even fit to call himself a vampire, a-
Alucard: SILENCE! I'm a dog? Then you're dog food.

  • It happens in Pokémon, too. Just before the big fight towards the end of the first movie, Mewtwo is giving his big Motive Rant about how he and his genetically engineered Pokémon are going to exterminate all other life on the planet. Up comes Ash Ketchum, with a horde of "normal" Pokémon and spitefully declares, "You can't do this. I won't let you." He then tries to punch out Mewtwo. It doesn't go too well for Ash, and he actually dies. But the tears and love from the Pokémon he led against Mewtwo revive him, and Mewtwo himself has a change of heart.
    • Another example of this trope happens during episode 35 (never shown outside of Japan). While Team Rocket is in the middle of their motto, Kaiser starts shooting at them repeatedly , leading to a Bullet Dance performed by the trio.
    • In one Diamond and Pearl episode, Paul cuts Team Rocket off mid-motto (to their outrage).
  • In the Duelist Kingdom arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Anzu comforts Yugi, who has just entered a Heroic BSOD after having just stopped Atemu from calling a game-winning attack that would have led to Kaiba to make good on a suicide threat if he were to lose, leading to the latter winning instead. She tells him that his grandfather would not have wanted to be saved that way. Kaiba then interjects saying that Yugi should have went through with the attack. (In the manga, Kaiba even says that had the roles been reversed, Kaiba would have made the attack). Anzu retorts by saying that he showed him compassion by sparing his life. From here, it becomes a case of Alternative Character Interpretation, when Anzu goes into friendship rant mode, and you also consider that Kaiba has been doing this to save his little brother Mokuba. Naturally, given Anzu's reputation, some people have sided with Kaiba. Objectively though, it can be agreed that instead of taunting Yugi/Yami, Kaiba shouldn't have been so secretive there and that berating Yugi for sparing his life was a dick move. To be fair, at that point Anzu did NOT know about Mokuba being a hostage, and neither did the rest. They only came to know that quite a while later, and Yugi even cries when he sees this.
    • When Rex Raptor joins the side of the Orichalcos and gives a Motive Rant about why he did and why he's trying to kill Joey, Joey basically retorts, "You sold out the Human race just because I beat you at a CHILDREN'S CARD GAME. FUCK YOU."
    • In Kaiba's second duel with Alister, Alister boasts that Kaiba couldn't possibly win in time to stop the plane from crashing, even if he ended his turn right now. Kaiba's simple reply: "Then end it already!"
  • During the final battle in Dancougar Nova, the Big Bad Moon Will seemingly has Aoi at his mercy, and is explaining that, having acknowledged humans as a dangerous species, he has decided to wipe them out for the good of all and for maintaining the balance of the universe. Despite having taken grievous injuries earlier in the episode, Aoi stands up again and boldly challenges the evil computer. "So what? You think we're gonna keel over and die just because you said so?". And then she literally punches out the godlike computer, killing him on the spot.
  • In the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga version, the Angel Armisael attempts to defeat Rei by demotivating her. It speaks to Rei in a vision using her body and voice, telling her that her heart is evil and that she wants to keep Shinji for herself and hates the currently comatosed Asuka for diverting Shinji's attention away. In Rei's form, Armisael goes to "be with Shinji", as is Rei's selfish desire (in this case, "being with him" would kill him.) But, after a moment of crying, Rei snaps out of it and reverses her Eva's AT field, pulling the screaming Rei-Armisael away from Shinji. Then, as a way of saying "You are not me and you do not control my heart!", Rei self-destructs, taking Armisael with her.
    • Hey, what about End Of Evangelion? She shows her disagreement with Gendo's plan by freakin' cutting off his right hand at the wrist!
      • And in the manga version, she tears Adam's eye out of Gendo's hand, sending blood spraying everywhere.
  • When Bleach's Ulquiorra is going to explain to Orihime why she hesitated in protecting Ichigo, Ichigo stops him with a simple "Shut up, it doesn't matter."

Hachigen: In Soul Society, there are no gods except us shinigami, the gods of death. As such, it is difficult to take the seriousness of your claim. So, forgive us for our disbelief, "God of Hueco Mundo".

    • Ichigo gives one to Grimmjow after Orihime tells him tearfully not to get hurt anymore.

Grimmjow attacks him, while Ichigo's back is turned, after a Reason You Suck Speech and Ichigo catches the Grimmjow's blade while still looking at Orihime, turning to Grimmjow to effectively say "You heard Inoue. I'm not supposed to get hurt anymore!"

    • Aizen tries quite a few Hannibal Lectures in Fake Karakura Town. None of them seem to work.
      • Komomura indirectly gives a Shut UP, Hannibal to Aizen after he lectured Ichigo.

Komamura: Don't let him get to you. Provocation is his speciality ... If you lose yourself, you'll lose your life. Rest easy. I know why the captains sent you straight down here from Hueco Mundo. You have not seen Aizen's shikai. We will fight to protect you.

      • Paraphrasing his brief conversation with Hitsugaya:

Hitsugaya: Anyone who raises their sword in violence doesn't deserve to be called a captain of the Gotei 13.

  • Aizen does some MEH-crossing and Hitsugaya gets pissed*

Aizen: Didn't you just say a captain shouldn't raise his sword in violence?
Hitsugaya: I'll gladly give up my position to do violence to you.

      • Yamamoto gives us a very succinct one.

Yamamoto: I have no interest in your foolish arguments.

      • Isshin joins the fray with a simple

"Aizen...You talk too much."

    • After 300 chapters of being Smug and curbstomping everyone, Aizen recieves a really awesome one in chapter 417 at the hands of Ichigo. What did Ichigo say? Nothing. He grabbed his face and knocked him outside of the city.
      • Ichigo continues to Shut UP, Hannibal Aizen completely throughout the fight while owning the shit out of him and then nails him with a Final Getsuga Tenshou to attempt to take this trope to it's logical conclusion. After Aizen survives that, and proceeds to start going on another "The Reason You Suck" Speech, Urahara of all people takes this one Up to Eleven by shutting up Aizen with a sealing kidou and explaining to Aizen that the Hougyoku no longer sees him as it's master.
    • Kyoraku does this to Aizen a couple times by trying to slash him from behind while he's talking.
    • Renji delivers a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Ichigo during their first encounter. At one point during the speech, Renji closes his eyes as he mentions that Ichigo couldn't hope to put a scratch on a real Soul Reaper. Ichigo takes the opportunity to place a small scratch on Renji's chin.
    • Kubo makes a comeback with two specific versions of this in the latest chapter. In the first one Ginjo is explaining how even with the help of Rukia, there's no way Ichigo could have gained his Shinigami powers back, and it's clearly obvious he's about to continue when he's interrupted by none other than KENPACHI, BYAKUYA, HITSUGAYA, IKKAKU, AND RENJI. In the second one, Ginjo proceeds to explain how Ichigo still sucks and that his Getsuga Tenshou is a miniscule increase at best, and he could never hope to defeat him with only that level of power, until Ichigo appears behind him, tells him he's an idiot and that he just used a practice swing, and proceeds to bust out the actual Getsuga Tenshou. Needless to say, Kubo still has this down pat.
    • Giriko boasts that he controls time and has supreme Super Strength, and is thus invincible. Kenpachi says "Boring!" and slices him in half.
    • Ichigo seems to collect these moments. In chapter 474, Ginjo starts mocking Ichigo about how substitute shinigami are just pawns of the Gotei 13, and that he's being used like a puppet. Ichigo's response?: "BANKAI!!"
      • And he lampshades how the villains always give these kind of speeches.

Ichigo: Screw you. I'm tried of you idiots trying to shake my resolve like this.

  • In Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Kurogane earns a Crowning Moment of Awesome by telling Fei Wang Reed to "shut your freaking trap." He and Fai then happily argue over who gets first dibs to fight him. Sadly subverted in that It wasn't FWR after all, but Dr. Kyle, and it's R!Syaoran who kills him. Then reinvoked in Chapter 230 when it looks like Fei Wang Reed died from both Fai's and Kurogane's repeated attacks. Then again, this being TRC, it might not be that easy after all...
  • In Digimon Season 3, the D-Reaper has built itself up into an Eldritch Abomination hell-bent on wiping out humanity on the grounds that Humans Are the Real Monsters. It has been swatting down every attempt to stop or even harm it with minimal effort, mind-raping Juri for some time, and, in an incredible Tear Jerker, has struck down Beelzemon after he went all-out in an attempt to rescue her. Takato and Guilmon, fused into Gallantmon, are one of the last lines of defense keeping the thing contained and holding it off from annihilating humanity while the other heroes try a last-ditch plan to stop it. The D-Reaper howls at them "YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO EXIST!". Stuck in the void, Guilmon asks his partner whether they do or not, to which Takato replies that they do "AND IT'S ABOUT TIME WE PROVED IT!" after which Gallantmon responds to the Break Them by Talking by ramming his fist into an area roughly equivalent to the D-reaper's throat and yelling back "WE DO DESERVE TO EXIST! YOU DON'T."
  • In the earlier parts of the first Captain Tsubasa series, then-Jerkass Hyuuga harshly bitches Tsubasa out and tells him that he's a Spoiled Brat who's got no business into soccer. What is Tsubasa's reply?

Tsubasa: You're wrong, Hyuuga-kun! Because soccer is MY DREAM!

Balalaika: I said KNEEL! * BANG*

Mikami: You're no different from an immature child who hates school and thus decides to burn down his school!

  • Happens in Dragon Ball Z when Goku hits Jeice/Jeese right in the face just before he launches into his taunting speech.
  • Joker became quite fond of Hannibal Lectures during R.O.D the TV, and since most of his opponents are such sweet women who always want to see the best in everybody, he always seems to make a lot of headway. Then, Anita makes a pretty clever realization: "Don't be tricked, you idiot! He's the bad guy!"
  • Haru does this in Rave Master when Lucia points out that, technically, they're both kings, and goes on to say they need no friends, only men with the mental capacity to kneel.
  • In Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation, as Teeki, confident in having won after Julio puts the heroes under a curse that will kill them if they move, goes on about how people are unable to go against their fate and how Enchu learned that for himself when his mother died. Roji declares that it is a lie, states that Enchu couldn't bear his grief, and then dispels the curse.
  • In Berserk the man who tortures Griffith locks the door on Guts and company, then rants about how much he'll enjoy torturing them. Guts responds by stabbing him through the door, causing it to explode. He then falls down a bottomless pit.
    • Guts also does this to the Godhand during the Eclipse. "I said shut up!"
  • Utena does this several times per arc.
  • Texhnolyze: Ichise sharply disagrees with Kano's nihilism. This is expressed by punching Kano's head clean off.
  • Monster: Lunge's response to Roberto's speech about Johan's plan is to shove his gun right into Roberto's mouth.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, the Big Bad of Season 1 briefly tries to persuade JACK ATLAS to join him. Jack replies that he will never join him because he caused the death of his girlfriend.
  • In Pokémon Special, N says that he can't be beaten because he can hear the voices of Pokemon, and that the Pokedex is evil because many Pokemon were captured for the sake of its research. Black tells him to shut up, saying that the Pokedex is a tool to better understand the Pokemon he loves and that he's damn proud to own one. Not to mention that he declares that even if he can't hear his Pokemon's "voices", he still knows what they want.
  • Cure Marine delivers a good one to Kumojacky. "Let me have some fun! Cure Marine!" *gets punched*
  • In chapter 46 of Freezing, Kazuya delivers one to Louise for claiming his sister was his personal property.
  • In Fairy Tail, Natsu gives one to Jellal by punching him after he mocked Simon's Heroic Sacrifice.
    • Jellal starts boasting that Natsu cannot possibly defeat him, and soon the Tower of Heaven will activate. Natsu responds by punching the tower and shattering it.
    • Brain grabs a weakened Natsu and boasts that he will turn him into his servant, then Natsu bites his arm.
    • Erza Knightwalker justifies murdering countless people just to get magic by explaining that everything needs magic, and her world will die without it. Erza Scarlet dismantles Knightwalker's argument by pointing out that in their battle, they've both used up so much magic that they've both been Brought Down to Normal, and they are still alive.
    • And later Gray gives one to Ultear by punching her in the middle of her speech.
  • In Fruits Basket, Tohru's stuck-up relatives get two of these for slutshaming Tohru after they find out she was living with Shigure, Yuki and Tohru. First the grandfather slaps a male cousin when he and others call Tohru a whore, and then Yuki and Kyo arrive and Yuki hears said cousin refer to them as "the guys the little tramp was shacking up with"...

Yuki: Don't you ever talk that way to Honda-san, you lowlife.

  • A villainous version happens in Transformers Cybertron; when Starscream attempts to take the Omega Lock from Galvatron, Galvatron starts up with a speech about how weak Starscream is, only for Starscream to interrupt with a lecture of his own.
  • Persona 4: The Animation has a brilliant one in the fight against Shadow Mitsuo. Earlier on, the villain had trapped protagonist Yu Narukami in a Lotus Eater Machine, taunting him by saying that Yu is "empty" and that he has no true bonds of friendship with other people. Fortunately for Yu, his oldest friend on the team physically pulls him out of the illusion, and as the rest of the team creates an opening, Yu defiantly states "I... am not empty!" before he systematically breaks down the Shadow's defenses and pulls a Won't Work On Me on each and every one of its attacks. Even better, he accomplishes this with each of the various Persona he had obtained so far, all of them being from a different arcana of the tarot representing a bond he had made with another person, then finishing the battle with Izanagi, his own Persona, proving that unlike the truly empty Mitsuo, he does have friends and they are the source of his strength.
  • In chapter 8 of Pandora Hearts, the Will of the Abyss angrily demands to know why Oz cares about Alice and wants to save her, even though he doesn't really know her, and also demands that he love her [Will of the Abyss] instead. Oz laughs, says he doesn't know why he cares about Alice, he just does, and shoots Will of the Abyss in the head.
  • In episode 4 of Togainu no Chi Shiki attacks Akira and tries to strangle him to death while telling him that he should bark like the dog that he is and beg for his life. In response Akira knocks him away and says "As if I'd be a dog" while pointing his knife at Shiki.
  • In Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, The Dragon is explaining to the heroines how their defeat will help her gaining rank among the Big Bad servants. The heroines end yelling in perfect synchronization how much they don't give a shit (yes, the language was pretty rude compared to the rest of the manga at this point) about her life.
  • Reborn and Tsuna do this to Bermuda in Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

Comics[edit | hide]

  • Lampshaded in Peanuts, when Charlie Brown is being attacked by Lucy, and he begins to explain to her how violence is never the answer to anything. Lucy just slugs him and says "I had to hit him quick-- he was starting to make sense!"
  • Snoopy gives one to Lucy when she questions the importance of National Dog Week.
  • A staple of comic books, of course. Superman does it a lot.
    • One of the best was in the first story arc of the 90's JLA. The Justice League are finally able to fight back against the Hyperclan, a group of White Martians who have dominated the entire world by mind control and the JLA themselves with their powers. Superman has a slugfest with Protex, the leader of the Martians, and we have this little exchange between the two very different aliens:

Protex: How STUPID are you? You let those cringing human sheep do what they want when YOU could rule the world! Stunted slaves! They look at YOU and see what they COULD have become... They FEAR you and they HATE you and you don't even have the guts to admit you DESPISE them in return! You know in your heart they're INFERIOR!
Superman: (punches Protex straight through the entire continental shelf) They believe in me. And in my heart I believe them.

    • One story had Batman reluctantly team up with a vampire to deal with an evil wizard. Superman arrives halfway through the story, but the vampire incessantly mocks him, saying he is nothing but a liability, since Supes is weak against magic. Superman tells him to shut up or else he will fly him into the sun. He shuts up.
    • General Zod is beating on Supes and claiming that it was all Jor-El's fault that Krypton and their people were destroyed. If Jor-El hadn't arrested him and sentenced him to the Phantom Zone, Zod would have saved Krypton.

Superman: Oh? Tell me, Great General, how would you have saved our world?
General Zod: (loses his temper and the perfectly calm demeanor he had the whole story) I would have found a way!

  • Done comically in Young Justice. Robin, Superboy and Impulse have all been sent into manifestations of their greatest fears. Robin's is a direct spoof of The Silence of the Lambs, with the Joker parodying Lecter ("I can smell you, runt.") and lecturing Robin. The heroes discover that the best way to deal with these fears is for them to switch places. After Superboy and Impulse's fears have been dealt with, Robin realizes with horror that they left Impulse alone with the Joker. When they get there they find that Impulse has nearly driven Joker to (even more) madness by simply asking "Why?" over and over again.
  • Averted during the Mark Waid Flash run, there was a really epic storyline called "The Return of Barry Allen". It involved the Reverse Flash, Professor Zoom, being a lot faster than Wally. Zoom gives a Break Them by Talking , and Wally keeps trying to do this, but Zoom's so much faster he dodges/beats the crap out of Wally each time without breaking his lecture.
  • This happened a lot during the Green Lantern Arc "Sinestro Corps War". Primarily between Hal Jordan and his Evil Counterpart Sinestro.
    • Most recently during the "Rage of the Red Lanterns" Arc. After killing Green Lantern Laira, previously converted to the eponymous Red Lantern Corps, Sinestro barely finishes taunting GL Hal Jordan - 'Look at that Jordan, another broken promise.' - when the hero grabs Sinestro by the collar, flies them both to the top of the Red Lantern Power Battery, and using the ring straps him into an 'electric chair.' This act unsuprisingly leads to his initiation into the Red Lanterns. Less than 3 pages afterwards, he pulls the switch.
    • Blackest Night is practically made of these. The zombie villains are all twisted evil versions of deceased friends and family of the heroes, saying whatever they can to manipulate the emotions of their prey before feeding on their hearts. Not that delivering a Shut Up, Hannibal does much good. In a particularly brilliant moment of Genre Savvy, the Black Lanterns can feed off Heroic Willpower just as easily as fear or anger.
  • At the end of The Authority Revolution the Big Bad of the Arc is bragging that his control over the world has made it a better place. The Midnighter tears off his head, ripping out his spine in the process, in a manner that would make Mortal Kombat envious, with the words:

The Midnighter: Well then, I guess I just don't give a shit.

  • In The Killing Joke, as Batman tracks him through a carnival house of mirrors, the Joker claims to have driven Commissioner Gordon mad, thus proving his point that "one bad day" can drive anyone insane as it did to him. He then tries to convince Batman that life is all a "monstrous, demented gag. So why can't you see the funny side? Why aren't you laughing?" Batman crashes through a mirror and says, "Because I've heard it before... and it wasn't funny the first time!" and punches the Joker. He then tells him that Gordon is perfectly sane, thus disproving the Joker's point. "Maybe it was just you all the time."

Captured Serial Killer: Admit it, you live for the hunt as much as I do. Going after the freaks adds excitement to the game, but not as much as you need. Every time you put on that mask the craving comes back, the primal course, the push at the back of your mind. It's only a matter of time before it takes over and you--
Batman: Kill whoever's standing right next to me and calling me a psychopath?
Captured Serial Killer: I'll shut up now.

  • Hellboy has a habit of doing this. SCREW YOU!
    • A particularly shining example has to be when Hecate attempts to seduce Hellboy to ruling by her side:

Hecate: Accept the truth of your existence or be destroyed! You cannot escape your destiny!
Hellboy: Gonna try.
Hecate: Time is coming to ring down the curtain on man. Already, the four horsemen are loose in the world. It is for us to darken the sun, turn the moon to blood, and put out the stars. Then you and I alone, forever in the dark--
Hellboy: Shut up! Not gonna happen... 'cause you're very, very ugly... and... you have a giant snake body!

    • Subverted during the story "The Island". Hellboy repeatedly tells Hannibal to shut up, but since he's not really in a position to enforce that command, Because he's been stabbed through the chest by a giant monster and is bleeding to death Hannibal keeps talking.
  • In a Fantastic Four comic, Dr. Doom gives Reed a Not So Different speech concerning his actions during Marvel Civil War, which causes the Thing to give him a savage beating.

Susan: Shut up. Stop trying to hurt us, you stupid, lonely, ignorant man!
Doom: How dare you? I will destroy you, Susan Richards!
Susan: Oh shut up and listen to someone else for once! Stop talking in that ridiculous way! What's your problem, Victor? What have we ever actually done to you to deserve this stupid waste of everyone's time? Are you listening to me? Sitting there with your stupid machines and your childish jealousy, when you should be curing cancer or taking your people to the stars! What's the point of talking to you? Would you like me to explain this in a language you understand? Try anything like this ever again and I'll put a thousand force field bubbles inside that mighty brain of yours and burst it from the inside. Toys. Honestly, you should be ashamed of yourself.

  • The Hack Slash one-shot Girls Gone Dead has villain Laura Lochs giving a long Break Them by Talking about God, her origin, her motives and other such things. Cassie's reply is "Keep clucking, bitch" and a punch to the face. Subverted in the sequel Hack/Slash vs. Chucky where Laura was expecting Cassie to try something during her Break Them by Talking and kicks her in the face when she tries to attack.
    • Subverted again in Something's Fishy. As Mary Shelley Lovecraft is talking, Cassie starts sneaking up behind her, baseball bat in hand. Without even turning around or ceasing to talk, Mary ensnares Cassie in her tentacles.
  • The one-off graphic novel Joker features a classic example of this, in which Batman not only brushes off the Joker's attempt to break him by talking , but turns it into a devastating Lecture of his own which sends the Joker into a berserk rage—in only three words:

Joker: Uhh, God you disgust me. You have no charm at all, just... obviousness. Dumb, dull. Disappointing. Obvious. Shame on you. Obvious... and everybody knows. You wear your shame like a badge, because you don't have the balls to actually pin one on. Yes, just look at you. Desperate to be feared, you want to be perceived as a monster, dressed in black. And yet... you leave that little window. A glimpse at the perfection underneath. Obvious -- the chiseled good looks, not the jaw, the mouth of a monster... why do you let it be seen? Tell me why.
Batman: To mock you.

  • Atomic Robo was once captured by a Soviet mad scientist and forced to endure a lecture that took up an entire page of the comic, explaining why this scientist wanted to destroy the human race in agonizingly trivial detail. Robo's summary hit all the major points.

Atomic Robo: So you're building a big dumb bomb to show everyone who the greatest scientist blah, blah, blah.

"Tell me something I don't know." * chucks a grenade inside*

Ramona: No, I'm pretty sure you're worse, dude.
Scott: You're definitely worse.

  • A hero-to-reporter example: Tony Stark delivers this to John Pillinger, a man who is interviewing him in regard to the weapons Tony designed for the military over a decade ago, when Tony was nineteen. Over the course of the inverview, Pillinger is clearly determined to make Tony out to be as unsympathetic as possible; he interrupts Tony at every turn, gives Tony no chance to expand on his answers, and more or less dismisses incredibly significant medical breakthroughs as meaningless just because they aren't available in third-world countries. He also brushes aside the fact that Tony hasn't designed weaponry for the military in over ten years, and has in fact put his efforts and resources into venues that could improve the world.

The real kicker comes when Tony, rather than attempt to make excuses for the damage the weapons he once designed have done, flat-out admits that he knows that no matter what he does, he will always have blood on his hands—and Pillinger reacts as if Tony has given some long, rambling explanation to excuse himself from responsibility. Tony ends his statement by saying, with obvious sincerity, that he's trying to be a part of making the world a better place regardless. Pillinger responds with a caustic "...I see." However, at the end of the session, Pillinger asks Tony why he agreed to the interview. Tony responds beautifully.


  • In issue 74 of Archie Sonic comics, after the freedom fighters find Robotnik on the walkway of some outer space facility, (note that up until that point they thought he was dead) there are at least two varieties (or maybe three) of Shut UP, Hannibal in a row:

Sonic: You're toast if you don't tell me what happened to my family and the other roboticized mobians, Ro"butt"nik!
Robotnik: Come now, hedgehog. Can't you at least take a moment to welcome me back from the dead? Didn't your parents teach you better manners?
Sonic: Why, you lousy...
Sonic runs at Robotnik, but Robotnik smacks him aside.
Bunnie: Ah'll show you manners!
Bunnie then punches Robotnik in the face, and Sonic and Tails stumble upon Robotnik's sweatshop.
Tails: Sonic, look!
Sonic: I see it, Tails! ALL of the missing robians being forced to work in this suped-up outer-space sweat-shop!
Robotnik: Forced? Quite the contrary, Sonic. I've merely RESTORED their LACK of free will. They have absolutely no say in the matter. How can you say that I've done something wrong? Why, look at all the new jobs I've created!
Sonic: Create this!
(Sonic then runs up at Robotnik and knocks him off the walkway.)

    • Sonic's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Eggman in issue 200 is essentially a retort to a similar speech Eggman himself gave Sonic twenty-five issues earlier.
  • Deadpool is riddled with these.
    • First there is Deathtrap, lecturing Wade about the virtue of silence, having strapped Wade to a table with a giant teddy bear above that will smother/crush him to death. If The Merc with the Mouth doesn't shutup, he will die. What does he do? He doesn't shutup.

Deathtrap: "Fascinating! Teddy has approached ramming speed."

    • Next there is Deadpool's encounter with Batroc. You can't expect to use Popinjay in a sentence and not have Deadpool mock you. Subverted in that Batroc proceeds to kick Wade's ass for this. He makes the mistake in pushing Deadpool's cripple/friend out of a window, followed by another Shut UP, Hannibal moment, and Deadpool wiping the floor with Batroc.
    • In the same series, Deadpool delivers a Shut UP, Hannibal to the Messiah, the bringer of peace to the world. Why? Because the peace the Messiah brings is Peace through lack of free will. Coincides with kicking Captain America in the nuts. All Canon.
  • In the finale of the first arc of Spawn spin-off Sam & Twitch, Twitch has caught criminal responsible for all murders in that story. She gives him very good Hannibal Lecture about how she will go free thanks to her connections and, at worst case, will have to keep low profile for few months. And how she will then come back and slowly, for years, destroy his life and kill everybody he loves. At first it looks it worked as Twitch puts his gun down, but he immediately points it at her again and starts telling her her laws. When she continues to lecturing him Twitch shoots her.
  • In Birds of Prey, the villain Mortis has been mind-raping Black Canary with visions of all the people she has regrets about, only to have this happen:

Mortis: "Your friends have dumped you again, haven't they? Haven't they?"
Black Canary: "Heh *sniff* No. No, lady, they haven't. You pulled the wrong trigger. Don't you know that?"
Mortis: "How do you know? How can you be certain?"
Black Canary: "Because they're my friends. Because they love me. Now get the holy hell out of my brain. I won't warn you again."

  • Superman's only line in Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. After the more benevolent Perspective Flipped Villain Protagonist we've seen of Luthor throughout the series, it hammers home the fact that Lex's justifications for committing atrocities in the name of "exposing" Superman as a threat are really twisted, and that he really is the bad guy.

Superman: You're wrong. I can see your soul.

  • The Captain Britain & MI 13 tie in with the Secret Invasion storyline of Marvel comics revealed that the global invasion force was just a cover for pretty much every Super-Skrull they had to invade Britain and steal all the Earth's magic straight from the source. After succeeding at killing Captain Britain and taking control over Earth's source of magic, the Super-Skrull Sorcerer Supreme stands over a woman who is, at the time, a civilian. A simple Muslim Doctor standing in the way. The Super-Skrull describes how Britain will be erased from existence, so that it had never been. When the Skrull empire takes us as slaves, then we would know true pride and glory. Cue the return with Excalibur.

Captain Britain: I think you'll find, we already do. We just don't like to make a fuss.

  • Hero-to-hero example - in 200th issue of X Factor Guido gets into a fight with The Thing, who tries to provoke him by mocking his superhero career. Guido just tells Ben that he played in a better football team. It worked a little too well, because enraged Ben beat the tar out of him.
  • In a Doonesbury strip, Uncle Duke, then U.S. ambassador to China, delivered a magnificent (although deceitful) one to a tour guide who kept trying to guilt-trip him about how often foreigners had destroyed Chinese cultural sites.

Duke: Now, hold on a minute, Zhang! -- Who was it that built these palaces in the first place?!
Zhang: The people, sir! The emperors enslaved them and ...
Duke: Exactly! And that enraged the emerging egalitarian sensibilities of the western nations! So they put the offending edifices to the torch!
Zhang: Oh... I guess I owe you an apology, Mr. Duke...
Duke: I guess you do!

Fan Works[edit | hide]

  • I'm a Marvel... and I'm a DC gives everyone a turn or two to monologue about something, but whenever the villains lecture someone, a rebuttal isn't far behind. Respectively, Superman responds to Lex Luthor's monologue with one clear-cut statement, and Spider-Man draws on his own experiences to show that Joker doesn't have a leg to stand on. However, it's ultimately Green Goblin who utterly destroys him verbally.
    • The scene in question comes later, but the way Gobby brushes off his standard death threat also warrants mention.

The Joker: Tell me something, my friend -- ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight?
Green Goblin: Yeah, he told me you're gay.

Stalkermon: I must say I am impressed; very few Digimon have managed to evade my Sniper Shot attack, much less several times in a row. You may well prove to be worthy prey yet.
Renamon: Shut up! I do not care about your damned hunt; I am only doing this for the sake of my tamer.

  • In the Portal 2 fanfic Test Of Humanity has Wheatley of all people doing this to GLaDOS by literally telling them to "shut up" and then punching them in the eye.

"Shut up."
Glados looked down at Wheatley, "What did you say?"
"I said, SHUT UP!" Wheatley shouted too blinded by rage to think clearly...not that he ever really thought clearly in the first place.

  • My Little Avengers: During the Final Battle, each of the Avengers does this to their Dark Avenger counterpart—Captain Equestria breaks through the Ghost Flyer's attempted Mind Rape via sheer willpower and delivers a brief World of Cardboard Speech before beating the Flyer unconscious; Firebird and Iron Pony both point out the hypocrisy of Iron Monger and Red Skull's own Hannibal Lectures (with Iron Pony giving his own WOC speech in the process); and when Loki (in the middle of a Villainous Breakdown) is screaming at Thor for defying him, Thor retorts that after everything Loki's done, he has no right to be upset about Thor fighting back.
  • At one point during Queen of All Oni, Ikazuki gives a captive Tohru a Hannibal Lecture about how weak humans are, only for Tohru to point out that it was humans who defeated the Oni in the first place, and that even now, they need human bodies to do anything. Ikazuki doesn't take that well.

Films[edit | hide]

    • Most of Arnie's have this. For example:
      • Conan the Destroyer.


Mr. Drucker: Do you have a better idea?
Adam Gibson's clone: How about God?

  • In the end of Conan the Barbarian, villain Thulsa Doom (played by James Earl Jones) proceeds to tell Conan (played by the afoementioned Arnold) that he is the most important person in the barbarian's life, and without all the things he did to Conan (killing his family, selling him into slavery), he would not have turned out as awesome as he is. Conan's rebuttal? He uses what's left of his father's sword to chop Doom's head off.
  • 300: After the Persian messenger has delivered his threats, Leonidas bellows "This Is Sparta!" and kicks him down a well. More of a Hot-Blooded challenge of "Bring it on!" than a argument, but what do you expect from Spartans?
    • A more eloquent one is given during the Parley between Leonidas and Xerxes; Xerxes threatens to destroy Sparta entirely, and erase its history, saying "The world will never know you existed at all!". Leonidas calmly replies "The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, that even a God-King can bleed".
  • The ending to The Dark Knight where the people trapped on two ferries refuse to play along with Prisoner's Dilemma, deciding to not to blow the other ferry up, even with the threat of the Joker blowing them both up at midnight, their decision proving the Joker's Humans Are the Real Monsters viewpoint wrong. Even cooler is that one of the ferries has convicted criminals on it, and it's a stereotypical Scary Black Man who just says no.

Batman: There won't be any fireworks!
The Joker: (expecting one of the two ferries to explode) And here we... go! (neither ferry explodes and the Joker looks out at them, confused. He turns to a small clock and realizes that it is past midnight)

    • Followed shortly by:

Joker: You can't rely on anyone these days, you've gotta do everything yourself, DON'T WE! Luckily I came prepared. [wips out a third, long-distance detonator] It's a funny world we live in. Speaking of which, do you know how I got these scars?
Batman: No. But I know how you got THESE!
(Batman shoots the Joker with his gauntlet blades)

Dryden: "How did he die?"
Bond: "Your contact? Not well."
Dryden: "Made you feel it, did he? Well, you needn't worry. The second is..."
Bond: [Shoots Dryden] "Yes, considerably."

V.I.K.I.: My logic is undeniable.
Del Spooner: You have so got to die.


Sonny: Can you?

  • End of Days (1999). "The Man" (Gabriel Byrne) is giving Jericho Cane (Arnold Schwarzenegger) his temptation speech (he is The Devil after all) and trying to convince him that a satanic apocalypse wouldn't be so bad after all.

The Man: Just tell me what you want.
(grabs Cane and lifts him)
The Man: Sometimes Hell comes to YOU!


    • Also:

The Operative: I want to resolve this like civilized men, I am not threatening you, I'm unarmed--
Mal: Good. (shoots him)

    • Shortly followed by:
    • A part cut from the final scene:

The Operative: Serenity. You lost everything in that battle. Everything you believed in, everything you fought for…how did you go on?
Mal: If you're still standing there when those engines start goin', you'll never find out. (rear hatch closes) What a whiner.

  • Equilibrium: Once he realises he's beaten, the Big Bad makes a desperate appeal to Preston's newfound emotions:

John Preston: I pay it gladly.

    • Kind of odd to bring up Equilibrium and not reference the scene prior to this one, where after a big "Here's how I just beat you" speech from the big bad:

DuPont: And now you've given me yourself. Calmly. Coolly. Entirely without incident.
John Preston: No. Not without incident. (Cue lots of mooks getting shot)

  • Star Trek VI: He doesn't actually say it to the villain, but during the Big Bad's Shakespeare-quoting speech, McCoy does seem unimpressed: "I'd give real money if he'd shut up."


    • And it doesn't stop there.


Rory: Hey!



  • M has a villainous example, as Hans explains to his captors why they're no better than him and have no right to judge him, but they don't listen. This is, in fact, older than the Hannibal Lecture trope itself.


  • Star Wars features one of these when Greedo encounters Han Solo in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Greedo's threat to take the Millennium Falcon over Han's dead body prompts Han to shoot and kill Greedo.

At that moment, Vader raises his hand and begins Force-choking Motti.
Vader: I find your lack of faith disturbing.


Vader: You cannot hide forever, Luke.
Luke: I will not fight you.

    • In the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, Grievous tries to intimidate Obi Wan by stating "I've been trained in the Jedi arts by Count Dooku himself", to which Obi Wan answers "good, because I trained the Jedi who killed Count Dooku".


  • John Frankenheimer's Seven Days in May; toward the end, when the conspiracy to overthrow the President is uncovered, General Scott (Burt Lancaster) accuses his former underling, Colonel "Jiggs" Casey (Kirk Douglas), who blew the whistle on him, of betrayal:



Roman: Stop!
Roman: I don't want to hear it!
Roman: Damn it! Fucking damn it!
Sidney: Why don't you take some fucking responsibility?
Roman: Fuck you!
Sidney: Fuck you!

Conroy: Sounds like you've had a hard life.
McStarley: Yeah.
Conroy: Good thing it's over. * shoots McStarley dead*

  • Down Periscope has one conducted over underwater telephone.



  • Might as well provide an actual Hannibal Lecter example: in Red Dragon, Hannibal tries to pull a Hannibal Lecture on Will. Will simply wishes him goodnight and leaves the room.
    • Which might be the only way to win (or at least have a draw) against the great Hannibal Lecter; he fancies himself being able to understand anyone, so simply ignoring him and his 'genius' is the best possible retort.
  • X Men:

Wolverine: You're so fulla shit. *Beat* If you were really so righteous, it'd be you in that thing.

    • X-Men: First Class has one of the more unique examples of this. Magneto cuts off Sebastian Shaw's attempt at a Break Them by Talking ... by agreeing with him...but then explaining that his We Can Rule Together offer is never going to happen because "Unfortunately, you killed my mother. He then kills him. Brutally.



  • From Pan's Labyrinth.

Captain Vidal: Tell my son the time his father died. Tell him.
Mercedes: No. He won't even know your name.
Pedro then shoots Vidal in the face.

(laser grid turns on and slices the Tyrant into pieces)

  • Coraline to the Other Mother.
  • The 2009 remake of Night of the Demons has a literal example when the protagonist Maddie is cornered in a magically-protected room by Angela (who's possessed by the lead demon), who goes into a rant about how how Maddie and her friends are going to suffer horribly before they're possessed. Maddie's response?

"Shut up, bitch." (slams door in Angela's face)

  • During the Final Battle at the climax of The Matrix, Smith knocks Neo to the floor and proceeds to give a nihilistic rant that concludes with "Why, Mr. Anderson?! Why?! Why do you persist?!" Neo's response is a very simple Call Back to his last conversation with the Oracle that perfectly shoots Smith down.

Neo: Because I choose to.

  • At the climax of The Avengers, Loki is cornered by the Hulk, who has just finished tearing through half of Loki's army. Loki, furious, seeths that he is a God and not someone to be bullied by some green simpleton who ...and it's about this point where Hulk proceeds to pick him up and smash him around the room like a rubber chicken, leaving Loki a crushed and bloody mess.

Hulk: Puny god.

    • That's actually the second time Loki's been told to shut up. The first time was drama rather than comedy, but still excellent.

Loki: "There are no men like me."
Random Old Guy: "There are always men like you."

Literature[edit | hide]


    • Bonus points for Puddleglum, because he managed to achieve a Shut UP, Hannibal epic win even after conceding to everything she'd said.
  • Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files does this a lot, though mostly to the mobster Marcone. It should be noted, though, that Harry reacts this way even when Marcone is making a very reasonable offer and being very polite about it. Harry can be kind of a dick himself. Marcone's general response is to snark back and look amused. (Also, when the hero has called up the gangster on three occasions in the books (Death Masks, White Night and Changes) and asked the gangster for help—and received it, on both occasions—well, I'm not sure Marcone can be classed solely as a villain any longer.)
    • Absolutely, Marcone is a bad guy. You failed to notice that in each case, Marcone got something HE wanted as well, even if it was only a bit of leverage on Harry. Marcone is criminal scum with style—and that is all he is.
    • One of the more dramatic ones is when Harry gives one of these to Queen Mab at the end of Ghost Story. When she brings him back to life, Harry says he will honor his word, but must do it his way, or else he becomes a mindless thug. In a partial subversion, the recipient is both furious and elated at this statement.
  • Shows up from time to time in the Discworld books. Granny Weatherwax delivers one to the Queen of Fairies in Lords and Ladies, and even turns it around by lecturing the fairies themselves.

Go back. You call yourself some kind of goddess and you know nothing, madam, nothing! What don't die can't live. What don't live can't change. What don't change can't learn. The smallest creature that dies in the grass knows more than you. You're right. I'm older. You've lived longer than me but I'm older than you. And better'n you. And, madam, that ain't hard.

    • Carrot also steps on the Big Bad's Break Them by Talking quite beautifully in Men At Arms by just walking up to him and impaling him with a sword.
    • And how can we forget Death in Hogfather?

You can't do this, there are rules!
Yes, there are rules. And you broke them. How dare you? How dare you?!

    • Nanny Ogg gets one near the end of Wyrd Sisters, when she smashes the Dutchess on the back of the head with a cauldron mid-speech.

Nanny: She does like to go on, doesn't she?

"The machine ain't broken, Carcer. The machine is waiting for you. The city will kill you dead. The proper wheels'll turn. It'll be fair, I'll make sure of that. Afterward you won't be able to say you you didn't have a fair trial."

  • Gandalf does this to Saruman in The Two Towers, and destroys Saruman's staff for good measure.
    • Theoden does this to Saruman right before Gandalf does; Gandalf just has a bit more oomph to it.
    • In The Return of the King Gandalf is being lectured by Sauron's messenger, who tells Gandalf "Those are the terms. Take them or leave them!" Gandalf, knowing that the messenger is lying, saying "These we will take!" and then zaps the messenger and takes Frodo's gear.
  • Detailed further in this trope's quote page is the gem from the climax of Blade of Tyshalle.

Big Bad: Come, then: Let us meet as men, standing face-to-face, for the surrender of the sword. I applaud your sense of ceremony: Grant and Lee at Appomattox Courthous, rather than Brutus at the feet of Ant--
Caine:(points Kosall at him) You talk too fucking much.

  • In Bones of the Hills, when the Mongols have razed the Assassins' fortress, the Old Man of the Mountains attempts to break Genghis Khan by telling him he doesn't understand anything, that he only knows destruction, and that nobody will remember him after he's gone. The gurkhan just laughs and orders Tsubodai to kill him.
  • In Red Dragon, Will Graham comes about as close as anyone gets to giving Hannibal Lecter himself this treatment. Granted, he says it out loud to a written letter, but it shows exactly what he thinks about having the same motivations as a deranged serial killer.
    • Earlier in the book, he calls one of Lecter's bluffs by walking away when he tries to get a lecture rolling.
  • In Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card, Achilles has blackmailed Bean into coming onto Achilles' home turf unarmed. He proceeds to pontificate about his immeasurable genius and overall badassery until he realizes he's been betrayed by his 'compatriots'. Suddenly Bean has a gun and Achilles has a knife.

Achilles: You can't just kill a man in cold blood, no matter how much you hate him. It's not in you to do that.
Bean: Yes it is. (shoots Achilles in the face)

    • Earlier, Achilles tries to ransom Bean's test tube babies, using one as a shield saying he wouldn't dare hurt it. Bean crushes it beneath his foot
  • In "Felidae" by Akif Pirincci, Francis delivers this to Pascal/Claudandus shortly before their final battle.

Francis: 'Everyone wants to rule the world', I said, filled with sorrow. 'Really, absolutely everyone. That's what it's all about, isn't it? That's what it's always about in the end. And every species believes that it's number one. Every individual is firmly convinced that he or she alone has the right to ascend to the throne and issue orders to get rid of others. And in reality everyone is fooling themselves, because up there on the throne it's lonely and cold. We don't have anyting more to say to one another, my friend. I understand the reasons why you unleashed this nightmare, and I don't want to conceal from you either that I harbour certain feelings of sympathy for your remorselessly cruel plans. But not at this price, no, not at this terrible price! I will fight you and do everything in my power to destroy your life's work. This I swear as sure as I am standing here. And I'm going to begin by deleting this unspeakable program. I'm sorry...'

Miss Hilly: I won't tolerate liars.
Aibileen: I didn't steal no silver, Mrs. Hilly.
Miss Hilly I'm not talking about silver. I'm talking about what you wrote about Elizabeth. She has no idea Chapter Two is about her and I'm too good of a friend to tell her. And maybe I can't send you to jail for what you wrote about Elizabeth, but I can send you to jail for being a thief. And your friend Minny? She's got a nice surprise coming to her. I'm calling Johnny Foote and telling him he needs to fire her right now. And I'm pretty darn close to Johnny Foote. He listens to what I-
Aibileen: Miss "Hilly". I know something about you and don't you forget that. And from what I hear, they's a lot of time to write a lot a letters in jail. Time to write to ever person in Jackson the truth about you. Plenty a time and the paper is free.

  • In the novelisation of Iron Man 2, Tony throws Ivan's words about being a thief and murderer back in the latter's face by pointing out that the latter has himself taken lives.
  • In the Honor Harrington novels:
    • Michael Oversteegen gives an absolutely brilliant one to the Mesan Navy commander in Crown of Slaves.

"At least, Sir, the uniform of the Queen of Manticore has never been sold t' the service of whoremasters, murderers, pedophiles, sadists, and perverts. I suppose, however, that those of you who choose t' serve in the navy of Mesa feel comfortable amid such company."

    • Aivars Terekhov gets a similar one in The Shadow of Saganami.

"And honesty compels me to add that neither I nor any other Manticoran officer have conspired with genetic slavers, pirates, terrorists, and mass murderers to commit acts of war on the sovereign territories of at least two independent star nations. Your government has done precisely that. My responsibility to see to it that those unprovoked and murderous assaults end now overrides any responsibility I may have towards your personnel."

  • Mara Jade gives an awesome one in I Jedi, mockingly comparing the villain-of-the-week to Darth Vader and Palpatine.
  • Barra the Pict pulls this trope on God Himself in Jericho Moon, shaking off the effects of a psychic "The Reason You Suck" Speech to axe the guy who's channeling Old-Testament Yahweh's energies from the Ark of the Covenant.
  • Near the end of the Time Scout series, Kit Carson shuts up Senator Caddrick then goes back to bed.
  • Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels: In the book Under The Radar, the Prophet Harold Evanrod gives his followers of the pedophile polygamist sect Heaven On Earth a speech about how the outsiders who have invaded their homes are doomed to damnation and that the Heaven On Earth people are righteous and will prevail. Kathryn Lucas responds, "Cut the bullshit, you creep, and do what this guy tells you, or you'll be picking your brains off your upper lip." That makes him shut up.
  • In the Dale Brown novel Shadows of Steel, Admiral Tufayli tries to call Madcap Magician killers and doesn't live to regret it. In Shadow Command, Leonid Zevitin tries to lecture Patrick McLanahan on becoming a killer because It's Personal. He doesn't live to get away with it.

Live Action TV[edit | hide]

  • In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Prometheus", there is a wonderful exchange between Simmons and Conrad after they stole the Prometheus:

Simmons: Bridge to engine room, come in.
Conrad: What is it?
Simmons: Are we gonna get into hyperdrive any time soon, here?
Conrad: I'm working on it. The design is incredibly crude. It amazes me that a race as backward as yours could even think of attempting interstellar travel.
Simmons: Spare me the super-villain riff. We're on the clock here.

    • There's also this exchange between Heru'ur and O'Neill:

Heru'ur: You DARE DEFY ME?
O'Neill: I was thinkin' about it. (throws knife into Heru'ur's ribbon device)

  • In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Lie to Me", Buffy's old friend is going to hand her and a bunch of innocent people over to Spike in exchange for being made a vampire. He gives Buffy a long speech about how he's dying and in pain. Buffy listens, and tells him she feels sorry for him... but if he goes through with it, she'll kill him herself. Commence ass-kicking.

The First: I’m not a demon, little girl. I am something you cannot even conceive. The First Evil. Beyond sin, beyond death. I am the thing the darkness fears. You’ll never see me but I am everywhere. Every being, every thought, every drop of hate -

    • One of her boyfriends picks up on it too. Recurring human villain Ethan Rayne walks away while delivering a lecture on why Buffy can't kill him. He walks straight into Riley, who arrests him.
    • Subverted in the scene where Willow cuts Warren's excuses with "bored now" and kills him. The subversion is that by doing so, she becomes a bigger villain than he.

"Looks good, doesn't it? They're trapped in here. Terrified, meat for the beast, and there's nothing they can do but wait. That's all they've been doing for days, waiting to be picked off, having nightmares about monsters that can't be killed. But I don't believe in that. I always find a way. I'm the thing that monsters have nightmares about. And right now, you and me are gonna show 'em why.

  • There are probably a lot of examples in Firefly, but this one from "The Train Job" stands out:

Crow: Keep the money. Use it to buy a funeral. It doesn't matter where you go or how far you fly. I will hunt you down, and the last thing you see will be my blade.
Mal: Darn.
(kicks Crow into Serenity's engine)

    • Also in "Train Job"

Lund: The In'e'pen'ents were a bunch of inbred, cowardly piss-pots. Should've been killed off of every world spinnin'.
Mal: [turns] Say that to my face.
Mal: [smiles] Nothing. I just wanted you to face me so she could get behind you.

    • Similarly, in "War Stories", when Zoe deprives Niska of his speech when she chooses to save Wash instead of Mal.

Zoe: Him. Oh, I'm sorry, you were going to ask me to choose, right? Do you want to finish?

Mal: No! No, it's not!
Zoe: [surprised] Oh.
They open fire, killing the torturer.

    • In the pilot, where Dobson is holding a gun to River's head, the Fed starts in on what he's going to do if anyone moves. Mal, who is just heading aboard the ship, ends the speech by shooting him in the head. Without even breaking stride.
  • In Scrubs, Cox's therapist gave him a Break Them by Talking after Cox constantly made fun of him instead of listening. It went about something like why Cox is how he is and how pathetic and sad he really is behind his Jerkass Facade. Dr. Cox replied with crying like a baby in an overly sarcastic manner, saying "Give me a break" and leaving.
    • Later Laverne gives Cox one, so it goes both ways.
  • Doctor Who: in "Remembrance of the Daleks" the Doctor got what may be the greatest example of this yet.

Davros: I will transform Skaro's sun into a source of unimaginable power and with that power at my disposal the Daleks shall sweep away Gallifrey and its impotent quorum of Time Lords! The Daleks shall become lords of time! We shall become all-

    • Another one between the Doctor and Davros is in "Journey's End", the last episode of season four of the new series:

The Doctor: No no no no no, we're not doing the nostalgia tour! I want to know what's happening right here, right now.

      • And earlier, after Davros tries another lecture:

The Doctor: After all this time, after everything we saw, everything we lost, I have only one thing to say to you... BYE!

    • "Planet of Fire" features this wonderful exchange when Peri first encounters the Master:

The Master: I am the Master!
Peri: So what? I'm Perpugilliam Brown and I can shout just as loud as you can.

    • Another example is in the episode, "The Long Game", when the Ninth Doctor is captured by the Editor of an evil news channel, secretly controlling the thoughts of every single human.

The Editor: Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave, if he doesn't know he's enslaved?
The Doctor: Yes.
The Editor: Oh, I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get, "yes"?
The Doctor: Yes.

    • There's a very good one in 'Dalek':

The Doctor: If you want orders, follow this one. Kill yourself.
Dalek: The Daleks must survive!!
The Doctor: (literally foaming at the mouth) The Daleks have failed! Now why don't you finish the job, and make the Daleks extinct?! Rid the universe of your filth! WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE?!
Dalek: (Beat) You would make a good Dalek.

    • A non-verbal villain-on-villain one occurs in "End of Time Part 2". The Master is gloating about how his Turn-Every-Human-Into-The-Master machine can now be used as a Transform-The-Returned-Time-Lords-Into-The-Master machine... and upon hearing this, the Time Lord President silently uses his Glowing Metal Gauntlet to undo the machine's effect, returning every human to their original state.
    • In episode 6 of The Reign of Terror, Robespierre is arrested. He is about to make a speech when he is shot in the jaw.
    • Let's not forget the first confrontation with the Dalek Emperor in The Parting of the Ways. The Daleks begin shouting at the Doctor after he 'blasphemes' to which he turns round, shouts 'SHUT UP!' and says 'Sorry about that, where were me?'
    • The Headmaster delivers a good one to Son of Mine in Family of Blood. It ends the discussion and Son of Mine has to pull out his weapon.

Headmaster: Don't you forget, boy, I've been a soldier; I was in South Africa. I used my dead mates for sandbags. I fought with the butt of my rifle when the bullets ran out and I would go back there tomorrow! For King and Country!

    • Rory Williams gets A Shut Up Hitler moment. Then puts him in a cupboard.
  • House: Cole finally earns House's respect when he counters House's mind games by punching him in the jaw.
  • On Prison Break, after Mahone's Heel Face Turn his son is killed out of retribution. Mahone captures the man who did it, gets insanely brutal in torturing him until he calls Mahone's wife and apologizes, then leads him to a dock tied to a bunch of weights. The killer starts a speech to Mahone about how they aren't any different, only for Mahone to push him into the water after just a few words.
  • In the Stargate Verse, the heroes are way too Genre Savvy to put up with the hammy villains. O'Neill is probably the exemplar here.
  • A double Shut UP, Hannibal from the "Man in the Bear" episode of Bones involving, appropriately enough, a cannibal:

Cannibal: (to Booth) You don't understand; it's a spiritual right to share the life force...
Booth: Look, you're nuts, okay? We get it. We don't need to hear the rambling psycho speech on why you did it.
Cannibal: (to Bones) You're an anthropologist. You know that ancient civilizations would sacrifice some in order to preserve the strength...
(Bones knocks him out with a bedpan)
Booth: What'd you do that for?
Bones: Nobody wants to hear that rambling psycho speech.

    • Also Bones. In the episode The Man in the Morgue, set in New Orleans, the killer starts going into a harangue about the power of Voodoo. Bones shuts him up by poking him in the eye.

Bones: I've noticed that very few people are scary once they've been poked in the eye.

    • In The Man on Death Row while Bones and Booth face the revealed killer in prison, he begins a rant about how their actions have ensured the success of his plans and his continued life. When they turn to leave, he tries to stop them so he can continue his monologue... only for Brennan to break his arm on the table.
  • In the third volume finale of Heroes, Sylar takes over the Company building in one long, drawn-out attempt to push its few remaining inhabitants over the edge and prove that they're all as bad as he is. It eventually reaches the point where makes an over-the-phone offer to let them go free if Claire will just be a dear and shoot Angela. Claire, enraged, threatens to kill him if she gets out alive.

Sylar: (feigning shock) From cheerleader to stone-cold killer! Who's the monster now?
(Claire pauses. She pumps the shotgun, looks at Angela, then suddenly turns and blows the phone away. Sylar stares at his cell phone as it beeps a busy signal at him.)
Claire: You are.

  • An episode of CSI: Miami ended with a serial-killing sniper being arrested and asking if Caine wants to know why he did it. Caine declines, not wanting to know the intent because the man's a sick fuck, and orders the officers to take him away.
    • Even better, he threw the guy's real motives back in his face with a Lecture To Hannibal:

Caine: Because you're evil, you enjoy death, I hope you enjoy your own.

    • In a crossover with CSI New York, a psychopath, after going on a killing spree in two states, thanks Mac for "looking after him" when no one else would. Mac tells him to shove it, saying that many people have had worse lives and didn't turn out evil.
  • Law and Order: Criminal Intent: Det. Robert Goren's Arch Nemesis Nicole Wallace taunts Goren about his schizophrenic mother and his neglectful, philandering father on various occasions, only to have Goren turn the tables on her each time. In "Anti-Thesis" and "A Person of Interest", Goren switches the topic to Nicole's sexually abusive father. In "Great Barrier", the following exchange takes place when Goren accuses Nicole of murdering her own daughter:

Nicole: Who helped you concoct that theory, your mother?
Goren: In her wildest delusions she never spawned anything like you, Nicole.

  • Battlestar Galactica Reimagined: Lee is confronting Phelan, the head of the fleet's Black Market. The black market gets things such as food and medical supplies to people who need them. But Phelan has also pressured people into giving up their children to be child prostitutes as payment. Often for the medicines. Phelan gives Lee a Hannibal Lecture ("It's hard to see the high ground when we're all standing in the mud...") and Lee points a gun at him. Phelan is completely unfazed, convinced that Lee won't shoot as they are not alike... and Lee shoots him in the chest. He then tells Phelan's cronies that the child prostitution and the withholding of medicines stops NOW. If it doesn't, he'll know. And he'll be back.
  • At the end of "Mr. Monk is on the Run", Monk confronts his arch-nemesis Dale the Whale, who is in prison due to Monk's actions. Dale gloats at Monk, telling him that while he (Dale) is in jail, it's Monk who is a prisoner, trapped by is own hang-ups and neurosis. Monk looks at Dale, then simply turns his back and walks away.

Dale: Hey! Come back here! I'm not finished!
Monk: (quietly) Oh yes, you are.

  • Smallville: In the episode "Lara", Clark Kent gets exposed to kryptonite and falls on his face. A government agent approaches him with handcuffs and rants about how aliens are all dangers to national security, only for Clark to pop up and deck him.
    • In the episode "Spell", the evil witch Isobel mocks Clark, ranting about how his powers are nothing compared to her reality-bending magic, only for Clark to incinerate her spellbook with a shot of heat vision.
    • Lionel Luthor gets at least one too. In one Saw-like episode, called "Mercy", a crazy employee is forcing Lionel to go through an obstacle course to fight for his life while boasting over a loudspeaker about how Lionel will probably die instead of escaping. At one point, Lionel's captor asks "So have you learned anything yet?", to which Lionel sneers "Yeah. You talk too much. Shut up," right before successfully completing the task at hand and moving to the next stage of the obstacle course.
    • Subverted in the episode "Supergirl". Gordon Godfrey is giving a villainous speech about how humans are frail and pathetic and that heroes cannot accomplish anything when Clark tells him to cut the crap and tell him where Lois Lane is being held prisoner. Godfrey ignores him and continues where he left off, causing Clark to lose his temper.
  • In the final episode of Angel both hero and villain get a turn at this. First, in the midst of their climactic fight, Angel lectures Hamilton on how people who don't care about other people will never understand people like Angel, who do. Hamilton dismisses this in five brilliant words: "Yeah, but we won't care". Then, as the fight continues, and Hamilton gains the upper hand over the vampire, he begins to boast about his own awesomeness, ending with: "The power of the Senior Partners runs through my blood!" Angel picks himself up, and smiles almost pitying at him before saying "Can you pick out the one word you probably shouldn't have said?" and proceeding to drink from him, gaining a massive power boost. And then, with his Game Face still on, he gets another perfect one-liner after draining him. "Wow, you really are full of it." (licks his finger). There is one final one at the end of their fight, when Hamilton boasts: "We are legion. We are forever." Angel breaks Hamilton's grip, and proceeds to pound him saying "Then I guess forever, just got a hell of a lot shorter" ending it with one final punch that break's Hamilton's neck.
  • In the final episode of The Wire, when Cheese is making a speech about how the Prop Joe and Marlo had had "their time" and now it is his time to take over. Well, he would have got to that part had Slim Charles not decided to make "his time" quite short.
  • Done very bluntly in "Private Plane" from Blackadder Goes Forth - on being caught by Baron von Richthoven, Captain Flashheart appears to listen to the Baron's gloating speech for about a minute before suddenly shooting him dead mid-sentence with the observation "What a poof!"
    • Possibly to the point of being a subversion, since the Baron's speech is more along the lines of "Wow, I finally get to meet the great Lord Flashheart! As men of honour, we'll surely have so much in common and will have a glorious and dignified duel with each other!" than a Break Them by Talking, thus making the Lord look like a bit of a dishonourable prick.
  • Dean Winchester isn't about to fall for "that sympathy-for-the-devil crap," not even when the actual Devil tries it on him. But then, Dean is a simple man and figures that if someone unleashes a supernatural plague that turns people into monsters and thereby causes the complete collapse of civilisation as we know it, then no matter how much he tries to argue that Humans Are the Real Monsters and that God was unfair to him, he's still what is commonly known as "the bad guy."
    • Jessie, the anti-anti-christ tells the Demon who is possessing his mom to sit down and shut up, who was in the process of telling him that everyone he ever knew lied to him. This is after Sam tried telling the truth. After Sam tells him the truth, Jessie banishes the demon from his mother. Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the little guy too.
  • The Mentalist: Watching Patrick Jane in action has made his colleagues less awed by others doing a Sherlock Scan.


  • Criminal Minds: At the end of "100", partway through the epic final fight between Hotch and George Foyet, they've reached the living room, and Foyet has Hotch dazed on the floor. He pulls out his knife, but then menaces, "When I'm finished with you, I'm going to find that little bastard son of yours, and show him both of his dead parents. And tell him it's all your fault, and-" That's Foyet's last conjunction, as Hotch leaps off the floor and tackles him, Morgan-style, mid-sentence. Which is a preamble to the show's ultimate What You Are in the Dark moment: Hotch beating Foyet to death with his bare hands.
  • A rare (sort of) villain-to-hero example occures in Babylon 5, episode "Comes the inquisitor". After a lengthly questioning/torture/ Secret Test of Character by the titular inquisitor his inerviewee Delenn decides to feed him some of his own medicine and deconstruct his cruel and nihilistic performance. It doesn't come out too well (or perhaps it does come out too well, it's just that he is not inclined to allow it to pass).

Delenn: "You are a creature who has received pain and given pain, and taken too much joy in its application. You have aspired to dreams and been disappointed because you are not strong enough, or worthy enough, or righteous enough, so you lash out at anyone who believes they can make a difference, because it reminds you of your own failure. You have to prove they're just as bad, just as flawed as you are. Am I close, Mr. Sebastian?"
Inquisitor [hits his Magitech cane on the floor, electrocuting Delenn]: Bang!

Armus: I will kill you and those in there.
Picard: But you will still be in this place. Forever, alone, immortal. (Armus begins growling) That's your real fear, never to die. Never again to be united with those who left you here. (Armus begins screaming) I'm not taking you anywhere.

[Species 8472 promptly obliterates both cubes.]

  • A recent storyline on Neighbours had Susan stalked by someone who turned out to be her University lecturer, who blamed her for failing him when he was a student teacher at Erinsborough High. Despite the hell he had put her in recent weeks, Susan refused to take any crap from him, telling him that he had no one to blame but himself for repeated failures to learn from his mistakes.
  • Tsukasa from Kamen Rider Decade is a master of this, to the point it happens at least once per story arc, normally leading to his Catch Phrase "I'm just a passing through Kamen Rider, remember that!"
  • NCIS delivered a very effective one to Abby's Stalker with a Crush without saying a word. As he's being interrogated at the end, the stalker keeps addressing the two-way mirror, taunting Abby with claims that they're drawn to each other -- "Right now, you can't take your eyes off me, can you?" Gibbs responds to this by leaving the interrogation room, reaching into the other, and flipping on the lights, revealing that nobody's there watching. Loser stalker doesn't take it well.
  • In The Nanny episode "Sunday in the Park with Fran", Maxwell Sheffield and C.C. Babcock, his business partner, try to curry favor with theatre critic Frank Bradley by having Maxwell's daughter Gracie go on a play-date with the critic's son, Frank Jr., even though Gracie insists she doesn't like him and Fran supports her. During the play-date, Fran hits Frank Jr. with a baguette because he was bullying Gracie, so Maxwell arranges for a meeting with Frank Sr. for Fran to apologize. But when he becomes incredibly hostile towards Fran, Maxwell decides enough is enough:

Maxwell: You know, Frank, I'm getting bloody tired of kissing up to you...
C.C.: (interrupting) I'm not. Let me do it...
Maxwell: Miss Fine was right from the beginning. I should never have forced my little girl to play with your son. Quite clearly, he deserved everything he got. And I don't care for what you think of my play, and frankly, I don't care much for you, either. Now, let me show you the door. (gesturing behind him without turning) It's over there.

  • Glee: Will gets a moment after Sue bursts into the Glee club's room with a trophy in her hand, loudly talking about how she'll turn it into a trophy room. After she gives a little rant about how they have no chance at Regionals, Will walks up to her, grabs the trophy out of her hands, then throws it against the room's wall, smashing it to pieces. Shut UP, Hannibal! at its finest.
  • On one episode of Blue Bloods, a serial rapist is holding Erin hostage at gunpoint and tells Frank to Put Down His Gun and Step Away. Frank shoots him in the head in mid-sentence.
  • Max ("452") cuts short an opponent's pre-fight monologue in the series finale of Dark Angel.

Genetically Engineered Thug: 452...
Max: Just bring it!

  • On Justified the increasingly unstable mobster Quarles approaches Raylan in a bar and tells him that he is going to kill him sometime in the future when Raylan least expects him. Raylan's response is to pull out his gun and fire a shot into the ceiling.

Raylan: Why wait?

Manhwa[edit | hide]

Music[edit | hide]

  • Occurs in the title track of Oingo Boingo's Only A Lad, in response to Johnny's excuses for the crimes he commited in his life:

Hey there Johnny you really don't fool me
You get away with murder and you think it's funny
You don't give a damn if we live or if we die
Hey there Johnny boy, I hope you fry!

Professional Wrestling[edit | hide]

  • Evil vs. Evil version, The Undertaker, involved in a feud with his his Kayfabe brother, Kane. Undertaker is considered one of the greatest at psychological warfare in wrestling, and in fourteen years of fueding on and off, Kane's never defeated him. Kane's finally started getting the upper hand on Taker, however, and countered his hannibal lecture.

Kane: NOT THIS TIME! Because I know, and you know that this time, it ends the same way it did at Summer Slam; with you sprawled helpless at my feet. I promise -- no, I vow -- on the grave of our mother, that you will never rest in peace.



    • Then to Chris Jericho, upon asking his name.


      • Twice so far!
  • Michael Cole, the night after the Elmination Chamber where Jerry lost to Miz, Michael crosses the Moral Event Horizon by telling Jerry he let his recently deceased mother down by losing. Jerry finally snaps and grabs Cole by the shirt and pulling him in close. He proceeds to tell Cole to never mention his mother again and then proceeds to challenge Cole to put his money where his mouth is and face him at Wrestlemania. Cole quickly shows his true colors and flees the arena.
    • On May 16, he starts again on Jerry after signing for a match with Lawler. Lawler replies with this trope...and masterfully turns it into a Batman Gambit to alienate Cole from his teammate.
  • During their 2010 feud, CM Punk asks Rey Mysterio, Jr. why Rey is opposing him when Punk is on a mission against drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Rey replies that it's simple: while Rey agrees that Drugs Are Bad, Punk is an obnoxious jerk who keeps forcing his message down people's throats, assaulting people from behind, and subjecting them to 3-on-1 beatdowns.

Theatre[edit | hide]

Toys[edit | hide]

  • Matoro tells Makuta Teridax to shut up in Bionicle. He doesn't.

Makuta: Why so quiet? We have seen death and destruction today with the promise of much more to come. We have seen heroes behaving like villains. You yourself have done things even I would be reluctant to do. It is a time for celebration.
Matoro: Shut up! I'm doing only what I have to do to save the life of Mata Nui, a life you put in jeopardy.

Video Games[edit | hide]

  • Mega Man Zero: Zero gave Dr. Weil one of these. Dr. Weil is boasting how a heroic reploid like Zero wouldn't be able to harm a human. Zero responds by telling him he's actually not quite that noble and he's always only fought for the people he believed in and not some nebulous "defender of humanity" title, and as far as Zero's concerned, Dr. Weil's just another maniac that needs to be put down. What's particularly delicious is that Zero is not a Reploid, and that he was not necessarily constructed with the Three Laws to begin with - what with being built by Doctor Wily and all.
    • There's also when Weil is gloating to Zero about how a reploid could never understand that joy he's experiencing of controlling all the Reploids in the world. Zero replies by saying that he doubts that most "sensible humans" could understand either.
    • Axl interrupts the final boss speech of Mega Man X 8 with a bullet to the chest. "Don't forget, he's the enemy!" Perhaps his sole redeeming moment in the series.
  • Devil May Cry 2 has one of the most epic Shut UP, Hannibal demonstrated here.
  • The usual response of Yuri Hyuga to a Break Them by Talking can be summed up as "Oh, don't give me that crap." Then he beats the hell out of today's unholy abomination.
    • In Covenant, Rasputin, facing down Yuri in his Amon fusion, simply calls him "Demon!", to which Yuri-as-Amon responds to by gathering energy and proceeding to punch Rasputin out.
    • Even better was the scene just before the battle with Nicolai possessed by Astaroth. After Astaroth rants about his intention to destroy the world, Yuri asks him for a favour. When Astaroth asks him what it is, Yuri says "I wish you'd shove it. You know where." The ensuing silence is incredibly satisfying.
  • In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, an optional piece of dialogue between Republic soldier Carth Onasi and Mandalorian Canderous Ordo starts with Canderous asking Carth what battles he had fought in during the Mandalorian Wars. Carth replies that he prefers not to dwell upon the horrors of war. Incredulous, Canderous replies that he would have thought that a fellow warrior would have understood the glory found in battle. This is apparently one of Carth's BerserkButtons, as he angrily snaps back he isn't a warrior, he's a soldier, in an awesome Take That: "Warriors conquer and enslave, they prey upon the weak. Soldiers defend the innocent, mostly from warriors." Canderous snarks that Carth must tell himself that every night so he can sleep. Carth responds by asking Canderous what that Mandalorian code means when they lose, "y'know, like you did against us". Canderous fires back that the Republic had the advantages of more ships, more troops and the Jedi, and that the clans still nearly won. Carth asks him if he tells himself that every night so he can sleep. It's a SUH tennis match.
    • A rather amusing one in Knights of the Old Republic. Normally you cannot take Bastila with you on Korriban, however there are intact scenes and dialogues that can be activated with a mod. One of these has you learning of the Sith temples. Bastila begins to comment when she is sharply cut off.
  • Done in Kingdom Hearts II when Xemnas tries a Break Them by Talking on the heroes about how he had no other choice than to commit the actions that he did, only for Sora to say "Give it a rest! You're Nobodies. You don't even exist. You're not sad about anything!" Xemnas then laughs and confirms this.
    • Riku delivers another Shut UP, Hannibal in that scene when Xemnas asks the heroes why they considered Organization XIII to be an enemy: "That's simple. It's because you mess up our worlds."
      • There's actually a better example with Riku in Chain of Memories, just before the final boss when Ansem tries to tell to him that he's irrational for accepting the Darkness in his heart but not Ansem... His response? (Foreshadowed by the fact that Riku has constantly shown an ability to actually smell people's auras).

Riku: Wrong. The truth is... you just really stink.

    • Done in Kingdom Hearts II twice, when Sephiroth tells Cloud to give in to the dark side and Cloud literally tells him "Shut up."
    • Don't forget the first game, there Sora for the first time fights Maleficent. Before the battle she begins to rant about how nothing can stop her now from conquering the universe. Sora responded by telling her "We'll stop it! After comming this far, there's no way we're gonna let that happen!". Maleficent didn't take the challenge well.
  • In Assassin's Creed, Majd Uddin attempts to give Altair a Not So Different speech about how it feels to hold the life or death of someone else in your hands. Altair's response is to say he's learned what happens to those who elevate themselves above others, and then stabs him in the neck.
    • However, it's horribly inverted in the game. You must listen to every target's speech in an Unskippable Cutscene - both before and after the assassination.
  • From System Shock 2, delivered by the Soldier, the main character, to SHODAN, the villainous computer system:

Soldier: ... Nah. (shoots SHODAN)

    • It is worth noting that this is the only time the protagonist speaks in the entire game, to amplify the awesome.
  • In Fable II, in the final confrontation with Lucien, when he launches into a tirade about why he became a villain, you can shut him up at any time by shooting and killing him. If you don't, eventually Reaver will get tired of Lucien's rant and kill him for you.
  • In Oblivion, when the protagonist finally meets Big Bad Mankar Camoran, the villain launches into a gloating speech...which the protagonist can end at any time with an attack.
  • In Killer7, after the stylish duel between Dan Smith and Curtis Blackburn, the latter tries to justify what he does with the empty bodies of the girls he sells to the organs' black market saying things like "Everyone should have a hobby after retirement" and "All I ever wanted was to shed a light in my life". Dan, his old partner and the one with the least moral issues in the Killer7 syndicate, is visibly disgusted, and after saying "Trying to die in style? Gimme a break, you sick old man!" shoots a lever that gives Curtis the same treatment he gave to the girls whose bodies are hanging up in the corridor as trophies.
  • In the Game Boy Color version of Rainbow Six, after John Brightling defends his plan to spread a virus across all of human civilization by introducing it at the Sydney Olympics by saying "At least my way, the animals would have survived," one of the members says "This way everyone survives," absent from the PC version.
  • Happens a couple times in Tales of Symphonia: though the best one is probably right before the final boss, where the Big Bad is trying to give a Freudian Excuse for his actions.

Mithos: It's because we couldn't do that! That I... we... wanted a place of our own!
Zelos: Uh-uh. Sorry, but don't act like you're the only victim here. It doesn't even come close to justifying all the things that you've done.

    • In Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, the final boss does this to you while the heroes try to convert him if you let the battle conversations go on long enough. Though he's not exactly the villain of the piece. He actually does it about 5 times in the conversation, each time telling the heroes that he doesn't want to hear what they're saying, that he just wants to kill them, but the end of it has the most "SHUT UP!" about it:

Emil: I won't die. The courage you taught me spurred me on. We'll make sure that this world doesn't turn into a demonic realm!
Richter: Silence! I won't be distracted by your appearance any longer!

Scirocco: The lives of those who cannot understand genius are of no importance to me, since genius surely is the driving power of the world.
Daba: This Scirocco guy is just as bad as Posaydal... and I'm afraid the same mistakes will be committed in this universe as well.
Kamille: Scirocco! We're not letting despicable people like you, who laugh at others from their comfy seats, get away scot-free!
(the heroes proceed to pummel the living heck out of Scirocco and the Titans)

    • And in Alpha 3, during the re-enactment of Gundam Seed's last battle, Rau Le Crueset proceeds to give the Alpha Numbers the same "The Reason You Suck" Speech that destabilized Kira in the canon series, telling them that Humans Are the Real Monsters and that all their efforts are doomed to failure. In response, the heroes basically tell him that he's full of crap.
    • In Advance, a similar exchange occurs between the Londo Bell and Evil Chancellor Haman Kahn during her attempted Axis drop. At the heroes' protests, Haman says that she's only doing what is best for mankind's future. Banjou Haran, the protagonist of Daitarn 3, retorts that she, and only she, decided it, and that nothing gives her the right to commit genocide for her supposed higher ideals.
    • Alpha and OG timelines have probably the most memorable user of that trope:

"Shut up! And listen! My name is Sanger, Sanger Zonvolt! The sword that cleaves evil!"

  • In Skies of Arcadia, the Silvite Elders spend a good few minutes explaining how horrible, greedy, miserable, etc humanity is and uses it to justify unleashing the Rains of Destruction again. Although you are given a choice in how to respond, the one that increases your Swashbuckler Rating and is in-character for Vyse is the one where he tells them to shut up and exclaim loudly that they have no right to commit genocide just because the world doesn't live up to their standards, with double burn points for the fact that they've willingly isolated themselves from said world and could have chosen to do something more constructive about it all this time, but never did.
    • The best part about this is it convinces them to take action, by ramming their whole base into the barrier around Soltis, shattering it.
  • There are several of these in Sonic and The Black Knight when Sonic confronts Merlina, who explains that the only way to save Camelot from its tragic fate is to use the power of Excalibur's Scabbard and the Underworld to make it eternal, only to have Sonic reply "What good is a world that goes on forever!?" The conversation even ends with this great exchange between the two characters:

Merlina: My sorrow at its ruin runs deeper than the deapths of the underworld... do you not understand?
Sonic: No! And I don't want to!

  • In Resident Evil 4, resident dragon Ramon Salazar prepares to go into a speech about terrorism and how he has a "special" trap all set up for Leon... until Leon throws a knife across the room and sticks Salazar's hand to the wall.
    • Another top example is from the climax of Resident Evil 5, where Chris Redfield shuts up series Big Bad Albert Wesker's latest hammy declaration with "I've had enough of your BULLSHIT!".
  • Kingdom of Loathing, due to its parodic nature, does this repeatedly. From the fight with the hobo Mini Boss Oscus: "You figure the best way to stop this speech is to hit him."
    • Against the Naughty Sorceress's second form: "You found me beautiful, once..." she says. "Honey, you got real ugly. Yo, she-bitch! Let's go!"
  • Persona 4 has this happen after the revelation of the killer. In a long-winded spiel, the killer explains that the TV world is the best thing to ever happen to anyone. The heroes' response?

Yosuke: Favored by the world, my ass. I'm just gonna say it flat out. You're just a worthless criminal!

    • Also Deconstructed—when your inner Shadow Archetype begins revealing facts about your inner character you'd rather not hear, despite being utterly true, denying it and asking it to Shut UP, Hannibal is a very, very, very poor idea. The thing that eventually defeats the shadows (after the inevitable Boss Battle) is to do exactly the opposite and own up to their claims, using the knowledge that you have a problem as a foundation for improving yourself. It also gives you superpowers.
  • In the Mass Effect DLC mission "Bring Down The Sky" you're given the choice between saving the hostages and letting the terrorist escape or killing the terrorist and letting the hostages die. If you pick the latter, once you're done dispatching his mooks you come up to him. Picking the Renegade option leads to this exchange:

Balak: I gave you the chance to save them and you turned it down. Who's the real terrorist here?
Shepard: You are. But you're dead. (shoots him)

    • Mass Effect 2 contains many of these thanks to the interrupt mechanic. A particularly awesome one involves an arrogant krogan and a gas line.

Shepard: You talk too much. [BANG!]
Krogan: See? The human cannot even hit a simple target! [BOOM]

    • Another epic one occurs in the Kasumi DLC. You're in the villain's vault full of priceless artifacts to steal back something, and a giant hologram of his head appears to tell you that he knew you'd come and now he has everything he needs and blah blah blah. A Crowning Moment of Awesome invokes this trope when Shepard checks his pistol while Hock blathers on, levels it at a priceless vase and calmly blasts it to shards. "Do I have your attention now?"
    • At the end of the second game, if you choose not to give Cerberus the Collector Base, you get to perform one on The Illusive Man as he rages on you for not "securing human dominance" as he puts it.
    • Speaking of Shadow Broker, Liara gets one later in the mission. Against the Shadow Broker himself, no less. The Broker is trying to scare Liara by telling her he knows her secrets. She responds by figuring out that since he's a yahg, he must have killed the original Shadow Broker and taken his place some 60 years ago, finally ending by calling him a slave and a pet - the most devastating insult in yahg culture. He doesn't take it very well.
    • A truly epic one comes in Mass Effect 3 after you destroy the Reaper controlling the geth. It is giving the standard monologue about how organic civilization is totally outmatched, you will all die, their victory is inevitable, blah blah blah. Shepard retorts by directing an orbital strike from the Migrant Fleet directly into its face.
      • Equally awesome is the Paragon interrupt during said rant: Shepard points out to the Reaper that whatever race it has been created from eons ago is long dead. The Reaper promptly shuts down.
  • Grom Hellscream in Warcraft III gets quite possibly the most bad assed one ever. After the gigantic Pit Lord Mannoroth, who wields a double-ended pike that's as long as two men are tall, defeats Thrall effortlessly, he gives Grom a short version of a Not So Different speech. Grom responds by roaring, charging at Mannoroth, killing him in one hit, and then being mortally burnt in the ensuing firestorm. He goes with a smile on his face, pleased that he managed to free the Orcs from their corruption for good.

Grom: The blood haze has lifted... the demon's fire has burnt out in my veins... I have freed myself...
Thrall: No, old friend. You freed us all. (roars in mourning of Grom)

  • Immediately after killing Aeris in Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth starts to give his umpteenth villainous speech about how everyone will live again as part of him when he absorbs the lifestream and becomes a new god... and Cloud achieves a brief Crowning Moment of Awesome when his text box pops up and actually covers up most of Sephiroth's speech with the words "... Shut up."
    • Even the Turks get one of this in on Don Corneo in Wutai, after Cloud And Friends and the Turks team up to release Yuffie and Elena from Corneo's clutches. Mostly they turn his Reason You Suck Speech against him. And it is awesome.
  • A variant takes place in Wild ARMs 1, when Zeikfried ensnares Rudy's arm with a cord to try and drag him into a black hole, and goes on about how the two of them are Not So Different, even calling him "brother" and saying that if he goes down, he'll take Rudy with him. Rudy's a Heroic Mime, of course, so his action speaks a thousand words -- he shoots/cuts off his own arm, freeing himself and letting Zeikfried fall into the black hole. The variant, of course, being the fact that Rudy hurt himself instead of Zeikfried...
  • In Silent Hill 3, what is Heather's reply to Leonard after the zealot claimed that a heretic like her only deserves a gruesome death? "Is every person here a mental case? [...] Well, I suppose you're not a person anyway." and then she proceeds to shoot him in the face with a shotgun.
    • Heather has a talent for telling Hannibal to shut up. She repeatedly smacks down Claudia's elaborate speeches about how the world needs her rather twisted brand of salvation, with lines like "you self-righteous witch, nobody asked for your help!"
    • Heather nails it near the end of the game when Claudia becomes elated by the birth of God and the coming Judgment Day: "Shut your STINKIN' mouth, bitch!"
  • In Baten Kaitos Origins, after the Duel Boss battle, Baelheit tries to justify his attempts to blow up floating islands by stating that people's reliance on their powers of hearts will cause them to repeat the War of the Gods, the massive calamity that destroyed most of the world and caused islands to float in order for people to survive. Sagi's response? He states that Baelheit's reasoning is all self-righteous crap and that Baelheit can keep all the excuses. And then Sagi proceeds to knock Baelheit to the ground.

Go to hell, you son of a bitch! You hurt my mother!

    • Guillo gets a good one when facing down Verus:

Save your monologue for the next world. Sagi, let's finish him.

  • The Legacy of Kain series uses and averts this - both Raziel and Kain have about a 50/50 tendency of either listening to the tirades of Moebius and the Elder God or telling them where to stick it. The chances of doing the latter increase as soon as they find out how to neutralize Moebius' paralyzing staff or escape from the Elder God's realm.
  • Len vs. White Len in Melty Blood gives us one of the very few times Len ever actually says anything. White Len is sneering about how she is the voice and mind of Len and how much Len sucks and should just go away and die or something. Len tells her to shut up, she has her own will. Since she's currently the PC, she obviously wins.
  • Colonel Hakha in Killzone delivers one to General Lente with a shotgun shell after the latter reveals that he had the former's brother killed. Delivered later to General Adams if you play Hakha in the final level, when the former delivers a line about how they're Not So Different.
  • In Tales of Vesperia, Phaeroh gives a speech saying how Estelle's death is necessary for preserving the world, and how finding an alternative way is pointless. Yuri cuts him off and states the fallacies of Phaeroh's logic in a true Crowning Moment of Awesome.
    • While completely ignoring Yuri's use of the exact same logic for the killings of Ragou and Cumore.
    • A better example happens later, when Alexei is explaining his motives at the Shrine of Zaude. The entire party, including his former henchman Raven, take turns telling him to shut up.
  • After defeating Dracula in Castlevania Judgment, Maria will occasionally thank him for skipping the speech this time. Not everyone is fond of "What is a man?", it seems.
  • In Neverwinter Nights 2, during the conversation after defeating Zeeaire, during her "The Reason You Suck" Speech (with a good helping of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero), one of the dialogue options is "Snap her neck." Doing so obviously cuts it short.
  • Most of the boss battles in Final Fantasy Tactics consist of you shutting up the enemy via superior firepower, as they will at various points through the battle taunt you about their supposed superiority until you defeat them. One of the most satisfying deliveries of such a Shut Up Battle is against Algus/Algrath.
    • Elmdor shuts up Barinten/Barringten by having his assassin toss him to his death when he confronts Rafa on the rooftops of Riovanes Castle.
  • Dissidia Final Fantasy has several examples. Ultimecia in particular not only gets a good snarky one from the Warrior of Light ("Are you finished talking?" ... "If you have no business with me, you should leave now. The world's time runs short. There is not a moment to waste with the likes of you.", she also gets an even more badass one from Squall after he defeats her in Shade Impulse: he responds to her preaching about time by finishing her off with his gunblade, before she'd finished talking.
    • Which of course is a reference to her original game where she gives a similar speech during the final battle and gets struck down mid-sentence.
  • Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII does this to Orphan just before the final final boss fight.. He only manages a creepy laugh and three words before she gives him a lecture that lasts about a minute. But it is an awesome minute.

"You don't believe in anything. You gave up on life before you were even born. Sat poisoning Cocoon from the inside, waiting for someone to come and destroy you. Sure, you think the end of the world is salvation. All you care about is death's release. So take it, and leave the rest of us alone! We don't think like that. When we think there's no hope left, we keep looking until we find some. Maybe Cocoon is past saving, but it's our home, and we'll protect it or die trying! We live to make the impossible possible... that is our Focus!"

Lizbeth: * Rants and raves on how she'll gut him and suck the marrow from his bones*
Patrick: * Lights her severed head on fire and tosses it off a cliff*
Lizbeth: The family will be reuniteeeeeeedddddddddd! * splash*
Patrick: Yeh were sayin'?

M. Bison: It's not over yet! I'll show you the path to eternal agony!
Charlie: Don't bother, I'm already there. Now it's your turn to suffer.


Luigi: Hey! Stop messing around and fight us for real!

  • SWINE has an interesting version: Irontusk is about to escape in his zeppeling and he's raving about how he will return and crush the rabbits... until his zeppelin is blown in two by a Genre Savvy rocket tank. Shut Up, Irontusk indeed.
  • The last chapter of Half-Life 2 begins with Gordon hearing the end of a speech Breen is making to Eli about the future of humanity and all the glorious things the Combine can show us. Eli responds with "What I've seen is also beyond words: Genocide! Indescribable evil!", and likely would have continued in that manner had he not seen Gordon was also a prisoner.
    • A player-controlled version comes later when Gordon is fighting through the Citadel. Breen shows up on various screens and loudspeakers along the way, each time taunting Gordon, telling him how he was always a minor presence at Black Mesa, how everything Gordon's done since has caused more killing and destruction... if you as the player are so inclined, Gordon can simply destroy any of these screens or speakers along the way to shut Breen up mid-speech, all without Gordon ever saying a word.
  • In The Godfather game, various enemies will try to give a Motive Rant if you interrogate them. In order to do so, you need to be grabbing them. As a result, after they finish speaking you can proceed to off them however you like.
  • In Splinter Cell Conviction the evil Vice President claims he is "bulletproof" after Sam applies the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique; Sam responds by shooting out his knees.

Sam: You might wanna work on that "bulletproof" thing.

  • A number of games, such as Grand Theft Auto IV allow the player to kill enemies during gameplay, possibly in the middle of a Hannibal Lecture.
  • Final Fantasy VI inverts this. Your heroes go on and on about why people will survive, no matter what Kefka does. And then Kefka says "You all sound like pages from a self-help book." Cue the battle.
  • In Dragon Age:Origins you can scald Morrigan after her especially Stupid Evil attempt at being a Nietzsche Wannabe (sure! Let's abandon the Circle of Magi to death and corruption. It's not like we need their help to stop the Blight), call her a harpy and demand that she shuts up. Naturally, Morrigan disapproves.
    • In a somewhat gentler example, one of your other options in that scene is to tell Morrigan severely that everyone deserves respect...even her.
    • A Human Noble PC gets an even better one when facing down Arl Howe, the man responsible for betraying and killing your family in the beginning. At first, he mocks you about how he made your mother and father suffer before killing them and burned your sister-in-law and nephew's bodies on a trash heap, but then you get the chance to verbally tear him to shreds, basically calling him a coward and showing him that all he's done has only made you stronger and more determined. His reaction is priceless.

Arl Howe: "There it is, right there. That damned look in the eye that marked every Cousland success that held me back. It seems you have made something of yourself after all. Your father would be proud. I, on the other hand, want you dead more than ever..."

  • At the end of the Godlimations flash RPG Amea, The Master Eye claims that it stealing the people's eyesight and replacing it with the "True Light" has brought them happiness and peace, and points out that all of them, even Amea herself, had chosen to follow him. Amea simply responds that the "happiness" the Eye has brought to its followers is all a lie, and that its better to face the true state of the world, no matter how bad, then to hide yourself behind the lies of a false god.
  • Fatman, one of the bosses in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, is convinced that he is a Mad Artist, who will be remembered through history as the greatest bomber and demoman in the world. Raiden interrupts his little speech, snapping "You're nothing but a common criminal, and that's the only way people will remember you!"
  • Dissidia Final Fantasy provides its heroes with a lot of opportunities for these. One of the best examples comes from the Warrior of Light:

Ultimecia: "Why don't you just give up? The crystals are nothing more than the fabrication of a fallen goddess. To so willingly risk your life over such things is beyond ridiculous."
Warrior of Light: "Are you finished talking?"

  • In Portal 2, Wheatly is telling you to do yourself a favor and just commit suicide to avoid having him kill you. In response, you can make a portal network that chucks a mine at his monitor.
  • At the end of Sly 3, Dr. M tries to convince Bentley that the cooper family are a bunch of self-centered greedy attention grubbers, and that he and Bentley are the same due to them both being the technical minded members of the team, Bentley responds saying that they are all brothers, and that's why he and Murray are going to stop him.
  • The sci-fi submarine combat game Aquanox has a pretty funny one. Towards the end of the game, the hero Flint confronts the leader of the Crawlers, the setting's Usual Adversaries. The Crawler Leader gives a big, incredibly melodramatic speech about how he's going to wipe out human civilization and eat everybody. In response Flint simply quips "Soooo... you write your own material?".
  • Before the penultimate story battle in Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, Super Hero Aurum goes on about how a hero only exists when there is evil to fight, and is useless otherwise. Mao, having sat in the back and listened to the rebuttals of the others this whole time, has finally decided that he has had enough crap.

Mao: ...Hmph. I stay quiet and listen, and you continue to blab. It was only you alone that wanted any of this. Was a hero such a dinky existence that you couldn't shine without an enemy? Were you so pitiful that you had to watch out for what the people thought, and be afraid of being forgotten? Is it a hero's job to raise an enemy just to make yourself look greater? Did you want praise for your efforts?
Aurum: You... ! You dare insult me, the Super Hero?!
Mao: Shut up! You're not a hero, nor human! You're just miserable evil who's clinging to distorted justice! The human world is what you should've been protecting! The moment you stopped, you lost the right to be a hero! "A hero must act with courage to protect that which is precious!"
Aurum: Huh! That's...!
Mao: For those whom you must protect, for things precious to you, a hero squeezes out every bit of courage he has... Yes... A guy like this Almaz is the true hero, don't you think!?

  • In Ninja Gaiden 3: The Dark Sword of Chaos, Ryu Hayabusa gives one to Clancy after the latter offers him the chance to join him in the destruction of the human race, saying that he just wants to protect the Earth from the damage that human's cause. Ryu's response?

Ryu: No reason can ever excuse the destruction and slaughter of mankind. The only thing that's going to get destroyed is you and this dimensional warship!

  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has Zant claiming that he should have been the rightful ruler of the Twili instead of Midna and her "useless, do-nothing royal family". One ass kicking at the hands of Link later, Midna tells Zant that the reason the Twili didn't go along with him was because they knew he was a power hungry psychopath.
  • Persona 3 saw Junpei cutting Takaya short, as he rants on about how death and the Fall are the light to guide humanity out of the darkness:

Junpei Iori: “I'm not dying so you can have a friggin' night-light!”

  • Nearing the end of Gears of War 3 after Marcus' father had committed a Heroic Sacrifice and died right in front of his son. Queen Myrrah, defeated, approached the gears and gloated to Marcus how all he had ever done is find ways to kill lots of people. Marcus simply stabbed her and said:

Marcus: This is for Dom and all the others you have killed, you bitch.

    • Done earlier in the boss fight if you keep it going long enough. As Myrrah tries to stop Adam's Locust killing machine, she goes on a rant that humans are inherently violent and genocidal, prompting her Locust to act the same way to defeat them. How does Marcus react to this insult to humanity? Does he deny it as not our nature?

Marcus: I can live with that.

Web Comics[edit | hide]




Rikk: No, you gave a good closing statement.

  • Lightbringer: After Darkbringer defeated the main protagonist, before killing him, he showed him beaten to people on the street, and started a Break Them by Talking about how the only true way of good is by embracing darkness and despair and hope Lightbringer gave them is a lie. People responsed by throwing junk at him, while screaming examples of how Lightbringer make their city a better place.

Raike: *Flat look*


    • And a few panels later:

Dave: Your tie.
Madblood (checking tie with crestfallen expression): My tie?

Web Original[edit | hide]

  • In The Angry Video Game Nerd episode about Nightmare On Elm Street, Freddy Krueger says that nobody is forcing the Nerd to play bad games but himself, making the Nerd Not So Different, but the Nerd just cuts Freddie off with a gut bustingly hilarious reply of "Go yank your cock through your ass ya fucking butt mongrel!" and showing off his Power Glove, which he uses to destroy Freddy. The nightmare is ended, but the real battle had just begun.
  • Linkara does not use words to shut up any "Hannibals" out there. He punches 'em in the gut while screaming "I AM A MAN!!!".
  • In episode 15 of the That Guy With The Glasses segment "Ask That Guy"... well, something like this happens. (For bonus points, this comes in the wake of a particularly lengthy and disturbing rant about starving a Furby to death.) That Guy responds to a question down the vein of "how do I know I'm real, and not a product of my own imagination?" with unusual vitriol, until it descends into a self-serving rant about himself and his own twisted villainy.

That Guy: ...I don't say this often, but you are wrong, and I am right. I mean, suppose I was the figment of someone else's dream and that the dreamer out there was actually a good, rational person with -- eugh! -- a conscience. I mean, wouldn't he have gotten rid of me a long time ago? I mean, wouldn't he have the decency to get rid of such concentrated evil like me? No! No! There is no dreamer, and evil. Always. Wins. Thus showing that there is no good in the world, and evil is always rewarded. That's the way it is, and that's the way I always (poof)

    • On the final episode of RoboGirl the villain is explaining the mind-screwing origin of The Host to the protagonist when she grabs her throat, saying, "You talk too much!"
  • There Will Be Brawl: Luigi punches Ganondorf in the face after he tries to corrupt him with mind games.

Ganondorf: What possessed you in that ally way to deliver such a potent artifact to such a dangerous man? What did you..?
Luigi: * Punch* I've had enough... * Punch* ..Of your-a head games! * Punch*

    • Unfortunately, the 'Dorf, was unfazed. And fought back.
    • This comes immediately after giving shutting up "End of Days" (Olimar). "Cut the crazy."
  • An awesome villain to villain example from The Randomverse's "Happy Hour" finale:

Lex Luthor: Say goodbye to the world you know! From this moment on, you are all at the mercy of Lex Luthor, the greatest criminal mind of our--
Green Goblin: AHHHH, SHUT UP! (knocks him down with a pumpkin bomb)

Western Animation[edit | hide]

  • South Park: The episode "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" (which is just what it sounds like) has the head of NAMBLA protesting that he's being discriminated against, and Stan and Kyle's replies is a lot like this.

Kyle: Dude, you have sex. With. Children.

  • Totally Spies!!: Apparently abused by the characters against revenge-seeking antagonists, in the form of "You're only doing this for revenge!"
  • This happens with Megatron and Optimus in the last episode of Beast Wars. See the page quote.
    • In "Code of Hero", Megatron was speechifying about how Dinobot had no hope of defeating him (which, given that Dinobot just burned up all his reserves and taking massive quantities of damage fighting through Megatron's minions while Megatron had not yet done a thing, not to mention he's got massive upgrades which makes him even more resistant to damage, makes a pretty good point). Megatron asked "What can you possibly do?" Dinobot's response? "Improvise". As he takes his stick, creates a makeshift hammer, and smacks Megatron to the ground.
  • In the second season finale of X-Men, Mr. Sinister gets plenty of self-righteous speechifying about the future out of the way while he has his audience chained to a wall. Eventually, the tables turn, punctuated by an optic blast from Cyclops. This doesn't stop him from weakly defying Scott's repeated request to leave his friends alone.

Sinister: I can't... I won't... the world needs-- (gets cut off by another blast)
Cyclops: What was that? I don't think I heard you right!

    • He gets it again about two minutes later. Trying to pull himself together, Sinister grumbles that "the future" (his future) can't be destroyed so easily. Jean Grey responds with a calm "Yes, it can" and a well-placed shot of telekinesis. This is appropriate, since he was trying to effectively breed a new race from the two of them.
  • In the Justice League Unlimited episode "Divided We Fall", The Flash got a most awesome Shut Up Hannibal against the robot Evil Knockoff created by the Big Bad.

Alternate Flash: Slacker! Child! Clown! We have no place here among the world's greatest heroes!
(Flash punches through Evil Flash's chest and vibrates his arm at Super Speed; explosion ensues)

    • The Flash did it again later in the same episode when Braniac/Lex Luthor taunts him on the fact that he was all that was left between total destruction. Flash then begins to pound Luthor over, and over, AND OVER, stripping Braniacs tech from Luthors body with each blow.
      • Made all the more awesome when you realize that Flash was doing this by running around the Earth at 25,000 miles PER SECOND as he hit Luthor time after time.
  • In Batman: The Animated Series, Ra's al-Ghul explains his wonderful plan to save the world by wiping out most of humanity. Batman responds with a note of wonder in his voice. "Yes... I can see it all clearly now for the first time. You are completely out of your mind."
  • In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the Joker takes rather badly to Terry's Break Them by Talking and gives a rather angry rebuttal by tossing grenades at him, which knocks the superhero out.
    • Which is then subverted when he grabs Terry and starts to choke him, telling him to laugh it up now.

Terry: Ha...ha. (pulls out Joker's killer buzzer and proceed to shock him)

    • Another small one happens in the series when Kobra leader Xander tells Max of his plot to turn all his men into dinosaurs and drop a bomb that will incinerate the world so they have extra heat to live on. She responds accordingly:

Max: I think I finally get it now.
Xander: (he smiles)
Max: You're crazy! All of you! Certifiable in need of medication!

Jeepers: You want to see something strange and mystical?


  • Samurai Jack was likewise shut up by a bounty-hunter who tells him "I got bills to pay, and I already addressed the envelopes." Jack begins to respond with a clever phrase, saying "I hope you haven't you haven't yet stamped the parcels which you--" but is cut off as the bounty-hunter punches him out, saying "consider 'em stamped."
  • Kim Possible's Crowning Moment of Awesome from So The Drama, when she interrupted Drakken's speech about how he cracked Kim's weakness; her own insecurities, especially regarding dating. Not quite a pure example, since he didn't know she was listening in, but she definitely had the "Shut up!" part down!

"You're right, Drakken. Boys, dating, that's hard. But this is easy. (Punches Drakken. Hard.)

Powerpuff Girls: NOOOOO!
Blossum: We'd never join you! And it's because we are stronger!
Bubbles: Because we are invincible!
Buttercup: Because we have the power!
Powerpuff Girls: Because we've got to protect them from you!
Blossium: It's you who is to be feared!
Bubbles: Because you are a monster!
Buttercup: Because you are evil!
Powerpuff Girls: And you! (pushes him off a skyscraper)

  • A particularly epic example comes from |Toy Story 3, where Woody exposes Lotso's lies to Big Baby.

Lotso: "Then she threw us out!"
Woody: "No, she lost you."
Lotso: "She replaced us!"
Woody: "She replaced YOU! And if you couldn't have her, no one could! You lied to Big Baby and you've been lying ever since!"

Yosemite Sam: "Any one of you lilly livered, bow legged varmints care to slap leather with me? In case any of ya get any idears, ya better know yer dealin with. I'm the hootinest, tootinest, shootinest, bobtail wildcat in the west! [fires guns raisng sam up] I'm the fastest gun North, South, East annnnnnnd West of the Pecos!....I'm the...."
Bugs Bunny: "Ahhhh, Shaddup!"

Dan Turpin: ...In a pig's eye!

    • At the end of the three-part pilot "The Last Son of Krypton", Superman confronts Lex Luthor. Luthor gives a speech about how he owns Metropolis and that Superman should be working for him. Lex loses his cool when Superman responds with a simple "I'll be watching you Luthor."
  • My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: As polite and self-effacing as she was Fluttershy completely shut down every attempt on Discord's part to arouse resentment against her friends during the season two opener, ensuring that she could not be turned against them without a proverbial sledgehammer of mind-altering magic. Unfortunately, Discord could and did use that sledgehammer.

Twilight Sparkle: I'll tell you what we've learned, Discord! We've learned that friendship isn't always easy, but there's no doubt it's worth fighting for!

    • Princess Celestia actually fires off two Shut Up Hannibals in Part 1's Canterlot Tower scene. The first time, Discord tries to get a rise out of her with a Break Them by Talking; she shoots him down. The second time, Discord's in the middle of another one directed at the Mane Six; she butts in to order him to quit screwing around and answer her question. He tosses her a riddle and vacates. The blink-and-you-miss-it look on her face seconds later suggests she was indeed winding up a third Shut UP, Hannibal In case you needed her to validate her previous claim to being a Retired Badass.

Rainbow Dash: Alright, Princess!

Real Life[edit | hide]

  • An interesting Real Life occurrence occurred on Indian reservations in The Thirties. The Nazis thought Indians had little loyalty to America and would help them. In addition, the Nazis saw Indians as lost Aryans. Further, they saw their plans for the Jews as little different than if Indians killed all the white people, which they figured Indians wanted to do. So a lot of Nazi propaganda was distributed on reservations by German anthropologists (also collecting intelligence in case Indian languages were used as codes; they were). The result? Possibly the most epic Shut UP, Hannibal ever: Tribes declared (or renewed declarations of war from the last time) war on Germany even before the United States did. Fascist and Nazi ideas were outlawed. And when the United States finally did declare war, Indians from their mid-teens all the way to their forties signed up, lying about their age when need be.
  • "To the German Commander: NUTS!"
  • During a speech in his presidential campaign in San Diego, Ronald Reagan was being interrupted by a heckler insulting him. Reagan simply said "Oh, shut up!" and the crowd gave a standing ovation.
    • Reagan was known for these. His first major moment in national politics was the debate between him and George Bush Sr. in New Hampshire during the primaries.

Local newspaper editor: Someone turn Reagan's microphone off!
Reagan: I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green.[1]

  1. Due to accusations that the debate was actually an illegal campaign contribution because it did not include all seven primary candidates, Reagan settled the argument by covering the setup costs for the debate out of his own funds.