Worst Whatever Ever
"Last night's Itchy & Scratchy was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured I was on the Internet within minutes registering my disgust throughout the world."—Comic Book Guy, The Simpsons ("The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show")
So Bob and Alice have just finished a harrowing experience and a witty one liner is needed to sum up the entire situation. What ever will our intrepid heroes do?
"Worst X Ever!"
Well played, heroes!
This is a Stock Phrase used to quickly demean and insult something or someone. It is normally delivered in a flat, sarcastic voice, but can also be yelled at in stressful situations. It often occurs during or after a heavy action or chase sequence, to refer to an activity that would normally be quite enjoyable if it weren't for the life-threatening situation that was just encountered.
The Trope Maker is Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, who frequently denounces whatever he doesn't like as the "Worst. <X>. Ever."
A more verbose variant would be to say, "This is the worst X in the long history of X..."
Compare Worst News Judgment Ever which is an example of this very trope on This Very Wiki. Contrast with It's the Best Whatever Ever! Also see Beergasm, an inversion of this trope on This Very Wiki, and Punctuated! For! Emphasis!, a sister phrase.
Anime & Manga
- The Japanese title for one episode of Pokémon translates to "The Worst Togepi Ever!" Sadly, the English dub changed it to "Where No Togepi Has Gone Before".
Comic Books
- Appears in Dork Tower when Carson the Muskrat meets a bunch of costumed furries at a convention.
Comic Strips
"Another action packed adventure of CONGRESS-MAN. Worst-Superhero-EVER."
- Hagar the Horrible once met Hamlet, Prince of Denmark in a bar where the prince was drowning his sorrows after coming home from college to find ... well, you know the plot. "It's the worst spring break ever!"
Fan Works
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Movie invokes this early on:
Archaeologist 1: The pyramid's collapsing! And I had such a full life ahead of me!
Archaeologist 2: Run away! Run away!
Archaeologist 3: This is the worst honeymoon ever!
- In Oh God Not Again, Sirius calls himself the worst guardian ever after Harry dies again. Harry assures him he couldn't possibly be worse than the Dursley's were. For some reason, Sirius doesn't find this comforting.
Films -- Live-Action
Zack and Miri: Worst porno ever.
Greeting card: I've got a pocket got a pocket full of sunshine...
Olive: (close the card) Bleh. Worst. Song. Ever.
Ian Malcolm: Taking dinosaurs off this island is the worst idea in the long, sad history of bad ideas.
- In Love Actually, Sarah and Mark have this exchange when they try to change the topic of some awkward dialogue they had had previously.
Mark: Yes. Erm... This DJ, what do you reckon?
Sarah: The worst in history?
Mark: Probably. I think it all hangs on the next song.
DJ: Now here's one for the lovers. That's quite a few of you, I shouldn't be surprised and a half.
(“Puppy Love” begins to play)
Mark: He's done it, it's official.
Sarah: Worst DJ in the world.
- Jenny and Jamie in Eurotrip: "Worst. Twins. Ever."
Live-Action TV
Veronica: Worst. Easter Egg Hunt. Ever.
- Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor yells, "Worst! Rescue! Ever!" in "The End of Time" as the Vinvocci wheel him out of Naismith's house. Down a flight of stairs.
- Friends
- Chandler tries to watch porn, but accidentally watches a video of a birth. He doesn't catch on for a minute. "Worst porn ever! Worst porn ever!"
- Chandler has another brilliant one when the Friends watch Joey's new show, Mac and Cheese.
Chandler: That was the worst thing ever. And not just on TV!
- Gossip Girl has an episode where Chuck and Blair set each other up for dates with people who are (in Blair's words) Canal Street knockoffs of themselves. They walk off to argue about how the other set them up with a cheap copy and return to find their dates making out.
Blair: Worst out-of-body experience ever!
- Glee: "Worst henchmen ever."
- How I Met Your Mother: After Lily and Ted come clean to Marshall about making out the night before Lily and Marshall first met, this exchange takes place:
Ted: I'm TooMuchTongueGuy.
Lily: And I'm UnreasonablySmallMouthOpeningGirl.
Barney: Worst superheroes ever.
Music
- In the Relient K hidden track "Silly Shoes" they have what they they call the "Worst Freestyle Ever".
"Wait... Hold up... Gimme a second... Shoot!... OK... Here we go! Apples are green, and carrots are orange! And then you go... and then you go... wha? What the? What rhymes with orange? Oh, geez! Can I start over?"
- The Offspring's "The Worst Hangover Ever."
- Modern Man's Leon Redbone pastiche, "The Worst Dominatrix in L.A.".
Theater
- There exists a play titled The Worstest Play Ever Wrote.
Video Games
- In Season 1, Episode 5 of the Telltale Adventure Games, Sam has this to say of dirty rat Jimmy Two-Teeth when he becomes an Arms Merchant, and refuses to sell to the Freelance Police: "Worst. Arms dealer. Ever."
- In Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, Guybrush has this to say about the shrunken heads in the Voodoo Lady's shack: "Worst. Air freshener. Ever."
- Army of Two: The 40th Day. This is Salem's response when he and Rios have to fight their way through the Shanghai Zoo. Which comes as no surprise as the first thing the mercs there did was slaughter all the animals, not to mention all the fighting they had to do inside.
- Final Fantasy XIII's backstory has Lightning say "Worst. Birthday. Ever." in regards to her sister Serah having been engaged to Snow. It's hilarious the first time around, but in recalling it after chapter, say, 2 or 3...
- From Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions: "Lamest. Supervillain. Ever."
- Shows up in The Simpsons Game, unsurprisingly: Comic Book Guy dubs an Escort Mission "worst videogame cliché ever".
- In The Simpsons Hit & Run, Comic Book Guy says this of the aliens' space ship. Homer indignantly points out that the ship is in fact real, but Comic Book Guy sticks to his opinion.
- In Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2, Larxene declares that her assignment to teach Roxas the magic command is the "Worst. Mission. Ever."
- In The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, if you beat The Neuromancer as The Dishwasher, the cut scene afterward has him remark "Worst. Headache. Ever."
- Jade Empire sees Lovable Pervert Lustful Lau respond to questions which do not pertain to his sole area of interest (no points for guessing) with "Worst. Question. Ever," in what is unmistakably an imitation of Comic Book Guy... in Imperial China.
- One chapter of Bulletstorm is entitled "Worst Family Fun Vacation Ever", and Gray exclaims this verbatim while he and Ishi are wandering through an abandoned amusement park attraction crawling with goons.
- In Fable III, one quest involves the Hero/Heroine being shrunk down to take part in a Dungeons & Dragons-type game. At one point, the Hero/Heroine has to pull a lever to which none of the three Dungeon Masters had given a purpose. Improvising, the one proposes that the lever releases a cloud of beautiful butterflies, at which another pointedly comments "Worst. Game. Ever."
Web Animation
- Homestar Runner uses this one. A lot.
- Red vs. Blue
- Reconstruction gives us what is probably a contender for best example of this trope in the first fight against the Meta:
Wash: Caboose! Throw the grenade!
(Caboose throws the Spike Grenade... which sticks to the wall they're crouching behind)
Wash: That. Was the worst throw. Ever. Of all time.
Caboose: Not my fault. Someone put a wall in my way.
- Later in Revelation:
Doc: Wash! Here! Take this!
'(Doc waves tow hook attached to jeep)
Wash: Doc? Throw it! Throw it!
(Doc throws the hook about two feet)
Wash: You have GOT to be kidding me...
(Wash leaps and grabs the hook and climbs up the cable)
Wash: That was the second worst throw. Ever. Of all time.
Doc: What do you want from me? I ran track in high school.
- It's something of a Running Gag with Wash.
Wash: What the hell? It bounces? Who designs a gun that bounces? This is the worst gun ever. Of all ti--
(Carolina tackles him)
Web Comics
- Looking for Group: "Worst Portal Ever."
- Left-Handed Toons combines this with The Reveal in the line below this comic: "Worst Eulogy Ever."
- Girls with Slingshots: "Worst. Bachelor party. EVER." But inverted in the last panel.
- Least I Could Do
- And also inverted: "Best. Aneurysm. Ever."
- Darths and Droids: "Worst. Adventure. Ever."
- Dan and Mabs Furry Adventures: "Worst. Castle. Ever."
- The Order of the Stick
Roy Greenhilt: Ugh, if that's it, that is the most lame-ass prophecy in the long history of lame-ass prophecies.
- The flashback in strip #276:
Girard: Geez, you've got to be the dumbest villain EVER.
Lirian: Really? You think he's worse than Baron Pineapple?
Web Original
- Texts from Last Night
She used her cellphone as a light to find my clit under the sheets. worst.lesbian.ever.
Western Animation
- The Simpsons: The Trope Maker, of course.
- Introduced by Comic Book Guy in "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show".
- In the eleventh season's "Saddlesore Galactica", Comic Book Guy criticizes the episode, which recycles old plots and character traits ("Excuse me, I believe this family already had a horse", Marge's gambling). As the episode proceeds, he wears a "Worst Episode Ever" shirt. When the credits end at the Gracie Films production logo, he says, "Worst. Episode. Ever."
- Appropriately enough, the twelfth-season episode "Worst Episode Ever" centers around Bart and Milhouse taking over Comic Book Guy's store after he suffers a cardiac episode (a heart attack). Which CBG refers to as, of course, "Worst episode ever."
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Toph calls Ba Sing Se the "Worst. City. Ever." based on the rules the Dai Li imposes.
- Also:
Toph: Worst. Vacation. Ever.
- And "Worst. Fieldtrip. Ever." (Again by Toph. Can you tell that she loves this trope?)
- Earlier in the episode "Avatar Day", Sokka summed up the whole experience: "Worst. Town. Ever."
- The Legend of Korra plays this for drama and humor in the same episode. when Korra gets so frustrated over her airbending block she calls herself the worst Avatar ever, Tenzin assures her she'll get through it. When she applies the same trope to Tarlokk's new puppet police chief, he completely agrees.
Korra: You are officially the worst chief of police ever.
Tenzin: Calm down Korra. I'll get this sorted out, we just need to be patient. But you really are the worst. (starts to go, then turns) EVER.
Sue: I know, I know: we're the Worst. Neighbors. Ever. Right?
- Jimmy Two Shoes: "Lamest. Prize. Ever."
- The Cleveland Show:
Comic Book Guy: Worst. Cameo. Ever
- The Fairly OddParents
- In "Fairly Odd Baby", Jorgen described one of Timmy's plans as "Worst. Plan. Ever."
- In "Wishology", Jorgen commented, "Worst. Chosen One. Ever."