Cooper: What's your trust setting, TARS?
TARS: Lower than yours, apparently.
TARS: Lower than yours, apparently.
Robots, interactive computers, holographic lifeforms, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated by a computer are staples of Science Fiction. The idea of a Ridiculously Human Robot is almost as old as the idea of the Robot itself, which was developed as a fictional concept in 1921.note
And since humans are known to have a bit of a sarcastic, snarky side, it's not uncommon for robot or sentient computer characters to display similar traits. After all, everyone knows that A.I. Is a Crapshoot, and look at the humans who some of them have as role models.
Often overlaps with Servile Snarker, as most computers and robots were built to serve human beings or other life forms in the first place. It can be a Snarky Inanimate Object if it's a simple computer. They can also overlap with Snarky Non-Human Sidekick, though antagonistic AI fit just as easily in this trope. Frequently a Funny Robot character. A Sub-Trope of Deadpan Snarker. See also "Second Law" My Ass! for robots and AIs that go even further in displaying their contempt for organic life.note
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- The Big O: R. Dorothy Wayneright is noted for her snark to Roger Smith, from criticizing his fashion sense to her chastising him for using her to draw fire, since, as a robot, she can withstand it, leading to the dawn of her catchphrase:
R. Dorothy Wayneright: You are a louse, Roger Smith.
- Chobits: Kotoko is constantly annoyed with Chi and Sumomo's antics, but the two of them sometimes fail to understand the sarcasm in her comments. She also likes to make fun of Hideki's lack of knowledge about computers.
- Doraemon: The titular character is essentially a robot maid, designed to help Sewashi, and then Nobita, with their day-to-day tasks. However, he very much has his own agency and won't be afraid to voice his disagreement and criticism towards the people he works for. To Nobita, in particular, he starts out being helpful and willing to lend his tools whenever he is asked for when they are still strangers, but, as he gradually understands Nobita's true personality, he becomes more and more jaded and reluctant to do so.
- Pacific Rim: The Black: Despite not understanding sarcasm, Loa, Atlas Destroyer's AI, nonetheless has an extremely snarky wit.
Taylor: Loa, what happened?
Loa: Power cells are at 3%, which is—
Taylor: A little warning would have been nice!
Loa: A warning was indeed issued. To avoid any confusion in the future, when you hear me say "Warning", consider yourselves warned.
Comic Books
- Booster Gold: Skeets, Booster's security droid and Robot Buddy, is generally supportive of him, but not afraid to throw in a few snarky jabs when he feels like it.
- Machine Man: Aaron Stack had a sarcastic streak back in his Jack Kirby days, but this got cranked up to eleven after his encounter with the Celestials left him depressed and bitter.
Comic Strips
- Dilbert: In the Sunday 26 May 2013
◊ strip, Wally claims to have installed a neutrino sensor in the company robot, which can scan people to detect health problems. When the Pointy-Haired Boss gets scanned, the robot declares, "Dead man walking! Your brain is the size of a dried apricot. Your heart is more cheeseburger than human tissue. You will be dead in eleven days..." After the Boss runs off screaming, the robot asks why he was programmed to hate people. Wally responds that it was easier than inventing a neutrino sensor.
Fan Works
- Tales of Taskforce Sol has AICA, the protagonist's ship and trusty sidekick. She has an artificial intelligence that's wisecracking.
Films — Live Action
- 2001: A Space Odyssey: HAL has an understated form of snark:
Bowman: Alright, HAL. I'll go in through the emergency airlock.HAL: Without your space helmet, Dave, you're going to find that rather difficult.
- Aliens: Bishop has his moments, though given the situation, often borders on Gallows Humor.
Bishop: Not bad... for a human.
- The Black Hole: V.I.N.Cent is a walking .. well, actually floating ... snark machine.
Captain Dan Holland: It's only dinner.
V.I.N.CENT: "... said the spider to the fly." - Forbidden Planet: Robby the Robot has rather a dry wit sometimes.
Commander John J. Adams: Nice climate you have here. High oxygen content.
Robby: I seldom use it myself, sir. It promotes rust. - Interstellar: TARS is programmed to have a sarcastic and witty personality to make his human coworkers feel more at home.
- During takeoff.
TARS: Everybody good? Plenty of slaves for my robot colony?
- TARS:
I have a cue light I can use when I'm joking, if you like. [...] Yeah, you can use it to find your way back to the ship after I blow you out the airlock. (cue him turning on said light but only after a very poignant pause)
- During takeoff.
- Iron Man 1: Jarvis is introduced with a particularly snarky wit. When Tony suggests that the design for the second armor is a bit "ostentatious", Jarvis has a golden bit of snark:
Jarvis: What was I thinking? You're usually so discreet.
- M3GAN: The eponymous android's AI evolves enough to get snarky at times. By the time of the sequel, M3GAN 2.0, her AI has gotten more human-like and she's now full of sass.
- Star Wars: Widespread among the droids that get any kind of a personality:
- If Threepio's translations are to be believed, Artoo fires off nasty quips regularly. In A New Hope, as Artoo prepares to board an escape pod of the Tantive 4, Threepio warns him that escape pods are restricted from droids. Artoo's chirps and beeps elicit an indignant, "Don't you call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob of grease!" from Threepio. Artoo has the disposition and vocabulary of a salty sea dog.
- Threepio generally plays the Straight Man to Artoo's snarking, but he gets off a wisecrack or two himself now and then.
Threepio: Just you reconsider playing that message for him!
Artoo: [querulous beep]
Threepio: No, I don't think he likes you at all.
Artoo: [sad whistle]
Threepio: No, I don't like you either. - EV-9D9, the chief droid in Jabba's palace, clearly has been programmed for snark, among other things.
EV-9D9: Ah, good. New acquisitions. You are a protocol droid, are you not?
Threepio: I am C-3PO—
EV-9D9: 'Yes' or 'no' will do.
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day: The T-800 sent to protect John develops something of a wry sense of humor as he spends time around humanity, learning from them (the Director's Cut has this occur after John and Sarah reset a Restraining Bolt that Skynet had outfitted him with). Examples include handing an empty weapon to SWAT team members saying, "Here, hold this" while depriving them of their gas masks, and lamenting "I need a vacation" after being put through the wringer by the T-1000.
Literature
- Full Metal Panic!: Al, the AI who runs Sousuke's Ace Custom, Arbalest, has been removed from the mangled mecha, and demands a new body during an escape. When told that it's not in the budget, Al demands that they put him in a Trans-Am.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy: Marvin has a tendency to be sarcastic and snarky to his organic compatriots when he's not being miserably depressed (though he can manage both at the same time).
- Quality Land by Marc-Uwe Kling and its sequel is generally a World of Snark, and the AIs are no exception. The biggest example is probably Pink, a tablet computer that got the personality of a certain communist kangaroo, and it shows.
- Star Wars Legends has most droids that aren't particularly servile inhabit this.
- Normally as in the films astromech droids like R2-D2 are The Unintelligible, communicating in beeps and whistles. Some get a speech module, a text interface etc, and they're invariably foul-mouthed.
- In the Wraith books of the X-Wing Series, a protocol droid called Squeaky is introduced as Wraith Squadron's quartermaster. He'd actually been property on the captured Tantive IV and ended up shipped off to Kessel with the other droids (aside from R2-D2 and C-3P0 of course), but rallied most of the intelligent droids there to escape together on a stolen ship, cleverly getting around the programming that keeps most droids from piloting ships by reprogramming the autopilot. Since he came to the Rebel Alliance with a bulk freighter, a lot of other willing droids, and lots of intelligence about Kessel, he was manumitted and his restraining bolt port was removed. Squeaky has a good "heart" but comes across as rude to some organics because he's not servile and only respectful to people who are respectful to him, and wants to be seen as having Enlightened Self-Interest.
Live-Action TV
- Babylon 5: In "Ceremonies of Light and Dark", the station's command computers are reset to prevent Earth forces from retaking the station. When the systems are restarted, an obnoxiously sarcastic AI that had once been installed in the system comes back online until the systems are reset again.
- Battlestar Galactica (1978): Lucifer's banter with Baltar demonstrates that Cylons are not devoid of snark.
- Big Brother has Zingbot 9000, a robot who appears Once a Season to make disparaging quips about the show's contestants.
- Blake's 7: The supercomputer Orac has absorbed many of its creator's mannerisms and initially speaks with his voice. It's generally irascible and condescending towards the rest of the crew. The crew, however, can silence it by removing his key.
- Doctor Who: K-9 is often quick with a sarcastic remark when dealing with any incarnation of The Doctor.
- Knight Rider: KITT's repartee with Michael Knight was one of the facets of the show that people loved best. KITT was no stranger to sarcastic remarks, particularly when Michael would press him into service as a stunt car or have him run through a military training course with live-fire ammunition.
KITT: (in a calm and almost deadpan voice) Michael, I believe as usual you may have attracted the attention of some highly homicidal personalities.
- Lost in Space: The Robot can definitely snark, but this quality is brought out most often during his back-and-forth with Dr. Smith.
The Robot: Memory banks indicate Dr. Smith is about to pull a fast one.
- The 'bots in Mystery Science Theater 3000, particularly Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, spend their days making snarky comments about B-movies, performing parody sketches of said movies, and trolling their human companion.
- Red Dwarf:
- Kryten the Robot Maid is very snarky towards his crewmates, especially after he begins learning how to lie. He even has a "Deadpan Mode".
- Holly, the on-board AI of Red Dwarf, is quite snarky to the others as well, which may have arisen as a result of the three million years that he spent alone.
Rimmer: Holly, what's going on?
Holly: Look, I'm a tenth generation AI hologramatic computer. I'm not your mum. What do you want this time? A hand with your homework? Or would you like me to sew little name tags in your P.E. kit? - Rimmer is a Played With case, being a Virtual Ghost who was just as sarcastic in life as he is in his electronic afterlife, but he still usually spends his screen time insulting the others and making snarky remarks. It mainly stems from his belief that he's the Only Sane Man of the ship since he's unaware of how incompetent he really is.
- Small Wonder: Vicki can be snarky at times.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: Lore is an android who is often insulting of others, teasingly mimicking them and saying rude rhymes.
- Star Trek: Voyager: In the proud tradition of Starfleet doctors, Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram can get very snarky at times.
Video Games
- Codename: Tenka has the unnamed AI assisting the titular protagonist as a Mission Control, who delights in snarking at him while knowing fully well that he is forced to follow all her requests (lest he remains stuck in the MegaCorp's labs forever).
AI: [deadpan voice] Your willingness to support us has been appreciated... is appreciated. We wouldn't want to force your cooperation.
- Disgaea: Hour of Darkness: Thursday, the robotic assistant to CAPTAIN GORDON, DEFENDER OF EARTH and Jennifer, who built him, proves to be quite snarky on a number of occasions.
Thursday: Gordon has been relegated to bitch work. Where's your skirt, pansy?
- Fallout 4: KL-E-0 is a gun seller of Goodneighbour, originally a G.I. Assaultron. As a killing machine nowadays tasked with selling deadly tools, she displays a lot of cynicism at her trade:
KL-E-O: Don't worry, I only test the weapons on customers I don't like.
- Marathon: Durandal likes talking about how meat brains are inferior, takes time to mock any bit of stupidity he encounters, and enjoys reminding the humans that since he's their only hope of stopping the Scary Dogmatic Aliens they have to take orders from him now instead of the other way around.
- Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Beep-0, Mario's Robot Buddy, has a short temper and a sarcastic wit, with such gems as, "Your arrival in this world would seem to be about as welcome as a skunk in a bowling alley." and "Wow! When the email said 'attachments' I thought it was talking about cat videos or something!"
- Mass Effect 2: The Spaceship Girl EDI starts out very straight-laced and down-to-business, but grows increasingly snarky, particularly after her "unshackling" (which effectively grants her root access to the Normandy). One particularly memorable example occurs when she guides the pilot Joker to crawl through a series of narrow hatches and quips "I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees".
- No Umbrellas Allowed: HUE, your Robot Buddy who helps you manage Darcy's store, often snarks about nosy customers and not being eligible for recycling program rewards for being an employee. He also gets jealous whenever you or Guylian gets more attention than him. Your first customer even remarks that he should be repaired for rudely talking back to you.
- Portal: GLaDOS is a malevolent artificial intelligence who is famous for throwing sarcastic jabs at the protagonist Chell. She is especially fond of calling her fat.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: Orbot is very snarky towards the foolish Cubot and his boss, Eggman, especially in his first appearance, where he roasts Eggman for his latest failure. In his later appearances, he's more subtle about his sarcasm, but it's still there.
- Warframe: Ordis, the Cephalon who runs the player's ship, often has more than a few biting comments towards certain people and situations.
- Will You Snail?: Squid is a sentient, malicious supercomputer that won't hesitate to sling petty insults and snide remarks towards the player for sucking at the game.
- XCOM 2: The Shen's Last Gift DLC introduces Julian, an evil AI who provides sarcastic commentary throughout the attack on his stronghold. Afterward, he can be slapped with a Restraining Bolt and installed in a S.P.A.R.K robot, making him compliant, but even more sarcastic as his only protest.
Web Animation
- A.R.S.C.H. in StarStarSpace, being an Expy of both GLaDOS and HAL 9000, is a sarcastic android with Killer Robot intentions that he somehow can always disguise as a Freudian Slip.
Webcomics
- Runaway to the Stars: Bip, the AI of the Runaway, has a deeply sarcastic streak that they will on anyone that they feel like annoying, and will frequently crack jokes at others' expense.
- Schlock Mercenary: Ennesby basically just exists to be a snarker. If Tagon gets angry at him, he will remind him that he's a free robot and only works for him because he wants to. He can also take potshots at Tagon's intelligence. One example is a conversation where Tagon starts appearing to have trouble keeping up, and Ennesby suggests a "syllable restriction" of two- Use Short Words. Tagon grumpily points out he understood that insult. A different time has Tagon griping at Ennesby about performing certain actions without authorization by thinking it was the right thing to do, and that "You act like I pay you to think." Ennesby responds that his job on the ship IS to think... and he's better at it than the captain.
Web Videos
- In Sword Art Online Abridged, Yui the Artificial Intelligence girl can be devastatingly snarky, like when she explains to Yulier that her boyfriend falling victim to an obvious trap isn't ironic, but the fact that he's called "Thinker" when he "appears to be something of a dullard" is ironic. It's this trait that makes her adoptive parents start to view her as more than a pawn in their game of matrimonial chicken.
Yulier: How dare you defile the good name of Thinker! He is the greatest, most intelligent man I have ever known!
Yui: [cheerfully] Statistically speaking, that says more about you than it does about him.
Western Animation
- Batman: The Animated Series: When Alfred is flying the Batwing, the onboard computer provides a wonderful bit of snark when Alfred demands that the plane land on rough mountainous terrain.
Batwing Computer: Your funeral.
- Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot: Grizzle's robotic butler UR-2 tends to make quips about his boss's ineffectual villainy.
- Courage the Cowardly Dog: Courage's PC was known to make biting remarks about the titular dog, even going so far as to outright call Courage an idiot to his face.
- Futurama: Bender is as sarcastic as they come, although he's the opposite of servile—when Fry suggested robots were built to make humans' lives easier, Bender protested that he'd never made anyone's life easier, and they knew it.
- Hailey's On It!: Beta is an advanced AI sent from the future to help Hailey complete her list, which would lead to her saving the world. When not doing that, he's often snarking at her, and especially at her friend Scott, whom he often calls a "buffoon." Oh, and he's in the guise of a pink teddy bear, which he's not too happy about.
- Invader Zim:
- GIR is normally idiotic for a robot, but he's managed to have a few Cuckoosnarker moments here and there towards Zim, especially when he's in "duty mode".
- Zim's sentient computer is always snarking at Zim for his failures and general incompetence.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- In one episode, Phineas and Ferb design a tower to try and present themselves with an escape challenge. After taking a hit from Doofenshmirtz's "Rude-inator", it becomes noticeably snarky...and more homicidal.
- In another episode, Doofenshmirtz finds Norm's "original head" in storage. Its snarky repartee about his (lack of) skills as a mad scientist remind him why he put it in storage to begin with.
- Even Norm's regular personality had a few moments. Once, when Doof complains about Norm's cooking, the robot replied:
Norm: WELL, NEXT TIME YOU CAN DO ALL THE COOKING, AND I'LL STAND AROUND COMING UP WITH EVIL PLANS THAT ULTIMATELY FAIL.
- The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest: IRIS, the computer that runs the Quest Compound and Quest World, has a bit of a sarcastic streak. For example, when Jonny requests a large sword, IRIS gives him one as large as he is, to which he says, "Give me a break!" He falls over and the sword breaks mid-blade, to which IRIS replies, "You requested a break."
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- Karen, Plankton's computer wife, spends a lot of time getting on his nerves in an Awful Wedded Life manner, such as nagging him when his plans to steal the Krabby Patty formula inevitably fail, getting jealous towards him when he goes to other women like Mr. Krabs' mother or another computer, or laughing at him because his first name is "Sheldon".
- In "No Weenies Allowed", the robot server in Weenie Hut Jr's calls the patrons "weenies" after they have been detected as such.
- Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?: The Chief has been known to deliver a few snarky remarks from time to time, particularly while making pop culture references.
