• All My Darling Daughter: A non-villainous example. Mari hates her mother for repeatedly calling her ugly in front of others while showing preferential treatment to her younger brother. Mari calls her mother out on this, but the latter denies that she loves Tsutomu more, and claims that she's stricter on Mari for her own good. When Mari does become a mother, she makes an effort to not repeat her mother's mistakes, but frequently hurts her own daughter Yukiko in other ways, such as kicking her when she's too messy or refuses to help with house work, or getting remarried and bringing her new husband home without telling her daughter.
  Mari: When I become a parent, I'm sure I won't be perfect. I may even unreasonably take my frustrations out on my kids. But I won't lie to them saying it's for their own good.
• In an episode of the first Astro Boy anime, a thief and real estate mogul are trapped on the Moon with Astro. The thief berates the businessman in an argument, saying that at least he's an honest crook who has the decency to break the law when he robs people.
• Black Butler: At the end of the Circus Arc, after killing Baron Kelvin and the kidnappers they were hunting, Ciel has Sebastian burn down Kelvin’s manor…along with all of the children Kelvin was holding captive there, the ones Ciel was ordered to save. Afterwards, Sebastian questions Ciel on this order. Ciel says that, realistically, the children wouldn’t have been able to recover from the trauma and abuse Kelvin put them through, even if he had saved them. Sebastian calls his master arrogant for deciding that doing a Mercy Kill on the children was the best choice for them. Ciel admits as such, and then goes on to say that all of humanity is arrogant, which Sebastian agrees with. Ciel then says his decision was partly due to his own experience with trauma, and that he was only able to bounce back due to making a contract with Sebastian. Ciel concludes the talk by affirming that he is arrogant, but not so arrogant as to say he can save people who’ve been broken beyond recovery.
• Code:Breaker: Whenever Sakura Sakurakouji chews out Rei Ogami for being a killer, he usually responds with this.
• Code Geass:
  • This is the biggest difference between Lelouch Lamperouge and Suzaku Kururugi. They're both hypocrites and Well Intentioned Extremists, but Lelouch acknowledges his own hypocrisy and never once tries to justify it, whereas Suzaku is the exact opposite and refuses to own up to anything he does. Lelouch even lampshades it at one point, telling Suzaku point-blank that he doesn't have time to debate which of them is a bigger hypocrite.
  • This trait is also what separates Lelouch from the rest of his family, who kills and abuses numbers, blaming them for even their minor problems. Lelouch's father, Emperor Charles zi Britannia, is included as he blames the nobility and their practices for his troubles, even when he had the power to fix that himself. Lelouch calls him out for blaming everything on the dead, and after erasing him from existence, proceeds to fix what should have been done long ago.
• Death Note: For all of L and Light Yagami's similarities, L at least has enough self-awareness to be aware of his flaws, even admitting he shares the same childishness and Sore Loser tendencies as Kira in front of the rest of the Task Force. Light, meanwhile, is a perfectionist who would sooner declare himself God than admit he made a mistake.
• Fruits Basket: Shigure knows he's a sly and self-serving Manipulative Bastard, but unlike others with bad behaviors in this series, he doesn't make excuses for the way he is and openly admits his worst traits.
• Fullmetal Alchemist (2003):
  • Mad Bomber Solf J. Kimblee is portrayed this way. He believes that all humans, including himself, are inherently worthless beings whose lives have no meaning, and that he is the only one who's willing to admit it.
  • During the early portion of the series, when the Elrics are spending a lot of time in Adventure Towns on missions for the military, Ed has a lot of unscrupulous alchemists dabbling with various taboos — like many who were suckered by the homunculi into using red stones — try to tell Ed that his attempts at human transmutation make him similar. Needless to say (since Ed committed his taboo out of love, not a lust for power) he doesn't take it well.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Stone Ocean: When Weather Report is fighting Pucci, the latter starts begging that he's only trying to bring humanity towards eternal happiness, but Weather then regards him as worse than before, because, "The kind of evil that doesn't know it's evil is the worst kind of evil there is."
  • The JoJoLands: As Acca Howler is told by his bankers that they're going to leave him high and dry to avoid getting caught in the scandal from the volcanic slope sale, he bluntly points out that they're just as villainous as he is.
• Mako Mankanshoku from Kill la Kill admits to Elite Four's Nonon Jakuzure's constantly calling her "underachiever", but reminds her that she still has a name. Fellow Elite Four member Ira Gamagoori is both shocked and impressed by Mako's shamelessness to this.
• Corrupt Politician Job Trunicht from Legend of the Galactic Heroes is completely shameless about his nature as a proto-fascist Smug Snake, at one point during an early episode pointing out that if democracy puts men like himself in charge, it's not a terribly good system. Trunicht later goes on to happily become The Quisling to The Empire because all he cares about is his own status and power, disgusting Reinhard in the process.
  • This can also be incorporated into the fact that Reinhard von Lohengramm, Oskar von Reuenthal, and most of the Empire cast openly enjoy battles, even if it means a lot of pain, suffering and many sacrificed lives.
• Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied?: Reina Himekawa is be a bitch of a bully, and is aware of it, but will not let it slide if another bully denies their own wrongdoing. Case in point, she reprimands Riho for blaming her and the rest of the bullies over their attacks on Shiori going public, pointing out she wasn't forced to join in like she claimed.
• Mother Keeper: Towards the end of the manga, Graham calls out the protagonist for all the times he ignored the consequences of being a terrorist, an assassin, and utterly naïve enough to work for the two without thinking he's the villain. Big mistake.
• Eustass Kid in One Piece. Sure, he's somewhere between a Sociopathic Hero and monster who's attacked and killed people just for laughing at him or looking at him funny... but that doesn't stop him from criticizing the World Government for doing equally evil, and worse, things while proclaiming that their methods are "Justice", as well as the World Nobles, who use their status as the descendants of the Twenty Kings who founded the World Government to do whatever the hell they want whenever they want to. He even explicitly says that, though he's not "the nicest of guys," at least he's honest about it.
• Shinya! Tensai Bakabon had Papa pitch a mobile game to a developer where players threw in-game currency to make the family look nicer. It was even outright marketed as Microtransactions! Tensai Bakabon, with Papa reasoning consumers would buy it since it was so open about spending cash in-game. It ended up being defied (as players would naturally not buy a game calling them stupid for buying it), and the developer went with a Romance Game instead.

• 2000 AD: In the Judge Dredd story in 2000 AD Sci Fi Special 2022, when Dredd caputures Judge Fray, he asks why a good Judge turned bad. Fray retorts that there is no such thing as a good Judge, and he just had the awareness to realise they were the bad guys, and the nerve to commit to it.
• Batman: During one of the most-quoted tirades delivered in The Killing Joke, The Joker chastises Batman for not admitting to his particular insanity. See also Joker's Asylum, in which he hijacks a game show and turns it into a Deadly Game, just to prove how sick the viewing audience and ratings-obsessed staff are.
• Captain America:
  • In Captain America (2004) #15, Crossbones uses this while trying to deprogram Red Skull's daughter Synthia,^note i.e. turn her back into the Ax-Crazy Daddy's Little Villain she was before SHIELD gave her Fake Memories and brainwashed her into being a normal, healthy person he goes on a rant about how the "American Way" is just a lie used to control the masses.
    Synthia: Oh, and fascism's better, then?
    Crossbones: Not better, maybe, but more honest, at least. It don't pretend to value human life while making that life a whole helluva lot worse off.
  • He also says it in Thunderbolts (1997) #149, during the Shadowland (2010) crossover:
    Crossbones: Fine with me. I'll burn out more of these Jap zombies.
    Moonstone: That's right— you don't talk much so I forget you're a crazy racist.
    Crossbones: Everyone is. I'm just honest about it.
• Lazarus (2013): In Lazarus: Risen #7, on learning the truth of Malcolm Carlyle's part in the Crapsack World Feudal Future, this is the essential difference between himself and Jakob Hock. While the latter is a notorious drug lord, he does not hide it or try to justify it as something else to those who confront him. On the other hand, Malcolm is willing to do anything to keep his vision alive, claiming that all of it is necessary or could ultimately lead to something better.
• Loki: In Vote Loki, this is basically Loki's campaign platform: He's a supervillain and a trickster god, but at least he's honest about how dishonest he is while other politicians lie about who they are. In fact, what ultimately thwarts him is when people realise that is literally his entire platform and he either hadn't bothered or had genuinely forgotten to make any actual campaign promises, even bad or dishonest ones, and was just letting people project their desires onto him.
• Pathfinder (Dynamite Comics): In Pathfinder Origins #4, while evaluating The Team for membership in the Pathfinder Society, Venture-Captain Heidmarch somewhat angrily calls Merisiel a thief: apparently, she stole an artifact from a party of Pathfinders several years ago. Meri retorts that the Pathfinders had stolen the item in question from a tomb to begin with.^note This is a Continuity Nod to the Pathfinder Society's In-Universe reputation in the Lost Omens setting: they fancy themselves Adventurer Archaeologists who bring ancient knowledge to the public and take dangerous items out of circulation, but their methods vary widely in legality and political acumen and they're often accused of being glorified thieves and/or disrespecting native cultures.
  Merisiel: You want to split hairs? I'll lend you a knife.
• The Powerpuff Girls: In the story "Drama-O-Rama" (DC issue #48), Sedusa stages a reality TV show in Townsville so the citizens will ham it up for the cameras while she robs the city blind. The Powerpuff Girls aren't immune to it, either. When Sedusa instructs the people to be more dramatic, Blossom takes umbrage... she says she's already a drama queen.
• Requiem Vampire Knight: Sinners reincarnate as monsters in Hell depending on the gravity of their crimes, and ghouls (people who committed great atrocities in life in the name of the greater good) are viewed as some of the lowest by the vampires, who used to be the worse of the worst and are completely unrepentant about their crimes.
• Ultimate Marvel:
  • The Ultimates: Bruce Banner thinks that the wifebeater Henry Pym should be left out of the team. Yes, Bruce "Hulk Smash" Banner, who killed so many people in his rampage. But at least he works 18 hours a day trying to find a cure for that (and Banner was not in his right mind at the time - Pym has no such excuse).
  • Ultimate X-Men (2001): Unlike Magneto, Wolverine, or many lethal-minded characters, Sabertooth purely kills because he likes it. He knows he's a monster.
• X-Men: The reason why Emma Frost always wears those Stripperific outfits is that she's an Attention Whore, and she will gladly admit it.

• Garfield: The New Year's Eve 1978 strip has Garfield pondering to exercise and lose weight as his New Year's resolution — only to suddenly worry that he has lost his mind and decides right then and there to not lose weight after all: "I'm fat, and I'm lazy, and I'm proud of it!"
• In Peanuts, Lucy not only admits to being a "fussbudget", she's proud of it. In one early strip, when a character said that her mother said she was "a natural-born fussbudget", Lucy objected to the "natural born" part, shouting, "I worked hard to be what I am!"

Crossovers

• All For Luz: While Luz dislikes All For One's Brutal Honesty, she comes to appreciate the fact that he's a proud Card-Carrying Villain. Compared to all the Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremists she has to deal with, All For One's willingness to admit he's evil is a breath of fresh air.
• In Attack On Prime, Megatron tells Zeke that they both have plenty of blood on their hands. However, unlike Zeke, he doesn't attempt to justify his crimes by claiming they were all in the name of a greater cause.
• Beetlejuice Checks In: When Beetlejuice is calling out the cruelty of the exterminations, Lute proclaims it's her duty to slaughter Sinners as their final punishment, calling him a "horrid, low-life, sinful pack of garbage who deserves to choke on his own blood and be left in a gutter". Beetlejuice fixes her with a blank stare and replies "Well, duh. I'm a demon. What's your excuse?"
• In Chapter 54 of BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant, Yuuki Terumi points out to Adam Taurus that this is the main difference between the two of them. While Adam deludes himself into believing he's in the right by his actions and makes any excuse he can, Terumi makes no attempt to hide what a depraved monster he is and openly relishes in that fact.
• Deconstructed in The Boys Avenging. In Chapter 10, Billy Butcher admits that he's no hero in his crusade against the Supes and doesn't attempt to convince himself otherwise, simply going after bigger monsters than himself. However, Zarathos points out that he does a lot of self-justification for his deplorable actions (such as leaving Joe Kessler to die in Afghanistan and claiming that he didn't have a choice) despite calling himself a monster, implying that Billy's self-honesty is secretly a crutch and a convenient excuse to avoid changing for the better. In short, Butcher's self-awareness to his awfulness just makes him all the more unsympathetic, as he's aware of and acknowledges his problems, but still refuses to actually do anything about it.
• Child of the Storm: At one point, Doctor Zola states that he considers America hypocritical for deriding the Nazis for the genocides of various peoples when they did the same to the Native American tribes. As far as he's concerned, at least the Nazis were efficient in what they did.
• Code Prime: This is one of the reasons why Britannia and the Decepticons have such a difficult time working together. Britannia spends most of the time acting righteous in their horrific actions, while the Cons don’t even bother trying to hide their evil and outright relish in the atrocities that they commit.
• Fall of Starfleet, Rebirth of Friendship: As Dark Conquest points out, he may rape, murder and write bad fan fiction about a show he hates but at least he's honest about his evil, unlike Starfleet.
• Fooly Falls: During Rick And Haruko, Yellow Diamond tells Rick that he's nothing but an agent of confusion and chaos who actively makes the lives of everyone around him worse, questioning "Is that the life you want to live, Sanchez? Being nothing more than a toxic oaf?" Rick retorts "At least I'm healthier to be around than you, you big bitchy banana!"
• From The Ashes (Fallout, Mass Effect): Goeth rants about how frequently others engage in the same tactics and behavior he does, discarding their morals the moment they get in the way of whatever they decide needs to be done "for the greater good":
  Goeth: The things that I do are considered horrible and twisted by the standards everyone claims to stand by. But the thing is that everyone breaks these so called 'moral standards' all the time. Bombing a colony is bad, according to these standards, but if you do it to kill a dangerous individual, it's acceptable to some. It's bad to kill someone, but it's acceptable if they deserve it. And it's bad to kill your leader, but if you really needed to, it's acceptable. I don't even know why society bothers with moral standards. Every time things get a little hard they're thrown to the wind with people saying 'oh, I HAD to do this,' or 'it was what needed to be done.'
  It's actually rather amusing to watch people commit atrocities and then viciously try to convince themselves that they're still 'good guys.' It even gets rather funny when they start whining about how tortured they are because they broke these fragile little rules that everyone holds so near and dear to them for reasons I still don't quite understand. And then when they're accused of breaking these rules, it's amazing how offended and defensive they get, treating the word hypocrite like it's a dirty word, and acting like everything will be ok if no one understands what they've done. All these twists and turns, these lies so many live by, standards that are important, but then they really aren't, but then they really are. And people say that I'm insane.
• In the fifth Halloween Unspectacular, Ovard Grim's "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards Athena includes him telling her that, while he may be a sociopathic liar, he at least admits to it.
• Infinity Train: Blossomverse:
  • In Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, when The Cat realizes that how the truth about how she abandoned Simon to save her skin is now online, she tries to save face by blaming Amelia for usurping One-One and causing all the trouble by not revealing the truth about what the Train's purpose is. Amelia, who has done a Heel–Face Turn, admits that she has done a lot of horrible things, but at least is trying to work on atoning for her past mistakes, whereas The Cat was a single car away from Simon, and never returned to him after eight years.
  • In Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily, what separates Paul London from Grace and Simon is that he admits that he's a killer and has done horrible things — namely, sacrificing Masacrita Sacrada even though he did a kind gesture to let him see the White Rabbit and then offering up his other Rabbit Tribe members to Mantanza — while Grace and Simon refuse to humor the idea that they're hurting denizens since they "aren't human". This becomes harsher to look at when it's later revealed that most denizens are the souls of reincarnated passengers who died on the Train and Grace had actually known this the entire time but lied so she didn't have to face the truth.
• A Man of Iron:
  • Gregor openly admits his own sadism, to the point of getting annoyed when others assume he enjoys fighting — it's the killing he enjoys, thank you very much.
  • Arya observes that the criminals and monsters in the Night's Watch admit to being such, unlike those in King's Landing.
  • Later, Namor claims he's the only resident of King's Landing who doesn't try to hide or deny any of the distasteful things he's done.
  • Euron states that what sets them apart from the rest of their fellow Thralls is that they fully recognize that if they actually succeed in wiping out the living, they won't be required any longer.
• Mass Effect: Human Revolution: When Lt. Corvin tries to call Johann out over his brutality and psychotic tendencies, the latter retorts that at least he doesn't try to hide under the pretence of being a patriot and doing it for his species or nation.
• In Metagaming?, Harry remarks that the Kirin Tor are a bunch of self-important assholes, just like him. The only difference is that he knows he is and doesn't care.
• The Owl House of Amphibia: As Hop Pop points out in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Lilith in "Heated Tensions at the Covention", while Eda may be a bit of a scoundrel, at least she's honest about it, where Lilith tricked Amity into cheating without her knowledge.
• Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K: Per commentary from the author, this would be the general attitude of any of the Imperial commanders if the Republic were to call them out on the many atrocities they have committed as Invading Refugees, pointing out that in many ways the Galactic Republic is already a human supremacist dictatorship in all but name — the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic is human, the Clone Troopers are all engineered from human base stock, the Republic's most influential worlds tend to be human-dominated if not human civilizations, and human supremacist views were spreading throughout the Republic.
• In The Turn (Animorphs / Mighty Ducks), Wildwing's Yeerk argues that the Yeerks are better than the Andalites in this regard, as at least they acknowledge that they're using other races, whereas (in the Yeerks' view) the Andalites are arrogant beings who will help other races up to a point but cut them loose if they become a bother.

Akame ga Kill!

• Alternate Worlds:
  • Bols is the only member of the Jaegers who admits he's done horrible, immoral things in service of the Empire. The rest are either Psychos for Hire or Knight Templars blind to their own hypocrisy. By contrast, Bols believes there's no justifying his actions and that he deserves whatever grisly fate might befall him.
  • While Daidara is unapologetically a Blood Knight, he doesn't engage in mindless butchery and torture like Nyau, and doesn't harbor any illusions about what his duties entail the way River does. As he dies in Tatsumi's arms, he declares that he doesn't deserve anything better, accepting his demise with dignity.

Buffyverse

• In Bring Me To Life, Buffy actually considers Jasmine worse than Glory for this very reason. While Glory was evil and insane, she never tried to make excuses for her actions or pretended to be anything else, while Jasmine adamantly insists she did what she had to do and was trying to save the world.

The Camp Half-Blood Series

• Demigod Most Wanted Files: Neither Chrysaor or Heracles wants to work at the camp. However, when the latter tries to blame Chrysaor for their predicament, Chrysaor retorts that he actually acknowledges he's there for community service — and unlike them, he wasn't ignoring his other responsibilities, calling them out for neglecting their role as the God of Heroes and not doing their job until they were forced into it.

Danganronpa

• In Despair's Last Resort, the fourth killer admits that he committed murder out of desperation to escape and disdain for the others. When one of the others calls him out on this, he says that the three previous killers, as well as a would-be murderer who was one of the victims, may have had different reasons, but they committed the same crime he did.
  Unlike them, I'm not about to justify my actions or excuse them. I'm a murderer, and I murdered so I could get away from all of you. That's all there is to my crime.
• The Deadly Game in Tetro Danganronpa PINK is run by a team of scientists behind the scenes, with Dr. Yonekura as the head of operations. Throughout the game, she shows No Sympathy for the students trapped and pushed to their breaking points; even when her own daughter is killed, she doesn't bat a lash beyond complaining about how it happened, while looking forward to future killing games. She also gets frustrated by the elaborately cruel and unusual executions Dr. Toranosuke sets up, openly calling him a Sadist... but when he asks her point-blank just what the goal of their research is, she refuses to answer. Dr. Toranosuke then states that they're both sadists; the only real difference between them is that he acknowledges it.

Danny Phantom

• Danny Phantom: Stranded:
  • In Danny Phantom: Court, Ember is the only one who admits during the Kangaroo Court that Danny didn't drive her to villainy; she just wanted to try and Take Over the World.
  • During Stranded Side Story: Golden, Donovan is upfront with both the Mansons and the Beviers about how the only reason he's pursuing their respective daughters is because he wants access to their family fortunes.

Fire Emblem

• A Brighter Dark: After a dozen Hoshidan shoguns secede right when their homeland needs them the most, Takumi bitterly compares them to the Nohrians, noting that the latter are at least open with their callousness and ambitions.
• Earthborne: In Chapter 38, Murata bitterly observes that for all that the Hoshido claim to love peace, they're really not all that different from Nohr:
  Murata: It's just that it's so funny. Think about it. Our greatest national treasures are weapons. We domesticate pegasi and kinshi, noble, beautiful beasts, to use them for war. And now, our own daimyo are in open rebellion and wage civil war against the crown. Say that again, 'Hoshido loves peace.' [Mirthless Laughter] If there's one thing I can admire Nohr for, it's that they're honest about the fact that war is their game.

Genshin Impact

• Descensus Averno: When Ariel accuses Ajax of turning Lumine against the Insurgency, he laughs in her face and mockingly declares that she's right... but he also admits that he's a horrible influence. The Committee, meanwhile, refuses to acknowledge how they drove Lumine away by treating her as their personal scapegoat until she finally turned against the Ungrateful Bastards.

Harry Potter

• The Odds Were Never In My Favour: While both the Army of Light and Exchequer have committed plenty of atrocities over the centuries; however, the Exchequer have never attempted to pretend their hands were clean or their actions justified by being done in the name of some higher power.

Hellaverse

• A Monster and a Saint: After her Heel Realization, Sera compares herself to Adam in this fashion. Adam was a monstrous Jerkass who openly reveled and enjoyed his work as an Exorcist, while Sera turned a blind eye towards his sadism and reassured herself the exterminations were Necessarily Evil, pretending she didn't have any blood on her hands.

Love Hina

• For His Own Sake: After Keitaro leaves the Hinata Inn, Kitsune eventually realizes just how much she hurt him. Naru later tries claiming that the fact Kitsune hurt Keitaro in the past means she can't complain about the things THEY did; however, Kitsune shoots back that she recognizes now she was wrong and is trying to change for the better. Naru, by contrast, refuses to admit she ever did anything wrong and keeps blaming Keitaro for all the hell she put him through.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• In A Twelve-Step Program to Omnipotence, Michael openly admits that he's a Villain Protagonist engaging in all manner of illegal and immoral behavior in his pursuit of godhood. However, he notes that SHIELD and many other government agencies also flagrantly ignore such concerns while pretending it's all "for the greater good".

Miraculous Ladybug

• All's Fair in Love and War (And Turnabout's Fair Play): Lila firmly believes that there's no such thing as a relationship that isn't Secretly Selfish and centered around mutual manipulation. She also thinks she's the only one who actually admits this to herself.
• BURN THE WITCH: Thanks to Psychological Projection, Lila arrogantly assumes that everyone is just as Secretly Selfish, and that Marinette and Ladybug are just Hypocrites who are pretending to be nice.
• Played With in Cheshire: Hawkmoth mistakenly assumes that Cheshire is a Villain with Good Publicity, as he's aware that the Black Cat Ring has a history of evil users. At least he admits that he's a supervillain!
• Couturiere: Hawkmoth fully admits to Couturiere that he sees her as nothing more than a means to an end. However, he points out that unlike Marinette's friends and classmates, who took advantage of her kindness only to swiftly turn upon her, he is at least willing to offer her back something in return.
  Hawkmoth: I have kept my promise. Can you say the same for them?
• Little Kitty on a Roof: Chat Blanc sees Hawk Moth as being significantly better than his Control Freak parents. Sure, the supervillain occasionally takes over, using him to spread their will... but his parents micromanaged his life even more, forcing him to do whatever they wanted. Hawk Moth actually lets him have more freedom and free will, along with a good chunk of power.
• Telling Lies? No, Mama: Chloé stands up for Marinette against Lila, shedding light on her methods and motives for falsely accusing Marinette. She acknowledges that she hasn't been the nicest person to Marinette in the past, but also reminds the class that she hasn't tried to turn Marinette's friends against her, unlike Lila.
• Truth and Consequences: In Mending Warped Designs, a yakuza employed by Firebird figures that both he and politicians regularly steal from innocent folks; he just admits to his crimes.
• The Wolves in the Woods: Invoked by Marinette when she finally calls out Alya. While most of her former classmates have had Heel Realizations about the roles they played in driving Marinette to transfer to another school, including Lila, Alya refuses to admit she did anything wrong. Instead, the Entitled Bitch has been trying to force her ex-"bestie" to take her back and return to their old All Take and No Give dynamic.

My Hero Academia

• Apotheosis: After learning about One for All, Aizawa lambasts All Might for being a Hypocrite who looked down upon Izuku for being Quirkless. He declares that while his work at U.A. involves critiquing and judging whether or not his students are worthy of being heroes, he's brutally honest in doing so, and at least offers them a chance to prove themselves.
• Reality Check: While calling out Shinsou on being a self-centered Jerkass, Bakugou admits that he knows he's "a piece of work" himself. That just makes him all the more pissed off at how Shinsou is so Ambitious, but Lazy and keeps blaming everyone else for his own issues.
• Snap Before You Break centers around Izuku calling out Aizawa for being a terrible teacher who abuses his students under the pretext of "logical ruses". When he learns that Nedzu was fully aware of Aizawa's issues and didn't do anything about it to see whether Izuku would step up and act, he berates the principal as well. Nedzu shrugs it off, stating that he's well aware that he's manipulative, and unlike Aizawa, he's not using his trauma as an excuse. That said, he agrees to drop the habit, at least with Class 1-A.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• Bitter Tears: An Anon-A-Miss Fic: After the Cutie Mark Crusaders are exposed as the ones who created the Anon-A-Miss blog, they get heavily bullied at school. Upon finally standing up for themselves, they point out that they never actually forced anyone to share embarrassing secrets with them — the vast majority of their content was submitted by the very same people turned around and started bullying them. They also state that they willingly confessed and accepted their punishment, while the others blamed them for, effectively, providing them with a platform.
• Bitterness: Princess Celestia tries to stop Twilight vicious callouts of her mentor, brother and former friends by declaring she's doing exactly what Discord wanted by tearing them all apart. Twilight retorts that at least he was upfront about it, rather than being a False Friend.
• What Have You Done: In Even As..., Discord admits to screwing with ponies for his own amusement, saying that at least he doesn't act high and mighty about it, unlike Celestia, who manipulates them "for the greater good".

Naruto

• In Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox, Yagura approaches Aoi and offers him a chance to join forces with LOVE in selling Gaara's Gold Sand drug in Konoha Town. Aoi's hesitant to take up the offer, pointing out that Yagura himself is not a nice guy, but Yagura responds that he's not trying to hide that fact: "At least I don't try to pretend I have standards of any sort."

One Piece

• In This Bites!, Cross responds to Aokiji's accusation of being a demon by saying at least he's honest.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

• Cao Cao has this attitude towards Liu Bei in Farce of the Three Kingdoms. He's not pretending to be a Han loyalist, and Liu Bei's self-serving pretense is... flimsy.

RWBY

• AZRE: One of the unnamed human traffickers compares themselves to Atlas, noting that while they're kidnapping others for money, they also aren't pretending that they're doing so to serve some greater purpose. Atlas, meanwhile, enslaves the Faunus, uses child labor, experiments on minorities, and is usurping the native Solitas people from their homeland... all while presenting themselves as morally righteous.
• The Devil You Don't has Anduriel inform Raven that "The difference between us, my dear, is that I fully admit to being a monster. You, on the other hand, do all you can to convince yourself you're not the worthless little beast that you are."
• A Rabbit Among Wolves: While the White Fang are nervous about potentially recruiting undercover police into their operation, they're also desperate for new members. So when Sun Wukong frankly admits that he's there to spy on them, they decide that his honesty makes him a good recruit.
• Raise: Unlike the ambassador from Vale, Ironwood is completely upfront with Jaune about the fact that his kingdom is interested in his Semblance. He doesn't dress things up in flowery words and false reassurances; he just tells him what they have to offer in plain language.
• The Tale of a Cat Most Curious: The Curious Cat presents theirself this way. They're ruthless, self-serving, and they're willing to deceive, manipulate and even kill (by proxy or directly) to get theirself closer to their goals, but they at least are self-aware and don't deny it: unlike RWBY/J, whom consider themselves the capital-H heroes despite having ultimately committed the same crimes of deceit, manipulation and mass murder by proxy that they decry others for, with far more disastrous fallout than anything the Cat has ever caused, because RWBY/J refused to be "the good guys" on anyone's terms but their own.
• In White Sheep, Raven calls out Ozpin for being in deep, deep denial about the mistakes he's made after he discovers that Salem actually has benevolent intentions.
  Raven: You don't realize what's happened. Or worse, you can't. Or you refuse to accept the very possibility of it being real. That you might have made a mistake. I've made mistakes, I admit them freely. Terrible mistakes. Mistakes that people will never forgive me for. But that's the difference between you and me, Ozpin. I've made my bed and I'm going to lay in it. I've never tried to say I was a good person. You...? You won't ever let them go.

Worm

• Here Comes the New Boss: Dirty Rotter competes with Butcher I for "nastiest piece of work in the Chorus," lecherous and cruel and wishing he still had a body so he could keep abusing illegal drugs, but he still looks down on Shadow Stalker for claiming that she's a hero while horribly bullying people. Rotter is honest about what he is.

Young Justice

• With This Ring: Paul is generally a nice person, but he does sometimes lie, and he does sometimes conceal information, and he is willing to admit that to his friends. However, he's quite upset when Wonder Woman acquiesces to the Justice League's lies about what happened to Giovanni Zatara, since she's basically a goddess of truth, with the supernatural ability to tell when someone is lying, the Lasso of Truth that can compel honest answers, etc, and is still participating in deception; in his view, with all of those things, she has to be held to a higher standard than himself.

• When called a thief at one point, Surly from The Nut Job responds along the lines of "Hey, Raccoon's a bigger thief than me!"
• Big Jack Horner from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is proud of being a villain with no redeeming qualities, to the point that his response to the Ethical Bug's You Monster! accusation is an annoyed (and mocking) "What took you so long, idiot!?"

• In the 1997 TV movie Bad To The Bone, Francesca Wells is a beautiful teenager whose sole goal in life is to screw (and screw over) as many wealthy men as possible, and she doesn't balk at resorting to murder to get what she wants, either. Through it all, her one virtue is that at least she is aware of her depraved and degraded nature and will own up to it on occasion.
  Man she's trying to seduce: We don't get many whores up here.
  Francesca: [bitterly] Well, you've got yourself one now.
• The Big Short: Vennett is a smarmy douche, and never once pretends to be anything else. He openly tells his clients that he plans to rip them off in the endgame. At the end, when he is looking at the very large check he received for shorting the crisis, he drops this quote:
  "I never said I was the hero of this story."
  • This trope also helps him sell his plan to short the market to Baum. He is so upfront with how this plan will enrich them at the expense of the entire US economy that Baum respects him for it.
    Vinny: How come you don't hate this guy? He's everything you taught us not to trust.
    Baum: I can't hate him. He is so transparent in his self-interest that I kind of respect him.
• In The Bourne Legacy, Edward Norton coolly presents this to Jeremy Renner as raison d'être for the existence of the Outcome Program:
  "We are the sin eaters. It means that we take the moral excrement we find in this equation and we bury it down deep inside of us so that the rest of our cause can stay pure. That is the job. We are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary."

  — Eric Byer
• The Dark Knight: This aspect of Joker (listed under comics) gets played up big time. He believes everyone will resort to evil methods for their own safety, and engineers "social experiments" designed to prove it.
  "When the chips are down, these, ah, civilized people? They'll eat each other... see, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.''
• Dick Tracy: Underworld figure Breathless Mahoney is hardly heroic, but you have to respect her complete lack of bullshit. Unlike her boss (and future rival) Big Boy Caprice, who wants the police and the media to believe that he is the champion of the very citizens he terrorizes, Breathless is not ashamed to admit that It's All About Her.
  Dick Tracy: Whose side are you on?
  Breathless Mahoney: The side I'm always on. Mine.
• The Distinguished Gentleman: Thomas Jefferson Johnson is a conman who gets himself elected to Congress, seeing it as another means to bilk people out of money, but becomes so horrified at the dirty dealing in Washington that he genuinely starts to take a stand against it. When Dick Dodge tries to expose Johnson as a conman, Johnson admits to it, but retorts that his history of cons aren't any different than the corruption in Congress.
• Col. Nathan Jessup in A Few Good Men is considered an Anti-Villain by some precisely because he is willing to admit that, by any modern standard, he is basically a barbarian. Jessup lectures the defense attorney questioning him (it is actually the attorney's clients on trial here) because he is disgusted that a "civilized" man (i.e., a civilian) who has never had to resort to violence in his life would attempt to condemn him for his methods: "My existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives!" However A) Jessup has been denying his involvement for the previous two hours of the movie, and B) the defense attorney is well aware that Colonel Jessup wants to brag about his barbarism to the world, and is more than willing to provoke him into it to get his clients off, even if it means being the target of a rant.
• In the film The Funeral, Christopher Walken plays the oldest of three brothers who are part of a generational crime family. He spends most of the film searching for the man who killed his little brother in which the funeral is centered around, while at the same time regretting his life and the life of his brothers. When he finds the murderer, he discovers that the guy wasn't a member of a rival crime family, but an average Joe who killed his little brother over a petty dispute. He tells the guy that he would've let him live if his little brother seriously wronged him, but is disgusted to find out he was killed over something pointless. While the man is begging for his life, the oldest brother starts telling the murderer about his life and how he chose to follow in the crime family's footsteps when he didn't have to. He concludes by telling the man that he knows he's going to hell, but the trick is to get used to it because when you do, you no longer care about morals. He proves this by killing the man, avenging his little brother's death.
• Duke in Glass Onion is a selfish asshole but unlike the others, he is at least aware he is a selfish asshole who openly acknowledges that he is leeching off of Miles' wealth and doesn't delude himself into being anything more.
• Head Office: In a rare moment of vulnerability, Jane tells Jack that her Sleeping Their Way to the Top might have started out with idealistic views about what she could do in a position of power, but is just about getting more power now, and warns him not to think it will be any different if he tries to sacrifice his morals for a promotion, For the Greater Good.
• In Jupiter Ascending, unlike their sister, Balem and Titus don't try to sugar-coat the fact that obtaining their youth serum results in the deaths of untold billions of people.
• In Knives Out, Ransom is one of the few Thrombleys who isn't a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing... because he's an outright Jerkass who is 100% aware of the fact that he's an unpleasant, petty, Idle Rich freeloader, and has absolutely zero interest in even attempting to be anything else. He specifically notes that his parents and uncles all claim to be "self-made," when really, they're anything but. Ransom, meanwhile, very openly just wants his piece of the inheritance so he can go back to his life of doing absolutely no work whatsoever. This is part of why it's a genuine surprise that he's the Big Bad — he's so open about his flaws, both the audience and the other characters underestimate the depths he'll actually sink to in order to maintain his lifestyle.
• Lawrence of Arabia has the slimy diplomat Dryden chide Lawrence for expressing disgust at the Sykes-Picot Treaty, which divides the post-war Middle East between Britain and France:
  Dryden: If we've told lies, you've told half-lies. And the man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth. But the man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he's put it.
• The Last Jedi: In a Call-Back to The Force Awakens, Rey calls Kylo Ren a monster. This time, Kylo agrees with her, leaving her visibly stunned. Notably, it's after this admission that she stops being so antagonistic to him.
• This exchange from The Mask of Zorro; The Dons are being given a tour of a gold mine, when 3-fingered Jack, a captured bandit who's being forced to work the mine, calls them out on the fact that the mineworkers are slaves:
  Captain Love: Ignore him, gentlemen, he's a common thief.
  Jack: Oh, I'm as common as they come, but I ain't nuthin' compared to you! I steal gold, I steal money, but you... you steal people's lives!
• In Mean Girls, when Cady calls Janis out on using her to bring Regina down and being responsible for her transformation into a Plastic, Janis retorts that she (like Regina) knows she is manipulative and calls Cady out on trying to act all innocent because of her less social upbringing being homeschooled in Africa.
  Janis: God, at least me and Regina George know we're mean! You try to act like you're so innocent! ... So why are you still messing with Regina, Cady? I'll tell you why! Because you are a mean girl! You're a bitch!
• In Mr. Ricco, Ricco accuses Steele of embezzling government money that was supposed to go to programs to help black people. Steele retorts that everyone steals government money and asks Ricco when he last volunteered for an audit.
• Nine Queens: When their little adventure is about to be over, Juan tells Marcos he doesn't want to work with him because they're "too different". Marcos then accuses Juan of being a hypocrite, who wants to get money without getting his hands dirty despite being a swindler just like him, while at least Marcos doesn't try to pretend that he's anything but an asshole who'll screw over anybody to get what he wants.
• Patton's title character, fully aware of his own large ego, dislikes Montgomery for not admitting he's a prima-donna and drops this trope by naming while claiming that this is the difference between the two of them.
• In Quiz Show, the subcommittee questions Stempel, and one points out that, by his own admission, he "prostituted your intellectual ability for money." Stempel replies that, unlike Van Doren (the guy he had to take a dive for), he's moral enough to admit it. Since the subcommittee suspects that he's lying because of an irrational hatred of Van Doren (which, to be fair, he totally has), this doesn't really make him look good.
• Shows up in Romancing the Stone, when Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas find the plot-driving emerald and then Danny De Vito steals it at gunpoint and accuses Douglas of having similiar designs.
  De Vito: But at least I'm honest. I'm not trying to romance it out from under her.
• Saw:
  • Amanda Young is arguably worse than John Kramer, the original Jigsaw Killer, but she openly calls out how his philosophy is deeply, deeply hypocritical, claiming that while she's a murderer, he's a self-righteous prick who tortures and kills under the veneer of helping people, which as she demonstrates, doesn't usually work.
  • Mark Hoffman admits to enjoying seeing people suffer in their traps, and angrily snaps at John to stop pretending he doesn't.
  • Spiral (2021) features the Spiral Killer, who uses Jigsaw's M.O. and methods to become a Dirty Cop Killer. In direct contrast to John, the Spiral Killer never denies that he's a murderer; his games may give his victims a chance to survive, but he doesn't pretend he isn't responsible for their deaths.
• Tony Montana delivers a speech like this in a memorable scene from Scarface (1983).
  Tony Montana: What you lookin' at? You all a bunch of fuckin' assholes. You know why? You don't have the guts to be what you wanna be. You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your fuckin' fingers and say, "That's the bad guy." So... what that make you? Good? You're not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don't have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say good night to the bad guy! Come on. The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Come on. Make way for the bad guy. There's a bad guy comin' through! Better get outta his way!
• The Searchers: Indian-hating lunatic Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) is refreshingly open and unsubtle about his racism, even to the point of putting out the eyes of a Comanche corpse and outright stating that (according to Comanche religious beliefs) he has doomed the Indian's soul to everlasting purgatory to "wander about forever between the winds." In fact, Ethan's hatred extends even to white women raped by Indians, though at least he does restrain himself from killing his Indian-raped niece when he finds her, returning her to her immediate family instead. Most of the other white characters, meanwhile, either try to play the Noble Bigot role or are oblivious to the fact that they're racist at all. But at least one other character (privately) admits to harboring a vendetta against all Indians:
  Laurie Jorgenson: Martin, Ethan will put a bullet through her brain. I tell you, Martha would want it that way.
• Serenity: The Operative tells Mal that neither of them has a place in the better worlds he is trying to make.
  The Operative: I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there any more than there is for you. Malcolm, I'm a monster. What I do is evil, I have no illusions about it. But it must be done.
• Talk Radio: During cruel Shock Jock Barry Champlain's climatic Villainous Breakdown, he tears into his listeners and bluntly admits that he's a selfish Jerkass who only cares about himself, but unlike them he acknowledges he's a terrible person and doesn't hide behind self-righteousness.
  Barry Champlain: I should hang; I'm a hypocrite. I ask for sincerity, and I lie. I denounce the system as I embrace it. I want money and power and prestige: I want ratings and success. And I don't give a damn about you, or the world. That's the truth: for that I could say I'm sorry, but I won't. Why should I?
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: The main plot involves Mildred Hayes seeking justice for her daughter, who was raped and murdered several months before the film begins, and paying to have a message attacking the police's incompetence in handling the case written on the titular billboards. When Mildred's ex-husband Charlie, who's now dating a nineteen-year-old girl, confronts her over the billboards and her stubborn refusal to have the message taken down, he points out that what she's doing won't bring their daughter back or find justice for her. When Mildred retorts that sleeping with a girl young enough to be their daughter isn't going to either, Charlie concedes so but points out that at least he's not acting like it will.

• In And Then There Were None, Philip Lombard is the only guest who freely admits that he's guilty of the murder U. N. Owen accused him of without trying to hide it. This is lampshaded in the 2015 BBC miniseries adaptation; when everyone gets on their high horse and begins to condemn him (albeit with reason, since his crime was pretty horrible), he points out that he's not the only one in the room facing an accusation of something terrible, but is the only one who's admitting to it:
  Lombard: So either I'm embellishing a story for shocking effect, or I'm the only one telling the truth in a room full of liars.
• Children of the Red King : Manfred Bloor is unrepentant about brainwashing Lyell Bone and has a brief Servile Snarker moment when Ezekiel makes a Never My Fault comment about how Charlie blames the Bloors for what happened.
• In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Rogues in the House", Murilo does this on Conan's behalf.
  This Cimmerian is the most honest man of the three of us, because he steals and murders openly.
• The Cosmere:
  • In Warbreaker, Lightsong hates the lazy, self-serving behavior of himself and the other Returned. He is portrayed sympathetically, the other Returned, not so much.
  • Wax and Wayne features a villainous to posthumous example with The Set, who compare themselves to the thieving crew from Mistborn. Three hundred years ago, the crew overthrew the Final Empire, took over as the new leaders, and are currently hailed as saints. Mr. Suit thinks the Set are the only people willing to admit that the crew was made of criminals who were only in it for money and power, and openly gloats about how the Set will be worshiped in the future. The truth is more complicated; while half of the crew joined for money or revenge, they were chosen because they could be trusted to unselfishly run the ashes of the empire, and all of them fought the siege on their city to protect the civilians rather than their investment.
• Inverted in The Diamond Age, when a character's illegal activities are exposed, a legal official reassures him that there is a difference between those who oppose the law and those who genuinely respect it, but are too weak to uphold it.
• Discworld has a fair few examples:
  • Guards! Guards! has a dragon who is appalled by humans, not because they kill (dragons kill all the time, and are expected to do so), but because of the ways humans try to justify it.
    We were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape: We never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.
  • Carpe Jugulum has a villain-to-villain example where the Count von Magpyr, about to be defeated, denounces the mob who's cornered him for preferring The Old Count to him, since the Old Count was a monster who would hunt and kill people. The villagers respond that the Old Count knew he was a monster and never expected any favours for it; he was a Fair-Play Villain because it suited him to give his victims a fighting chance, while the new count somehow thinks forcing villagers into 'blood quotas' to minimize deaths makes him less evil.
• One of the main themes of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The European ivory hunters in the Congo literally work the native Africans to death while distributing propaganda back in Europe claiming that they're really converting the natives to Christianity. Only Kurtz, a deranged renegade from civilization, is completely open about his barbarity: he forces the Africans to worship him as a god and executes them when they "misbehave," sticking their heads on pikes as a warning to others. The novella's protagonist, Charlie Marlow, is horrified by Kurtz, but he also cannot help respecting Kurtz's willingness to let the world see him for what he truly is. It's also implied that the other ivory hunters hate Kurtz not so much because he's more successful at bringing in ivory, but because they know that he is, in a sense, more morally pure than they.
• Horus Heresy: In Betrayer, a pre-battle argument between Angron and Leman Russ in the lead-up to the Heresy takes much this form. Russ criticizes Angron for having his Space Marines implanted with the Butchers' Nails^note cybernetic implants from Angron's homeworld that make the user associate violence and bloodlust with pleasure and all other actions and emotions with pain and speaks of the God-Emperor's high ideals. Angron, who was enslaved as a gladiator on his homeworld and led a rebellion against its ruling class that the Emperor kidnapped him from (leading to its defeat), retorts that the Emperor's "ideals" demand the bloody conquest of any planet that dares say no to his vision, while calling it "liberation", and then conscription of their citizens into his armies, "and I am told to call this a tithe, or recruitment, because we are too scared of the truth. We refuse to call it slavery." He then argues to Russ that the real difference between the two of them is that Angron isn't lying to himself about what he's doing.
  Angron: I am loyal, the same as you. I am told to bathe my Legion in the blood of innocents and sinners alike, and I do it, because it is all that's left for me in this life. I do these things, and I enjoy them, not because we are moral, or right—or loving souls seeking to enlighten a dark universe—but because all I feel are the Butcher's Nails hammered into my brain. I serve because of this "mutilation". Without it? Well, perhaps I might be a more moral man, like you claim to be. A virtuous man, eh? Perhaps I might ascend the steps of our father's palace and take the slaving bastard's head.
  Russ: You are lost. You gelded, black-hearted heretic.
  Angron: I am merely honest, brother. In all but this you are no different from me.
• In Nineteen Eighty-Four, O'Brien claims that their version of totalitarianism is superior to the regimes of Hitler and Stalin because the wicked means is the end goal in itself.
• Played for Laughs in the "Three Codependent Goats Gruff" story of James Finn Garner's Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. When we first meet the troll under the bridge, he declares that he happens to have the natural attributes of a troll and thus should not be denied his essential right to act as a troll (i.e., eat goats). The Goats Gruff realize they can't dispute this argument, so they each talk the troll into letting them go to discuss each imminent devouring with their siblings, claiming it would be "selfish" not to do so. (Eventually, when the biggest of the goats shows up, the troll is so frightened that he immediately apologizes for trying to eat the goats; this leads the goat in turn to apologize for trying to deprive the troll of his source of food. They each become so adamant about claiming the guilt for the incident that they eventually get into a fistfight.)
• The Shadow, the Hawk, and the Skull: The Hawk takes pride in embracing his identity as an outright thief rather than thinking of himself as a blackmailer like the Skull does when both are robbing people at gunpoint.
• Kaz Brekker of Six of Crows is a clever, brutal, and dangerous gang member who is most famous under the nicknames "Dirtyhands" and "The Bastard of the Barrel". As a child he gained the reputation of being willing to do just about anything as long as he was paid. As a seventeen-year-old, he not only freely admits to being a terrible person, but relies on his reputation. His friends often rely on it, as well, as a form of protection.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, the cynical, anti-villainous Sandor Clegane calls out the Brotherhood Without Banners for putting on airs about their own murderous actions and attempting to condemn him for crimes of his employer with which he had no connection:
  "A Knight's a sword with a horse. The rest, the vows and the sacred oils and The Lady's Favours, they're silk ribbons tied 'round the sword. Maybe the Sword's prettier with ribbons hanging of it, but it'll kill you just as dead. Well, bugger your ribbons, and shove your swords up your arses. I'm the same as you. The only difference is, I don't lie about what I am. So, kill me, but don't call me a murderer while you stand there telling each other your shit don't stink. You hear me?"
• Superman: Last Son of Krypton.
  In solitary Luthor decided that his motivation was beyond even the love or hate or whatever it was he had for humanity. It was consuming desire for godhood, fired by the unreasonable conviction that such a thing was somehow possible. He began by being an honest man. He was a criminal and said so.
• In Vos Draemar, Maximus, the Opulusian king's Psycho for Hire, does this to Valour during a confrontation in Our Crimson Iterations of Purpose. Max tells the doberman knight that he's evil, too, and only thinks he's a better man because he's killing for a "good cause". Maximus might've been onto something, because in the next book Valour ends up saying that he'd kill Corsair's mother a thousand times if she stood in the way of his goals.

• In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, when the Wizard's true identity is revealed, and the heroes accuse him of being a humbug (which means a charlatan) he admits it, saying sadly, "Yes, that's exactly what I am, a humbug." (However, he protests when Dorothy calls him a bad man, insisting, "No, I'm a very good man, I'm just a very bad wizard.") The scene was pretty much the same in the movie version.
• Worm: Regent tells Shadow Stalker at one point that they're both "arrogant assholes," but at least he doesn't pretend that's a good thing. The technical term is sociopath, but he's far from wrong.

• One episode of Black Mirror has an animation team put a cartoon bear named Waldo in the running for Parliament. He racks up votes by the sheer ridiculousness of the concept and putting out statements saying how he's honest about not standing for anything, but it's subverted when his increasingly pissed voice actor points out that it doesn't change the fact that he still doesn't stand for anything and voting for a character that has no policies whatsoever just because he admits to it makes a mockery of the whole voting process. The episode ends with his voice actor becoming homeless and alcoholic while Waldo is used as a figurehead for a global totalitarian political movement. The similarities between the Waldo movement and the real-life alt-right use of Pepe the frog are entirely intentional.
• In the second episode of The Blacklist, Villain Protagonist Reddington goes up against a particularly vile sort of Hypocrite: a woman who uses a charity intended to help free women from human trafficking as cover for her own human trafficking network. Reddington appears to be particularly incensed by this, both because the crime in question pushes one of his Even Evil Has Standards buttons but also because of the sheer, despicable nature of the two-facedness; Reddington himself is a monster, albeit an Affably Evil one, but he's one who owns the things he does and certainly doesn't sanctimoniously pretend to oppose the crimes he profits from.
• In Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the third season opens with new captain Jason “CJ” Stentley in charge of the Nine-Nine while usual Captain Holt was in witness protection. While Stentley is relatively useless at the job, he is a step up from other incompetent authority figures in the show as he doesn't hide or deny his inabilities and shortcomings; he even openly admits that he's ineligible for the rank of captain as he got it only by being in the wrong place at the right time and unintentionally coming across as more badass than he was.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Spike in "Lovers Walk": Drusilla breaking up with him has left him a complete drunken wreck - but he still gets to snark at Buffy and Angel's insistence that they're Just Friends now.
    "You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love 'til it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other 'til it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood — blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it."
  • Glory does this during a motive rant to Dawn:
    Glory: People. How do they function here like this in the world with all this bile running through them? Every day, it's like whoo! You have no control. They're not even animals. There just these meat-baggy slaves to hormones and pheromones and their—their feelings. Hate 'em! I mean, really. Is this what the poets go on about? This? Call me crazy, but as hardcore drugs go, human emotion is just useless. People are puppets, everyone getting jerked around by what they're feelin'. Am I wrong? Really, I want to know. [...] So you're saying some people like this? Funny, 'cause I look around at this world you're so eager to a part of, and all I see are six billion lunatics looking for the fastest way out. Who's not crazy? Look around. Everyone's drinking, smoking, shooting up, shooting each other, or just plain screwing their brains out 'cause they don't want 'em anymore. I'm crazy? Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind. 'Cause at least I admit the world makes me nuts.
  • In season 6's "Two to Go", Buffy attempts to reason with Dark Willow, trying to get her to focus on the positives and realize there's much more to live for. It doesn't work, and Willow just blasts Buffy for being a hypocrite, pointing out all of Buffy's self-destructive habits and depression since her resurrection at the beginning of the season. In Willow's words, Buffy hates living in the world just as much as Willow herself does; Willow's just more willing to admit it.
    Willow: Oh, please! This is your pitch? Buffy, you hate it here as much as I do. I'm just more honest about it.
    Buffy: That's not true!
    Willow: You're trying to sell me on the world? The one where you lie to your friends when you're not trying to kill them? And you screw a vampire just to feel? And insane asylums are the comfy alternative? This world? Buffy, it's me. I know you were happier when you were in the ground. The only time you were ever at peace in your whole life is when you were dead. Until Willow brought you back.
• In Burn Notice, the main character, Michael Westen, formerly had an older, more experienced partner named Larry who was sort of like a mentor figure to him. He and Larry conducted many black operations together for years, some of which, according to Larry, were the kind that only the darkest breed of soldier would have the heart to carry out. This partnership came to an end when Larry decided to fake his death because he was tired of working for the CIA and wanted to go freelance as a mercenary. Years later, Michael is issued a burn notice, effectively firing him from his job at the CIA, and Larry shows up offering him a chance to go freelance with him. The only thing is that Larry has become much crueler in his methods since last they met, and Michael says he would much rather try getting his job with the CIA back than deal with Larry's cruel tendencies. Larry, in all of his appearances, never gives up on trying to convert Michael to his side, saying that there is a dark side to Michael's nature that he saw during their years together, the only difference between them being that Michael is denying his evil nature while Larry has embraced his.
• Parodied on The Chris Rock Show with the "Mike Tyson for President" ads, which show Tyson admitting stuff like how he's a convicted rapist and "a semi-good husband".
• In the sitcom version of Dennis the Menace, John Wilson is running against his rival neighbor Lucy Elkins for president of the local birdwatchers' society. The first mockingbird makes its nest in Mr. Wilson's yard, and he tries to shoo it away by getting rid of its nest. Meanwhile, Mrs. Elkins puts a tape recorder in Mr. Wilson's yard to record the song of a rare bird, and Dennis accidentally turns it on, with an accidental recording of her pretending to give her cat away which is played back later on, and Mr. Wilson admits that even though he tried to throw the mockingbirds' nest out as carefully as possible, Dennis and Tommy found an injured bird which they nursed to health, and they recall the good example Mr. Wilson set, with Mr. Timberlake admitting that mockingbirds are pesky, while Mrs. Elkins only wanted the position to increase her social status, and she doesn't even care much for birds, running for club president with a superficial motive to spite Mr. Wilson, because she doesn't care that much for birds as Mr. Wilson does.
• Doctor Who:
  • In "The Time Monster", the Master's reaction to the Doctor saying "You're mad, paranoid," is "Who isn't? The only difference is that I'm just a little more honest than the rest."
  • Davros attempts to inflict this on the Doctor in "Journey's End", comparing his ultra-xenophobic creations (the Daleks) to the Doctor's companions, who are threatening to sacrifice the Earth to save reality from the Daleks. The Doctor is too depressed to offer a rebuttal, but the difference is that Davros acts only out of a desire for power - the Doctor and their companions always have good intentions at heart.
• ER's resident Jerkass, Dr. Robert Romano. As much as everyone hated him, you couldn't deny that he freely admitted to being an egomaniac whose sole concern was his own well-being. This is in stark contrast to Kerry Weaver, who hid this same behavior under a facade of friendly concern, only to backstab anyone foolish enough to trust her.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Bronn knows exactly who and what he is and makes absolutely no apologies or excuses for it. This has the effect of people trying to insult him and he agrees with them.
    Meryn: You're an upjumped cutthroat. Nothing more.
    Bronn: That's exactly who I am.
  • Also comes up when Sandor accuses him of loving killing and pulls a "Not So Different" Remark moment.
    Sandor: You're just like me. Only smaller.
    Bronn: And quicker.
• In the Murdoch Mysteries episode "Vengeance Makes the Man", Maurice Majors has kidnapped Inspector Brakenreid to force him to sign a confession that he sent a member of Majors' gang to the gallows for a crime he didn't commit (but he had committed other murders Brakenreid couldn't prove). He refuses to do so.
  Majors: A man is dead because of you!
  Brakenreid: And several men are dead because of you. Where's your confession?
  Majors: I'm not holding myself up as a paragon of law and order. I know exactly who I am.
• In Peaky Blinders, Tommy Shelby, one of the titular Blinders, accuses London Gangster Alfie Solomons of "crossing the line" by selling him out to the Economic League. Alfie is enraged by this because he can't believe that Shelby considers himself a more moral man than Alfie when they're both equally murderous gangsters.
  Alfie Solomons: And what fucking line am I supposed to have crossed?! How many fathers, how many sons, have you cut, killed, murdered, fucking butchered, innocent and guilty, sent 'em straight to fucking Hell! JUST LIKE ME! And you fucking stand there—you, judging me—stand there and talk to me about crossing some fucking line?!
  • As of the season 3 finale, Tommy has no intention of uniting the family under the pretense of his new ambitious plot being their One Last Job. He no longer believes they have to stop being ruthless gangsters in order to be like normal upper class people, because he's seen firsthand that those "decent" people they're trying to emulate are no better than the murderous street thugs they're trying to distance themselves from. Tommy is Just a Gangster, but a lot of those traditionally wealthy people would be considered criminals too if they weren't above the law.
• In Person of Interest, Root is this, that while she does horrible things, she has no problem admitting what she does. She feels that some people are just bad code that need to be corrected.
• In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Troi meets another half-betazoid working as a negotiator and begins a passionate romance with him. Eventually, she realizes that he uses his own empathic abilities to gain an advantage at the bargaining table. When she calls him out on it, he first states that people always use similar tactics when negotiating and then that she does the exact same thing, only that when she does it very well might result in the deaths of large numbers of people. Disgusted and irritated by her attitude, he cuts short their date.
• In Star Trek: Enterprise, Archer comes up against Vosk, the leader of one of the factions that's trying to rewrite history as part of the Temporal Cold War. Vosk tries to turn Archer to his side by claiming that Daniels and the temporal agents who try to protect history are actually trying to alter history to their own benefit.
  Vosk: They have an agenda.
  Archer: So do you.
  Vosk: At least I don't hide my intentions.
• Strike Back: In Legacy, Oppenheimer claims to Locke that the difference between them is he's admitted (and embraced) his murderous nature.
• This seems to be the crux of Omar's takedown of drug lawyer Maurice Levy in The Wire episode "All Prologue": When told that he's a leech, stealing from those who steal the lifeblood of the city, Omar's only response is, "Just like you, man."
  Omar: I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. [shrugs] S'all in the game, though, right?
  Levy: [stares at the judge, who just shrugs]
• Yellowjackets: In "It Girl" storyteller Van recounts to her fellow survivors what they’ve gone through so far in the wilderness, framing it as an inspiring tale of resourcefulness and sacrifice. Shauna complains in her diary about what was left out.
  Shauna: [voice-over] How's this story for you? Once upon a time, a bunch of teenage girls got stranded in the wilderness and they went completely fucking nuts. They worshipped evil spirits and they hunted their friends and they feasted on their flesh and they fucking liked it. So they told themselves stupid fairy tales and pretended they were brave and strong. Because the reality was that even if rescue came, they could never go home again. Because of what they'd done. Because of what they'd become. That's the truth. And hearing anything else makes me want to just fucking... [She slams her diary shut and gives the camera a Death Glare]

• On Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True the Album Title Drop from "Allison" implies this:
  Allison, I know this world is killing you = "I know the world is going to break your heart"
  Allison, my aim is true = "I will too, but I'll be more forthright about it."
• Escape the Fate starts "H8 MY SELF" with these lines, suggesting it's the reason why the singer hates the target more than themself.
  I'm a hypocrite but at least I fucking own it
  You never admit that you're anything but golden
• Falling in Reverse has the song "Caught Like a Fly":
  I'm no fucking saint
  but at least I'll fucking sing about it!!
  Oh, the audacity!
• Nick Cave's "The Curse of Milhaven":
  I'm a wicked young lady
  But I've been trying hard lately -
  Aw, FUCK IT! I Am a Monster! I admit it!
• "Battle Cry" by Shayfer James:
  You sacrifice the truth to justify your sins
  But I don't need an excuse to let the darkness in
• "My Plague" by Slipknot features this in its lyrics:
  I'm just a bastard
  but at least I admit it
  At least I admit it!
• Similar to TISM, the 1970s pop-rock group 10cc had "Worst Band in the World":
  It's one thing to know it but another to admit
  We're the worst band in the world but we don't give a *guitar lick*
• TISM's "We Are The Champignons" is entirely about admitting how terrible they are.
  It's about time that a rock band spoke
  Admitted that they were a joke
  We'll be the first in the neighbourhood
  To say without a doubt, we're no good!

• In The Nostalgia Chick's review of Charlie's Angels (2000) she compares it to Barb Wire—both are exploitative to women but the latter tries to make up for it by having its protagonist act bitter and angry at the world. She admits she kind of prefers Charlie's Angels because at least it's honest about being stupid pseudo-soft-core porn.
• The Spoony Experiment:
  • Spoony has a variation where after he made a joke about Dr. Insano becoming President Evil, he's talked to fans who said they would vote for him "Because he's honest".
  • In his review of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Insano delineates his Alternative Character Interpretation that Ferris is a slimeball who manipulates people for his own enjoyment while acting noble: "I may be evil, but at least I'm not full of crap!"

• Eddie Guerrero in WWE: "I lie, I cheat, I steal. But at least I'm honest about it."
  • Following Guerrero's Face–Heel Turn, this honesty took on even darker tones:
  Eddie: [rapping on his theme song] I don't care if you don't like me... I can't be beat, comin' from the streets of the ghetto / At the end of the week, I get to keep your dinero / You're fast asleep when I sneak in your casa / Your life sucks cuz you're bankrupt and I'm laughin' / You can't trust me, cuz I'M LATIN!
• This was part of Kane's mindset in his "Embrace the Hate" angle with John Cena: he would preach to the audience that hatred was a normal part of the human psyche, but Kane was the only one not pretending that it wasn't there.
• Randy Orton delivered one when he declared he was not an honorable person and would take out his own grandmother to remain WWE Champion. Even more disturbing when you realize he was treated as a Face at the time.
• CM Punk invoked this during the Summer of Punk angle in 2011 while confronting Vince McMahon during their contract negotiations. He admits to being a bad guy but at least he knows what the people want.

• George Carlin theorized that this was why Americans elected Clinton over Dole in 1996:
  Dole: I'm a plain and honest man.
  Voters: Bullshit!
  Clinton: Hi folks, I'm completely full of shit and how do you like that?
  Voters: Y'know something? At least he's honest.
  • And he actually uses the words "at least I admit it" in Jammin' in New York when talking about his favorite thing on TV—bad news. He proclaims that accidents, disasters, fires, and explosions are mother's milk to him—and to most other people, he asserts, even though they would never acknowledge the feeling and instead put on a front of mock horror.

• In the Champions adventure Deathstroke, the villain group "The Destroyers" decide to take over the United States. They think they'll be better leaders than the corrupt politicians running the country because the Destroyers admit that they're criminals.
• Magic: The Gathering: This is a big part of the philosophy behind Black Magic: Black Mana is, at its core, inherently selfish, exploitative, and ruthless (though Black-aligned characters are not necessarily so), but it's also very upfront and honest about those things, viewing people who try to dress up their motives behind guises of morality or ideology as cowards and hypocrites. This view extends to the other four colors, and especially White.
• A lot of references to the modrons and the rilmani in the Planescape campaign mention that dealing with demons is often easier than dealing with them because at least with demons, you know what to expect.

• 1776: The point of the song "Molasses to Rum", where a delegate from South Carolina protests the dithering over denouncing slavery in the Declaration of Independence by pointing out that sure, South Carolina is a slaveholding state... but the Northern states are also guilty of participating in the slave trade, and at least South Carolina isn't claiming to oppose slavery while they do it.
• In Here We Are, Leo calls out Fritz saying that while he's an unrepentant asshole at least he doesn't pretend to be anything else, while Fritz enjoys the benefits of her family's wealthy lifestyle while crusading against the evils of the rich.
• In Act II of Into the Woods the Witch calls out the "heroes" of the play in "The Last Midnight" for their questionable deeds which they justify by needing to get what they wanted. Then when they have to face the consequences they hurry to blame other people.
• Older Than Steam: Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing has Don John describing himself as "a plain-dealing villain".
• No Exit: While Garcin and Estelle insist they were sent to Hell by some mistake and are good people, Inez openly admits that she was an awful person in life and had this coming. She goads the others until they admit it, too.
• The Pirates of Penzance: This is more or less the basis of the Pirate King's "I Am" Song.
  Oh, better far to live and die
  Under the brave black flag I fly
  Than play a sanctimonious part
  With a pirate head and a pirate heart
  Away to the cheating world go you
  Where pirates all are well-to-do
  But I'll be true to the song I sing
  And live and die a pirate king

• Assassin's Creed:
  • Various templars sometimes give this. Perhaps the most obvious use of this was by Haytham Kenway in Assassin's Creed III, who said the only difference between him and the revolutionary leaders is that "I do not feign affection."
  • Sort of inverted in Syndicate, which has a case of "At Least You Admit It". One Bounty Hunt has Emmet Sedgwick, who in contrast to other targets' tendencies to deny their crimes, shamelessly admits to having committed "every crime in the book" and states that it's about time the police came to arrest them given that they've been after him for years. If the mission is done as Evie, she will comment on his honesty. If it's done as Jacob, on the other hand, he merely expresses surprise that the police took so long to catch him. but it's still an example.
• The Big Bad of City of Heroes, Lord Recluse, self-identifies as a villain; As a result villains, anti-villains, and anti-heroes that try to justify their actions, piss him right the hell off. This is most blatant as he is confronting the alternate-universe version of the Big Good (in that reality a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist) - point blank stating the trope as he points out they're both evil, but unlike the other guy, he doesn't try to hide it, and yet the citizens are outright rooting for him to kick his "well-intentioned" ass.
• Devil Survivor: This is Kaido's philosophy. To him, all people are ugly, selfish, and power-grubbing underneath and try to solve all their problems with force — he just doesn't see the point in trying to hide it. This comes to light when he ends up in a fight with the resident Knight Templar of the lockdown and ends up explaining how they're similar, pointing out how both of them are using their demons to bully others into doing what they want... just before ordering Pazuzu to strangle and fry his opponent to death.
• Far Cry 4: This is ultimately what sets Pagan Min apart from just about every other major player. While the others all feel compelled to justify their horrible deeds regardless of how ridiculous it becomes in the face of their increasing brutality, he is the only one who admits that deep down he wanted to commit his atrocities and the death of his infant daughter was just an excuse.
• Harley Quinn in Injustice 2 works for the good guys, although she isn't without her share of blood and sins from the previous games. Wonder Woman calls Harley out for trying to do good while having blood on her hands, to which Harley casually admits it while calling Wonder Woman out.
  Harley: Oh, bucketfulls, honey. Trying too hard to impress the wrong guy [Joker]. Like you and Superman.
• Jurassic Park: The Game has a case of "At Least He Admits It" when Billy's true nature is revealed and Nima confronts him about it. Though Oscar was one of the mercenaries who took part in killing some of her people to eject them from their island, she at least had some respect for him never pretending he was anything other than a killer to fool himself or others, and for at least being willing to do selfless and brave things when he wasn't under orders to do terrible things. Billy, as far as she's concerned, is just rotten to the core and only pretends to be otherwise.
  Nima: Oscar may have been a devil, but he wore his sins on his arm for everyone to see! You... you are just a mask with nothing behind it!
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords has Atton Rand calling out the Jedi for their hypocrisy and states that, for as bad as the Sith may be, at least they're honest about what they're killing for.
  • The sequel Star Wars: The Old Republic, has this line of thought showing up everywhere. Republic-aligned characters will usually have it thrown at them. If you're playing a Sith, especially a light-aligned Sith, you hand it out like Halloween candy.
• Legacy of Kain: In Blood Omen 2, Kain was at a point where learning that his own plan drove away his followers struck a nerve. By Soul Reaver, he won't deny that his motives are selfish and looks down on hiding selfish motives behind supposedly altruistic ones. Even as early as Blood Omen, Kain shows this side of himself; he's disgusted by the Vampire Hunters Moebius rallies for being hypocrites that "cloak their bloodlust beneath a veil of righteousness", whereas he makes no pretense to justify his killing.
  Kain: There's no shame in it, Raziel – revenge is motivation enough. At least it's honest. Hate me, but do it honestly.
• Life Is Strange: If there's one thing Chloe Price and her stepfather David Madsen agree on, it's that the latter is highly paranoid, with David noting that it's a natural side-effect of combat.
• Mario Party 3: Baby Bowser (along with Toad) will occasionally hand out items to players who land on the item space. He asks you a personal question about your habits (like "Do you keep your room clean?"), and he rewards someone who admits to being rather undisciplined and childish ("You're honest, I like that.") If the player answers that he keeps his room clean, Baby Bowser will accuse the player of just saying whatever sounds good in order to get a prize, and the reward is more stingy than what he gives to someone who admits to letting his room get messy.
• MiSide: Late in the game, the yandere Crazy Mita calls the real world as much of a prison of the player's own making as hers, but in the game world, she'd be the only danger to think about.
• Neverwinter Nights 2's Bishop holds much the same view. He doesn't bother to hide his inherent beastliness and says as much if you try to dig out his Freudian Excuse through conversation.
• Nintendo Wars:
  • Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising: This is Lash's attitude towards Sonja. She feels that they're similar: they both treat war like a game, but at least she admits that she's a sociopath who doesn't care about her soldiers' lives.
  • Advance Wars: Days of Ruin: Waylon says that Will only does his heroism to feel self-important; at least he doesn't hide the fact that he's a selfish bastard. Will counteracts that he might indeed be leading Brenner's Wolves and helping people just so he can feel like a hero, but believes if it helps even one person, then it's absolutely worth it. Waylon does not take it well.
• no-one has to die.: Christina criticizes Steve's willingness to actually sacrifice himself. When he rebuts to whether she can do it, she replies she can't, but at least doesn't pretend that she can.
• In Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous party member Daeran absolutely detests people who say hurtful or upsetting things and then hide behind the excuse of "telling it like it is" when they're called out on it. Daeran believes those people are simply assholes who like to upset people, and so he is completely open about the fact that he enjoys insulting people.
• Persona 5: Ryuji Sakamoto makes no secret of the fact that he's a big pervert. When Ann Takamaki calls him out for staring at her sweating state when they were in the Mona Car on the way to Futaba's Palace, he doesn't even try to deny it, saying that "it was a great view."
• Tales Series:
  • Tales of Vesperia: While Yuri Lowell does reason that his Vigilante Executions save lives, he nevertheless makes no secret of the fact that he would much rather not be doing them, openly admitting his actions are those of a "common criminal" when Flynn says so. Notably, he takes this trope one step further than most examples by giving a decent answer to the question "If you're aware of your flaw then why don't you fix it?"- he thinks there's no going back for him, since he can't take back what he's done.
  • Tales of Berseria: The protagonists may have done plenty of morally questionable things, but they're well-aware that they're not particularly good people, with Magilou calling them a "band of villains" and Velvet in particular being a bit too self-aware for her own good. This is in contrast to the Abbey, who would sooner turn a little girl into a monster than admit they're capable of any wrongdoing, with even Eleanor being a huge Hypocrite before her much-needed Heel Realization.
• Tekken: A consistent trait of Kazuya Mishima's is his conscious refusal to hide the fact that he is a cold-blooded bastard driven by ruthless ambition. Half because he possesses the power to crush almost anyone who would dare oppose him for it (and therefore has no need to endear himself to them), and half out of spite for his Archnemesis Dad, Heihachi, being a Villain with Good Publicity whose good deeds are done primarily for his own benefit. The closest to exceptions to this are him keeping his Devil form a Dark Secret and utilizing the good PR received by G Corporation opposing the Mishima Zaibatsu during World War III in 6.
• Tyranny: Verse, one of your companions, is a self-admitted murderer and cut-throat who likes killing things. One of the quicker ways to get on her nerves is to insist that killing things is justified by things like 'higher ideals' or 'glory'; as far as she is concerned, just admitting you like killing is much more honest. This is one of the reasons she can't stand Barik and gets along well with Kills-in-Shadow.
• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End: Despicable as he is, Rafe Adler makes no attempt to hide the fact that he's a selfish Glory Hound who wants to find Henry Avery's treasure (which he doesn't remotely need due to how wealthy he is) simply to feel that he earned something in his life for once. He even points out to Nate and Sam that they're no more deserving of the treasure than he is, saying that at the end of the day they're all just "a bunch of thieves digging around where [they] shouldn't".
• Vampyr (2018): Even when played as a Fully-Embraced Fiend, Jonathan Reid is utterly disgusted at Dr. Swansea upon discovering that he betrayed not one, but two of his patients by feeding vampire blood to Harriet Jones, triggering the Skal epidemic in London. When Swansea states that Jonathan has no room to judge him due to his own victims, Jonathan retorts that while they're both deceivers, he at least admits he's a monster.

• Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader, freely admits that he's a gadfly and Consummate Liar who loves being the center of everyone's attention and trolling his classmates. He also proclaims that this makes him morally superior to his peers, as he's honest and forthright about being a liar, outright admitting that nobody can trust a single word he says. At one point, he berates one of his classmates for getting upset by the death of somebody she'd had a strained and complicated relationship with, asking why she cares so much now that they're gone.

• RWBY: Leonardo "Leo" Lionheart is distraught over selling his oldest friend Ozpin out. When he and Raven Branwen discuss having been forced to work for Salem, Leo rightfully suggests they're both doing it out of fear. While he goes on admit feeling guilty about it, stating that Ozpin would be right to not forgive him for the, Raven argues that all their actions were justified as they only did what was necessary to survive. Leo asks them who are they trying to convince.

• In 8-Bit Theater this reasoning leads the Light Warriors to buy an airship from "Jeff's Discount Deathtraps" instead of "Akbar's Airships (not deathtraps)".
• Tom's excuse for being a Manipulative Bastard in El Goonish Shive is that everyone says what they think will get the right reaction from others, and at least he admits it... to himself. Susan shuts him down by acknowledging that, while the Jerkass Has a Point, the majority of people at least do it with good intentions, which Tom very much does not.
• In Least I Could Do, Rayne gets word that a lesbian is gonna be working in his company, and he puts out a company-wide hunt for her. One of his aides calls him out on his actions but wrongly accuses it of being a Witch Hunt. Rayne would then clarify his stance.
  Rayne: I'm not a monster, Nancy; I'm a sexual deviant.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Redcloak attempts to break Miko by talking in this fashion. He accuses paladins of being unnatural thanks to their divine immunity to fear, arguing that Xykon the Lich "is an unnatural abomination, but at least he cops to it". However, Redcloak himself gets an enhanced lifespan from the Crimson Mantle he wears, yet he remains very private about that matter.
  • Xykon does this to Redcloak in Start of Darkness. Redcloak has just murdered his own brother to save Xykon and further his plans, and Xykon is well aware of it. He tells Redcloak that all he succeeded in doing is prove that he is just as evil as Xykon, but hides it under his good intentions, and will now serve loyally because he's too chickenshit to accept all the horrible things he's "had to" do becoming meaningless if he quits. Redcloak has since convinced himself he's still in charge, just secretly, but he's very bad at being honest with himself and Xykon has repeatedly proved he's smarter than people assume.
• Precocious's Dionne used this in her campaign for class president.
• Brain from Sam & Fuzzy subverts this trope. He's seemingly completely open and honest about being a selfish person who trusts nobody, but also uses this 'honesty' to cloak his real objectives and drove his protege Hazel into becoming an asocial nutcase by Gaslighting her into thinking everyone is as selfish and untrustworthy as he is over the course of decades.
• Schlock Mercenary has this as a botched compliment:
  Thrummb: At least you are honest enough not to pretend to morality, sir.
  Gamm: You need to work on the internal consistency of your flattery, Thrummb.
• Unsounded: Cutter finds Bastion's distaste for his killings frustrating, because Bastion's own experiments have involved murder and unethical human experimentation too. He points out that Bastion's high ground is based on the shaky premise of feeling upset, and acting remorseful after the fact while Cutter doesn't bother to play pretend. Given the overarching themes about lying, especially to oneself, Cutter is misrepresenting himself, but he's trying to make a point that he's embraced his monstrous side while Bastion is lying about his.
• Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic:
  • A dark elf captive sharing her expectations with a goblin:
    Gren: That's what our people would do! But we're evil. These people are good! They wouldn't do that sort of thing!
    Arachne: Sweetheart... In this world the difference between good and evil is that good pretends not to enjoy this sort of thing.
  • Broch has a disagreement with his colleague on this matter, though: if the "good guys" have all the same despite their priests preaching the opposite, this means what?

• Dream SMP: In Season 4, Dream pulls this card with Sam^note who allowed Quackity to torture Dream as revenge for Dream murdering Tommy, claiming that unlike Sam, he's at least honest about being a monster. It rings hollow, since not only does Dream try to present himself as more moral than Sam almost immediately, but he conveniently leaves out having tortured and murdered two people himself simply to test an experiment, among his many other transgressions.
• Commentary YouTuber Jordan Theresa thinks there's nothing wrong with models and influencers having plastic surgery and Botox, or editing their photos. However, she's highly critical of those who don't disclose it and claim their looks are all-natural, feeling that this is dishonest and can lead to their young fans developing self-esteem issues because they're comparing themselves to an image that literally isn't real. Jordan herself has had some work done and sometimes edits her photos, but fully admits it, along with the time she spends on makeup, specifically because she doesn't want to misrepresent things for her younger viewers. As she puts it, "It cost me money to look like this!"
• The Onion: Defied in the article "Asshole Admits To Being Asshole In Supreme Asshole Move".
  Bob French: He acted like outing his own assholiness somehow made it our problem, not his. What a dick.
• In Twig, Sylvester has an example of this trope after several of his hostages (wealthy young members of the aristocracy) see him have Mary poison a socialite, and call him a monster.
  Sylvester: I'm a monster that knows exactly what he is. You're three monsters who pretend not to see. When and if things get ugly, I want you to remember, the ugliness you're seeing has been ongoing, affecting the poor, the people who you and your families stepped on to get here.
• Played for laughs in this video about Dr. Eggman launching a campaign to run for president — his campaign slogan is "I may be evil, but at least I'm honest about it!"

• This forms the solution in the American Dad! episode "Shallow Vows": Stan and Francine discover they only love each other for extremely shallow reasons (Stan is only interested in Francine's beauty, Francine only married Stan so she wouldn't have to work), and at the end of the day, they decide that their marriage works anyway because they're honest about how shallow they are, going so far as to renew their vows by stating as much.
  Stan: I promise, when you start to sag, to subject you to risky elective surgery.
  Francine: And I promise to be with you only if you make money and stay healthy.
  Stan: Alzheimer's runs in my family.
  Francine: You'll be dealing with that solo.
• In one episode of Garfield and Friends, Jon turns on an infomercial for a weight-loss product with a disclaimer at the beginning that says, "The following show is a half-hour commercial that we've disguised as a real program because we figure you're all too stupid to tell the difference." To which Garfield replies, "At least they're honest." (Seeing as the product being sold is a complete scam and the episode ends with the perky female host being exposed as a Con Artist, the episode is likely meant as a Take That! towards such programs.)
• Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines:
  • Dick Dastardly not only acknowledges his evilness, but he also embellishes it:
    Narrator: As Yankee Doodle Pigeon breaks the morning stillness while flying another dangerous mission, he keeps a wary eye out for the vicious Vulture Squadron... skippered by the deadly, diabolical, despicable demon of the skyways, Dick Dastardly!
    Dastardly: You left out dashing and debonair!
  • In Wacky Races after the narrator calls him "the Dracula of the drag strip":
    Dastardly: I resent that remark!
    Narrator: But do you deny it?
    Dastardly: No, I just resent it.
• Family Guy:
  • From "FOX-y Lady":
    Brian: They're hypocrites. They wanted you to do the story when they thought it would embarrass Michael Moore, but they don't want you to do it if it's going to embarrass Rush Limbaugh.
    Lois: But you didn't want me to do the story when it was gonna embarrass Michael Moore. But you want me to do the story if it's gonna embarrass Rush Limbaugh?
    Brian: Okay. You're right. I'm a little biased myself, but at least I'm willing to admit it.
  • When Quagmire, of all people, chews out Brian in "Jerome is the New Black", he calls Brian out for being a pervert like this (though it's undermined by the fact that Quagmire downplays his own crimes, admitting to "dating women for their bodies" but neglecting to mention that he is also a literal rapist):
    Quagmire: You pretend you're this deep guy who loves women for their souls when all you do is date bimbos. Yeah. I date women for their bodies but at least I'm honest about it!
  • A later episode has Brian take perverse pleasure in pointing out that Quagmire wasn't really honest about it. He blames all his perverted issues on his mother's upbringing, which Brian outright labels cowardly. When Quagmire retorts that Brian himself is a hypocrite because he's an atheist defending his purist Christian mother's virtues, Brian nonchalantly admits to it (and that he'll greatly enjoy the thought of Quagmire pondering over it as he rots in a cell).
  • In one episode, Peter is running a bakery, and a woman comes in several times to get a sample of a cookie but not buy anything. Peter starts to get annoyed with the routine:
    Woman: Ooh, I'm so bad...
    Peter: You gonna buy a cookie this time?
    Woman: Ooh, I'd better just stick with a sample. I'm so bad... but at least I know I'm bad, which makes me a little better. Or worse.
    [Cut off as Peter clocks her with a cookie tray.]
• In the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero episode "The Gamesmaster", Flint, Lady Jay, Cobra Commander, and the Baroness were all kidnapped by a third-party villain called the Gamesmaster and forced into a Deadly Game scenario. It was clear from the start that the Commander's promises to cooperate with any of them (the Baroness included) were nothing but Blatant Lies. The Baroness, however?
  Cobra Commander: Whose side are you on?
  Baroness: Why, the same side you are, Commander. My own.
• One first-season episode of Johnny Bravo, "The Sensitive Male", parodies Schoolhouse Rock! by having a short, plain-looking man (voiced by Schoolhouse Rock creator Jack Sheldon) offer Johnny lessons on how to be, well, a sensitive male, with lessons on manners, listening to others, and being in touch with one's feminine side. At the end of the episode, the man admits that he doesn't believe a word of what he preaches and simply acts nice to get women to do what he wants. Johnny is thoroughly disgusted by his attitude—he may be a Casanova Wannabe, but he's 100% honest about it—and so creates an Engineered Public Confession to expose the guy in front of all the girls he's been trying to woo, who promptly carry him off for some well-deserved punishment.
• Looney Tunes: Daffy Duck admits that he's a coward in Ducking the Devil; however, he is willing to stand up to the Tasmanian Devil when he hears that there's a $5,000 reward offered by the zoo because he also admits he's a greedy coward.
• Mission Hill has a case of "at least he admits it." Kevin once accidentally started a fire in a store because he tried to burn the pornography he was masturbating to to hide the evidence. Two teens who were robbing the store at the time get blamed for starting the fire, which will land them in prison for attempted murder as Kevin, who was running the store at the time, was trapped in the bathroom. When his conscience gets the better of him and he admits this in court, the entire courtroom begins laughing and mocking him for it, and Andy jumps to his defense by pointing out everyone in that room masturbates to pornography, himself included, and pretends to be somehow better than the kid who just admitted it in public under oath.
  Andy: No one dares admit the truth, that you're all just like him! Oh, come on! You've never read pornography?!
  Man: Well, only magazines. A-and films...
  Andy: And you've never "manipulated yourself?"
  Second Man: Uh... by once, but by accident!
  Third Man: I like smut!
  Andy: And so do I, my friend! The truth is nothing to be ashamed of!
• Rick and Morty:
  • Rick Sanchez is a sociopath who kills without remorse and abuses his family with manipulation and lies. However, unlike his daughter Beth, he is fully aware of how bad of a person he is and doesn't deny his misdeeds or what a terrible dad he was to her years ago. In "The ABCs of Beth", he finally calls out Beth, stating that he might be a bad father to her, but she's no better, listing down a large number of misdeeds she committed without the need of him screwing her up first.
    Beth: You would rather believe I'm evil than admit that you were a bad father?
    Rick: Oh, dude, no. No, bad father all the way to the max over here. I'm a fuckin' nutcase. And the acorn plopped straight down, baby.
  • This gets called out in "Pickle Rick" by the episode's therapist, to Rick. She points out that his (and Beth)'s honesty about their flaws and problems but choosing not to do anything about it because they don't feel therapy work is an understandable position, but in their cases, they're excusing themselves from truly trying to change by justifying their inability to commit to healthier habits with their intelligent minds.
  • While Evil Morty scoffs at Rick's self righteousness and being deemed "evil" for simply wanting rid of him, whenever the duo call out his equally selfish and ruthless measures in doing so, he concedes with utter nonchalance, making no pretense that he remotely cares if anyone else gets harmed in his attempts to escape Rick in any form.
    Evil Morty: None of them have to be responsible, they're all victims of themselves. "Oh, it's so hard to be a Genius!" Couldn't you just die?
    Morty: Well, what are you doing about it?
    Evil Morty: [deadpan] Jack shit. I'm leaving.
• Scooby-Doo:
  • Scooby and Shaggy are card-carrying cowards. And they're not afraid to admit it. When Fred tells them to enter a doorway for investigation:
    Shaggy: I take the fifth.
    Fred: The fifth?
    Shaggy: Yes! I refuse to enter that door on the grounds that it might intimidate me!
  • Moe does the exact same thing in the episode where The Three Stooges show up as Special Guests, going so far as to cluck like a chicken after calling everyone else chickens for being afraid of the Ghost of the Red Baron. And a minute later:
    Moe: On second thought, there's no way this chicken is staying here with that hopping red rabbit around!
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Treehouse of Horror XIX", after the Grand Pumpkin expresses apathy over the fate of a yellow pumpkin (the Grand Pumpkin is your standard orange type of pumpkin), he's called out for his Fantastic Racism by, of all people, Nelson Muntz. The Grand Pumpkin claims that all pumpkins are racist and that he's different from others because he admits it. And while it's not a saving grace for the Grand Pumpkin, Nelson is being hypocritical here because he doesn't care about the fate of the little yellow pumpkin, either; in fact, he was precisely the one who had been perfectly willing to smash that little pumpkin in order to save his own life!
  • In "A Fish Called Selma", when Selma confronts Troy McClure and demands to know if he married her simply to boost his career, he admits it quickly, and actually convinces her, at least for a while, that being a sham wife isn't so bad. (What actually makes her have second thoughts at the end is the idea of having a child; getting a child involved in a sham marriage is something she can't do.)
• In Total Drama Island, after Heather gets her lackey Lindsay eliminated from the competition, and goes on to insult Lindsay and admit she was only using her to get further in the contest, Duncan calls it "cold." After Heather tells him that he's in no position to criticize her since he uses his delinquent behavior to scare everyone, Duncan replies, "At least I'm straight with people."