Compliment Fishing

They say, "I'm sorry the house is so messy," forcing you to respond, "No, not at all; it's looking beautiful." Actually, a better response would be, "No, not at all; I enjoy a little squalor." —John Cleese

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Are you sure?

Really?

Well, I... I'd do it, but I don't think it would be worth your time...

I kind of wrote an entry for this trope, but it's not that good... I can't even see why you'd want to read it.

I'm ashamed to be even posting something this bad. The writing's so dodgy... It's not as eloquent as all the other tropes. I'm not a very good troper, am I?

Oh, come on - you're just saying that to make me feel better! I know what you really think.

Well, OK. If you insist...

Here Goes Nothing...

Let's say you've written something. You know it's good but you still want to attract more feedback and compliments than you'd normally get. So, you go out of your way to call attention to how bad it is, tell everyone why they'd never want to see it, and, in extreme cases, Wangst at length about how you're a miserable failure of a writer who deserves to die alone.

Then, just sit back and watch the sympathy and back-pats roll in.

This is a common tactic of the Shrinking Violet - or, at least, the writers who make her say these things. I suppose they think it's endearing. Subtle Attention Whores (wait, what?) also love this trope, as it lets them bask in pity-praise without having to directly toot their own horn.

A Sub-Trope of Self-Deprecation, and the dishonest, manipulative little sister of the heroic form.

This is a pretty common Truth in Television.

By the way... You don't have to bother editing this page. I know you don't really want to.

Compare Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?, this trope's creepy, Freudian sister.

Examples of Compliment Fishing include:

Film

• In Mean Girls, Regina mentions at the Plastics' lunch table that she needs to lose a few pounds. She then stares expectedly at Gretchen and Karen, who immediately start complimenting how skinny she is.
• In Bill and Teds Bogus Journey, the Grim Reaper of all people starts fishing for compliments, clearly jealous of the praise B&T are heaping on Station, the Martian genius. At one point Death thoroughly Squicks the boys by trying to get them to compliment his ass.

Live Action TV

• Father Ted: Mrs Doyle tells Ted his voice is gorgeous, and he plays it down, clearly loving it. When she asks him to sing something else and he obliges with Paris In The Spring, it backfires when she suddenly decides his version was "catastrophic".
• In the Loop: Karen Clark jokes to Chad "you might be Secretary of State one day, young man!" Chad doesn't realise it's a joke and says "Don't say that if you don't mean it."
• In the Friends episode "The One With Joey's New Girlfriend", Chandler confesses to the other friends that he has feelings for Kathy, and caps it off with, "I'm a horrible person." He then looks at the others expectantly, and upon getting no reaction, adds, "No, you're not, Chandler, we still love you, Chandler".

Literature

• Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy: Arthur Dent's "It was nothing really" doesn't get the reaction he had been expecting from Zaphod Beeblebrox.
• In Squids Will Be Squids, one of the fables has pigeon doing that. She gets eaten, but really, she had it coming.
• "Mary Jane she set at the head of the table, with Susan alongside of her, and said how bad the biscuits was and how ornery and tough the fried chicken was-and all that kind of rot, the way women always do for the force out compliments..." — Huckleberry Finn
• The Joy Luck Club: A girl brings her oh-so-very American fiance home to meet her oh-so-very Chinese family. She forgot to brief him on the Chinese-mother tactic of bringing out their best dish garnished with lots of self-depreciation. He protests that her dish is delicious...

Fiance: "It just needs a little sauce!" [Pours soy sauce all over the dish] Family: [Appalled silence]

• In A Christmas Carol, Mrs. Cratchit is terribly nervous that her Christmas pudding won't be good enough, but her family tells her it's wonderful.
• The Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures novel features a scene where a deformed-but-still-attractive Ingenue has a heart-to-heart with Fitz, the Doctor's companion and a Chivalrous Pervert. He accuses her of doing this, but she seems to genuinely mean what she's saying about herself:

'No one would wish to. I am deformed. I am ugly.' 'Are you fishing, here, by any chance?' She laughed at him. 'Fishing?' 'For compliments, I mean,' Fitz said. 'Look, Vettul, if it helps, you're not ugly... I mean, you're...' He felt himself growing flustered.

Theatre

• Blanche tries this on Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire. It doesn't work, though he's not outright rude about it, either: "Your looks are okay."