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What it says on the tin - a character with some sort of disability and strong sarcastic tendencies. This can be portrayed in a variety of ways - maybe they use snark as a coping mechanism or way to vent, maybe their position as a social outsider has given them an irreverent view of the world, maybe the author is deliberately trying to subvert the Magical Differently Abled Person-stereotype, or perhaps smartassitude is just endemic to the character's nature. Subtrope of Deadpan Snarker, usually overlaps with Emo Teen to some extent if the character fits that age group. Compare Disability as an Excuse For Jerkassery.
If the character is physically disabled, they may also be a Non-Action Snarker.
Examples of Disabled Snarker include:
Anime and Manga
- Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist is a Teen Genius who may literally lack An Arm and a Leg, but can deal snark left and right.
Film
- Roland in Saved.
- Patches O'Houlihan in Dodgeball.
- Rhonda in Psycho Beach Party.
Literature
- Jenny Wren in the Charles Dickens novel Our Mutual Friend, who is also an early example of Little Miss Snarker.
- Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf (no, not that kind), in A Song of Ice and Fire.
- There's one of these in World War Z. Though you could say he deserves it considering he lived through the zombie apocalypse WHILE being wheelchair bound.
- Philip Durant in Ordeal By Innocence.
- Agnes Thatcher in Is That You, Miss Blue?
- Ed Fargo in Fearless
- Caine after Heroes Die. "It's like having a pair of dead dogs strapped to my ass. Except that I can't eat them."
- Glokta in The First Law. Being tortured for two years does give you a new perspective.
- The Rat in The Lost Prince. Rides around on a wooden platform with wheels because his legs are deformed and useless, and leads a street gang with the power of snark.
- Doakes in Dexter (but not in the TV series)
- Miles Vorkosigan, though a great deal of his snarking is internal.
- Jayfeather of Warrior Cats: "Oh great. Let's lump all the useless cats together and hope a tree falls on them!"
- Dean Priest from the Emily of New Moon series. Years of namecalling made him develop a sharp tongue.
Live Action TV
- Dr. Gregory House, of House.
- Archie Kennedy in the first and third Horatio Hornblower TV movies. He seems to have recovered from his seizure disorder by the fourth movie, but keeps up the snarky commentary.
- Maeby Funke pretends to be one of these in Arrested Development to try to prove that an "Inner Beauty Pageant" is only really looking for girls with pretty faces.
- Elayne Boosler as Joy Buscaglia on Night Court is blind. At first people were forgiving of her assholery because of her disability, then found out she was like that before she became blind. (I think.)
- Pamela Barnes, the Blind Seer sarcastic chick in Supernatural. Though, yeah, she was already sarcastic before became blind too.
- Bobby in Season 5, as well.
- Gaeta in Battlestar Galactica showed a growing level of snark through the series, but he became particularly more sarcastic after losing his leg.
- Artie in Glee.
- Walt Jr. in Breaking Bad
- In Lost, Ben is regularly a Deadpan Snarker and spends most of season 3 in a wheelchair. Of course, this being the island, the disabled part doesn't last long.
- Jimmy Brooks in Degrassi the Next Generation. Viewers get to see him develop this trait over time as a coping mechanism.
- Jace Newfield of the DCOM Going to the Mat. He even gets called out on his constant wisecracking.
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Mary Beth: People don't care that you're blind. They're turned off because they think you're a total snob. |
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- Billy Homer in Press Gang. And then some.
- An episode of Pushing Daisies features a young boy with heart disease who communicates exclusively in snarks.
- Emmett, the so-called "Deaf James Dean" on Switched at Birth
- Jake, the blind guy at the newsstand in Becker, one of the few who can take Dr. Becker's guff and dish it out as well.
Video Games
- Joker from Mass Effect.
- Snake of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Especially when people underestimate him for his blindness.
- Malik from Assassin's Creed
- Katawa Shoujo is a Dating Sim where the major part of the cast is disabled, and near all of them can dish out the snark as well. (The only exception is Hanako). The best examples are Hisao (the Player Character) and two of his prospect girlfriends, Rin and Shizune.
- Portal 2 has G La DOS when she becomes temporarily trapped in a potato.
- The Blind Weaponmaster Kenshi Takahashi from Mortal Kombat becomes this with gusto in Mortal Kombat X, delivering snarky lines towards allies and enemies alike. And sometimes, even to himself.
- Niles and Saizo from Fire Emblem Fates. Each man has been subjected to Eye Scream, and each one is capable of dealing snark to near everyone.
Webcomics
- Davan's sister Dahlia in Something Positive, although her snark is pretty much a family trait, only amplified by the people who confuse "disabled" with "retarded".
- Ken Spence in Magellan.
- Dr. Birding, a No Celebrities Were Harmed stand-in for Stephen Hawking from The Adventures of Dr. McNinja.
Western Animation
- Toph Beifong of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Since she's a Little Miss Badass with a Disability Superpower, being blind doesn't cause her that many problems, but she's always got a sharp crack on hand for when it does.
- She likes to roundaboutly call attention to the fact by commenting on appearances. She gets Sokka with that one a lot.
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Sokka: Toph I was going through town and I saw this. (Shows a Wanted poster of Toph) |
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- Jimmy in South Park.
- Alistair Smythe in Spider-Man the Animated Series. After the initial Spider-Slayer arc, he spends most of his time in Crime Central bantering with the Kingpin.
- Futurama: Leela's blind nemesis from the orphanarium, Kirk.
Real Life
- Stephen Hawking, in Real Life.
- Alexander Pope, the eighteenth century poet. He was an Ill Guy for much of his life due to a form of tuberculosis, and wrote several famous satires of the follies of his contemporaries.
- Another Real Life example: John Callahan, the quadriplegic cartoonist known for offending just about everybody.
- This livejournal community.
- The amputee joke: You can't trust doctors—you give them a foot, they take a leg.
- Louis Braille (the guy who invented Braille). If biographies written about him are of any merit, he tended to be an arrogant jerkass, believing all of France was against his idea and generally acted like a martyr because he was blind. In one of the biographies about him, this drove a big wedge between him and his girlfriend who soon left him for another man.