Thanks, Obama.
Mako: Not bad.
Korra: Ugh, what does it take to impress this guy?
Mako: What? I said "not bad".
Korra: Ugh, what does it take to impress this guy?
Mako: What? I said "not bad".
When someone refers to another as "Not Bad", it's used to show that the person of whom it is said has won the (albeit grudging) respect of a character who initially hadn't liked them.
A variant of this is when a character refers to another as "Not Bad For An X", which is usually said by a character who normally looks down on another group except for the other character. This variation is often what a supposed Superior Species would say to our plucky human hero who's proven themselves worthy in their eyes.
This is often used by people whose approval is hard to come by and expressed in terms that don't seem all that approving if you don't know them. Deadpan Snarkers are the most frequent abusers of this trope, because outright complimenting someone is out of the question for them. It's also a characteristic of The Stoic, The Spock (because his standards are just that high), people with a Stiff Upper Lip (a British person saying "not bad" may actually be an expression of unbridled approval).
By the way, saying "not bad" instead of just straight up "good" is one of many examples of what's called litotes
.
If a character willingly admits that the other character’s work is impressive, then it would belong in Actually Pretty Impressive.
See also Compliment Backfire, Damned by Faint Praise, Overly Narrow Superlative, Audacity Earns Approval, and The One Thing I Don't Hate About You. For the humorous counterpart, see Actually Pretty Funny.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Gunslinger Girl. Jean gives a "Not bad" to his younger brother Jose while watching Henrietta's performance in the Shooting Gallery. While the trope is played straight from Jean's perspective—as he's the Aloof Big Brother who regards their cyborgs as tools—it's Your Approval Fills Me with Shame from Jose's perspective, as he's guilty over how these girls have been turned into brainwashed cyborg killing machines.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Diamond is Unbreakable: Jotaro gives his respect towards Koichi for holding out on his own against Yoshikage Kira's Heart Attack and then having found out his true identity.
- The JoJoLands: Charming Man admits that Usagi's willingness to perform tracheotomy on himself without assistance was impressive.
- Jujutsu Kaisen: Mahoraga's physical capabilities are absolutely monstrous, being strong enough to launch Sukuna through several buildings with one punch, earning an appreciative "not bad" from the sorcerer himself.
- My Hero Academia: Despite Hawks intending to provoke others, Mirko ends up taking a liking to his confidence.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: In Episode 25, Kittan's last words are experiencing the power of the spiral upon awakening it during his Heroic Sacrifice, calling it "not bad... not bad at all" followed by a chuckle before his death.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! when Joey Wheeler, a novice duelist nobody has ever heard of, manages to beat Bandit Keith, the intercontinental champion, at Duelist Kingdom despite Keith using a machine deck designed to beat Joey's magical deck and cheating as well, Pegasus is rather impressed by it.
Pegasus: Remarkable! Keith's rampage for revenge was brought to a halt by a novice dueling for a loved one!
Comic Books
- Batman: No Man's Land: When Batman and Nightwing arrive at the Strong Men compound to help defend the people inside from the Joker, they find that Huntress has been defending them by herself, taking six gunshots to the chest in the process, and has managed to send him scampering. As Huntress bleeds out, she tries to snark at Batman after having previously dismissed her due to previously not being good enough in her role as Batgirl.
Huntress: *bleeding out* Happy... now?
Batman: Shh. Rest. Good work, Huntress.
Nightwing: Congratulations. That's his highest praise. Honest.
Fan Works
- Multiple times while doing modified Navy Seal testing in Teal'c's Wish, Xander earns a comment of "Not bad" from the instructors, which he takes to mean he's doing better than they expect from a civilian. Of course, since their job is to make recruits feel like they barely pass even if they do perfectly, Xander's actually beating world records when they say that.
Films — Animation
- Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker: The Joker's response to seeing Terry swooping in as the new Batman (though he calls him "Batfake" moments latter).
Joker: Ah, the new boy! Ears are too long and I miss the cape, but not too shabby, not too shabby at all.
- In Dragons: Fire & Ice, Princess Kyra and Prince Dev look down on each other for being born in the opposite nation, so naturally any compliments turn out like this trope.
Kyra: [After both of them just fought off some Vorgens, unarmed and on the back of a flying dragon] Ha, nice work.
Dev: [Unimpressed] You mean "for a Norvagen"?
Kyra: What else would I mean! - In The Iron Giant, Dean, a junk yard owner who likes to make sculptures out of the junk, gets angry at the Giant for eating some of his art. The Giant, confused, puts together a bunch of half-chewed junk to try to appease Dean. Dean isn't too impressed, at first: "No, don't... that's not... that's... huh, that's not bad."
- In How to Train Your Dragon 2, Cloudjumper reacts this way to Toothless after Toothless defeats Drago's Bewilderbeast and becomes the Alpha.
- In Lilo & Stitch (2002); the titular alien is programmed to destroy everything he touches and has been doing just that with Lilo's possessions (or, at least, trying to) until Lilo suggests he try making something instead. He proceeds to build a replica of San Francisco. Lilo is impressed but expresses as such in the most deadpan manner possible. ("WOW! San Francisco.")
- In Rise of the Guardians, Jack Frost says this to the Easter Bunny, who replies, "Not bad yourself".
- In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, after seeing Miles' affirmation that he can handle Kingpin by himself, Peter agrees to return back home, telling Miles "not bad, kid" before his departure.
Films — Live-Action
- In Aliens, the android Bishop says Ripley was "Not bad, for a human.", just before he dies (or whatever it is that androids do). The point is that Ripley initially hadn't liked Bishop because he was an android; then he helped save her and the others and she admitted to him that he hadn't done badly for an android. Then the Alien Queen turned up, nearly fatally injuring Bishop and the line is an Ironic Echo of Ripley's earlier comment, she having defeated the Alien Queen.
- Boy Eats Girl: After Jessica kills over a dozen zombies in a Construction Vehicle Rampage, Cheryl snarkily says "Not bad for a virgin", which is still one of the nicest things she says to Jessica throughout the movie.
- Spaceballs has this example:
Princess Vespa: Ah! My hair! He shot my hair! Son of a bitch! [shoots and destroys all their pursuers]
Barf: Holy shit!
Princess Vespa: ...How was that?
Lone Starr: Not bad.
Barf: Not bad, for a girl.
Dot Matrix: Hey, that was pretty good for Rambo! - In True Grit (2010), Mattie defies Rooster and the Texas Ranger and crosses the river on her horse to come with them. Rooster observes her crossing with an appraising eye, and then says "Good Horse", as she staggers ashore.
- In Independence Day, the President says this to David. The two have years of animosity between them due to their Love Triangle, which David ultimately won.
- The Three Musketeers (1961): At the end, the Cardinal Richelieu sends a sign of the hand to the Musketeers as they show up on time at the call to arms, after also receiving the news of the death of both Milady and Rochefort, meaning their scheme to kill the three Musketeers and D'Artagnan has failed. Judging by his body language, that means he grudgingly admits the Musketeers won this time. But now they're being sent on assignment to the siege of La Rochelle, so they're part of other plans of his anyway.
- In Willow, Burglekutt (the village's jerkass, especially to the protagonist Willow) is actually noticeably impressed by Willow's disappearing pig trick, making it the closet thing he has to a Pet the Dog moment. Of course when the trick quickly goes sour he returns to his default jerkassery.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- In The Avengers (2012), Captain America tries to insult Iron Man with the Armor-Piercing Question of "Take away your suit, and what are you?" Iron Man gives an Armor-Piercing Response with zero hesitation, "A genius billionaire playboy philanthropist." Black Widow, herself no fan of Iron Man, shrugs to Captain America as if to say "he's right, you know."
- In Ant-Man (2015) when Scott is fighting Falcon, he manages to take down the far better trained Avenger by using his shrink-tech to land an uncharacteristically well-done wrestling move. Hope, who until now has had nothing but utter scorn for Scott, is visibly impressed by this one.
Game Shows
- Taskmaster
- Rhod Gilbert in Series 7, who was notorious for his abuse of Loopholes and Exact Words to the point it earned the ire of his competitors, accusations of cheating, and even an accusation of bias for the things he gets away with. In the final episode he has an immensely clever bit of rules abuse when tasked is "tie yourself up as securely as possible - slowest time to be released by Alex wins." He ties Alex up first and then ties himself up, making it entirely impossible for Alex to untie him, earning him an easy win since Alex is never actually able to untie him — he eventually takes pity and unties both of them. All of his competitors are in awe and cheering him on for this one.
Rhod: I suppose you'll all have a go at me and shout and scream and accuse me of cheating!Phil: No. That was fucking kick-ass.James: Rhod that absolutely genius!Kerry: Yep!Jessica: Yeah...Phil: I would love to hate that! We would love to hate that, but that was fucking great!
- Occasionally during the prize tasks, one contestant will utterly nail it by presenting it in such a funny way that other contestants will admit it blows theirs out of the water. Two great examples are Richard Herring's "Runing Fun" penguin game that plays awful music, and his impression of it utterly floored Greg, and Lee Mack's slide whistle which he claimed he use during arguments with his wife to add sound effects when she bent over to pick something up. Both times Greg has asked the next contestant, Katherine Parkinson and Charlotte Ritchie respectfully, if they could beat it: both of them said no.
- Rhod Gilbert in Series 7, who was notorious for his abuse of Loopholes and Exact Words to the point it earned the ire of his competitors, accusations of cheating, and even an accusation of bias for the things he gets away with. In the final episode he has an immensely clever bit of rules abuse when tasked is "tie yourself up as securely as possible - slowest time to be released by Alex wins." He ties Alex up first and then ties himself up, making it entirely impossible for Alex to untie him, earning him an easy win since Alex is never actually able to untie him — he eventually takes pity and unties both of them. All of his competitors are in awe and cheering him on for this one.
Literature
- The closest Granny Weatherwax (of Discworld fame) will come to commending someone is to say something neutral implying that they were barely adequate. More often she will only comment to the effect that the person didn't fail as abysmally as she expected.
- One Alan Dean Foster Mad Amos story has Amos get into a chili cook-off with a Wicked Witch to see who can make the spiciest chili. He tries the witch's chili and, after a spoonful blows his hat right off his head and causes flames to shoot from his mouth, he calls it "not bad." She's furious because she was trying to kill him, but then she tries his chili and it's so spicy that she's vaporized by it.
- In The Titan's Curse, Artemis tells Percy he didn't do bad, for a man. Before then, she had always called him a boy, so it was probably one of the best and most respectful compliments he ever got out of a god that wasn't his dad Poseidon.
- In A Song of Ice and Fire, when Jaime Lannister fights Brienne of Tarth, he uses this — when she successfully fends off his first attack, he concedes that she's "Not half bad, for a wench." As the duel goes on and he realizes her level of skill, it comes up again:
Jaime: Not bad at all!
Brienne: For a wench?
Jaime: For a squire, say. A green one.
Live-Action TV
- One Piece (2023): Despite his low opinion of humans, Arlong admits that Luffy's punches aren't so bad during their first fight.
Arlong: Not bad for a human.
- In one episode of Scrubs, Dr Cox says J.D. is "not a completely horrible doctor". J.D. recognises this as high praise.
- Star Trek
- Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Unification Part 2", Mr. Spock says this line when Data successfully uses the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. This is high praise since it can be difficult to impress a stoic Vulcan.
- In "Sarek", Spock's titular dad says that Captain Picard's service record is "satisfactory", which Jean-Luc notes is very flattering by Vulcan standards.
- Star Trek: Voyager season five episode 3, Tuvok dislikes the Delta Flier, but Tom Paris is convinced he's doing great work because Seven of Nine called it "adequate". Neelix similarly is convinced his security training is going well because Tuvok called him "not completely inept".
- An episode of Titus has Titus and Dave made a triple play in a Little league baseball game. Ken responds with "not bad," to which Titus and Dave have an over-the-top victory celebration, including a "NOT BAD" banner that drops from the ceiling.
- In The West Wing, outgoing President Bartlet does grudgingly admit that Senator Vinick, the Republican presidential candidate, is an intelligent and ethical politician despite being from the opposing party.
Music
- They Might Be Giants, "Pet Name"
You say I'm "okay, for a guy"
But I can tell that you are lying
And we've almost figured out how we'll get along
Pro Wrestling
- After Adam Cole's successful ROH Television Title defense against Mike Mondo, Matt Hardy stood up from the commentary table to congratulate him, saying he just saw why the two were compared to each other, Cole almost being as good as Matt Hardy used to be, though nowhere near as good as he currently was.
- What Austin Aries has to say after Jeff Hardy beats him for the TNA World Heavyweight Title Belt, saying Jeff briefly raised himself to Aries's level.
- Though surprised it happened, Kacee Carlisle gave La Rosa Negra a contemptuous congratulation after learning she earned a second shot at her NWA World Women's Title Belt.
Theme Parks
- At the end of Indiana Jones Adventure at the Disney Theme Parks, Indy says, "Not bad...for tourists."
- At Universal Studios:
- When the title character of The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad first successfully beats down an enemy, Princess Amoura remarks, "Not bad...for a boy."
- If the riders get the "Cosmically Average" ranking in Men in Black: Alien Attack, Agent J will say, "Not bad, slick. But not good enough."
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: After Ann defeats Loki in their second encounter at Noctis City, he accepts his loss without any aggravation, giving a ceding comment of "not bad" before telling Ann where she can locate the stolen data ROM before taking off.
- Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun: When Michael McNeil saves the day, stops Kane, and gets the girl, Umagon concedes "Not bad for a blunt" before kissing him.
- Occurs late-game in Cyberpunk 2077 when V and Johnny come across the Cool Car owned by Johnny's former bandmate, Kerry Eurodyne. Even Johnny, who until that point was nothing but critical of Kerry's post-Samurai lifestyle, is forced to "give him that one."
- Friday Night Funkin': Before Tankman's second song in Week 7, he begrudgingly gives Boyfriend his due for entertaining him and singing well enough. However, he's incapable of doing it without being an ass:
Tankman: Pretty tight bars for a little dude simping for a dumb, boring teenager wearing her mom's clothes!
[Girlfriend is crying in the background] - The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: After Link defeats Phantom Ganon, Ganondorf admits that he "did quite well".
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: The Rito warrior Teba is initially dismissive of Link's offer to help him board and disable the aerial Divine Beast Vah Medoh given the latter is a flightless Hylian. But when Link uses a paraglider to ace a tricky archery course at the Flight Range at Teba's request, Teba says "Not bad" in response and acknowledges that Link might be more helpful than assumed.
- Nintendo Wars: One of Hawke's win quotes from the Advance Wars series:
"You're not bad — I'm just that good."
- Late in Portal 2, after Wheatley has turned evil and you've teamed up with GlaDOS to stop him, he keeps going on about "his surprise you're going to die for" in just so many more chambers. It's so obvious it's a trap it's not even funny. However, in an incredible case of genius for such an idiot, he was actually counting on you to think he was too stupid to realize how suspicious it sounds so you'd fall for the actual trap: an Aerial Faith Plate that hurls you sideways through a wall and into a Death Trap that appears two chambers before the "obvious" trap. GlaDOS gives him begrudging respect for it.
GlaDOS: Okay, credit where it's due: for a little idiot built specifically to come up with stupid, unworkable plans, that was a pretty well laid trap.
- In Sabres of Infinity, If Cazarosta respects you enough to let you command the boarding party in his place, he has this to say:
Cazarosta: You are tolerable company, try to avoid dying.
- In Shovel Knight, after defeating the entire Order Of No Quarter one after the other at the Tower of Fate, you have the option of rescuing them from falling into the abyss. If you do, speaking to Mole Knight has him begrudgingly admit you're the superior digger and even suggests sharing notes.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- In Sonic Generations, this is Dr. Eggman's reaction to if you hit him in the Egg Dragoon. This is, like most things, mocked in pokecapn's Let's Play of the game. Also at the end of the story, Knuckles says this to Sonic who defeated The Time Eater along with his Classic self. Amy hits Knuckles for that half-hearted compliment, and said that Sonic was all great.
- In the first Sonic/Shadow boss battle in Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow will say this after you defeat him with Sonic:
Shadow: Not bad for an impostor.
- Shadow says this to Sonic at the end of Rise of Lyric, after seeing the titular villain hogtied by the group.
Shadow: Hmph. Looks like you and your friends got the job done. (turns and walks away) Not bad.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Super Mario Galaxy: After their second battle, Bowser shows some slight admiration towards Mario.
Bowser: BWAHAHAHA! Not bad! I guess I chose the right guy to be my Arch-Enemy.
- In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, when you face the Chapter Boss of The Glitz Pit Macho Grubba he, albeit somewhat deliriously, congratulates you before collapsing in defeat.
Macho Grubba: Noooo... How'd this happen? How could a perfect bod like mine lose to such a chub? Oh...Great...Gonzales... Great fight, there, son. Great... fight. Urrrrrrrrgh...
- Paper Mario: The Origami King: Scissors decide to face Mario in a fair fight with its blades sheathed after Mario dodges the initial sneak attack.
Scissors: Hmph! Well dodged. Of course, I expect nothing less.
- Super Mario Galaxy: After their second battle, Bowser shows some slight admiration towards Mario.
- Near the beginning of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Malos begins to realize how much he underestimated Rex.
Malos: (whilst getting pummeled with attacks) You're better than I thought.
Web Comics
- In Girl Genius, Zeetha has this reaction to Violetta replacing a hostage held by an antagonist with a dummy.
- In How I Killed Your Master, the protagonist (as a boy) reflexively blocks the strike of his abusive foster parent. He (and the reader) expect him to be in serious trouble, since he wasn't supposed to be learning his martial arts style but instead he gets a "Barely competent" and his "punishment" is to run to the forest and back every day.
Web Video
- The Angry Video Game Nerd has begrudgingly admitted that some games he expected to be terrible ended up being decent or even actually quite good, such as the NES adaptation of Alien³, Bible Buffet, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Get A Clue. It even returns as a Brick Joke much later when reviewing the PSX adaptation of Planet of the Apes, which begins with him gathering up and discarding all of his shitty games: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest gets thrown out but he hesitantly lets Bible Buffet stay.
- JonTron:
- After spending a good 20 minutes ripping on Dan Aykroyd's vodka, laughing at how over-the-top the videos describing it are, and poking fun at a video of Larry King where it's clear Mr. King is reluctant to actually drink the stuff, Jon admits that the vodka actually is pretty good.
- During BUYING DUMB THINGS ONLINE he mocks the "Boyfriend Pillow" mercilessly, finding the concept of a pillow that is essentially a stuffed torso and arm a creepy and weird thing to snuggle with, but after trying it he admits it is pretty comfortable and even gives it a good, if sardonic, review:
Unfortunately Perfect. I bought this as a joke and now I am a true believer, and I blame each and every one of you for this.
- Viva La Dirt League: In FPS Logic: "Stealth vs Action in FPS campaigns - The Final Battle", Rowan manages to shoot down the entire Luftwaffe. While Adam enthusiastically cheers him on, Alan's lines are emotionless repetitions of "Not bad".
Western Animation
- Hazbin Hotel: Katie Killjoy congratulates Charlie and the Hazbin Hotel for "not being totally fuckin' useless for once".
- In The Legend of Korra "A Leaf in the Wind", The Stoic Mako sincerely offers this compliment when Korra successfully follows Bolin's pro-bending advice. It backfires, as she assumes she's been Damned by Faint Praise, to Mako's confusion.
Mako: What? I said "Not bad."
- Xiaolin Showdown: While Wuya will not hesitate to belittle Jack for his cowardice and general incompetence, she does acknowledge his talents in robotics and his application of Shen Gong Wu which she would otherwise regard as useless.
