This troper occasionally indulges in this. I've described WorldWarII as a "minor European conflict", the ColdWar as a "slight political disagreement" and a plethora of other occasions. It must be my British heritage.

This troper has gotten in trouble before for her habitual tendency for extreme understatement. Apparently, it has a tendency to offend folks.

So, I assume you really mean "cause them to leap at you in berserker rage".

Isn't "extreme understatement" an oxymoron?

This troper has found out the hard way that understatement is harder on-line, and has taken to linking particularly heinous understatements (e.g. "Ignus has a few issues," or "Count Bleck is a bit more ambitious than Bowser.") to the Wikitionary article on the word "understatement" or the appropriate article on this very wiki.

It's not harder online; you're using more obscure references that people might not understand. But the links help.

This troper is in a history class. A slide of Hitler and Mussolini comes up. My reaction? "Boy what losers"

I do this a bit.

That's a little unspecific.

This troper does this occasionally, particularly when reading or writing. For example, in fiction, if a person's entire family dies, their school blows up, and they get maimed by several different bad guys, and even if it's worse, the only thing she'll say about it is "Wow, his/her life sucks."

"Michael Phelps is a pretty good swimmer".

"Diabetes stinks".

Tru dat mutha *blows up*

This troper, after telling the Aristocrats joke in mixed company: "Oh, I should warn you, I can be a little on the risqué side. Just a bit."

You said this AFTER telling the joke?

Combined with a deadpan presentation, understatements are everywhere. "Jesus was a nice guy" comes to mind.

I love hot and spicy food, so when you hear me say "it's a bit spicy", it means: "it's so hot that a normal person's mouth would fall off".

After watching the news, this Troper and his father would sum up several horrific and disastrous events with a simple: "Oh...that might be a problem."

This troper was once described as a fascist communist sympathiser after he described the DPRK as "not very democratic."

This troper has a bit of a preference for this. Where others would say "good", he says "not half-bad".

Isn't that called... That}} being Jerk}} French?

A common one from my friend. "Dying is painful" (or "I'm allergic to death". I prefer to use "Death is a bit of an inconvenience at a young age.").

A necessary element of my humour. Me and a military otaku friend were reviewing the effects of weaponry and, through Q&A, come up with a few gems, among them describing the effects of witnessing the detonation of a 100 megaton thermonuclear device at a distance of ten miles. Apparently it would be a bit loud and a tad bright, so you might want to consider putting your hands over your ears and closing your eyes. It'd also be a bit windy, so you'd might want to consider a jacket and an umbrella. Also, you'd be vaporised.

This troper once had orange juice poured over his head, was kicked in the stomach and thrown down a flight of stairs by his hair by a certain someone who shall remain nameless. When asked about it by a teacher, I said, "We don't get along."

My sister is a souless, evil, deranged, hitler-like, control freak BITCH who on random decides to ruin my life in the most awkward and humiliating way possible... Now guess why this is on the Understatement page...

You sound displeased.

This troper is quite fond of using these.

This Troper, I AM AI, VERITAS O WHY? TO SEE THE SKY IS A FLY, THE QUESTION QUERIES ADONAI. THE NAME OF A FACE IS THE PLACE OF A BEAM WHO KNOWS WHY THE WORLD IS? QUIZNOS HYPERDELUXE SUBS WITH BAYBYBACK RIBS. I KID.

This troper's younger sister uses these so much, she must think it's funny. A few weeks ago, this troper was babysitting and her sister tried to cook something on the stove. Being the awful cook she is, her sister started a fire. This troper put it out with the fire extenguisher and then, she and her sister had this exchange: #QUOTE#'''Sister''': I guess I put the heat up too high. #QUOTE#'''Me''' (furious): You don't say! #QUOTE#'''Sister''': Oh, boy. Mom's really gonna be mad when she sees this. #QUOTE#'''Me''': Ya think?!?

I once wrote a short story about a man who is in need of money and out of pure desperation kidnaps a teenage girl whose parents are rich. And that's where everything goes wrong, as it turns out that her parents are not as rich as they pretend to be. Thus, he ends up in a cabin with a kidnapee he has no use for, but he can't get rid of her either, because to do that he'd have to hurt her, and he's too afraid. He didn't really cover his tracks that well either, as it only takes the police a couple of days to find them, and by then the man is so distressed about how worthless a kidnapper he is that he's as happy to see them as the girl is. Right at the end, when he's sitting in the back of a police car, he muses that maybe crime isn't really his thing.

This troper does this sometimes. When asked his opinion on Hitler: "Not cool, man. Not cool."

This troper does this somewhat often.

My mom once said that 12 year old youtube commenters are not very smart.

This troper suggesting some hentai to his friend ( he asked for it!) described them as "a bit kinky".