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A TV presenter is talking to an author in his house and they are talking about culture. Author discusses final book (see:5:00-5:20)

The author: There's a minority of people who like culture to be cerebral. People who like difficult novels and strange plays and modern jazz.
TV presenter: All due respect to jazz.
The author: All due respect to jazz, but you can't dance to it.

At first I thought TV presenter respects jazz and likes it. Still, I looked "all due respect" up, but it turns out to mean disagreement. Wiktionary says: with all due respect: A phrase used before disagreeing with someone.

So I thought TV presenter doesn't like jazz. But then I couldn't figure out why the author says "...but you can't dance to it.", which made me think that it is the author who doesn't agree with jazz being beautiful.

So I am confused about "all due respect". Does TV presenter mean "I don't like it" or "I like it."?

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6 Answers 6

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"All due respect" is technically a compliment: You're acknowledging that the thing is worthy of respect. It's just that it heavily implies the next word will be "but…"

So the source that described it as disagreement misled you a little. It prefaces disagreement or criticism and softens it a little. Whatever comes next represents the speaker's actual opinion.

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    The author mentions 'modern jazz' among a list of minority interests that are 'cerebral' - you have to use your brains to enjoy them, they're not just entertainment. The presenter doesn't want it to look as though they are criticising all jazz.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jun 27 at 8:12
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    (Will anyone get this?) .... Nice!
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jun 27 at 9:24
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    This. It means they in fact don't want the reader to make any assumptions about how they feel about the subject in general, just because what follows is going to be critical.
    – T.E.D.
    Commented Jun 27 at 18:51
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    It might help to break down the utterance. It suggests that something should be respected, but it is very brief perfunctory. It doesn't enumerate the respect due, it doesn't even name a major thing worthy of respect, it just says with whatever respect is due, let's say it's given. For whatever reason, the speaker feels like they ought to mention that positives exist, but is in no hurry to discuss them.
    – Dan
    Commented Jun 27 at 19:53
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    It's probably worth pointing out that in OP's example here, the TV Presenter is not actually using it as a preface to criticism but is retroactively appending it to The Author's previous comment.
    – A C
    Commented Jun 28 at 4:12
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Like vs Dislike? Neither!

"With all due respect" is a phrase meant to soften criticism. You can read it as if it were "I am about to criticize this one thing about the subject, but I don't want the listener to believe that I have a negative opinion about the subject generally." The speaker is in fact very specifically not expressing a like or dislike for the subject, and they do not wish for their criticism to imply that.

Wiktionary lists it as related to the less formal "no offense." It serves much the same purpose.

One word of caution I will add, however, is that "with all due respect" is a phrase that is sometimes used ironically or sarcastically. In this case, the speaker intends to express a dislike opinion. I have no reason to believe this is the case in your example, but it could be in places you see this phrase in the future.

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    "Somehow, Captain, when you say 'with all due respect,' I don't think you intend any respect at all." "Au contraire, General, I intend every whit of the respect that you are actually due."
    – No Name
    Commented Jun 28 at 5:28
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    The sarcastic use is similar to prefixing a criticism with "no offense, but..."
    – Barmar
    Commented Jun 28 at 15:44
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The TV presenter doesn't want to leave the author's remark about modern jazz unqualified, lest people who hear it misconstrue it and, for reasons unrelated to the music per se but related to its being associated with the black community, become upset with the presenter and with the TV station that will air the interview. In context, the interviewer's remark is a kind of preemptive "damage control". The presenter's interjection "All due respect to jazz" means "Let's give jazz all the respect it deserves". Let's not leave people with the impression that you think (and that we concur) that it lacks merit.The author acknowledges the interviewer's point yet adds "But you can't dance to it" to make clear what he was talking about: modern jazz is a "cerebral" art form.

P.S. If you begin a remark, All due respect to {something}, what normally follows is some sort of criticism of what follows while being a gesture of respect to the first thing:

All due respect to British engineering, but that car is an expensive bucket of bolts.

And when it is added as an afterthought, it is intended to qualify what was just said, here, not meaning to cast aspersions on British engineering as a whole:

That car is an expensive bucket of bolts—all due respect to British engineering.

But when "all due respect to {something}" is said in response to something that was just said by another person, as in the TV interview, it is intended to rebut to some extent, or in some way to ameliorate, what was just said.

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The Cambridge Dictionary defines "with [all due] respect.." as

used to express polite disagreement in a formal situation

The Wiktionary definition is not satisfactory because "polite" is important. It's not simply about expressing disagreement: it's a phrase that you would use before disagreeing with, for example, your boss's opinion.

I agree in principle with @the-baby-is-you with the idea that it is usually followed by a but, but in practice it is usually preceded by "with" and followed directly by the negative comment, for example:

with all due respect to jazz, you can't dance to it.

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So I thought TV presenter doesn't like jazz. But then I couldn't figure out why the author says "...but you can't dance to it.", which made me think that it is the author who doesn't agree with jazz being beautiful.

A lot of music that you can't dance to (or at least wouldn't) is considered beautiful (by many people.) I can't really imagine dancing to Beethoven's 9th Symphony but that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable or appealing. Saying "you can't dance to it" doesn't indicate dislike.

The author is really just continuing the point from here: "There's a minority of people who like culture to be cerebral." The implication is that a majority of people prefer culture that is not cerebral. Danceable music tends to be more visceral than cerebral.

The point of ay "with all due respect to jazz" here is to clarify that no one is implying there's something wrong with [modern] jazz because it doesn't appeal to the majority of people who prefer less challenging music. In other words, they are saying something along the lines of: 'jazz is great but it's not for everyone'.

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    @QuackE.Duck Yeah, I must have reworded the sentence and failed put it back together right. Thanks for the catch.
    – JimmyJames
    Commented Jun 28 at 15:30
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There is a subtle point here. "With all due respect..." means that I am giving the other person all the respect that I owe to them: if I consider that I don't owe them any respect at all, because they are being stupid, then I give them zero respect.

[W]hen the judge makes what the advocate thinks is a stupid point, the advocate will often begin his answer with the words, ‘My Lord, with great respect…’; if he thinks the point is particularly stupid, the advocate may begin his answer by saying, ‘My Lord, with the greatest respect…’. I leave it to your imagination as to what an advocate thought of a point I once made to him in argument when he started his answer with the words, ‘My Lord, with the very greatest respect possible…’--Lord Neuberger

Saying ‘respect’ in court can in fact mean the opposite, study shows

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