It is explored how the demonstrative that may be employed to discern an event in the world in such a manner as to indicate it has very rare or violating features, thus asking others to support that implicit demand. The inquiry drafts the essential attributes of the transgressive that and investigates how it may be the medium for a series of sensitive interpersonal activities. The paper attempts to demonstrate the wider pertinence of the analytic argument by reference to data from more wordly interactional environs and to other discourse forms, covering fiction, commentary and interview narrative.