hard case vs sympathy card

hard case

noun
  • An amusing, funny, witty, or possibly strange person. May be used as a term of endearment. 

  • A tough person. 

sympathy card

noun
  • An attempt to score points in a discussion by portraying oneself as a victim in need of sympathy (used with the verb "play"). 

  • A greeting card sent to family members of one who has died to express regret. 

How often have the words hard case and sympathy card occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )