History GenreDeconstruction / WesternAnimation

* The episode of ''ThePowerpuffGirls'' about them moving to "Citysville" deals with what would happen if their brand of heroics was applied to a real life city.

** Later episodes try to convey that being a teen superhero is not all fun and games, as we learn that [[spoiler: Aquagirl, Jason Todd, and the previous BlueBeetle]] have all been killed in action during the five year TimeSkip between seasons one and two. Upon this revelation, the line between superheroes and ChildSoldiers begins to blur even more.

* ''MoralOrel'' deconstructs TheMoralSubstitute by presenting a culture where ALL MEDIA are Christian fundamentalist propaganda, and showing just how messed up and disturbing said culture would be.

** [[OncePerEpisode Normal episodes]] end with Twilight Sparkle sending [[AnAesop a message]] to her mentor Princess Celestia about [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle what she learned about friendship that day]], satisfying the [[EdutainmentShow Edutainment quota]] for the week. The episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E3LessonZero Lesson Zero]]" specifically begs the [[BrokenAesop Aesop-breaking]] question: "What happens if there was no friendship message to write about?" Thus begins one of the most bizarre, creepy episodes of the series when our [[SanityBall normally]] [[OnlySaneMan calm and collected]] (and [[SarcasmMode slightly]] [[SuperOCD OCD]]) Twilight races to find, and eventually ''create'', a friendship problem to report about. Ultimately, an Aesop about missing the Aesop is arrived at, and [[WhamEpisode introduces a running change]] where any of Twilight's friends can provide the Aesop (likely as a way to avoid having to shoehorn in Twilight into every episode).

* ''ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' deconstructs just about every one of the franchise's most iconic tropes.
* Along the same lines as the ''Scooby-Doo'' example above is ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime,'' which takes a grittier spin on the ''{{Transformers}}'' series.
* ''{{Archer}}'' goes through cold-war spy tropes like adamantium claws through butter.

* There can be a very good case made for ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' being a deconstruction of ''JonnyQuest and Franchise/DocSavage''-style [[TwoFistedTales stories]]. Some say spoof, some say deconstruction, some say [[DeconstructiveParody both]]. The main character is a former KidHero who, due to a childhood spent traveling the world with his Adventurer-Scientist father, has [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior seen and done things]] no twelve-year-old boy really should have to, and has grown up into a bitter, pill-popping, barely-functional human being. His rugged ActionHero bodyguard is basically the kind of borderline sociopath that would gravitate to a world of clandestine doings where [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer brutal murder]] is an acceptable way of solving problems. His children are socially awkward nerds, but not in any of the "good" or "endearing" ways; they were basically raised in boxes and have no clue how to interact with reality. And his arch-nemesis is a lame animal-themed SuperVillain who, despite moments of competence, is so wrapped up in planning the details of his over-elaborate and petty revenge schemes against an enemy who ''barely knows who he is'' that his schemes never actually get off the ground.

* There can be a very good case made for ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' being a deconstruction of ''JonnyQuest and DocSavage''-style [[TwoFistedTales stories]]. Some say spoof, some say deconstruction, some say [[DeconstructiveParody both]]. The main character is a former KidHero who, due to a childhood spent traveling the world with his Adventurer-Scientist father, has [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior seen and done things]] no twelve-year-old boy really should have to, and has grown up into a bitter, pill-popping, barely-functional human being. His rugged ActionHero bodyguard is basically the kind of borderline sociopath that would gravitate to a world of clandestine doings where [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer brutal murder]] is an acceptable way of solving problems. His children are socially awkward nerds, but not in any of the "good" or "endearing" ways; they were basically raised in boxes and have no clue how to interact with reality. And his arch-nemesis is a lame animal-themed SuperVillain who, despite moments of competence, is so wrapped up in planning the details of his over-elaborate and petty revenge schemes against an enemy who ''barely knows who he is'' that his schemes never actually get off the ground.

** ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddysBigPictureShow'' deconstructs most of the show's tropes, most notably Eddy's {{Flanderization}} into a {{Jerkass}}, Edd's role as the NoRespectGuy, and the blatant AmusingInjuries and StatusQuoIsGod. The movie starts off with another ZanyScheme going horrendously wrong, with the Kids displaying some very ''un''amusing injuries, and now the kids want to ''kill'' the Eds. Eddy's behavior is causing more and more problems during the Eds' journey, and finally, when Ed and Eddy fake their deathes as a joke on Edd, he snaps and trys to pull a ScrewThisImOuttaHere, stating he'd rather face the kids then spend another second with Eddy. And to top it all of, the ending. [[spoiler: It's revealed Eddy's Brother was a twisted child abuser who used Eddy as a punching bag when they were kids, which gave Eddy his SuperiorityInferiorityComplex.]]

* ''MoralOrel'' deconstructs TheMoralSubstitute but presenting a culture where ALL MEDIA are Christian fundamentalist propaganda, and showing just how messed up and disturbing said culture would be.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' director Chuck Jones often used deconstruction on his cartoons. The best known example is ''DuckAmuck'': First the scenery changes, forcing Daffy to adapt. Then Daffy himself is erased and redrawn. Then the soundtrack fails, then the film frame, and so on until Daffy is psychologically picked clean. Another example is ''WesternAnimation/WhatsOperaDoc'', which takes the base elements of a typical Bugs Bunny cartoon and reassembles them as a Wagnerian opera. (Conversely, you could also say that it takes the base elements of Wagnerian opera and reassembles them as a Bugs Bunny cartoon.)

* The ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "1+ 1=Ed" is a deconstruction of how cartoons work, similar to DuckAmuck.

* Then WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra goes further into deconstruction. It shows the rifts that could develop from a society of people with the ability to control the elements. While in The Last Airbender, people were generally too busy with the war to worry about discrimination of benders or non benders, during the relatively peaceful time that Korra takes place in tensions run high, resulting in things like curfews for non-benders and an anti-bending villain that spreads hate and fear against benders.

*** ... and Stan himself gets depressed as he grow up out of his childish hobbies before his friends, without finding anything else to enjoy, and becomes "a cynical asshole" who ''literally'' experiences anything as "shitty". At the end of the episode, he has taken up drinking to cope with his depression, but as he hides it, to everybody else it seems like nothing has changed.

** Aslo, this speech from Craig Tucker, one of the boys' classmate, in "Pandemic":

** ... and Stan himself gets depressed as he grow up out of his childish hobbies before his friends, without finding anything else to enjoy, and becomes "a cynical asshole" who ''literally'' experiences anything as "shitty".
** Aslo, this speech from Craig Tucker, one of the boys' classmate:

->''"I'm unhappy too. We both are, obviously. How much longer can we keep doing this? It's like, the same shit just happens over and over and, then in a week it just all resets until- it happens again. Every week it's kind of the same story in a different way but it, it just keeps getting more and more ridiculous."''
*** ... and Stan himself gets depressed as he grow up out of his childish hobbies before his friends, without finding anything else to enjoy, and becomes "a cynical asshole" who ''literally'' experiences anything as "shitty".

->''"Do you guys know why nobody else at school likes hanging out with you? Because you're always doing stuff like this. You're always coming up with some stupid idea to do something, and then it backfires, and then you end up in some foreign country, or in outer space or something. That's why no one likes hanging out with you guys."''

* ''TransformersAnimated'' is a deconstruction of the whole Autobot-Decepticon War. Things ain't so [[BlackAndWhiteMorality black and white]] as before, in fact the Autobots' leadership is flawed and somewhat corrupt, with one higly racist, incompetent, cowardly jerkass general on it, who only is amongst the High Command because he blames his mistakes on Optimus Prime, whose status as TheMessiah makes him somewhat of a push-over, and its leader is ready to commit dirty tricks to defeat the Decepticons. The Decepticons however, are as much the monsters they were in G1, and though this time Megatron's pragmatic enough to blast [[TheStarscream Starscream's]] ass any time he tries to overthrow him. Starscream only survives thanks to the Allspark piece on his head. [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Without it he would have died right from the start]]. Then comes the [[DarkerAndEdgier season]] [[AnyoneCanDie three]]...

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' deconstructed the KidHero and FreeRangeChildren tropes. One moment, the viewer is rooting for their favourite character in the awesome SupernaturalMartialArts fights - then the viewer is [[TearJerker painfully reminded]] [[EarthIsABattlefield just why]] [[ParentalAbandonment a group of teens and kids]] have the [[TheExile freedom]] and [[ChildSoldier ability]] to travel all over the world. Same thing goes for the villains - one moment the viewer is hoping for somebody to kick Azula's ass, then she sees her mother in the mirror... ''ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise'' goes even further with the deconstruction.

* There can be a very good case made for ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' being a deconstruction of ''JonnyQuest and DocSavage''-style [[TwoFistedTales stories]]. Some say spoof, some say deconstruction, some say [[DeconstructiveParody both]]. The main character is a former KidHero who, due to a childhood spent traveling the world with his Adventurer-Scientist father, has [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior seen and done things]] no twelve-year-old boy really should have to, and has grown up into a bitter, pill-popping, barely-functional human being. His rugged ActionHero bodyguard is basically the kind of borderline sociopath that would gravitate to a world of clandestine doings where [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer brutal murder]] is an acceptable way of solving problems. His children are socially awkward nerds, but not in any of the "good" or "endearing" ways; they were basically raised in boxes and have no clue how to interact with reality. And his arch-nemesis is a lame animal-themed SuperVillain who, despite moments of competence, is so wrapped up in over-elaborate and petty revenge schemes against an enemy who ''barely knows who he is'' that he can never get anything done.

* There can be a very good case made for ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' being a deconstruction of ''JonnyQuest and DocSavage''-style [[TwoFistedTales stories]]. Some say spoof, some say deconstruction, some say [[DeconstructiveParody both]]. The main character is a former KidHero who, due to a childhood spent traveling the world with his Adventurer-Scientist father, has [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior seen and done things]] no twelve-year-old boy really should have to, has grown up into a bitter, pill-popping, barely-functional human being. His rugged ActionHero bodyguard is basically the kind of borderline sociopath that would gravitate to a world of clandestine doings where [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer brutal murder]] is an acceptable way of solving problems. His children are socially awkward nerds, but not in any of the "good" or "endearing" ways; they were basically raised in boxes and have no clue how to interact with reality. And his arch-nemesis is a lame animal-themed SuperVillain who, despite moments of competence, is so wrapped up in over-elaborate and petty revenge schemes against an enemy who ''barely knows who he is'' that he can never get anything done.

* There can be a very good case made for ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' being a deconstruction of ''JonnyQuest and DocSavage''-style [[TwoFistedTales stories]]. Some say spoof, some say deconstruction, some say [[DeconstructiveParody both]].

* ''"Hey Good Lookin'"'' by RalphBakshi (who else) is one big Deconstruction and TakeThat against anyone who believes that the [=1950s=] were really just like ''{{Grease}}'' or ''HappyDays''. The main character is ostensibly as cool as The Fonz but actually a DirtyCoward who can't back up his bragging, the PluckyComicRelief is actually a racist sociopath, their gang aren't really TrueCompanions despite looking like it, the supposed BigBad never [[MindScrew explictly]] does anything really bad and the ending's BrokenAesop is intentional about the [[SatelliteLoveInterest "Romance"]] between the main character and Rozzie.

** The second ChristmasEpisode deconstructs SantaClaus to NightmareFuel levels.
* The famous ''[[TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' episode "Homer's Enemy" is a deconstruction of the general weirdness and insanity of its setting, based around the premise of ''What if a real-life, normal person had to enter Homer's universe and deal with him?'' Frank Grimes, a relatively humorless but hard-working man who is still forced to live cheaply despite working almost his entire life, encounters Homer on the job at the nuclear power. You can imagine what happens next - the result is funny, but also disturbing and very dark upon further reflection (one of the darkest ''Simpsons'' episodes ever made).

*** The episode eventually winds up in CrossesTheLineTwice territory when, [[spoiler: at Frank's funeral, the "mourners" do not cry but rather laugh when Homer dozes off and mumbles some idiotic gibberish. Even the minister.]]

* ''MoralOrel'' deconstructs TheMoralSubstitute but presenting a culture where ALL MEDIA are Christian fundamentalist propaganda, and showing just how messed up and [[NightmareFuel disturbing]] said culture would be.

** [[OncePerEpisode Normal episodes]] end with Twilight Sparkle sending [[AnAesop a message]] to her mentor Princess Celestia about [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle what she learned about friendship that day]], satisfying the [[EdutainmentShow Edutainment quota]] for the week. The episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E3LessonZero Lesson Zero]]" specifically begs the [[BrokenAesop Aesop-breaking]] question: "What happens if there was no friendship message to write about?" Thus begins one of the most bizarre, NightmareFuel-loaded episodes of the series when our [[SanityBall normally]] [[OnlySaneMan calm and collected]] (and [[SarcasmMode slightly]] [[SuperOCD OCD]]) Twilight races to find, and eventually ''create'', a friendship problem to report about. Ultimately, an Aesop about missing the Aesop is arrived at, and [[WhamEpisode introduces a running change]] where any of Twilight's friends can provide the Aesop (likely as a way to avoid having to shoehorn in Twilight into every episode).

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' deconstructed the KidHero and FreeRangeChildren tropes. One moment, the viewer is rooting for their favourite character in the awesome SupernaturalMartialArts fights - then the viewer is [[TearJerker painfully reminded]] [[EarthIsABattlefield just why]] [[ParentalAbandonment a group of teens and kids]] have the [[TheExile freedom]] and [[ChildSoldier ability]] to travel all over the world. Same thing goes for the villains - one moment the viewer is hoping for somebody to kick Azula's ass, then she sees her mother in the mirror... ''ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise'' goes even further with the deconstruction.