History Main / AdaptationDecay

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' ''Trials & Tribulations'' there's Godot's theme music ''~ The Fragrance of Black Coffee'' which is so stylish, chic and badass at the same time, a shout-out to jazz music. Any player would have thought that the "ungodly cool guy" has an ungodly cool tune by the time they get to also hear his in-game cellphone ringtone, which is a simplified monophonic rearrangement and is also cool, but sounds so embarrassingly lullaby-ish without those saxophone parts, that upon hearing it Phoenix wonders just what kind of ringtone that is.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Blossom}}'' once demonstrated almost instant Adaptation Decay in action: Nick once had a chance to pitch a TV show concept about his family life to a pair of network execs. The concept was called "Rosie", and was essentially a recursive version of ''Blossom''. By the time the network execs got done with it, though, "Rosie" had transformed from a gentle family comedy to [[TheyFightCrime a detective show]] starring chimpanzees.

* ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': An issue of ''Guardians 3000'' implies there's a version of the 2014 movie in the Marvel Comics universe. Peter Quill's only comment is a bemused "it takes a few liberties".

* ''[[ComicBook/MsMarvel Captain Marvel]]'' has an in-universe TV show about the title character. The real Carol Danvers is pissed off to discover that her TV counterpart has undergone intense {{Chickification}}, including a costume with heels and AbsoluteCleavage, and [[StrangledByTheRedString a tacked on romance with a male superhero]].

[[folder:Film]]

->''"It's a card game based on a cartoon based on an ancient religion based on a candy bar."''
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', on "Franchise/{{Digi|mon}} Franchise/{{Poke|mon}}[[WesternAnimation/SouthPark ChinPoko]]{{Mon}}" [[note]]aka [[{{Phonymon}} Battle Ball]].[[/note]]

* CutAndPasteTranslation

* ''[[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius Jimmy Neutron]]'' gave us Principal Willoughby's play Theatre/{{Macbeth}} [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace In Space!]] It was somehow even less faithful than you'd think it'd be.
* Early in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', the boys decide to be movie directors for a day and adapt their sister's favorite play. We never learn what ''The Princess Sensibilities'' (based on the name, perhaps a combination of Literature/ThePrincessDiaries and Literature/SenseAndSensibility) is initially about, but Phineas and Ferb make it into a monster movie.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius Jimmy Neutron]]'' gave us Principal Willoughby's play Theatre/{{Macbeth}} [[RecycledInSpace In Space!]] It was somehow even less faithful than you'd think it'd be.

* ''Film/ThePostman'': In the novel, Nathan Holn was a far-right revisionist historian who was eventually lynched for founding the Holnists, a [[TheSocialDarwinist social-darwinist [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic right-wing militia.]] In the film, he was a Jordan Peterson- or Ben Shapiro-style pundit who wrote a really lowbrow self-help book. While General Bethlehem manages to run his marauding army with Holn's bok as his guiding document, it does put a lot of things in a very different light.

* An old ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' strip showed a writer submitting a film script about a teenage boy who gets into trouble with the law but learns better. At the end of a ludicrous series of rewrites at the behest of various studio execs, his script has morphed into "Cinderella".
** Another strip titled "Book! Movie!" demonstrates the process with TheFilmOfTheBook, including AdaptationalAttractiveness, {{Bowdlerization}} and other changes to fit the then active UsefulNotes/HaysCode.

* ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'': All of the in-universe adaptations of the life of 1930s pulp hero The Lobster are said to be ''massive'' examples of this, ''utterly'' rife with StylisticSuck. Worst of these are a series of Mexican movies in which he is not only given the name "Lobster Johnson" (the last name taken from the PulpMagazine version's secret identity), but is also portrayed as a MaskedLuchador. [[CultClassic Hellboy still enjoys the stuff, though.]]

* There's an issue of ''Comicbook/{{Catwoman}}'' where Comicbook/HarleyQuinn attempts to sell Selina's life story to a group of film execs, who promptly suggest a bunch of unnecessary changes (such as {{Race Lift}}ing Harley into an Asian teenager and making Selina [[YoungerAndHipper a young spy]]). The story ends with an enraged Harley killing the execs and storming out of the room.
* Creator/GailSimone's ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'' run has a story about Hollywood making a ''terrible'' movie based on the title character's life. [[spoiler: It eventually turns out the whole movie is actually the pet project of a supervillain who had [[KillAndReplace killed the producer and stolen her identity]].]]
* Similarly, ''[[ComicBook/MsMarvel Captain Marvel]]'' has an in-universe TV show about the title character. The real Carol Danvers is pissed off to discover that her TV counterpart has undergone intense {{Chickification}}, including a costume with heels and AbsoluteCleavage, and [[StrangledByTheRedString a tacked on romance with a male superhero]].

* An episode of ''Series/{{Blossom}}'' once demonstrated almost instant Adaptation Decay in action: Nick once had a chance to pitch a TV show concept about his family life to a pair of network execs. The concept was called "Rosie", and was essentially a recursive version of ''Blossom''. By the time the network execs got done with it, though, "Rosie" had transformed from a gentle family comedy to [[TheyFightCrime a detective show]] starring [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys chimpanzees]].

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', on "Franchise/{{Digi|mon}} Franchise/{{Poke|mon}}[[WesternAnimation/SouthPark ChinPoko]]{{Mon|s}}" [[note]]aka [[{{Phonymon}} Battle Ball]].[[/note]]

** Another strip titled "Book! Movie!" demonstrates the process with a FilmOfTheBook, including AdaptationalAttractiveness, {{Bowdlerization}} and other changes to fit the then active UsefulNotes/HaysCode.

* Similarly, ''[[Comicbook/MsMarvel Captain Marvel]]'' has an in-universe TV show about the title character. The real Carol Danvers is pissed off to discover that her TV counterpart has undergone intense {{Chickification}}, including a costume with heels and AbsoluteCleavage, and [[StrangledByTheRedString a tacked on romance with a male superhero]].

* Parodied in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w this intro sequence]] for a nonexistent ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' SaturdayMorningCartoon, done by Creator/HarryPartridge. If one is unfamiliar with the source material, it just looks like any other kid's cartoon from the 80's. If you are familiar with it, then you know the satire here is so biting that Creator/AlanMoore has said it's the only adaptation of his classic graphic novel that he actually ''likes''.

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' ''Trials & Tribulations'' there's Godot's theme music ''~ The Fragrance of Black Coffee'' which is so stylish, chic and badass at the same time, a shout-out to jazz music. Any player would have thought that the "ungodly cool guy" has an ungodly cool tune by the time they get to also hear his in-game cellphone ringtone, which is a simplified monophonic rearrangement and is also cool, but sounds so embarrassingly lullaby-ish without those saxophone parts, that upon hearing it Phoniex wonders just what kind of ringtone that is.

* Early in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', the boys decide to be movie directors for a day and adapt their sister's favorite play. We never learn what ''The Princess Sensibilities'' (based on the name, perhaps a combination of Literature/ThePrincessDiaries and Literature/SenseAndSensibility is initially about, but Phineas and Ferb make it into a monster movie.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture''-episode "In Dreams", Camp Pining Hearts, a SoapWithinAShow Peridot and Steven absolutely adore, gets a reboot. Steven and Peridot ''hate'' it, calling all the characters uninteresting and the cinematography terrible. By the end of the episode, they conclude that it's SoBadItsGood, laughing hysterically at it.

The gradual distortion or even disintegration of a world and its characters during its odyssey from original source material to movie to TV movie then to television series then to video game and finally to licensed derivative work. The dramatic equivalent of photocopying a photocopy of a photocopy. The adaptation does not need to be subjectively ''worse'' than the original. It only needs only be ''different''.

* The second episode of ''Anime/CromartieHighSchool'' opens with Takashi talking about how fans constantly complain about design changes and voice acting whenever a manga is adapted into an anime, and then transforming into a blond, [[GenderFlip female]] {{Moe}} version of himself.

* AdaptationInspiration, when the premise behind the original work is subject to this

-->'''Zuko:''' That... wasn't a good play.\\

* ''[[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius Jimmy Neutron]]'' gave us Principal Willoughby's play Theatre/{{Macbeth}} [[RecycledInSpace In Space!]] It was somehow even less faithful than you would think it'd be.
* Early in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', the boys decide to be movie directors for a day and adapt their sister's favorite play. We never learn what ''The Princess Sensibilities'' is initially about, but Phineas and Ferb make it into a monster movie.

* In the ''Kings War'' arc of the MetaFic ''{{Webcomic/Roommates}}'' the Shadow Child [[spoiler:aka Disbelief]] remarks that thanks to this he would be able to grind the once unbeatable [[Literature/LandOfOz Glinda]]'s [[MindRape will to dust]]. Specially alluding to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', ''{{Theatre/Wicked}}'', ''Film/OzTheGreatAndPowerful'' and ''Film/TheWitchesOfOz'' (in this order) while saying this. If someone didn't guessed the Shadow Child is quite an evil being.

* Creator/GailSimone's ''Comicbook/WonderWoman'' run has a story about Hollywood making a ''terrible'' movie based on the title character's life. [[spoiler: It eventually turns out the whole movie is actually the pet project of a supervillain who had [[KillAndReplace killed the producer and stolen her identity]].]]