History Main / BrokenAesop

* "The Christmas Shoes" by [=NewSong=] gets a lot of criticism for the [[UnfortunateImplications less sentimental]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq10bz3PxyY interpretation of its message]] , but the message itself is broken just by the events of the song. The opening lines paint the narrator's obligate gift-buying as being against the spirit of Christmas, but the whole point of the story is that the little boy is spending Christmas Eve trying to buy a material gift for his dying mother so she can look beautiful when she meets Jesus... instead of actually spending time with her.

** "All About That Bass" by promotes the {{Aesop}} that you are beautiful and your body is fine the way it is, but then refers to "skinny bitches", which generated a lot of criticism for undermining its message and stereotyping women based on their weight. This generally ignores the second half of the verse, which acknowledges that thin women can also be insecure about their bodies and that they are perfect from the bottom to the top too. Some other lines also imply that beauty is based on others' opinions. It's also worth noting that the heavyset male dancer in the music video is portrayed as effeminate, campy, and humorous, while the actor playing Meghan's boyfriend is slender. Plenty of men/boys have issues with Body Image, and presenting such a Double Standard doesn't help. It becomes HarsherInHindsight after she told ''People'' magazine that she tried to go "anorexic" (she really just tried dieting), which was pretty insensitive towards people who actually have eating disorders. Plus, despite promoting [[YouGoGirl "girl power"]], she claims that she's ''not'' a feminist because she thinks it carries a [[StrawFeminist negative connotation]], which makes most of her songs seem like Broken Aesops. There's a Bowdlerized version of "All About That Bass" which changes the line "boys like a little more booty to hold at night" to "boys like their girls for the beauty they hold inside"... which completely contradicts the intended message about body positivity.

* Values.com sponsors the "Pass It On" series of [=PSAs=], one of which is about [[http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/128-Dishes listening]]. Its last scene shows a woman silently washing the dishes while her husband is on his cell phone. He drops it into the sink and has to fish it out, scrambling to pick his call back up, only to have his wife (still silently) take it out of his hands and smugly drop it ''back into the sink''. [[WomenAreWiser Instead of being pissed that his wife just drowned a hundred-dollar smartphone, he smiles contentedly and realizes the error of his ways]], and goes on to focus on listening to her. The moral breaks because the story is about ''listening'', and the wife pulls this stunt ''while her husband was on the phone'' and ''saying nothing out loud herself''. What was he supposed to be listening to, if not the person with whom ''he was already speaking''? There are other scenes in the commercial where the husband ''does'' want to talk and it's the ''wife'' who won't listen - [[DoubleStandard maybe that's okay somehow?]]

* Creator/{{Nintendo}} isn't immune from this either - in 1995 and early 1996, during the early years of the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, Nintendo put out commercials about their "arcade-perfect" ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'' ports and closed each commercial with "So who needs a new system?" Later in 1996, when the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} was released, it aired commercials asking consumers to "Change the System." A lot of said consumers did - [[GoneHorriblyRight just not to the system they expected.]]
* A UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 commercial for the Move tries to say that motion control gaming is not just for children. It then shows a montage of about 6-9 games set to what may or may not be Chariots of Fire, about two of which most parents wouldn't let their child play. Even worse is the fact that a 12-year-old girl is seen playing one of the less child-friendly games. There's also the fact that the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} made most of its money because motion control ''was'' successful for family gaming, which one who is a little more cynical could say is [[FollowTheLeader the entire reason]] Sony ''made'' the Move. That's also not getting into the fact that the whole point of the commercial, to say that motion control isn't just for children, is incredibly hypocritical considering the ones who first pushed the idea that motion control gaming is only for kids [[ItWillNeverCatchOn were Sony themselves]].

* ''WebVideo/DharMann'' has [[BrokenAesop/DharMann it's own page]].

[[folder:Comedy]]
* In his stand-up, Creator/RickyGervais identifies the Broken Aesop inherent in a version of the children's folk tale 'The Lazy Mouse and the Industrious Mouse' that he was told by his headmaster at a school assembly. In the story, the Industrious Mouse labours long and hard to prepare himself for winter, whilst the Lazy Mouse bunks off and has fun. When winter comes, the Lazy Mouse has nothing, so goes to avail himself of the charity of the Industrious Mouse -- who, after beginning a lecture about how the Lazy Mouse should have done his own preparing, suddenly turns around and invites him in to share. Gervais notes with exasperation that the moral is mangled from being "work hard and be prepared for the future" into becoming, in his words, "fuck around, do whatever you want and then scrounge off a do-gooder". He also notes that most of the pupils at that assembly took the latter aesop and "kept it up" for the entirety of their academic careers. He also points out that, thanks to the RuleOfThree, the moral of the tale of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is not "never tell a lie", but rather "never tell the ''same'' lie twice." He rounds it off by inferring that the moral of "Humpty Dumpty" must be "don't climb walls [[FantasticAesop if you're an egg]]".
[[/folder]]

* "Literature/{{Bluebeard}}" by Charles Perrault seems to be going for the moral of "curiosity killed the cat." The heroine disobeys her husband's order to never open a certain door of his house, and discovers his secret: Bluebeard is a SerialKiller, and the forbidden room contains the bodies of his previous wives. Bluebeard learns of her intrusion, and tries to kill her. However, the moral falls apart when one considers that she would never have found out about her husband's dark secret if she had been obedient, and in most versions of the story, she manages to get away from him and ends up marrying a less-murderous guy instead, a much better fate than the other wives'. If she hadn't looked in the forbidden room, she probably would have wound up getting on Bluebeard's bad side when her sister and brothers hadn't been around. The true moral should be ''please'' be curious. Or, "Be curious and not clumsy."
* "Literature/DonkeySkin": It's not enough that the prince loves the beautiful mystery girl who is found hiding as a scullery maid; she has to be outed as a runaway princess before the marriage is acceptable. Even though her hard work, intelligence, bravery and sneakiness show her to be an amazing young woman.
* There are countless legends (as well as other types of works) that feature the story of a young princess who is in love with a commoner but cannot marry him because he is not of noble blood. Different stories end differently, but in the majority of cases, this "commoner" will be revealed to have noble blood by the end of the story. The often spontaneous discovery that the commoner is a prince will [[SuddenlySuitableSuitor suddenly lift all boundaries]], put a satisfied smile on the king's previously-angry face, and be followed by the sound of wedding bells. In other words, while the intended Aesop is usually that "[[ThePowerOfLove true love conquers all]]", it is in fact social status that conquers all, and must be properly matched before true love can do its magic.

** "Literature/TheTortoiseAndTheHare": The moral is "SlowAndSteadyWinsTheRace", but the hare was winning the vast majority of the race and only lost because he was so far ahead [[IdiotBall he thought he could stop to rest]], not noticing the tortoise caught up until too late. Thus, the story's aesop appears to be a warning about displaying overconfidence even if a situation seems certain -- which is still a good thing to teach -- as opposed to the stated lesson of going slow and steady.
** There's a variant of "The Tortoise and the Hare" where the tortoise faces a deer (or Br'er Rabbit), and rather than win through being "slow and steady", he gets some help by having some of his friends wait in hiding at several points during the race, which makes the deer think the tortoise is somehow overtaking him. Granted, the deer was cocky and deserved to be knocked off a peg, but winning through cheating doesn't make the tortoise better, especially when the deer, for all his attitude, ran the race fair and square.
** The tale of [[BlowYouAway Boreas]] and [[ThePowerOfTheSun Helios]] is often used to promote the moral that gentleness wins over harshness. Except it doesn't work, because the reasons for Helios' victory and Boreas' loss are inherent to the characters. No matter how gentle wind would blow, you'd still cling on to your cloak, while you wouldn't really have any choice but to take it off if the sun suddenly flared. Also, making someone all hot and sweaty isn't really "gentle".
** The Aesop of "The Fox and the Crow" is not to be vain--the crow sings, so the fox steals the cheese that was in her beak. However, the breakage comes from the fact that the crow was singing on the fox's request and not out of vanity. In most versions the Crow opens her beak and drops the cheese because the Fox flatters her by saying that she must be excellent at singing.
** "The Cock and the Jewel" is the tale of a rooster who goes scratching in the yard to find himself and his hens some food, and turns up a gemstone that someone lost from a piece of jewelry. He says that if its owner had found it, the owner would take it and put it back in its setting because it's obviously a very precious stone, but since he's a rooster and has no use for them, he'd rather have a single piece of corn than all the jewels in the world. The moral is often interpreted as "be content with your own lot", but the rooster clearly understands that a jewel has material worth to others ''and he can talk''. The jewel could have bought him plenty of corn and nothing about his situation would have changed, except he would have succeeded in providing for his family. (Medieval interpretations of this fable tend to make it into a religious allegory and represent the cock as foolish: the jewel, in these versions, represents the word of God and the cock represents people who ignore spiritual matters in favor of material concerns.)
** A version of the HonestAxe fable had the moral of "a river does not always bring axes"--that is to say, "people and circumstances aren't static, so don't always expect the same results, and what works for one person might not work for another." While it's a pretty good message, it's fallen by the wayside for [[HonestyIsTheBestPolicy the more well-known interpretation]], because it doesn't really jibe with the story's events. The second woodcutter doesn't fail where the first woodcutter succeeded because of an outside circumstance or a change in terms or bad luck, he fails because he lied out of greed while his neighbor stayed truthful.
** "The Dog and the Wolf" has a starving wolf reject a dog's offer to work on his farm, knowing he'll starve to death, because he equates the dog being chained up for safety by a collar to slavery despite the fact that the dog is free enough to talk to a wolf in the woods without fearing for his life. The moral fails because the wolf had just found a source of food: a farm guarded by a dog stupid enough to approach a starving wolf in the wild and offer him a job. It may be better to choose death over slavery, but the way the story presents the situation, that's not the choice the wolf is making. He's choosing death over slavery and ''stealing from his foolish enemies'', something that most fables present as the mark of a clever person.

A Broken Aesop involves a work presenting a lesson or viewpoint, but with the events within the work contradicting the presented lesson or viewpoint, whether it's because the lesson/viewpoint is at odds with prior events, or whether an event later in the work goes against the lesson/viewpoint. Basically, a it's a story where a 'moral' presented just doesn't match the original moral that the story actually contains. Sometimes the resulting moral feels tacked on or just plain {{hypocrit|e}}ical.

A Broken Aesop involves a work presenting a lesson or viewpoint, but with the events within the work (from either before or after the lesson/viewpoint is presented) contradicting the presented lesson or viewpoint. Basically, a it's a story where a 'moral' presented just doesn't match the original moral that the story actually contains. Sometimes the resulting moral feels tacked on or just plain {{hypocrit|e}}ical.

A Broken Aesop involves a work presenting a lesson or viewpoint, but with the events within the work (from either before or after the lesson/viewpoint is presented) contradicting the presented lesson or viewpoint. Basically, a Broken Aesop is a story where a 'moral' presented just doesn't match the original moral that the story actually contains. Sometimes the resulting moral feels tacked on or just plain {{hypocrit|e}}ical.

Basically, a Broken Aesop is a story where a 'moral' presented just doesn't match the original moral that the story actually contained. Sometimes the resulting moral feels tacked on or just plain {{hypocrit|e}}ical.

Common methods of breaking AnAesop include:
* '''Non Sequiturs''': Having the resolution rely on a DeusExMachina, SpaceWhaleAesop or KarmicTwistEnding as opposed to the logical consequences of the lesson.
* '''Not practicing what you preach''': The characters tell other characters and/or the audience not to do something, while doing it themselves.
** Commonly in [=RPGs=] and Westerns: a ThouShaltNotKill Aesop is followed by the next major battle having the characters kill something.
** Characters preach a strict anti-gun or anti-violence message, while using guns and/or violence to solve their problems.
** Characters learn not to do something, but [[StatusQuoIsGod go back to doing it in later instalments]].
* '''Inconsistently applied morals''':
** Distorting the moral into "[[CantGetAwayWithNuthin It's only wrong]] if [[SelectiveEnforcement someone else does it]]" or "[[ProtagonistCenteredMorality only if the bad guys do it]]."
** The character learns a lesson about how the thing he desires so much is not worth it, sometimes sacrificing what he wants for the right thing to do, but in the end, [[SweetAndSourGrapes he gets what he wanted anyway]]. This is only true if the lesson was specifically about rejecting said thing.
** A [[TheChewToy character who's being put through unwarranted cruelty or annoyance]] by [[DesignatedHero the supposed heroes]] of the work is punished for being mean back to their rivals, despite the fact that the rivals were meant to be in the right and they were mean for no sympathetic reason while the punished character was only standing up for themselves, even if they had to resort to more direct methods only to try to stop the other characters from ruining their day yet again. It's portrayed as okay to make someone's life hell, but it's not okay if they give their tormentor a taste of their own medicine because... [[BecauseISaidSo because the writers said so, that's why!]]
** Trying to prove that everybody matters, but [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower only once they achieve something which proves their value]]. So still only skilled or famous people are important, they just act in an alternative way.
* '''Fallacious aesops''':
** Trying to teach BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor by using a {{Literal|Genie}} or JackassGenie who never actually ''gave'' you what you wished for.
** Saying anyone can do anything they set their mind to [[HardWorkFallacy by their own resolve]], when the character was born into royalty or privilege, born with some sort of superior genetic power, is just plain talented at what they do, has the PowersThatBe on their side, or otherwise revealed to be from a powerful, significant bloodline or background explaining their greatness.
** Learning that you shouldn't be sorry for something that wasn't really your fault, when it was, or learning that you should take responsibilities and accept that it was your fault, when it wasn't.
** Learning about the folly of {{Revenge}} in a story where everyone the character wanted vengeance on [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin gets punished or killed for their actions anyway]].
** Trying to teach a PrejudiceAesop, when the "prejudice" is actually based on a rational fear (e.g. a mouse afraid of cats is seen as prejudiced), when most of the group being discriminated against ''are'' obnoxious or scary, just not this one particular one (common in MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch situations), or when another group (usually the ones being prejudiced) [[AlwaysChaoticEvil are portrayed as universally reprehensible/bigoted]] (since the existence of such a group would actually make prejudice logical under certain circumstances).
Not to be confused with a HardTruthAesop, where the lesson ''is'' supported by the work, but it's something that parents probably wouldn't want their kids to learn. Also not to be confused with a SpaceWhaleAesop, where
the lesson has no application outside of its fictional context (though the two can overlap). Compare AnalogyBackfire, which is when an analogy (which may or may not contain an Aesop) makes a point that is the opposite of what it was supposed to. DoNotDoThisCoolThing is when the Aesop of "this thing is bad" fails due to clumsy presentation. See also ValuesDissonance. For ''intentional'' Broken Aesops PlayedForLaughs, see SpoofAesop.

** A [[TheChewToy character who's being put through unwarranted cruelty or annoyance]] by [[DesignatedHero the supposed heroes]] of the work is punished for standing up for themselves, even if they had to resort to more direct methods only to try to stop the other characters from ruining their day yet again. It's okay to make someone's life hell, but it's not okay if they give their tormentor a taste of their own medicine because... [[BecauseISaidSo because the writers said so, that's why!]]

* Coming from WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd, a character who is synonymous with Rolling Rock Beer, this line paraphrased from ''Film/AmericanMovie'' is actually pretty darned funny:
-->''"... but I guess it's better than using drugs or alcohol, because with drugs and alcohol, especially drugs, you always lose, lose, lose."''

* Dr Pepper made an ad campaign based on individuality and "I gotta be me"... but the commercials had most everyone [[RuleAbidingRebel wearing near-identical red shirts with white text]]. While all of the text was different, in most crowd scenes everyone looked the same. They [[SubvertedTrope sorta fixed this]] when you could buy your own customized shirt... but then they went around ''[[DoubleSubversion giving people pre-made shirts]]''. I guess I don't gotta be me, I just gotta be my shirt (and drink Dr Pepper).