History Main / CloneDegeneration

* ''WesternAnimation/AceVentura'': In "Ace Off", after a particularly intense dance competition, Ace's evil clone starts to melt and is...[[MakesAsMuchSenseInContext absorbed by him.]]

* Fred is cloned by an alien in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones''. The clones are very much like real people, and are never seen physically degenerating, but are little more than mindless {{mooks}}, incapable of anything other than following their creator's orders, causing trouble and saying Fred's [[CharacterCatchphrase catchphrase]] in a very monotonous fashion.

** More recent cloning projects have for the most part maneged to avoid these issues. For instance, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CC_(cat) CC]][[note]]short for "[=CopyCat=]" or "Carbon Copy"[[/note]], the first cloned housecat, lived out a natural feline lifespan of eighteen years and successfully birthed healthy kittens.

** More recent cloning attempts to create clones have for the most part maneged to avoid these issues. For instance, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CC_(cat) CC]][[note]]short for "[=CopyCat=]" or "Carbon Copy"[[/note]], the first cloned housecat, lived out a natural feline lifespan of eighteen years and successfully birthed healthy kittens.

* TruthInTelevision: Some speculate that this occurred with the cloned sheep Dolly, that she died early due to being born with a genetic age of six. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep)#Death The Roslin Institute disagrees, however.]]
** Distressingly, an attempt to revive the extinct Pyrenean Ibex succumbed to lung problems (in this case shortly after birth) which is also what killed Dolly.

* ''WesternAnimation/Invincible2021'': The Mauler Twins enjoy giving each other grief about the idea, as part of their bickering about who's the clone and who's the original; whenever one makes a mistake or neglects to think of something the other enjoys claiming ''clearly'' the degeneration got to the other and ''they'', as the original, wouldn't have made such a blunder. However, it's entirely Averted in practice: They're so good at cloning that there is essentially no difference between each other whatsoever, not even in their ''memories'' (which is why they can keep the bickering going).

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaRama'': In "For A Few Duncans More", Duncan finds a way to make copies of himself using Chef's new copier, and some of the later ones are less faithful to the original.

** ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'', the Rei Ayanami clones must regularly bathe in the mysterious liquid called LCL; if they go for too long without doing so, they will completely dissolve into LCL themselves. This eventually happens to [[spoiler:the clone called "Rei Q" who accompanies Shinji and Asuka to the survivors' town]] in ''3.0 + 1.0''.

* ''VideoGame/Wasteland3'' has a man who turns out to be a fourth-generation clone of a villain from [[VideoGame/{{Wasteland}} the first game]]. He is actually friendly and an aspiring scientist with some skill, but he himself admits that his intelligence and ability is nowhere near his proginator because of this trope -- as is evident by his own attempts at cloning experiments (both on himself and on members of your squad if you ask) producing less than stellar results.

* Gloo from ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' is a BlobMonster who was originally created by criminals in an attempt to clone the heroic Jack-in-the-Box and make him into the ultimate henchman. They [[EpicFail failed spectacularly]].
* ComicBook/{{Azrael}} buys it from a combination of this (he was artificially engineered and grown) and poison bullets, but they NeverFoundTheBody, and it's implied that he AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.
* Palpatine's clones in ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire'' suffer from this. As each generation is less natural than the last, they have diminishing ability to withstand the detrimental effects of his Dark Side powers, resulting in shorter and shorter lifespans before they burn out. This is in part because one of his guards betrayed him and sabotaged the cloning machine.
* In ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'', Darkseid's Servants of Darkness are craggy, corrupted versions of their originals.
* In ''ComicBook/InfinityAbyss'', Thanos deems the Thanosi clones a failure due to an intellectual deficiency that drives them to cause unnecessary destruction and be obsessed with death and nihilism like Thanos used to be before ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet''.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Madman}}'', Dr. Flem tries to clone himself. Because of the chemicals that he uses to try and make the clones grow more rapidly, almost all of them end up going berserk. For added horror, one of them bites him, infecting him with a disease that ravages his body.

* In the ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' story "Future Shock", Dr. Robotnik created a clone of Sonic that aged prematurely. He used this to his advantage by implanting a false memory into the clone, making him believe himself to be Sonic from the future. Use of his high speed aged his body faster, with the clone ultimately sacrificing himself to hold off Robotnik while the real Sonic saved his friends.

* ComicBook/{{X 23}}, ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s OppositeSexClone, possesses two claws on each hand instead of three. Things gets more complicated when Laura herself starts getting cloned. Most of her clone "sisters" are killed because Gabby was the only one who also inherited Laura's HealingFactor, and additionally she only has one claw in each hand. Also, genetic degeneration is the entire reason why X-23 came to be, since Wolverine's genome was too damaged to make a perfect copy of him (her creators went through 22 attempts before producing a viable clone, hence the name).
* Slo-Bo from ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' admitted to suffering from this near the end of the series. He would have died soon anyway had [[spoiler:Darkseid not Omega Beamed him. [[AndIMustScream Might have been preferable]]]].

* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' does this quite a bit with examples being Jérémie-made clones and people possessed by X.A.N.A. Either the energy sources (usually towers) will be outrunned, leading to either the clone or the possessed person to glitch, or will the heroes hit them so hard that they also glitch.

* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' does this quite a bit with examples being Jérémie-made clones and people possessed by X.A.N.A. Either the energy sources (usually towers) will be outrunned, leading to either the clone or the possessed person to glitch.

* ''Film/The6thDay'': Most of the clones are actually perfect copies with the memories of the original uploaded into them, but in the climax the villain is forced to clone himself again before he dies of a gutshot. Adam then sabotages the cloning tanks which creates an incomplete, embryonic-looking clone of Drucker.

* ''Anime/LostUniverse'':

%% Image kept on page per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1555726975002563600
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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dipper2_5426.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Always make sure the mechanism is clear of paper jams before copying.]]

* In ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'':

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED''
** Clones tend to have physical or mental problems. Case in Point: [[spoiler:Rau Le Cruset]].
** Another example would be Prayer Reverie in the [[Manga/MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray Astray Mangas]], who was okay in the head, but was basically ailing for most of the Astray X series, [[spoiler: and was able to convincingly fake a death of "natural causes" at the apparent age of nine.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', [[spoiler:Ilya]] will eventually die young because of her nature as a [[spoiler:modified homunculi Holy Grail.]]
* In her last few scenes in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', Rei Ayanami's limbs had a tendency to ... fall off. Her body, being a [[spoiler:mishmash of Lilith and Yui's [=DNA=],]] isn't capable to holding together without Rei's [=AT=] field to counter the effects of imperfect cloning. After [[HeroicRROD expending so much of her energy to counter Kaworu the previous day]], she can't hold herself together.
* The Sisters in ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' have to go through body adjustments specifically to prevent this. {{Justified|Trope}} because they were only made so that [[spoiler: Accelerator could kill them]].
* In the ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' universe, it is possible for people to 'clone' their ghosts (what amounts to their souls) by copying the memory data of their cyberbrains, however this process leads to the eventual corruption of both the original and the copies created, and ultimately leads to the death of the original. As a result, the process, known as "ghost dubbing," is highly illegal, punishable by life in prison or brain-wipe.
* In the fifth ''Literature/TheGardenOfSinners'' movie, [[spoiler:Enjou learns of his clone status the hard way. And then his arm falls off]]. The same movie contains a notable aversion with [[spoiler:Touko]], who is revealed to have created several clones of herself identical to the original in every way. This is a big deal, since the magical laws of the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} normally enforce this trope, i.e. that any copy (clone) is always weaker than the original, so [[spoiler:Touko]] is the pretty much the only living magus to circumvent this law.
* Negi of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' employs several paper doll clones of himself in chapter 36, without knowing exactly how it works. This trope ensues...

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'''s title character can create up to a couple thousand copies of himself, but they dispel whenever they take a direct hit. He also doesn't trust them enough to let them out of his sight, which suggests that they're not as smart as the original. [[IdiotHero Which is saying something, considering who we're dealing with.]]
** Given how they can fight against each other, they're probably capable of independent thought and, given Naruto's natural rebelliousness, prone to disobeying.
*** By the time of manga chapter 550 his clones have received a sizeable upgrade, becoming capable of taking out Kage-level opponents on their own without the original present.
*** In the special chapter, which happens before the beginning of the ''Road to Ninja'' movie, Naruto plays a card game with two clones. Naruto claims if he or one of his clones wins, he says they all win since they are him. The clones think otherwise about it. After they vanished, even Naruto is confused if he actually lost or won.
* ''Anime/TheMysteryOfMamo'' plays this straight, when Mamo reveals towards the end that even his methods of cloning to reach immortality come with their limits.
-->'''Dying Mamo clone:''' The transfer of the chromosomal data is never accomplished with complete fidelity. There are anomalies, infectiously small in each case, with accumulative effect of such chaotic pollution, can be observed after only a dozen or so generations and what you see before you is a 130th generation facsimile. I am but a faint, distorted echo of myself.\\
'''Lupin:''' But you are always distorted by your obsession.\\
'''Dying Mamo clone:''' [[WhoWantsToLiveForever But is it not... everyone's obsession?]]
* In the manga of ''Anime/LostUniverse'', this is the fate of [[spoiler:Anise]], who was created as a clone of [[spoiler:Kane's [[CoolOldLady grandmother,]] Alisia]]. Or at least, it would have been if it hadn't been for [[spoiler:her using the Swordbreaker's [[CastFromHitPoints ultimate attack]]]] and [[NoBodyLeftBehind disappearing]] [[DyingMomentOfAwesome forever]].
** The Spreader of Darkness averts this. But then again, he's secretly [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination Dark Star in a human body.]]]]
* In the ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' movie ''Anime/DragonBallZBioBroly'', Android #18, Goten, Trunks and Mr. Satan end up meeting the clone of the Legendary Super Saiyan Broly. However, he isn't completed and, when he spots Goten and mistakes him for Goku, Broly breaks out of his pod and immediately starts falling apart when he goes Super Saiyan. He gets worse when he's doused in the fluid that held him and is ultimately defeated when normal old water (or rather, sea water) is brought into the mix, destroying him and ending the evil legacy of Broly.
* ''Manga/TheDisastrousLifeOfSaikiK'': One of Saiki's many powers is the ability to make a single imperfect copy of himself. His copy also can copy himself once, and so on. Each copy in the chain looks and acts less like the original until the last copy that is still capable of copying himself looks like a [[FishPeople fishman]], and that copy's copy who can't copy himself anymore is a BlobMonster.
* ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'': The Rei Ayanami clones must regularly bathe in the mysterious liquid called LCL; if they go for too long without doing so, they will completely dissolve into LCL themselves. This eventually happens to [[spoiler:the clone called "Rei Q" who accompanies Shinji and Asuka to the survivors' town]] in ''3.0 + 1.0''.
* ''Manga/WorldsEndHarem'': [[spoiler:Mira Suou is eventually revealed to be a modified clone of Elisa Tachibana. Her body is unstable and needs a medical check-up at least once a week so she won't break down and die. In Part 2, since Elisa was SecretlyDying, she decides to donate her organs to Mira to save her]].

* ComicBook/{{X23}}, Wolverine's OppositeSexClone, possesses two claws on each hand instead of three. Things gets more complicated when Laura herself starts getting cloned. Most of her clone "sisters" are killed because Gabby was the only one who also inherited Laura's HealingFactor, and additionally she only has one claw in each hand. Also, genetic degeneration is the entire reason why X-23 came to be, since Wolverine's genome was too damaged to make a perfect copy of him (her creators went through 22 attempts before producing a viable clone, hence the name).
* Palpatine's clones in ''Franchise/StarWars: ComicBook/DarkEmpire'' suffer from this. As each generation is less natural than the last, they have diminishing ability to withstand the detrimental effects of his Dark Side powers, resulting in shorter and shorter lifespans before they burn out. This is in part because one of his guards betrayed him and sabotaged the cloning machine.

** In the early '90s, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, ComicBook/LexLuthor faked his own death and came back as a younger clone, posing as his identical son. He eventually contracted a degenerative illness due to a flaw in the cloning process.
** ''Superman Volume 1 #137'' involved a [[EvilTwin villainous duplicate]] of Superman raised by criminals named Super-Menace. In the end, he makes a HeelFaceTurn and a HeroicSacrifice... and just dissolves into energy.
** In early ComicBook/PostCrisis comics, cloning isn't completely perfect, especially with Kryptonians. The only perfect clone was that of James Harper, the Golden Age hero known as the Guardian -- he bolted soon after and Cadmus ended up making other clones of him that weren't perfect. Kryptonian clones, because their DNA wasn't fully understood, fell apart after awhile, as was the case of the original Bizarros and later of Match. ComicBook/{{Superboy}} ended up becoming a successful case because human DNA [[spoiler:from Luthor himself]] was mixed into his genetic makeup, stabilizing it.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
** ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'': Every clone created by the Jackal was subject to degeneration. Some of them were almost identical to the originals but aged / disfigured, while others would last so long and then spontaneously collapse into a pile of mush -- Jackal triggered this in his "mini-me", Jack, as punishment for giving Ben Reilly information. It even drove one, [[MeaningfulName Kaine]], insane. Ben Reilly succumbed to it when he died. (And in ''ComicBook/SpiderGirl'', passed it on to his kid.)
** In ''ComicBook/DeadNoMoreTheCloneConspiracy'', the Jackal has almost figured out how to stop this and decides to figure out how by resurrecting and killing Ben Reilly multiple times. [[spoiler:Doing so causes Ben to go insane and take over the Jackal's plans, becoming the Jackal himself.]] He's able to get it to the point where those with clone bodies have to take a special medication every 24 hours to prevent cloning degeneration [[spoiler:and ultimately turn into Carrion Clones.]] He ''does'' make one perfect body without those flaws [[spoiler:but Dr. Octopus steals it for his own.]]
* Slo-Bo from ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' admitted to suffering from this near the end of the series. He would have died soon anyway had [[spoiler:Darkseid not Omega Beamed him. [[AndIMustScream Might have been preferable.]]]]
* In a crossover of ''[[Comicbook/TheSimpsons Simpsons]] Comics'' and ''Bartman'', Celebrity Troy [=McClure=] gained the [[RadiationInducedSuperpowers radiation explosion]] created identity of "The Sequelizer". His sequel-generating powers allowed him to create duplicates of himself, but [[{{Sequelitis}} each copy was only half as strong as the previous one]].
** A Treehouse of Horror story has Frink invent a ray-gun that duplicates things perfectly... for a moment, before it turns into a perfectly imperfect duplicate, ''a la'' Superman and Bizarro. Not such a problem when used on someone like Homer, with the result being Clark Kent. With someone like Marge, the result is worse. [[{{Gonk}} Much worse.]]
* ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'' ''Total War''. Nimrod is a Dredd clone that has been modified with super senses. However, neural decay happens frequently with genetically modified clones and Nimrod has seizures a lot. And MegaCity One's cloning programme is the world's most advanced. Soviet clones are apparently subject to SturgeonsLaw.
* Comicbook/{{Azrael}} buys it from a combination of this (he was artificially engineered and grown) and poison bullets, but they NeverFoundTheBody and it's implied he AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Madman}}'', Dr. Flem tries to clone himself. Because of the chemicals that he uses to try and make the clones grow more rapidly, almost all of them end up going berserk. For added horror, one of them bites him, infecting him with a disease that ravages his body.
* Gloo from ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' is a BlobMonster who was originally created by criminals in an attempt to clone the heroic Jack-in-the-Box and make him into the ultimate henchman. [[EpicFail They failed spectacularly.]]
* In the ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' story "Future Shock", Dr. Robotnik created a clone of Sonic that aged prematurely. He used this to his advantage by implanting a false memory into the clone, making him believe himself to be Sonic from the future. Use of his high speed aged his body faster, with the clone ultimately sacrificing himself to hold off Robotnik while the real Sonic saved his friends.
* In the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' storyline ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'', Darkseid's Servants of Darkness are craggy, corrupted versions of their originals.
* In ''ComicBook/InfinityAbyss'', Thanos deemed the Thanosi clones a failure due to an intellectual deficiency that drives them to cause unnecessary destruction and be obsessed with death and nihilism like Thanos used to be before ''Infinity Gauntlet''.

* ''Fanfic/RingMaker'': This was par for the course with Noelle/Echidna's clones in canon, but [[spoiler: clones of the Ring Bearers are not only dead on arrival, Taylor's clones take the form of her past incarnations: [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Mairon]], [[TheCorrupter Annatar]], and [[EvilMakesYouMonstrous Sauron]]]].
* Very evident in ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover--copies of Athena that are grown too quickly suffer from mental instability, physical deformities, and imprinting defects. Shown in graphic detail to students of Jack and Brick as they tour the facility producing said clones.
* In ''Fanfic/IWarrior'', [[spoiler: this turns out to be why [[BigBad the Master's]] body is [[BodyHorror slowly rotting]], as he's revealed to be an evil clone of Anakin Solo.]]

* This was the ultimate fate for the clones of [[spoiler:Clyde, Miyuki, and Kyouya]] in ''Fanfic/MGLNCrisis'', though the latter two perform a HeroicSacrifice before it can kill them. The former was basically DoomedByCanon anyway, since they were created long before Fate (who was the first successful clone in canon).

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamilyMovie'', the evil clone of Dr. John Carver attempted to TakeOverTheWorld by using his Peanut Cloning Technology to create an army of Super Genomes. Unfortuantely, he had difficulty getting them to stabilize as they'd constantly disintegrate into peanut butter almost instantly. Upon learning that Oscar Proud had developed a special sauce that not kept nuts from expiring but also had a side effect of causing them to ''mulitply'', he set his sights on claiming it. Upon getting it in the climax, it enabled him to create an entire platoon of his {{Super Soldier}}s with a single nut.

* ''Film/ThePrestige'': Averted. [[spoiler:Tesla's cloning machine is so perfect that it's impossible to tell which is the original, even after years of cloning clones of clones.]]

* Problems occur with the Spaarti cloning cylinders which appear in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy''. A clone that is aged too quickly succumbs to what gets termed "clone madness," leaving them insane, and which proved to be a major problem during the Clone Wars. Thrawn eventually discovers that this is caused by some strange interaction with the Force as the clone matures, and growing the clones in an environment completely devoid of the Force such as that created by the salamander-like ysalamiri (or at least, one where the Force is suppressed, it seems to vary widely within the literature how exactly it works) will prevent the deterioration.
** It’s worth noting that Timothy Zahn wrote the Thrawn Trilogy before the prequels, at a time where George Lucas forbade authors from exploring the Clone Wars era. Even before Disney’s acquisition of the property and the Thrawn trilogy being rebranded under the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' alternative continuity, Clone Degeneration really didn’t have any effect on the Clone Wars. Lesser quality clones that are grown more rapidly did exist, and were used by the new Empire in the weeks following ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith''. However, with the final book in the ''Literature/RepublicCommandoSeries'' by Karen Traviss detailing interactions between the battle hardened Kamino clones, and a fresh clone created on Coruscant’s moon as members of the newly minted Squad 40. ''Imperial Commando: 501st'' presents these alternative cloning methods used after Order 66 as basically the reason the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy exists.
* In David Brin's novel, ''Literature/KilnPeople'', humans are able to create duplicates of themselves that are fashioned from a type of clay. The duplicates, called golems or "dittoes", possess the memories of their original from the time of their creation, but degrade after a day. Before this happens, golems are able to reintegrate their accumulated memories with their original using a special device. Attempting to make a ditto of a ditto generally results in a mindless invalid; it's noted early on that the main character, Albert, is highly unusual because when ''his'' dittos make dittos, they come out perfectly fine. The process in general isn't perfect; dittos that come out with little to no resemblance to their original's personality are called "Frankensteins" or "frankies".
* Invoked in F.M. Busby's ''Rissa Kerguelen'' series. The Hulzein clan learns through painful experience that they have to alternate cloned generations with ones produced the normal way, or else they wind up with mentally unstable kids--which, given the resources and intelligence levels that all the Hulzeins possess, is just a bad idea for ''everyone''.
* In Creator/WilliamSleator's ''Literature/TheDuplicate'', the duplicates are less sane the farther they are from the original. They also get black markings on their hands shortly before they die, but they tend to go crazy and get themselves killed before that step occurs.
* Discussed in ''Literature/BlackLegion'', as Khayon notes that Primarchs' genome is so unusual and complex that any attempts at cloning them end like this with the first clone. Ultimately, however, inverted - while first attempts failed, the final [[spoiler:clone of Horus]] is nearly indistinguishable from the original.

* ''Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit'': Toons can make duplicates of themselves for doing stunts, but the duplicates are very short-lived.
* The novel ''Literature/WhereLateTheSweetBirdsSang'' centers around this, in a way. A post-apocalyptic society rendered sterile by disease discovers that, though clones do display this in the form of sterility after a few generations, they actually reverse the trend after a few more. The society uses this to attempt to set up a sustaining population of fertile humans.
** The clones display a form of this in another way, as well. After deciding that cloning is superior to sexual reproduction and building a society based around the health of the group and the destruction of the individual, they find that the younger clone generations lose the ability for abstract thought, to the point where the youngest generations are incapable of drawing maps or devising solutions for problems.

* In ''Literature/TheTrueMeaningOfSmekday'', [[spoiler: the Gorg, having reproduced via cloning, have degraded from superstrong aliens with NighInvulnerability to superstrong aliens with a severe cat allergy]].

* In Michael Crichton's ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'', the time travel mechanism is based on scanning the time-traveler and then sending the information back to be reconstructed. As is explained, like a fax, the time traveler will inevitably accumulate transcription errors, which leads to greater and greater disorders as more and more travels occur. This is explained to potentially cause everything from fatal heart defects to incurable mental illness.

* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'':
** Oni Lee's power allows him to instantly create a new clone of himself within eyesight, with the old body turning to ash after a few seconds. However, this power can't perfectly copy his mind and over time his mind dulled, eventually leaving him little more than a machine following orders from Lung. And worst of all, he knew what was happening but couldn't think of a way to reverse it.
** Echidna creates clones of any living creature which she has either touched or swallowed. These clones are all mentally imbalanced, hating the original and wanting to destroy everything they loved, and are often physically deformed.

* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E18UpTheLongLadder Up the Long Ladder]]", this is what will inevitably doom one planet. The founders, reduced to five in number because of a spacecraft accident, had to resort to cloning themselves in order to have a sustainable population. When they try to "solve" (ultimately, just delay) the problem by getting clones of Riker and Doctor Pulaski, the Starfleet officers are not particularly happy with it, and they destroy their clones.
* ''Series/StargateSG1''.
** The Asgard are a benevolent race who once looked like six-foot humanoid elf folk. They've repeatedly transferred their consciousness into new clone bodies for tens of thousands of years, with increasingly diminishing returns, so that in the present they're tiny, fragile aliens of TheGreys kind. [[spoiler:Despite their best efforts, the degeneration proves untreatable and they commit mass suicide]].
** Beckett's cellular degeneration issues [[spoiler:were eventually solved, effectively making him the original BackFromTheDead]].
** O'Neill was kidnapped and replaced with a younger clone by the rogue Asgard scientist Loki. Loki's clones have accelerated growth, so they resemble the missing person by the time they're discovered, but it fails with O'Neill, leding to a teenage clone. [[note]]This is due to the Asgard tampering with O'Neill ''specifically to prevent rogue experimentation'' when he visited them in "The Fifth Race."[[/note]] The degeneration is a case of having YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness literally encoded in the clone's genes. In fact, the O'Neill clone is overcome with pain within ''minutes'' of being recovered by Loki.
** Kull Warriors are created in nonliving form and animated via ancient technology. They live for several days or weeks, though they're [[SuperSoldier extremely hard to kill]] before their time.
* The single-clone degeneration is addressed but ultimately averted in ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. When Crichton is "twinned" during season three, the MadScientist Kaarvok claims that the resulting duplicates are "equal and original", with no defects or imperfections. However, in a later episode, one of the two Crichtons experiences spontaneous bleeding and blackouts, leading him to believe this is at work: fortunately, it's just the [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain of the week]] causing chaos across Moya. As [[spoiler: one of the Crichtons has died in a HeroicSacrifice and the other has suffered no ill effects]] it can be assumed that Kaarvok was correct. However, the multiple-clone degeneration is used in the episode Kaarvok was introduced in, specifically in the form of the feral, degenerate remains of the crew of the ship he'd been imprisoned aboard. Apparently after "twinning" the twin of a twin and so on a certain amount of error did emerge.

* In the Netflix revival of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', one host segment in the episode featuring ''Film/{{Reptilicus}}'' as Crow taking one of Tom's arms and creating duplicates of him. However, the copies start turning into different variants, like an OppositeSexClone and an EvilKnockoff. Ultimately, Crow opts to destroy them and calls them over. [[spoiler:The Tom that sticks behind tells Jonah is that [[TomatoInTheMirror he's probably not the real Tom]]]].
* On ''Series/OrphanBlack'':

* In ''Series/RedDwarf'', this trope is [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] to an extent. There is a triplicator in the episode "Demons and Angels" which creates two versions of whatever is placed inside of it: one sublime and perfect, one disgusting and unpleasant. For example, Lister tries it out on a strawberry, making one that's delicious and one [[{{Squick}} full of maggots]]. The kicker is that these cloned objects last for very short amounts of time before being destroyed, which causes chaos when Lister accidentally triplicates the entire ship.
* There are two types of clones that Lex Luthor can make in ''Series/LoisAndClark'', the first type can live up to 70 years and the second only two weeks. Sadly the Lois clone is the latter type.
* ''Series/ZondagMetLubach'': The trailer for one of the seasons was a weird-ass sketch showing a bunch of defective Arjen Lubach clones being tested in a laboratory before Arjen concludes you simply can't beat the real deal.

* ''Series/Foundation2021'': Cleon XIV (the Brother Dawn for most of Season 1) is revealed to be an imperfect product of the genetic dynasty, with many attributes that differentiate him from his predecessors, such as colorblindness and having a different dominant hand. He lives in terror of this being discovered and being killed and replaced with a backup clone. [[spoiler: It turns out that his genes were tampered with by a resistance group, [[BatmanGambit counting on]] his fear driving him into their HoneyTrap so they can replace him with their own clone that's been indoctrinated to hate the Empire. While this ultimately fails, with the whole group (clone included) being wiped out, it's later revealed that they'd successfully tampered with the entire genetic template, meaning that there can be no more perfect Cleon clones.]]
* In ''Series/DarkMatter2015'', Transfer Transit is a relatively common way of travelling to another solar system by having an ExpendableClone with your memories created at the destination via BrainUploading. The clones disintegrate after three days, or immediately if they're killed. This is used to show whether or not a character who was killed was in clone form. The technology is intended to allow people to take long-distance vacations, but both the protagonists and antagonists abuse it to go into dangerous situations safely. [[spoiler:However, the plan was to reveal that [=CoreLactic=] can make clones that don't disintegrate, and that both One and the General faked their apparent deaths this way.]]

* The {{TabletopGame/Pathfinder}} Adventure Path ''Rise of the Runelords'' features a minor villain named Vraxeris who suffered from this. Imprisoned for millennia in the extra-dimensional laboratory Runeforge, he outlasted all his colleagues by use of the Clone spell, creating a young and healthy duplicate that his soul would migrate to on the moment of his death. Like all but the most powerful resurrection magic, this left him [[ResurrectionSickness down a level]], but he had decades to earn it back before needing to repeat the process. However, after cloning himself so many times, he discovered that with each body the dementia that tended to affect him in old age was happening earlier and earlier in his lifespan. Eventually this prevented him from regaining enough power in time to create a new clone. When the heroes enter his domain, Vraxeris is dead and all that remains are some Simulacra of him (inferior, robot-like duplicates that themselves could qualify as this trope), mindlessly repeating their programmed tasks in their master's absence.

* ''VideoGame/AkatsukiBlitzkampf'': This is what happens to [[spoiler: the playable Elektrosoldat. He's one of several clones of the local albino, Adler, and is revealed in his ending to [[WoundThatWillNotHeal be unable to heal from his injuries]].]]

** A subversion occurs. Most of the game's bosses are all clones of the BigBad, but the cloning process isn't the reason they became [[BodyHorror biomechanical monsters with human faces]] -- rather, it's the effect of the pathogen he released on the game's world. Nonetheless, he still exploits this to create new soldiers for his defense forces. [[spoiler:The PlayerCharacter is also one of his clones and nearly suffers the same fate as the rest before the Rusalki intervene]].

* ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'': This is the premise of the game. Unregulated use of nuclear weapons during the Martian War against the Blisk mutated [[TheGreys Furon]] DNA so that they can't propagate due to lack of genitalia. Fortunately, the Furons perfected the art of cloning, rendering them virtually immortal. Unfortunately, each new clone has degraded DNA, making the results more unpredictable and eventually leading to the extinction of the Furon race. Fortunately, this could be fixed via infusion of uncorrupted DNA, and eons earlier, a Furon mothership happened upon another planet and... [[MarsNeedsWomen frolicked]] with the planets' inhabitants, leaving their descendants with bits of pure Furon DNA. Unfortunately for us but fortunately for them, that planet is Earth.
* Justified in the usual manner in ''VideoGame/{{Dystopia}}'', where clones are given a maximum life span of about 20 minutes, and their bodies decay very rapidly. This prevents enemies from finding any of the technology hidden in their bodies or any information hidden in their brains. In addition, combat clones are hastily assembled from cheap materials in about 15 seconds; and normal clones can take a few weeks to build but are intended for use by soldiers after they shed their combat clone bodies. At least, that's what they're promised by their [[MegaCorp employers]].

* ''VideoGame/CrisisCore: VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is a prequel, giving us background on stuff like why Sephiroth went crazy and destroyed Cloud's hometown. A huge part of it turns out to be the emotional blows he suffered when losing his two closest friends to MistreatmentInducedBetrayal against [[MegaCorp Shinra]]; the primary mistreatment in this case being that Shinra had created them via genetic hacking and then, at some point in their thirties, their bodies started to break down. And that was when they found out they weren't just naturally talented best friends from Banora, where the scientist running the project apparently retired after Hojo got all the funding in order to make [[SuperPrototype Sephiroth]].
** Genesis, the one who actually went AxCrazy, may have minded that Sephiroth was perfect and the project that wasn't abandoned as much as the dying part. Never mind that Project G being mostly-canceled meant ''he'' got a ''childhood''; he had a GreenEyedMonster problem.
** The degeneration condition is like this, but Angeal and Genesis aren't actually clones, as such. Angeal may even be his mother's natural son, she just messed with her own body so much to get the cells to make Genesis that he came out weird. Or not. Incidentally, this means Angeal and Genesis are at least 1/3 brothers, which is not a fraction that's possible in nature and which also makes the fact that they're a popular ship a lot {{squick}}ier.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has a zigzagged case with "Inspector Brandihild". As a clone of the normal Hildibrand Manderville, he is physically imperfect as he has a blocky, almost '80s esthetic to him. However, the man is super smart, thoughtful and kind.

** This also applies to human clones. Individual organs can be cloned and used for transplants without a problem, it's when you clone the whole body that things go south. Flash-cloning (which is the only method of cloning seen in the ''Halo'' universe) is when the clones are aged up to the original person who supplied the DNA. The clone will have the mind of an infant, given that it has zero memories, and the body will deteriorate and usually die within a couple months. Apparently the cloned body's metabolism just can't stabilize itself correctly. Despite this procedure being highly illegal, flash clones were used to cover up the SPARTAN-II project; ONI took the children, and replaced them with flash clones. As far as any of the parents could guess, their children inexplicably went into a vegetative state and died from an unknown disease.

* ''VideoGame/HardspaceShipbreaker'''s LYNX Corporation has its ship disassembly crews cloned whenever they [[NoOSHACompliance inevitably]] die on the job and sends them back in like nothing. The technology was apparently imperfect some time ago, as [[MissionControl Weaver]] used to be a Cutter but some unknown cloning mishap took him off the field; since he sounds entirely normal otherwise, it's most likely something physical. And the technology still has imperfections; [[spoiler:Hal threatens all salvagers on strike with forcing them into work so deadly they need twenty resurrections a day until "your DNA comes apart at the seams" and they return as a useless blob]].

* The second arc of ''Franchise/TheKingOfFighters'' starting from ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters99 '99]]'' up until ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2001 2001]]'' focused on NESTS and their unethical cloning experiments. To see how that panned out, Kyo's clones are obsessed with one-upping the man they were sourced from, and while Zero himself is a NobleDemon who [[GracefulLoser graciously accepts defeat and goes down with his ship]], his clone is a complete psychopath willing to destroy a city with his KillSat for his own [[TheStarscream treasonous ambitions of power]]. It isn't just limited to mental instability - clones are also more often than not [[PowerIncontinence unable to fully control their powers]]. Just ask Nameless, who reduced someone to ashes merely by tapping them on the shoulder.

* Not necessarily clones, but close enough: In the ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' series, Kain used parts of his soul to resurrect a group of long-dead Sarafan warrior priests as his lieutenants, each receiving a smaller part of his soul than the last, which would directly affect their evolution in vampiric unlife: Raziel received the most of his soul and evolved the quickest, while Melchiah received the smallest part, making his body vulnerable to decay.
* Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, and Solidus Snake from ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' are clones of Big Boss. Liquid got killed off prior to degeneration, however Solidus' aging has accelerated to the point he looks like someone in his sixties or seventies despite only being in his 30s. And by ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', Solid Snake's aging has accelerated to the point where ''Big Boss himself'', who is about 79 by that point, looks younger than Snake, who is only 42, does. Compounding this, Snake goes through a truly horrific gauntlet throughout the game. And yet, he still gets the job done. Unlike some other cases, this degeneration was deliberate. The clones were made with genetic flaws designed to limit their lifespan in hopes of keeping them under The Patriots' control.

* During ''VideoGame/ThePersistence'', every clone printer sans one has gone haywire and started printing aberrant and murderous clones of the crew non-stop. Some lack eyes, some are abnormally large, and some weep loudly enough to cause physical harm, but all of them lack any of the intelligence or compassion of the crew they're cloned from.

* The Grineer Empire in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' collectively suffers from it, due to every single Grineer being a clone of a clone of "[[ANaziByAnyOtherName perfection]]" birthed in industrial quantities. Their degeneration is so bad that they have to use extensive cybernetics to survive; Grineer soldiers almost always have cybernetic feet, and the only thing left of the Grineer Councilor Vay Hek is his ([[BodyHorror visibly cracking and flaking]]) face and lungs.
** Even then, the process that clones the Grineer has its occasional hiccup, creating "defective" clones that lack the fanatical devotion to the Grineer Queens, albeit they prove much healthier compared to the normal Grineer. [[AscendedExtra Clem]] is one such "defect", as are the [[DefectorFromDecadence Kavor]]. Grineer Scientist [[WickedCultured Tyl]] [[EvilSoundsDeep Regor]] is trying to not only reverse the degeneration, but begin creating even stronger and potentially immortal Grineer, and he's already got his [[EliteMook Manics]] up and running about...
* ''VideoGame/Wasteland3'' has a man who turns out to be a fourth-generation clone of a villain from the [[VideoGame/{{Wasteland}} first game]]. He is actually friendly and an aspiring scientist with some skill, but he himself admits that his intelligence and ability is nowhere near his proginator because of this trope -- as is evident by his own attempts at cloning experiments (both on himself and on members of your squad if you ask) producing less than stellar results.

* In ''WebAnimation/TheGrosseryGang'' webseries, Doc Broc's cloning machine creates clones that only last for an hour, before expiring into a cloud of dust.
* Played straight and inverted in the rather bizarre miniseries ''WebAnimation/HouseOfCosbys'', the Bill Cosby clones get increasingly bizarre defects, however the main character keeps making them as every tenth Cosby has superpowers with each "Super Cosby" being more powerful than the last. Unfortunately, Cosby #100 happens to be pure evil.

* The space arc version of the False Guenevere storyline in ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' suffered this, paralleling the illness of the one in the fantasy arc.
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in [[https://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/comics/259/ this]] strip from ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' where Molly's clone Galatea insists on using Molly's tissues for an experiment rather than her own.
* In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' [[spoiler: the doctor uses this to explain why killing off all his clones wasn't as bad as it seems, because the clones created with the old process were highly unstable. To illustrate this he shows a video where clone of Benjamin Franklin made with that technology accidentally kills himself by biting too hard into a sandwich. Which causes the top of his head to fall off. Old [=McNinja=], a clone of the Doctor, was created with newer technology, which is greatly improved, but he initially believes himself to be suffering from this.]]
* In ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'', Corrie's clone, Dolly, begins RapidAging as a result of being a clone. Dolly becomes concerned about how her adoptive parents (who don't know she's a clone) will feel about this, so Corrie switches with Dolly, who poses as her birth mother to take her away. An accident with a TimeMachine results in Dolly reverting to a baby, which gives her a fresh start on life even if her rapid aging resumes (which is somewhat unlikely to happen, given how little time progresses in the strip).
* Subverted in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', when Elliot accidentally creates a female version of himself, dubbed Ellen. Ellen realizes that the effect that led to her creation was only intended to last a month, and decides to become Elliot's greatest rival and villain. Shortly after this completely fails, she learns that she won't die after a month, and is offered a life as Elliot's twin sister, which she gladly accepts. She's been a part of the main cast ever since.
* ''Webcomic/QuentynQuinnSpaceRanger''
** In an arc that parodies ''Franchise/StarTrek'', Quentyn refuses to beam down, for several reasons, one of which is that he doesn't trust the "disintegrating fax machine" to make a perfect copy each time. TheCaptain cluelessly introduces him to a RedShirt who has gone through it many times. [[TheDitz It shows.]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Rose Lalonde's mother's attempt to clone her cat Jaspers resulted in a four-eyed kitten. When [[spoiler: Roxy Lalonde]] tried this on a mass scale, it created a bunch of four-eyed cats, and more than a few seriously deformed ones.
* On [[http://nonadventures.com/2008/05/31/bad-to-the-clone/ this page]] of ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella'', Dr. Shark claims a clone of Wonderella is actually the original. Ritagirl cites this trope to determine if this is true, and gives the two Wonderellas a written test. [[spoiler: Wonderella stabs her duplicate with a pencil and writes "I Win!" on her paper.]]
-->'''Ritagirl:''' Clones are never as smart as the original, right Dr. Shark? Like how paper copies are never as clear?
-->'''Dr. Shark:''' A simplistic analogy by a liberal arts major! ''Go on...''
* Agatha's Dingbots in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' can build more of themselves out of spare parts and bits, but each subsequent generation is of slightly lower quality, maxxing out at about six generations. [[spoiler: Eventually it's discovered that the first generation Dingbots are the clank equivalent to [[MadScientist Sparks]].]]

* ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'': While watching ''Film/TheClonesOfBruceLee'', Spoony points out the logic gap in the mad professor cloning Bruce Lee several times, only to demand they fight to prove who's the strongest. [[HypocriticalHumor He points this out while sharing a sofa with two of his other characters.]]
--> '''Chester D. Bum:''' It's kinda like when they cloned [[Franchise/StarWars Jango Fett]], and turned him into all those Stormtroopers, only they were kinda lame.
--> '''Dr. Insano:''' This is why I prefer robots to cloning. Clones are crap! It's like filling out a form in triplicate but only getting to keep the pink copy.
* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-038 SCP-038]], an apple tree that grows clones like fruit of whatever touches its bark. Human and animal clones age rapidly and only last about two weeks.

* With the ''[[WebVideo/RoosterTeethShorts Secret Door]]'' short of Creator/RoosterTeeth, Gavin is cloned to improve efficiency, but when they find out, they're bound and gagged, and thrown into the closet. When Gavin finds out, they throw him in there, but remember they need the original, otherwise the clones will degenerate. [[spoiler:Problem is, they grab Ben for re-cloning instead, who was mistaken for a Gavin clone due to their UsefulNotes/BritishAccents.]]
--> '''Gus:''' Oh fuck! We need the original out here so we can make another clone!
--> '''Burnie:''' Oh, right. Gotta go from the source, otherwise the copy DNA gets bad.
* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': the faster you force the maturation of a clone, the more likely it is to suffer from 'protein antagonism', a form or auto-immune problem that can lead to rapid breakdown. Clones grown normally will usually live a normal lifespan, but quick-clones may fall apart after even a minor bit of physical trauma. The fact that Belphoebe does ''not'' appear to suffer from protein antagonism despite a very fast maturation is a key plot point in "The Second Book of Jobe".
* ''WebVideo/LostInAdaptation'': The Dom's hunchback clone butler Reginald's backstory is revealed to be a result of this. After discovering a clone machine in a deep underground expedition, The Dom decided to use it to make a clone of himself to do chores. Said clone was not content with his lot, so he made a clone of himself to replace himself so he could sneak off without The Dom noticing. The next clone did the same thing, and the one after that, and the one after that, until eventually, thanks to CloneDegeneration, the newest Reginald couldn't figure out how to operate the cloning machine (it's powered a green and red "On/Off" button), so he's stuck in The Dom's service.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E1TreehouseOfHorrorXIII Treehouse of Horror XIII]]" segment "Send in the Clones" has Homer with a cloning mechanism which results in him creating duplicates who are progressively dumber than he is. Eventually, they get to be so stupid that one of them is [[TakeThat Peter]] [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Griffin]]. Special mention should be made that [[spoiler:the surviving Homer is ''a clone''. The original Homer, who knew of the plot to fly a fake giant donut over a cliff to have the clones run after it and off the cliff, was the first one off the cliff.]]
* This seemed to be inherent to present-day cloning in ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003''. In the fourth season of the show, it was revealed that Agent Bishop's body was slowly degenerating, and therefore needed to transfer his mind to a new one, which eventually happened, dissolving skin and all. Later on, Baxter Stockman cloned himself a new body to replace the one he had systematically lost during the course of the series, only to find it decaying as well.
* Done with the incomplete April clones in ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'', as they tend to turn into black goo when damaged, and one "reject" (who the turtles call "April Derp") is a giant monstrosity with extra heads and mouths. However, these were ''incomplete'' clones created from ''partial'' DNA, and presumably, if the Kraang managed to get their hands on her complete DNA sequence, these issues would not occur.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ExoSquad'', Neosapiens ran a risk of contracting a disease where their bodies decompose. Seeing as their entire species is a clone race, it made [[spoiler:coming BackFromTheDead via implanted memory recordings]] a bit of a gamble.
* The Ring of the Nine Dragons from ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' can divide one person into at most nine, but their intelligence is also divided, so in the end, you have nine people with only a ninth of your intelligence... and getting them back together is really hard. The notable thing about said ring is that it only does this to your average person, while Jack Spicer's clones were at least able to operate like normal people except for one bad one, and demons are apparently immune, as Mala Mala Jong's clones didn't display any differing behavior from the original.

** "Bad Replicant" spoofs the trope with a physically mutated and clearly failed clone of Shake. Not only are the clone's attempts to pass himself off as the original [[PaperThinDisguise pathetically obvious]], he also turns out to be much kinder and more rational than Shake, and Shake's friends [[PreferableImpersonator actually like him]] ''[[PreferableImpersonator better]]'' [[PreferableImpersonator than the]] {{Jerkass}} original.
* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'' has Quick Clones. Each clone is indistinguishable from the original, but after time, the clone will begin [[TalkativeLoon speaking nonsensically]] before melting into a pile of goo. The time until melting varies based on stress and physical exertion. Alternatively, any clone can be terminated by pushing a button located behind the ear.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'', George had a clone made in one episode, only to find it could do stuff far better than him. He wanted to leave his life to the clone, but it turned out that the clone has a very limited lifespan and soon vanishes into thin air.
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': Danny's OppositeSexClone Dani Phantom melts whenever she uses her superpowers. [[spoiler:She gets better.]]
* An experiment in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' has this when Stitch gets hit by a duplicating ray, splitting into multiple copies of himself. His creator, Jumba, explains that the more duplicates there are, the more their strength is divided between them. Lilo uses this later against Gantu when he gets a hold of the experiment and tries to create an army with the experiments he's captured; they're all so pathetically weak that the heroes easily waltz right through them. This trope was later averted in ''WesternAnimation/LeroyAndStitch'', when the titular Leroy is used as the base for a clone army and the clones are completely identical to the original, [[IdenticalTwinIDTag save for his outfit]].
* Drakken tried this in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' making "clones" (the show admits it isn't really cloning but called that for simplicity) of Kim, Ron, Rufus, and Bonnie and modifying them to be [[EvilKnockoff mindless attack drones]]. It works until it's revealed they're [[WeaksauceWeakness weak against soda]], dissolving into green puddles when it's sprayed on them. Later on, they get renamed "synthodrones", which becomes a major plot point of [[WesternAnimation/KimPossibleMovieSoTheDrama the movie]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', Fred was cloned by an alien in one episode. The clones were very much like real people, and are never seen physically degenerating, but were little more than mindless mooks, incapable of anything other than following their creator's orders, causing trouble and saying Fred's catchphrase in a very monotonous fashion.

--->'''Brian:''' I'm not proud of this, but I have to lick that up.[[note]]In the DVD version, Brian asks if his [=ATM=] card is in the puddle.[[/note]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "[[Recap/GravityFallsS1E7DoubleDipper Double Dipper]]" has Dipper make use of a magic copy machine when he needs a few extra hands. This works fine until he gets a paper jam [[FourIsDeath on the fourth clone]], resulting in a lumpy, wrinkled version of himself that speaks in incomprehensible "NYANG NYANG NYANG!" sounds. When Paper Jam Dipper melts near the end, he treats his death as a MercyKill.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E3TooManyPinkiePies Too Many Pinkie Pies]]", Pinkie uses the reflection in a magic pool to clone herself (and that clone clones herself, and those clones clone themselves...). The first clone is actually a reasonable facsimile of Pinkie Pie that can pass for the real thing, if slightly more childish and excitable, but when that clone starts cloning herself it produces [[{{Flanderization}} flat, exaggerated versions of the original]] that just hop around, chanting "FUN FUN FUN", and basically destroying things. A later episode shows one clone survived, however, that [[ReallyWasBornYesterday has apparently matured enough]] to be living a life of her own in Manehattan.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': In the episode "Mandy the Merciless", a future is shown where Mandy has achieved immortality, became ruler of the world, and kept clones of Billy around. When the newest clone is incapable of noticing that Mandy is now an enormous half-worm half-human hybrid, Grim comments that he swears the Billys get dumber with each cloning.
* The ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' episode "Too Many Jimmys" is a good example. When Jimmy borrows Heloise's people copier, the resulting clones are deformed and misshapen. For example, one had no head, another had legs for arms with an oversized nose, and another one had a single eye with no body separating his limbs from his head. The justification for this though is that Jimmy had damaged the machine before the cloning process was completed. Yet for some reason, everyone in Miseryville seems oblivious to the differences between the clones and the real Jimmy.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS9E20SharksVsPodsCopyBobDittoPants CopyBob DittoPants]]", Plankton photocopies a bunch of [=SpongeBob=] clones to get the Krabby Patty formula. He used cheap toner to make them, so after a while, they all roll up and disappear from existence.
** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS10E4SnoozeYouLoseKrustyKatering Snooze You Lose]]", [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick attempt to make a clone of Squidward, which ends up being a mindless, gigantic version that escapes from their lab and goes on a rampage. At the end of the episode, he's shown to be a better clarinet player than the original Squidward when he uses a building as one.
* The ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "[[Recap/BatmanBeyondS1E7Meltdown Meltdown]]" sees Mr. Freeze cloned into a new body that seemed to lack the condition that he requires a special suit for survival in above zero temperatures, but the body began to show signs of this trope as it redeveloped the condition. Considering a piece of BackportedDevelopment was Victor Fries being bald despite a pre-Freeze Victor having hair in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', the baldness might've been an early sign of this.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' episode "Everywhere Man" features a supervillain with a "Quantex" device that allows him to create duplicates of objects and fully sapient copies of people, himself being a clone of his creator John Marlowe who went rogue. Unfortunately, each successive Everywhere Man doppelganger comes out more ill-tempered and megalomaniacal, with some even voicing a desire to use their technology to TakeOverTheWorld when the initial Everywhere Man was ''just'' content with being an art thief and kidnapper.
-->''"Like a bad photocopy, each duplicate is just a little darker than the last."''
* ''WesternAnimation/Sealab2021'': In "Lost in Time", Stormy and Quinn go through a fifteen-minute GroundhogDayLoop repeatedly trying (and failing) to prevent the accident that destroyed Sealab and blew them back into the past, with [[TemporalDuplication multiple time-clones]] of Stormy and Quinn eventually ending up in the brig. After over a dozen iterations, the timeline gets so screwed up that strange alternate versions of Stormy and Quinn start appearing, including pixie versions, ones dressed as a cowboy and an Indian, and a pair where [[Franchise/StarWars Quinn and Stormy resemble Jabba the Hutt and Salacious Crumb]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'': Miles Warren experimented with cloning, but found that clones deteriorate and die over time. He thought Hydro-Man's ability to reform his body was the key, so he made a clone of Hydro-Man [[spoiler:and a clone of Mary Jane Watson with some of Hydro-Man's DNA]]. Unfortunately, this only delayed the process and both clones ended up dying.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' reveals that not all clones come out in perfect condition. Some, like 99, are malformed and unfit for combat (although 99 shows one does not need to be in perfect health to be heroic). With the death of Jango Fett in the first hours of the Clone Wars, the Kaminoans only have a small sample of his DNA kept in stasis which is undergoing natural cellular degradation, making such irregularities more common as they stretch out the remaining stock.
* Following from the above, ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch'' shows that the Jango Fett DNA has become so degraded that it would be impossible to safely produce more Fett clones and thus puts the Kaminoans in a precarious position trying to maintain their contract in any way possible with the newly-established Galactic Empire, which wants to switch over to recruitments as soon as possible.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': One of [[HarmlessVillain Dr. Doofenshmirtz]]'s "{{Evil Plan}}s" involves cloning himself so that he can... [[MundaneUtility stand in multiple waiting lines at once]]. His first three attempts go wrong; one is too pale since there wasn't much print, the other is completely jagged due to a paper jam, and the third is disfigured and mentally impaired since Doof wasn't sitting correctly.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', this is a major problem for [[spoiler:Hordak, who is one of countless clones of Horde Prime. Hordak served as Horde Prime's chief general, but suffered from pain and physical degeneration due to a flaw in his cloning. Horde Prime, who despised weakness, sent Hordak to die on the front lines of battle, only for Hordak to fall through a portal and find himself stranded on Etheria. Hordak uses cybernetic armor to keep his body functional, but his health is deteriorating at a rapid rate.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'' is a parody of teen drama shows where the teens are clones of famous historical figures. One of the clones is hideously deformed because her donor, Marie Curie, presumably had some genetic damage from the radiation exposure.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyGymPartnersAMonkey'', Jake makes a clone of himself and Adam so they do all the work while the real things can lounge about. It backfires horribly when the clones turn out to be immature jerks who get the two in trouble. The jig is up when the clones start to [[RapidAging rapidly age]]. Adam and Jake are spared from detention, but since bringing clones to Charles Darwin Middle School is illegal, they are instead punished by washing cars to pay for the Old Clones Home.
* The Tommy clones Dinko creates in the ''WesternAnimation/PetAlien'' episode "The Night of Two Tommys +1" look identical to Tommy, but lack his personality and are much dumber than he is. One of them also has a blue face for some reason.
* ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries'' had an episode where Sabrina made clones of herself, but one of the clones points out that the original's powers become limited when cloned, as shown when Sabrina tries to hypnotize Gem into forgetting she ever saw the clones, but due to her magic being drained, Gem is able to regain her senses.
* ''WesternAnimation/DenisAndMe'': In "Home A Clone", when Denis goes out shopping, Sir Meows-A-Lot finds himself without someone who can open a can of tuna for him. Using a piece of Denis' hair, he decides to make a clone who can open the tuna can. However, he used a cat's brain for the clone's brain, resulting in a clone of a human with the intelligence of a cat... meaning he doesn't know how to open up the tuna can.
* ''WesternAnimation/Invincible2021:'' The Mauler Twins enjoy giving each other grief about the idea, as part of their bickering about who's the clone and who's the original; whenever one makes a mistake or neglects to think of something the other enjoys claiming ''clearly'' the degeneration got to the other and ''they'', as the original, wouldn't have made such a blunder. However, it's entirely Averted in practice: They're so good at cloning that there is essentially no difference between each other whatsoever, not even in their ''memories'' (which is why they can keep the bickering going).

* In ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' storyline ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'', Darkseid's Servants of Darkness are craggy, corrupted versions of their originals.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

* The second arc of ''Franchise/TheKingOfFighters'' starting from ''99'' up until ''2001'' focused on NESTS and their unethical cloning experiments. To see how that panned out, Kyo's clones are obsessed with one-upping the man they were sourced from, and while Zero himself is a NobleDemon who [[GracefulLoser graciously accepts defeat and goes down with his ship]], his clone is a complete psychopath willing to destroy a city with his KillSat for his own [[TheStarscream treasonous ambitions of power]]. It isn't just limited to mental instability - clones are also more often than not [[PowerIncontinence unable to fully control their powers]]. Just ask Nameless, who reduced someone to ashes merely by tapping them on the shoulder.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'', George had a clone made in one episode, only to find it could do stuff far better than him. He wanted to leave his life to the clone, but it turned out that the clone has a very limited lifespan.

* An experiment in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' has this when Stitch gets hit by a duplicating ray, splitting into multiple copies of himself. His creator, Jumba, explains that the more duplicates there are, the more their strength is divided between them. Lilo uses this later against Gantu when he gets a hold of the experiment and tries to create an army with the experiments he's captured; they're all so pathetically weak that the heroes easily waltz right through them. This trope was later averted in ''WesternAnimation/LeroyAndStitch'', when the titular Leroy is used as the base for a clone army and the clones are completely identical to the original, save for his outfit.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyGymPartnersAMonkey'', Jake makes a clone of himself and Adam so they do all the work while the real things can lounge about. It backfires horribly when the clones turn out to be immature jerks who get the two in trouble. The jig is up when the clones start to rapidly age. Adam and Jake are spared from detention, but since bringing clones to Charles Darwin Middle School is illegal, they are instead punished by washing cars to pay for the Old Clones Home.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'': The Kaka clan are all clones of Jubei, but appear to have been made with intentional defects, such as limitations on their reproductive ability that stops their numbers from exceeding 100 individuals. This trope may explain why Taokaka is [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} so]] [[GenkiGirl very]] [[TheDitz odd]], though the rest of the Kaka clan, and especially [[CoolBigSister Torakaka]], seem more put together. The Elder of their village seems resigned to the fact that this trope is, in the long run, going to lead to their extinction.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' features this, along with everything else from the cloning vat. But since this ''is'' a Tales game, it plays around with the trope too: [[spoiler:it turns out that getting a clone made can cause just as many problems to the original as it does to the copy. In the best case, the original develops severe health problems after a while. In the worst, the original dies ''as soon as the data required to create a clone in the first place is extracted'']].
** [[spoiler:Actually, in the best case, the replica is weaker but there is no particular degeneration in the original. In the very worst case, however, that of complete isofons, a different effect occurs. The original and replica are so entirely identical that both gradually begin to destabilize due to the interference of their matching fonon frequencies. Eventually, one or both will die, and their fonons merge, creating an individual with the memories of both the original and the replica. This is what the universe's physics says happened to Luke fon Fabre at the end of the game, according to some easily-missable sidequests with Jade.]]

When dealing with fiction that {{clon|ingBlues}}es things, the assumption is often made that clones must, after time, decay. That is, with each copy you make whatever AppliedPhlebotinum you are using to create the clones will either decrease in effectiveness, or the clones themselves become less coherent since eventually everything is just a copy of a copy. This goes double for dead clones, who [[EverythingFades tend to dissolve]] because they're "[[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman less than human]]" rather than leave a proper corpse.