History Main / CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority

[[caption-width-right:350: Cheer up, Cap. Old-fashioned or not, you're ''[[TheCape classic]]''.]]

* Played straight with Bart, at least in the early years.This was his appeal as a merchandising icon during that time period.

Expect "authority" to be heavily tainted in TheWarOnStraw in some way or another, when the audience inevitably asks "[[ReasonableAuthorityFigure What's so bad about the authority figure]], [[FridgeLogic anyway]]?".

Expect "authority" to be heavily tainted in TheWarOnStraw in some way or another, when the audience inevitably asks [[FridgeLogic "what's so bad about the authority figure, anyway?"]].

* ''School of Rock''. Even though Dewey himself starts out as a washed-up loser, this is his argument for why the kids should join his rock band. Rock sticks it to The Man, and that's what makes it ''cool''.

** ...Like how TengenToppaGurrenLagann [[{{Understatement}} occasionally features determination]].

[[AC:{{Newspaper Comics}}]]
* Brilliantly deconstructed in a 1987 ''CalvinAndHobbes'' strip: Hobbes finds Calvin slouching against a tree with a self-consciously heavy-lidded expression:
---> '''Hobbes:''' Whatcha doing?
---> '''Calvin:''' Being "cool."
---> '''Hobbes:''' You look more like you're being bored.
---> '''Calvin:''' The world bores you when you're cool.

* ''[[CodeGeass Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion]]''. Right there in the title. Heck, Lelouch attracting followers to [[LaResistance his rebellion]] through sheer charisma is a major plot point. Though it helps that TheEmpire he's rebelling against is only a couple steps shy [[PuttingOnTheReich of being a Nazi regime]].

* ''[[CodeGeass Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion]]''. Right there in the title. Heck, Lelouch attracting followers to his rebellion through sheer charisma is a major plot point. Though it helps that TheEmpire he's rebelling against is only a couple steps shy [[PuttingOnTheReich of being a Nazi regime]].

* ''[[CodeGeass Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion]]''. Right there in the title.

* ''CodeGeass: Lelouch of the Rebellion''. Right there in the title.

A natural result of TrueArtSticksItToTheMan. Supertrope of GoodIsOldFashioned, when coupled with DarkerAndEdgier. The supertrope of SchoolIsForLosers.

*** This is a point of the [[DecoyProtagonist character]] [[CharacterDevelopment]] of Simon vs Kamina. Kamina would always have found something to rebel against, some further powa to rowrowfight. Kamina fought to fight. Simon fought to achieve a goal, and when he dug through it meant he'd emerged into a world he could live in. Team Dai-Gurren could never have become anything more than a rebellious guerrilla unit without the change of leadership.

** Speaking of which, ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' is another example of this trope.
*** Sorta kinda. Once Team Dai-Gurren actually ''win'' they become their own authority, and the epilogue appears to feature the kind of ultra-high-tech society (and its military) that wouldn't really get built if everyone spent their time rebelling for the sake of rebelling.
*** Row, row, fight the power!

* Craig Hoffman in ''FamilyGuy'':
-->'''Meg:''' Hi, Craig. Umm, I was wondering if maybe you would want to, I don't know, go out sometime?\\
'''Craig Hoffman:''' Huh, that's about as likely as me playing by someone else's rules besides my own. Which I would never do. I play by my own rules, nobody else's, not even my own.
* In ''TheSimpsons'', Bart questions what the baby sitter sees in Jimbo. "[[WhatDoesSheSeeInHim What do you like about him]]? He's just a good-looking rebel who plays by his own rules." [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Cue sighing of female characters present]].

* ''[[Film/BonnieAndClyde Bonnie and Clyde]]'' is another movie all about this.

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* Brilliantly deconstructed in a 1987 ''CalvinAndHobbes'' strip: Hobbes finds Calvin slouching against a tree with a self-consciously heavy-lidded expression, and is told that that's all part of "being 'cool.' " When Hobbes retorts that Calvin looks more bored than anything else, the boy concludes: "The world bores you when you're cool."