History Main / DerailedFairyTale

* In Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride, Tony used to read fairy tales to her goddaughters, Roz's twin girls, when they were young; the twins insisted that all characters were female regardless of how this impacted the story. It's from this - changing "The Robber Bridegroom" - that the title comes. (Incidentally, in the "new and improved" version of the fairy tale, the victim is still a woman, echoing the narrative of the novel.)

Not to be confused with FracturedFairyTale. May involve NarrativeBackpedalling.

Not to be confused with FracturedFairyTale.

* In one of the ''U.S. Acres'' segments on ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', the story of Chicken Little becomes an exercise in [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot random plot points]], until the only plot point to remain is the ozone layer gag.

* [[CalvinAndHobbes Calvin]] tends to insist that all animals in the stories be turned into tigers, among other demands, until his father resorts to RocksFallEveryoneDies.
-->Do you think the townsfolk will ever find Hamster Huey's head?

* In ''RockosModernLife'', Rocko and Heffer tell a sick Filburt the story of [[Literature/HanselAndGretel Hansel and]] [[strike:Gretel]] Debbie, who go into the woods and find a house made of [[strike:pizza]] [[strike:healthy snacks]] fish sticks, and then... it all gets more convoluted after that.

* Episode "Nursery Crimes" of ''TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' starts the kids in the story of Literature/HanselAndGretel, but they wander off and encounter characters from other fairy tales such as Pinocchio, who wants to BecomeARealBoy by [[ImAHumanitarian eating the flesh of a real boy]].

* ''[[{{Garfield}} U.S. Acres]]'': The story of Chicken Little becomes an exercise in [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot random plot points]], until the only plot point to remain is the ozone layer gag.
** From a U.S Acres segment on ''Garfield and Friends'': Orson tries telling the story of Cinderella to Booker and Sheldon, they insist on altering the story so that the King's messenger becomes a rapmaster and the stepsiblings become ninjas. The story's still recognizable until they insist that the protagonist run into the Big Bad Wolf while fleeing from the ball. Orson tells them there's no place for a wolf in Cinderella, but they say all fairy tales have to have a wolf. After they insist on a new plot twist where the earth opens up and dinosaurs emerge, Orson gives up. He stops the story there, gives a fast summary of the real Cinderella story, and then leaves.
*** And apparently he didn't learn his lesson, as there's ANOTHER episode where the exact same thing happens, this time with the story of Rumpelstiltskin. Even Roy and Wade get in on the act.

* ''The New Adventures of WinnieThePooh'', episode "Three Little Piglets."

* Happens in ''[[{{Smosh} A Smoshy Christmas]]'' with the bedtime story Anthony is telling to Ian.

* Played with in the {{Discworld}}. In ''{{Discworld/Thud}}'', we're introduced to the children's book "Where's My Cow?" that Sam Vimes reads to Sam Jr. every night at 6 pm, no excuses. When the book was [[{{Defictionalization}} defictionalized]], the framing story is of Vimes derailing it, replacing the farm animals with the sights and sounds of Ankh-Morpork.

* ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' has Hayate tell Nagi a bastardized "Alice in Wonderland" for an anniversary chapter. He begins by telling Nagi (and the readers) that the author hasn't read the story in a long time. We then get Hinagiku as Alice running into the Student Council Trio as [[PlayboyBunny "rabbits"]] and her pitying them for getting stuck on [[FanService cheesecake duty]]. Then she beats the challenge (noted as being a metaphor for success and society) before they even finish explaining it to her. It then wraps up with her single-handedly crushing the card army and taking over Wonderland, renaming it [[CodeGeass the United States of Japan]].

--> '''Trapper #2:''' That's terrible.

* In the ''{{Shrek}}'' HalloweenSpecial ''Scared Shrekless'', Puss is trying to tell a scary story, but the jealous Donkey keeps horning in and changing the story in his favor, which Puss then changes again. They go back and forth until Donkey gets eaten by a giant waffle.

* ''HayateTheCombatButler'' has Hayate tell Nagi a bastardized "Alice in Wonderland" for an anniversary chapter. He begins by telling Nagi (and the readers) that the author hasn't read the story in a long time. We then get Hinagiku as Alice running into the Student Council Trio as [[PlayboyBunny "rabbits"]] and her pitying them for getting stuck on [[FanService cheesecake duty]]. Then she beats the challenge (noted as being a metaphor for success and society) before they even finish explaining it to her. It then wraps up with her single-handedly crushing the card army and taking over Wonderland, renaming it [[CodeGeass the United States of Japan]].

Examples:

* ''DeadMan'' by Jim Jarmusch. A psycho fur-trapper played by Iggy Pop (in drag) tells his two companions the story of ''Goldilocks and the Three Bears'' while they contemplate jumping an unsuspecting passerby.

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* In ''RockosModernLife'', Rocko and Heffer tell a sick Filburt the story of Hansel and [[strike:Gretel]] Debbie, who go into the woods and find a house made of [[strike:pizza]] [[strike:healthy snacks]] fish sticks, and then... it all gets more convoluted after that.

* Episode "Nursery Crimes" of ''TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' starts the kids in the story of HanselAndGretel, but they wander off and encounter characters from other fairy tales such as Pinocchio, who wants to BecomeARealBoy by [[ImAHumanitarian eating the flesh of a real boy]].

* ''{{WITCH}}'', episode "U is for Undivided": The kid who demanded a bedtime story just happens to be a RealityWarper.

* [[http://xkcd.com/872/ This]] {{xkcd}} strip involves a girl whose math-professor mother would fall asleep while telling the stories, subconsciously placing her work into them. Some even made more sense than their respective originals.

* HayateTheCombatButler has the titular butler tell Nagi a bastardized "Alice in Wonderland" for an anniversary chapter. He begins by telling Nagi (and the readers) that the author hasn't read the story in a long time. We then get Hinagiku as Alice running into the Student Council Trio as [[PlayboyBunny "rabbits"]] and her pitying them for getting stuck on [[FanService cheesecake duty]]. Then she beats the challenge (noted as being a metaphor for success and society) before they even finish explaining it to her. It then wraps up with her single-handedly crushing the card army and taking over Wonderland, renaming it [[CodeGeass the United States of Japan]].

* An XKCD strip involves a girl whose math-professor mother would fall asleep while telling the stories, subconsciously placing her work into them. Some even made more sense than their respective originals.

* The 2008 film ''BedtimeStories''.

* The entire premise behind Disney's ''BedtimeStories'' with Adam Sandler. The added twist is that the bits the kids make up (such as raining gumballs or the main character getting kicked by an angry dwarf) happen in some way to the protagonist.

* ''{{WITCH}}??, episode "U is for Undivided": The kid who demanded a bedtime story just happens to be a RealityWarper.
* The 2008 film ''Bedtime Stories''.

* ''{{WITCH}}??, episode "U is for Undivided": The kid who demanded a bedtime story just happens to be a RealityWarper. SoYeah.