History Main / DerailedFairyTale

A child has demanded a bedtime story. The storyteller starts into a traditional {{fairy tale|s}}, but the kid (or perhaps the storyteller) insists on [[OffTheRails altering the story]]. As plot points are [[RandomEventsPlot introduced willy-nilly]], the narrative will eventually fall apart.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons,'' Homer reads Lisa a chapter from ''Angelica Button'' (a ''Literature/HarryPotter'' parody) every night. When he gets to the part where the Dumbledore Expy pulls a HeroicSacrifice to save Angelica from the Snape Expy, however, he instead creates a happier but rather nonsensical ending where not-Dumbledore beats not-Snape up with his BadassMustache and Angelica saves herself "[[NoodleIncident somehow]]." After he leaves Lisa reads the real ending, shrugs and decides that she likes Homer's better.
** A similar events happens in "Tales of the Public Domain:" when the Joan of Arc story ends with her being burnt at the stake, Marge grabs the book, invents an ending where she has a RescueRomance with [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Lancelot]] and then eats the page.

* Momotaro again in ''Manga/DrStone'', though after 3000 years from the twenty-first century. Senku learns from Chrome that the version the village priestess Ruri told them involved the hero taming a lion, a gorilla, a bear, and a crocodile. [[spoiler:It turns out the story was intentionally changed by the village founders (who were surviving astronauts that landed near Japan) as a means of warning future generations of dangerous animals that they might encounter]].

* Played with in the Literature/{{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.

** The plot of ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'' involves the witches doing this ''in real life'', trying to abort the BigBad's attempt to make a fairytale play out in reality.

* In ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' episode "The Lady in the Lake," [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Adam]] is telling a story to a witness's kids while they're in the station waiting for their mother. He starts off telling them a story about a Cinderella-esque victim who was found [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin in the lake]] during a ball. The suspects actually line up fairly closely to a PrinceCharming (the victim's wealthy fiance), an EvilSorcerer (her drug-dealer ex who [[spoiler: wasn't so evil after all]]) and a WickedWitch (the fiance's snobbish mother, who [[spoiler: committed the murder]].) Of course, the story is derailed because it's Adam telling it, and he found a piece of a spaceship.

* ''Disney/HomeOnTheRange'' has an animated short part of its continuity called "A Dairy Tale" where Mrs. Calloway tries telling a story about the three little pigs. All the other farm animals keep interrupting her and pretty much derail it before she even gets to the wolf blowing houses down. She's initially angry at them, but the piglets she was telling the story to said it was awesome, and she changed her tone right away.

* In ''Series/CSINewYork'' episode The Lady in the Lake, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Adam]] is telling a story to a witness's kids while they're in the station waiting for their parent. He starts off telling them a story about a Cinderella-esque victim who was found [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin in the lake]] during a ball. The suspects actually line up fairly closely to a PrinceCharming (the victim's wealthy fiance), an EvilSorcerer (her drug-dealer ex who [[spoiler: wasn't so evil after all]]) and a WickedWitch (the fiance's snobbish mother, who [[spoiler: committed the murder]].) Of course, the story is derailed because it's Adam telling it, and he found a piece of a spaceship.

* When the cast of ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'' do ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl'' as a play for an old folks' home for Christmas, they decide they want to make it more interesting, so it ends up featuring two {{Magical Girl}}s, one of whom's [[GenderBender the old man]] from the Japanese ''Kasajizo'' folktale, who set a mansion on fire, then team up with [[UsefulNotes/The47Ronin Kuranosuke Oishi to fight Kouzuke-no-suke Kira]], who turns out to be a dragon.

Not to be confused with FracturedFairyTale, though the results may be very similar. May involve NarrativeBackpedaling.

* ''Franchise/{{Tsukiuta}}'' has audio two audio plays featuring the idol units doing improv fairy tales. Six Gravity's "Little Red Riding Hood" (Kakeru) ends up as an axe murderer. Procellarum's "Shunderella" is, well... what you'd expect when you get the Demon King to play Cinderella.

* When the cast of ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'' do ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl'' as a play for an old folks' home for Christmas, they decide they want to make it more interesting, so it ends up featuring two {{Magical Girl}}s, one of whom's [[GenderBender the old man]] from the Japanese ''Kasajizo'' folktale, who set a mansion on fire, then team up with [[UsefulNotes/TheFortySevenRonin Kuranosuke Oishi to fight Kouzuke-no-suke Kira]], who turns out to be a dragon.

* ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'''s version of ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl'', thanks to the cast deciding to make the story more interesting, involves two {{Magical Girl}}s, one of whom's [[GenderBender an old man]], who set a mansion on fire, then team up with [[UsefulNotes/TheFortySevenRonin Kuranosuke Oishi to fight Kouzuke-no-suke Kira]], who turns out to be a dragon.
* Happens in ''Manga/SketDance'' when the principal asks Sket Dan to prepare a story for his grandson. They start with what is supposed to be a safe game, the classic Japanese tale of Momotaro, but since all of them consider various parts of the story to be anachronistic, implausible or uninteresting to modern audience, they start to introduce various changes in setting, characters and events (often using modern manga tropes) until they end up twisting it into a chaotic mash.

* An early ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' strip had a grandpa try to read ''Snow White'' to two little kids, the black kid objects: "Hold it, there ARE other colors, you know!" and the other kid says, "And what's with this dwarf business?" so the grandpa says, "Alright, alright, this is the story of Pitch Black and the Seven Big Honkies! Happy?"

* ''Disney/HomeOnTheRange'' has an animated short part of its continuity called "A Dairy Tale" where Mrs. Calloway tries telling a story about the three little pigs. All the other farm animals keep interrupting her and pretty much derailed it before she even got to the wolf blowing houses down. She's initially angry at them, but the piglets she was telling the story to said it was awesome, and she changed her tone right away.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' episode "Deedee-locks and the Ness Monster". Dexter is told read Dee Dee a bedtime story while she's ill. However she gets bored and makes up her own fairy tale; featuring a girl called Dee Dee Locks having adventures with a three-headed creature known as the Ness Monster.

* ''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 [[Anime/CodeGeass the United States of Japan]].

* ''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]].

--> '''Calvin''': Wow, the story was ''different'' that time!
--> '''Hobbes''': Do you think the townsfolk will find Hamster Huey's head?

A child has demanded a bedtime story. The storyteller starts into a traditional {{fairy tale|s}}, but the kid insists on [[OffTheRails altering the story]]. As plot points are [[RandomEventsPlot introduced willy-nilly]], the narrative will eventually fall apart.

* ''Film/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.

* 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.

* ''GothamGirls'': The Three Bears become the Three Babes, among other changes.
* 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.
* In one of the ''U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm'' 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.
** In another segment, Orson tries telling the story of Cinderella to Booker and Sheldon, and 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 yet ''another'' episode where the exact same thing happens, this time with the story of Rumpelstiltskin. Even Roy and Wade get in on the act.
* [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Calvin]] tends to insist that all animals in the stories be turned into tigers, among other demands, until his father resorts to RocksFallEveryoneDies.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'', episode "U is for Undivided": The kid who demanded a bedtime story just happens to be a RealityWarper.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', episode "Three Little Piglets," and a honey tree. The first little piglet lived in a honey tree...er, straw house, which was next to a [[RunningGag honey tree]]. And he was terrorized by the Big Bad Bunny, saved by the Masked Offender and...it's basically Pooh reading a story with everyone adding their own stuff while [[StraightMan Rabbit]] keeps trying to keep them on track.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', Rocko and Heffer tell a sick Filburt the story of [[Literature/HanselAndGretel Hansel and Debbie]], who go into the woods and find a house made of fish sticks, and then...it all gets more convoluted after that.
* An early ''BloomCounty'' strip had a grandpa try to read ''Snow White'' to two little kids, the black kid objects: "Hold it, there ARE other colors, you know!" and the other kid says, "And what's with this dwarf business?" so the grandpa says, "Alright, alright, this is the story of Pitch Black and the Seven Big Honkies! Happy?"
* Played with in the Literature/{{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.
** In the original, Vimes tried it for a while, but Sybil objected when Jr started picking up... improper vocabulary, such as "Buggrit!"
** The plot of ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'' involves the witches doing this ''in real life'', trying to abort the BigBad's attempt to make a fairytale play out in reality.
* ''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]].
* Another example in which the storyteller, rather than the child, derails the story: the short story "Little Green Riding Hood". The grandfather telling the story keeps trying to change it (replacing the wolf with a giraffe, for instance) and the child keeps correcting him. Finally the grandfather manages to get out of telling the story by giving the child money to buy chewing gum.

* 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.
* Episode "Nursery Crimes" of ''WesternAnimation/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]].
* The entire premise behind the french canadian children show ''Fanfreluche'', a living ragdoll who would read fairy tales to the audience and enter the book to change the plot and alter the ending.

* Happens in ''SketDance'' when the principal asks Sket Dan to prepare a story for his grandson. They start with what is supposed to be a safe game, the classic Japanese tale of Momotaro, but since all of them consider various parts of the story to be anachronistic, implausible or uninteresting to modern audience, they start to introduce various changes in setting, characters and events (often using modern manga tropes) until they end up twisting it into a chaotic mash.
* Happens in ''[[{{Smosh}} A Smoshy Christmas]]'' with the bedtime story Anthony is telling to Ian.
* ''Disney/HomeOnTheRange'' has an animated short part of its continuity called "A Dairy Tale" where Mrs. Calloway tries telling a story about the three little pigs. All the other farm animals keep interrupting her and pretty much derailed it before she even got to the wolf blowing houses down. She's initially angry at them, but the piglets she was telling the story to said it was awesome, and she changed her tone right away.

A child has demanded a bedtime story. The storyteller starts into a traditional fairy tale, but the kid insists on altering said story. As plot points are introduced willy-nilly, the narrative will eventually fall apart.

Not to be confused with FracturedFairyTale. May involve NarrativeBackpedaling.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', episode "Three Little Piglets."