History Main / FreeTheFrogs

* The MadeForTVMovie ''[[TheMuppets Kermit's Swamp Years]]''. The moral objection becomes a whole lot more clear-cut if the frogs themselves are capable of expressing an opinion.

* In ''MamotteShugogetten'', Shaorin (on her first day out of her ring in 400 years) prevents a professor from dissecting a (still living) frog by asking him to take her life instead, and later releases that frog into the bushes.

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* Kiernan Shipka's character Zoe sneaks her frog out of class to free it in the Hallmark movie ''Smooch''. The frog then gets away and Shipka then meets a man who she mistakes to be the frog [[TheFrogPrince now transformed into a prince.]]

* On ''SavedByTheBell'' (back when it was still ''Good Morning Miss Bliss''), a girl frees the frogs before they can be killed by the science teacher with the Einstein hairdo, weird goggles, and ghastly voice. She eventually returned the frogs as part of a BrokenAesop about not pushing her beliefs on others, but the more obvious moral of the episode was (of course) that ScienceIsBad.
* A 1990 ''{{Neighbours}}'' storyline saw Melissa Jarrett objecting to her boyfriend breeding mice for dissection and enlisting the help of activist Kerry Bishop, who had a few Animal Wrongs Group tendencies, to free the mice (and a few frogs). The teacher simply acquired some more mice and the lesson went ahead, with Melissa and two other students opting out.
* ''NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'' had an episode that parodied every possible form of this plot in twelve minutes. The frog that is freed turns out to be more of a class pet as in real life and all of the ones that will be dissected were already dead. In the climax, the kids release the frog to "roam free," we hear it crossing a busy street -- and with a sickening thud, the kids are splattered with green goo. Then the lunch lady walks by and says, "who left my spinach cans out in the road?"

* In an ''EdisonTwins'' episode, during the college season, the twins deal with an idealistic young man who cannot tolerate having rabbits being killed for their studies and releases them on the campus. The Twins protest that this is clearly impractical since the domesticated rabbits can't survive in the wild and they manage to round them up. The next day, the professor who was using these rabbits is told of the incident in class and the young man stands to calmly state his objection to using the rabbits. However, the professor unexpectedly reveals that he anticipated this and used it as an opening to begin his next lecture topic, "Ethics for Scientists."
* The short lived ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' clone, ''TeenAngel'' had a very bizarre take on this. The characters give their frog human intelligence and the ability to talk and he becomes a member of their clique.

* Shows up in a flashback of ''PushingDaisies''. Things get much more interesting when the frogs come pre-killed, only for the kid to resurrect them...

* A ''[[ThirdRockFromTheSun 3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' episode played with this using flies of all creatures. At Alissa's suggestion, Tommy freed the flies and the teacher immediately gave him an "F". Then Alissa revealed that she was just kidding, saying "I didn't think you'd actually ''do it''!"

* In ''{{The Secret World of Alex Mack}}'', one episode features a subplot in which Alex learns that her biology class will be dissecting a frog (apparently only one is being cut up) and she fears that it will be the class pet. At the end of the episode, her sister finds that she rescued the frog and was releasing it into the woods. Not only does the sister approve, but confesses that she performed a similar feat when she was in Alex's grade (she rescued a large number of flatworms).
* In ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'', Francis released 200 frogs from biology class into the middle of a highway, causing a massive traffic jam. He claimed he was "freeing the alleged frogs".

* Done in the TV adaptation of ''{{Zbeng}}!'', where a guy attempts it to improve the score with his angry SoapBoxSadie girlfriend.
* Becky Conner from ''{{Roseanne}}'' takes a C in Biology rather than commit animal genocide (dissect a frog).

* In a comparable scenario not taking place in science class, Radar on ''[[Series/{{MASH}} M*A*S*H]]'' once rescued a lamb which had been slated to become dinner for a visiting group of Greek soldiers. His moral outrage at their plans played out exactly like this trope.

* Comic strip variation: In ''{{Zits}}'', Hector's StrawVegetarian girlfriend Autumn convinced Hector and Jeremy to take several thousand locusts bound for the science lab and free them ''in the hallway'' with a variation of the title being their warcry. RealityEnsues when the Hazmat unit shows up.
* Happened in the comic strip ''FoxTrot''. When Paige Fox hears that she will be dissecting a frog in biology, she is grossed out by the idea and tries to get out of it. When she finally does dissect the frog, she thinks it's cool and describes it in detail to her family at dinner.

* In one ''{{Drabble}}'' strip, Norman tries to impress longtime love Wendy by telling her how he set his frog free and let it jump out the window. She then reminds him that his biology class is on the eleventh floor.

* Done, but heavily mocked, in the web comic ''{{Timelysium}}''. The main character is a time traveler who has to do whatever history says happened and is trying to keep the timeline from going out of whack, so he has no choice. This does NOT, however, stop him from ranting about it to the GranolaGirl whose idea it was in the first place:

* An episode of ''PepperAnn'' had the titular Ann refusing to dissect a frog in her science class after taking it home over the weekend. She eventually does the work based entirely on an internet-based dissection simulation called [=VirtuaFrog=]. Unusually, her teacher ''does'' give her the chance to opt out and watch a film on plants instead.
* A slightly different take occurs on ''TinyToonAdventures'' in an episode where Hamton's class is required to dissect a frog. Unlike the above examples, the science class uses dead frogs. The twist is that Hamton's frog is still alive, which he has trouble proving to anyone else, because it happens to be [[OneFroggyEvening Michigan J. Frog]]. Complete with singing.

* There was an episode of ''{{Braceface}}'' that dealt with this trope. It might have been Sharon protesting seeing as she's an animal lover and a vegetarian so at least it's consistent.
** This one also [[HandWave hand waved]] the fact that the frogs are supposed to be delivered pre-killed by showing the teacher complaining to the delivery guy about the mix-up that resulted in live ones being delivered.

* The former half of ''MinaAndTheCount'' was assigned to dissect an already-dead frog. [[MadScientist She brought it back to life]].
* An episode of ''TheBrakShow'' featured Brak trying to get out of killing and dissecting a clam he's grown fond of. After playing sick the night before doesn't work, he almost succeeds by [[ItMakesSenseInContext having a lumberjack-turned-bird grant his wish]], only for Zorak to eat the bird at the last second. Ultimately the clam [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext busts out of school himself and borrows Brak's Mom's car to get away.]]
* Done by Creepie in the ''GrowingUpCreepie'' episode "Operation Monarch Liberation". Just replace Frogs with Butterflies.
* In the second episode of ''{{Daria}}'', [[CasanovaWannabe Upchuck]] reveals that the only reason he was invited to Brittany's party was because he dissected her frog.

** So...quadruple subversion? Though this editor may have lost count.

* ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. Lydia fakes out the Maitlands by claiming to have gotten a C in Biology because she refused to dissect frogs. She then reveals she really got an A, but doesn't go into any more detail about dissecting anything.

* In one episode of ''{{Dinosaurs}}'', Granola Guy Robbie is expected to dissect a human for biology class. He smuggles her out of class, and later releases her into the wild.

* Comic strip variation: The teenage lead character in ''{{Zits}}'', along with his friends, take several thousand locusts bound for the science lab and free them ''in the hallway'' with a variation of the title being their warcry.

* In ''FairlyOddParents'' the students were dissecting frogs (on the last day of school, for some reason). Though none of the students actively protested as much as staring at the frogs, Timmy uses his invisibility wish to beat up Francis, who'd been more than happy to cut open the frog. It almost becomes horrific when you realize the frog was still alive.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Detentionare}}'': "[[Recap/DetentionaireS1E10WelcomeToFactoryIsland Welcome to Factory Island]]": The tenth grade students get sent on an excursion to Green Apple Splat soda factory after A. Nigma High gets overrun by freed dissection frogs. Lee discovers that the frogs were freed by a trio of students called the [[http://detentionaire.wikia.com/wiki/Tree_Huggers Tree Huggers]] and they admit that they had also released the frogs on the day of the Prank while everyone was busy with the assembly. [[spoiler: When the Tree Huggers see that frogs are used in the production of Green Apple Splat, they mess with the factory controls and cause a meltdown while freeing them.]]

* In ''AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'', GranolaGirl swamp witch Misty Day [[spoiler: winds up in an IronicHell where she must dissect a frog for all eternity]]

* Comic book example: In ''{{The Tale Of One Bad Rat}}'' Helen frees a batch of rats which are scheduled for dissection. The one that doesn't run away, she adopts as a pet.

* Roy does this in an episode of ''Series/{{Roy}}''. However, he attempts to keep the frogs in his room instead of releasing them into the wild and HilarityEnsues.

* In AmericanHorrorStoryCoven, GranolaGirl swamp witch Misty Day [[spoiler: winds up in an IronicHell where she must dissect a frog for all eternity]]

* In many, if not all Scottish schools, dissection is no longer practiced, except on flowers. This can lead to a certain amount of dissapointment in 11 year-olds moving up to high school who watched a lot of American television, and were actually looking forward to dissecting a frog, if only to enact this trope.

* ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. Lydia gets a C in Biology because she refuses to dissect frogs.

-->'''Simon Valentine''': ...I am but scant breaths away from [[UpliftedAnimal enabling the classroom frogs to speak]], and in turn, form some semblence of an intelligent revolt. [[EvenEvilHasStandards The dismantling of a frog cannot teach us anything new]]. The inner workings of a simple frog have already been explained. We should only be [[WellIntentionedExtremist willing to cross the line]] [[ForScience for the unexplained]].
** In the ''{{Superboy}}'' series, Valentine now has an ''army'' of genetically-altered frogs. With [[PowersAsPrograms power draining]] abilities.

* In the episode "Splitting Images" of ''DannyPhantom,'' Sam, the series's [[SoapboxSadie animal activist goth]], sets up a "Save the Frogs" campaign which includes T-shirts, pins, and an assembly.
** And robo-frogs. Don't forget robo-frogs (that obnoxiously encouraged you to remove their realistic organs).

Of course, in real high schools, most if not all animals for dissection now come pre-killed.[[hottip:*:though one may need live frogs for studying such as nerves, but they come terminally anesthetized and/or pithed]] The idea that the teacher would kill the frogs at the school comes from the days when the school would purchase the animals alive, and use them for two purposes: alive to observe their behavior; then, after they'd been killed, for dissection. Most of the fear nowadays comes from the fact that the preserved corpses smell, well, like preserved corpses. It must also be noted that in RealLife schools today, teachers are required to provide an alternative for students who can't dissect frogs for any reason, be it religious, moral, or simple {{squick}}.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' Dash mentions he dissected a frog in passing. Which is strange considering he's in elementary, though this could've just been a lie since he only said it so he could stall confessing to dad he used his powers to pull a prank on a teacher.

* Roy does this in an episode of ''Series/{{Roy}}''.

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* In ''TheIncredibles'' Dash mentions he dissected a frog in passing. Which is strange considering he's in elementary, though this could've just been a lie since he only said it so he could stall confessing to dad he used his powers to pull a prank on a teacher.
* In ''[[HeyHeyItsEstherBlueburger Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger]]'', Esther has to dissect her pet duck in science class, after leaving it in a cage with other ducks over the weekend. She originaly got the duck from the same cage in the school attic.
** In South Australia, it actually is legal to purchase and raise animals specifically for the purpose of dissection, provided you sign documents saying that the animals will not be under any pain or stress, and you are a certified research institution. Like a school.