History Main / MeritBadgesForEverything

-->'''Rosa:''' Badges! [[BeamMeUpScotty We don't need no stinking badges!]]

* This troper remembers a sketch at his Scout camp that referenced this. The campfire was interrupted by an old former Scout who complained about how easy things are now.

* HomeStuck. Leveling up in God Tiers no longer awards Boondollars [[MoneyForNothing (that shit is for babies)]]. They now get ACHIEVEMENT BADGES sewn on their KIDDY CAMPER HANDYSASH, like [[YouHaveResearchedBreathing being able to talk face to face without any gimmicks]].

* Also from Disney, the Fireside Girls of ''PhineasAndFerb'', whose exploits can be as insanely overambitious as the title characters' schemes and so earned them all kinds of bizarre badges, often [[ContrivedCoincidence related to the boys' latest scheme]]. Once, Isabella casually mentions that they just earned their Mountain Moving badge, and we see the hole where it used to be, and the mountain in its new setting. Other times, they're trying to get badges in aeronautics or [[BadassAdorable alligator wrestling]].

* The Little Amazons from ''TheOblongs'' had a hygiene badge (which Helga could not, in good conscience, accept).

* In ''{{Psychonauts}}'', you get new abilities by earning their merit badge, so you end up with a whole bunch of merit badges in things like Invisibility, Clairvoyance, and Levitation.

<<|{{Youngsters}}|>>

* The "Scoutrageous!" episode of ''TheGoodies'' features the World Domination badge (up to that point only ever awarded to Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and David Frost. But Frost stole his.).

* RealLife: The Cub Scouts Of America [[http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/0428/Boy-Scouts-of-America-offers-pins-loops-for-video-game-prowess now offers pins and loops]] in {{video games}}. The [[http://uk.gamespy.com/articles/108/1086555p1.html response]] of the Gamespy website's Mike Starkey also fits this trope:

* The ''Scoutrageous!'' episode of TheGoodies features the World Domination badge (up to that point only ever awarded to Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and David Frost. But Frost stole his.).

Sometimes this concept is used as a throw away line to explain some (suddenly essential) esoteric knowledge held by one of the heroes (particularly if they have not been set up as having those skills as part of their character): "Bob, when did you learn to [[MacGyvering make a Ham Radio]] out [[BambooTechnology of toothpicks]] [[HomemadeInventions and tinfoil]]?"

"Oh you know, I got my [[MacGyvering Amateur Radio Building]] Merit Badge when I was a Boy Scout -- never had any use for it until now."

* ''The Red Green Book: Wit and Wisdom of Possum Lodge'' has a set of badges which parody the Boy Scouts one. The more advanced ones, starting with Bowling and Fishing, require developing an obsession about the content, including dreaming about it. After a few other examples, it terminates with "Anything men enjoy", which can be used for practically anything.

** Recently, Boy Scouts has created a {{Geocaching}} Merit Badge.

-->[[WhenIWasYourAge Back in my day]], we had to walk nine miles to get to school every morning, and nine miles to get back home -- uphill both ways. And we didn't have these fancy Videogame Belt Loops or Pins in the Cub Scouts. If we were lucky, [[TheSpartanWay we'd get sent into bear country alone for a week with no food or water]]. [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood And if we made it out in one piece]], the troop leader would ask us why we weren't man enough to earn the Eaten Alive badge.

* Basketry (weaving baskets)

* Wood Carving (to anyone who attended Tomahawk, the above three were "the Big Three" that ''everyone'' did the first year)

* Fingerprinting. Usually finished off in about half an hour at the craft hut during scout camp.
* Metal Working (Almost every Boy Scout this troper knows used this as an excuse to produce his very own ninja stars - pretty doggone deadly ninja stars too (Alternately, remember: It's not a sword, it's a really long, really sharp letter opener)).

* The latest odd one, Video Games. Yeah, video games. To be exact, knowledge relating to the ESRB and stuff.

Those seven merit badges were the favorites of Boy Scouts at Scout Camp who needed an extra merit badge but didn't want to work too hard.

* Also from Disney, the Fireside Girls of ''PhineasAndFerb'', whose exploits can be as insanely overambitious as the title characters' schemes and so earned them all kinds of bizarre badges, often [[ContrivedCoincidence related to the boys' latest scheme]]. Once, Isabella casually mentions that they just earned their Mountain Moving badge, and we see the hole where it used to be, and the mountain in its new setting. Other times, they're trying to get badges in aeronautics or [[BadassAdorable alligator wrestling]].
* One episode of ''TheFairlyOddparents'' had Cosmo getting various weird merit badges.
* The Urban Rangers of ''{{Ed Edd N Eddy}}'' have, among many others, a Lard Bringing Badge and a Microwave Burrito Badge, as well as a Bringing Me My Badge Badge.
* ''[[TheMightyB The Mighty B!]]''

* There's a ''GothamGirls'' webisode that has Harley Quinn and Batgirl use this gag for extreme humor value. Somehow a knot-tying merit badge in their world allows you to restrain an opponent head to toe in seconds.
** Well, if the younger scouts would PAY ATTENTION during Pioneering merit badge, (The real life equivalent) this might be closer to TruthInTelevision.
* There's that old ''LooneyTunes'' cartoon where Porky Pig has licenses to do ridiculous things culminating in "permit to use Daffy Duck as motor". Then he doesn't have a marriage license, not being married. This isn't a merit badge, but it's gotta be related.
* In [[SouthPark Jew Scouts]] there are apparently two ways to get a Chutzpah Badge: babysit the "Squirts" (Cub Scouts equivalent) or capture a bear.

* In ''{{Psychonauts}}'', you get new abilities by earning their merit badge, so you end up with a whole bunch of merit badges in things like Invisibility, Clairvoyance, and Levitation.
* RealLife: The Cub Scouts Of America [[http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/0428/Boy-Scouts-of-America-offers-pins-loops-for-video-game-prowess now offers pins and loops]] in {{video games}}. The [[http://uk.gamespy.com/articles/108/1086555p1.html response]] of the Gamespy website's Mike Starkey also fits this trope:
-->[[WhenIWasYourAge Back in my day]], we had to walk nine miles to get to school every morning, and nine miles to get back home -- uphill both ways. And we didn't have these fancy Videogame Belt Loops or Pins in the Cub Scouts. If we were lucky, [[TheSpartanWay we'd get sent into bear country alone for a week with no food or water]]. [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood And if we made it out in one piece]], the troop leader would ask us why we weren't man enough to earn the Eaten Alive badge.

* This troper remembers a sketch at his Scout camp that referenced this. The campfire was interrupted by an old former Scout who complained about how easy things are now.
-->Why in my day, we only had one badge: Coal Mining.
* In ''Taz-Mania'', the Bandicoot scouts seemed to have badges for everything. For example, Taz's brother had a merit badge in swinging from vines to save people from falling off waterfalls.
* An episode of TheGoodies involves Bill and Graeme joining the Scouts. By the end, there's only one badge they've failed to acheive: [[spoiler:"Take Over the World"]]

-->Back in my day, we had to walk nine miles to get to school every morning, and nine miles to get back home -- uphill both ways. And we didn't have these fancy Videogame Belt Loops or Pins in the Cub Scouts. If we were lucky, [[TheSpartanWay we'd get sent into bear country alone for a week with no food or water]]. [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood And if we made it out in one piece]], the troop leader would ask us why we weren't man enough to earn the Eaten Alive badge.

* Also from Disney, the Fireside Girls patches in ''PhineasAndFerb'', whose exploits can be as insanely overambitious as the title characters' schemes - once Isabella casually mentions that they just earned their Mountain Moving badge, and we see the hole where it used to be, and the mountain in its new setting.

** It also features a montage of two of the characters earning badges they are blatantly making up as they go, including the Wig Spotters Badge, the Stealing A Pair Of Margaret Thatchers Bloomers Badge, and the Cheering Up Lonely Housewives Whose Husbands Are Away At Work badge.

* PhineasAndFerb: the Fireside Girls can earn patches for, among other things, ''alligator wrestling.''

Those six merit badges were the favorites of Boy Scouts at Scout Camp who needed an extra merit badge but didn't want to work too hard.