History Main / StrawCharacter

* 1. Liberal. An [[NewAgeRetroHippie aging hippie]] who refuses to believe his movement is dead, a StrawFeminist who loathes anything with a Y chromosome, a self-righteous yuppie/hipster, or an insane environmentalist who will do anything to further his crazy agenda.

* 1. Liberal. An [[NewAgeRetroHippie aging hippie]] who refuses to believe his movement is dead, a StrawFeminist who loathes anything with a Y chromosome, or an insane environmentalist who will do anything to further his crazy agenda.
* 2. Conservative. A racist GoodOlBoy who's seriously behind the times, a CorruptCorporateExecutive who only wants money, or a strict [[TheFundamentalist Fundamentalist]] (bonus points if they're Mormon or evangelical).
* 3. Libertarian. An insane survivalist with a stockpile of guns and supplies who smokes copious amounts of marijuana, or a CorruptCorporateExecutive who obsessively follows AynRand, a snotty rich WASP teenager who thinks he's a member of the intellectual elite after reading Heinlein and Rand.

* [[DivineComedy Dante]] put many of his political/religious enemies in Hell, making this OlderThanPrint.

* Andrew Ryan from the game ''{{Bioshock}}'' starts out as an ''Objectivist'' straw man, for those folk that the greedy conservative straw man just can't sate. Later on, its revealed that the downfall of Rapture occurred as a result of a political opponent's scheming and Ryan becoming a rather twisted KnightTemplar, but at the beginning the whole thing seems rather {{Anvilicious}}.
** Of course, the sequel then goes on to skewer collectivism, with Sofia Lamb replacing Andrew Ryan and preaching a cult of unity, so all strawmen are equal.
** The third game, ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', features strawman portrayals of right-wing (the Founders) and left-wing populism (the Vox Populi). At this point, it looks like they're going for a gallery of strawmen for every ideology out there.
** While Sofia Lamb is clearly a collectivist (Andrew Ryan labels her a bolshevik), the way in which rapture is later organised is actually akin to be described as a communist theocracy.So the fact that the [[AtlasShrugged brightest people in the world]] given an objectivist paradise to be free, screwed up the whole thing soo badly is in itself a mockery of Ayn Rand´s ideas. Think of it as a strawman within a strawman wrapped around a strawman of utopic philosophy.

* 3. Libertarian. An insane survivalist with a stockpile of guns and supplies who smokes copious amounts of marijuana, or a CorruptCorporateExecutive who obsessively follows AynRand (in other words, a confused mashup of the liberal and conservative straw stereotypes)

* "Family Guy" uses this trope to death; pretty much any time a character with conservative leanings appears, you can expect them to be a caricature in line of the most heavy-handed political cartoons; one specific example is Peter's father Francis, a typical Strawman Conservative religious zealot. Peter can be seen as a Strawman American thanks to his {{Flanderization}} from BumblingDad into self-absorbed {{Jerkass}}. Ironically, Brian (who is often thought of as Seth [=MacFarlane=]'s AuthorAvatar, gets viewed as a Strawman Liberal by some fans due to his vehement hatred of anything conservative (among other less than pleasant traits).

* The [=~S. M. Stirling~=] series ''{{Island in the Sea of Time}}'' and sequels have straw liberals (hippies who can't believe in Evil Natives who therefore die horribly at the Evil Natives' hands) and straw conservatives (who complain about the lesbian Coast Guard officer). His other books have other straw opponents, who exist solely to make ineffectual trouble.

* The Weasel News Network of ''GrandTheftAutoIV'' is pretty much a direct TakeThat against the FoxNews Network. (Get the pun?). Everything about the network is portrayed as CrossingTheLineTwice. For that matter, 90% of the satirical media in GTA IV is StrawConservative (arguably at the cost of laughs). ''GTA: ViceCity'' had a talk show where right and left-wing strawmen tried to out-straw each other.

** Though, as implied, SouthPark has no qualms with building a strawman of ''both'' sides in the same episode. This is exemplified in an in-universe TV debate (which might have been intended mostly to satirize how news channels tend to do this) between "White Trash Redneck Conservative" and "Aging Liberal Hippie Douche". As their ''actual names''. [[ItMakesSenseInContext They were discussing immigrants from the future.]]

** Though, as implied, SouthPark has no qualms with building a strawman of ''both'' sides in the same episode. This is exemplified in an in-universe TV debate (which might have been intended mostly to satirize how news channels tend to do this) between "White Trash Redneck Conservative" and "Aging Liberal Hippie Douche". As their ''actual names''.

** Though, as implied, SouthPark has no qualms with building a strawman of ''both'' sides in the same episode. This is exemplified in an in-universe TV debate (which might have been intended mostly to satirize how news channels tend to do this) between "Angry Ignorant Redneck" and "Aging Liberal Hippie Douche". As their ''actual names''.

* 3. Libertarian. An insane survivalist with a stockpile of guns and supplies who smokes copious amounts of marijuana, or a CorruptCorporateExecutive who obsessively follows AynRand.

** Considering the Cold War nearly went multiple times in real life early in Iron Man's comic book career, its not much of a stretch to conceive of an aggressive soviet enemy responding to Tony's inadvertent escalation of the arms race. That said, it was probably still overused but as mentioned above, it was more about the status of the relationship between the two nations and less about actual ideologies.

[[folder: Teh (b)(a)(b)(a)]]

[[quoteright:350:[[SilentHill4 http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s23115_pc_23.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:L͏҉0̷Ǫ͠K̷͏ ̷҉͜B3̸́H̛͜1̛͜n̵D ̶̸̕Ỳ͜OƯ̷͞ ̶1͘T͞͏̸'̸$̷̡ ́T̢3̶̷H ̸͟͝B̸҉a̴͘8a ͘͞͝AH̛͟҉H̡͢H́H͢H̸͟HḨ́!̧!̕͜!̕]]


!!!Voiced by: Osama Bin Laden (Afghanistanese), The Great Khali (English), The Slender man (scarynese), George W Bush (Engrish, stupidnese), David Bowie (Sexinese)

TEH (b)(a)(b)(a){GAR}33b!11!!1!one!
Teh (b)(a)(b)(a) cann0t bee st0pp3d!1!11!1!


::MY POME::
I hath come from a world that is very elastic,
shiny dung beetles like the eyes of a captain black and blue,
ride the TIGGER ride the TIGGER like a horse made of plastic,
All across the nation come a tidal wave red and like glue,
You has been treacherous to me in a way that is nostalgic,
So prepare to be put in a zoo


something associated with teh (b)(a)(b)(a)!1!!!

* I once jumped off a plane without a parachute and fell on mount everest and exploded, but did not flinch. I quickly regenerated and jumped off the mountain while wearing a pink dress doing ballet and I landed on my head. This time only my head exploded but I quickly replaced it with a rock and ran into the ocean and wrestled with sharks all night long. After causing the extinction of the sharks I had also had my arms bitten off but I replaced those with shark heads and declared war on the world. Every country with nuclear weapons dropped a atom bomb on me but I shrugged them all off and used my shark hands to do a forbidden technique and dropped the moon on the earth which caused it to be knocked off balance and crash into the sun which caused a super nova so big it created a blackhole so large which sucked the entire universe but my rock/head. Now all alone my rock/head floats in space but I did not flinch and went to sleep forever. The End.


'''Associated tropes:'''
* AttemptedRape: One time teh (b)(a)(b)(a) looked at it's reflection and thought it was sexy so it tore teh reflection out of teh mirror and attempted to raep it but instead it ate teh reflection because teh (b)(a)(b)(a) did not have lunch that day and was vely hungly
* TheBerserker: averted teh (b)(a)(b)(a) is never mad but can still berserk
* BADASS: U KNOW IT
* DisneyDeath: Teh (b)(a)(b)(a) threw Walt Disney off a cliff and to this day it is unknown if he is dead or alive
* FourIsDeath: and so is five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten,eleven..........
* HealingFactor: heals so fast that it r unpossible to woundify
* HighPressureBlood
* HolyHalo: has a holy parallelogram instead of a circle thingie
* LivingWeapon
* MeaningfulName: Teh (b)(a)(b)(a) has an meaningfilled name
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Teh (b)(a)(b)(a) is powered on aborted fetuses.
* RestrainingBolt: there is a bolt in it's head that is preventing it from killing everything.
* SlasherSmile: Even when not smiling
* SuperPrototype: of humanity
* UnstoppableRage
* YourSizeMayVary: size varies from 0 to infinity.
* The End of the World as U Know It: What happen if u angur teh (b)(a)(b)(a)

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mai-Chan's Wonderfully Incredible Awesometastic Life]]

Recommended for children aged 12 and below This is the most light hearted and sweetest thing I have ever read. This manga truly lets us know that what kind of beautiful kindness humans are capable of. Waita Uziga is now my role model and I will try my best to be like the good characters in this good manga. The best character is probably the president of America, he was kind enough to have sex with a new born(Not many people are capable of this kind of kindness "BABY FUCK, BABY FUCK!!!!! IT'SSS AWWRIGHTTT!!!~~~~~" It's AWWRIGHTTT alright) and then give it teh best death evur!11!1! Death by being blended by a blender!!11!!1(I WANT TO DIE LIKE THAT) Unfortunately for him no good deed goes unpunished and he died for YOUR sins. Also the tile should be renamed to the "Mai-Chan's Wonderfully Incredible Awesometastic Life". OH Mai-chan how I envy you!!!!!!!I guess she kind of deserved the death she had at the end. It was like heaven on earth and killing her was Kaede's worst and only sin!!!!!!I cant beleive Kaede did that!She was such a kind and gentle soul who would never think of doing any evul(Maybe it was teh trauma of being one eyed). Anyway if your looking to be a nicer person take tips from this beautiful work!!!
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fate Stay the fuck away!!!]]

Gilgamesh and King Aurthur would make such a wonderful couple

It's not good if you want to get aroused, you'll become asexual if see it's horrible and disgusting sex scenes and you wont be able to eat food again evur! so just turn the sex scenes off or if you want that this is not the game for you and if you do get aroused tear your genitals off and eat them because there's something very wrong with you. Poor king Aurthur was turned into a slutty girl so he could have sex with a perverted hero wannabe lozer who's sadly immortal and doesn't pay for his stupid decisions and comes back to life for more stupidity. Stupid Shirou(whatever his name is) also calls poor Kirie who just wants to destroy the world evul! and doesn't call Medusa and Medea(Both of whom are actually evul! in real mythology and not perverted nasulogy) evul! even though they kill people for mana but there not really evul cause then shirou would have trouble fantasizing having sex with them. Medea even put poor king Aurthur in a dress and got aroused by it the evul lesbian!(Kirie never did any thing like that to anyone). Gilgamesh is supposed to be a douche so thats alright but he wants to rape poor king Aurthur! Thats just crazy!! also the Assassins that are Arabic have been turned evul and suck the most among all servants (even in fate zero assassin sucks) and want to become immortal for no reason. The only good thing is that there is a lot of raep(I like raep!!) but horribly they present raep AS A BAD THING!!!!! Sakura that stupid bitch who gets to have her hair and eyes dyed purple and have her body violated by sexy worms and her evul brother Shinji(Who is Shinji Ikari again another person turned evul for no reason, okay so he did masturbate over a coma state girl once but I don't think evun he would go as far as to raep a worm filled girl "ewww") she enjoys teh best life evur(I'd do any thing to switch paces with her) but all this is not enough for her and she wants the lozer Shirou too and in one path she doesn't get him so she kills her poor loving grandfather and brother who gave her such a wonderful life although if you get the true ending for her path she redeems herself by letting her sister experience the same joy she felt all those years and in the end raeps and cannibalizes the stupid Shirou. Only because of this heartwarming yet awesome(Even more awesome then Mai-Chan's Daily Life) ending I give this game a 20/10.
[[/folder]]

YOU CANT BAN ME [smile]

Fast Eddie is a faggot and a fisherman

[[CodeGeass http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bad_Suzaku_Sub-1.jpg]]
[[caption-width:350:Fast Eddie in his youth about to raep a fish or shove it up his ass(I don't know what he means by "Proceeding to pleasure himself with this fish").]]

[[quoteright:320: [[TheSimpsons http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simpsons_gop_hq.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:320:Members of the Springfield Republican Party include {{Dracula}}, an attempted murderer, a watercooler, and an [[HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight unfunny]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking clown]].]]
->''"Oh my God! The dead have risen and they're voting Republican!"''
-->--'''[[TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]]''', in "Sideshow Bob Roberts," [[hottip:*:on finding the tomb of a [[VoteEarlyVoteOften "registered voter" who died in 1909]].]]

A boxer steps into the ring and declares that today the crowd will watch as he pulverizes the reigning world champion. He then produces a straw dummy that looks a little like his supposed opponent, beats the hell out of it, and declares himself the victor. This is the strawman ''fallacy''; a debater constructs a weakened or just plain unrecognizable form of an opponent's argument, and in defeating it acts like he has defeated the real argument.

A straw ''character'' is a caricature of a person holding an opposing viewpoint, a character the author has set up in order to ridicule a particular viewpoint.

A strawman can have pretty much any political or religious stance. Why bother addressing the real issues of, for example, firearms advocates, when you can instead portray them all as bearded, racist lunatics ranting about black helicopters and wanting to own their own nuclear warheads? And so it goes with other examples; capitalists literally worship the bottom line, liberals are all secret communists aiming to destroy morality, scientists shake their fist at God while plotting to surpass him, the religious are wide-eyed, superstitious madmen, feminists want to kill all men, and so on. This is not to say that such extremists don't actually exist, but the straw character presents extreme or minority views as the ''typical'' beliefs of a group rather than those of a tiny subset of it.

A sub-type of straw character is the sounding board, a character who makes points on their side purely so a character the author agrees with can reply with devastating comebacks that prove the first character's foolishness. The straw character is left stumped by the author's obvious wisdom, and will struggle to reply or explode angrily to show how unreasonable they are.

Characters of this type are extremely one-dimensional. Every aspect of them is geared towards advancing the views of the author. The presence of such characters is often jarring and sometimes offensive to people who actually hold the beliefs that are being misrepresented; in addition, strawmen are very ineffective tools to convert or convince people of opposing beliefs and are more suitable for PreachingToTheChoir. This is especially annoying when a normal member of the cast [[WeHaventLearnedAnythingYet suddenly loses IQ points]] to deliver AnAesop.

The American strawmen sometimes fall into one of these categories (see PoliticalStereotype):
* 1. Liberal. An [[NewAgeRetroHippie aging hippie]] who refuses to believe his movement is dead, a StrawFeminist who loathes anything with a Y chromosome, or an insane environmentalist who will do anything to further his crazy agenda.
* 2. Conservative. A racist GoodOlBoy who's seriously behind the times, a CorruptCorporateExecutive who only wants money, or a strict [[TheFundamentalist Fundamentalist]] (bonus points if they're Mormon or evangelical).
* 3. Libertarian. An insane survivalist with a stockpile of guns and supplies who smokes copious amounts of marijuana, or a CorruptCorporateExecutive who obsessively follows AynRand.

{{Sub Trope}}s:

* CruellaToAnimals
* StrawFeminist
* MalcolmXerox
* AnimalWrongsGroup
* StrawLoser

See StrawmanU for an entire university composed of straw characters or FictionalPoliticalParty for what can amount to an entire party of strawmen. See also FoxNewsLiberal for varieties trotted out for or by the media.

The strawman is a relative of the [[WindmillPolitical Windmill]]. While a strawman is a dumbed down version of a real enemy or threat, a windmill is not at all the threat it's believed to be - if it even ''exists'' in the first place. A person who [[WindmillCrusader honestly fights such windmills]] can be used as a StrawLoser, while a [[ManipulativeBastard dishonest person]] who tricks others into fighting windmills typically is a StrawHypocrite.

----
!!Examples

[[WMG: Please don't add RealLife or TruthInTelevision examples. [[PoesLaw While there are some people with views so extreme it's hard to believe they're not a joke]], these people are not in themselves straw character, as they were not constructed for the specific purpose of mocking their own viewpoints. We hope.]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Almost every evangelist tract by JackChick features strawmen liberals as villains. Often he proves his arguments by having a character argue down a StrawmanPolitical.
** A particularly bad one is "Big Daddy", which consists mostly of a blatant GaryStu debating evolution with a StrawmanPolitical science teacher. Guess who wins?
** Jack Chick outdid himself in a Crusaders and Alberto comics, where the main characters meet new political strawmen every issue who state things such as the Catholic Church is really a front for TheIlluminati or Communism is actually a form of Satanism.
* Goldilocks, from the Vertigo comic ''Fables'', seems to be this at first, with just about every negative stereotype about liberal feminists you can think of, spouting Communist rhetoric, exclaiming "Oh my Goddess!" at every turn; however, it turns out it's all an act to cynically manipulate her followers. Also, she's insane.
* In an issue of'' {{Preacher}}'', Jesse was listening to a late-night debate between a Straw Feminist and a Straw Conservative which was so stupid he got pissed off, called the radio station, and used his CompellingVoice to make them confess what each really wanted. They ''both'' said they want cock.
* The CorruptCorporateExecutive version of LexLuthor occasionally edged into Strawman Conservative territory, though when the character actually ran for president the writers were careful not to describe his political leanings at all. Though it's worth noting that at one point, Green Arrow decries something President Luthor has done with "This would never happen with a Democrat in the White House!" (Green Arrow's own leftist strawman status is debatable; make your own decision on whether his statement there was meant as a strawman's or dead serious.) In his defense, approximately 100% of Democrats ''aren't'' Lex Luthor, so he's probably right. Although the whole "supervillain" issue is probably more relevant.
** The animated "Batman/Superman: Public Enemies" avoids this by making Luthor a third-party independent.
** Luthor was a third party candidate in the comic books as well [[DependingOnTheWriter if some writers forgot that in order to turn him into a Strawman,]] that can't be helped but the main writers on the story showed him as competing with the "two major party candidates."
* TheDCU super-duo, Hawk and Dove, were ''created'' to exemplify this trope. In the original stories, penned by Objectivist SteveDitko, Dove, the pacifist, is portrayed as weak-willed, vacillating, and ineffectual, while his aggressive brother Hawk is the only one who manages to accomplish anything. Almost every writer ''since'' Ditko has portrayed Hawk as a thoughtlessly belligerent borderline berserker, with the rational, thoughtful Dove providing the only rational check on his action. Only rarely do we see a story where both viewpoints are treated with anything approaching equal regard, or a writer who admits the possibility that the different approaches might be appropriate in different situations. Ironically, this mainly came to the fore when Ditko was working with Steve Skeates, the more liberal co-creator of the duo. Characterization veered from side to side depending on who was doing the main plotting, until Skeates finally left the book over how Dove was being made into a wimp. When Hawk and Dove were later revived, the whole "conservative vs. liberal" thing was quietly dropped in the dustbin, and the two were recast as agents of Order (Dove) and Chaos (Hawk) meant to find a balance in tumultuous situations. Bonus Points: their father was a judge and always told them that they needed to see and understand each other's side. Later taken to extremes when Hawk [[{{Flanderization}} murdered Dove and became a brutal militaristic dictator.]] And then taken to an even greater extreme during Blackest Night, where Dove I is apparently the only dead person in the entire universe who is at peace.
** This all becomes rather strange when you consider that the peaceful, pacifist, Dove constantly telling Hawk that not all problems are solved by running around in spandex and punching people in the face is portrayed as unfailingly right by most writers, when the entire setting pretty much revolves around people running around in spandex and punching people in the face.
** It's also important to remember that [[ValuesDissonance throughout most of the 1960s, before the antiwar mindset truly entered the liberal mainstream]], it was possible to be a liberal ''and'' a hawk (as long as, of course, war advanced a liberal agenda). In fact, at many times in the past the ''conservatives'' were the ones who were antiwar.
** In the [[JusticeLeagueUnlimited JLU]] episode ''Hawk and Dove'', they were portrayed once again as Straw Conservative and Liberal respectively, and while Hawk was once again portrayed as an over-aggressive brute vs Dove's pacifist outlook, though Hawk's behavior was tempered by his stated need to protect his brother, whom he saw as "weak".
* The Daily Planet columnist Dirk Armstrong in ''{{Superman}}'' was created as a strawman conservative, though some later writers gave him more depth and sympathetic qualities, such as having to raise a blind teenage daughter on his own. His strawman status should have been obvious, given his physical resemblance to RushLimbaugh. While he is portrayed initially as a Superman fan (for being tough on crime), he is the first to turn on Superman after he loses control of his powers and becomes an energy being... though [[DorkAge in hindsight]], he might have been the OnlySaneMan on this subject! Thankfully, soon after that storyline ended, he was PutOnABus and has not been seen since.
** Some writers that handled the character seemed to think that any conservative leaning, ''at all'', constituted being a whacko extremist. Meaning that when Armstrong vowed to devote his column to making sure a mayor with a poor gun rights record wasn't elected (at least until the election), it slammed straight into StrawmanHasAPoint territory so hard that if you weren't aware of the character's status as a strawman whipping-boy, you'd have thought they ''meant'' him to be right. For extra points, he said this while at a costume party and dressed as Lincoln... the mayor was dressed as ''Caesar.''
* Many argue that IronMan (and many of the pro-registration heroes, such as Mr. Fantastic) became one of these in the MarvelComics CrisisCrossover ''Comicbook/CivilWar'', which dealt with [[SuperRegistrationAct superhero registration]]; originally, both sides were to be intended to have equally valid and reasonable justifications for the positions they adopted, but writers penning anti-registration stories kept having IronMan -- who was leading the pro-registration side -- commit atrocity after atrocity after atrocity in order to make their preferred side seem better. This ended up turning the pro-registration heroes into borderline fascists who were little better than super-villains themselves.
** This idea is pretty much left broken and bleeding on the curb when you realize that many of the atrocities Iron Man committed -- cloning Thor to give the pro-reg side moral authority (and keeping the clone around even after it killed Black Goliath), setting up an extradimensional gulag for unregistered heroes, and giving villains like Norman Osbourne, Venom, and Bullseye authority to track down and "restrain" unregistered heroes -- took place in the main ''Civil War'' miniseries. Which was written by Mark Millar, who claimed in a WordOfGod interview that ''he agreed with Tony's course of action'', and most people in the real world should, too.
** Euthanasia of one of his dearest friends (Iron Man), attacking ''Washington DC'' while impersonating a communist super villain (Amazing Spider-Man), hiring Baron Zemo and his Thunderbolts to capture super villains, ''and letting him keep them to build his own private army'' (New Thunderbolts), Attempting to defeat and capture Spider-Man, ''who saw him as a father figure at the time'', for not selling out his fellow heroes (Amazing Spider-Man), Appointing AxCrazy MagnificentBastard Norman Osborn as director of the Thunderbolts (Civil War Frontline, Thunderbolts)... we might have even missed a few. It is safe to say the other writers weren't actually rooting for Tony.
** Those parts weren't nearly the big problem. The big problem happened in the ''Front Line'' spinoff, in which Tony used mind-controlling nanobots on Norman Osborn, so the latter would attempt to assassinate an Atlantean diplomat in an effort to start a war with Atlantis. All of this to unite the heroes against a common threat so the in-fighting would stop, never mind if they had to commit genocide on the Atlanteans to do it. Making this even more suspect is that the author, Paul Jenkins, presents this as a good and responsible course of action, and his character Sally Floyd (a former strawman liberal), after a period of "awakening, wherein her horizons, insights, and character grows into Republican territory" literally applauds this as a truly heroic decision, rather than doing her job as a journalist by reporting his actions. This was the only action of Tony that was so outright out-of-character villainous that the incident has been treated to a complete HandWave ignore button afterwards.
*** Given the time period when these comics were being written, it sounds like most of the authors were trying to turn Iron Man into George W Bush (or Dick Cheney) and disagreed about whether or not Bush was right.
** Made worse when ''the same writers'' started using Tony as a punching bag, for example JMS, the writer of most of the above, would later have Thor beat up Tony.
** ''Invincible Iron Man'' has been averting -- or maybe reverting? -- this trope by portraying Tony in a sympathetic enough light that it's plausible to write off his most {{anvilicious}} moments from ''Civil War'' as the actions of a WellIntentionedExtremist rather than a self-centered fascist prick. The problem here is that fascists ''were'' well intentioned extremists. Maybe not the leaders, but the rank and file honestly [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans believed in their cause]]. Simply because you have good intentions doesn't mean that you aren't a fascist.
** And as of ''Dark Reign'', Stark is now [[NiceJobBreakingItHero a pathetic figure]], in that everything he's tried to build has simply allowed psychopathic opportunists like Norman Osborn to usurp control of Stark's apparatus and become a vastly corrupt secret dictator. Granted, its not Stark's fault that he wasn't able to anticipate the entire population of the United States being reduced to having the intellect of algae, that being how stupid you'd have to be to give Norman Osborn control of anything, let alone ''everything''.
** Not to mention characters like [[TheScrappy annoying twit Sally Floyd]], who would be an obvious strawman liberal under most other writers (If you don't know anything about NASCAR or Myspace, you're hopelessly out of touch with the American public? Really?). WordOfGod says we're supposed to take her seriously. Captain America writer Ed Brubaker delivered a well-deserved TakeThat in Young Avengers Presents: Patriot, in which Cap's sidekick Bucky points out how stupid this line of reasoning is to fellow Cap-inspired hero Patriot. Amusingly, his phrasing matched something he said in an interview ''word for word''.
* ''[[http://accstudios.com/f/synopsis1.htm Liberality For All]]'' is summarized as such: ''It is 2021, tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of 9/11. America is under oppression by ultra-liberal extremists who have surrendered governing authority to the United Nations. Hate speech legislation called the "Coulter Laws" have forced vocal conservatives underground. A group of bio-mechanically enhanced conservatives led by Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, and a young man born on September 11, 2001, set out to thwart Ambassador Usama bin Laden's plans to nuke New York City.'' As hard it may seem to believe, this series does contain one or two strawman liberal depictions.
* ''normalman'' has both a Strawman Liberal ''and'' a Strawman Conservative, and they're technically the same character. That is, the malevolent, overzealous reactionary nutjob Ultra-Conservative, and his alternate personality, the radical, chaotic anarchist Liberalator. Ultra-Conservative eventually suppresses the transformation by thinking about "commie agitators", "pinko faggots", and the "death penalty" while shouting that he "will not '''''change!'''''"
* The various ''{{X-Men}}'' and spinoff series semi-regularly feature intolerant, hate-preaching [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purifiers fundamentalist groups]] obviously based off televangelists and Southern Baptists with some Ku Klux Klan thrown in for good measure as villains. Several major arcs featured a Reverend Stryker becoming a major threat to the X-men. Less common, but still present on rare occasions, are religious folk shown opposing the extremist fringe. (Note also that anti-mutant discrimination is often played to echo historic discrimination against Blacks in America. That the actual emancipation movement first took root in religious circles is not similarly reflected.) They also, especially in the last few years, represent gays, so religious persecution makes perfect sense. That's the X-Men - they stand in for every minority group ever. And remember, just about any political view can be justified with the right interpretation of a religion.
* In WarrenEllis' ''BlackSummer'', WellIntentionedExtremist John Horus assassinates the US President, who's actions bear a striking resemblance to the accusations leveled at GeorgeWBush. This is treated by many of the others with a reaction generally equitable to "Sure, man, we all would have loved to have done it, that doesn't mean you ''should have''."
* GreenArrow Oliver Queen was shown as a hero for the people in his earlier stories, and had a majorly left-wing agenda, referring to rich conservatives as fat cats. Occasionally though, in more recent stories writers will let Queen's negative qualities such as his self-rightiousness or his contempt for aforementioned "Fat cats" get the better of him, and he comes off, intentionally or not, as something of a Straw Liberal. This is taken to extremes (and possibly played for laughs) in ''TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain''.
** Miller went overboard rather strongly in DK 2, but in Queen's case it should be noted that Queen had taken to cynically gaming the system in ''TheDarkKnightReturns'', which might explain his later histrionics as a means to keep a smokescreen up lest his cohorts turn on him like Superman had when [[spoiler:he burned off Queen's arm with heat vision in the backstory]]. Like Ollie said, "You have to make the bastards work for you."
* An early Garth Ennis issue of ''ThePunisher'' had the titular vigilante (of all people) threatening President Bush, claiming the US brought 9/11 on itself, and ranting about the military industrial complex a mere few weeks after the attacks happened in RealLife.
* Pretty much any politician who appears in ''TheAuthority'' will be depicted as corrupt, greedy and too dumb to live. They also will be all Strawman Conservatives - and the more vocally they are opposed to the titular group of superpowered sociopaths, the more Straw they get.
* Silver Age comics had some Straw Man Communists, especially in IronMan with guys like Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo. These guys come across as cartoonish caricatures of a what a communist is supposed to be rather then part of any criticism that has any depth. Your average communist villain in the Silver age was about as deep as a CaptainPlanet villain. Since the focus was on their ideology rather then their characters they have remained FlatCharacter types and kinda pointless after the Berlin Wall fell. The focus wasn't on their ideology (which was hardly even mentioned), the focus was on providing an [[AcceptableTargets acceptable target]] for IronMan to beat up. Basically, the writers were too lazy to think up a real motivation for enemies to attack, so they decided that the MonsterOfTheWeek attacked the hero because they were Communists, and [[AlwaysChaoticEvil that's what Communists do]]. Basically, Communists were that era's equivalent to [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]].
** Considering the Cold War nearly went multiple times in real life early in Iron Man's comic book career, its not much of a stretch to conceive of an aggressive soviet enemy responding to Tony's inadvertent escalation of the arms race. That said, it was probably still overused but as mentioned above, it was more about the status of the relationship between the two nations and less about actual ideologies.

[[folder:Film]]
* In Penthouse Pictures' ''{{Caligula}}'', [=McDowell's=] titular role takes this one VERY literally, as he leads soldiers into Gaul, has them cut down reeds there, and returns claiming to have conquered Gaul.
* ''The American President,'' the movie upon which ''TheWestWing'' based, doesn't mention what party the President or his opponent represent. The opponent, however, is portrayed as a pretty standard strawman conservative who sits around with his cronies smoking cigars and plotting evil. At one point he sings, "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" when he discovers that the incumbent President's girlfriend has a checkered past. It was pretty clear President Shepherd was a Democrat. His opponent's methods were based on the Republican rhetoric of the Bill Clinton era and he was attacked on his alleged lack of "family values", right-wing Newspeak ''par excellence''.\\
\\
The real straw is in the misapplication. By Douglas's admission, he was playing an idealized Clinton but his "scandal" was being a single man and dating a woman, which is a lot more innocent than what Republicans will attack in real life as being a breach of family values. In real life, the focus would have been entirely on the President advocating for the legislation of a lobbyist that he met in the process of her lobbying for said legislation. They'd have the right under those circumstances to call for investigation into abuse of power (because they aren't privy to what we know about the situation.)
* ''The Contender'' stars Joan Allen as a U.S. Senator (formerly moderate Republican, now a Democrat, and a pro-choice atheist to boot) who is nominated for the Vice Presidency after the incumbent veep is killed. A Republican Congressman tries to block the nomination by dredging up her sexual past, but is unsuccessful, thanks in no small part to the efforts of the (Democratic) President. The "good guys" and "bad guys" are easy to spot. (Gary Oldman, who played the Republican Congressman, and the film's producer subsequently accused DreamWorks Pictures executives of [[ExecutiveMeddling re-editing the film]], which came out three weeks prior to the 2000 election, to make the Democrats more sympathetic.)
* ''Film/ShootEmUp'' featured both a Strawman Conservative and Strawman Liberal. Both of them quite literally kill babies, but like the rest of the movie their portrayal is pretty tongue-in-cheek. Though the Strawman Conservative was portrayed as being pretty much absolutely pure evil, and for extra anviliciousness had a monologue about how America having guns was great because it let cowards feel powerful, and seems to ''enjoy'' the idea of killing babies. The Strawman Liberal, however, was portrayed more as just having lost his way, and wound up [[spoiler: begging to be killed as an atonement and to help outlaw guns]]. So it's a CompleteMonster on one side versus one treated so sympathetically at that point he's almost TheWoobie. Not all strawmen are created equal, it seems.
* ''{{La Cage aux Folles}}'', and its [[ForeignRemake American remake]] ''TheBirdcage'', feature an obvious strawman in the father of a gay man's son's fiancée. The French version has deputy Simon Charrier being played by Michel Galabru, who turns the straw into pure comedic awesomeness. And keep in mind that this being a ''French'' movie, Sarrier was not meant to be a strawman conservative, but a religious extremist: unlike the US and its Two Party System, French religious extremists do not get along well with French conservatives and usually French conservatives do not feel they are targeted when watching the movie.\\
\\
While the Senator in ''TheBirdcage'' is pretty strawmannish, it's easy enough to view it as just a sign of the ridiculous exaggeration and silliness that pervades all the characters. He's a kooky, over-the-top example of far-right politicians because the family of his daughter's fiancé is a kooky, over-the-top example of a gay couple.
** And his goals in the movie isn't that absurd: he wants to get reelected and is facing a scandal that REALLY isn't his fault. What he's against is seeming even more ridiculous in the eyes of the American public and especially HIS supporters. If you're against gay rights, it would be bad to see your senator's daughter marrying the son of a kooky, gay couple.
* ''Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay''. Almost every time politics of any type is expressed.
* ''Blue State'' is actually more politically complex than the concept (two people moving to Canada after Bush gets re-elected) would imply, but the protagonist's father is a definite conservative StrawmanPolitical: he greets his son by calling him "Comrade Lenin," locks him for voting for Kerry, and begins to act like a deranged BillOReilly on mushrooms when his son argues with him, screaming out to "cut his mic," and eventually throws his son out of the house.
* Mexican film ''Un Mundo Maravilloso'' was deliberately made as a giant leftist TakeThat to the liberal economic policies of recent governments in Mexico (but more specifically [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicente_Fox Vicente Fox]]'s administration), the protagonist (a homeless, jobless hobo) and his friends several times blame "the system" and "the government" for his situation, and the minister of economy (the antagonist) in the end decides to '''outlaw poverty''' and for this he wins the Nobel Prize in Economy. Similarly, ''La Ley de Herodes'' (which is set in the 50s) from the same filmmaker has these two exchanges between an opposition party member and a strawman U.S. citizen:
--->'''Morales:''' Do you think democracy is the solution for poor countries like Mexico?
--->'''Robert:''' No no no, we Americans also like dictatorships like yours.
--->'''Morales:''' Is it true that your countrymen are still angry from the Mexican oil expropriation?
--->'''Robert:''' Well a little... yeah. But my countrymen know that one day we will recover all of that, and in time more, much more.
* In ''Hiding Out'', Jon Cryer is an adult accountant hiding out as a high school student. In a history class, the strawman conservative teacher gives a weak and histrionic defense of Richard Nixon as Cryer's character struggles to bite his tongue.
* ''TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' features gung-ho, collateral damage causing Strawman Conservatives taking on Strawman Liberal actors who help terrorists.
* ''[[ButImACheerleader But I'm a Cheerleader]]'' involved straw-conservatives trying to teach gay teens to recover their "true" sexuality via acting out stereotypical 1950's gender roles. Of course, [[RuleOfFunny everyone in the movie is a stereotype of some sort.]]
* Most American action films from TheEighties were hostile to Straw Liberal or StrawFeminist views, with two typical varieties. In both cases, a female character has a limited number of roles: VictimOfTheWeek, DistressedDamsel, or [[DoesNotLikeMen butchy ball-busting harpy]], and will never be as important to the hero as [[HoYay his partner]].
** DaChief is always trying to get the CowboyCop to [[TurnInYourBadge Turn In His Badge]] when all he and [[BuddyCopShow his partner]] need is [[YouHave48Hours two days]] free [[VigilanteMan from procedural restraint]] to sweep the streets of TheAggressiveDrugDealer or the AxCrazy SerialKiller who the useless justice system keeps letting OffOnATechnicality.
** TheGovernment won't let the MilitaryMaverick protect America and save [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind his buddies and those POWs]] from DirtyCommunists or TerroristsWithoutACause because they keep trying diplomatic methods when ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption.
** Some of Stephen Seagal's films take the opposite approach, with the villains being [[CIAEvilFBIGood members of the American intelligence community]] or [[CorruptCorporateExecutive evil polluters]].
** Eighties Sci-fi was almost uniformly plagued by the evil Straw Conservative military; though sometimes the politics were thrown out and it was simply a Straw Military of ignorant thugs who LIKED shooting, killing, blowing things up, etc. And saw the Russians behind everything, of course.
* AwayWeGo featured not so much a Strawman Political, but a Strawman Lifestyle, in showing a "crunchy" family as ridiculous and unfit parents, with an inconsiderate, rambly, condescending wife who screeches like a harpy when presented with a stroller and a husband who just agrees with everything his wife says and mumbles something about the family bed (and is entirely forgettable, probably intentionally). You're clearly supposed to be giggling along with the protagonist couple at the silly crunchies when, in reality, there are plenty of reasons to not use a stroller, breastfeed into toddlerhood, or have a family bed.
* The documentary ''AtomicCafe'' compiles videos of WW2 and post-WW2 era American pro-war propaganda. One of these scenes is a stereotypical StrawFeminist in huge glasses [[SoapboxSadie on a soapbox]] claiming that Communist countries want peace and are all-around great countries. She is a classic Straw War Protester.
** The bespectacled feminist is an unintentional example here, since ''AtomicCafe'' is obviously anti-Cold War in outlook. Equally unintentional is [[StrawmanHasAPoint the subsequent shot of a man shouting at her]]: "Why don't you go ''live'' in a Communist country?!"
* If there's one thing that ''TheCell'' should be applauded for besides its visuals, it's the fact that it utterly averts this trope. Vince Vaughn's character blatantly disagrees with the film's overall view of treating criminals more compassionately, but his views (and any audience members who share said views) are still treated with respect by the director.
* The movie ''Film/RedPlanet'' features a straw man atheist geneticist who offers no coherent support for his disbelief when debating with other characters.
* The final sequence in 1936's ''Things To Come'' is based around the idea that anyone who questions Everytown's black-clad, arguably techno-fascist leadership is opposed to "progress". Not to ruthless, dehumanizing progress, not to an obsessively technological society completely cut off from the natural world (at one point a small girl asks her great-grandfather what "windows" were), certainly not to a government that has outlawed private ownership of airplanes and declared its opposition to the ''existence'' of independent sovereign states, but to ''progress itself''.
* In the second ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' film, Director Galloway is the National Security Advisor for President Obama. He spends the movie making bad decisions and going against the advice of the military, following typical right-wing accusations that liberals are soft on defense. Michael Bay is well known for his support of all things military, to the point where he films jets and tanks the same way he films MeganFox [[MsFanservice straddling a motorcycle]]. [[hottip:*: The thing is, if you look at his films Michael Bay is a big supporter of the military insofar as the troops on the ground... the guys that do the fighting and dying. The higher-ups are generally portrayed as out of touch and looking at the situation from a spin control standpoint regardless of politics. Seen in this light, it's not that Galloway was wrong because he was President Obama's security adviser, it's because he was a civilian in a suit telling soldiers how war worked.]]
** That doesn't stop Bay from making films where [[TheRock American Marines are the bad guys]], though...
*** Nope, the leader of the renegade marines in that one was more of a WellIntentionedExtremist AntiVillain who was trying to right wrongs committed, again, by the disconnected higher-ups. When his men went too far, he showed his true colors.
*** The ''leader'' of the Marines was a {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}, yes. The rest of them, however, were clear villains, in typical Straw Military fashion, having no problem with blowing up San Francisco {{For The Evulz}}.
* Pick a movie, any movie, by Quebecer filmmaker Pierre Falardeau, and you'll find at least one, if not many, strawman politicals for federal government support or anti-separatists or just liberals in general.
* President Stone of the 2009 AstroBoy movie takes every single strawman conservative stereotype, and pushes them beyond their natural extremes. "(The film) seems to have a political agenda" indeed.
* Much of the student body was this in ''{{PCU}}'', but PlayedForLaughs.
* Some people feel ''SuperSizeMe'' has this attitude towards fast food. Most people aren't going to eat nothing but [=McDonald=]'s all day every day for a month. He even admits that he's forcing himself to eat large meals even when he's not actually hungry. All to supposedly make a point about how it's the restaurant's fault people get fat for saying "Would you like to super size that?" But then, Morgan Spurlock's entire career (outside of grossout humor shows about, um, [[{{Hypocrite}} making people eat disgusting things for cash]]) is built on this. In an episode of the TV show that followed ''Super Size Me'', to try and make a point about how minimum wage needed to be raised, he and his wife attempted to live on his working a minimum wage job. Forced straw aspects: They deliberately had no savings, his wife didn't even try to find employment, and he had a hard time finding a job that actually paid ''just'' minimum wage, refusing multiple offers of higher-paying jobs.

[[folder:Literature]]
* The global government in the ''LeftBehind'' series starts out on the Straw-Lib end of the scale.
** ''Edge of Apocalypse'' (written in part by Tim Lahaye, co-author of the above) features a senator who is actually ''named'' Straworth. He and the majority of the politicians in the book (President included) are corrupt straw liberals.
* AynRand, as a WriterOnBoard promoting her philosophy of Objectivism, generally made the villains of her fictional works Strawman Socialists. In particular, not only does ''AtlasShrugged'' have lots and lots of Strawman Socialist villains, but their political beliefs are repeatedly blamed for every single disaster that happens in the story. In one episode, a passenger train is held up just short of a tunnel unsuitable for its steam locomotive, but is ordered to proceed nevertheless by a corrupt politician who is late for a rally and unwilling to wait for a diesel locomotive to carry the train through the tunnel. This means death for every passenger on board -- WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife, right? No -- the StrawmanPolitical beliefs of the doomed passengers are illustrated to show how their catastrophic demise was justified, because they were allegedly each NotSoDifferent than the politician. Even worse is ''Anthem'', where the Strawman Socialists have eliminated the use of the word "I" in favor of "We," where everyone sobs themselves to sleep in despair, and where the protagonist is ostracized after rediscovering electric lighting both for stepping out of his assigned role as a janitor and for threatening the jobs of candlestick makers. Yeah.
* In a particularly {{Anvilicious}} case of WriterOnBoard and AuthorFilibuster, in the ''{{Sword of Truth}}'' books author TerryGoodkind has done the strawman routine on everything from liberalism to socialism to traditional religion to democracy. All other ideals can only stand in the way of the true freedom that comes about under the rule of a benevolent Objectivist dictator. One who exhibits his fine morality with such acts as ordering the implementation of total war, and riding down peace protesters "Armed with only their hatred of moral clarity." Similarly, all proponents of religion are shown to be foolish by contrast to said dictator, who espouses that all must live their lives free from backwards religious beliefs because there can be no proof of life beyond death... [[FlatEarthAtheist Despite having extensive personal experience with spirits]].
** His strawman routine on organized sports is particularly weird.
* Most politicians in ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' get this treatment in some way - the good guys fall almost entirely into the Crown Loyalist or Centrist parties, while the bad guys and just plain nutcases/cowards are generally Conservatives and Liberals.
** There are at least two exceptions in the later books - Catherine Montaigne, who is a Liberal and yet not a total nutcase (though many of her views overlap with those of the Centrists/CLs) though she first appeared in a side story written by Eric Flint. That being said, Weber's more recent books have been rather more evenhanded in portraying political opposition, making a significant plot point out of Montaigne's reconstruction of the Liberal Party around sincere ideology instead of Countess New Kiev's hypocrisy.
** Her views overlap with the Crown Loyalists'/Centrists because their views are, obviously, in the center. The only way to avoid finding at least some common cause with them is to be on either the extreme right or left, and extreme views rarely turn out well. It should be noted that CL's and Centrists are lumped together because the Queen herself is just right of center (when she isn't royally pissed), and you wouldn't be a CL if you didn't mostly agree with the queen, or at least think that what she says goes. Even New Kiev comes off as the best of a bad lot among thecoalition government, to the extent that her partner's hide things from her in fear of her ideals getting in the way.
** A second major exception comes in the form of Michael Oversteegen, notable for having the mannerisms of an aristocratic twit. He's the cousin of the leader of the strawman Conservative party, sincerely believes in the importance of a hereditary aristocracy (the Conservatives' main reason for existence)... and despises the corruption his cousin tolerates in the party. He's also a very talented and extremely brave naval officer.
** The Graysons are early on are strawman conservatives, but are at least mildly open to new ideas, and whose views shift closer to center for fairly realistic reasons (many of which center around Honor saving their asses several times, though their leaders had designs on reshaping the society even before she came along and gave them a symbol to rally around). The Grayson ultra-conservative faction are Strawman Conservatives, but look sane compared to the formerly-Grayson ultra-extremists of Masada, who are effectively the Space Taliban.
** The Graysons aren't really strawman types: they're very highly conservative, but it's a fairly natural development of their history and the [[DeathWorld extremely harsh conditions]] they live under.
* In another David Weber example, the ''Starfire'' novels (which, admittedly, are collaborative works) make it easy to tell who the sniveling mush-brained idiots of the Terran Federation are - they're the ones with 'Liberal' in their party name. The first novel written, ''Crusade,'' gives them the IdiotBall, and it seems they're still playing with it decades later. Although the Liberals' staunchest political allies (for reasons of pure self interest) are the Core World [[CorruptCorporateExecutive business interests]], who are Strawman Conservatives to a man, and carry the VillainBall just as often as the Liberals carry the IdiotBall.
* In any novel by JTEdson, any character described as 'liberal' will be a coward, a hypocrite and a homosexual. [[StrawLoser They will also be ugly and not bathe]].
* Pick a book, ''any'' book (but even moreso his solo work) by TomKratman. ''A State of Disobedience'' is a classic study with a Liberal, Pro-Abortionist cabal led by the lesbian president [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Wilhelmina Rottemeyer]] launching political purges against a priest and other enemies of the state.
* The [=~S. M. Stirling~=] series ''{{Island in the Sea of Time}}'' and sequels have straw liberals (hippies who can't believe in Evil Natives who therefore die horribly at the Evil Natives' hands) and straw conservatives (who complain about the lesbian Coast Guard officer). His other books have other straw opponents, who exist solely to make ineffectual trouble.
** Not only do the straw liberals in ''Island'' die horribly, they accidentally ''wipe out'' the very Mesoamerican natives they want to protect (by infecting them with mumps, to which the natives have no immunity).
** Should be pointed out that the worst of the straw conservatives take themselves out Jonestown style rather early in the first book and that the black, lesbian Coast Guard Captain is the hero of the series.
*** And that a literal hippie blacksmith is an integral heroic character in the novels, And runs [[spoiler:a secret free-slave operated intelligence network during his imprisonment]].
* Being a staunch socialist, Upton Sinclair's books are chock full of capitalist straw men.
* ''MercyThompson'' has coherent and dangerous hate groups spring up every time a new supernatural species [[TheUnmasquedWorld leaves the masquerade]]. Often overnight. They are always religious, conservative, and popular enough to push a federal bill to declare werewolves -- at this point, going out of their way to only out their [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires everyday heroes]] [[PhlebotinumRebel using their curses to help others]] -- as non-citizens and [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman non-human]]. That's right, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent a bunch of inherently homophobic, sexist, hierarchical werewolves, most of whom seem to be suburban or rural men and their wives]], who tend to work for the military or government, that's what conservative Christians would rail against. Possibly subverted in ''Iron Kissed'', where Mercy infiltrates a hate group in search of a murderer. Her expectations and their posters bring up the typical nutjob concepts, but it's really just a small group of folk worried (justly) about TheFairFolk.
* ''HisDarkMaterials'' makes out that the Church is a dominating, overbearing, malicious institution that likes to break children away from their [[OurSoulsAreDifferent daemons]]... [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans to save them from themselves, of course.]]
* In the novel ''Prayers for the Assassin'', nuke attacks on American cities as well as Mecca result in blue America converting to Islam out of fear and compassion for the poor victimized Muslims, forming the Islamic Republic of America. Meanwhile, all the conservatives in those territories emigrate to the red Christian States of America. It's also a possible subversion as neither of the two are shown to be working particularly well, as they are overrun with armed religious extremist militias, ravaged by global warming and are being invaded by both Mexico and Canada.
* The ''Guardians'' series is chock full of Strawmen of every possible political stripe, including some of the viewpoint characters-- the original author seemed to be trying to be making the point that extremism of any form is bad (and if that's his message he sure did it in a muddled and confused way), but as new writers came in and the series got [[JumpTheShark sharkier]], it just got to be straw for straw's sake.
* In OrsonScottCard's ''Empire'' the Blue states attempt to secede from the Union, funded by a Straw Liberal Billionaire (though this was all set up by a bipartisan moderate MagnificentBastard).
** Pretty much any non-Christian in the sequel ''Hidden Empire'' especially Muslims and the pre-Christian Romans.
* PiersAnthony's ''Bio of a Space Tyrant'' is chock full of these, especially the Nixon stand-in.
* [[DivineComedy Dante]] put many of his political/religious enemies in Hell, making this OlderThanPrint.
* Richard K. Morgan's ''{{Th1rte3n}}'' breaks the United States up into three countries along stereotypical (''extremely'' so in the case of the red states) red/blue lines.
* Galileo's ''Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems'' has a Strawman Geocentrist named Simplicio. Part of what got Galileo in trouble was that he put the Pope's words in Simplicio's mouth. [[TooDumbToLive This after said Pope had defended Galileo against his enemies]]
* Senator Sedgewick Sexton from DanBrown's ''DeceptionPoint'', a Republican senator who starts out as an obvious scumbag and becomes more and more of a CompleteMonster as the book progresses.
* Strawmen can be found in all manner of classical literature. Plato regularly used strawmen as opponents to Socrates in his Socratic Dialogues, making this trope OlderThanFeudalism.
* ''The {{Illuminatus}}! Trilogy'' has strawmen left right and center. In the end, the authors have an Anarcho-Individualist lean, and its representatives are portrayed as completely insane... in a good way. Various strawmen include [[FunWithAcronyms Knights of Christianity United in Faith]] and Simon Moon's parents (militant anarcho-syndicalist dad and anarcho-pacifist mom, which leads to embarrassing situations such as Simon telling his third grade teacher that the US isn't a democracy).
* Mike Carey's short story ''Face'' is about a judge from a fictional empire who has to issue a decision in the case of two desert people - father and daughter. Their race (obvious Muslim analogue), for religious reasons, uses magic to take their women's faces, which are returned to them after they're married. The daughter doesn't believe in her people's religion and wants her face back. The judge decides that this tradition is disgusting and detrimental to women and orders the desert people to return all faces to women under threat of punishment. Everything is told from the judge's perspective, making the desert people look like strawmen. However, [[spoiler: at the end of the story, we find out how big a hypocrite the judge is when he mercilessly hammers down his own daughter's dreams about being an explorer by saying that her destiny is to marry a man and become a mother]].
* One would have to dig deep to find a JohnRingo work that ''doesn't'' have one of these, usually of the liberal variety. Ringo has himself acknowledged that he has problems with writing liberals, in a panel on politics in ScienceFiction at the 2010 Dragon*Con.
* RobertHeinlein's books all have strawmen since his presented political philosophies are black-and-white. They also jump between various extremes on the political spectrum, depending on the year they're written.
** In ''Farmer in the Sky,'' Earth faces a state of starvation due to Chinese overpopulation, while Heinlein nevertheless advocates AnAesop policy of "share and share alike," by other countries-- a strawman which even the most extreme liberals would consider absurd.
** In ''StarshipTroopers,'' Heinlein jumps to the opposite end of the spectrum, advocating disenfranchisement of all non-veterans, but also corporal punishment for convicted criminals, as well as ''capital'' punishment for insane persons who commit homicide. This is all justified with various arguments comparing people to dogs.
** In "Stranger in a Strange Land," Heinlein once again goes back to libertarian views involving a rich and famous MarySue writer/doctor/lawyer, protecting an even ''more'' rich and famous MarySue Martian/Changeling/cult-leader from a human society of fascist-politicians and religious-fanatics who want to stop/control/kill him -- sort of an interplanetary version of ''Atlas Shrugged,'' along with arguments comparing humans to monkeys and God.
* Kurt Vonnegut was also quite the StrawmanPolitical writer - using absurdly simplistic extremes which make a strawman look like IronMan: in ''Welcome to the Monkey House'', he attacks population-control with a society that forces people to take drugs that kill their sex-drive. Meanwhile in ''HarrisonBergeron'' he attacks egalitarianism by featuring a society where everyone is forced to handicap themselves so that everyone will be ''truly'' "equal," with strong people being forced to carry weights, smart people being forced to wear noise-making headphones to disrupt their thinking and marry stupid ones, and good-looking people being forced to marry ugly ones etc.
** Harrison Bergeron [[PoesLaw is most likely a parody.]] Unless Vonnegut felt being an ubermensch lets you defy gravity.
** The society in ''Welcome to the Monkey House'' is not very strawman, when you realize that there really are many people who do believe that abstinence is the only "moral" form of birth control. The Catholic Church, with 1.2 billion members, just happens to believe this, among other religions. It is also important to note that the story also has suicide parlors with "hostesses" who dress like dominatrices. It's really a wacky, off the wall story that pushes all kinds of buttons.
* Iain M. Banks of the Culture series portrays religion and traditional societies as one dimensional and morally grotesque...in a way only an anarchist could.
** The character Joiler Veppers in Surface Detail seemed to represent various people online who criticise the Culture as weak, spineless, etc and claim that it should have already collapsed for not following their own paradigm.
* Cergorn, the senior Loremaster of the {{Shadowleague}}, is against any expansion of knowledge to lesser peoples, as he thinks it would be dangerous for them. More dangerous than letting them all die of plague, it appears.
* 19th century Russian novelists, particularly Dostoyevski, are fond of this trope and will very frequently work tangents about the philosophical/political issues of the time into the dialog, even when it doesn't really have anything to do with what people are talking about. Frequently this involves having a fashion chasing idiot arguing espousing Enlightenment ideals to somebody taking the side of simple virtues of the Russian peasantry/Orthodox Christianity.
* Jerry Pournelle's books are full of straw environmentalists who hate all science and technology. His collaborations with Larry Niven are especially straw-heavy: In ''Fallen Angels'' they impose a fascist-disguised-as-liberal dictatorship in the U.S. which [[DystopianEdict outlaws science fiction]] (after singlehandedly causing the next Ice Age); in ''Oath of Fealty'' they are a Weather Underground-style terrorist group; and after the comet impact in ''LucifersHammer'' they devolve into ''cannibalism.''
** You forget to mention that the cannibals include [[ScaryBlackMan renegade black soldiers and gangbangers]] and [[CorruptChurch Evangelical Christians]].
* The ''Doctor Who'' book ''[[HumansareBastards Night of the Humans]]'' is essentially [[AuthorFilibuster one long rant about how awful and evil religion is]]. The Doctor responds to a crash-landed alien race on a massive pile of space-junk that is threatening a nearby planet. This interesting premise is quickly and completely overshadowed by the book's StrawManPolitical message. The chosen 'god' of the crashed humans turns out to be [[NightmareFuel a creepy, creepy, clown]] [[{{Squick}} called Gobo]], who's presence and use as a '''''very''''' heavy-handed metaphor for all religion is just '''''one''''' of the many things (not least the fact that this book is aimed squarely at young children) that will probably lead you towards forming a somewhat [[ManipulativeBastard unfavourable opinion]] of the [[TheFundamentalist book's author]].
* The ''Literature/WingCommander'' novels written solely by William Forstchen contain these in spades, particularly of the liberal variety.
* Admiral [=McAteer=] in the ''StarTrekStargazer'' novels is a staunch conservatist. His dislike for Picard stems purely from the fact that he thinks the latter is too young to be a captain in his ideal Starfleet. He can't do anything directly because he's not Picard's immediate superior, but he spends plenty of time trying to sabotage Picard in order to give him the excuse to demote him. He even develops a strong dislike for WilliamShakespeare after watching ''{{Macbeth}}'' and deciding that Shakespeare's message that ambition is bad is just plain wrong. In one of the novels, Picard's NumberTwo tries to reason with the admiral, asking him to keep an open mind about Picard. [=McAteer=] promptly replies that open minds are for those who lack conviction. The other officer immediately aborts his attempts, reasoning that people who believe that can't be reasoned with.
** Fact is, Picard has given [=McAteer=] plenty of reason to affirm him as a successful starship captain, but the admiral chooses to ignore them and only seeks out flaws in Picard's command, utterly convinced of his own rightness. Oh, and he manages to dislike the one person whom ''everybody'' who studied at the Academy adores - [[AlmightyJanitor Boothby]].
* Some StephenKing novels feature {{Anvilicious}} Straw Conservatives, such as {{Carrie}}. {{It}} also mentions some [[TheFundamentalist Straw Preachers]] , and the act of hatred that awakens It is the murder of a gay man by some violent Straw Homophobes.
* ''InDeath'': Some characters are certainly this, with Commander Douglas Skinner from ''Interlude In Death'' standing out in particular. "Instead, he'd put in his fifty and then used that as a springboard in a run for Congress. And had fallen hard on his face. A half century of public service hadn't been enough to offset views so narrow even the most dug-in of the Conservative Party had balked. Added to that, his platform had swung unevenly from side to side. He was an unwavering supporter of the Gun Ban, something the Conservatives tried to overturn at every opportunity. Yet he beat the drum to reinstate the death penalty, which alienated the Liberals from mid-road to far left. He wanted to dissolve legal and regulated prostitution and strike out all legal and tax benefits for cohabitating couples. He preached about the sanctity of marriage, as long as it was heterosexual, but disavowed the government stipend for professional mothers. Motherhood, the gospel according to Skinner stated, was a God-given duty, and payment in its own right. His mixed-voice and muddled campaign had gone down in flames. However much he'd rebounded financially via lectures, books, and consults, Eve imagined he still bore the burns of that failure." Apparently, Skinner is supposed to be a Straw Conservative with TheFundamentalist mixed in, but even the Conservative Party didn't like him very much!

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* {{Glee}}:
** Sue Sylvester "Not everyone is gonna have the walnuts to take a pro-littering stance. But [[{{InsaneTrollLogic}} I will not rest until every inch of our fair state is covered in garbage]]."
** And now Sue is running for Congress on a platform that consists entirely of a desire to eliminate all arts programs from schools, just ForTheEvulz.
** Both the celibacy club and Quinn's parents also count. [[{{Anvilicious}} Obnoxiously so]].
* ''AllInTheFamily'' had the character Archie Bunker, who was created by producer Norman Lear to be a Neanderthalesque caricature of working-class conservatives. [[MisaimedFandom It backfired.]] Bunker was based on Alf Garnett of ''TillDeathUsDoPart'' and its sequels. Creator Johnny Speight claimed the character was based directly on his own father's POV.
** In adapting Alf Garnett in Archie Bunker, Lear injected his own father's attitudes and catchphrases.
** Alf Garnett also backfired, being a racist idiot who became an idol to people who seemed to miss that fact that he was created, scripted and acted by Jews.
** Archie Bunker was balanced out with the strawman liberals of his daughter Gloria Bunker-Stivic and her husband Michael Stivic. These were ''token'' Strawmen, who usually got the last word and/or were proven right by the end of the episode, leaving Archie with AnAesop which proves it.
* ''TwentyFour'' has featured both types in its run. Two examples include a lawyer for "[[BrandX Amnesty Global]]" in season 4 who exempts an arrested suspect from interrogation (having been paid by a terrorist leader to do so, although it's implied the lawyer doesn't know this), and deputy chief of staff Tom Lennox in season 6, who detains thousands of innocent Muslim Americans without presidential authorization and openly talks of "suspending liberties" to safeguard the country. (In later episodes, however, Lennox becomes more of a MagnificentBastard than an IdiotOfTheWeek.) In quadruple irony the show is always ultimately geared towards the President's liberal and Protagonist's conservative values turning out to be correct. Detaining citizens of a radical religion HAS to be wrong, torturing terrorists HAS to be right. A restrained response to a downtown nuke HAS to be the right thing, despite the proven response to the much lower death toll of real life 9/11 being two wars and bloody hell in response to an errant nuke being the more likely consequence than a rogue maverick detaining citizens.
* Averted in ''FamilyTies''. The producers had every chance to knock down the views of either the liberal parents or the conservative Alex, but instead, both ideologies were given positive looks. The liberals were made to look noble for their grassroots ideals, and the conservative was shown to be a hard worker. The show was reportedly one of President Reagan's favorites.
* ''HeartsAfire'' featured a borderline-retarded Republican senator and frequently featured stereotypical "conservative VS liberal" arguments, in which the conservative would present a hollow argument so that he could be intellectually trounced by the liberal character.
* The entire premise of the 2005 CBC series ''Jimmy [=MacDonald's=] Canada'' was a Strawman Conservative current affairs show host trying to cope with the 1960s, until he went AxCrazy in the last episode and crashed a plane into Northern Ontario. Since everything that bothered Jimmy happened several decades ago, no one feels offended by his over-the-top right wing leanings, as (most) modern conservatives have no objection to zambonis or Italian food.
* CBC comedy ''Series/LittleMosqueOnThePrairie'' includes Fred Tupper, an offensive radio host who doesn't trust Muslims, as well as Baber, who believes that winegums, liquorice, and rye bread are part of a plot to trick Muslims into drinking alcohol. In one episode, Baber was able to patch up his religious differences with an ignorant redneck because they both felt equally strongly about same-sex marriage, or, as Baber called it, "The Abomination." It gets even more subversive when you consider that the imam, who would never conduct such a marriage, encourages the Anglican minister to.
* The ''{{WestWing}}'' doesn't like the religious right. The pilot opens with the religious right leaders saying rude things about jews and mixing up the ten commandments. The president then [[CriticalResearchFailure mixes up the ten commandments again as he corrects them]] and tells them they are bigots for not condemning a religious group that made a death threat against his granddaughter, and kicks them out. Many other episodes cast Republicans or right wing people as the villains, with views that are similarly stupid and one dimensional.
** It later introduces some republicans who are good people for example, the sixth-and-seventh season Republican Presidential candidate, depicted as a genuinely honorable and decent man like his opponent. That being said, this Republican is on the more liberal wing of the party, and is a pro-choice secularist who appears to be a hidden agnostic (or perhaps even atheist, although this is never confirmed), viewpoints that would be unlikely to secure him his party's nomination in RealLife. Indeed, many of the sympathetic Republican characters appeared to be on the more liberal wing of the party.
*** * Ainsley Hayes at first appeared to be a clear Take That of sharp-tongued conservative pundit Ann Coulter, or at least starts out that way. However, she ends up befriending the main characters. She stands up for the Bartlet administration staffers to her Republican colleagues and says that even though she disagrees with them, she doesn't doubt their patriotism. A line that was used in reference to her character is the TropeNamer for BlondeRepublicanSexKitten.
* The ''{{CSI}}'' series (especially Miami) are a breeding ground for these characters.
* On ''[[MASHTheSeries M* A* S* H]]'', Major Frank Burns was a jingoistic, hypocritically pious, John Birch-style conservative JerkAss, while his successor Major Charles Winchester was a snobby Boston Brahmin type and Establishment Republican. Winchester tended to waffle back and forth between conservative and liberal traits (as well as a number of other, non-political traits), depending on how sympathetically he was supposed to be viewed in the episode. Basically some writers attempted to make him Frank Burns with a New England accent, while others wrote him as a distinct character with his own set of foibles, not all of them negative. Though overall he's still a pretty textbook example, since the less positively-viewed he was supposed to be, the more of a conservative strawman he seemed to become.
** He did tell the aide to the [=McCarthy=] stand-in that he was so conservative he made [=McCarthy=] look like a New Dealer. Which only makes Winchester's strong conservatism an InformedAttribute.
** It seems like much of his conservatism was based on his fiscal policies, which would only come up a limited amount in a war zone.
** Winchester changed with the CharacterDevelopment episodes, becoming far more liberal, supposedly "becoming wise" via the harsh realities of war compared to his earlier sheltered lifestyle-- particularly after Alan Alda took over the show's writing and production for Larry Gelbart. This making him the perfect mold of the StrawmanPolitical, i.e. first a pompous ass, and then converted by the show's political bias.
** Frank Burns became so over-the-top that his strawman behavior was justified by the RuleOfFunny. Towards the end of his run on the show, it had gone so far that Frank was almost a parody of a strawman conservative.
* Parodied/lampshaded in the first episode of [[ThatsMyBush That's My Bush]]:
-->'''GeorgeWBush''': You must always remember that she believes what she does because she thinks she's right.
-->'''StrawFeminist''': Yeah!
-->'''GeorgeWBush''': And you must always remember that ''he'' believes what he does because of a strong moral imperative.
* Parodied on ''TheYoungOnes'' with the character of Rik; so over the top, it actually seems to be making fun of conservatives who see liberals this way.
* Averted in the episode "The Salon" of ''TheDrewCareyShow''. The issue of Internet censorship is brought up during a debating salon started by Drew and friends to impress Drew's boss Mrs. Louder, who is a devout conservative. Mrs. Louder appears to be a Strawman Political, as she responds in the affirmative, claiming that "any good conservative" would be in favour of Net censorship, and even fires Drew's friend and fellow employee Kate over her disagreement. However, conservatives as a whole are not painted with this brush as Kate herself claims that she knows many conservatives who do not think that way, and later in the episode [[AsHimself Rush Limbaugh]] (whom Mrs. Louder is a huge fan of) makes a guest appearance, reveals that he actually agreed with Kate on this issue - and convinces Mrs. Louder to rehire her.
* ''ArrestedDevelopment'' has Lindsay, a SpoiledBrat who affects a fake GranolaGirl persona and a (very shallow) interest in trendy left-leaning causes.
* ''The Colbert Report'' has a straw conservative anchor man.
* Ron Swanson of ''ParksAndRecreation'' borders on being a Strawman Libertarian with comically exaggerated Libertarian views ("My idea of a perfect government is one guy who sits in a small room at a desk and the only thing he's allowed to decide is who to nuke. The man is chosen based on some kind of IQ test and maybe also a physical tournament like a decathlon. And women are brought to him, maybe... when he desires them.") However, he's generally a sympathetic character and he's on friendly terms with Leslie in spite of their differing political views. Leslie, by the way, is almost certainly a Democrat (though this is never mentioned) and she's usually portrayed as well-meaning but naive.
** The great thing about the show is that it never mentions anyone's political party affiliations. It's not about Republicans vs. Democrats; it's about politicians who really want to help people and the bureaucracy that often gets in their way.
* For the majority of the show FreaksAndGeeks the character of Sam has a crush on a pretty, popular cheerleader named Cindy Sanders. When the two of them finally start dating, we find out that Cindy is a Republican. And her character suddenly changes into a person who is rude, close-minded, egotistical, and shallow.
* LawAndOrder made a point to fulfill this whenever it delved into a topic remotely political. If you didn't catch how the defendant was a straw man during the episode, the ADA would be happy to explain it all in the closing arguments.
* Britta Perry from ''{{Community}}'' is a Straw Libertarian with touches of StrawFeminist, most of the time coming out as a huge hypocrite. She's generally a sympathetic, yet annoying character.
------>'''Jeff''': Everyone wants you to ''shut up''!
[[/folder]]

[[folder: New Media ]]
* [[http://conservapedia.com Conservapedia]]: "The Trustworthy Encyclopedia". All articles on Democratic/Liberal/Evolutionary topics are built of straw. Their article on President Obama is a stewed mixture of straw, insults and long discredited smears.
* [[http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page RationalWiki]] is a direct reaction against Conservapedia that takes constant potshots at conservatives, fundamentalists, Conservapedia, and ''especially'' its founder, Andrew Schlafly. Unlike Conservapedia, though, they make no claims to objectivity.
* The YouTube Video [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaGgpGLxLQw Beware the Believers]] plays the straw evolutionist for laughs.
* PoesLaw describes the difficulties inherent in separating applications of StrawmanPolitical and parodies of the same.
* [[http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c0cf508ff8/prop-8-the-musical-starring-jack-black-john-c-reilly-and-many-more-from-fod-team-jack-black-craig-robinson-john-c-reilly-and-rashida-jones Proposition 8: The Musical]]. You tell a group of Straw Conservatives when you see them.
* The Year Zero ARG, which promotes the NineInchNails album of the same name, depicts the United States after 15 additional years of rule by Strawman Republicans and gets absolutely ridiculous. It's stated they're forbidding women to work, have genocidal bands of Christians killing non Christians in certain suburbs, they make their soldiers take drugs to both combat the drug the evil neocons poisoned everyone with (yes, that's what they did) and get Special Forces to take even worse drugs that forces the body to equate killing with sexual excitement, the local MegaCorp exploits drug addicts to boost their profits, and they make up "terrorists" by creating a virus. This is what Trent pulled together when he decided to stop [[BrokenAesop taking drugs himself and get back to making music]], so it was forgiven. Given how [[{{Anvilicious}} over the top it was]], it wasn't all that convincing.
* Youtube series ''Epic Rap Battles of History'', pretty much any time politics is even mentioned and always against the right. (Among other things, Lincoln slams Chuck Norris for voting for John [=McCain=]... no, that's it, voting for a Republican for President is apparently insult enough.) Probably the height of this was the John Lennon versus Bill O'Reilly battle, where the rapper playing O'Reilly does a verse about how evil he is and how black his heart is. Exact words.
* [[http://www.landoverbaptist.org/ The Landover Baptist Church]], which, along with Christwire.org, [[{{PoesLaw}} has been mistaken for an actual Christian website]].
** Ms. Betty Bowers, a fictional member of said fictional church, has her own [[http://www.bettybowers.com/ website]] and YouTube [[http://www.youtube.com/user/MrsBettyBowers channel]]. She spends a good deal of her videos [[{{RichBitch}} extolling her own opulent lifestyle]] and tends to feature [[{{ItsAllAboutMe}} her own image]] [[{{StrawHypocrite}} more than Jesus's]].
* A LetsPlay of "Life and Death 2: The brain", the Lets player does a subdural Hematoma operation...and intentionally holds the suction pump in the brain too long so part of the brain is sucked out. The player then proceeded to say "Oh, she was a Tea Party candidate! She wasn't going to need ''THAT''!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Lets just say that ''any'' political cartoonist has recurred to this, in fact, their profession demands it.
* Pretty much any liberal, Democrat, liberal Democrat, or member of a minority group that appears in Bruce Tinsley's ''MallardFillmore''.
* ''{{Doonesbury}}'' often features straw conservatives, as have ''BloomCounty'' and its spinoffs.
* ''{{Candorville}}'' features strawmen of both liberal and conservative varieties, and then lampshades them all to heck.
* ''GetFuzzy'' uses Bucky Katt for a conservative-as-idiot strawman, with Satchel Pooch as his {{Vitriolic Best Bud|s}} counterpart on the left. However, it is hinted that he acts conservative in order to irritate Satchel and Rob, both Liberals
* Rat in ''PearlsBeforeSwine'' is also used as a conservative strawman. Given that ''Pearls'' creator Stephan Pastis and ''Fuzzy's'' Darby Conley are close friends, it's hard to guess who's copying who. In the notes to the treasury collections, artist Stephan Pastis indicates that Rat is simply himself with less self-restraint. Whether that still qualifies Rat for Strawman status is debatable.
* Royboy in ''Soup to Nutz'' is also used as a conservative strawman. This usually doesn't work too well, because he's often just used to spout whatever the writer believes are right-wing talking points, such as anti-vaccine propaganda, while the other characters laugh at him. The character rarely actually acts like the 8-year-old boy he is. His younger sister is often used as a left-wing straw man, making anti-war, pro-vegetarian comments. The strip is rather Anvilicious in its politics.
* Winslow the coyote pup from ''PricklyCity''. In one early story, he suggested that he and his human companion, Carmen, get married, so that the author could equate gay marriage with bestiality.
* Aaron [=McGruder=]'s ''TheBoondocks'' had plenty of these. (The strip's protagonist, Huey Freeman, could arguably be deemed a Strawman Black Radical, except that we're clearly meant to sympathize with him.)
* Going further back, ''LittleOrphanAnnie'' and ''LilAbner'' frequently served up liberal versions, while ''{{Pogo}}'' featured them on both sides (though more often as conservatives, given Walt Kelly's politics).
* Use of the trope in newspaper editorial cartooning is satirized by ''[[http://www.theonion.com/ The Onion's]]'' "Kelly" (actually, Ward Sutton). In the persona of a cranky conservative, "Kelly" returns again and again to caricatures like the NewAgeRetroHippie ([[http://www.theonion.com/content/cartoon/nov-17-2008 here]]), TeensAreMonsters ([[http://www.theonion.com/content/cartoon/mar-02-2009 here]]), using TheGrimReaper to symbolize disliked trends ([[http://www.theonion.com/content/cartoon/oct-20-2008 throughout]]) and so on. Actually not too far off from the technique of newspaper cartoonist ''Chuck Asay''. And of course [[strike:half]] almost ''all'' the comics ''have the Statue Of Liberty crying'' (when things are going well for Kelly, she's weeping with joy)
* The reason we have newspaper comic strips is that during the 19th century editors discovered funny, topical, easy to read drawings helped sell more papers--and the artists were expected to adhere to the paper's editorial slant.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Louis Ironson of ''AngelsInAmerica'' reads very much like a {{Deconstruction}} of the Strawman Liberal stereotype.
* Mr Birling from ''An Inspector Calls'' is a prime example of a British conservative straw man. J.B. Priestly gives the audience no doubt that he is wrong about everything, including his political and social views.
* The rock musical version of ''TwoGentlemenOfVerona'' had the Duke of Milan's entrance song making him a Strawman Conservative Militarist.
-->"I sent 'em over and I can bring 'em back. Re-elect me!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Andrew Ryan from the game ''{{Bioshock}}'' starts out as an ''Objectivist'' straw man, for those folk that the greedy conservative straw man just can't sate. Later on, its revealed that the downfall of Rapture occurred as a result of a political opponent's scheming and Ryan becoming a rather twisted KnightTemplar, but at the beginning the whole thing seems rather {{Anvilicious}}.
** Of course, the sequel then goes on to skewer collectivism, with Sofia Lamb replacing Andrew Ryan and preaching a cult of unity, so all strawmen are equal.
** The third game, ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', features strawman portrayals of right-wing (the Founders) and left-wing populism (the Vox Populi). At this point, it looks like they're going for a gallery of strawmen for every ideology out there.
** While Sofia Lamb is clearly a collectivist (Andrew Ryan labels her a bolshevik), the way in which rapture is later organised is actually akin to be described as a communist theocracy.So the fact that the [[AtlasShrugged brightest people in the world]] given an objectivist paradise to be free, screwed up the whole thing soo badly is in itself a mockery of Ayn Rand´s ideas. Think of it as a strawman within a strawman wrapped around a strawman of utopic philosophy.
* The Weasel News Network of ''GrandTheftAutoIV'' is pretty much a direct TakeThat against the FoxNews Network. (Get the pun?). Everything about the network is portrayed as CrossingTheLineTwice. For that matter, 90% of the satirical media in GTA IV is StrawConservative (arguably at the cost of laughs). ''GTA: ViceCity'' had a talk show where right and left-wing strawmen tried to out-straw each other.
* The radio messages in ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade: Bloodlines''. They add nothing to the story, and serve ''only'' to portray a fictional right-wing politician as a sleazeball. To be fair, the radio is purely there for comedy and everyone who appears on the radio is presented as a complete idiot. Most of Bloodlines doesn't really look favorably on anyone, except the liberal Nines, the conservative Bertram, and the independents Beckett and Jack. Or you could flip the first two, as Nines views government as needing to be small and Bertram as large.
* In a very early example, {{Infocom}}'s ''VideoGame/AMindForeverVoyaging'' was intended as a critique of the Reagan era of conservative capitalism. The part where they didn't remotely use any of Reagan's actual policies, save for tax cuts, didn't help it any. It also didn't help that Senator Ryder, the BigBad, was written as so psychotically evil that when the aforementioned psychohistorical forecasting shows that the end result of his plan will be that within 20 years the country will be bankrupt, within 40 years his hoped-for government will be overthrown by an apocalyptic religious cult and he will be either a powerless serf or dead, and that within 50 years ''human civilization will cease to exist'', he isn't deterred a bit -- just so long as he wins the next Presidential election, who cares if he's dooming the human race ''and'' himself personally? A more cartoonish straw man you would be hard-pressed to find.
* The freeware game by [[DwarfFortress Tarn Adams]], ''LiberalCrimeSquad'' is entirely built around this. America is slowly becoming incredibly conservative, and you play as the titular group of criminals, who are willing to murder and sabotage society to get everyone to become liberal. Your main enemies are the Conservative Crime Squad, who are just as crazy as the Liberal Crime Squad.
* Tom Clancy's ''RainbowSix'' had strawman environmentalists, who wanted to save the Earth from humanity by killing off 99% of it.
* DragonAge2 has got an in-universe example, over the course of the third chapter the [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure sane]] [[OnlySaneMan people]] are killed off, leaving only the Straw Mage and Straw Templar to lead the two sides of the final conflict.
* The radio transmissions in ''TheConduit'' are full of these, with right-wing Timothy Browning, left-wing Jared X. Fulton, and GranolaGirl Autumn Wanderer, all of whom use the game's AlienInvasion as a springboard for their straw views.
-->"Where are the Democrats on this matter? What have they done to make this country safe? What really needs to be done here is the Democrats allowing the GOP to take charge in this time of crisis so no more lives will be spent needlessly!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Just about every political webcomic features an abundance of nameless straw men political opposing the author's political alignment. Occasionally, they will try to add in straw men of their own demographic in an attempt to show that they're not biased, but these straw men are either too subtle and argue about very minor points, or are ridiculously exaggerated in a way that makes them not even remotely believable.
* [[http://www.shmorky.com/d/20060619.html This strip]] beautifully summarizes ''so many'' political webcomics.
* Cecania and Fairbanks in ''[[http://sorethumbsonline.com/ Sore Thumbs]]'' are hilariously exaggerated strawmen of liberals and conservatives respectively. Each of them seems to have taken their ideology to a ridiculous extreme, and then taken the ridiculous extreme to a ridiculous extreme, leading to such things as Fairbanks having once killed two people because "they looked like terrorists" (luckily for him, ''they were'') and Cecania having been known to demonstrate outside abortion clinics because they won't offer drive-through service. Cecania is still presented as being a lot more sympathetic, though.
* Chris Muir's ''[[http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/ Day by Day]]'' has characters on both ends of the political spectrum, but the conservative/libertarian characters (including product designer and Special Ops sniper Zed, black Republican Damon, and [[BlondeRepublicanSexKitten Redheaded Republican Sex Kitten]] Sam) are portrayed as both principled and cool, while liberal Jan is often portrayed as being a bit histrionic and over the top; however, the comic itself points out that the characters respect her because she actually ''believes what she's saying'' and says it because she's honestly trying to help others. This is pointed out in one comic where it's said Jan is a "dove", and that she's sincere about it (as opposed to many who claim the title and simply "sit around and shit all over everything"). There's even an arc chastising Damon for going too far with his arguing against her, where he acknowledges he needs to be more respectful of her ideals. Of course, since having her go through an obligatory OppositesAttract romance with Damon, Jan has increasingly shifted to being a FoxNewsLiberal, with her position of Straw Liberal taken over by Sam's sister [[CousinOliver Skye]], who has nearly no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
* In ''QuestionableContent'', being a professional Strawman is Angus's [[http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1384 occupation]]. This means that he gets paid to appear on debates with ludicrous arguments and lose... must be awesome. When he goes up against ''another'' professional Strawman, they end up actually competing as to who can give a worse argument.
* ''CtrlAltDel'' had religious leaders from all over the world to temporarily put aside their differences to beat up upon Ethan's new Gamer Religion, and Lucas manages to dumbfound them with some minor piece of wisdom that they are utterly slackjawed to answer.
* ''Hackles'' has Marcus, their marketing mouse. He is used to support anything uncool, such as some conservatism (although they don't really get into politics, everyone is "moderate"), Windows users, poor web design, poor software design and marketing. He would be a ButtMonkey if he didn't deserve what happens to him (he is a mouse, and some of the characters are mice...including his nurse/date).
* ''PennyArcade'' features a literal strawman [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/2/19/ here.]]
* Occasionally used in ''DorkTower'' as a TakeThat against self-proclaimed MoralGuardians and other bureaucrats.
** One example can be found [[http://www.dorktower.com/2001/03/13/comics-archive-119/ here]].
** A related gag is for Bill to deal with clueless MoralGuardians protesting role-playing games.
* In ''Awful Comics'', the leader of conservatives was revealed to be [[PowerRangers Lord Zedd]].
* Gilly Gopher of ''NipAndTuck'': A blatant straw Liberal who exists solely to be talked down to to the entire population of Mularky County.
* ''MenInHats'', has Sam, [[http://meninhats.com/d/20040206.html straw theocrat]].
* In ''[[http://www.gynostar.com/ The Adventures of Gyno-Star]]'' the Feminist superhero, Gyno-Star, faces an array of straw foes, most notably a straw Libertarian super-villain knows as [[http://www.gynostar.com/archives/426 The Glibertarian]], created in a lab by an insurance company in order to spread pro-corporate ideology.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'': [[GeneralRipper General Eiling]] is shown to have sinister straw-conservative leanings, he's eager to drop [[NukeEm nuclear bombs]] on the Justice League, blames the "bleeding hearts in Congress" for not getting his way and eventually turns himself into a supervillain in order to "defend" America from heroes. The series also features a cowardly straw-[[BillOReilly Bill O'Reilly]] type character.
** However, like the comic books, they avoid hinting which political side Lex Luthor leans toward in his policies when he runs for president. A quick line of dialogue revealed he was running as an independent.
--> "Polls among likely voters place Luthor within striking distance of both major party candidates."
* ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' features a villain not taken from the comic pages, Lock-Up, who is a straw-conservative and vigilante who despises the "liberal media" and enjoys throwing everyone he doesn't like into prison. Lock-Up may have been an attempt to make Batman seem more liberal by comparison, since Batman, a rich private citizen who succeeds where the corrupt public system fails, has been accused of being a conservative-friendly character.
* The villain "Looten Plunder" on ''{{Captain Planet and the Planeteers}}'', a completely amoral capitalist who dreams of "stripping entire continents" for monetary gain, was a strawman conservative (At least [[CardCarryingVillain he had a reason, though.]])
* ''SouthPark'' sometimes does this with its social and political-themed episodes. Not when both sides are made to look like asses (how the show normally deals with these issues), but when one side is unambiguously set up as wrong based on faulty pretenses, for the sake of dropping the episode's moral. The episodes about hate crimes and alcoholism come to mind.
* ''TheBoondocks'' episode ''Wingmen'' featured Dewey Ababaoo Mamasee Mamasay Mamakusa Jenkins, a fake Muslim who writes bad poetry because he's "down with the struggle." Huey, an actual leftist revolutionary, finds him disgraceful.
** Of course, Huey himself is a strawman, but so is everyone else on the show and comic. One thing you can say about [=McGruder=], he's balanced in his extremities. Except Caesar (comics), who is essentially the CloserToEarth StraightMan for whom Huey gets too extreme/obsessed.
** Their portrayal of Ann Coulter: She appears on TV as a massively hateful ranter, but it's just an act for publicity.
** By a similar token, Rev. Rollo Goodlove, a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Al Sharpton, is a self-serving liberal hypocrite who intentionally attaches himself to bogus "struggles" for publicity.
** Huey's neighbor Tom Dubois and his wife, though played as decent people, are milquetoast, establishment Strawman Democrats who live far away from Huey's reality. Tom once tried to kidnap Ralph Nader for taking votes away from Al Gore. (Thus earning the title of "the first moderate liberal extremist.")
* ''KingOfTheHill'' skews conservative/libertarian (as per its creator Mike Judge), but in general it's pretty good about being equal opportunity. One of the first episodes has a Strawman Liberal social worker who's convinced that Hank is physically abusing Bobby, but ultimately gets ReassignedToAntarctica by his boss for not actually investigating Hank and operating solely off of gut instinct. (This character, or an IdenticalStranger, returns in a later episode where he enables people to claim disability for ludicrous reasons.) On the other hand, another early episode has a Strawman Conservative woman who claims all forms of Halloween celebration are Satanic and gets Arlen to "cancel" the holiday; Hank ends up putting on an old costume and leading a protest against her, with all the adults of the neighborhood agreeing with him.
** In earlier episodes Dale could be seen as a Strawman Conservative with his extreme distrust of the government; however, once {{Flanderization}} kicks in he's just treated as a lone nutcase who thinks "The Conspiracy" is behind everything bad in America.
** TheGoodeFamily, in much the same vein as KingOfTheHill.
* ''TheSimpsons'' uses these on occasion. The local Republican Party's usual meeting place is in a sinister castle, and their members include Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Bob Dole (who favors them with a reading from the Necronomicon), [[VillainBall Mr. Burns]]. In "Sideshow Bob Roberts", the Republicans nominate multiple-convicted attempted murderer Sideshow Bob as a mayoral candidate. They originally mistook a water cooler for the candidate. In the same episode, Quimby (as the democrat incumbent) is said by the Rush Limbaugh parody to be Springfield's "pot-smoking, illiterate, spend-ocrat mayor". Quimby's response (uttered while watering a marijuana plant): "[[ITakeOffenceToThatLastOne I am no longer illiterate]]."
** They did this to the Democrats in a more recent episode:
--->'''Democrat:''' With [[spoiler: Ralph]] leading the party, I don't know how we will screw it up, but we will, because that's what democrats do!
** ''TheSimpsons'' used to take several at Democrats in the old days. Mayor Quimby was originally an expy of the Kennedy's, being a CompositeCharacter of JFK (the voice), Ted Kennedy, and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_history_of_Chicago the corruption that tends to be involved in Chicago politics]].
** In one of the earlier episodes, Bart's elephant Stampy runs through a Republican convention and gets cheered. A sign at the convention says "We want what's worst for everybody!" and then when he runs through the Democrat convention, one has a sign that says "We can't govern!"
** Nobody remembers the Ayn Rand daycare center where they took Maggie's pacifier away?
** They also refused to let them use bottles:
---> '''Ms. Sinclair:''' Mrs. Simpson, do you know what a baby is saying when it reaches for a bottle?
---> '''Marge:''' "Ba-ba"?
---> '''Ms. Sinclair:''' It's saying "I am a leech"! Our aim here is to develop the bottle ''within''.
** Any episode where [[AuthorOnBoard Lisa]] is played off against [[{{Flanderisation}} Flanders]] is almost guaranteed to do this. "The Monkey Suit" (about teaching evolution in school) and "You Kent Always Say What You Want" (about censorship), for example.
** Professor August from "That 90s Show" is a particularly heavy-handed Strawman Liberal. He managed to convince Marge that Homer's honest love and devotion were just his attempts to make her StayInTheKitchen, resulting in Marge dumping Homer for the Professor. In the end, he turns out to be just as bad, and Marge realizes her mistake and gets back with Homer.
* ''HarveyBirdman: Attorney at Law'' featured some Animal Liberation Nut Strawmen in "Free Magilla"; they freed all the animals from Mr. Peeble's pet store, even though this seemed to cause the creatures more anxiety than relief. When Magilla Gorilla later reunites with Mr. Peebles, he asks him to "Take me home- home to my nice, safe cage", the group who stole him splashes red paint on him and shouts "Animal freedom now!"
* ''{{Futurama}}'' takes a crack at the Strawmen who surround the whole, "Gay Marriage" issue(s). This is particularly Anvilicious, because the issue is whether or not robots should be able to marry humans. It was explained in a previous episode that dating robots (and getting the cheap thrills of a robot programmed to love you) caused the collapse of society and the wiping out of life on earth by an alien species. Following this analogy, one might suppose that ''allowing gay marriage could literally wipe out all human life, [[StrawManHasAPoint actually justifying the strawmen]]''.
** The argument in the episode about dating robots was ''itself'' a strawman. It was presented as an [[VerySpecialEpisode after school special]] designed by the MoralGuardians to ScareEmStraight and was about as objective and truthful as a JackChick tract. The Earth was never destroyed by an alien species. It was, however, apparently destroyed twice, by Bender, for unrelated reasons. And if all life on Earth had been wiped out, how could people still be alive today?
** The argument in the "Robot Marriage" episode was not "cheap thrills of programmed love", and instead about people (and robots) who honestly (with the exception of Bender, obviously) love each other being able to socially express their love. Or did I make up the parts where Amy and Bender had sex despite not being married?
* ''AmericanDad'' is this trope incarnate. Or at least it used to be. Originally, the show seemed to be created solely for this, as if now that ''FamilyGuy'' was off the air, Seth absolutely '''had''' to get his digs in somewhere. Once ''Family Guy'' was back on the air, he switched all of his strawmanning and [[AuthorFilibuster soapboxing]] back over to it, and apparently allowed ''American Dad'' to actually have a purpose other than "Conservatives are evil".
* "Family Guy" uses this trope to death; pretty much any time a character with conservative leanings appears, you can expect them to be a caricature in line of the most heavy-handed political cartoons; one specific example is Peter's father Francis, a typical Strawman Conservative religious zealot. Peter can be seen as a Strawman American thanks to his {{Flanderization}} from BumblingDad into self-absorbed {{Jerkass}}. Ironically, Brian (who is often thought of as Seth [=MacFarlane=]'s AuthorAvatar, gets viewed as a Strawman Liberal by some fans due to his vehement hatred of anything conservative (among other less than pleasant traits).
[[/folder]]

----

-->--[[TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]], in "Sideshow Bob Roberts," [[hottip:*:on finding the tomb of a [[VoteEarlyVoteOften "registered voter" who died in 1909]].]]

* In ''[[http://www.gynostar.com/ The Adventures of Gyno-Star]]'' the Feminist superhero, Gyno-Star, faces an array of straw foes, most notably a straw Libertarian super-villain knows as [[http://www.gynostar.com/archives/426 The Glibertarian]], created in a lab by an insurance company in order to spread pro-corporate ideology.

* 3. Libertarian. An insane survivalist with a stockpile of guns and supplies while smoking copious amounts of marijuana, or a CorruptCorporateExecutive who obsessively follows AynRand.

* 2. Conservative. A racist GoodOlBoy who's seriously behind the times, a CorruptCorporateExecutive who only wants money, or a strict [[TheFundamentalist Fundamentalist]] (bonus points if they're Mormon).
* 3. Libertarian. An insane survivalist with a stockpile of guns and supplies or a CorruptCorporateExecutive who obsessively follows AynRand.

A strawman can be have pretty much any political or religious stance. Why bother addressing the real issues of, for example, firearms advocates, when you can instead portray them all as bearded, racist lunatics ranting about black helicopters and wanting to own their own nuclear warheads? And so it goes with other examples; capitalists literally worship the bottom line, liberals are all secret communists aiming to destroy morality, scientists shake their fist at God while plotting to surpass him, the religious are wide-eyed, superstitious madmen, feminists want to kill all men, and so on. This is not to say that such extremists don't actually exist, but the straw character presents extreme or minority views as the ''typical'' beliefs of a group rather than those of a tiny subset of it.

* RightWingMilitiaFanatic