History Main / WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic

* ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' gets quite a few critics analyzing exactly what everything means. Teenagers and stoners love to paint it as a drug allegory, while others see it as story of madness or a DyingDream. Still more think that it's satirizing religion, British Imperialism, or language and logic. Of course, originally it was just a silly story to amuse some children. Later in life, Carroll would reportedly claim it was, and always had been, a hidden tract against "new math" and how people ascribing to it lived in a world of neither rhyme nor reason, which may actually make him a victim of this trope in regards to ''his own work''.

* Music/KatyPerry is the subject of this trope in her April 2017 single "Chained to the Rhythm" (featuring special guest star SkipMarley). Analysis of the video and its lyrics [[UpToEleven was done in detail online]], with a look at [[AnAesop the aesops the video provides]], as well as ShoutOut to 2017's political climate. [[http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2017/02/katy-perry-s-new-song-not-so-much-chained-rhythm-chained-black-mirror The New Statesman goes into quite some detail on this]].

* Creator/WilliamShakespeare is a frequent victim of this. Every plausible intellectual slant, and more than a few implausible ones, have been earnestly applied to his work by English students. Some, fearing a desecration of the {{canon}}, oppose any and all film adaptations, and heaven forbid that you stage the plays in anything but their most complete forms. Even if the original performances were heavily improvised and no authoritative versions ever existed, canon is SeriousBusiness. ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' is certainly the best example of this dynamic. Literary critics have found a staggering quantity of meanings and lessons in the play. One of the more obscure, but enjoyable, explanations is that the entire play is an allegory for the conflict between Copernican and Ptolemaic astronomies.

* Music/TheBeatles song "I Am the Walrus" supposedly originated after Music/JohnLennon heard that Beatles lyrics were being used for literary analysis in university classes. Finding this ridiculous, Lennon decided to write a song where the lyrics ''sounded'' symbolic [[IceCreamKoan but were just utter nonsense]], as a TakeThat against people taking their songs too seriously (of course, this would turn into a trend with later Beatles songs, even naming the [[TheWalrusWasPaul associated trope]][[note]]The TropeNamer there was a line from the song "Glass Onion", which was thrown in just to screw with the people trying to find the hidden meanings of "I Am the Walrus".[[/note]], and it became a case of GoneHorriblyRight when [[UsefulNotes/CharlesManson a certain cult leader's]] attempts to find meanings in nonsensical Beatles lyrics led him to send his followers on a killing spree in 1969).

* This deconstruction of ''VideoGame/{{Sinistar}}'' entitled [[http://onastick.net/drew/sinistar/ I Hunger, therefore, I live.]]

** Inverted with ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker''. Good luck finding a review of this movie on Youtube that's either remotely positive OR under an hour long.

* The last episode of ''Anime/BottleFairy'' inspired [[http://denbeste.nu/Chizumatic/tmw/BottleFairy.shtml "Too many words about Bottle Fairy"]], which interprets the fairies as dolls Sensei-san's "deeply disturbed" (possibly autistic) younger sister uses to interact with a world she is unable to cope with herself.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' has gotten this treatment, of all places, [[http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/VC6.PDF in an economics essay]].

** It should be noted however, that Tolkien's statements are not intended to imply that there is no greater meaning behind the works. It is simply that they are not ''allegorical''. That is, there are no one-to-one comparisons between things in the fantasy world and things in the real world. First of all, in order to begin understanding the points Tolkien is making in his work one has to actually finish reading it: i.e. read ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'', ''Literature/TheHobbit'' AND ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' at the very least. This is because all of these books are intended as a single work. Secondly, Tolkien wrote an essay about his philosophy of literature that more or less basically tells you how to read his writing called Mythopoesis. So there's no real excuse for getting it wrong. You'd be hard-pressed to argue that Sauron isn't a fascist, and indeed the actual neo-Nazi [[Music/Burzum Varg Vikernes]] has admitted to being [[https://folk.uib.no/hnohf/greven.htm inspired by Sauron]][[note]]In terms of aesthetics, that is. He doesn't think Sauron is supposed to be the good guy.[[/note]]. It's simply that any one-to-one comparison between him and a real life fascist will fall apart immediately under any type of scrutiny AND entirely misses the actual points that Tolkien is making about fascism ''as an ideology separate from any particular person''.

** It should be noted however, that Tolkien's statements are not intended to imply that there is no greater meaning behind the works. It is simply that they are not ''allegorical''. That is, there are no one-to-one comparisons between things in the fantasy world and things in the real world. First of all, in order to begin understanding the points Tolkien is making in his work one has to actually finish reading it: i.e. read ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'', ''Literature/TheHobbit'' AND ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' at the very least. This is because all of these books are intended as a single work. Secondly, Tolkien wrote an essay about his philosophy of literature that more or less basically tells you how to read his writing called Mythopoesis. So there's no real excuse for getting it wrong. You'd be hard-pressed to argue that Sauron isn't a fascist, and indeed [[https://folk.uib.no/hnohf/greven.htm an actual fascist has admitted to being inspired by Sauron]]. It's simply that any one-to-one comparison between him and a real life fascist will fall apart immediately under any type of scrutiny AND entirely misses the actual points that Tolkien is making about fascism ''as an ideology separate from any particular person''.

[-[[caption-width-right:250:[[FilkSong Analyzing here, probing there, and a couple of]] "[[FlatWhat Hey? What? Huhs?]]" [[Film/TheWizardOfOz That's how we find meanings that aren't there in the merry old land of Oz!]]]]-]

* In an in-universe example, in the essay-fic, [[FanFic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed Equestria: A History Revealed]], it seems that the LemonyNarrator needs to learn about this, as she picks apart benign things and events for evidence. So far, she has analyzed: the wordchoice of select sources, what rocks can metaphorically represent, cited a cereal box, and made [[spoiler: a far-fetched leap in logic to relate Celestia to Italian food, when a cooking book mentions "the elements of a good pizza"]].

* Nick Cave's novel ''And The Ass Saw The Angel'' is a giant MindScrew set ThroughTheEyesOfMadness, brimming with [[FauxSymbolism confusing religious symbolism]], right down to the title. In an interview, he told everyone [[MST3KMantra not to read too much into it, and just to enjoy it]]. The story may be found [[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers%2022:1-35 here]].

* Most of the reviews for ''Fanfic/DoomRepercussionsOfEvil'' parody this trope.
** Well, of course. John's rage against the demons stems from his father's longstanding disapproval of his career choice. You see, he sees his father as the demon. But as we all know, John's father was only looking out for his son. It was John, betrayer of his own father, who was the real demon. Of course he was a demon only until he became a zombie.

* For a double-dose of this concept, feel free to read [[http://metaphilm.com/index.php/detail/fight_club/ this article]] which asserts that ''Film/FightClub'' is ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' grown-up. Not that the comparison is [[CrazyAwesome without merit]].

* Music/KatyPerry is the subject of this trope in her April 2017 single "Chained to the Rhythm" (featuring special guest star SkipMarley). Analysis of the video and its lyrics [[UpToEleven was done in detail online]], with a look at [[AnAesop the aesops the video provides]], as well as ShoutOut to [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment 2017's political climate]]. [[http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2017/02/katy-perry-s-new-song-not-so-much-chained-rhythm-chained-black-mirror The New Statesman goes into quite some detail on this]].

You can even get away with missing the point if you're a [[SeriousBusiness Really Serious Critic]] who wants to reveal all sorts of {{Family Unfriendly Aesop}}s inside a work, whether or not they have anything to do with the actual characters or plot. Goodness forbid that [[TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste the author(s) wanted you to do so]] ([[DeathOfTheAuthor if what the author wanted matters to the analyst]]). If it does, though, or even quite as possibly if it does not (at least by general agreement), wait for somebody to point out the MuseAbuse.

* While it's fairly well known that Creator/WalterHill's 1979 crime drama ''Film/TheWarriors'' - and, of course, the 1965 Sol Yurick novel on which it was based - was inspired by Xenophon's ''Anabasis'', the movie actually has little in common with the ancient Greek story except for its basic plot (a group of warriors fighting their way back home to their seacoast town) and for the fact that its DecoyProtagonist is named "Cyrus," which was also the name of the Persian king the Greeks were fighting during the events in ''Anabasis''. This hasn't stopped Hill from reediting his film for its special-edition DVD release to look almost literally like a comic-book retelling of ''Anabasis'', or fans of the movie from interpreting ''The Warriors'' as a tribute to Greek legends and mythology generally, especially to Homer's ''Odyssey''. The Baseball Furies are likened to the Furies [[{{Dissimile}} (even though the original Furies were female, and there were only three of them, and they never even appeared in the ''Odyssey'')]]. And the Lizzies, who [[FemmeFatale seduce the Warriors and then try to kill them]]? They must be the Sirens!

** See Main/{{Applicability}}
** Also Tolkien scripted The Lord of the Rings prior to World War II. If anything his experiences fighting in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI would have shaped the novel.
** After first defeating Saruman (Mussolini) and going on to throw down Sauron(Hitler) there should have been a third dark enemy in the further East who needed to be destroyed. Also there is no Stalin-analogue in Middle Earth - which might have made things more interesting!

--> People kept asking me what Faust is about. [[ShrugOfGod Like I would know it!]]

* [[https://pondwitch.tumblr.com/post/152543201837 This post]] analyses the "Bloody Mess" ending of the original ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'' (where you shoot the Overseer in the back after he banishes you from Vault 13) as tying in to the game's themes of war and violence, and [[TakeThatAudience a critique of players]] [[YouBastard obsessed with fictional violence]].

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

[[folder:Print Media]]
* Parodied by ''Website/TheOnion'' on at [[https://www.theonion.com/grad-student-deconstructs-take-out-menu-1819566497 least]] [[https://www.theonion.com/i-appreciate-the-muppets-on-a-much-deeper-level-than-yo-1819583976 three]] [[https://www.theonion.com/freshman-term-paper-discovers-something-totally-new-abo-1819564449 occasions]]. Made all the more hilarious by an AP English test from a few years back that involved analysing an Onion article.
[[/folder]]

** Modern psychology would go for a subversion: all such meaning comes from the ''person making the argument''. Unconscious symbolism is simply too idiosyncratic & personal, which is also why dream analysis is pretty much gone.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Fan Fic]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* In his Top 10 80's Movies video, WebVideo/{{Benzaie}} seems to take ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'' just a little too seriously, going as far to compare it to the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s, but on a smaller scale. Well, more power to you, but the people who actually made the film take it considerably less seriously in the "Making of Heavy Metal" documentary, describing it more appropriately as the last gasp of the counterculture before the wave of 1980's conservatism (apparently, they didn't watch a lot of [[HairMetal MTV during the '80s]]). And his views on the Conan the Barbarian film were taking it too seriously also. Interesting that he praised that film's audio commentary, which has been ridiculed online and even by Creator/EdgarWright on one of the audio commentaries to ''Film/ScottPilgrim''.

[[folder:Magazines]]

---> '''Interviewer:''' Bob, what are your songs about?
---> '''Dylan:''' Some are about four minutes, some are about six minutes.

-->If you've got the time, go grab a pen\\

But nobody cracks this Animutation!
* Music/KatyPerry is the subject of this trope in her April 2017 single "Chained To The Rhythm" (featuring special guest star SkipMarley). Analysis of the video and its lyrics [[UpToEleven was done in detail online]], with a look at [[AnAesop the aesops the video provides]], as well as ShoutOut to [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment 2017's political climate]]. [[http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2017/02/katy-perry-s-new-song-not-so-much-chained-rhythm-chained-black-mirror The New Statesman goes into quite some detail on this]].

* Music/PeterPaulAndMary contribute "Puff the Magic Dragon," written by Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton. It is JUST a fantasy about [[ABoyAndHisX a boy and his dragon]] and has no hidden meaning. As Yarrow's bandmate Mary Travers once said, "If Peter had wanted to write a song about smoking marijuana, he would have written a song about smoking marijuana."

[[folder:Theater]]

* There are a few people who analyze the living crap out of VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns, as can be expected given that it's a DarkerAndEdgier sequel to ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''.

** Oancitizen of WebVideo/BrowsHeldHigh fame makes a habit of this, especially in his "Between The Lines" videos. His earliest defining work on the TGWTG site was analyzing the themes and metaphors inherent in Nella's ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' tales during WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick's review of the MLP movie.
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' of all things is given this treatment by [[TheWikiRule The Homestar Runner Wiki]].
** Someone [[http://genius.com/Strong-bad-and-coach-z-fish-eye-lens-lyrics made a page]] on Genius (a website dedicated to crowd-sourced analysis of song lyrics and other media) for "Fish-Eye Lens", singling out all the ways the cartoon parodies rap and hip-hop videos from TheNineties (especially the use and abuse of the FishEyeLens in music videos by the Music/BeastieBoys).

* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'' did this in his ''Anime/SailorMoon'' review, when he talks about the transformation sequences, suddenly goes off on how [[{{Squick}} squicky]] they are given that the girls are 14 years old, despite not looking like it (ignorant or unknown of AnimationAnatomyAging) ''and then'' goes off on a tangent about the Japanese law in regards to Age Of Consent. [[CriticalResearchFailure Which isn't even exactly the same all over Japan]].
* Mocked in the Literature/WhateleyUniverse when Phase takes a World Literature class on the epic. The papers written on the classical Greek and Roman epics are all flamed by fellow student Majestic. Who happens to be the incarnation of Hera/Juno and ''might actually know more about this than anyone else in the class''.
* Parodied in ''WebVideo/LasagnaCat'' in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAh9oLs67Cw 07/27/1978]], an hour long analysis of a single strip of Garfield stealing Jon's pipe.
* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': Invoked in-universe with [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3435 SCP-3435]] (a painting of a wyvern wizard and a cyborg T. Rex fighting), which makes viewers nauseous if they overthink what the painting is supposed to represent. The artist who made it deliberately added this feature so when critics he hated came by, he could laugh at the sick looks on their faces.

* Pretty much every version of ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo''. Whether intentional or not, the fact that ''most'' villains[[note]]The most critically-acclaimed installments of the franchise are the ones that subvert this, such ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland'' or ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated''.[[/note]] in ''Scooby-Doo'' episodes are normal people masquerading as a supernatural monster is very much in line with the typical skeptical mindset, which feels that a naturalistic explanation (Old Man Johnson scaring people away from the pirate treasure by dressing up as a werewolf) is much more reasonable and likely than a supernatural one (werewolves exist).

* In 2005, the journalist Wilker de Jesus Lira wrote a monograph called "O merchandising capitalista no desenho Bob Esponja" (''The capitalist merchandising in the WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob|SquarePants}} cartoon'') where he attempts to show that [=SpongeBob=] preaches the American capitalism that predates the lower classes, saying that "[=SpongeBob=] is the perfect capitalist employee, who doesn't rebel against his chief and accepts everything, even if he lives with a misery salary".
** Others have argued that each character represents a deadly sin. Krabs is Greed. Plankton is Envy. Sandy is Pride. Partick is Sloth. Squidward is Wrath. Gary is Gluttony. and [=SpongeBob=] is ''lust'' (in case anyone is confused, lust is not simply referring to sexual lust, but for a general act of doing what on wants, i.e. hedonism).

* There is a German cartoon series called ''Benjamin Blümchen & Bibi Blocksberg''. It's about a talking elephant and a school-age witch. That's it. Yet, the German Federal Agency for Civic Education analysed the series, and produced a frighteningly plausible report of how this apparently innocent children's series is heavily politically lopsided agitation material; strongly anti-capitalist, nihilist, and even denouncing the democratic process in favour of popularism. Thus, they classified as being ''harmful'' to a child's political and socialisational development.
** Truth be told, German censors are slightly on the idiotic side of the scale.

[[folder:Other]]
* Improv comedy troupe/public pranksters Improv Everywhere parodied this trope by setting up a New York subway station as an art gallery, where preexisting objects like trash cans, advertisements and passing trains were the "art". See a video of it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NU5K3k8Xo&feature=player_embedded here]].
* Aversion: UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud would say that unconscious conflicts resolve themselves by being expressed through symbolic stories. So, the fact that an author denies the presence of any deeper meaning to their work (as in the aforementioned ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', where the idea of a Kansan taking trip to the capital to appeal for help from the ruler seems to be a fitting metaphor for ruritans, mired in a farm crisis, traveling to D.C. to ask the President for aid), does not in and of itself [[{{Jossed}} prove that no such meaning exists]]. [[EpilepticTrees As long as the explanation makes sense, it's worth considering]]; and this is at the root of what makes something art or not. As long as the explanation makes sense....
** Modern psychology would go for a subversion: all such meaning comes from the ''person making the argument''. Unconscious symbolism is simply too idiosyncratic & personal, which is also why dream analysis is pretty much gone.
** One doesn't need to dig as deep as Freudian psychology does, any given work will reveal some facts about the author and their opinion on certain topics. Especially if the work is not intended to be great literature. Read any fanfic that takes place in Japan, but uses the school system of the place where the author lives: You now know where the author lives, and what school system they consider "normal".
* Any series that maintains a solid internal consistency can be subject to this. It becomes easy to find how a throw-away remark or the viewpoint of an isolated character becomes supported by all the other elements of the work, even if the author never intended or agreed with such statements.
* ''The Official Couch Potato Handbook'' has a page deconstructing ''Series/GilligansIsland'' in terms of Freudian symbology. It's disturbingly plausible.
** Another fun (and plausible) one is that the castaways represent the Seven Deadly Sins. Gilligan is Sloth, the Captain is Wrath, the Professor is Pride, Mr. Howell is Greed, Mrs. Howell is Gluttony, Ginger is Lust and Mary-Ann is Envy.
[[/folder]]