| 1 | !This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16815221470.78122100 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop. |
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| 8 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 15 | %% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1318733231084816600 |
| 16 | %% Please start a new thread if you'd like to suggest an image. |
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| 18 | ->''"You can't have an anti-gun message when you clearly used guns to solve your problem! IT JUST DOESN'T WORK!"'' |
| 19 | -->-- '''[[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]]''' reviewing ''Comicbook/SupermanAtEarthsEnd'' |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Most children are familiar with the line "Do as I say, not as I do." A [[TitleDrop Broken Aesop]] is this in ''aesop form''. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | A Broken Aesop involves a work presenting a lesson or viewpoint, but with the events within the work contradicting the presented lesson or viewpoint, whether it's because the lesson/viewpoint is at odds with prior events, or whether an event later in the work goes against the lesson/viewpoint. Basically, it's a story where a 'moral' presented just doesn't match the original moral that the story actually contains. Sometimes the resulting moral feels tacked on or just plain {{hypocrit|e}}ical. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | Not to be confused with a HardTruthAesop, where the lesson ''is'' supported by the work, but it's something that parents probably wouldn't want their kids to learn. Also not to be confused with a SpaceWhaleAesop, where |
| 26 | the lesson has no application outside of its fictional context (though the two can overlap). Compare AnalogyBackfire, which is when an analogy (which may or may not contain an Aesop) makes a point that is the opposite of what it was supposed to. DoNotDoThisCoolThing is when the Aesop of "this thing is bad" fails due to clumsy presentation. See also ValuesDissonance. For ''intentional'' Broken Aesops PlayedForLaughs, see SpoofAesop. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | ''Important Note: as tempting it may be, please do not add meta-fictional examples (while they may be a CluelessAesop, they constitute an AdHominem argument). Only add examples where the aesop is broken within the narrative itself. This means do not add examples such as:'' |
| 29 | # ''"How many trees got cut down to produce that book [[GreenAesop warning us about deforestation]]?"'' |
| 30 | # ''"How much money did that film with the message against being greedy or about money not being everything or the [[CapitalismIsBad anti-capitalist message]] gross at the box office?"'' |
| 31 | # ''"[[CelebCrush How]] [[HollywoodHomely great looking]] were the actors in that work telling us that looks aren't everything or that it's what's on the inside that counts?"'' |
| 32 | # ''"How much does the creator for that work with that SnicketWarningLabel spend on advertising the work?"'' |
| 33 | # ''"Why is a television show/video game giving AnAesop about how [[AntiEscapismAesop people need to watch less TV/spend less time playing video games]]?"'' |
| 34 | # ''"Why is this movie/TV show/song telling us about how [[HorribleHollywood the entertainment industry]] [[MusicIsPolitics is evil]]?"'' |
| 35 | # ''"If this movie/TV show/song/video game is calling me [[YouBastard a bastard]] for enjoying it, then what does that say about the people who are making money off of it?"'' |
| 36 | # ''"Why is this movie/TV show/video game telling me that LuddWasRight despite being made using modern technology?"'' |
| 37 | # ''"Why are these celebrities telling me that CelebrityIsOverrated?"'' |
| 38 | # ''"Why is this producer who was criticized for not paying their employees enough to even afford their rent telling me I should treat my employees decently?"'' |
| 39 | # "''Why is this children's book arguing that political activism shouldn't be targeted towards kids when the book itself has a political message?"'' |
| 40 | |
| 41 | ''Another thing to note is that an author cannot directly invoke this trope. The whole point is that it's unintentional. The only way to directly invoke this is through other characters criticizing it via BreakingTheFourthWall or a ShowWithinAShow format.'' |
| 42 | |
| 43 | [[noreallife]] |
| 44 | ---- |
| 45 | !Examples: |
| 46 | |
| 47 | [[index]] |
| 48 | * BrokenAesop/AnimeAndManga |
| 49 | ** ''BrokenAesop/{{Naruto}}'' |
| 50 | ** ''BrokenAesop/YuGiOh'' |
| 51 | * BrokenAesop/ComicBooks |
| 52 | * BrokenAesop/FanWorks |
| 53 | ** ''BrokenAesop/FriendshipIsFailure'' |
| 54 | ** ''BrokenAesop/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'' |
| 55 | * [[BrokenAesop/AnimatedFilms Films – Animated]] |
| 56 | ** ''BrokenAesop/TheEmojiMovie'' |
| 57 | * [[BrokenAesop/LiveActionFilms Films – Live-Action]] |
| 58 | ** ''BrokenAesop/CoolCatSavesTheKids'' |
| 59 | * BrokenAesop/{{Literature}} |
| 60 | ** ''BrokenAesop/HarryPotter'' |
| 61 | ** ''BrokenAesop/TheHungerGames'' |
| 62 | * BrokenAesop/LiveActionTV |
| 63 | ** ''BrokenAesop/DoctorWho'' |
| 64 | * BrokenAesop/VideoGames |
| 65 | * BrokenAesop/WesternAnimation |
| 66 | ** ''BrokenAesop/TheFairlyOddParents'' |
| 67 | ** ''BrokenAesop/MastersOfTheUniverse'' |
| 68 | ** ''BrokenAesop/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' |
| 69 | ** ''BrokenAesop/TheSimpsons'' |
| 70 | [[/index]] |
| 71 | |
| 72 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 73 | |
| 74 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 75 | * A commercial for [=CougarLife=].com shows one such [[MrsRobinson cougar]], walking around a bar asserting the superiority of older women over younger women. She demonstrates how much more mature and confident she is [[{{Hypocrite}} by bullying and assaulting the younger women in the bar, who are already on dates, so she can take their place]]. While being condescending to twenty-somethings about their part-time jobs and shoving them out of their chairs might prove that you're confident, it does ''not'' make you mature. |
| 76 | * Dr Pepper made an ad campaign based on individuality and "I gotta be me"... but the commercials had most everyone [[RuleAbidingRebel wearing near-identical red shirts with white text]]. While all of the text was different, in most crowd scenes everyone looked the same. They [[SubvertedTrope sorta fixed this]] when you could buy your own customized shirt... but then they went around ''[[DoubleSubversion giving people pre-made shirts]]''. |
| 77 | * Creator/{{Nintendo}} isn't immune from this either - in 1995 and early 1996, during the early years of the Platform/PlayStation, Nintendo put out commercials about their "arcade-perfect" ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'' ports and closed each commercial with "So who needs a new system?" Later in 1996, when the Platform/Nintendo64 was released, it aired commercials asking consumers to "Change the System." A lot of said consumers did - [[GoneHorriblyRight just not to the system they expected.]] |
| 78 | * A Platform/PlayStation3 commercial for the Move tries to say that motion control gaming is not just for children. It then shows a montage of about 6-9 games set to what may or may not be Chariots of Fire, about two of which most parents wouldn't let their child play. Even worse is the fact that a 12-year-old girl is seen playing one of the less child-friendly games. There's also the fact that the Platform/{{Wii}} made most of its money because motion control ''was'' successful for family gaming, which one who is a little more cynical could say is [[FollowTheLeader the entire reason]] Sony ''made'' the Move. That's also not getting into the fact that the whole point of the commercial, to say that motion control isn't just for children, is incredibly hypocritical considering the ones who first pushed the idea that motion control gaming is only for kids [[ItWillNeverCatchOn were Sony themselves]]. |
| 79 | * In the 1970s there was a well-meaning anti-smoking PSA starring WesternAnimation/YogiBear and friends, [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RfAtn8jWTaI/TjH_0nMlfqI/AAAAAAAAwZU/ychwjiTzRhc/s1600/%2524%2528KGrHqR%252C%2521lQE4lQLrciiBOLLtq%2528%25296g%257E%257E0_3.JPG while they had been seen smoking in their cartoons, and sold merchandise featuring smoking]]. |
| 80 | * Values.com sponsors the "Pass It On" series of [=PSAs=], one of which is about [[http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/128-Dishes listening]]. Its last scene shows a woman silently washing the dishes while her husband is on his cell phone. He drops it into the sink and has to fish it out, scrambling to pick his call back up, only to have his wife (still silently) take it out of his hands and smugly drop it ''back into the sink''. [[JerkassRealization Instead of being pissed that his wife just drowned a hundred-dollar smartphone, he smiles contentedly and realizes the error of his ways]], and goes on to focus on listening to her. The moral breaks because the story is about ''listening'', and the wife pulls this stunt ''while her husband was on the phone'' and ''saying nothing out loud herself''. What was he supposed to be listening to, if not the person with whom ''he was already speaking''? There are other scenes in the commercial where the husband ''does'' want to talk and it's the ''wife'' who won't listen - [[DoubleStandard maybe that's okay somehow?]] |
| 81 | * Done deliberately by an Australian PSA about staying in school, made as a joke by a local ad agency. It started with a montage of a group of high school students sneaking out of class to party on a closed-off beach, set to optimistic-sounding music... and ended with a graphic depiction of all but one of them being killed by land mines, as the camera panned out to reveal warning signs about the beach being an explosive testing site. Because the ending is DiabolusExMachina with no direct connection to the students' decision to cut school, the message instead becomes "don't break into fenced-in beaches"... which is a perfectly valid Aesop, just not the intended one. |
| 82 | * During the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the anti-independence (No) campaign ran a video called ''The Woman Who Made Up Her Mind'', which featured a woman talking to a camera in her kitchen about how this talk of independence was all very well, but did the pro-independence (Yes) campaign really know what they were talking about? Did they really know what would happen? She comes down against independence because she "just doesn't think" it will work out, but the lesson that the Yes campaign hadn't done the research and didn't know what would happen is lost, because although the No side was trying to present itself as the party of common sense, the woman doesn't have any facts to back herself up; her own doubts are entirely based on gut instinct and knee-jerk distrust of politicians. It was widely perceived as sexist and patronising for its portrayal of women as incapable of doing a basic Google search, and in the wake of it being shown on TV, the Yes campaign briefly overtook the No campaign in the polls. |
| 83 | * Here's a Broken Aesop that doubles as a CluelessAesop: In the early '90s, Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} ran several [=PSAs=] about the need to turn off the television and go outside. Around that same time, they ran a network promo depicting a kid being left alone on a baseball field, because all of his friends are ''in the living room watching Nick''. |
| 84 | * The Advertising/MethProject Ads are mainly a [[ScareEmStraight horrorshow]] series about how DrugsAreBad. For the most part, they do their job admirably, particularly the ones directed by Darren Aronofsky, who's kind of [[Literature/RequiemForADream famous for that]], but a couple of them fall flat. They feature teenagers who wish they had been horribly injured if it diverted them from going to the place they tried meth for the first time. It fits the tone of the ads in general, but the characters are describing a catastrophic traffic accident and physical violence (implied to be a gay bashing) as being preferable to going to a party and trying meth. Meth is a bad idea, but you're a lot more likely to recover from drug addiction than the kind of [[AndIMustScream complete and isolated helplessness due to crippling injury]] being described as the preferable outcome the ad suggests. |
| 85 | * [[Advertising/GotMilk A series of 1990s ads featuring milk]] would have a situation where the character would have had great fortune if they'd just been able to drink a glass of milk and say something. However, one of them had a man being asked what the name of a new cookie should be, and mumble, "I don't know" through a mouthful of it, which his boss hears as "Oreo", choosing that name and praising him for the idea. So is the message that if we ''don't'' have milk we'll do well at work? Or is it that milk will help you do well at work only as long as your work doesn't involve cookies? |
| 86 | * Subway restaurants: |
| 87 | ** One ad that aired in the Halloween season had a thin and rather beautiful woman trying to convince two average guys who were eating basic fast food to give their food a try. Fair enough, but her objective for getting them to eat better was so that one could look good in [[{{Stripperific}} female-oriented]] Halloween costumes. So, not only is the message undermined considerably (i.e., "Don't eat at our restaurant because the food is fresh and healthier; do it so that you can lose weight, look better in skanky outfits and be ogled by strange men"), but the fact she was saying this to men made little sense (and would look a lot worse if she were approaching two ''women'' with the same incentive). |
| 88 | ** One Subway ad features a popular character acting as a spokesman for the restaurant. The problem there is that the spokesman in question was [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Peter Griffin]] - you know, [[FatBastard a morbidly obese borderline sociopath]]. Even if he did appear in the short-lived ads purely out of irony, both fans and detractors of the show alike voiced their displeasure with the hypocrisy of the ads, with concerns ranging from accusing the show of selling out to confusion over why a fat guy is a spokesman for a restaurant that (supposedly) encourages a healthier lifestyle. |
| 89 | ** A Subway ad featuring soccer player Megan Rapinoe has the message to "choose better; be better" by choosing Subway over other fast food like burritos and burgers. It would be perfectly fine if she tried to persuade them by extolling the virtues of the sandwich, but she instead uses her athletic skills to physically compel them to her desired action. In one case she somehow uses the soccer ball to order a sandwich on the parkgoer's smartphone (including modifications she decided on). In another case she knocks food a guy ''already had'' onto the ground, forcing him to replace it, just because she thought her suggestion was better. Thus the takeaway is less "make better choices" and more "you are not allowed to choose what you eat for lunch." |
| 90 | * Olay's "Make Space for Women" commercial, which premiered during the 2020 Super Bowl. [[DontShootTheMessage Yes, more women]] ''[[DontShootTheMessage should]]'' [[DontShootTheMessage be involved in STEM fields]], except the three women going to outer space are portrayed as ditzy, incompetent, and they even end up blowing themselves up in the end when [[WhatDoesThisButtonDo one of them presses the big, shiny "Olay" button.]] Not the kind of stereotypes you want to associate with women in STEM, as these are the very outdated stereotypes that prevent women from being taken seriously in actual STEM fields in the first place. |
| 91 | * A late-90's Domestic Violence PSA featured a father having lunch in a cafe with his two children, and an argument breaks out between a man and a woman a few tables over. The argument escalates throughout the ad, from yelling to threats, and finally the man bodily dragging the woman out of the cafe. During this escalation, the camera focuses on the father listening, and message cards appear rapidly, "When do you get involved? Now? Now? Now?" Then it focuses on his young son, and the card says, "Now." The implication being that a good parent needs to teach his son young to not be an abuser. Except...you know, a woman was being abused right in front of him and he didn't do anything. NotQuiteTheRightThing, at best. |
| 92 | * One Advertising/{{Protegent}} ad begins with the message that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPucEYts5kQ parents need to be able to trust teachers]]. The ad itself is about a teacher noticing that [[TheInternetIsForPorn someone has been looking at pornography on one of her class's computers]], but being unable to find out who it was. Thanks to Protegent's monitoring functions, she finally manages to catch the culprit... and decides that she will not tell his parents about what he's been doing. Because teachers who keep secrets about something as big as this from their students' parents are trustworthy. |
| 93 | * A couple of MADD PSA's against underage drinking cautions that the younger a boy starts drinking alcohol, the more likely he is to abuse it. That is technically true, but the scenarios they use are [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing wholesome bonding moments]] that are clearly examples of responsible consumption. Okay, sure, if a boy starts drinking ''habitually'' at a young age (genetic predisposition to addiction notwithstanding), he'll be more likely to develop alcoholism, but in general, he's a lot less likely to start drinking habitually ''at all'' if he develops a healthy relationship with alcohol when he's in his teens. For instance, if his responsible, openly-affectionate father demonstrated moderation by allowing one celebratory beer after a successful fishing trip with his elderly grandfather, or a half-shot of scotch to toast his acceptance to a prestigious university. That second one is especially contradictory because the Mothers Against Drunk Driving don't even have anything to worry about, they're already home, nobody's driving anywhere! |
| 94 | * A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaCVSUbYpVc 2024 Super Bowl ad]] for Microsoft Copilot has the theme that anybody is capable of following their dreams, even if others tell them they can't do those things. This is weakened by scenes of the people requesting the AI to assist them with creative tasks such as creating logos, storyboards, or even writing entire lines of code for a game. In other words, it assumes the customer ''can't'' do certain things and will need AI assistance. |
| 95 | [[/folder]] |
| 96 | |
| 97 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 98 | * The ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' "Crimestopper's Guide" feature that runs with the Sunday strip provides several generally helpful crime prevention tips. However, they often are, if not broken, then at least hypocritical in the face of the main action: It reminds that "you cannot spot a criminal by their facial features", while the strip is best known for its [[BeautyEqualsGoodness grotesquely ugly villains]]. It also has exhortations for people to "get involved" when they see a crime committed, while in the strip helpful bystanders tend to quickly end up dead. And so on. |
| 99 | * E.C. Segar's ''Thimble Theater'', where ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} first appeared, sometimes had an AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle segment in which Popeye would teach morals. In one of them Popeye seriously teaches kids not to be lazy with their language and mispronounce words ("sumpin' for "something", for instance). It was originally used as an occasional gag, but after Segar's untimely demise, other writers sometimes forgot that it was supposed to be ironic. |
| 100 | * ''ComicStrip/TheWizardOfId'' does an annual Veterans Day strip where it pays tribute to the US military, using the Id army as a metaphor for them. However, the rest of the year, Id's military, and especially their commander-in-chef Sir Rodney, are depicted as incompetent, bumbling cowards, so the compliment comes off as backhanded at best. |
| 101 | [[/folder]] |
| 102 | |
| 103 | [[folder:Fairy Tales]] |
| 104 | * ''Literature/AesopsFables'': |
| 105 | ** ''The Satyr and the Peasant'' is about a satyr who meets a poor traveler lost in the woods, and invites him to his home. He notices the peasant first blowing on his hands to warm them, then blowing on a bowl of soup to cool it off. The Satyr immediately kicks his guest out, declaring that "a man who blows hot and cold in the same breath can't be trusted", metaphorically meaning that someone who frequently changes his mind to avoid committing to a conclusion or to align himself with both sides of a conflict. The problem is, obviously, that the man ''isn't'' blowing hot and cold in the same breath, his breath is the same temperature every time. It's just that his breath is warmer than his cold hands and cooler than his hot soup, meaning he was actually being consistently moderate. |
| 106 | [[/folder]] |
| 107 | |
| 108 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 109 | * Avril Lavigne's "[=Sk8er=] Boi" tries to have a "Kiss the Frog" moral about turning a man down who becomes a pop star, but the final chorus "I'll be at a studio, singing a song I wrote.." implies that the song is not from the point of view of a random other woman, but Avril Lavigne herself. This means that it completely ignores the extremely strong possibility that she ended up in a relationship with a pop star because she is one too. |
| 110 | * [=BarlowGirl=]'s "She Walked Away" begins with a girl leaving her home and makes it sound like she was being abused and finally had the courage to leave after a BreakTheCutie moment (''If there were tears she laughed, it's time to kiss the past goodbye'') but then suddenly has her family singing about how {{God}} should tell her to please come home, making the song's apparent aesop "Home is where the heart is, even if you're being abused." Alternately, she was just a plain ol' runaway. The lyrics are ambiguous. |
| 111 | * "'Right!', Said Fred" by Bernard Cribbins is about three men trying to move something into another room but they end up taking the things off the "so-and-so" and removing the door, wall, and ceiling of the house. Its apparent moral is "don't be hasty", but it [[AccidentalPun falls apart]] when you realise that none of the things they did were hasty ''per se''-- Charlie is usually the one to suggest them (while it's the titular Fred who's called out for being "hasty"), and he always "thinks" before suggesting something. If anything, the moral should be "taking things off is sometimes a bad idea". |
| 112 | * The Double Take song "Hot Problems" is about two girls "singing" that even though they're hot, they're still imperfect and have their fair share of struggles. At the very end, they laugh and say, "Just kidding; we're perfect!" |
| 113 | * Parodied by the ''Music/FlightOfTheConchords'' song "Think About It", which takes a swipe at well-meaning but ultimately fatuous protest songs. The song raises moral issues but completely misses the point of them: |
| 114 | -->''They're turning kids into slaves\ |
| 115 | Just to make cheaper sneakers\ |
| 116 | But what's the real cost?\ |
| 117 | 'Cause the sneakers don't seem that much cheaper...\ |
| 118 | Why're we still paying so much for sneakers when you've got them made by little slave kids?\ |
| 119 | What is your overhead?'' |
| 120 | * Music/KatMcSnatch has "Don't Be a Racist", PlayedForLaughs, which starts with Kat advising about the song title, only for her (and her [[AWildRapperAppears rapping partner]]) to burst into full-blown racism. |
| 121 | * Music/MichaelJackson's "They Don't Care About Us" has an anti-bigotry/injustice message, even name-dropping Martin Luther King, Jr. at one point. But thanks to poor context, the lines "Jew me, sue me" and "Kick me, K*ke me", which were supposed to be refer to Jews ''being treated'' badly rather than Jews ''treating others'' badly, were misinterpreted as anti-Semitic ([[GreedyJew the "sue me" rhyme didn't help Jackson's case]]). These two lines were changed for the single release and later pressings of the album as a result. |
| 122 | * Some of Music/TaylorSwift's songs fall victim of this: |
| 123 | ** "Mean" is one example. First she states that she won't let the "mean" girl who insults and bullies her draw her into a CycleOfRevenge... and then she spends the rest of the song mocking her for how "pathetic" and "alone in life" she is and how she'll never been anything other than "mean". Worse, the song was reportedly a TakeThat aimed towards a music critic who slammed Swift's singing. The lesson seems less like "Don't bully other people" than "[[ItsAllAboutMe Don't bully Taylor Swift]]." |
| 124 | ** Then you have "You Belong With Me", where she plays a high school girl who steals another girl's boyfriend but only after she dresses and acts exactly like her, despite the music video implying that the original girlfriend was unsavory by dressing the way she did. The boyfriend seems content in choosing the hotter girl, as looks appear to be top priority. |
| 125 | * "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire (ft. Krayzie Bone) has a message about being racially profiled, but then brags about smoking weed and driving drunk, making it look like the cops are actually justified in wanting to catch them "ridin' dirty". |
| 126 | * Meghan Trainor: |
| 127 | ** "All About That Bass" by promotes the {{Aesop}} that you are beautiful and your body is fine the way it is, but then refers to "skinny bitches", which generated a lot of criticism for undermining its message and stereotyping women based on their weight. This generally ignores the second half of the verse, which acknowledges that thin women can also be insecure about their bodies and that they are perfect from the bottom to the top too. Some other lines also imply that beauty is based on others' opinions. It's also worth noting that the heavyset male dancer in the music video is portrayed as effeminate, campy, and humorous, while the actor playing Meghan's boyfriend is slender. Plenty of men/boys have issues with Body Image, and presenting such a Double Standard doesn't help. It becomes HarsherInHindsight after she told ''People'' magazine that she tried to go "anorexic" (she really just tried dieting), which was pretty insensitive towards people who actually have eating disorders. Plus, despite promoting [[YouGoGirl "girl power"]], she claims that she's ''not'' a feminist because she thinks it carries a [[StrawFeminist negative connotation]], which makes most of her songs seem like Broken Aesops. There's a Bowdlerized version of "All About That Bass" which changes the line "boys like a little more booty to hold at night" to "boys like their girls for the beauty they hold inside"... [[LostAesop which has nothing to do with the intended message about body positivity]]. |
| 128 | * The Finnish song "Albatrossi" ("Albatross") by Juha Vainio tells the story of two childhood friends who went their different ways; the narrator wishes he had been like the other, who took charge of his own life and became a sailor. The central explicit metaphor is that the sailor is like a tireless (and free) albatross, while the narrator has been like a gull, "the man who doesn't finish his work and who builds everything on mere dreams." But the actual story before this was that the sailor ran off to the sea when fifteen, while the narrator stayed behind studying and working as he was expected to do -- and regretted not following his dreams. The sailor may have been more determined to seize the day, but the difference between the characters was hardly that he worked harder instead of building his life on a dream. |
| 129 | ** The song is based on one of Juha Vainio's childhood friends, who indeed did become a sailor. But given to the fact Juha Vainio had quite hollow legs, the [[TheDrunkenSailor flip side of the maritime life]] would most likely have proven him disastrous. |
| 130 | * "The Christmas Shoes" by [=NewSong=] gets a lot of criticism for the less sentimental [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq10bz3PxyY interpretation of its message]] , but the message itself is broken just by the events of the song. The opening lines paint the narrator's obligate gift-buying as being against the spirit of Christmas, but the whole point of the story is that the little boy is spending Christmas Eve trying to buy a material gift for his dying mother so she can look beautiful when she meets Jesus... instead of actually spending time with her. |
| 131 | * Coven's "One Tin Soldier" is an illustration of the perils of using a moral ideal to justify mistreating others, sarcastically encouraging the audience to go ahead and be an asshole "in the name of Heaven" because you'll always be able to say you did the right thing (and there won't be anyone to call out the winner if they make sure all the losers are dead). Unfortunately, the actual story being told to the children is a fable about the Valley People sacking the Mountain People's castle to steal their treasure, only to find that the treasure is just the idea of peace. The moral fails because the Valley People demand literal gold, and rather than just saying that there ''isn't any'', the Mountain People offer to share their treasure and just never send anything back. Sure, the Valley People are greedy dicks, but the conflict was a matter of PoorCommunicationKills, not a moral issue. It also fails because the Valley People never actually try to justify their actions and their motives are nakedly "take their stuff because we can". |
| 132 | * Music/HarryChapin's iconic "Cat's in the Cradle" is about a [[WhenYouComingHomeDad neglectful father who is always working too hard to spend time with his son]], whose son nevertheless grows up idolising him and swearing to become just like him. At the end of the song when the son has grown up and the father retired, the father tries to connect with his son now that he has time to spend, only to be brushed off by the son who's too busy with his own work now, leading to [[PerspectiveReversal the father realising]] [[IronicEcho "He'd grown up just like me"]]. Except rather than [[TroubledAbuser growing up to neglect his own kids the way his father neglected him]], one of the reasons the son actually cites for having no time for his father is "the kids have the flu", so it ends up being less about a cycle of mistakes being perpetuated, and more about [[LaserGuidedKarma the father being treated the same way he treated his son]], who grew up to be the ''opposite'' of his father, despite the repeated line "I'm gonna be like you, Dad, you know I'm gonna be like you". |
| 133 | * In [[Music/MelanieMartinez Melanie Martinez]]'s "Lunchbox Friend", Melanie complains about people judging her for smoking weed. However in "Dollhouse", she treats the brother smoking weed as a character flaw. |
| 134 | [[/folder]] |
| 135 | |
| 136 | [[folder:Music Videos]] |
| 137 | * The Music/LemonDemon song "Geeks in Love" has a fairly good (if tired-out) message by itself, that it is better to be unique and spend time with the rare person who shares your own interests than to be hip and hang with the crowd. However, its music video by Albino Black Sheep functions largely as a tribute to every other annoying [[MemeticMutation Internet fad]] in the world, and aligning them with the interests of the eponymous couple. It's not really individualism when you swap one dull set of pop-culture icons out for another just like it. |
| 138 | * Music/MichaelJackson examples: |
| 139 | ** ''Film/MichaelJacksonsGhosts'', according to WordOfGod, is a story of how TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside, and how just because a person is "different" from others doesn't make them bad. Unfortunately, the two characters Jackson plays both break the aesop. The bigoted Mayor -- a fat, middle-aged white guy -- is mocked throughout, with no redeeming qualities. The ostensibly good Maestro -- effectively Jackson himself -- magically imprisons the angry mob confronting them and tortures the helpless Mayor, proving he really was the dangerous "freaky boy" the Mayor accused him of being! Even if you ignore the Mayor and the mob of paranoid parents, the Maestro is still a necromancer who regularly summons a bunch of undead to do his bidding. That's a legitimate concern for an otherwise normal suburban neighborhood. |
| 140 | ** The music video of "Music/{{Bad}}" has Michael being bullied by gang members for being a pussy because he refused to "rob" people and doesn't hang down with them a lot. Michael confronts them by -- suddenly appearing in a leather outfit and doing an impressive sing-and-dance routine where he boasts about how "bad" he is. In the end the others who doubted him do respect him. So... what was the message exactly? Give in to peer pressure? It's good to be "bad", because you would rather be called that than being called a coward? Being "bad" equals being a good singer and dancer? It seems that Michael was ComicallyMissingThePoint the gang member was trying to make. |
| 141 | ** "Black or White" has the "panther dance" near the end of the video, where Michael smashes up a car and windows and then transforms into a black panther. It confused a lot of people, especially because the violence is such a contrast with the rest of the video. And the black panther also brings up associations with the Afro-American Black Panther movement, whose members weren't always that peaceful or tolerant to non-blacks either. In later broadcasts the panther dance was cut from the video, which makes it work a whole lot better on its own. When it was finally reinstated racist messages were digitally added to the things Michael smashes in the video, giving it a more understandable context. |
| 142 | * Notorious B.I.G and Puff Daddy's video for ''Mo' Money, Mo' Problems'' stars Puff as a golf champion who laments over his recent acquisition of wealth in lieu with the song's title. For some reason, that doesn't seem to stop him from rapping for about three minutes about how awesome it is to be rich. |
| 143 | * Music/{{Queen|Band}}'s song [[Music/TheWorks "Radio Ga Ga"]] is all about how music video is ruining music and we should all just listen to the radio instead. The accompanying music video features lavish sets and costumes, footage from the film ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' (the restoration of which it was made to promote) and a montage of clips of music videos from earlier Queen songs. |
| 144 | * The animated music video for Teddyloid's [[Anime/JapanAnimatorExpo ME!ME!ME!]] is pretty intense and is subject to a few varying interpretations, but the message is laid out fairly clearly no matter which one you go with: mass-produced, consumer-driven sexuality is damaging and unsatisfying compared to real relationships. For all the otherwise well-done and disturbingly powerful imagery, it contrasts the mass-produced {{Moe}} sex kittens with the "real" girl by... having the real girl look more or less exactly like them, except she [[MadonnaWhoreComplex dresses modestly and]] [[DamselInDistress is crying helplessly and in danger]]. It's really not helping the message to design your bad-girl villains according to the emotionally-manipulative design tropes of the {{Moe}} type, and then use those same emotionally-manipulative design tropes to make your good-girl damsel more sympathetic to the audience. |
| 145 | * The music video for Music/{{Disturbed}}'s ''The Vengeful One'', a song about blaming the media for mass shooters, has the band's mascot/avatar... going on a shooting spree against the media, breaking into the news building and gunning down as many of them as he can. It even includes phrases straight out of a psychotic active shooter's manifesto, like "I'm the hand of God, I'm the dark messiah". It turns the aesop from "Stop giving mass shooters attention, it just creates more of them" to "Mass shootings are okay and actually very cool as long as you pick the right target". |
| 146 | [[/folder]] |
| 147 | |
| 148 | [[folder:Print Media]] |
| 149 | * An educational magazine called Science World once did a feature called "The State of All There Is vs. Humanity", in which [[GreenAesop the human race is on trial for the death of Mother Nature]], and the punishment if convicted is extinction. What breaks the aesop is the fact that it looks like the defense attorney [[KangarooCourt isn't even trying]]. |
| 150 | [[/folder]] |
| 151 | |
| 152 | [[folder:Pro Wrestling]] |
| 153 | * Pro wrestling is, at best, a weird place to promote anti-bullying sentiments and at worst, actively undermined by the content of the product (where even the biggest babyface is still going to be using violence and trash talk to resolve his problems) but WWE soldiers on anyway in the interest of doing some good in the world. However, they are still a pro wrestling promotion, and WWE was called out on the dissonance of their anti-bullying campaign "Be A Star" in 2011 by Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter awards by "winning" the award for "Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic" due to their mistreatment of Wrestling/JimRoss at the time of this campaign. |
| 154 | ** Others have pointed out that WWE have a long history of enabling or even actively encouraging extreme bullying and hazing not only between wrestlers but also towards other employees. Although supposedly toned down from the old days it is allegedly still going on, to the point that some people have been driven out of the company. |
| 155 | * Wrestling/JohnCena's "Rise Above Hate" slogan is understandable but still troublesome. Wrestling/{{Kane}} was ''[[EnforcedTrope deliberately]]'' trying to get Cena to break this Aesop and "Embrace the Hate"... but if you examine the two characters of John Cena and Kane carefully, you'll see that a problem has existed there from the very beginning. After all, Cena is hardly brave for refusing to surrender to feelings of hate when he is world-famous, absurdly successful, fabulously wealthy, and is loved by at least a bare majority of the WWE Universe - and thus, has no reason in the world to experience hate. Conversely, is Kane really such a monster for being so full of hate when [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds he was nearly burned to death as a child, suffered years of psychological trauma that left him unable to speak for a long time, accidentally killed his high school sweetheart in a car crash (and had this revealed on live television, along with the lie that he killed the girl on purpose and then had sexual intercourse with her corpse), lost the unborn child he fathered and was betrayed by his wife, was tricked into causing the death of his father, and in general is loathed and ignored by the better part of the human race]]? |
| 156 | * In late 2000, WWE Commissioner Mick Foley addressed his concern about the growing extreme violence and vicious behavior that Superstars were committing between one another, highlighted by Stone Cold Steve Austin having tried to murder Triple H in a car at Survivor Series. Foley's solution to reign in the violence? Put his six biggest stars all together in a Hell in a Cell Match! |
| 157 | [[/folder]] |
| 158 | |
| 159 | [[folder:TabletopGames]] |
| 160 | * In the fluff of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', a beloved minor character was Ollanius Pius, the name given to an unknown guardsman who sacrificed himself by heroically charging at [[SatanicArchetype Horus]] in protection of his Emperor and defiance of the Dark Powers. Though Pius was immediately vaporized, he was held up as a shining example of a BadassNormal and what makes the Imperial Guard what it is (and the sight of Horus deliberately destroying a man who was objectively no threat to him is what finally convinced the Emperor that Horus could not be saved). Until he was [[RetCon retconned]] as being a superhuman SpaceMarine, and then a member of the Adeptus Custodes (who are to the Space Marines what a Space Marine is to a human). When he was eventually brought back into canon, he was turned into a Perpetual, a sort of Super-immortal who can regenerate FromASingleCell that had been alive since ancient earth. Needless to say, this kinda undermines the idea of him being a normal man who bravely spat in the face of Chaos. |
| 161 | [[/folder]] |
| 162 | |
| 163 | [[folder:Theater]] |
| 164 | * In ''Theatre/{{Dreamgirls}}'', Lorrell's plotline involves her affair with the married Jimmy "Thunder" Early, the singer who gave the girls their big break by hiring them as his backup singers. It's a continued source of frustration for Lorrell that Jimmy won't commit to her because he's married, and eventually she breaks up with him when she's sick of his crap. This is supposed to be a crowning moment of awesome for Lorrell, showing that she is finally standing up for herself. However, as much as Jimmy is cast in a negative light for engaging in a years-long affair, Lorrell is never called out for willingly taking part in it. She only breaks up with him because ''she's'' not getting what she wants, not due to the immorality of the situation. |
| 165 | * The Creator/TeamStarKid show ''Theatre/{{Firebringer}}'' has a subplot that claims religion is deluded and evil (the tribe shaman's belief in an all-powerful duck that made the world in seven "quacks" feels awfully specific). It feels very awkward, however, when the big message that "there is no God" is delivered by one of the AncientAstronauts from the species that created life on earth. |
| 166 | * ''Theater/TheGingerbreadHouseInTheForest'' has Johann chastising Gretel for assuming Nada is a witch just because she [[SinisterSchnoz is ugly]]. Nada ''is'' a witch. |
| 167 | * Creator/{{Moliere}} often has stories involving young people in love, wanting to marry despite being rich/poor, or noble/commoner, and most time at least one has his parents planning an ArrangedMarriage for him. Stories always end with the poor revealed to be actually rich, the commoner a noble. In ''Les Fourberies de Scapin'', he also makes ''two'' pairs of people revealed to be actually brother and sister. Remember Molière was playing for the king, so the twist endings mean the stories can be interpreted as being about refusing the parental ArrangedMarriage, then the last five minutes have the parents agree with the true love marriage. |
| 168 | * In a case of a perfectly decent moral being killed by a followup, the ending of the original ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' was the Phantom letting Christine go [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy because he recognized that she wouldn't be happy with him]], because he's a psychotic murderer and she isn't. Moral - "If you really love a person, recognize their right to turn you down." There's also the fact that the Phantom is a pariah because of his appearance, and the main reason he is the way he is owes to this unfair ostracism. Moral - "Bad people are, often, only victims of their environment and could change if they were ever shown kindness." But in ''Theatre/LoveNeverDies'', the distant sequel, it's proclaimed that Christine actually ''was'' pining for the Phantom, they have an illegitimate kid, and her life with her actual love interest Raul is shown to be unhappy. Meanwhile, the Phantom has become incredibly wealthy and is surrounded by an entourage and admirers, but he's just as much of a violent possessive weirdo as ever. This pretty handily breaks both morals; turns out that the Phantom was right to try to keep Christine to himself forever, and he'd be an asshole no matter what. |
| 169 | * ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'': |
| 170 | ** We are told we should all live our lives to the fullest because we could die tomorrow, and there is no day like today. But if you do happen to die, you can come back to life through ThePowerOfRock. |
| 171 | ** The concept of there being "no day but today," which is sung about a lot, is subverted in the second act through the use of passage of time: the first act, in which the mantra occurs extremely frequently, takes place in one day while the second takes place over the course of a year (in which the mantra is shown to be faulty at best). |
| 172 | ** For people who spend the whole time talking about love and loving life, the circle of friends seems to have a lot of cheating, poor communication, and emotional sniping at each other - no one is enjoying themselves very much, or following Angel's lauded example. And, for that matter, Collins, who spends his time loving Angel and loving life with Angel ends up broken because of Angel's death. |
| 173 | * In ''Theatre/TheScarletSails'', the intended aesop of not letting go of your dreams falls somewhat flat. |
| 174 | ** The musical aims at praising hope, dreaminess and the power of imagination, like [[Literature/TheScarletSails the original book did]]. However, the book's dreamy heroine who manages to have a fulfilling life despite the ostracism she faces is turned into a borderline lunatic whose entire life is centred on her dream of the scarlet sails. The bullying she faces is depicted in grim detail, her relationship with her own father is dysfunctional, and the one time she is shown to be cheerful is when she decides to lay her dreaming aside and attend the local tavern. |
| 175 | ** Likewise, the original book's hopeful message of dreams coming true is preserved in the musical but severely undermined by the changes made to the book's plot. Assol's imaginary PrinceCharming really turns out to be a charismatic, kind-hearted RebelPrince (well, nobleman) in the book, while here, he is DemotedToExtra and first appears as just a random sailor ''having fun at a brothel''. |
| 176 | * ''Theatre/StarlightExpress'': |
| 177 | ** According to the finale, electricity and diesel fuel will eventually run out, but somehow steam power is sustainable. What exactly are we burning to get this magical steam? Also wood/coal burning steam engines are better than environmentally friendly options like solar and nuclear power. This last one may be because it was written in the 1980s. |
| 178 | ** In the closing number "Light At The End Of The Tunnel," the characters do briefly consider solar and nuclear energy, but then dismiss them because 1) How is one supposed to make use of solar power at night? and 2) People would get poisoned by nuclear fallout. Legitimate complaints, oversimplified, to be sure - but, then, this ''is'' a children's story. |
| 179 | ** Richard Stilgoe, the show's lyricist, knew full well that steam engines polluted the environment; he claimed that it was far easier for audiences to sympathize with a steam locomotive than a diesel or electric one, since steamers had more of a historical precedent. But the finale, according to him, is meant to symbolize the triumph of "old-fashioned craftsmanship" over new technology. Take a moment to consider why a steam locomotive is not a suitable representative of "old-fashioned craftsmanship." |
| 180 | * ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'': |
| 181 | ** Wicked's primary question, 'what makes one wicked?,' and all the messages that go with it, end up mildly broken due to the LighterAndSofter adaptation. For all of Elphaba's problems, in the musical, she is never truly wicked, so the musings seem kind of pointless. Also, the (admittedly depressing) aesop of 'No good deed going unpunished' is broken by [[spoiler:Elphaba getting a happy ending]] in contrast to the extreme DownerEnding of the book. |
| 182 | * ''Theatre/WeWillRockYou'' depicts a future where people have become mindless consumers who all consume the same band fashions, music and lifestyles. Our heroes are the Bohemians, underground rebels who oppose the mainstream and wish to reclaim the old ways. At the end of the show our heroes realize that to defeat the villains they have to perform an awesome song, mainly Queen's "We Will Rock You". They decide to also broadcast the performance so that the whole world will see and then become Bohemians too. So, mindlessly following trends was bad when it was pop music and bright colors, but it's okay when the stuff ''you'' like is what is being consumed. Nice. |
| 183 | [[/folder]] |
| 184 | |
| 185 | [[folder:Toys]] |
| 186 | * ''Glasnost: The Game'' is a TabletopGame/{{Risk}} clone that requires you to disarm all your territories to win the game in an anti-war aesop. You need to first build arms so you can conquer territories. |
| 187 | * The Crash Test Dummies were part of a series of public service announcements to teach kids about seat belt safety and the importance of buckling up. This was popular enough to get a line of toy vehicles and dummy figures where the entire point was ''crashing the cars and watching the dolls fly out of the wreckage'', and the villain wanted to... stop them from crashing so much, because horrific traffic accidents are just the best thing ever. So buckle up, kids! Then drive into a wall and scatter car parts all over the highway! Safety first! |
| 188 | * ''Chutes and Ladders'' is a children's board game (with very ancient roots) which purports to teach the consequences of good and evil deeds. But the game is entirely driven by the random spinner, and the players have no opportunity to make any strategic or moral choices at all[[note]]In Moksha Patam, the ancient Hindu original, this was [[ValuesDissonance a deliberate feature]] as a lesson in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Hinduism karma]][[/note]]. |
| 189 | [[/folder]] |
| 190 | |
| 191 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 192 | * ''[[https://arden.itch.io/kindness-coins Kindness Coins]]'' is a satire of [[DatingSim Dating Sims]] with the ultimate moral of "women do not exist to fulfill men's romantic fantasies". However, the visual novel randomly introduces a female character with no other purpose than [[DoubleStandard to fulfill the romantic fantasies of the female main character]]. |
| 193 | * ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1997680/REFLEXIA_Prototype_ver/ REFLEXIA Prototype ver.]]'', a visual novel on Steam that is a [[NoFourthWall meta-parody]] of DatingSim, is meant to be a [[SatireParodyPastiche satire]] on how visual novels trick people into caring about one-dimensional characters. This is taken so far as to [[TakeThatAudience insult the player for caring about fictional characters]]. However, the second half is devoted to [[spoiler: the character's emotional problems. So, the VN insults you for carrying about fictional characters then expects you to care about ''its'' fictional characters.]] The hypocrisy is never addressed despite it undermining the entire satire of the game. |
| 194 | [[/folder]] |
| 195 | |
| 196 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 197 | * ''Creator/SamAndMickey'': InUniverse. In "Career Girl", Barbie gives Kelly's class a speech that appears to promote hard work, as she recalls achieving each of her dream jobs by studying hard (and buying the appropriate outfits). However, the teacher points out that in order for Barbie to have so many jobs, she must not work each one for very long. |
| 198 | [[/folder]] |
| 199 | |
| 200 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 201 | * The ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'' story arc where Philippe finally gets to live with his mom again ends with the moral that nothing lasts forever and everyone has to grow up sometime. But as readers have emphatically stated, [[NotAllowedToGrowUp Philippe will always be five!]] |
| 202 | * A few Alex Law comics discuss this trope in various pieces of media. |
| 203 | ** One examines the tendency for adventure franchises to learn that a villain has broke bad [[FreudianExcuse because they were mistreated by various societal structures]], and while they do take down the villain and plan to make a better future, they often just topple the villain the same way that villain suffered and never address the structures that drove the villain to lash out in the first place. |
| 204 | ** Another looks at a tendency for girl empowerment franchises to still be gender restrictive. The protagonist of the comic is a courageous and powerful young woman who despises various oppressive gender roles, but she's only allowed to be mad about ones that were already outdated by the time of release, still upholds contemporary expectations of femininity, and almost exclusively faces opponents that are gender nonconforming in some way. |
| 205 | * In ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'', the comic [[AuthorTract makes it clear it's wrong to be a "console fanboy," in one strip even having God personally squash one]]. However, there are issues with this, since the fanboys are always Gamecube fans, the evil Gamer King in an early strip used a staff with a golden Gamecube controller on top (versus Ethan's Xbox one), Ethan playing a Gamecube is referred to as a "sin against the gaming gods"; he mentions that turning the Gamecube into a robot would result in a girl robot, and doing the same to a Playstation would produce a gay one while the Xbox appears to be perfect and sinless. |
| 206 | * In ''Webcomic/DragonBallMultiverse'', when Vegito says [[spoiler:his daughter, U16 Bra]] is too unstable to be kept alive, the heroes dismiss his concerns and say he should attempt to [[ThePowerOfLove redeem]] his target, not [[ShootTheDog kill them]]. WordOfGod later seconded this point. The problem is love does ''not'' prevent [[spoiler:Bra from [[AxCrazy going berserk]] in Super Saiyan 2 (it didn't the first time, ''before'' Vegito's death threat), nor does love [[CooldownHug shake her out]] of her [[SubvertedTrope berserk moments]]--only physical force or [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone regret]]]]. What ''really'' makes this a Broken Aesop is how [[spoiler:U16 Bra]]'s control issues get solved before this by [[spoiler:Babidi [[BrainwashedAndCrazy taking over her mind]] and [[AssPull somehow]] making her able to control Super Saiyan 2 without going berserk]]. If anything, the answer wasn't using more love, but ''more force.'' |
| 207 | * In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', while doing their review show, Elliot and Susan [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2013-03-29 discuss]] a movie that undermines its own moral. |
| 208 | * The heavy "racism is bad" morals in ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' don't really work for a few reasons, but the biggest one is that the comic attempts to attack the idea of the GuiltFreeExterminationWar by having it be treated as wrong for the humans to slaughter goblins. This is fine in a vacuum, but the eponymous goblins ''also'' carry out wholesale slaughter of humans regularly, which is dismissed with a HandWave of "all those humans we killed [[DetectEvil were evil]]" - [[AlwaysChaoticEvil a common justification]] for the guilt-free extermination war that the comic tries to attack. In general, the story also pushes HumansAreTheRealMonsters (there are only two sympathetic "civilized" characters and only one evil goblin, who is motivated by something humans did to her) to such a degree that, were one to turn the goblins into humans and the humans into goblins, the narrative would likely come across as a completely standard paean to goblin genocide. |
| 209 | ** The series reconstructs the moral by showing that the goblins are just as diverse and disunified as humans; the tribe that regularly slaughters the most humans and enslaves other goblins is explicitly shown to be goblin-supremacist, and the other goblins act in appropriate revulsion. Later on, Minmax makes peace with the goblins he vowed to kill earlier in the face of a ''real'' threat, the BigBad - who is revealed to have discovered an exploit that makes him immune to anything that would normally react to his regularly evil ways, proving there is no hand wave strong enough to justify BlackAndWhiteMorality. |
| 210 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': |
| 211 | ** The trolls have different-colored blood ranked on a spectrum; the closer your blood is to purple, the more power you have in society, while the closer it is to red, the less authority you hold, the rationale being that highbloods are superior due to the fact they're viewed as stronger. The author stated that he made the opposite ends of the spectrum so close to show how meaningless the whole thing was, and true to form, the audience is clearly intended to view the practice as wrong and side with the trolls opposed to it... except trolls do ''not'' differ only in blood color; it is shown that highbloods actually are stronger, more psychically resilient, and longer-lived, albeit more violent (which [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy the trolls]] would probably consider a ''good'' thing anyway) but compensate by having less powerful psychic abilities than lowbloods. The metaphor for racism fails because blood color actually ''does'' matter in several ways.\ |
| 212 | The aesop is broken again when another alien race is introduced that has its blood color as an indicator of their alignment. Green-blooded members of that species are benevolent and red-blooded members are malevolent, and from the four examples of them given[[labelnote:Spoilers]]Calliope, Caliborn, and both of their parents[[/labelnote]] none of them challenge this at all. They do not have a caste system based on blood color, but their blood color still does matter more so than trolls since it either gives or indicates whether they're "good" or "evil". |
| 213 | ** After watching the B2 players fall victim to [[SugarApocalypse Trickster Mode]], subsequently using it as a shortcut to progress in their quest, and then dealing with Caliborn demanding they do it again, [[AuthorAvatar Hussie]] tells him that the characters can't just wave a magic lollipop juju around and solve all their problems. He compares it to [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] grabbing a starman and plowing through the level with no challenge, making the argument that it's terrible for his personal development. True enough, the players are worse off afterward, but at least they're still on the road towards their CharacterDevelopment. The aesop falls apart when the biggest WhamEpisode in the comic is simply written out of existence by using another juju to bring [[SpotlightStealingSquad Vriska]] back to life, and have her bully the other characters out of their personal problems and into action, all while simultaneously inflating her own ego. The biggest offense is that Vriska being alive was completely unnecessary, John simply needed to use the juju to keep the ring of life out of Aranea's hands. Fans who were waiting for the other shoe to drop (i.e. the biggest BreakTheHaughty session for Vriska, followed by John and Roxy returning to the old timeline and fixing things there) were disappointed; the comic ends with only John and Roxy completing their character quests, [[KarmaHoudini Vriska avoiding karma]], and the other characters followed throughout the story dead, while alternate versions who had an easier way out finish the story for them. |
| 214 | ** The Trickster portion also depicts Trickster Mode, where the characters become colorful, more-superpowered, "happier" versions of themselves with NoSenseOfPersonalSpace caused by juju-magic, as a cheap, artificial, creepy thing that does not solve problems. The problem is that the story breaks this when alternate versions of Rose and Davesprite respectively become Jasprosprite^2 and Davepetasprite^2. Colorful, more-superpowered, "happier" versions of themselves caused by mystical sprite fusion with the former having no sense of personal space. This time, however, readers are just supposed to take these sudden transformations as them being happier and a resolution for their personal issues at face value. |
| 215 | * ''Webcomic/{{Inverloch}}'' dealt with racism through interspecies prejudice. None of the sentient races like each other, with the civilized but animalistic-looking da'kor suffering most due to humans pushing into their territory and abducting young males for arena battles, and the elves carelessly reneged on a promise to help. Acheron is the exemplar for da'kor not being violent barbarians [[spoiler:except that the character everyone ''thinks'' is Acheron is really an elf's soul transposed into his body, while the real Acheron is in an elf so he can seek revenge for his murdered father. And ultimately, the solution found to protect the da'kor from being whittled to nothing is for them all to uproot from their home to live segregated on a faraway island]]. |
| 216 | * ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'': |
| 217 | ** ''Hell Is That Noise'' is the story of Todd, a soldier who obeys an order to kill children, commits suicide, and ends up in Hell. He argues that [[JustFollowingOrders he had no choice]] and [[YouCannotFightFate Fate had already decided what would happen in his life.]] The story and everyone in it judges Todd for refusing to take responsibility for his actions, but that order came from ''Satan'' disguised as a general, meaning that Todd was a CosmicPlaything after all. |
| 218 | ** The non-linear nature of time in Hell tends to screw around wildly with the concept of free will and personal choice; the Devil ''often'' resorts to directly manipulating the circumstances of the past and future to compel his victims to act, and then [[NeverMyFault blame them for it all]]. This is most notable with ''Drip'': It's his own fault that his parents are dead because the Devil has him in a StableTimeLoop: he's sent to live with his grandmother after his parents die, his grandmother [[FreudianExcuse abuses him until he becomes a violent rapist]], and when he dies, the Devil trades him a memento of his dead mother for a favor: the murder of his own parents. |
| 219 | ** This has the added bonus of making the angels complicit in almost everything Drip does, since they only refrain from saving any of his victims because "it has to be his choice". Central is later shown to have murdered Bob and Lisa specifically to prevent them from turning away from their life of sin, meaning that actually, choice doesn't matter at all. The correct course of action is the one that generates [[AuthorAppeal the most rape scenes.]] |
| 220 | ** And then there's the part where furries have replaced humanity, but for some reason, are repeating human history exactly, so we still have events like the Vietnam War re-enacted by furries. This means that we still get furry UsefulNotes/CharlesManson and furry Jeffrey Dahmer, too. And that would be fine, except that God is deliberately enforcing the re-enactment ''and is sending billions of furries to Hell for their part in it''. This means that God not only deprived every living furry of free will, she also had full and absolute knowledge of what she was forcing them into doing to themselves and each other ''and what Satan would do in response'', but did absolutely nothing to stop it. In other words, she condemned countless innocent people to eternal suffering to punish them for something she forced them to do. The entire comic is about choice and personal responsibility, but the only character who has unquestionable free will is God herself, and there are no consequences for anything she does, ever, because she's in charge of the entire universe while everyone else can just go to Hell. |
| 221 | ** The general lesson being taught to all those sent to Hell is to realize their own sin and allow them to atone for it, and that Hell exists to force them to confront their misdeeds in life, but they're too busy being tortured to contemplate the philosophical implications of the torture itself. Even the ones who ''do'' realize their sin and repent never make it out of Hell, and it's impossible for them to successfully do that unless agents of Heaven intercede on their behalf and the agents of Hell don't prevent it. |
| 222 | ** One of the afterlife's options is Purgatory, an idealized Earth that lacks the oneness with the divine that Heaven boasts, and also doesn't house the kind of sanctimonious goody-two-shoes types that go to Heaven or the assholes that go to Hell. People who go there are offered a chance at reincarnation, a chance to "try again" at life in the hopes that they'll earn entry into Heaven next time. Like all things in Heaven and Hell, it has to be a matter of personal choice to be meaningful, and so to give the choice meaning, returning to Earth after Purgatory means God will intentionally force a second life to be harder than the first and ban all further entry into Purgatory. This all but guarantees that a reincarnated soul who's been to Purgatory is going to Hell, but the choice is there. And then that moral gets shattered into pieces because God is happy to send angels to Purgatory on a mission to "remind" them what kind of [[IdealizedSex awesome sex]] they're missing out on, ''by offering sex and not taking no for an answer''. The comic loves to remind the reader of how important personal choice is, but [[ButThouMust only if the personal choice is the correct one.]] |
| 223 | * ''Webcomic/LovelyPeople'': The comic and its afterword both criticize the Social Credit system depicted in the story for suppressing freedom of religion and expression in the name nominal ideals of "equality" and "correctness". However, both also come across as telling the reader that the brand of Christianity that the author adheres to is the ''only'' correct alternative to the system. |
| 224 | * A ''Webcomic/PrincessPi'' comic had Princess Pi learn to believe in herself and not let bullies' insults bring her down. The Aesop breaks when she starts believing her most mediocre attempts at fulfilling her royal duties suffice, and doesn't let her subjects' complaints bring her down until they [[TarAndFeathers tar and feather]] her. |
| 225 | * ''WebComic/QuestionableContent'': in-universe. As a child, Clinton was careless with some fireworks and lost his hand as a result. However, Clinton is such an AI fanboy that he's psyched to get a robotic prosthetic as a replacement and cheerfully tells people he's glad he did it. |
| 226 | * ''WebComic/SabrinaOnline'' had a series of strips in December 2010 which were a reference to the sequence in ''Film/JayAndSilentBobStrikeBack'' where the two heroes go on the road and beat up everyone who ever criticized them on the Internet. It works in the film because it's entirely in-character. In the comic, however, it's a series of TakeThat[=s=] against the strip's critics. One notable strip involves Zig Zag, the viewpoint character for this sequence, beating up a guy who said mean things about her because he thinks he can say anything on the Internet without consequences. This isn't exactly true, but that's not the Broken Aesop. What's broken is the fact that Zig is the owner and star of her own porno company. You know, ''the industry that has historically relied on First Amendment rights to stay in business''? And the "consequences" bit doesn't work either, because legally, Zig Zag committed real-world, premeditated, first-degree assault against a guy who knows her name, her face, and could easily press charges. The implication in the comic is that she'll suffer no repercussions at all. When Sabrina brings this up later, Zig Zag admits that it cost her a small fortune to settle all the legal issues. (But it was "worth it.") Although the incident does get mentioned during [[http://sabrina-online.com/strips/SabOnline678.GIF her trial]] for assaulting Sabrina's mugger. And [[http://sabrina-online.com/strips/SabOnline681.GIF we eventually learn]] that Zig was convicted, paid a fine and entered court-ordered anger management counseling. |
| 227 | * Early on in ''Webcomic/{{Selkie}}'', the titular character offers Todd her favourite food, fish eyes. Todd refuses on account of being a vegetarian, but later Todd's dad says that "part of being a dad is knowing when to suck it up and eat the eyeballs". This is meant to convey a moral about putting your child's happiness before your own, which on the face of it is a sound moral, but the problem is that it only really makes sense when the happiness the child gets is greater than the unhappiness experienced by the parent. This is not the case with the fish eyes because seeing Todd eat the eyes would have only given Selkie a small amount of pleasure (she seems disappointed when he refuses, but only very slightly) while it could have upset Todd a lot more due to conflicting with his moral views. |
| 228 | ** This Aesop is further broken by the webcomic's overarching moral "accept people who are different to you, even if you don't understand them or their culture". According to that, Todd should be accepted for who he is, not forced to eat foods which make him uncomfortable based on the whims of an eight-year-old. |
| 229 | * ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' constantly complains about fandoms (particularly the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' fandom), as do author David Willis' newsposts. Willis is not only a prominent part of said fandom, but also embodies many of the issues he complains about. This is often PlayedForLaughs. |
| 230 | * ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'' is ripe for the picking of Broken Aesops. One of the most well known is when Sonichu and Rosechu preach forgiveness... shortly before Rosechu viciously maims Jason Kendric Howell. ''[[DisproportionateRetribution For throwing a pickle at her]]''. |
| 231 | * ''Webcomic/SlyCooperThiefOfVirtue'' tried to introduce an objectivist Aesop on how everything was a matter of choice, and that the characters ''made'' their choices and brought the results on themselves, but both the fact that [[spoiler: the crystals influenced the judgement of anyone who was using them as demonstrated through how Torus' behavior was altered by the crystal he was carrying in the chapter "Wrath of the Wolf King" and key details in the later-released side stories about what lead to the insanity of Ice and Snow undermine the entire point the author was trying to make]]. |
| 232 | * ''Webcomic/VeganArtbook'' has many examples: |
| 233 | ** The series continually denounces killing animals for meat is violent, but the protagonists often have been shown willing to hurt (in Sterk's case, kill) people who disagree with them. |
| 234 | ** It has frequently talked about how animals tend to practice pretty horrific actions, then goes back to its typical message about being compassionate towards animals and [[BoomerangBigot scornful of humans]]. |
| 235 | ** Brie Plausibell is supposed to live by the motto of "Live and Let Live", however, every time her brother Shawn allows her to tolerate each other's lifestyles she rejects his offer and refuses to see eye to eye with him or any other non-vegan, due to believing that respecting the right to eat meat is equal to supporting victimizing animals. The narrative treats this hypocrisy as adhering to her views, and frames Shawn as being "anti-vegan." |
| 236 | ** The author continually advocates against bodyshaming, and often depicts Shawn engaging in making fun of those who are thin [[YouAreFat or fat]]. However, she portrays pre-redesign Cuntons and Tommy—two of the three recurring characters who are overweight—as grotesque, and implies that their girth is due to eating meat. Even her positively-portrayed vegan, fat girl character, Mike, is a junk-food junkie (which can be seen as enforcing stereotypes about fat people being obsessed with food) whose weight is attributed to what her mother fed her before she went vegan. |
| 237 | ** The characters and narrative speak out against the evils of bigotry, while displaying disgust for anyone who isn't vegan, objectifying women to spread an anti-meat message[[note]]One strip involves a character using a photo of a naked woman to represent a pig on a farm[[/note]], and using sexual orientation as an insult[[note]]One strip involves two girls insulting Shaun by saying his leather outfit will lead to him being MistakenForGay[[/note]]. |
| 238 | ** Killing and eating animals is decried as preying on the weak and defenseless, however, this doesn't stop stronger vegans like Rohit from beating up on weaker non-vegans in order to take out their anger on them. |
| 239 | ** One of the main messages of the series is how animal agriculture or hunting is inherently cruel and abusive. But support forcing inherently carnivorous species (such as a fennec fox in one strip) to go vegan, which can actually be seen as an abusive practice due to how dangerous it can be to them. In addition, it also contradicts the message about how people shouldn't force their wills on animals. In this case, the vegans are forcing animals to comply with their lifestyle, even if it can harm them. |
| 240 | ** When called out on the vegans' many assaults and murders, Yerdian excuses them as being fictional, and therefore no big deal. Yet when a non-vegan does something harmful, it's treated exactly as heinous as it would be in real life despite also being fictional. |
| 241 | ** Her "Evolution of Man" comic blows its anti-violence aesop by showing the human in the "Good" version of evolution wielding a spear. |
| 242 | ** The comic seems to say that being an AnimalLover is the way to go, while BadPeopleAbuseAnimals-- yet one of the main villains, Cuntons, is portrayed as loving cats, Elise is meant to be a {{Hypocrite}} for giving the burger to Tommy but not a cat (telling the cat the burger is unhealthy), and Sterk has killed a cat in one strip, which turns the message into "animals are great... except for cats (and the aforementioned humans)". |
| 243 | * ''WebComic/{{xkcd}}'', [[https://xkcd.com/1576/ "I Could Care Less"]]: The author dislikes GrammarNazis. In this strip, one character corrects the form of what the other just said. The other goes on a long explanation about ambiguity and language and human connection and ends with: "I assume you're giving me tips on how to interpret words because you want me to feel less alone. If so, then thank you. That means a lot. But if you're just running my sentences past some mental checklist so you can show off how well you know it, then I could care less." So the moral is that you shouldn't criticize the way others say things, because of all these things that are more important about communication -- but the character who talked about this was really only invoking these deep issues to make the first character feel bad about what ''she'' said[[note]]at least provided the first character had the wrong kind of motive in saying it, but that "I assume..." doesn't sound very sincere in the light of what follows[[/note]]. (It's also a FalseDichotomy, but that's another issue.) |
| 244 | * ''WebComic/{{Sinfest}}'' has a weird history of going from a gag-a-day comic to a sequential art comic with hardcore extreme feminist narrative and themes. Some of these narratives do not mesh well with what the comic is attempting to preach as constantly showing problems that the female characters deal with being solved by accident or with no actual input from them. Case in point: one story arc features a brothel in which the braindead males go to for kicks, and the women don't want to be there. One of the characters attempts to try and leave, and the pimp who owns the brothel refuses... only for him to get unexpectedly run over by a passing car. The women are shocked and happy at their freedom, and the men who frequent the brothel simply lament at their loss. The confusing this about the narrative is that female empowerment is important, but the problem got solved by pure accident. The women were incapable of solving this problem themselves, and rather had to wait for the problem to be solved on its own. It cuts the female empowerment message the comic shoves down your throat by undermining the abilities of the very group it portrays and giving them victory by pure accident. |
| 245 | [[/folder]] |
| 246 | |
| 247 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 248 | * ''Website/ChannelAwesome'': |
| 249 | ** Because of a CreatorBreakdown and RealLifeWritesThePlot, "The Review Must Go On" had Doug's [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic past]] consume what was meant to be his masterpiece, the direct opposite of what ''WebVideo/DemoReel'''s EarnYourHappyEnding episode said. ("Don't let your past consume you and be happy for the future".) This seems to be intentional, and the commentary for it says that [[DownerEnding it's not supposed to be a happy ending.]] |
| 250 | ** Doug Walker once made a plea in an editorial, "Is Parody Dead?", that parodies should not just be references and that they all need to be a clear understanding of what you are spoofing. A good message, yet in most of his own videos, including ''Nostalgia Critic'', ''Demo Reel'' and his anniversary specials, he makes countless random pop culture references and spoofs that often don't even tie in with the plot of that episode. He and his actors often just dress up as well-known franchise characters, sometimes to avoid copyright issues, but more commonly for no real reason. ''To Boldly Flee'' in particular comes uncomfortably close to films like ''Film/DisasterMovie'' at points, randomly tossing in characters, scenes, and ideas from various sci-fi properties for no real reason. |
| 251 | ** {{Discussed}} in the Walker Brothers' "Honest Thoughts" review of the ''Franchise/CareBears'' movies: Rob notes that while lots of shows talk about ThePowerOfFriendship, they still end their conflict by defeating the villain [[ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer with violence]]. He credits the first two movies for ''not'' going that route, but actually befriending the villains and thus prompting a HeelFaceTurn. [[note]]Technically [[VileVillainSaccharineShow the Spirit]] is [[SealedEvilInACan trapped back in her book]], but only because they convinced [[JerkassWoobie Nicholas]] to turn against her.[[/note]] |
| 252 | * Parodied in Act III of ''WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog''. While DesignatedHero Captain Hammer is notionally singing a [[RousingSpeech rousing, inspirational anthem]] to the homeless in "Everyone's A Hero", every verse manages, through either {{Metaphorgotten}} or just plain dickishness, to insult its audience and demonstrate how Hammer thinks of himself as [[SmugSuper superior]]. |
| 253 | -->"It may not feel too classy / Begging just to eat / But you know who does that? Lassie / And she always gets a treat"\ |
| 254 | "Everyone's a hero in their own way / You and you and ''mostly me'' and you" |
| 255 | * Every episode of ''WebVideo/DontHugMeImScared'' has an InUniverse example. The "lessons" taught are misinformed and incorrect, which the puppets begin to pick up on by the fourth episode. For instance, the episode on how great it is to be creative has almost no actual creative activities being taught, while actual creativity is generally squashed. The episode on the PowerOfLove defines love in a bizarre, conditional, and inconsistent fashion. And the episode on eating healthy ends up providing terrible dieting advice while labeling seemingly every food on the planet to be bad for you. |
| 256 | * In ''20 Socially Unacceptable Things'' by [[WebVideo/MatthewSantoro Matt Santoro]], Matt says that it's bad to pick your nose and flick the booger onto the carpet. At the end, he does this. |
| 257 | * As seen on ''Website/{{Superdickery}}.com'', [[http://www.superdickery.com/buckle-up-kids-then-go-play-in-traffic/ in this PSA]] "The Kool-Aid man tells kids to buckle up, and then proceeds to walk right into the path of a moving car." And here's another one, about the War On Drugs: |
| 258 | -->'''Comicbook/CaptainAmerica:''' Remember, kids! Stay away from drugs, and you can grow up to be a superhero just like me!\ |
| 259 | '''Kids:''' But Cap, didn't you get your powers from [[SuperSerum drugs]]? |
| 260 | * ''Literature/TheQuintessentialMarySue'' has the message that such characters are bad, and turn every story in which they appear into a CrapsackWorld. Unfortunately, there is the slight problem that [[spoiler:the VillainProtagonist's amnesiac good half, once she reclaims her memories]], is just as unrealistically talented, but is a genuine hero whom the audience is rooting for. It's then further broken by the fact that [[spoiler:the Sue is only able to win and create a VillainWorld]] by blatant DiabolusExMachina, breaking the previously established rules of the setting, and somehow [[spoiler:usurping ''God'']], ''even after she was explicitly defeated and killed''. That said, the author does recognize this, and includes a disclaimer at the end of Part 2 suggesting that readers [[FanonDiscontinuity disregard the third part]] if [[SnicketWarningLabel they want the story to have a happy ending]]. |
| 261 | * ''WebSite/NotAlwaysWorking'' has several stories where the affluent submitter of the story goes into a classy and expensive shop, only to get treated like dirt by the employees because they think the person cannot afford anything, based on appearance. The submitter always believes this to have a "Don't judge a book by its cover" aesop. The thing is that the submitters always walk into these stores in extremely dirty clothes, often covered in mud, manure, or even oil, and smelling extremely badly. They completely ignore the fact that their dirty clothes, and skin, can lead to them damaging the merchandise, and end up coming across as just as bad as the employees. |
| 262 | * ''WebVideo/DharMann'' has [[BrokenAesop/DharMann its own page]]. |
| 263 | * The ''WebVideo/ScottTheWoz'' episode "You're Not an RPG Guy" ends with Scott accepting that there is nothing wrong with disliking another game genre (in his case, [=RPGs=]) as long as you are respectful of those who like them and aren't afraid to occasionally dip your toes in. This, despite a previous scene where Scott meets God, the latter decrying the existence of [=RPGs=] and proclaiming that he had created humanity with an innate instinct to hate [=RPGs=]. |
| 264 | [[/folder]] |
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