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5[-[[caption-width-right:350:"Mamma mia!! How are we gonna explain-a [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust this one]] to the kiddies?!?"]]-]
6%%
7->''"The book tries very hard to be serious with a serious topic, but doesn't know how, and tries too hard, and smothers itself."''
8-->-- '''Holden Shearer''', [[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?694175-Holden-Reads-the-Original-World-of-Darkness&p=16975470#post16975470 reviewing]] an early ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' supplement.
9
10AnAesop is undermined because the format just cannot handle it well. It may come from a limited running time, a misguided effort [[UncertainAudience to reach a target demographic]] or hitting against [[IndecisiveParody a foundational element of the genre]].
11
12This is especially common in children's media. There are many, many cases where a well-meaning show for children tries to explain [[RippedFromTheHeadlines a newsworthy issue]] (say, [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 9/11]]) without using terms or images that are inappropriate for the average nine-to-eleven-year-old. The writers end up out of their depth, and the intended message doesn't get through, either from the incomplete presentation or from being so different from the normal tone of the show. If bungled too much it might go down the path of DoNotDoThisCoolThing, causing curiosity rather than revulsion.
13
14The best a work can often do is warn that something is bad or dangerous, without any real specifics or context about the danger (which is why this trope can be a deep well of ParanoiaFuel). Even a simple message can fall flat. You can't say "DrugsAreBad" when [[NeverSayDie you can't say "drugs will kill you"]], so expect to hear something like "very badly hurt." Likewise, addressing the effects of such drugs is impossible if you can't acknowledge that specific drugs ''exist''. It can also be a problem when the greater story was not built around it, creating an AuthorTract where one scene stops to lecture on drugs but it has no time to show the build-up and consequences, leaving it as [[AndThatsTerrible a moral reprimand hanging in the air]].
15
16Note that this isn't always the fault of the show creators. Any attempt to tackle controversial subjects honestly is problematic when the MoralGuardians are watching. This is often because many attempts to deal with such a topic will have the Guardians responding with outrage ''that it was even mentioned!'' Yes, even when your work is explicitly trying to discourage it.
17
18Things other than censorship can cause this. A FantasticAesop or SpaceWhaleAesop can attempt to teach a lesson through allegory, only to introduce issues that undercut the applicability (e.g., "don't judge people by their race" in a show with AlwaysChaoticEvil races). When StatusQuoIsGod, or the work has NegativeContinuity, the lesson won't stick because [[AesopAmnesia none of the characters remember it]] or the problem that it addressed will be gone next week anyway. If a writer isn't careful, the simple act of introducing a heavy issue into a normally lighthearted work can cause MoodDissonance which could either make it hard to take the message seriously or alienate fans who normally enjoy the lighter tone.
19
20Not to be confused with a BrokenAesop, though the two can overlap. A Clueless Aesop is when some fundamental ''out-of-universe'' feature of the work or its creators (such as being written for children) leads to them being unable to address a topic appropriately, while a BrokenAesop is when an aesop is undermined by ''in-universe'' events (e.g., "Be nice to people who are different from you. Now, let's go back to [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman fighting monsters]]!"). This can also overlap with FantasticAesop, where the message doesn't stick because of factors in the genre or worldbuilding.
21
22The typical reaction is DontShootTheMessage.
23
24Also do not confuse with any Aesop delivered by [[Film/{{Clueless}} Cher Horowitz]].
25
26One should also be careful not to read more into the author's intent then is actually there; an Aesop that's clueless because it wasn't intended in the first place is an example of an AccidentalAesop.
27
28Compare LostAesop (which tries to set up an Aesop [[AbortedArc but forgets about it by the end]]), contrast SpoofAesop (when an Aesop is deliberately made inept for comedy so is not to be taken seriously[[note]]This can overlap with Clueless Aesop if [[PoesLaw it's hard to tell if it's supposed to be serious or not]].[[/note]]) and see also some examples of AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle, VerySpecialEpisode, DoNotDoThisCoolThing, and AlternateAesopInterpretation. DrugsAreBad and TooSmartForStrangers are especially prone to this. Compare ''and'' contrast CaptainObviousAesop, when a very basic or uncontroversial lesson is treated as a profound moral revelation.
29
30''Note: This is about works of fiction that fail to get their [[AnAesop intended message]] across. Please don't use this page to [[Administrivia/ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike complain about Aesops you don't like]].''
31
32----
33!Examples:
34[[foldercontrol]]
35
36[[folder:Advertising]]
37* In the early 1990s, many {{MegaCorp}}s would send, ostensibly out of the goodness of their hearts, free "educational kits" including lesson plans, worksheets, and other materials to elementary school teachers. In truth, they were really [[ProductPlacement unsubtle advertisements for the company's products]]. These were often heartwarmingly/hilariously/heartbreakingly misguided. One of the most infamous such lesson plans doubles as a BrokenAesop: "Let's learn good nutrition with [[UsefulNotes/McDonalds Ronald McDonald]] and friends!"
38-->'''[[ComicStrip/PhoebeAndHerUnicorn Phoebe]]''': [[https://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn/2012/04/26 Is this like the dream]] where the giant talking [=McNugget=] yells at me about nutrition?
39** WebAnimation/HomestarRunner satirized this with typical aplomb in ''[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/cheatcommandos4.html Commandos In the Classroom.]]''
40** This was also parodied by ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' with a math class sponsored by Pepsi. "If you have three Pepsis and drink one, how much more refreshed are you?" The answer "Pepsi?" received partial credit.
41* The D.A.R.E. group, in the late 1980s through the '90s, tried to encourage kids to not do drugs. Unfortunately their focus on not giving in to peer pressure came across as implying [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing "everyone is doing drugs except you and will bully you if you don't do it too"]]. Numerous studies of the program have found not only did it not work but kids who went through the program were actually ''more'' likely to use hallucinogenic drugs then those that didn't go through the program, making the whole thing counterproductive.
42** In their educational kits, they included a pencil with the slogan "Too Cool To Do Drugs". Unfortunately, because they set their slogan not to start at the eraser end but at the lead end of the pencil—under the assumption most kids using it would be right-handed, since that orientation would let them read the slogan as they used it—as it was sharpened, the slogan devolved on the pencil from the original message, down to [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing "Cool To Do Drugs"]], to simply "Do Drugs", to just "DRUGS", as if the pencil was becoming increasingly desperate to get you to try some drugs.
43** Some rubber wristbands produced for Red Ribbon Week featured the slogan "I've got BETTER things to DO than DRUGS". Observant students quickly noticed the message in all caps. Despite the mistakes, the exact same design is still in production.
44* Then there's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvjFsZJqAPs this]] DigitalPiracyIsEvil ad from Creator/WarnerBros using a scene from ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''. Only trouble is anyone who has seen the movie knows Rick is actually angry at Ilsa for ''resisting the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]].'' While not as uncomfortable in terms of subtext, the one where Film/TheWizardOfOz yells at Dorothy and company for pirating media doesn't make sense either.
45* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfEG15CLTqo "Don't Drown Your Food"]] is a PSA about not overloading your foods with high-calorie condiments, but the message is so vague that it makes it seem as if you shouldn't put any condiments on them at all.
46* There's a 2013 Canadian PSA about "social nibbling" as an allegory to social smoking. It shows a man in various social situations, taking food off of other people's plates, nibbling it, and giving back, while he denies that he's hungry. It supposed to be about how you are in denial if you say you only smoke socially, but without being told the Aesop at the end, it could just as easily be about how you should [[AlternateAesopInterpretation buy your own packs]] instead of bumming them, as one could do this and still insist they only smoke socially. There's one about "social farting" that's at least as confusing.
47* In the early 90s, Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} ran several [=PSAs=] about the need to turn off the television and go outside. Around that exact same time, they ran a network promo depicting a kid being left alone on a baseball field, because all of his friends are ''[[BrokenAesop in the living room watching Nick]]''.
48* An infamous PETA PSA showed a girl screaming at seeing her father beat her mother, an old woman scream as a pair of muggers attack her, a boy screaming as bullies mob him... and a fish opening its mouth as it's about to be cut up and cooked. The message was "Not all screams can be heard". Leaving aside the comparison of a fish's suffering to a human's, there's the fact that restaurants don't typically prepare a fish while it's ''still alive'' ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikizukuri not to say that none do,]] but the practice is already controversial without PETA's help).
49* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lL07JOGU5o Pantosaurus]] is a song about a dinosaur that teaches against "bad touching". It Zigzags this trope, because while the song averts it (it clearly says the good, understandable phrase "Your private parts belong only to you. If someone asks to see, just tell them no."), the animation looks like Pantosaurus is just shouting, "No!" at random people.
50* Many {{Public Service Announcement}}s with an anti-drug message were so poorly executed that they practically made a joke of their own message. The point is especially lost because most of them do not seem to portray any ''other'' consequences of doing drugs.
51** One of the weirdest ones by far is "[[SpaceWhaleAesop If you take pot, your girlfriend will leave you for a space alien]]".
52** Pee-Wee Herman, children's TV's king of the QuirkyWork, gives a serious (yet somehow hilarious) PSA about not doing crack. Any message would probably be garbled by the question of whether he's doing a bit or not.
53-->"[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLZptx6UQLk This]]... is ''crack.''"
54** The anti-drug PSA where the girl's dog talks to her and asks her to stop smoking pot. Honey, if your dog is talking to you, pot is the least of your problems. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFAN3wdlrJg At least he's trying to help.]]
55** An early "Above the Influence" ad showed two teenaged boys smoking pot in the office of the father of one of the boys. One of them noticed a gun on the desk and picked it up absently. When his friend asked "is it loaded?" he said it wasn't and fired, presumably killing his friend. The intended message was probably something like "marijuana will impair your judgement in life-threatening ways." But the danger came off as so contrived that message could easily be "don't leave a loaded gun with the safety off on top of the desk in your unlocked office when your thirteen-year-old son is in the house."
56*** An alternate version was a little more reasonable. A bunch of teenage yahoos get baked and decide to prank a fast food restaurant by repeatedly rolling through the drive-thru and placing ridiculous orders. On the last time through, a little girl is riding her bicycle across the lane just as the driver hits the gas...
57** There was another odd set of anti-drug ads where a girl high on weed is shown (through [[UnintentionalUncannyValley icky special effects]]) to have melted into the couch. Doug Benson has a terrific deconstruction of how clueless this ad was in ''Super High Me'': if your reaction to an anti-drug PSA is "Whatever they were smoking, I want some", it has failed.
58** The "Brain On Drugs" PSA's are infamous for this. The original 1980s version compares frying eggs to what drugs can do to your brain. The 1990s version involves Rachel Leigh Cook smashing an egg and then breaking everything in her kitchen, all while comparing the destruction to what heroin will do to you. They're supposed to be ScareEmStraight PSA's but they're more confusing than anything. As a result, they've been parodied for years. In the 2010s, a new PSA campaign lampshaded just how useless the original ad was by showing it then showing teenagers asking actual questions about drugs.
59* The innumerable "Don't drink and drive" PSA's, while (usually) understood by adults, were often this to kids who saw them. The problem is that they rarely, if ever specify that you're not supposed to drink ''alcohol'' when driving. As such, a lot of kids thought they meant you couldn't drink ''anything'' while driving. This site Iusedtobelieve.com (about weird and/or funny things people believed as kids) has an [[https://www.iusedtobelieve.com/transport/cars/drink_driving/ entire section]] about this misconception, including people who thought things like that they were going to die due to their bus driver [[ComicallyMissingThePoint drinking coffee while driving them to school in the morning.]] Notably, Australian/New Zealand [=PIFs=] make a point of averting this, showing people holding what are very obviously beer cans and mugs, or having them explicitly order alcoholic drinks ("Fine, give me a pint!"), before they suffer the consequences of drunk driving.
60[[/folder]]
61
62[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
63* ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura'': Like several other works by Creator/{{CLAMP}}, the series tries to convey the message that your love for someone is valid regardless of age, gender or sexual orientation. This would be a pretty powerful message to a young female audience who would likely be experiencing crushes for the first time, reassuring them that their love isn't silly or shallow and that even if nothing comes of your first crush, your feelings are still real. However, this doesn't really work with how [[TeacherStudentRomance relationships between students and teachers]] are presented, ''especially'' with the relationship between Mr. Terada (a man in his 30s) and Rika (a 10 year old girl) in the manga; having a crush on your teacher is one thing, but having the teacher actually ''return'' those feelings only seems to promote predatory relationships instead.
64* ''Manga/{{Chobits}}''' message is that all love is valid and relationships are about more than just sex. The problem is that the love in question is between a human and a humanoid computer—and the computer in question is explicitly ''not'' sapient (the series tries to argue that anything sufficiently "human" in behavior is sapient by default, but it does so in an incredibly confused and easy-to-miss way). The latter message would bear a lot more weight if Hideki, the human in question, isn't subjected to large amounts of virgin-shaming through the story, making his decision to enter an unavoidably-chaste relationship with Chii feel like he's resigning himself to a lifetime of mockery. The anime, for all its faults, makes a point of subverting both of these—Chii ''is'' sapient and [[spoiler:makes ''all'' Persocoms sapient at the climax]], and it's implied the latter issue isn't going to be a problem either.
65* This is why the "Fighting is wrong!" aesop that 4kids forced upon ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie'' fell flat, since this is a series where [[DuelsDecideEverything everything is resolved by way of Pokémon battle]]. The Japanese version had a completely different aesop: the circumstances of one's birth don't make them any more or less important than someone else. The irony is that the censored version was far closer to Shudo's intended portrayal. The dub of ''Anime/MewtwoStrikesBackEvolution'' is TruerToTheText and follows the Japanese version's Aesop.
66* TheNineties English dub of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' added the [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle "Sailor Says"]] portions to the first season to be "educational". [[Creator/DiCEntertainment DiC]] tried to shoehorn an Aesop to the end of every episode whether it fit or not. A favorite was "[[AndThatsTerrible Queen Beryl did a bad thing when she destroyed the Moon Kingdom]] and you will destroy Earth too if you pollute!" DrugsAreBad was a frequent one, even though the plots never had anything to do with that.
67* This was one of the main reasons for the backlash against the final episode of the second season of ''Manga/ScienceFellInLoveSoITriedToProveIt''--the story is fundamentally not able to give a serious warning about the dangers of sexual assault and date rape, since it's an ecchi comedy that played similar situations for laughs in earlier episodes.
68[[/folder]]
69
70[[folder:Comic Books]]
71* Back in the late 1980s when AIDS was still the new pandemic, ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' sometimes included a full-page PSA featuring Principal Weatherbee telling the students: "Your best defense against AIDS is ''education''", but didn't say anything else.
72* Many ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'' try extremely hard to convince the reader that various aspects of society are evil or even demonic in origin, but are undermined by the author's complete ignorance of topics he considered unbiblical. And on occasion making the thing they rail against looking cooler than it actually is due to the sheer ignorance.
73* ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' attempted to [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruct]] the notion of SuperRegistrationAct by portraying it as a GreyAndGrayMorality conflict, but did so in [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse a setting]] that had always universally held the opinion that such things were unambiguously ''bad''. The ComicBook/XMen stayed out of the entire debate since in their own comics, government registration of mutants was always portrayed as the first step towards state-sponsored internment/genocide of anyone with an X-gene. Further, Mark Millar and Marvel editorial's intention was [[BothSidesHaveAPoint to portray both sides making good points in the argument]] but ultimately come down with the Pro-Registration side winning, depicting them as the more reasonable side. Yet they ''also'' had the Pro-Regs doing monstrous things like throwing people into the Negative Zone or threatening heroes into compliance over the Pro-Reg laws, despite the fact that the law hadn't so much as been written yet. We're supposed to root for them as they commit horrible crimes and prove the Anti-Reg's argument about the SHRA being fascist. Compounding this was the fact that many of the writers disagreed about which side was supposed to be right, leading to loads of ArmedWithCanon fights. One book would have Iron Man stopping an extremist Anti-Reg vigilante, only for another to have him casually imprisoning innocent people in the Negative Zone without a trial (or even being charged with a crime). Mr. Fantastic was given ''three different reasons'' for being on the Pro-Reg side, necessary because Mark Millar made him pro-Reg despite vehemently opposing this back in older Fantastic Four comics. The overall sense of the plot is that [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants nobody really knew how to handle it]].
74* Parodied(?) in ''[[ComicBook/{{Doom}} The Doom Comic]]'', with the marine starting on a GreenAesop about safe disposal of radioactive waste, only for him to stop halfway through to [[FelonyMisdemeanor notice something worse: his BIG GUN is out of bullets]]! For the record, the story is ''entirely'' about the marine's hunt for his beloved {{BFG}}.
75* ''ComicBook/HeroesInCrisis'' tried to tackle the issue of mental health and how important it is to get help. To this end, writer Tom King used superheroes as an allegory for soldiers, establishing the superhero mental health facility called Sanctuary, where superheroes—and some villains—would go to seek treatment with anonymity. The story depicts a massacre at the facility which King has said is an allegory for mass shootings. Later on, the murderer is almost said to be redeemed because they released the recordings (which existed for some reason) to ComicBook/LoisLane, who then released them to the world (thankfully after blurring out their faces and identities), with the message supposedly being that people should be open about needing help, so others will be willing to seek help too. The message has been roundly criticised for the sheer inapplicability of it, and the allegory for how it just doesn't work, while the [[AnAesop aesop]] is considered terribly executed and offensive. The "therapy" present is incredibly unhealthy, consisting entirely of superheroes utilising a VR room to let them "work through" whatever it is they feel like, with the AI in charge of the facility—who is the only "therapist" there—''only'' prodding them with questions that seem ''outright'' intended to mock them, such as asking Wally West why he keeps wanting to see his missing family over and over again, and allowing self-harm in patients such as Lagoon Boy who uses the VR technology to repeatedly relive his death. Not once are the facility's methods called into question, but the ending has Sanctuary re-opened with zero indication of any reform in how it works, implying it's a good thing. The way the massacre happened—via innate superpowers—means it ''can't'' be an allegory for mass shootings at a mental health facility, because those places wouldn't let someone keep a loaded gun with them! Finally, the message of being open about seeking mental health completely ignores that nobody at Sanctuary knew they were being recorded, consented to the murderer leaking their sessions to Lois Lane or consented to ''Lois'' releasing information about their sessions, even with their faces blurred. In the real world, this would at best be seen as a '''massive''' breach of privacy and get the murderer in (more) trouble and get Lois Lane sued into the Fifth Dimension.
76* In the ''Century: 2009'' and ''Tempest'' volumes of ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', Creator/AlanMoore critiques twenty-first century popular culture and fiction as being decadent, hollow and inferior when compared to the culture and fiction of previous generations. Which is all very well and good, but many reviewers and critics (such as several members of the discussion [[http://mindlessones.com/2012/06/26/league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen-century-2009-thoughts/ here]]) pointed out that it's pretty clear that Alan Moore also has little to no idea or interest in what's actually going on in 21st-century popular culture and fiction. Moore himself has been vocal about his lack of engagement with a lot of central elements of modern popular culture (such as the Internet and contemporary cinema); accordingly, unlike previous volumes of the series, there are few direct references to contemporary culture and fiction, and many of those that are present are inaccurate, questionable or still somewhat outdated (as in hailing from or being more relevant to the 1990s or early 2000s than the 2010s). This means the work is less of the searing indictment of contemporary fiction and culture it was intended to be, and more of Alan Moore coming off as a GrumpyOldMan complaining about things he doesn't really understand or care about.
77** ''The Tempest'' also features tirades bitching about modern popularity of superheroes, whom Moore accuses of being a plague on the human psyche, promoting fascism and at one point even compares them to the ''Ku Klux Klan''. It gets worse when you realize that, not only is this irrelevant to the main plot of the comic, but [[InformedAttribute we never actually see any superheroes being a detriment of any sort to human society]]. Furthermore, the superheroes who happen to be supporting characters use their abilities to help the heroes [[spoiler:abandon Earth during the apocalypse and make all their new allies immortal]], and no ethical qualms of any sort are made.
78** Another thing that undercuts the notion that modern stories are inferior to the stories Moore focuses on is the fact that a massive part of the previous issues, if not the entire ''purpose'' of the concept, was to demonstrate how [[DeconstructorFleet dark, ugly, and unpleasant the old stories really were or could be.]] Alan Moore suddenly proclaiming the inferiority of modern stories to them feels less like a value judgement and more like NostalgiaFilter randomly kicking in while writing the last issue.
79* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW''
80** The "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWHolidays2014 2014 Equestria Girls Holiday Special]]" tackles the subject of cyber-bullying showing it has serious, lasting consequences. This is undermined by said consequences becoming an InformedAttribute as ultimately everything gets EasilyForgiven par for the series, a HappyEnding par for [[ChristmasSpecial the genre]], and [[StatusQuoIsGod goes without consequence or mention outside the issue]] par for the comics. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking It also had little to do with the holidays.]]
81** ''Friends Forever #14'' involves a town of peaceful dragons that have given up their "violent migratory ways" to live in peace with ponies and are now being investigated by the police for alleged arson, to argue against the implication of "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest Dragon Quest]]" that Spike had to "change his race to be decent" and [[{{Profiling}} racial profiling]]. The problem is, by having the dragons give up ''their'' ways and live with and like ponies to create this setting, the comic ended up ''embracing'' the concept of the dragons "changing their race to be decent" rather than challenging it. Then, the conflict arises when a string of arsons cause the ponies to "discriminate" against the dragons by assuming they are to blame, but as the fires perfectly match those left by a dragon's breath this is an objectively valid reaction to hard evidence rather than "discrimination", as profiling would be an objectively valid tool in a fantastical world where different "races" have different abilities like magic, flight, fire breath, etc. Finally, once it's revealed the dragons aren't to blame the ponies immediately accept them once more, making it pretty clear the ponies really had no problem with the dragons in the first place and just wanted the arsonist to be stopped. In the end the entire aesop implodes on itself as it's a story where dragons are accepted by ponies by acting like ponies instead of dragons, then a conflict arises because they're apparently doing dragon things, then finally resolved when it's revealed the dragons were acting "good" like the ponies all along. [[ArsonMurderAndJayWalking It also had very little to do about Spike and Princess Luna's friendship]].
82* The "ComicBook/{{Hydra}} ComicBook/{{Cap|tainAmerica}}" storyline in ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire'', in which Captain America is revealed to be a secret fascist, was meant to show how even good people can be seduced by hate. But the whole thing was the result of a CosmicRetcon by the villain as opposed to anything pertaining to Captain America, who was created by two Jewish men to promote their anti-Nazi views. The vagueness of the book on what Hydra actually believes is nullified by the extensive PuttingOnTheReich imagery. Many other plot details (like having Scarlet Witch, a Romani, join the fascists) and the accidental white supremacist imagery created by having Fash-Cap wielding Mjolnir (Thor's Hammer being a symbol used by many real-world hate groups), combine to show the setting wasn't suitable and the writers too clueless about the subject to handle it tactfully much less intelligently enough to make a valid point.
83* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'':
84** Creator/KenPenders's run tended to try to cover really heavy themes (fascism, colonialism, genocide, abuse, drugs) that the comic just cannot handle. These ideas would be tricky in any story, and a major uphill battle in a ''Sonic'' comic, but Penders didn't help by waffling between horribly tasteless real-world imagery and cartoony adventure logic. One arc involves a paraphrasing of "First They Came", but with actual persecuted groups replaced by echidnas and hedgehogs. Then, just twelve issues later, Knuckles trusts the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazi-analogue group]] completely and defends them so they can team up for the greater good.
85** Penders claims that Knuckles's relationship with Locke, his DisappearedDad, is meant to be a study of the difficulties involved when someone's relationship with their parents isn't perfect, having based it on his own issues with his father. Unfortunately, this doesn't really pan out when the comic doesn't really explore the difficulties of that relationship; Locke is EasilyForgiven and Knuckles interprets his actions as having been wholly good, leading to most readers getting the opposite impression.
86* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': The infamous 9/11 VerySpecialEpisode from''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderMan1999''. While one understands the noble intentions writers had, attempting to tackle the event in a world of superheroes falls flat on readers the moment FridgeLogic hits, for two reasons.
87** Events of 9/11’s scale happen on a regular basis in the Marvel Universe, plus as many have noted, it’s not conceivable that absolutely ''none'' of the superheroes residing in New York (and by extension the Marvel Universe at large) could have prevented the attack from happening. Granted, the issue ''has'' since been rendered CanonDiscontinuity [[note]]mainly on account of Captain America's presence when as of the latest continuity, he didn't thaw out until the Obama Administration[[/note]], but it tends to strike a raw nerve among fans.
88** Several supervillains, most egregiously Doctor Doom, are portrayed as horrified by the event, with Doom in tears. Many of these villains have routinely been shown to do as bad if not worse; in fact, one of those depicted in mourning is Juggernaut, who personally toppled the towers during a rampage in an issue from the ‘90s.
89* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
90** In the 80s there was a one-shot called ''Heroes for Hope'' in which the X-Men take on famine in Africa... which, as everyone knows, is caused by an ancient demon that feeds on human misery. The demon in question was established to be merely a consequence of the misery in the area, which was caused by far more complex causes, but it was very very easy to interpret the story as "Africa's ills are caused by an ancient demon". At least Marvel gave the proceeds of the comic to charity.
91** In retrospect, Mikhail Rasputin's quasi-introduction falls into this category by FridgeLogic—Peter Corbeau compares his death to the real-life Apollo 1 fire... except that it was later revealed that Mikhail hadn't actually died, but had been sent to another dimension, gone insane, and come back as a supervillain. Addressing real-life disasters is hard in a comic that's so big on bringing people BackFromTheDead.
92** In general, if not done well the metaphor of mutants representing various oppressed groups victimised by those in power can quickly start to fall apart when you remember that, unlike the members of the real-world oppressed groups they're used to represent, many mutants often have [[PersonOfMassDestruction dangerous superpowers]].
93[[/folder]]
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95[[folder:Fan Works]]
96* ''Fanfic/AlvanAnTheChipmunks3TheSecondSqueakuel'' attempts to speak out against fanfiction portraying rape as being erotic. However, the message is eclipsed by the absurdity of the fic's heavy usage of StylisticSuck combined with featuring characters from the ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' movies, especially since the assaulter is a human man turned into a chipmunk.
97* In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'', one of the lessons the story tries to give Goh is that him going to school could've avoided a lot of hardship and suffering. However, the lesson falls flat for two reasons:
98** Goh's academic performance, the main reason why this would be an issue, isn't suffering from this—in fact, the story says he's doing fine.
99** Every time the lesson comes up, the only real argument made for it isn't even about Goh himself, but that [[InsaneTrollLogic him going to school would've stopped Chloe's classmates from bullying her regardless of their intentions or malice]].
100** In general, this was always going to be a tough hill to die on in this particular fandom. To say nothing of other parts of the franchise, the main Pokémon anime is one of the most obvious examples of ShouldntWeBeInSchoolRightNow in media: Ash Ketchum has been on the road for [[LongRunners over two real-world decades]] with hardly a mention of school, and all of his traveling companions have been much the same. Dawn ''is'' shown to have attended preschool, and Brock eventually goes home to study to become a doctor, but for the most part, the main characters and many of the fellow kids and teens they meet [[GoalInLife pursue their goals on the road, without mentioning anything akin to a formal education]]. It's a ''huge'' change to the status quo when Ash settles down and attends school in the ''Sun and Moon'' seasons, and even then the focus of the lessons centers around Pokémon and life in Alola, ala the Trainer Schools you can visit in the games. Really, the state of education in the Pokémon world is subject to a lot of [[EpilepticTrees fan interpretation]], but regardless, Goh actually receives a more conventional education than any other protagonist in the series. It's just that ''other'' kids from his hometown (including his ChildhoodFriend Chloe) are shown to go to school even ''more'' consistently, so [[DoubleStandard he needs to attend school every day in order to make things fair]].
101* ''Fanfic/SuperSmashBrothersGuardiansArise'', a fanfic based on the popular game about [[MascotFighter characters from various video games duking it out in a party fighter environment]] inserts themes such as [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slavery]] and [[FinalSolution genocide]], both of which would have been dealt with in far more serious fanfiction, but it uses ''Smash'' as the medium to tell the story, and was originally [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids K-rated]]. The slavery theme becomes even more apparent when, [[spoiler: after the final battle against Tabuu, it depicts a group of slaves revolting against Primids led by a man named [[Literature/UncleTomsCabin Tom]], homaging the work of classic literature...in a fanfic about a crossover between video game characters]]. Plus, while the BigBad did commit genocide on various other races, some of the eponymous Guardians had a part in it.
102* Deconstructed in ''FanFic/WithPearlAndRubyGlowing''; [[WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse Lola Loud]] picked up her knowledge of sexual abuse from Clueless Aesop media and unclear descriptions from adults, and so she knew it was bad, but not ''how'' bad. When Lori hits her for spilling her nail varnish, Lola accuses Lori of molesting her to get her grounded, and is horrified when instead she's arrested.
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105[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
106* ''WesternAnimation/BarbieVideoGameHero'''s message is that you shouldn't let yourself feel confined to one path and think outside the box. This is all well and good in general and for Barbie, who gets the means to code a whole new game from the inside by the end of it. In real video games... you kind of do have to stay within the confines of whatever limits the programmers put in and can't code your way out. To do otherwise is going outside the rules of the game, and going outside the rules of a game is cheating, which is not such a good message for a kids' movie to have.
107* ''WesternAnimation/TheEmojiMovie'' suffers from this. A film filled with constant ProductPlacement is a terrible way to get across social commentary about smartphones, but besides that, people don't usually want smartphones to [[BeYourself be themselves]]; they want phones that promptly follow their commands at all times. Thus, the movie presents [[CosmicHorrorStory an environment]] where it makes sense for [[BigBad Smiler]] to want Gene deleted for a relatively small transgression. And yet the movie never truly calls out this system based entirely around serving an owner, despite the fact that the Emojis were momentarily deleted.
108* ''WesternAnimation/Epic2013'' tries to deliver a BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil message, while at the same time pushing a BlackAndWhiteMorality narrative, where all the forces of rot and darkness are entirely evil and without any single redeeming feature while the forces of daylight and growth are entirely good. It doesn't help that in the movie BeautyEqualsGoodness plays a heavy role: The Boggans are ugly, and the animals they use as mounts (bats, grackles, and a star-nosed mole) are ones that are generally disliked by humans, whereas the Leafmen are all good-looking, and ride hummingbirds. It's almost as if the message of the movie was only to accept the parts of nature that are cute looking while rejecting all the parts that aren't pleasant. Ironically, [[https://www.quora.com/Why-is-decay-important-to-the-ecosystem rot and decay are very important to keep an ecosystem.]]
109* ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'' runs into this. The BigBad isn't the humans who are destroying the rainforest, but Hexxus, an ancient demon of pollution who is freed from his prison in a tree and proceeds to destroy the land around himself. Likewise, it is the fairies' magic, not any environmentalist effort on the part of the humans, that ultimately defeats him. This makes the film's message seem to be "Pollution is caused by magic demons, and only more magic can stop it."
110* ''WesternAnimation/ThePagemaster'' aims to be about how [[ReadingIsCoolAesop reading is fun and can show kids a world of wonder]]. Aside from the obvious joke about a film telling kids to read, it features only [[SmallReferencePools the most extreme surface-level elements of the books it focuses on]], and outright gets many things wrong about them—for instance, its depiction of ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'' has almost nothing to do with the original book, and seems to owe itself far more to film adaptations. It results in a curious situation where a film about how kids should read great classic works of literature seems to have been made by people who never read said works.
111* ''WesternAnimation/Pinocchio1992'' tries to teach that you should not lie, but since lying is not an important theme in neither [[Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio the book]] nor this film, it fails to be persuasive. Perhaps the real, if [[AccidentalAesop unintentional]] Aesop, is that just because life is full of nasty people who [[KarmaHoudini often go unpunished]] doesn't mean you should be one yourself.
112* ''WesternAnimation/{{Planes}}'' has the main character [[BeYourself embrace who he truly wants to be]] in a world of anthropomorphized vehicles, where everyone is created for a very specific purpose.
113* ''A pozsonyi csata'', a nationalistic retelling of the 907 Battle of Pressburg is little more than a cheap faux-history propaganda film sponsored by the Hungarian government. The film itself presents the end of the "heroic" pagan Hungarians' conquests as a tragic event as they were opposed and overran by "evil" western Christian armies and were eventually forced to abandon their old polytheistic pagan beliefs and adopt their oppressors' religion to become a European kingdom. The core message seems to be that western influences have always threatened traditional Hungarian values, which has been a significant post-2010 political talking point and a major cause of friction between Hungary and the rest of the European Union. The message is however undermined by the song ''Egy az Isten'' ("''One is the Lord''") that plays during end credits, which suddenly paints Christianity, the country's current state religion, as the one true faith, thereby suggesting that western influences and the abandonment of old beliefs were beneficial after all.
114* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wizards}}'' spends the entire film building up the conflict between a good, druidic wizard who lives in harmony with nature and who draws his power from all living things and an evil wizard who's reinventing mass production, firearms and munitions, and whose conquering armies are threatening to plunge the world back into the chaos of technological warfare, [[BrokenAesop and then the good wizard shoots and kills the evil wizard with a gun]]. WordOfGod is that the Aesop was supposed to be about propaganda, the movie setting up the Aesop and intentionally breaking it because it's denouncing the idea of letting the words of others do your thinking for you. The only reason technology is bad and nature is good is because ''everyone says so''. The good wizard is the only character who doesn't buy into the hype and recognizes that what the villain is doing is harmful, but it's the ''villain'' that's the problem, not technology, and it is perfectly fine to use technology to solve it. But the average viewer, without being told such, misses this in lieu of the more apparently obvious and familiar message "[[GreenAesop technology is bad, being close to nature is good]]".
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118* [[Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2017 The 2017 live-action remake]] of ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' has gotten some criticism for its rather clumsy attempt at incorporating feminist themes into its story. To differentiate itself from the original, the film implicitly portrays Belle as [[BornInTheWrongCentury ahead of her time]], suggesting that she's [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer shunned by the people of her village]] for being too independent and empowered for 18th century UsefulNotes/{{France}}. Yet it chooses to convey this by showing her being chastised for teaching a young girl to read (with the strong implication that she's regarded with contempt for being literate herself), and by showing the villagers reacting in anger when she, um...invents a washing machine. As virulently sexist as 18th century France may have been by today's standards, women and girls of that era ''weren't'' forbidden from learning how to read and write[[note]] Case in point: the movie is based on an 18th century French {{fairy tale}} that was '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beast written by a woman]].'''[[/note]], and [[NewTechnologyIsEvil anti-technology hysteria]] in that era wasn't a thing--making the movie's attempt at portraying sexism look weirdly disconnected from anything that a RealLife feminist might actually be likely to speak out against. And as Creator/LindsayEllis [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpUx9DnQUkA points out]]: the film's attempt at conveying a feminist message is also badly undermined by its handling of Belle's relationship with the Beast, particularly compared to their relationship in the original; for an independent and empowered woman, Belle seems weirdly okay with dating a man who often openly disrespects her, and makes very few attempts to win her affection by treating her as an equal.[[note]] To name a few examples: instead of the Beast choosing to let Belle out of his dungeon and offering to let her stay in a luxurious bedroom out of kindness, Lumière and Cogsworth let her out of the dungeon and bring her to the bedroom without the Beast's knowledge (implying that the Beast fully intended to leave her in the dungeon for the rest of her life); instead of the Beast erupting in anger at Belle after she disobeys his order to stay out of the West Wing and then [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone immediately regretting his outburst]], he never tells her to stay out of the West Wing before finding her there (making his fit of anger look much more emotionally abusive) and never shows an ounce of remorse for yelling at her; and instead of inviting Belle into his library out of an earnest desire to do something nice for her, he arrogantly ''shows off'' his library after insulting her taste in literature. [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Nice guy]].[[/note]]
119* ''Film/TheCraft attempts'' to deal with the subject of racism via [[TokenMinority Rochelle's]] character, but it ultimately comes across as rather clumsily written, as the film [[OutOfFocus doesn't really dedicate enough screentime to Rochelle]] to handle the subject in a nuanced manner – the most it really gets is [[AlphaBitch Laura Lizzie]] making a few offhand, racist comments towards Rochelle, while the rest of her bullying just comes across as more generalized nastiness. Originally, Rochelle was envisioned as being just another misfit (early scripts threw around the idea of her having an eating disorder and uptight parents), with the racism element only being added after Rachel True was cast for the role, and it shows. While the film doesn't botch the overall message of 'racism is bad' ''too'' horribly,[[note]]Laura's racism is presented as pointlessly cruel and the audience is intended to sympathize with Rochelle when she first curses Laura for revenge, at least until things go too far[[/note]] it could've been woven into the plot with more finesse.
120* ''Film/{{Crossroads|2002}}'', the 2002 Music/BritneySpears {{vanity project}}, spends most of its time getting the protagonists into situations that a PG-13 pop star vehicle aimed at tweenage girls just could not possibly handle, most of them relating to the consequences of sex, which the plot has to dodge to keep everything audience-appropriate.
121* ''Film/CyberSeductionHisSecretLife'': Because of television content standards, the most the movie can actually show of the teenage main character's [[TheInternetIsForPorn internet pornography addiction]] is him blankly staring at [[FullyClothedNudity pictures of scantily clad women]], rather than any form of hardcore pornography featured on websites like Brazzers or Bangbros. This in turn undermines the film's message, since if something that ''mild'' is all it takes for him to spin out of control, it becomes questionable whether the kid either has psychological problems already or if [[MyBelovedSmother his mother's extreme overreaction]] had something to do with it. Doubles as a BrokenAesop as well, since none of the problems brought about by his porn addiction are actually, directly related to it—he also becomes addicted to energy drinks from drinking them whenever he views porn, which could have happened from chugging them during ''any'' regular activity, and the rest of his problems are from a woman [[DisproportionateRetribution taking violent offense]] at his hesitance to sleep with her when both are already dating someone else, up to and including accusations of beating and raping her, with the only link to his porn addiction being that she was the actress in some of the porn he watched. And since the film is trying to portray a teenage boy looking at pictures of scantily-clad women over the Internet as the Worst Thing Ever, [[SkewedPriorities it ends up completely ignoring the clearly-worse implications of said actress's actions]] or the fact that she runs a website with porn of herself on it despite being underage.
122* The ABC Series/AfterschoolSpecial ''The Day My Kid Went Punk'' is supposed to be about the dangers of punk behavior in the late '80s-early '90s. Except that the "punk" kid only dresses a certain way, which is to say, [[TheQuincyPunk stereotypically punk-ish]] (leather jacket, make up, hair, etc.). In all other respects, he is still a ''model kid'': he gets excellent marks in school, he shows empathy and concern for a young girl and helps her out when she's clearly distressed, and he's unfailingly polite and respectful of those around him. His ''parents'', on the other hand, are dismissive of his ''existence'' to the point of outright ignoring him when he's trying to tell them things, which is particularly jarring considering the mother spends most of the PSA concerned about her upcoming speaking engagement ''about the dangers of punk kids''. The "lesson" imparted by the PSA ends up being "don't dress like a punk because people won't take you seriously", and it even fails ''that'' because the only people that don't take the kid seriously ''are the parents''. The actual takeaway from the film is that parents that ignore their kids until they stand out by exercising personal freedom of expression (aka non-conformity) are tyrannical and horrible.
123* ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald'' got a pretty cold reception in part for this, as the attempt to tackle subjects like the rise of real-world fascist regimes and the tragedies of the early 20th century through the eyes of an extant and active society of wizards couldn't really work no matter how you framed it. Either the wizards [[HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct somehow couldn't prevent those atrocities]], or [[AllPowerfulBystander they were A-okay with what was going down]], the former of which would make wizarding society as a whole utterly impotent, while the latter would make it completely unlikable. The end result ended up seemingly being that they had to stop the rise of [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Grindelwald's fascist regime]], or otherwise he would reveal himself to the Muggles, take over the world and... [[ArsonMurderAndLifesaving stop the Holocaust from happening]].
124** Given that the original movies had the Minister for Magic talking with the Prime Minister, strongly implying that the wizards (at least, those not on the more pureblood hardline side of things) both ''did'' and ''would'' step up to the plate when the time came would have helped. With that being said, if the BigBad has a decent chance of derailing the atrocities before/during/after WWII, it can be hard not to at least want to hear them out.
125* A segment in the 1959 film ''The F.B.I. Story'' tries to show why the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan are bad and botches it by turning them into very superficial villains. According to the film, the Klan were bad guys because they broke the law (they're lumped in with gangsters and other enemies of American law and order); their racism is never mentioned at all, and their Antisemitism is touched upon as timidly as possible (they're shown ransacking a Jewish household and knocking over a menorah, but the word "Jew" is never uttered and the narrator merely mentions that the Klan had contempt for "ancient rituals"). The Klan's biggest crime in the film—the one for which they end up getting punished—is attempting to murder a white (and presumably Christian) liberal journalist who condemns them in his newspaper editorials. Even kids who watch this movie will understand that the KKK are bad; problem is, they'll think it's because they're a gang of bullying ghosts.
126* ''Film/TheGarbagePailKidsMovie'' was an attempt to turn a line of trading cards—which were ''deliberately'' intended to be [[BlackComedy violent]] and [[GrossoutShow thoroughly disgusting]]—into an Aesop about [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute appreciating those who look different]]. It worked out about as well as you'd expect throwing AnAesop into a film based on ''Garbage Pail Kids'' would be. It's a BrokenAesop, too: the titular characters are just as ugly on the inside—but hey, they sure sang a catchy song about teamwork (while ''robbing a shop'').
127* ''Film/IAccuseMyParents'':
128** While teaching parents to pay more attention to their kids than their booze is certainly not a bad idea, the film does so by showing a young man time and again making completely stupid decisions, to the point where he goes on the run from the mob and gets charged for manslaughter, despite none of that having anything to do with his drunk parents. Sure, maybe if they'd paid more attention to him, he might not have gotten away with all those choices, but Jimmy makes so many stupid decisions that it's hard to believe bad parenting alone was the problem.
129** The dedication at the end says that the movie was sent to entertain the UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks overseas (it was [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII 1944]]). This is a film where a kid goes completely off the rails due to his parent's absence, and it was meant to be seen by a large group of young forced-to-be-absent fathers, some of whom might never come home.
130* ''Film/TheImitationGame'' tries to preach about how awful homophobia is. Except despite being a {{biopic}} of UsefulNotes/AlanTuring, who was actually quite open about his sexuality and had no problem making advances on men he was interested in, the film seems determined to [[ButNotTooGay avoid actually showing him in a relationship with another man]]. All the same-sex affairs he has are completely offscreen, and the first half tries to make it seem as though he's attracted to Joan Clarke. On the flip side, the film has no problem showing him being persecuted and chemically tortured over his sexuality, with a fictional blackmail subplot (where an undercover Soviet spy threatens to expose his secret when he's discovered) playing up many homophobic [[{{cliche}} cliches]] that were used in real life as reasons to discriminate against gay men - that they were automatic security risks because of their sexuality.
131* ''The Life Zone'' is an anti-abortion screed. However, if one were to describe the plot, it would seem to be the exact opposite. The film is about three women who are kidnapped and held against their will by a man calling himself their "jailer" who only ever speaks to them through a television screen and forbids them to speak to him unless he specifically addresses them. The women are also forced to watch pro-life propaganda while they're being held against their will. If that weren't enough, the movie also sets up extremely easy [[TheWarOnStraw strawmen]] for it to knock down; such as a man (played by the director) asking a man why, if it's not okay to kill a baby one minute after it's been born, it's okay to abort a baby one second ''before'' it's born. Or one of the women making the argument that abortion is morally correct just because it's legal. Or arguing that the kidnappers aren't oppressing women because one of them is a woman herself. If that ''still'' wasn't enough, the film ends by revealing that the "jailer" is actually ''{{Satan}}'', the two women who turned against abortion were possibly {{fallen angel}}s, and the third woman (who refused to give in to the anti-abortion message) will now spend the rest of eternity in hell.
132* ''Film/LosingIsaiah'' is about recovering drug addict Khaila getting sober and fighting to regain custody of her toddler son Isaiah, who had been adopted by social worker Margaret and her family. Since Khaila is black and Margaret is white, the film ''attempts'' to paint the message that black children belong with black parents, and Khaila had gotten her life together and is the rightful mother of Isaiah, while Margaret is a self-righteous WhiteSavior. But where this fall flats is that it was Khaila's own fault she had lost custody of her child: she left him in a dumpster while getting high because his crying annoyed her (the baby was saved by garbagemen at the last minute), and she hadn't seen him in ''three years'' because she thought he was dead. During that time, Margaret and her husband had legally adopted him. Khaila takes them to court to regain custody and points out their one legitimate flaw: that they don't think it's a priority to educate Isaiah about his black heritage, but she downplays how unfit a mother she was when she lost him, and never considers how traumatic it would be for Isaiah to rip him away from the only family he has known. There's also the fact that in real life, once adoption is finalized it can't be reversed just because the birth parents' circumstances have improved. Isaiah was legally the son of Margaret and her husband, and the ''most'' Khaila could hope for would be visitation. It comes as no surprise that Creator/JessicaLange, who played Margaret, has since admitted that the movie is one of her [[CreatorBacklash least favorite starring roles]] due how badly it delivered its message.
133* ''Film/ReeferMadness'' failed so ''badly'' at its [[DrugsAreBad intended message]] that it's used as a {{straw|Character}}man by people lobbying to legalize marijuana. Though then again, it might not have been the best idea to start the film by [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing giving detailed instructions on how to make and smuggle joints]]. And even then, the film was simply using its message as an excuse to show behavior that wouldn't otherwise pass UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode.
134* This is a problem films by Creator/DerekSavage tend to run into, either from trying to teach young children about topics they're too young for or tackling the effect without addressing the cause.
135** ''Film/CoolCatSavesTheKids'' aims to teach kids about bullying and the dangers of guns. In terms of bullying, the character of Butch the Bully is a one-dimensional CardCarryingVillain who is constantly pointed out to have no friends so he will be easy for the child audience to digest, the result being his behavior comes off as a cartoonish caricature and not addressing how bullies are usually ''[[GangOfBullies groups]]'' who pick on the people who ''actually'' have no friends. Since the film can't point out to its young target audience how guns can kill people if not handled responsibly, it can't really make it clear why Cool Cat and his friends need to tell an adult when they found one, and the threat when Butch finds said gun is just that he will use it to steal other kids' lunch money, something he could just as easily do by raising his fist and intimidating someone.
136** ''Gun Self-Defense for Women'' encourages women to own a gun to defend themselves, but it never really specifies why a gun is better than other forms of self-defense, especially since some of the stories of women interviewed have them defend themselves without guns and it features a reenactment of a women defending herself with pepper spray. It seems Derek caught onto this, as one of the later releases was renamed to the more broad ''Self-Defense for All''.
137** ''Film/CoolCatFightsCoronavirus'': Due to being aimed at small children, the film can't address the potentially fatal consequences of getting the Coronavirus, with Angela and Britney just being worried about getting sick. As such, it can't make it clear to kids what distinguishes the Coronavirus from a regular cold. Despite being marketed as giving both sides of the Coronavirus debacle, the skeptical Dirty Dog never gives any concrete evidence for his belief that the virus doesn't exist, and also acts like a cartoonish villain to give the audience very little reason to hear him out.
138* ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'' tries to do an anti-nuclear weapons message. Emphasis on "tries", as it attempts to dilute such a complicated and controversial subject into a very overly-simplified "nukes are bad and cause all war" kind of message that takes a back seat to the film's action and is treated as a means to an end, yet is presented as if it's the focus and if the action somehow portrayed that message. Even ignoring all of that, and even if it was such a simple issue in real life, the movie ''still'' fails to get the message across as getting rid of nukes [[BrokenAesop unleashes Nuclear Man and leads to war]].
139* ''Film/TheyLive'' is an {{allegory}} for [[CapitalismIsBad the evils of unchecked capitalism and Reaganomics]], depicting the rich and powerful, as well as members of the police force, as alien invaders infiltrating and subverting our society. Unfortunately, since aliens are, by definition, outsiders, [[MisaimedFandom many Neo-Nazis took this movie as a validation of their beliefs that Jews were running a secret cabal to brainwash society]], much to Creator/JohnCarpenter's [[https://news.avclub.com/john-carpenter-thinks-internet-nazis-need-to-quit-misin-1798255923 chagrin.]]
140* The pedophilia awareness PSA ''Film/TrickyPeople'' made an admirable attempt to be serious and would have actually been pretty effective... had the creators not decided to include the ridiculously cartoony Barney-esque character of Yello Dyno. And if that wasn't enough, [[VileVillainLaughableLackey they give the evil pedophile a wacky, bumbling sidekick]].
141* ''Film/TheTrumpProphecy'' is the (purportedly) true story of Mark Taylor, a retired firefighter who claims that he foresaw that UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump would be elected President of the United States after God spoke to him, and helped organize a prayer campaign that contributed to his victory in 2016. The film takes great pains to portray Trump's victory as a good thing because...God said so. While the movie uses footage and audio from his 2016 presidential campaign, it conspicuously leaves out any of the actual policies or positions that Trump ran on.
142* The infamous 2006 remake of ''Film/{{The Wicker Man|2006}}'', according to the director, was meant as a feminist treatise told through a PersecutionFlip. His supposed intention was to show what patriarchal values would be like if reversed. The actual result is a bizarre movie about [[StrawFeminist a bunch of insane women]] torturing Creator/NicolasCage with [[MemeticMutation bees]]. One gets the sense that the director didn't really understand the subject matter. The concept of tackling sexism in a ''Wicker Man'' remake is an odd one in and of itself; the [[Film/TheWickerMan1973 original film]] was about a ''religious'' cult, not the psychotic misandrists the remake depicts.
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145[[folder:Folklore]]
146* Aesop's fable, "The dog and the wolf" is about a wolf, near-dead with hunger, meeting a dog. The dog says that if the wolf had steady work and steady food like dogs do, he'd be much better off, and the wolf quite agrees, but he's a wolf so no one will take him in. The dog assures him that he can get him a job on his farm, and the wolf accepts, until he finds out that the dog gets chained up by a collar at night, at which point he returns to the woods to die. The moral is "better free and starving than enslaved and fat", but fails when confronted with FridgeLogic: If the dog could wander off to the woods to meet the wolf in the first place then clearly he has all the freedom he wants and could probably wander off whenever he wanted. The wolf doesn't really refuse to throw away freedom for food, he refuses a job where he'd have to be at the right place at certain times and wear a collar as a uniform.
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149[[folder:Literature]]
150* ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' gets this with Augustus Gloop. He is chastised by the narrative, Willy Wonka, and the Oompa Loompas for his gluttony. ValuesDissonance towards body shaming aside, the message is undermined by the fact that Wonka is voluntarily part of an industry that profits off of childhood obesity.
151* ''Literature/{{Docile}}'' seeks to make a point about [[CapitalismIsBad capitalism]] by portraying a dystopian future Maryland that has reintroduced debt slavery. However, the book has been criticized for presenting only a paper-thin analysis of what capitalism even is and for tone-deafness toward the fact that Maryland was a slave state before the 13th Amendment. It has come under fire as [[StrictlyFormula formulaic]] EroticLiterature marketed as an AuthorTract.
152* The Creator/DrSeuss classic ''Literature/GreenEggsAndHam'' carries the message "Don't be afraid to try new things." However, it's perfectly logical to be leery about eating something that's in an unusual color, especially when that color would normally imply that the food shouldn't be consumed. Would ''you'' be in a hurry to eat '''green meat?'''
153* The "Brave books" intended for conservative parents attempts to try and teach their children standard conservative values to children under the guise of simple things kids would read. One book depicts a [[ArtisticLicenseBiology peacock with colourful plumage and a long tail feathers being referred to as female]]. Apparently, it ends up [[AccidentalAesop showcasing]] that people will accept people being transgender or gender-noncoforming.
154* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
155** According to Creator/JKRowling, the idea behind the House Elves and Hermione's attempts to help them was to satirize WhiteMansBurden-esque activism, where well-meaning people from a more privileged group are so determined to help others in a less privileged group that [[OpinionOverride they ignore what the people they're trying to help actually want]]. Not only was this such a fantastical allegory most didn't pick up that Aesop, but the House Elves are effectively a SlaveRace whose HappinessInSlavery portrayal is identical to how many real-life slaves in the past were portrayed by their owners as an excuse to justify owning slaves. The closest the series comes close to decrying the whole system of House Elf slavery is that [[GoldenMeanFallacy it's wrong to enslave them if you're an abusive master, not that it's wrong to enslave them at all]], which fails when ''Deathly Hallows'' reveals even a loving and well-meaning master can accidentally lock an elf in an infinite loop of failure and self-punishment by incautiously giving them an impossible order. That the closest real-life equivalent to this issue is something that we would be completely justified in opposing shows how unsuitable the Aesop is for the setting.
156** It's also stated that lycanthropy and anti-werewolf prejudice are meant to represent HIV/AIDS and the anti-AIDS hysteria that was prevalent during the 1980s and the 1990s. Which would be fine and dandy, except that HIV-positive people, when they know they have it and when they take the proper precautions (don't have unprotected and/or unsafe sex, don't donate blood, don't share or use used needles), are no more dangerous to others than a person without HIV/AIDS, which is why the anti-AIDS hysteria was so wrong in the first place. Werewolves, on the other hand, involuntarily turn into powerful, flesh-eating, mindless monsters every month that are incredibly dangerous to anyone around them, and the only way to temporarily prevent this is a rare, very expensive potion. The only other named werewolf besides [[TokenHeroicOrc Remus Lupin]] is [[PsychoForHire Fenrir Greyback]], a psychotic cannibal who delights in targeting children to forcibly turn them into werewolves (which is how Lupin became one in the first place). [[https://www.cuindependent.com/2016/10/03/hiv-harry-potter/ As pointed out by this article,]] Greyback represents the anti-AIDS stereotype of how people with HIV/AIDS deliberately want to spread the condition to as many people as possible. It's also mentioned that most werewolves willingly sided with [[BigBad Voldemort]], and TokenHeroicOrc Lupin still attempts to kill his friends when he turns because he forgot to take his potion at a critical moment. The next day, after Lupin returns to his human form, he admits to Harry that he badly screwed up and it’s a miracle that nobody died or got infected with lycanthropy. Overall, this makes it seem as though anti-werewolf attitudes [[StrawmanHasAPoint are entirely justified]].
157** The series's portrayal of Purebloods' prejudice toward Muggle-borns has been criticized for grossly misrepresenting how racism ''actually'' manifests in the real world. Muggle-borns are often treated with contempt for their non-magical ancestry due to a widely held belief that people of pure magical ancestry are naturally more gifted in magic, which the series portrays as wrong. But the series's entire premise also hinges on the belief that wizards and Muggles are [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything incapable of peacefully coexisting in one society because they're too different from each other]], which the series portrays as correct. In effect: discrimination against Muggle-borns is only really portrayed as wrong because Purebloods and Muggle-borns are functionally ''identical'' to each other apart from their ancestry—unlike wizards and Muggles, who actually '''are''' different from each other. This gets particularly uncomfortable when you consider how much pressure RealLife people from marginalized ethnic groups face to assimilate into the dominant culture of the societies where they live; by going out of its way to emphasize that Muggle-borns don't deserve persecution because they're not ''really'' different from other wizards, the series seemingly implies that [[TheWhitestBlackGuy they deserve sympathy for having abandoned their Muggle roots and fully assimilated into the Wizarding World]] (indeed, none of the Muggle-borns in the series seem to have any kind of attachment to the Muggle world that they left behind). Long story short: it's hard for a series to competently convey an anti-racist message while also presenting a more-or-less completely sympathetic portrayal of a segregated society.
158* ''Literature/LatawnyaTheNaughtyHorseLearnsToSayNoToDrugs'' has the title kind of saying it all, but it goes a little deeper. The horses in the book aren't anthropomorphized in any way, so you have the surreal experience of a horse with a joint sticking out of its mouth being treated with the utmost seriousness—and that's aside from the fact that it portrays "marijuana overdose" as lethal. (Funnily enough, [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting it is to horses]], so [[FantasticAesop if you're a horse, don't smoke marijuana]].)
159* ''Literature/PumpSixAndOtherStories'' has ''Pasho''. The aesop is as convoluted mess of contradictions as are the Jai ways. The story is about the importance of own cultural identity and how technology never really is neutral, but instead affects people and their way of life, often drastically changing them, until they are just part of the crowd, losing their original identity. It also tries to talk about the dangers of globalisation. Problem is, the mouthpiece of all those concerns is a brutal ProudWarriorRaceGuy that could be a poster boy for the most extreme forms of violent nationalism (tribalism, really, because that's how small and narrow his scale is) and comes with absolutely ''[[HateSink zero]]'' [[HateSink redeeming qualities]], being just a maniac warlord with obsession about wiping out anyting else than his own culture and closest kin. Which Gawar would then gladly use to assimilate others into his "true ways" and [[WrittenByTheWinners rewrite history]] to completely remove his enemies from consciousnes of the people. We are supposed to take his speeches as a way against the evils of foreign technology and influences, along with unrestricted exchange of ideas. [[spoiler:And then he gets poisoned by Raphael, to make sure Jai culture will be changed anyway]]. This isn't just BrokenAesop, it meanders in such twisted ways and gives such unsympathetic and just plain evil counter-viewpoint, the message of "every culture should be respected, regardless of anything" falls flat.
160* ''[[https://www.dereksavage.com/trolly1.htm Trolly the Trout Finds a Gun]]'' by Creator/DerekSavage takes the cake. A lesson on UsefulNotes/GunSafety is presented using ''fish''. It's a major case of MoodWhiplash, too, since the messages of the other ''Trolly the Trout'' books are "having friends that are different from you is cool" and "stealing is wrong".
161* ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'':
162** On the surface, the series is a safe, clean, non-violent fantasy serving as a cautionary tale about the dangers of premarital sex. Bella is certainly tempted, but Edward does the good Christian thing and pressures her into getting married first. This is all well and good—except it's coming from the same story that portrays an emotionally abusive {{ephebophile}} stalker as romantic. In the [[RealLife real world]], teenage romances rarely last forever, and marriage is the last thing that random charming attractive guys will pressure unsuspecting women into. The lesson is outright [[BrokenAesop contradicted]] in the final installment, when the pregnancy turns out [[BodyHorror bloody, gruesome, and nearly fatal]]. Marriage does ''not'' protect from [=STDs=], nor does it physically or emotionally prepare one for pregnancy. And the first time they actually sleep together after their wedding, it's a violent event that leaves Bella injured and the bed destroyed. The Aesop here seems to be less "Wait until marriage" and more "Don't have sex ever."
163** ''Twilight'' is simply not the kind of series that should be having a debate about abortion. And the pro-life/pro-choice thing is slightly irrelevant ''when it's clear that the baby is most assuredly killing the mother, and she may or may not survive to give birth'' (in other words, ''exactly'' the kind of exception most pro-life advocates are willing to make when it comes to their stance on abortion). The fact that it's a {{Creepy|Child}} HalfHumanHybrid that [[HorrorHunger makes Bella thirst for blood during the pregnancy]] only makes things worse—Bella may well be giving birth to TheAntiChrist (a few characters even think she actually ''is'').
164[[/folder]]
165
166[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
167* There was a Public Service Announcement at a local TV station which used its puppet mascot and tried to explain the difference between "good touching" and "bad touching". The trouble is, they used footage from ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoons while they were talking about "good touching"... including WesternAnimation/BugsBunny's cross-dressing smooches on WesternAnimation/ElmerFudd, and multiple shots of WesternAnimation/PepeLePew. Someone clearly wasn't paying enough attention when that PSA was made.
168* There was a brief flare-up of [=PSA=]s that instructed children to go and get an adult if they saw or read anything on the Internet that made them uncomfortable, without quantifying what such things might be. Given [[TheInternetIsForPorn the number of things]] one can find online that can make ''grown adults'' uncomfortable, and [[GoryDiscretionShot medical images of a graphic nature]], this seems a little ill-thought-out (but at least parent and child can sit and stare at the walls for a while together).
169* Parodied in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' when Gob sings a tone-deaf ([[{{Pun}} in every sense of the word]]) duet with a black puppet named Franklin about racism. Even more HilariousInHindsight if you've heard "Accidental Racist", a song with a similar concept which doesn't handle the issue any more gracefully but is unfortunately played entirely straight.
170* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'' attempts to tackle some social issues, which has plenty of precedence in the source material as well, but being a heightened reality superhero universe means it can't always apply real life logic to the issues they are facing.
171** ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' had Oliver step in as a temporary mayor of Star City and having to deal with numerous political issues. One of these involved gun control and the balance between security and individual rights. The show features an archer as someone able to go [[RockBeatsLaser toe-to-toe with a group of armed criminals and come out ahead]], as well as just being an action show where several other heroic characters use firearms for heroic actions. The show simply couldn't offer a solution to the problem, so had Oliver lock himself with his opposition in a room and tell the city afterward that they had come to a satisfactory compromise, [[TakeOurWordForIt without actually explaining what that was]].
172** ''Series/{{Supergirl}}'' featured some aliens using high tech weaponry to terrorize the city. After Supergirl runs them off, she gets into a brief argument with random citizens where they both use gun control buzzwords at each other. When your daily life involves actually being attacked by aliens with weapons that can vaporize buildings, the moral dilemma of arming yourself with mundane firearms becomes trivial.
173* ''Series/{{Bibleman}}'':
174** The show used the superhero formula to lure in kids, but has the problems it tries to comment on caused by supervillains. Usually the imperiled kid of the episode is shot by a sin-inducing laser gun and starts acting badly out of the blue, doing nothing to address the kinds of real-life things that cause the behaviors the show is saying you need to avoid. There are a couple of episodes where the villain's influence exacerbates a problem the kid's established as already facing (i.e. the kid's faith is weakening because his parents won't stop fighting), but the show doesn't bother to do it consistently. And this is compounded by how Bibleman inevitably ends up afflicted by the same thing as the kid to show that he's just a human who's vulnerable to the same things everyone else is, but it's usually established even more poorly than for the kid he helps, losing the point.
175** At times it even becomes confused about the point of its existence. A few episodes[[note]]"Shattering the Prince of Pride" and "Jesus Our Savior" for instance[[/note]] have Bibleman try to stress people need to pay attention to God and not to him, because he's just a person like everyone else. Not only is this mangled by most episodes having somebody specifically call Bibleman and ask him to solve a loved one's personal problems, the point of the show would seem to be making religious lessons more appealing to kids by having a cool hero who gets to use a lightsaber promoting them. It's a worthwhile message, but it falls apart coming out of the mouth of someone created to be an attention-grabbing mascot.
176** In its anti-cheating episode Biblegirl gets a message that Bibleman needs to meet with her right away. Biblegirl takes a shortcut out of the building, which is cheating, because she falls into the villain's trap. So cheating isn't good, but getting there as fast as possible when someone needs your help counts. Somehow.
177* ''Chloe'', a 2022 Creator/TheBBC drama starring Erin Doherty as Becky, a StalkerWithoutACrush and an unspecified mental disorder, tries to put across the morals of "Social media can be toxic sometimes" and "You should never use a fake identity online". However, while the first moral is good, the second is completely contradicted by the fact people ''need'' to use pseudonyms, fake identities etc. and protect their privacy, especially in an era when BigBrotherIsWatchingYou is a hot-button issue. Its first episode didn't really present this very well, and somewhat lost the point by forgetting that people ''need'' to use fake identities, and they're not just for SocialEngineering purposes. Because it's a PsychologicalThriller set in a CrapsaccharineWorld, the morals of "Fake identities online doesn't work" doesn't fit in here and the target audience of the show probably don't need to be taught that moral, overlapping with LostAesop.
178* ''Series/DiffrentStrokes'' decided to tackle sexual predators in the two-parter "The Bicycle Man". In the story, Arnold (Gary Coleman) wants a bicycle. After becoming friends with Mr. Horton, the owner of the bicycle shop, over part one, he, and his friend [[LongLostUncleAesop Dudley]] (''Diff'rent Strokes''' recurring VerySpecialEpisode scapegoat), start spending time with Horton in the back room where he lives. After riding on Mr. Horton's back and playing "Neptune, God of the Sea," Horton offers them some alcohol (which only makes Arnold worried that he might be caught with it on his breath) and sits them down to watch some cartoons. "That mouse just lost his drawers! ''[audience laughter]''" Yeah, so after enjoying a nice X-rated cartoon, Arnold is uncomfortable enough to leave. Dudley wants to stay, and Arnold goes home. After letting slip what happened, Mr. Drummond calls the police. They arrive right as Horton is about to... uh... begin. Dudley appears on screen drugged with tranquilizers and shirtless. Then they have a couch conversation about how important it is to tell an adult about such things. While this is admittedly far more direct and open than the "bad touch" [=PSAs=] of the 90s, there is laughter throughout the episodes right up to when Mr. Drummond calls the police. Yes, even during the set-up to the molestation. That must have been the most awkward studio audience ever. Making it worse is that Shavar Ross (Dudley) came out later saying he was repeatedly molested by a family friend during the show's run.
179* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
180** According to writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, the intended message of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E1TheDominators "The Dominators"]] is that the hippie movement is bad because they would have got their arses kicked if they'd been in control when the Nazis had invaded. However, the oppressed, pacifistic Dulcians don't really work as a hippie allegory, as they're characterised either as elderly politicians or as attractive young people who unthinkingly repeat the elders' lessons by rote until the Doctor and companions turn them against their racist, fascist oppressors, while the old Dulcians get slaughtered through trying to negotiate with AlwaysChaoticEvil aliens. As a result, the final product ends up [[BrokenAesop carrying the exact opposite message]] the creators intended.
181** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E4NightmareOfEden Nightmare of Eden]]" is a DrugsAreBad story about intergalactic drug smugglers. It started out quite reasonable and relevant (and in a show that had been and later continued to be quite good at dealing with serious political issues in an allegorical format) but all three series lead actors, especially Creator/LallaWard, were concerned that the script might glamorize drug use to young viewers. The FantasticDrug was renamed from the vaguely fun-sounding 'zip' to the nonsensical 'vrax', and everything about why anyone might want to take the drug was removed, with the result of turning vrax into something instantly addictive and invariably fatal that doesn't even make you very high.
182** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E7Kerblam "Kerblam!"]] appears to have been intended as a critique of Amazon and its business practices, as the titular company is shown to treat its few human employees as little more than cogs, leaving them exploited and unhappy. However, by the end of the episode, the people in charge of Kerblam! decide to scrap most of the robots and re-introduce a human-majority workforce. The decision to continue menial wage labour in a society that is clearly quite capable of transitioning into a fully-automated, post-scarcity society isn't condemned, and the assumption that wage labour is necessary to provide people with livelihoods is not challenged.
183* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
184** Sansa claiming that if it weren't for all the trauma she'd suffered across the series, "I'd have stayed a little bird all my life" was meant as her contextualising all she suffered and how trauma survivors can come out the other end stronger and eventually heal. But saying it left her a better person rings hollow considering Westeros is a CrapsackWorld where it seems to be nigh impossible to survive without being ruthless sociopath (and Sansa later [[spoiler:is responsible for an entire city of people being massacred]] with it being justified as "the only way").
185** [[spoiler:Daenerys Targaryen's]] FaceHeelTurn in the last two episodes was meant to be a Aesop about the corrupting nature of power. But they'd been in power for most of the series by that point, and had been been a pretty benevolent ruler by the setting's standards (only ever showed cruelty to enemies like slave owners or child murderers, showed obvious regret for innocent casualties suffered under their regime), and the actions meant to foreshadow their fall weren't that different than those of characters the show presented as heroic. This made their JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope far too quick to say it was due to power alone corrupting them, and the HandWave that it was due to [[spoiler:madness being hereditary in her family]] destroyed the intended real-life applicability.
186* ''Series/{{Glee}}'':
187** The episode ''Blame It On The Alcohol'' has a subplot of Blaine questioning his sexuality after he drunkenly makes out with Rachel, prompting Kurt to go on a spiel about how bisexual people are just closeted homosexuals. At first, it seems like Kurt was acting close-minded out of jealousy. However, the message falls flat when Blaine tries making out with Rachel while sober, only to find out he didn't like it. So, in the end, Kurt's biphobia was validated.
188** Perhaps the most infamous and obvious example was in the season 3 episode "I Kissed A Girl," which was supposed to be about LGBT acceptance after Santana was [[ForcedOutOfTheCloset outed as a lesbian against her will]] in the previous episode. For starters, despite the title, there were no girls kissing. Rather than focusing on the actual lesbian character, the episode was made all about the atonement of Finn, the guy who outed her, which consisted entirely of suggesting the Glee club do songs "by girls for girls." This wasn't helped by the girls performing Music/KatyPerry's "I Kissed a Girl", which, rather than being a lesbian anthem, is a paean to bi-curious experimentation, making it sound like Santana is just [[ExperimentedInCollege going through a phase]] rather than being an actual lesbian.
189** In 4x18 "Shooting Star", they have a school shooting...but the gun going off is entirely accidental and doesn't hurt anyone, and a teacher covers for the student at fault. So there are no actual consequences for the student who brings a gun to school and causes gunshots and terrifies the entire student body and faculty.
190** There's also ''Glee'''s harmful portrayal of eating disorders in season 4. [[http://web.archive.org/web/20160305052803/http://proud2bme.org/node/510 As Catherine Weingarten says]], "Marley was convinced to become bulimic to avoid becoming like her [morbidly obese] mother. The mean girl Kitty easily convinces Marley that in order to play the part of “Sandy” in ''Grease'' she has to look a certain way. Marley does not even seem to understand that Kitty is getting her to experiment with dangerous eating disorder behavior. So Marley becomes fully bulimic and later even passes out during sectionals, which prompts everyone in Glee club to hate her. There is so much misinformation here about how one gets an eating disorder and the seriousness of eating disorders. ''Glee'' makes eating disorders seem campy and not very serious. We are supposed to be annoyed by Marley and not even care when she passes out at sectionals." There is also Liana Rosenman who wrote, "It is really dangerous [for ''Glee''] not to include a public service announcement of the dangers of eating disorders" and "Marley has an eating disorder for two days and then magically recovers. That is far from the truth. I struggled with anorexia for five years." Other people have published similar sentiments: "One topic ''Glee'' has failed horribly at covering is eating disorders. Eating disorders are often life threatening and last night's episode of ''Glee'' made it nothing short of a joke."
191** Coach Beiste coming out as UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} and beginning the transition process in Season 6 is supposed to carry the message that you're never too old to come out and live your truth. The show was trying to cash in on growing transgender visibility in the media, but Beiste was ''already'' popular with transgender/non-binary viewers for being a masculine, cisgender woman who was upfront about her feelings and insecurities, proving that gender expression isn't always cut-and-dry. Making him trans actually made him ''less'' interesting a character to many viewers, since it carries the implication that if a woman is a tomboy, she must secretly identify as a man.
192** The episode focusing on ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' had the unfortunate idea of trying to use the film and its surrounding culture as an icon of the struggle of being an outcast and finding people like you, while also doing its level best to skate around the fact that the reason it picked up that culture was largely its themes of homosexuality and transgenderism, to the point of editing out the word "transsexual" in its cover of Sweet Transvestite and giving the role to a woman. The result is a surreal mess where the audience [[InformedAttribute is constantly told]] how meaningful ''Rocky Horror'' is, but the film itself is conveyed through a handful of incomprehensible scenes shown out of context that come across as less "media for the marginalized" and more "''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace''."
193* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'': The episode "The Bloom Is Off The Rose" has Blanche get involved with a verbally abusive man. Dorothy explains how damaging verbal abuse can be. But the episode ignores that the show has [[BrokenAesop Dorothy constantly put down by her mother Sophia]], which is usually [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood played for laughs]].
194* Parodied by ''Series/TheGoodies'' with their Mary Whitehouse expy-approved sex education film, which avoids any mention of anything related to sex:
195-->'''Narrator:''' This is a man. And this isn't.
196* The ''Series/HannahMontana'' episode about Oliver having diabetes is a re-edited version. The original episode portrayed diabetes in a downright dangerous and inaccurate way. There are even ''jokes'' about fainting diabetics! Whee!
197* ''Series/HolbyCity'' is the more emotion-oriented counterpart to its sister show ''Series/{{Casualty}}.'' Depending on the disability, sometimes they can get it right (as they did with Jason's StoryArc; Jason was a character with Asperger's Syndrome, his storyline was praised for [[ShownTheirWork being well-researched]], with the aesop being "Adults with Asperger's Syndrome can live fulfilling lives and aren't all stereotypical TheSpock IdiotSavant PingPongNaivete characters) but in other cases, depending on the nature of the disability (often ones that qualify as "special needs") they didn't always get the message across.
198* The final arc of ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'' tries to have its moral be that malice and hatred don't lead to anything, other than a [[CycleOfRevenge continuing cycle of violence]]. The problem is that said Aesop is present in a season of ''Franchise/KamenRider'', which is a series where violence usually [[ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer is the solution]] to stopping whatever monster is attacking and where the villains are often detestable figures who are deserving of whatever beatdown the hero delivers them. Even ''Zero-One'' itself features a HateSink villain an arc before who you're supposed to feel satisfied seeing get beat up, and in the end, the way Aruto ultimately stops the FinalBoss is by (you guessed it) beating him up when reaching out to him fails to work on its own. Also not helping matters is the fact that said final boss was a hypocritical terrorist who outright murdered an innocent person out of spite and was planning on killing loads of civilians for reasons entirely independent of Aruto and his actions, so a lot of fans were rooting for Aruto to just kill him.
199* ''Series/KidsIncorporated'' had an anti-drugs episode, an episode about homelessness, an episode about child abuse, and a surprisingly poignant episode about Kid's estranged older brother. Oh, and they each contained [[MoodWhiplash the usual happy covers of popular songs and]] {{Imagine Spot}}s and were each aired in the middle of a week's worth of otherwise completely off-the-wall fantasy episodes with magic robots and such.
200* ''Series/MorkAndMindy'':
201** The episode with Mr. Bickley's blind son seems to have multiple Aesops: accept handicapped people, learn to see life in a new way, don't abandon your son... But it's not well-handled because this is a show about a {{cloudcuckoolander}} alien who says the darnedest things. Just to give an example of how poorly executed this episode was, they used the "Does your guide dog get scared when you're skydiving?" joke.
202** "Hold That Mork"'s Aesop was about gender equality. Nothing wrong with that, but it was delivered through the plot of Mork joining the Denver Broncos ''cheerleaders''. Even if the message is good, let's face it, the whole point of the episode was really about providing {{fanservice}} for both the male viewers and, apparently, Creator/RobinWilliams {{fangirl}}s with a cross-dressing fetish.
203** The only episode that tops that one in the "{{Fanservice}} with tacked-on Aesop" category is the two-part "Mork vs. The Necrotons". In a nutshell, Mork gets captured by the titular aliens, whose leader is played by [[MsFanservice Raquel Welch]]. Innuendo, both visual and spoken, abounds so much that even Mr. [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar Get-Shit-Past-the-Radar]] himself later on said that it made him uncomfortable. And the message at the end was... ThePowerOfFriendship. Yeah.
204* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' had a tendency to identify (and mock) these in TheFifties educational shorts it aired, which had titles like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THYVh9AhtLk "A Date With Your Family."]] The lessons in the shorts ran the gamut from Clueless, to looking very warped thanks to ValuesDissonance, to being straight-up warped regardless of the time they were made. Hence, such gem-like riffs as "Emotions are for 'ethnic' people", and "Expressing individualism is just plain wrong".
205-->"Dad, I had a feeling today."\
206"Well, ''don't'', son."
207* ''Series/PunkyBrewster'''s anti-drug episode featuring the "Chicklets". The final scenes with Punky and friends in the middle of an anti-drug protest are hilarious.
208* ''Podcast/RiffTrax'' has continued ''[=MST3K=]'''s tradition on that score, like with their commentary on the short [[http://www.rifftrax.com/ondemand/drugs-are "Drugs Are Like That,"]] a parade of dubious and contradictory metaphors for drugs. At different points in the short, for example, habitual behavior (such as hair twirling) and spontaneity (represented by making a minor change to a Lego-block machine) both become drug-use analogues.
209* Parodied in a series of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketches; a group of high school students try to shed light on important issues through an [[TrueArtIsAngsty angsty]] theater production. There's one problem, though: the students are too preachy, pretentious, and focused on making the performance edgy to ''properly convey the message''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=323v_FtWqvo In one of the sketches]], for example, the students sing a song about "who ''really'' runs the world". They then proceed to take the chorus of Music/{{Beyonce}}'s "Run the World" and replace every instance of "girls" with "whites". Creator/KenanThompson then points out what's wrong with this:
210--> Why would they sing that when ''they're'' all white? Kinda seems like they're bragging.
211* ''Series/SavedByTheBell'':
212** In "Jessie's Song", Jessie becomes addicted to simple over-the-counter caffeine pills. This is fairly realistic, as caffeine is indeed addictive. However, while the withdrawal is minor and usually limited to headaches and irritability, the show treats her reaction as if she were taking cocaine, and she is shown developing a dire, uncontrollable, terrifying craving for Starbucks in pill form. It's clear that the writers wanted to include a drug episode, but didn't want any of the characters using actual illegal substances, and the overall message kind of falls flat given the substance in question.
213** Also the episode that dealt with the dangers of drinking-and-driving. Now, this subject unfortunately isn't that far removed from real-life high schools (not that Bayside could be considered entirely realistic), but the presentation is questionable. Zack and friends only get found out because they keep telling different cover stories and get left with a lot of holes to plug. It's as if the intended lesson was "If you're going to lie, keep your story straight so you don't get caught."
214* Parodied by ''Series/TheSootyShow'' (even though the episode itself was a straight attempt at trying to get across at least some basic sex education) when Matthew tries inexpertly to give TheTalk to Sweep, hampered by his use of {{Dissimile}} and {{Metaphorgotten}}.
215* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
216** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E17TheOutcast The Outcast]]", a well-intentioned episode in which a member of an androgynous species faces persecution for identifying as female and having romance with Riker. The GayAesop gets muddled by the fact that the episode uses gender identity as a science-fiction stand-in for homosexuality. Released in 1992, the episode fails to anticipate that gender identity would itself become a part of the wider LGBT movement. And to avoid the risk of backlash, the episode never explicitly references homosexuality, preferring to speak on it only through its central metaphor, which undermines its message. Notably, Creator/JonathanFrakes despised the episode, believing they should have cast a man as his love interest in order to make the message clear.
217** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E17EyeOfTheBeholder Eye of the Beholder]]": The episode is a bizarre and curiously awkward attempt at an anti-suicide PSA, but they botch it by trying to have it both ways. The first act treats the suicide of a RedShirt completely seriously, exploring the fact that the crewman had no logical reason to feel unhappy and showed no external signs of being sad. It's fairly effective and true to life. But then it undermines the message by revealing that it was all the result of PsychicPowers gone awry. The fact that the setting is an enlightened {{Utopia}} makes it difficult for the show to portray characters with serious mental issues, and even if it weren't an enlightened utopia, the show is sci-fi, so having it be normal depression wouldn't fit with the genre.
218* ''Series/ThisMorning'', an ITV programme, [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4252680/This-Morning-s-Phillip-Schofield-brought-tears.html has attempted to discuss the issue of cyberbullying]], but every time they try and tackle this issue, they are accused of [[StopBeingStereotypical relying on stereotypes]] or ignoring the more complex cultural and social reasons behind it, mixing it with NewMediaAreEvil and ''then'' trying to [[ScareEmStraight scare the audience]] and make people [[MediaScaremongering overly paranoid about social media]]. [[{{Irony}} Especially as the show]] ''relies'' on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, it overlaps with BrokenAesop too. However, it would be safe to say that this show clearly ''cannot'' handle any Aesops relating to this topic.
219%% * A Canadian children's program once tried to tackle the serious subject of alcoholism and [[BerserkButton Intermittent Explosive Disorder]]. That show was ''Series/TodaysSpecial''... And for maximum childhood-destroying effect, the IED-prone alcoholic was played by Gerry Parkes, better known as none other than kindly old Doc from ''Series/FraggleRock''!
220* The biggest moral failing of ''Series/TrueBlood'' was the way it used vampires as an allegory for persecution, especially as a stand-in for homophobia/racism. The problem is that vampires had spent ''thousands of years'' killing, raping, torturing, and enslaving humans, sometimes treating them as livestock, and even a young vampire like Jessica is ''far'' more powerful than a human or even most other supernatural beings. Add to that the "Coming out of the Coffin" movement that kicked off the show, and humans have ''every reason'' to hate and fear vampires and take measures—legal or otherwise—against them. The show tried to distract viewers from this by only having the [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire more benign vampire characters]] be victims of prejudice, but this meant that the vamps who were the most dangerous to humans were [[KarmaHoudini above consequence]], at least [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality until their actions ran afoul of another vampire]].
221%% * ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': "Walker told me I have AIDS." %%
222%% * Due to ExecutiveMeddling, ''Series/TheWeirdAlShow'' ended up as a parade of Clueless Aesops, which annoyed [[Music/WeirdAlYankovic the star]]. %%
223* The Creator/DisneyChannel [[VerySpecialEpisode Special Presentation]], ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh: [[http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Too_Smart_for_Strangers Too Smart for Strangers]].'' Seeing the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood dole out advice to the kiddies on how to avoid being kidnapped and molested is pretty questionable in itself, because Winnie the Pooh and his friends shouldn't be aware of stuff like that due to the innocence of their world and the fact that their leader is six years old. Even more surreal; instead of using the animated characters, they chose to use the costumed characters from the show ''Series/WelcomeToPoohCorner'' which makes the whole thing seem generally creepy. The fact child safety experts have since [[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/stranger-danger-lesson-does-more-harm-than-good-warns-charity-10280789.html largely dismissed]] [[TooSmartForStrangers its intended message]] as overly simplistic, [[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs dangerously naïve]] ParanoiaFuel with the potential to put children in more danger,[[labelnote:Why?]]The vast majority of victims of kidnapping and child abuse ''know and trust their abuser'', rendering the very premise of Stranger Danger nonsensical. Abusers tend to be authority figures such as [[EvilTeacher teachers]] who a child would trust without question absent any obvious reason not to or [[CreepyUncle relatives]] who would have particularly easy access to the child, neither of which could reasonably be considered a stranger; even in the case of [[DepravedKidsShowHost celebrities]], none of the children Creator/JimmySavile abused would have considered him a stranger. In addition, Stranger Danger lessons—albeit not this particular one—often fail to make exceptions for people who are blatantly trustworthy, which ''has'' caused lost children to avoid rescuers for fear of being kidnapped[[/labelnote]] leading to it being [[DiscreditedTrope downplayed]] in favor of the more nuanced Tricky People, doesn't help one bit.
224 * An episode of ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' has an episode about beauty pageants being degrading. That may be a common criticism of beauty pageants ''today'', but that criticism comes from beauty pageants being seen as a means for young women to spend excessive amounts of money and effort in competition for vanity prizes like crowns and titles. The pageant ''in the show'' is taking place in an ancient Greco-Roman fantasy setting, and the prize for the winner is ''a winter's supply of food for her village's children''. We're still supposed to root for the contestant who quits in order to preserve her pride and dignity, even though she entered the pageant to help her village, and competing for their sake is already pretty noble.
225* There was an animated story in ''Series/YoGabbaGabba'' about anthropomorphized drops of water and oil who live in towns across from one another. They are separated by a line in the middle of a road and they are not allowed to mix with one another. Now, the story looks like it's heading towards a GreenAesop when an oil drop runs across the road and collides with a water drop. But the story focuses on how together they make a pretty rainbow. And then all the oil and water drops start playing together. The message was ''supposed'' to be "it's wonderful when people who are different play together", but unfortunately children will probably interpret it as "go ahead and pour oil in the sink/bathtub/etc. to make pretty rainbows".
226 [[/folder]]
227
228[[folder:Music]]
229* City High's "What Would You Do?" is a charming, upbeat, top 40 pop song...about not judging strippers. Sounds harmless in theory, but the bubbly pop beat can't carry the serious message. The male narrator finds out that his childhood friend is a runaway ParentalIncest victim who turned to stripping to feed her baby boy, and [[MoodDissonance cheerfully accuses her]] of just being a lazy party animal who makes excuses for why she doesn't have her life together. Any other sane reaction would have utterly ruined the happy pop vibe. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceYjUymR-wo The cover by Bastille]] works a lot better by stripping down (no pun intended) the beat, portraying the male narrator as clearly in the wrong during his rant, and making the message of the song way more sincere.
230* Kosovan-Albanian-British pop star Music/DuaLipa is ''usually'' well-intentioned with her attempts at AnAesop, whether discussing them on television, radio or social media, but her attempt at one in the video for her single "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)", released in August 2016, became this trope. The song itself didn't fall into this, but [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nydxbGhgv8 the video did.]] The original intention of the video was to promote an aesop about tolerance, sometimes of androgynous or LGBT individuals; however, the video forgets about the Aesop and becomes more about a display of MsFanservice and SceneryPorn of the Barbican Estate in London (although LGBT banners and the flag do appear, they only gets a small amount of screentime), that it had some people, pundits, radio presenters and the blogosphere/social media questioning what the actual message of the video was meant to be.
231* Music/{{Jewel}} tried to make a political song with "America", but her label forced her to change some of the lyrics, which ended up muddling the message.
232--> ''We are getting tan in America\
233We love Spam in America\
234Polanski's banned from America''
235* "If Everyone Cared..." is Music/{{Nickelback}}'s spectacularly non-specific, crowd-pleasing, inoffensive protest song. It warrants a mention here because the whole thing is Chad Kroeger whining about how much better the world would be if, like, nobody was ever sad or mean, and stuff. Considering the same band came up with "Never Again", a ferocious (if over simplistic) diatribe against domestic violence, it's doubly jarring.
236* One of the main points of criticism against Music/{{Eminem}}'s album ''Revival'' is that its political polemics against UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump sat uneasy with Eminem's typically hyperoffensive lyrics, especially when Eminem's earnest criticisms of Trump's transphobia and anti-feminism were combined with Slim calling Trump homophobic slurs and fantasising about murdering Ivanka. During the TurnOfTheMillennium, Eminem's vulgar style made sense as a protest against the censorious, hyper-Christian Bush administration, but against a President infamous for his shock value and crudity it appeared to be almost part of the same problem. Eminem himself responded that he feels his fans can tell when he's speaking from the heart and when he's saying offensive stuff to get a reaction, but his later criticisms of the political situation were notably much more thought out in terms of how they interact with his persona.
237[[/folder]]
238
239[[folder:Pinball]]
240* ''Pinball/PopeyeSavesTheEarth'' tries to teach a GreenAesop through the use of {{Pinball}} and ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}''. It goes as well as you'd expect—"well" enough that the game more or less singlehandedly [[GenreKiller killed the mainstream appeal and lucrative nature of pinball]].
241[[/folder]]
242
243[[folder:Podcasts]]
244* ''Podcast/MomCantCook'': {{Discussed|Trope}} in the episode on ''Film/TheLuckOfTheIrish'', a film which attempts to cover themes of immigration and identity in modern America. Andy and Luke agree that it fails to do so, on account of it being a comedy film aimed at children and drawing heavily on Irish stereotypes.
245[[/folder]]
246
247[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
248* ''Series/JoyJunction'' gives us [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obiDOc2kM5Q the world's creepiest ventriloquist dummy and the world's worst ventriloquist telling you not to look at dirty pictures.]] Besides the fact that the ventriloquist [[{{Irony}} was later convicted for pedophilia in real life]], since it's a kids' show, they can't actually tell the 6-to-8-year-old audience what "dirty pictures" ''are''.
249* ''Series/SesameStreet'' had two episodes about divorce. However, the first episode went over terribly in part because it not only showed the aftermath of the divorce, but the parents going through with it as well—kids were far too upset by it, and when they realized that there was ''no way'' they could present the issue well, they scrapped the episode, swallowing the cost. A good couple decades later, they made another storyline about Abby Cadabby having divorced parents. They showed her as happy and the divorce as having happened in the past. While it didn't go on the regular show, it's available as a resource for divorcing parents and has been shown to go over much better with children.
250** They did handle it in a good way before this, sort of. Before they conceived—and scrapped—the "Snuffy's parents get a divorce" storyline, they gave us [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrjNQo0YDic&ab_channel=SesameStreet this little song]] with a little bird explaining that her parents "live in different places, but they both love me." As with Abby and her parents later on, it shows a child of parents who live apart as well-adjusted and accepting of the situation.
251* The Truth's line of anti-tobacco [=PSAs=] are often well written, but one is a case of research failure, where they try to prove tobacco companies were aiming their products at kids because cigarettes were shown in ''Film/TheMuppetMovie''—because clearly a movie featuring Muppets can only be for kids. ''The Muppet Movie'' was released in 1979, when Creator/JimHenson was out to prove puppets could appeal to ''older'' audiences and a film didn't need an R rating to be made for adults.
252[[/folder]]
253
254[[folder:Radio]]
255* Averted in an ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' episode that teaches AnAesop about cursing. Though it would seem impossible to teach such a moral in a Christian children's radio show, where you obviously aren't supposed to use curse words, it manages to pull it off by having some kids ''thinking'' that a certain word is a curse word and using it in such a way.
256[[/folder]]
257
258[[folder:TabletopGames]]
259* The board game ''Pug You!'' has a framing device where pugs ask the players friendship-destroying questions. This is apparently supposed to be their revenge for being bred in a way that causes suffering, and intended to tell the message of "breeding pugs is bad". This theme does not appear in the game itself, and even if it did, the message of "you should care that these dogs are suffering because of how they are bred" does not mesh well with a crass game that encourages you to be a jerk.
260* In the 1990s, a series of ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' quiz cards were made. The questions were completely unrelated to ''Mario'' and dealt with topics much heavier than what the video games usually cover, such as war, religion, and politics, complete with [[http://www.suppermariobroth.com/post/148802038720/some-mario-quiz-cards images of Mario and friends doing things related to the question]], such as Luigi reading a book about the Nazis and Mario being a member of [[https://i.imgur.com/vW9yQMc.jpg three]] [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNL3RJXWsAUvEJl.jpg different]] [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/242/137/994.jpg religions]].
261* The first ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' setting book, ''Rage Across New York'', tries to argue against mistreatment of women and children, but reduces it to the work of a single AncientConspiracy, which is probably the wrong way to go about it. To say nothing of the vicious ScienceIsWrong angle that separates "healing" from "evidence-based medicine". Later books quietly kiboshed the "[[ForTheEvulz WE ABUSE CHILDREN FOR FUN]]" angle for the conspiracy, the Seventh Generation, making them a broader-focused group of Wyrm servants.
262[[/folder]]
263
264[[folder:Theater]]
265* [[http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/arts/theater/cirque-du-soleil-michael-jackson-immortal-world-tour-review This review]] of ''Theatre/MichaelJacksonTheIMMORTALWorldTour'', the Creator/CirqueDuSoleil tribute to the musician, calls out the "They Don't Care About Us" number for presenting a clueless aesop (and later, the critic notes that the intended anti-greed message is undermined since the show probably wouldn't exist if there weren't tons of money to be made off of Jackson's memory). This show features Bubbles the chimp as a character and a production number with a giant sequined glove dancing around, among other things.
266--> During [the number] dancing robots appear with LED breastplates that first flash dollar signs amidst videos of urban and international violence, then display hearts as Mother Teresa appears onscreen to feed starving children. The number was originally designed for Jackson's This Is It shows (performances that were preempted by the artist's demise), so Cirque can't entirely be blamed for its unseemly exploitation of human suffering for commercial entertainment. Of course Jackson would have seen himself as raising awareness, and Cirque doubtless think the same thing about the pro-Gaia number ["Earth Song"] that unfolds as 30,000 people sip from souvenir plastic cups.
267* Critics of ''Theatre/{{RENT}}'' argue that the musical falls into this trap, particularly with regards to how it treats HIV/AIDS. It's set in the 1980s in the shadow of the AIDS crisis, many of the characters are avant-garde {{Starving Artist}}s and it has designs towards being edgy, challenging and confronting. However, because it's also a major Broadway musical written in the 1990s, it couldn't necessarily be ''too'' edgy, challenging and confronting lest it chase away the paying customers. This means that it tends to focus more on the struggle of the {{True Art}}ist DoingItForTheArt and being faced with the prospect of having to SellOut, with AIDS being mostly treated as a romanticized VictorianNovelDisease. Furthermore, the show tends to take a "drop out and reject the system" attitude rather than a "fight and challenge the system" approach—which, given that the AIDS crisis partly resulted from numerous systematic institutional failings, incompetence, and outright callous indifference which were ripe for angry critique and challenge, means that it's pushing the wrong lesson to take.
268[[/folder]]
269
270[[folder:Video Games]]
271* This is a big reason for the infamy of ''VideoGame/CaptainNovolin''. It wants to inform the player about diabetes and serve as a story about conquering adversity, but the attempts to write a story about a diabetic superhero are so clumsily-executed (the enemies are giant sugary treats, and [[WeaksauceWeakness touching them immediately kills the Captain]]), and the mechanics so clumsily designed to the point of frustration, that they end up turning the entire thing into a farce.
272* The dwarves in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' are trying to paint all humans as being irresponsible destroyers of nature, despite the fact that most of the game takes place in a Mediterranean island paradise with no signs of heavy industry or pollution anywhere and they're the ones going around attacking innocent fairies with smoke-belching tanks: while humans DID end up causing the current crisis by killing the Hydra living in the marsh, it's the ''only'' ecologically irresponsible thing they've done, yet the way the dwarves blame them, they seem to think that humans have been out to ravage nature for hundreds of years, despite nothing in the game implying so. That being said, since humans aren't the biggest fans of demi-humans, which they probably consider the dwarves to be as well, there's probably a good amount of FantasticRacism at play.
273* ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'': Chapter 3 attempts to heavily criticize child sexual abuse and exploitation, as [[ADayInTheLimelight it heavily features an abuse victim]] and has her display [[TraumaButton realistic reactions to a reminder of her abuse]]. This would have been rather acceptable and necessary... except for the fact that said child sex abuse victim is also subject to more than one gratuitous upskirt shot, has a scene where she's stripped down to her underwear which is PlayedForLaughs, and heavily features in [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnFemale the Motivation Machine sequence]], causing the moral to entirely fall apart.
274* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' ran into this with the Tenpenny Tower quest. The quest is one where you can convince a hotel ruled over by a cruel and prejudiced rich man to allow in a group of ghouls to live among the tower's residents. However, if you do so, then a few days later, Roy Phillips, the leader of the ghouls, will massacre the tower's humans. This provides a lot of potential HardTruthAesop messages that could have worked in other games--sometimes there isn't a nonviolent solution, deep-seated prejudices can't be solved in a day, an oppressed group is still capable of great cruelty, etc--but unfortunately, ''Fallout 3'' is a game that runs on BlackAndWhiteMorality, and as such, many characters are marked as having Good Karma where killing them is automatically morally reprehensible behavior. And because of the assumption that a player to kill him would be following the side of the quest where you just butcher all the ghouls for money, Roy Phillips is one of those characters, and he doesn't lose the label at any point. This leaves many players horribly confused as to why the game is seemingly telling you off for being naughty for shooting a guy who just proudly admitted to ordering a mass murder.
275* The moral they try to get across in ''VideoGame/IMMeen'' is that [[ReadingIsCoolAesop you should read more]]. What we get is more like "Never ''ever'' touch a book or else that book might suck you into a horrible labyrinth and an evil man will torture you."
276* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series began with straightforward BlackAndWhiteMorality for Light and Darkness, but soon tried to implement BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil... which tends to fall under InformedAttribute territory, as DarkIsEvil and LightIsGood remain the predominant themes. It’s tried to clarify this as “Light is good and dark is evil, but the latter can still be good” to varying degrees of success.
277* The Japanese version of ''VideoGame/ShadowForce'' shows a [[https://tcrf.net/Shadow_Force#Japanese_attract_mode special message]] during the AttractMode telling players not to be bullies, as "bullies are never heroes". It rings hollow because the one to deliver this message is the company mascot VideoGame/KunioKun, who is a hero but nevertheless a [[JapaneseDelinquents delinquent]] who beats up and intimidates other schoolboys with no reprisal (including during sporting competitions).
278* The message of ''VideoGame/SuperTanookiSkin2D'' is that [[VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand the Tanooki Suit]] promotes skinning real tanuki alive... despite the fact that the suits ''are not made from actual tanuki'', and are supposed to be little more than costumes designed to invoke the ''mythological'' bake-danuki tanuki. This one fact ends up destroying the entire message.
279* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' seems to hold a bit of a CapitalismIsBad aesop with its Big Bad, the Joja Corp, which seems to be a parody of both Amazon and Walmart. The protagonist leaves his dreadful office job in said corporation and moves to the farm he inherited from his grandfather and also finds out that Joja opened a supermarket in Pelican Town, the town where the farm is located, thereating its CloseKnitCommunity nature. Despite all this, however, the game heavily encourages you to accumulate huge amounts of money, since the evaluation of your progress done by [[spoiler: your grandfather's ghost]] takes into account the profit you made in your first two years and to achieve HundredPercentCompletion you need to make at least ''13 million'' gold in order to build all the MoneySink buildings necessary to it.
280* ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' has some interesting things to say about justice that get completely lost due to the game's BlackAndWhiteMorality. [[spoiler:VigilanteMan Yuri murders Ragou and Cumore, both of whom were committing evil acts [[ForTheEvulz for the sheer hell of it]], and [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections were going to get away with everything]] before Yuri killed them. Ragou was caught red-handed ''feeding people'' to his pets and was punished with a slap on the wrist. Cumore had the authority to keep sending people out to die in the desert because frankly no one cared to stop him. The justice system is obviously, hilariously broken, and it's apparent that Yuri's vigilante acts saved a lot more lives than the Imperial Knights' LawfulStupid approach to things. Sodia later attempts to kill Yuri because she thinks of him as a criminal. This is supposed to question Yuri's actions and show that justice is sometimes a very subjective thing. Problem is, unlike Ragou and Cumore who repeatedly killed innocent people and relished in it, Yuri is a ChaoticGood character who clearly sees what he did was wrong, but [[ShootTheDog felt like he had no choice]]. So the whole thing just makes Sodia come off as a dangerous psychopath trying to MurderTheHypotenuse. The justice plot is later dropped entirely for a GreenAesop that doesn't make much more sense.]]
281* ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter'':
282** "Under the Knife" attempts to speak out against physician-assisted suicide, but thoroughly screws up both sides of the issue. Chapter 3 introduces Tyler Chase, a doctor who has been secretly practicing euthanasia, and wants to practice it on his sister Amy who is infected with GUILT. He is initially opposed to having Dr. Stiles operate on her, despite him having successfully treated a bunch of other GUILT patients by then. In essence, he is so focused on ending suffering that he can't be bothered to give the medical community a fair chance to do so in a non-lethal manner — something that no RealLife advocate of physician-assisted suicide would ever approve of. On the opposite side is Dr. Stiles, a [[HealingHands super-powered doctor]] in a world which can go from discovering a new disease to devising a cure in a matter of days.[[note]]which motivated the game's plot — the GUILT bioweapon was specifically created to troll the medical community in response to them getting so much better at their jobs[[/note]] It ''would'' be easy to oppose euthanasia when you see very few cases where it might be justified.
283** "New Blood" takes a swing at for-profit healthcare when a man brings his son into the hospital with a burst appendix and no health insurance. After finding a solution to pay for the surgery which would almost certainly qualify as fraud, Dr. Valerie Blaylock, the player character, removes the kid's appendix. After the operation, Valerie tells the father: "Please see to getting your son health insurance so he can get the medical help he needs", as if the kid was only uninsured because his father hadn't gotten around to signing up for it, and not because, oh, let's say... that ''he couldn't afford it'', which his clothes give the impression is the actual case.
284* ''VideoGame/WorldOfFinalFantasy'' attempts an anti-revenge message with Takka, the uncle of Refia who became [[DemonicPossession the host to a commander of the Bahamutian Federation]] because he wanted revenge against the monster that killed his wife, and the Federation promised he could have the power to destroy it if he gave up his body to them. That on its own is already a SpaceWhaleAesop, but it gets worse. The commander, having some of Takka's memories, also becomes obsessed with slaying the monster. The heroes go to stop him but end up killing the monster themselves in the process. With the monster slain, they ask him if he feels better, to which he answers that no, he doesn't. They then give him a speech on the hollowness of revenge, which causes him to realize he's the bad guy and he leaves Takka's body and returns to his own dimension in peace. Except, for all the reasons the Bahamutian Federation are the bad guys, wanting to kill that one monster is the only one that's NOT a reason. This isn't some meaningless revenge desire, this is a 100% evil monster that is still actively killing people ForTheEvulz. If anything, killing that monster is one of the very few actually ''good'' things that the Federation did.
285[[/folder]]
286
287[[folder:Web Comics]]
288* ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'' infamously attempted to do a serious story arc about one of the main characters suffering a miscarriage. In a goofy TwoGamersOnACouch comic that features things like a holiday called "Wintereenmas" and a robot made out of several Platform/{{Xbox}}es. Needless to say, this is not an environment conducive to a serious discussion about the impact of miscarriage on people's lives, and there is definitely a reason the majority of people [[ParodyDisplacement only know this comic]] as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_(comic) Loss meme]] it spawned.
289* ''Webcomic/EvilDiva'' did a story about rape. CerebusSyndrome aside, the comic presents the subject by pandering to loads of stereotypes and quickly becomes ridiculous—Diva goes to a college party, meets a stranger, who assaults her after talking for about a minute ''in front of everyone'' and no one seems to care, turning the message into "college students are evil".
290* ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'' became ''centered'' on this trope as it underwent a FilibusterFreefall into a radical feminist AuthorTract some years into its ''extremely'' long run. Between the drastic change in topic and tone and the explicit biases that come with them, almost all of its moral messages are confused or contradicted by the setting as it's been established. It's ''supposed'' to come off as GrowingTheBeard to reflect the author's new radfem values, but the setting remains a cartoon hodgepodge of cultures and supernatural elements designed to support ''jokes''. The resulting dissonance gives us things like the story arc where a junk-food-eating, pot-smoking, sweet-hearted cartoon pig is held responsible for all the misfortunes of a porn actress's life because he watched a video she appeared in.
291** One particular arc in the narrative has a brothel headed by a demon in which one of the workers escapes and tries to argue with the demonic owner, only for him to get struck by a vehicle and die. This frees the other workers, and the slave-minded men who drudge to the brothel are disappointed. The arc is clearly going for a hard-feminist bent about how men perpetuate sexual violence, but the narrative says women are feeble and unable to actively save themselves, so they have to hope for a miracle to escape, otherwise men always win. Not exactly an empowering message for feminist power.
292* Parodied in ''Webcomic/SweetBroAndHellaJeff'', in which The Big Man asks the readers to 'keep it real about '''AIDS''''.
293[[/folder]]
294
295[[folder:Web Original]]
296* ''WebVideo/DharMann'' depicts racism as a simple misunderstanding that can be solved in one short conversation, rather than a systemic issue and core belief that many people hold.
297* This trope was brutally satirized in ''Website/TheOnion'' article [[https://www.theonion.com/talking-to-your-child-about-the-wtc-attack-1819566164 "Talking To Your Child About The WTC Attack,"]] which encouraged parents to give a no-holds barred explanation of the world history leading up to the World Trade Tower attacks in order to answer why this bad scary thing happened.
298* Ruthlessly parodied, deconstructed, and played for horror in ''WebVideo/DontHugMeImScared''. In it, a trio of ''Sesame Street'' style kids show characters find themselves tormented by increasingly deranged and incompetent "teachers". At best, the lessons end up being ''way'' out of a kid show's comfort zone. At worst they're outright [[CosmicHorrorStory insane and horrifying]].
299-->"Now let's all agree to never be creative again!"
300* Poked fun at by Creator/BradJones in his ''WebVideo/DVDRHell'' review of ''Film/RockItsYourDecision''. The reformed, ex-rock-and-roll-fan protagonist preaches to a group of kids about what he saw at a rock concert once: The people listening weren't just sitting quietly and listening to the music! They were ''getting up and dancing!'' The music was ''controlling'' them! Brad snarks, "This is an emotional response, like crying when you're sad. This, too, is sinful, and should be suppressed."
301* Creator/{{Seanbaby}} discusses this [[http://www.seanbaby.com/absoludicrous/straightup.htm in his review of the feature-length anti-drug]] PSA ''Film/StraightUp'', talking about how it repeats the message "drugs are bad" while doing next to nothing to actually educate the viewer on the consequences of drug abuse.
302[[/folder]]
303
304[[folder:Western Animation]]
305* The "[[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle Sonic Sez]]" segments on ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' can get... weird:
306** "[[TooSmartForStrangers Bad Touching]]." The big problem with this, and other episode tags and [=PSAs=] like it, is that shows in the AnimationAgeGhetto were allowed and encouraged to warn against sexual molestation, but were forbidden to define it. They could tell kids to tell parents or the cops about "bad touching," but they couldn't say what ''sorts'' of touching are bad. Unlike the majority of these [=PSAs=], however, the Sonic Sez one at least manages to come close to defining it, and successfully says '''something''' worthwhile, by explaining that "if someone touches you in a place or in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable, that's no good. It's your body; no one has the right to touch you if you don't want them to." It still blatantly suffers from the inability to fully convey what it attempts to, and from the incongruity of having Sonic the Hedgehog awkwardly trying to discuss the topic, however.
307** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYxQgjfeoDU This Sonic Sez,]] which attempts to teach the respectable lesson that you should only dial 9-1-1 in a real emergency, but fails due to the example of a non-emergency it uses. Sonic and Tails are being attacked by Robotnik's minions, and Tails suggests calling 9-1-1, but Sonic tells him that this would distract emergency workers from other, worse emergencies, and then defeats the villains by himself, since ''he'' can do so easily. Thanks to this poor choice of example, Sonic inadvertently tells kids that "If you're being attacked by people who mean you harm, calling 9-1-1 would be a dumb joke." Sonic can defeat bad guys fairly easily, but "don't call 911 if you think you can probably handle the life-threatening situation" isn't a great message.
308** In a spectacularly ridiculous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBDtu2AmktA Sonic Sez,]] the intended lesson about medicine is eclipsed by the absurdity of the situation. Grounder falls while chasing a rabbit, and drops a container of pills in the process. The rabbit goes to take them for no obvious reason, only for Sonic to stop him and read the label on the bottle, which says "for Grounder, [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots robot headache pills, take one a day with oil]]". Sonic then tells the rabbit that he shouldn't take pills that aren't his.
309** Another [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOX43FKIEHo Sonic Sez]] has Sonic advising against [[TheRunaway running away from home]]. No problem there, but he's teaching this lesson to Coconuts, TheUnfavourite of Robotnik's minions, who is constantly screamed at and abused by his creator. This unintentionally creates the lesson of "Don't run away from home, even if you have horribly AbusiveParents."
310** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdSTlrTDuUM Yet another Sonic Sez]] delivers the lesson "Don't break the law". Trouble is, it's attached to the episode "Momma Robotnik’s Return", where Robotnik's mother legally adopts Sonic as the first step in a plot to get him killed—in essence, taking advantage of the law for her evil scheme (evidently, the government of Mobius has never heard of background checks) and delivering the opposite message: that [[HardTruthAesop what's right and what's legal don't always match up]].
311** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqxrVGfiEww This Sonic Sez]] has the lesson "Don't try to touch wild animals"... in a show starring a hedgehog and a fox.[[note]]So, does this mean that Sonic and Tails [[DoubleEntendre shouldn't touch themselves]]?[[/note]] If that's not crazy enough, the "wild animal" that Tails attempts to interact with is a squirrel wearing a top hat and bow tie, making it ambiguous whether we're looking at an actual wild animal or [[FurryConfusion one of the many other sapient animals that inhabit Mobius]]. In fact, the squirrel's design, clothes and all, are repurposed as the Mayor in a later episode.
312** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP5Phz4dfRY The Sonic Sez]] from "Baby-Sitter Jitters" offers a few basic tips for taking care of babies. Somehow, it never occurred to anyone involved that anyone who's still taking life lessons from a cartoon hedgehog is probably too young to be looking after a baby.
313* ''[[Characters/{{Popeye}} The All-New Popeye Hour]]'' also usually ended each episode with a sendoff message.
314** One, in particular, was about the dangers of smoking. The problem with this message is that Popeye himself regularly smokes a pipe. The PSA tried to HandWave this with his nephews asking, "But what about you and your pipe?" To which Popeye replied, "I just use it to toot!"
315** Another episode talks about graffiti and vandalism, which it did an okay job of explaining... followed immediately by the dangers of using spray paint, which will apparently explode if shaken (despite instructions on the can saying to do just that) or create a cloud of poisonous gasses, which it will only do if used in an enclosed space, which wasn't mentioned despite the characters being outside at the time.
316* Invoked in the ''{{WesternAnimation/Animaniacs}}'' episode, "A Very Very Very Special Show", where the Warner siblings try to be legitimate role models in a transparent attempt to win a humanitarian award, leading to things like Dot casually mentioning that she left a spotted owl she was taking care of to play with a white Siberian tiger, or a rant against gas usage and public transportation which was set off by Yakko suggesting they take a ride on a bus.
317* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': "To Eat or Not to Eat" delivers the message "Be wary of ScaryScienceWords in food ingredient lists" by way of a newly released candy bar whose ingredients include such things as "Tri-Enzomated Zorn Jelly" (which, judging from its effects, [[FantasticDrug appears to be a euphemism for crystal meth]]) and other fictional chemicals which make sparkles come out of one's mouth. Which is so far beyond any realistic health risk that it's hard to take the episode's message seriously. It also doesn't help that the only RealLife food additive mentioned at any point is cochineal extract, a naturally occurring substance which is stated to be bad purely because it's [[{{Squick}} made from bugs]],[[note]]Never mind that many cultures regularly eat various bugs, or that a number of environmentalists have proposed replacing beef with bugs to cut down carbon emissions, or that Arthur is an ''aardvark'', an animal that ''eats bugs'' in real life[[/note]] or that on the whole ScaryScienceWords are a favored misinformation tactic to turn the uninformed against something that is harmless or even beneficial. (Would ''you'' drink [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_parody Oxidane]]?)
318* Both ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' producer Creator/BruceTimm and director Boyd Kirkland felt this way about social messages in general in animated shows. They felt a half-hour kids cartoon simply lacks the ability to properly address the issue without just feeling exploitative, as they had to water down the depiction of such things to meet censorship guidelines and they simply didn't have enough time to depict a solution. In particular, they both considered episodes like ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE8TheForgotten The Forgotten]]'' and ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE6TheUnderdwellers The Underdwellers]]'' to be OldShame because of this:
319--> '''Bruce Timm:''' "My big problem with message shows, is that you can't solve the world's problems in a half hour cartoon. If you raise the issue of homelessness, what can you do? It makes the episode look very exploitive, because you're just using the problem as an exotic background. You can't discuss the problem on any meaningful level in a 22-minute action cartoon. So I put in the dream sequence with Bruce in the barracks where these multitudes of people are looking to Bruce for a handout, and he doesn't have enough money for them all, and they're surrounding him and suffocating him. It's not enough for him to put a band-aid on the problem at the end, by offering the two guys a job. It just doesn't work."
320--> '''Boyd Kirkland:''' "There was a sequence at the beginning where Batman is wandering around the city, trying to find out why people were disappearing. It was staged with homeless people hanging around on sidewalks: families, mothers and kids. They made us take all that out of the boards. They said it was too much for kids to see that maybe a woman or a family can be out on the streets. They specifically asked that we only show men as homeless."
321* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' [[VerySpecialEpisode “To Catch a Falling Star”]] features an actress named Jennifer Nocturne develop Stockholm Syndrome towards [[FakeUltimateHero Captain Nemesis]], somebody who had previously captured her and tried to kill her. It develops to the point where she’s willing to aid him in escaping prison and committing mass murder, with both of them also being disguised with help from a plastic surgeon. The episode heavily discusses the dangers of Stockholm Syndrome and how unhealthy the mindset is. The problem? WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce had Gwen develop feelings for, and eventually start a relationship with Kevin Levin, somebody who regularly tried to kill her, Ben, and Max in the [[WesternAnimation/Ben10 original series]], with Gwen even being taken hostage by Kevin in the Season 2 finale. However, unlike Jennifer and Nemesis, Gwen and Kevin’s relationship is portrayed positively. While the series would eventually reveal that Kevin’s prior villainy had been the result of his species going crazy when absorbing energy, Gwen was not aware of this when she began dating Kevin. Furthermore, while Kevin has legitimately turned over a new leaf, that doesn’t change the fact he is still a dangerous individual at risk of turning psychotic at any time, having even had a relapse into villainy the prior season, which, yes, included an assault on Gwen to drain her powers. [[WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse The next series]] would double the unfortunate implications by revealing Gwen had developed her crush at age 11, back when Kevin was still a criminal. The fact that this is the only episode of “Ultimate Alien” to lack an appearance from Kevin suggests that the writers were even subconsciously aware their prior StrangledByTheRedString made it impossible for the franchise to properly tackle this issue. ''Omniverse'' would also render the episode's events CanonDiscontinuity by reverting Nemesis and Jennifer to their previous designs, likely to avoid skirting around the issue.
322* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' episode "Broadcast Wagstaff School News" where the school hires a devil sticks juggling troupe to educate the students about cigarettes, but it just boils down to a devil sticks performance while the performers say cheesy slogans like "nicotine is a bad scene!" without actually explaining anything about cigarettes. The Belchers muse about the weird message, with Linda stating it makes her want a cigarette.
323* InUniverse, {{discussed|Trope}} and ultimately subverted in ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'', when Sextina Aquafina releases a pop single attempting to bring attention to the right to choose abortion. With a hook of "get dat fetus, kill dat fetus, braap braap pew pew", lyrics like "I'm a baby killer, killing babies makes me horny", and a video featuring twerking nurses and Sextina spread-eagle on a phallic coathanger spaceship shooting at a baby resembling the Star Child from ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', Diane—despite herself being pro-choice and having an abortion—complains about the tone and says that maybe it's just not appropriate to make a pop song about this sensitive issue. However, Sextina starts receiving comments from fans saying that the (intentionally funny) video helped them get through their own abortion, and Diane backs down, realizing it's not about her.
324* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'':
325** The series as a whole often chooses to depict pollution and other types of environmental destruction as being caused by solo supervillains who are doing it [[ForTheEvulz just to be dicks]] (with the occasional exception of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Looten Plunder]]), rather than ordinary people who aren't aware of their impact on the environment, don't care when there's a lot of money being made in the process, are concerned but can't do much about it because greener alternatives aren't available, (e.g. if you decide to switch off all coal power plants, how are you going to make electricity now?) or are even simply cogs in a much larger polluting machine who just don't have the clout to change things for the better on their own. According to WordOfGod, this was something of a [[NecessarilyEvil necessary evil]], as they didn't want to make the villains too "real" and accidentally imply to the children of loggers or factory workers that their parents were evil villains.
326** For a non-environmental-related case, there's the infamous episode "[[UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland If It's Doomsday, It Must Be Belfast]]", which was meant to promote world peace. What it managed to do instead was become [[{{Oireland}} the single most offensive portrayal of Ireland]] in media history, while also making [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles the struggle between Catholics and Protestants]] look like [[Theatre/WestSideStory the Jets against the Sharks]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQJrovKgrTw Highlights can be seen here]] (and the comments, being [[InternetJerk YouTube comments]], hardly help). This episode was banned in Northern Ireland at the time it aired, and was met with ridicule from Northern Ireland's inhabitants after it was finally shown.
327* The infamous Saturday morning special ''WesternAnimation/CartoonAllStarsToTheRescue'' tried to deal with the dangers of marijuana... by wasting a perfectly good MassiveMultiplayerCrossover and having beloved children's cartoon characters spew quaint little platitudes about how drugs are bad. And marijuana users are apparently angry, semi-violent hoodlums a la ''Film/ReeferMadness''. Apparently, the special was not advertised as being a VerySpecialEpisode prior to it first airing, fooling kids into thinking that it was going to be a purely fun crossover cartoon super special.
328* The ''WesternAnimation/CliffordTheBigRedDog'' episode "A New Friend" introduces KC, a three-legged dog who Cleo fears at first but eventually grows to like. The intended Aesop was to be nice to disabled people, but a [[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233209546_Be_Kind_to_Three-Legged_Dogs_Children%27s_Literal_Interpretations_of_TV%27s_Moral_Lessons 2008 study]] found that Cleo's fear caused children to take the moral literally, saying that it was about being kind to three-legged dogs. On the contrary, an edited version where Cleo's fear was removed tested better with children, as they understood the moral. It's likely that the 11-minute runtime and usage of a dog in lieu of a disabled human made the execution wonky.
329* While most of the Circle Time interstitials that used to air on Playhouse Disney (now Disney Junior) could get simple aesops across to their target audience of preschoolers pretty well, the lesson to be learned from the saga of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIA0XmnspHo Crying Jack]] doesn't make much sense in relation to the problem at hand in the live-action segment. A youngster is unhappy because she doesn't know what to draw, so the host of the segments tells the story about Crying Jack. The story details a happy-go-lucky boy who, for no stated reason, suddenly decides to cry as much as he can, and ultimately he cries so much that he turns himself into a [[BodyHorror giant walking and crying mouth]]. The fact that Jack just starts crying for ''no reason'' makes the moral of the story (intended to be a "getting too upset won't solve your problems" type of moral) [[note]] Or "It's bad to ever express any sadness/negativity!" which is ''not'' the kind of aesop you want a vulnerable young audience to see in a time where depressive disorders which can stem from hiding negative thoughts out of shame or fear have been brought to light.[[/note]] come off more like "[[SpaceWhaleAesop Never cry or else you run the risk of turning yourself into a giant crying mouth]]". Whichever the case was, neither of the aesops really relate much to the kid's WritersBlock-induced conundrum.
330* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' didn't always have AnAesop, but when it did, they didn't always tackle the topic well:
331** "Dos Boot", Season 3, Episode 7 intended to give the message "Always ensure your computer is safe and use anti-virus software", which was good basic advice [[FairForItsDay for the turn of the millennium]], but the message was quickly shot down by bizarre sequences that would have felt like they were out of a stoner comedy, and then the bizarre CreepyCrossdresser IncrediblyConspicuousDrag ending which this episode is notorious for (granted, it wasn't Dexter or Mandark's fault in this case).
332** "Oh Brother", Season 3, Episode 11, has the Aesop of BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor but it ends up not tackling the matter well with Dee Dee, Dexter's sister, becoming Doo Dee, a JerkJock brother who speaks with a quasi-Minnesota accent and effectively having a LostAesop. (It can also seem transphobic, implying gender reassignment means gender identity reassignment.)
333* ''WesternAnimation/DoubleDragon1993'':
334** One episode involved a kid obsessed with video games. He was taught that life is [[ThisIsReality not a video game]]... by a pair of magically-super-powered crime-fighters who summon dragons and shoot fire and stuff... in '''[[{{Irony}} a show based off a video game.]]'''
335** The obligatory 'drugs are bad' episode... had its moments. A fungus that the sewer-dwelling mutants chew for energy is concentrated into a dangerous drug (RPM) by the Shadow Master, who uses it to enslave people to him. So far, so good. Vortex started taking it to be a stronger fighter and smashed apart a training dummy in a fit of rage when it was suggested it wasn't exactly a good thing. Then the Shadow Master deliberately exposes Billy to RPM after he captures him, and it looks like an interesting setup of addiction vs willpower, and how Billy vs Vortex might recover... and then Dragon Magic cleans the junk out of Vortex and Billy. We never see what happens with the other addicts, above and below, or any consequences, not even for Vortex having drugs around the dojo where ''kids'' come to take martial arts lessons! Also compare the episode where Jimmy gets addicted to The Third Eye of the Dragon. Both eps are less 'drugs are bad' and more 'magic fixes everything'.
336* According to ''WesternAnimation/TheDrugAvengers'', an obscure and [[DerangedAnimation very weird]] educational cartoon exhumed by ''Website/EverythingIsTerrible'' (and is now available on Website/YouTube), the reason [[SpaceWhaleAesop Earth will not be able to join the Galactic Federation in the future]] is because we do too many drugs.
337* Creator/{{Filmation}}'s ''Fabulous Funnies'', a series [[AnimatedAdaptation adapting various classic comic strips]] spun-off from ''WesternAnimation/ArchiesTVFunnies'', was required to include [[AnAesop pro-social morals]] in every episode, leading to scenes where normally carefree and/or mischievous characters like ComicStrip/{{Nancy}} and ComicStrip/TheKatzenjammerKids promoted the importance of behaving and being polite to one another. Even critics at the time the show was airing pointed out how awkward this was and how detrimental it was to the characters' respective brands of comedy (and given [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation the time period that the show originally aired]], that should say a lot).
338** The capper was the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWjp2-sbi2Q&t=476s&ab_channel=GarbageAndGoldCinema Broom Hilda segment "Drinking"]] (retitled "Flying High" for the home video release) which depicted this cartoon witch from a humorous newspaper comic strip...struggling with alcoholism. Yes, alcoholism. Complete with hiding bottles and cans around the house, and [[WhatDidIDoLastNight waking up after a bender with no memory of the night before.]] And all this happened in a lighthearted 1970s Filmation Saturday morning kids' show based on funny comic strips, complete with wacky cartoon music and sound effects and a ''laugh track.'' This is practically the epitome of this trope.
339* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' in general, since its BlackComedy status makes taking any Aesop it offers seriously near-impossible, especially when it comes to religion and gay rights.
340** One character, Brian's cousin Jasper, is every offensive gay stereotype rolled into one. Creator/SethMacFarlane has gone on record saying that the gay community is intended to ''identify'' with him. "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E18QuagmiresDad Quagmire's Dad]]", which deals with Quagmire's AMAB mother, also counts.
341** They tried to tackle DomesticAbuse in "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS10E3ScreamsOFSilenceTheStoryOfBrendaQ Screams of Silence]]" and while a commendable effort, at least in theory, this is a show where women are routinely beaten and killed by their husbands/boyfriends ''for laughs''. Even worse when you consider that [[Recap/FamilyGuyS10E2SeahorseSeashellParty the previous episode]] portrayed a girl ''choosing to stay with her abusive family because they can barely function without using her as an emotional punching bag'' as "heroic". "Screams of Silence" itself isn't much better, depicting a broad, mostly inaccurate (and, often times, vague) portrayal of typical domestic violence and its psychological effects and going so far as to ''[[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming blame the victims]]'' for staying with their abusers.
342* ''WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids'' is known for going to dark places in the name of education, but even they were not immune to the AnimationAgeGhetto:
343** "Soft Core" attempts to educate the audience on the dangers of pornography teaching kids the wrong things about sex.[[note]]No, this has nothing to do with anything Bill Cosby did in real life.[[/note]] As one might expect, this ran into the same problem as the "bad touch" [=PSAs=] which were forbidden to define "bad touching": the episode offers absolutely no information regarding what the "wrong things about sex" might be or the consequences of learning said wrong things.[[note]]The kids' reactions to the dirty pictures ''imply'' that they may be developing unhealthy attitudes towards women, but without any scenes of them displaying said unhealthy attitudes towards actual women, the message is more or less lost.[[/note]] All it shows to that end is Rudy being embarrassed when his mother discovers the adult magazine he brings home, followed by her explaining that kids should instead ask their parents and teachers about matters of sex.
344** Averted in "Kiss and Tell", which actually manages to offer some meaningful advice about sexually transmitted diseases (see a doctor if you feel unwell after having sex, putting it off can make things much worse, tell your partner about anything you're diagnosed with). ''Mostly'' averted, at least—there is no discussion of how to avoid catching [=STDs=] in the first place (generally considered to be an important part of STD education).
345* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstoneKids''[='=] "Just Say No (to drugs, of course)!" prime time special. It's less infamous than "Cartoon All-Stars", but it could almost be the type specimen of the Clueless Aesop Very Special Episode. It features your trademark crazy inaccurate information, a [[LongLostUncleAesop whole new set of characters]] introduced during the episode, and radical changes made to a main character after hanging out with the aforementioned new characters. The latter two elements were used '''just''' to deliver the Aesop [[SnapBack and none of them were ever acknowledged after this one episode]]. We even get the bizarre sight of the slapstick-prone Flintstones characters talking about drugs. The special also failed to make drugs look any worse than smoking ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZvHiiWFbBU "It tastes gooood, like a—*click click* cigarette shoooould!!"]]). Apart from being unable to win a race that he apparently usually wins, the drug dealer kid [[MeaningfulName named Stoney]] was ''arrested for drug possession'' and the police are actually going to allow his parents to stop by and take him home that same day. And his actual punishment will be his parents yelling at him. So if you do drugs, the worst you can expect is that ''your parents will yell at you''.
346* Episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' that make a point about current events, particularly in the revival seasons, are often complicated by the show's futuristic setting, making it harder to make a clear point about ''contemporary'' society.
347** "[[Recap/FuturamaS7E22LeelaAndTheGenestalk Leela and the Genestalk]]" raises a point about the risks of genetic engineering, which is treated in-universe as something relatively new and unpredictable just as it was in the 2000s, even though by 3012, the long-term effects of genetic engineering should've logically been known already. It also doesn't help that a number of previous episodes had referenced genetic engineering as though it were just another innocuous tool, with one episode even having Leela agree that the 20th century would have been a bad time for women because, without genetic engineering, they had to deal with "[[TeenyWeenie natural men]]".
348** "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E4PropositionInfinity Proposition Infinity]]" has Bender and Amy start dating, but their relationship is challenged because of societal prejudices. This episode uses robosexual marriage as an obvious metaphor for gay marriage, but the message comes off as problematic for a few reasons: First off, the episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E15IDatedARobot I Dated A Robot]]" portrayed Fry dating a robot as a bad thing. Secondly, despite being a metaphor for gay marriage, we see the conflict from the perspective of a heteronormative couple. That wouldn't be a problem if robots in this show didn't specifically have genders, with Bender even getting a sex change in ''Bend Her,'' but one problematic approach to LGBTQ+ issues at a time. Thirdly, the reason Amy started dating Bender in the first place was because Kiff broke up with her for acting flirty with other men, and at the end of the episode, Bender dumps her so he can sleep around, playing off the AllGaysArePromiscuous stereotype.
349* ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'': "The Greatest Evil" teaches that drugs will make you a violent criminal. However, Headman, the violent criminal responsible for distributing the drug "Spark", overdoses and dies a horrific death, teaching that drugs are not so much recreational as they are highly caustic, volatile chemicals.
350* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hammerman}}'' took the social problems it tried to comment on and turned them into one-note villains a superhero could defeat inside half an hour, leaving morals that were sometimes muddled or hard to apply to real life. ''WebVideo/TheMysteriousMrEnter'' points out such an instance in his review of the episode "Defeated Graffiti". While the intended aesop is a fair one ("don't deface other people's property with your art"), he notes it's pointless because the kids ten and under in the show's target audience aren't the people who make the big wallscrawls you think of when you hear "graffiti" and which the show used as examples. The people in their teens and twenties who ''do'' probably not only never saw the show and heard the message, they wouldn't stop what they're doing just because Cartoon Music/MCHammer told them to.
351* ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'':
352** Every [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle sendoff message]]. Gadget just spent the entire episode proving himself TooDumbToLive, repeatedly saved by his niece and dog, and we're supposed to accept his safety advice.
353** "Race to the Finish" has Gadget enter the Gadgetmobile in an auto race to stop M.A.D. from claiming the million-dollar prize. During the race, a M.A.D. agent offers Gadget a soda spiked with an unspecified substance that causes Gadget to act drunk. Upon witnessing the effects from his own car, Dr. Claw remarks: "You know you shouldn't drink and then drive!". At the [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle sendoff Aesop]] about vehicle safety, Gadget finishes with "And most of all, don't drink 'strange drinks' before you go driving!". Clearly, the writers were attempting to speak out against drunk driving while being forbidden from actually mentioning alcohol.
354* One of the Pirate Pledges in ''WesternAnimation/JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates'' stated that "A good pirate never takes another person's property!" While that's an important Aesop, it's not one that you can sell when your show is about ''pirates''. It's not strictly [[BrokenAesop inconsistent]] because they're ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything, but even preschoolers are going to get a mixed message from that (and older viewers are going to turn it into MemeticMutation).
355* Averted in the episode ''Ndovu's Last Journey'' of ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures'', a [[ElephantGraveyard massive graveyard of elephant skeletons]] is discovered. Part of the plot revolves around elephants being poached for ivory. The Quests decide ''not'' to reveal the location of the elephant graveyard as it wouldn't make a difference because elephants would continue to be killed for their tusks. That animals and humans continue to struggle for the same living space is another contributor. The fact is it just would not make a difference.
356* Early on, ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' and ''Unlimited'' was building a discussion about whether superheroes were a good or bad thing, but this idea largely petered out over time. Why? Because the writers realized that while vigilante organizations would be a bad idea in the real world, the lesson doesn't really make sense in a setting where colorful supervillains and alien invasions are thwarted every other week by people with tights and superpowers. A ConflictKiller was brought in to resolve the issue without coming down on one side or the other. The final season took steps to show the conflict had been resolved offscreen, with the Justice League now operating with greater transparency and allowing a government liaison to oversee their activities.
357* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' has "[[Recap/TheLoudHouseS1E11ButterflyEffectTheGreenHouse The Green House]]," which is supposed to teach a GreenAesop. While going green for the planet's sake ''is'' right and proper, this episode is thoroughly incompetent in its moral lesson. First of all, Mrs. Johnson judges ''all'' of her students by the same standard. This means that Lincoln gets screwed over for his family's giant carbon footprint, in spite of the fact that he comes from a large family and therefore their wasteful usage of water, electricity, fossil fuels, etc. is beyond their control. Second of all, in the climax of the episode, all of Lincoln's sisters are portrayed as incredibly stinky after two of Lincoln's classmates take advantage of him, and then, Lincoln becomes stinky for powering up a generator for all his sisters. Finally, Lincoln and his classmates don't really seem to care about going green for the planet's sake, instead wanting to get a good social standing or name a [[TheWoobie woobiefied]] polar bear cub. [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Yet the episode expects us to side with all of them]].
358* ''WesternAnimation/MagicGiftOfTheSnowMan'': Oh boy. The special tries to teach kids that positive thinking and being happy will solve your problems away. While it's not a bad thing, pressuring this isn't going to make things better.
359* ''WesternAnimation/{{Minoriteam}}'' tries to [[PrejudiceAesop talk about racism]], but garbles the presentation so badly that it can be unclear what the actual point is supposed to be. For a specific example, "El Dia Gigante" is about how El Jefe's dad, El Yo, views El Jefe as promoting negative stereotypes of Mexican culture. Given the fact El Jefe is a combination of various Mexican stereotypes by design, you think the story would take El Yo's side. However, he unleashes a Main/{{Kaiju}} on the city to [[DisproportionateRetribution kill people for praising El Jefe]] and attempts to murder Fasto and Jewcano. This seems to suggest we aren't supposed to agree with him. So, this just begs the question of [[LostAesop what the story is trying convey]].
360* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
361** Used in-universe in "Over a Barrel". Pinkie Pie decides to sing a song about sharing in order to get the bison and the cowponies to get along and agree. They do agree... on this being the worst performance they'd ever seen. Brought up again when the bison are about to call off the attack, but Pinkie Pie celebrates by singing another verse, enraging them and causing them to attack anyway. In a more meta sense, the episode tries to create a scenario of irreconcilable differences illustrated with the bison (themed after Native Americans) and the ponies (themed after cowboys), but because it's a kids' show that discusses friendship and conflict resolution, there really ''is'' a satisfying compromise for all involved (a lease agreement from Buffalo to Ponies), and that requires the historical basis to be ''heavily'' sanitized to be appropriate for children.
362** Creator/LaurenFaust has spoken about regretting the way the episode "Feeling Pinkie Keen" was handled. The intended aesop was "you should be open to different ideas and ways of perceiving the world, even if you don't particularly understand them." It unintentionally came off as "Atheists/Scientists/Skeptics are jerks and are demonstrably wrong." This could more or less be a realistic scenario in the sense of how science and logic aren't always the best ways to come up with an answer, but considering it's being applied in a show that regularly uses magic and spells to do a multitude of everyday tasks, it seemed like splitting hairs.
363** "A Hearth's Warming Tail" is YetAnotherChristmasCarol that, due to NeverSayDie, changes the consequences of the Scrooge-{{expy}} from causing death and dying unloved to {{Wendigo}}s causing EndlessWinter. Besides being [[SpaceWhaleAesop an unrealistic consequence]], it dilutes the TrueMeaningOfChristmas Aesop since its importance is shown less moral than a necessary ritual to prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
364** "Fame And Misfortune" has the Mane 6 publish their friendship journal, which develops a MisaimedFandom who make their lives miserable. The episode was intended as a TakeThat towards [[invoked]][[FanDumb a certain part]] of the show's PeripheryDemographic, but the difference between what the writer was meant to criticize (real people complaining about fictional characters who cannot be directly affected by their words) and what's portrayed in the show (characters harassing other characters who are just as real as they are) keeps the message from working perfectly. Add scenes where obvious strawmen complain about things like [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks Twilight Sparkle becoming a princess]] and Fluttershy having AesopAmnesia, things which are [[StrawmanHasAPoint perfectly reasonable complaints about a fictional series]] but only become wrong when aimed at real people (in other words, a completely different scenario), and the Aesop turns from "don't be part of the FanDumb" to "having any criticism or [[BrokenBase disagreement]] about the show is wrong". The writer M.A. Larson considers this episode an OldShame, to the point he not only leaves it off his filmography but went so far as to [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame ask fans of the episode to not praise him for writing it]], but ExecutiveMeddling kept him from addressing the flaws.
365** "Surf and/or Turf" has an allegory for divorce/separation; Terramar's father returning to being a hippogriff on Mount Aris and mother remain a seapony underwater in Seaquestria with Terramar torn between choosing with whom and which lifestyle to live and learning they'd both still love him despite his choice. But the show's kid-friendly nature meant downplaying the seriousness ([[AmicableExes the parents remain on good terms]], Terramar [[DebateAndSwitch choosing to live with both]] as they're within walking distance and he can magically change between hippogriff/seapony on a whim) such it never addresses the consequences one in this situation realistically would have to deal with.
366* The ''[[WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes OK KO!]]'' episode "[[Recap/OKKOLetsBeHeroesS1E47LetsNotBeSkeletons Let's Not Be Skeletons]]" tries to have an anti-gun aesop, except: one, the show takes place in a universe where many characters have natural powers which are often equivalent in their danger to a gun, including characters who are explicitly villainous, meaning having a gun for protection makes even more sense in their world; and two, the gun analog doesn't actually kill or even harm in any way except turning people into [[DemBones living skeletons]], making it more a nuisance than an actual threat. Not helping is that whenever a character brings up a good argument in favor of the controlers, it just gets ignored.
367* The controversial ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016'' episode "[[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirls2016S01Ep05HornSweetHorn Horn Sweet Horn]]" was intended as a VerySpecialEpisode about transgender issues, but the problems in it arise due to how the episode addresses the topic through the use of an AllegoricalCharacter, a pony named Donny who believes himself to be a unicorn. Besides the obvious problems with using a character who believes themselves to be a mythological creature as a metaphor for gender dysphoria, the episode frequently makes light of the issue for the sake of comedy, with Donny's reactions to being told he's not a unicorn being played for laughs and a recurring cutaway gag to a pickle museum that's an obvious innuendo for it. He only undergoes a procedure to turn himself into a unicorn at the insistence of Bubbles, who only does so because she just wants to have a unicorn as a friend, and the surgery ends up backfiring and turning him into a horrific monster instead. To add further insult to injury, at the end of the episode, it's revealed Donny didn't need the surgery and already was a unicorn (apparently he had a tiny horn underneath his hair that he never even noticed).
368* The anti-drug [=PSAs=] of the '80s and '90s ended up being clueless because, much like the "bad touching" messages, they weren't allowed to actually define drugs as being anything other than "bad things that only stupid people like". A few were bold enough to show things like joints or [[Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse crack]] on screen, but most of them just had kids being pressured by other kids their own age to do... something vague, with stuff that was supposed to be drugs of some kind. To hear them tell it, every fourth grade in the world was populated by clean, well-dressed addicts with TotallyRadical hair, desperate to cram little rolls of twisted-up paper towels down their classmates' throats. This was a recurring bit on ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'', as any time a drug-smuggler was nabbed, it'd just be "He was smuggling ''drugs''!", with Scooby going "Drugs!? Yuck!" in response. Given the theories about [[GRatedDrug Scooby Snacks]], this is more than a little ironic.
369* ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries'': "Anywhere But Here" delivers the message that adulthood [[GrowingUpSucks isn't as glamorous as it looks]] with Sabrina magically transforming herself into an adult. The problem there is that one of the major factors in Sabrina wishing to grow up is her not being allowed to play a new arcade game without being accompanied by an adult. Yet when she returns to the arcade as an adult and attempts to play the very same game, the teenager in line behind her claims that she's too old for it. Never mind that when she tried and failed to play the game the first time, the next person in line was an elderly woman. Apparently, that game was made for a ''very'' specific demographic.
370* ''WesternAnimation/SevenLittleMonsters'': The SwearWordPlot episode "The Bad Word" has Mama explain to Two after he learned the bad word from a careless construction worker portrayed as not knowing any better that bad words should never be spoken, but her phrasing is extremely vague and disregards that most adults who swear in real life ''know'' that such language is inappropriate and don't particularly care if what they say could upset whoever is around to hear them.
371* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
372** Mocked in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E23BartsFriendFallsInLove "Bart's Friend Falls In Love"]], where Mrs. Krabappel shows the class a sex education film that promises to explain the subject "in a frank and straightforward manner." The film's title: ''Fuzzy Bunny's Guide to You-Know-What.'' It ends up being a mixture of incredibly childish imagery, weird euphemisms, [[FurryReminder out-of-place references to the characters being rabbits]], and what is apparently ([[DiscretionShot visible to the characters, but not us]]) a full-on sex scene.
373-->"And now that you know how it's done: don't do it."
374** Referenced in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E18ThisLittleWiggy This Little Wiggy]]", where Ralph Wiggum was apparently taught to let authorities know when people are touching his "special area", with nobody defining what that actually is to him. Ralph then thinks this special area is one of his shoulders and becomes very upset if anyone ever comes in contact with it. Don't forget that Ralph's father is Springfield's police chief...
375** Commented on in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E3SleepingWithTheEnemy Sleeping with the Enemy]]". Lisa develops anorexia, and she announces at the end of the episode that eating disorders are not a CompressedVice that can be solved within 20 minutes and she will have to struggle with it for the rest of her life. Granted, the show never really returned to THAT exact problem, but Lisa stories often do explore struggling with her own self-image.
376** "Alone Again, Natura-Diddly" (the one where Maude Flanders dies) attempts to depict the tragedy of losing a close loved one, but Maude's funeral is filled with silly setpieces like a twenty-one-gun salute with T-shirt cannons firing black shirts. Homer also tries to rush Ned into dating again, even though Homer's attempts are insensitive and Ned goes along with it anyways.
377** InUniverse, the dinosaur-themed show the family watches at the beginning of the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E6TheBookJob The Book Job]]" has a forced GreenAesop after the meteorite hits, trying to connect a planetary extinction event with man-made pollution. Bart points out the problem with the message was if the world is already going to be destroyed by unrelated causes, there is no reason not to pollute and party before the end.
378** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS29E15NoGoodReadGoesUnpunished No Good Read Goes Unpunished]]" was harshly criticized as being a petty response to the criticisms brought up by the documentary ''The Problem With Apu'', as Marge discovers a favorite book from her childhood, ''The Princess in the Garden'', but is alarmed at its ValuesDissonance as seen through adult eyes, culminating with a scene where [[AuthorAvatar Lisa]] [[BreakingTheFourthWall addresses the audience]], [[AuthorTract saying "Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive, is now politically incorrect. What can you do?"]]. [[https://www.npr.org/2018/04/09/600794630/the-simpsons-to-the-problem-with-apu-drop-dead NPR in particular]] argued that the comparisons between ''The Princess in the Garden'' and ''The Simpsons'' itself don't mesh because: 1.) Apu ''isn't'' the main character of the show (to whit, he isn't even featured in the episode itself beyond the picture in Lisa's room and a non-speaking cameo at the Tunnelcraft convention); 2.) The thought that the writers can't change characters without drastically altering the show itself flies of the face of several developments the show's made over the years, e.g. Lisa adopting both vegetarianism and Buddhism; and 3.) ''The Simpsons'' isn't a long-forgotten work, it's an ''ongoing'' work with episodes made year after year. To make matters even worse, Creator/HankAzaria, who played Apu, said in an interview he hadn't known about that scene till he saw the premiere, [[CreatorBacklash and he was disappointed at how dismissive the show was about the criticisms]].
379* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has some InUniverse examples.
380** In "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E7Pinkeye Pinkeye]]", [[FatBastard Cartman]] is forced to watch an informational video about UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler to learn why wearing a Hitler costume to school is wrong—except in order to not scare its kid audience too much, it just says Hitler was "[[{{Understatement}} a very naughty man]]", without explaining why. Because of this, [[VillainProtagonist Cartman]] [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing likes him even more]] and [[ImagineSpot imagines himself]] [[AdolfHitlarious as Hitler]].
381** In "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E7ProperCondomUse Proper Condom Use]]" the school decides they need to teach the kids about safer sex—without actually talking about sex. So they just tell the kids that boys always need to wear condoms, or else they might get girls pregnant, and leave it at that. HilarityEnsues. At the end of the episode, Chef specifically calls this out, points out that the people teaching the sex ed (Mr. Garrison, Miss Choksondick, and Mr. Mackey) are all [[DepravedBisexual misguided]], [[AllWomenArePrudes misinformed]], or just plain clueless about sex themselves, and says that if the parents want it done right they should do it themselves. In a straighter example of this trope in action, Chef himself often has a bad habit of singing songs about sex to the children, which doesn't leave him much room to criticize.
382** "[[Recap/SouthParkS7E13ButtOut Butt Out]]" has the anti-smoking group of the same name come to the school and put on a presentation against tobacco usage which is so lame, so unimaginably childish, and so poorly thought-out that all it does is make the kids utterly miserable, while simultaneously giving no ''actual'' reasons whatsoever why smoking is bad [[note]]They do (very) briefly mention emphysema and lung cancer, but still don't actually explain what those ''are'' and why they're bad.[[/note]]. Worse still, they end on the message "If you don't smoke, you can grow up to be just like us", which prompts the kids to ''begin'' chain-smoking to avoid ending up anything like the thing they just saw up on stage.
383** ''South Park'' also has several unintentional examples where the writers want to send a message despite having extremely limited knowledge of the subject at hand. For example, in "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000," Token insults Cartman, and Cartman angrily punches him out, and even though Mr. Mackey punishes him, the authorities burst through the door and throw Cartman into juvenile detention for committing a "hate crime". The episode argues that violence against minorities shouldn't be treated as worse than violence against anyone else if bigotry has nothing to do with the attack. Except ''hate crime laws don't work that way in the first place''. Prosecution has to '''prove''' that the attack was motivated by the victim's minority status; it isn't just applied by default like the episode claims.
384* A case of this due to ValuesDissonance caused the ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' episode "Mister Skinnylegs" to be [[BannedInChina stricken from Australian airwaves]]. The plot of the episode is that spiders shouldn't be considered scary and are okay to have in the house. While that works fine in the show's native Britain and in North America, it's unacceptable in Australia because the country is ''loaded'' with venomous spiders, and actually includes some of the most dangerous spiders ''in the world''.[[note]]To put this in perspective, a ''short'' list of "[[UsefulNotes/AustralianWildlife dangerous Australian spiders]]" would include the ubiquitous Red-Back Spider (a Black Widow with anger management issues), the White-Tailed Spider (highly venomous, and suspected of being the infamous "necrotizing spider", a spider whose bite ''[[BodyHorror causes your flesh to start rotting away whilst you're still alive]]'') and the Sydney Funnelweb (a highly aggressive pseudo-tarantula known to have the most powerful venom in the world).[[/note]] Understandably, Australians don't particularly want small children to think it's okay to play with these things.
385* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/YogisGang'' has an episode with the PrejudiceAesop. The problem is that the only reason anyone is bigoted is because [[MonsterOfTheWeek Villain Of the Week]] Dr. Bigot used MadScience to turn people racist. Obviously, this isn't how real prejudice work, turning the affair into a SpaceWhaleAesop. Undermining it more is that Creator/HannaBarbera themselves have included various racial stereotypes in their cartoons, almost always targeting Asians, Native Americans, and Romani.
386[[/folder]]

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