The field of WesternAnimation has many [[AnAesop morals at the end of the episode]], and many [[AnimationAgeGhetto writers who think they can half-ass it]]. While it's not the cause of all the {{Broken Aesop}}s here, it's certainly connected to a lot of them.\\\
This list of examples is in alphabetical order, so please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!

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[[index]]
!!Works with their own pages
* ''BrokenAesop/TheFairlyOddParents''
* ''BrokenAesop/MastersOfTheUniverse''
* ''BrokenAesop/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''
* ''BrokenAesop/TheSimpsons''
[[/index]]

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[[folder:A-K]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'':
** One "Sonic Says" segment advises kids against [[TheRunaway running away from home]] by having Coconuts try it, and Sonic remind him of all the good things Robotnik does to take care of him, and how no one will be there to do those things if he runs away, to convince him to go back home. The thing is, though, Coconuts is TheUnfavourite among Robotnik's creations, and spends most of his time taking abuse and doing chores to clean up after the rest of the "family", so the message comes down to "Even if your family is abusive, it's better than risking it going it alone".
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdSTlrTDuUM This 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 terrorize the planet -- in essence, [[LoopholeAbuse 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]].
* Played for Laughs in one episode in ''WesternAnimation/AllenGregory''. The episode has Allen hold a play in school that is extremely racist to Hispanics, which naturally gets Allen booed off the stage until a Hispanic student gets on stage and explains why racist views presented are wrong, which gets the kid cheered. Allen is forced by his teacher, Gina, to go to the people and apologize for the racist remarks, but he is met with cheers and applause instead because they now think the Hispanic student's speech and Allen's apology was AllPartOfTheShow. Allen rolls with it and learns nothing from his actions, frustrating Gina.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'':
** The episode “Homeland Insecurity” teaches that people should not be racist towards their neighbors and they they should look past stereotypes. Unfortunately there are many problems with this. The first is that Stan, a man who often learns a lesson in many episodes only to later [[AesopAmnesia forget them]] does not actually learn anything in this episode. The second problem is that the people being persecuted in this episode, the Iranian neighbors Bob and Linda Memari, reveal to Francine that they are bigoted towards African Americans and never give up this viewpoint.
** The looking past stereotypes moral is also undercut in the episode “Frannie 911”, which creates a fantastic stereotype out of Roger and his species that they all have to be sociopathic as altruism and kindness literally kill them. Francine refuses to sympathize with Roger over this unfortunate predicament when he nearly dies from this and instead has him assaulted and beaten by Stan.
** In the episode "Stannie Get Your Gun", while waving a gun around and firing (what she thinks are blanks) at random, Hayley accidentally shoots Stan in the neck, paralyzing him. Out of grief, she supports Stan's decision to sing pro-gun songs at rallies. After seeing how depressed Hayley is, Stan realizes that Hayley would never intentionally harm him, and thus the gun must be at fault. He becomes anti-gun until near the end of the episode when he is shot in the spine again, healing him. At no point in the episode is it brought up that Hayley acted incredibly irresponsibly by firing a gun while pointing it at people, even if she thought it was loaded with blanks. Nor is it brought up that Stan was at fault for mistakenly putting an actual bullet in the gun with the blanks, or handing a loaded gun (blanks or no blanks) to someone ''without telling them''. Hayley could've killed the man playing as the robber rather than simply paralyzing Stan and this is never brought up, the blame is either placed on Hayley or the gun. ''[[RuleOfThree Nor]]'' is it brought up that even firing a blank at someone from a real gun is incredibly dangerous and can even be lethal: this infamously led to the death of Brandon Lee on the set of ''Film/TheCrow1994''[[note]]specifically it was caused by a round being stuck in the firearm's barrel, but the wadding of the blank can be dangerous even at medium range (and outright fatal at close range) and the explosive force of the gas itself will still kill at close ranges[[/note]], is why they make special blank-firing guns, and is something any gun owner with a modicum of knowledge about firearms should know.
** In the episode "The American Dad After School Special", Stan disapproves of Steve's girlfriend Debbie due to her being fat. Francine and Hayley berate him for it, pointing out that he himself is somewhat overweight, resulting in Stan becoming anorexic and hallucinatory. The episode doesn't present many more options than "approving of overweight people" and "disapproving of overweight people will result in self-destructive extremism" and, not to mention, Debbie serves as a regular target for fat jokes from there.
** In the season 3 episode "Surro-Gate", Stan kidnaps his CampGay neighbors' daughter under the assumption that they'd be unfit parents (because of their homosexuality). Seven seasons later he's proven at least half-right in the episode "A Boy Named Michael", as Greg & Terry are shown to be insane [[EducationMama Education Papas]] that [[AbusiveParents try to kill Roger for not meeting their standards]] while he's masquerading as their new adopted son, retroactively destroying the aforementioned episode's moral.
** The episode “The Mural Of The Story” has the moral that you should not slander other people and damage their reputations, especially when the victims are your own family members as Stan slandered Hayley because of a mural he ruined and pinned it on her. Stan later learns how this has damaged his daughter and apologizes for it. This mural would have been plain and clear if it were not for the episode’s subplot in which Steve lies to the clowning association that Roger hit him to get back at him for tricking him into overwhelming himself at clowning school. This lie gets Roger fired and Steve never apologizes to him for this.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'':
** While the episode "Dating Season" tries to teach viewers that you can't force people who clearly just want to be friends into a romantic relationship based on what you think or for your own desires, and that obsessive shipping can be a problem. Hop Pop, and Felicia realize this after Polly called Felicia and Hop Pop out for their greed and Anne for her shortsightedness. In the end, they finally decide to let Sprig and Ivy stay as friends, but Sprig ends up falling in love with Ivy anyways, and it was mostly due to Anne, Hop Pop, and Felicia's meddling.
** Similarly in "Anne of the Year", one of the lessons Anne learns is not to force someone (Sprig) to confess their feelings to a person (Ivy) they like. They should do that when they're ready. Then Ivy comes in to ask Sprig out immediately afterwards.
** A variation - near the end of the "Spider-Sprig" episode Molly Jo [[WhatTheHellHero calls both Sprig and Otto out]] for [[HeroInsurance trashing the city with their superhero/supervillain battle]], as well as the fact that both of them are just doing it for the attention, and that makes Sprig just as bad as Otto. While she's not ''wrong'' regarding the attention part, the battle she was critisizing mainly involved Sprig running away from Otto, Sprig himself causing little to no property damage in the process, making her NotSoDifferentRemark come off [[MisplacedRetribution rather unfair]]. On the otherhand, as a superhero, it was Sprig's responsibility to keep the public safe from ongoing danger. Rather then dragging out the fight for the sake of fun and publicity, Sprig should have prioritized stopping Robert Otto as soon as possible in order to keep property damages to a minimum. To be fair though, she was only witness to the end portion of the fight, and did not see how the majority of their fight played out.
** This show tries to teach a GreenAesop by showing the damage caused by the technology owned by that King Andrais Leiathan and his dynasty, which turns the titular land into a wasteland of pollution. This is supposed to be a parallel metaphor as to how humans are using technology in a way that is hurting the earth but the moral is inconsistently applied as it fails to call out the human race in the show itself for using technology as it shows Anne befriending a robot from Amphibia named Frobo. Plus Anne, Marcy, and Sasha are shown to be using their phones in the fantastical land, in which the phones seem to have infinite charging capabilities. This dilutes the moral and warps it into sounding like it’s okay for humans to use technology but not okay for non humans to use it. Even more baffling is that the series finale has Anne give Sprig her phone.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': The moral of "Be Careful What You Eat" is, according to the title, to be careful what you eat. The trouble is that it delivers the Aesop by listing the ingredients of confectionery, hoping to [[ScaryScienceWords intimidate the audience with the big words]], but most of those ingredients weren't actually harmful, for example, beta carotene (which is usually taken from ''carrots'') and lactic acid (a milk enzyme).
* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' has many examples of this, but it works since the show rarely if ever takes itself seriously. "Universal Remonster", for example, has Frylock spend most of the episode discussing how too much TV is bad for you. Then at the end of the episode, he buys a new HD plasma screen TV, which immediately gets {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Meatwad.
-->'''Meatwad''': I thought you said TV was bad.\\
'''Frylock''': It is... but we f**king need it!
* ''WesternAnimation/ArchiesWeirdMysteries'':
** "[[Recap/ArchiesWeirdMysteriesExtraTerrorEstrial Extra-Terror-estrial]]" had the group helping an [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial ET-like]] alien named Gleebo build a device to get home while protecting him from evil aliens, only to reveal Gleebo was an intergalactic criminal and the "evil aliens" were actually police officers and ends with Archie speaking the moral of "cute can be bad and ugly can be good, don't judge a book by it's cover" verbatim. The problem here is the police did ''nothing'' to convey they were actually the good guys, despite knowing pretending to be the victim was the criminal's M.O. and despite them ''speaking English'', and instead went in full-cocked armed with lasers and began attacking Archie and his friends: the teens had every valid reason in the world to believe Gleebo was the good guy and the police were the bad guys here, none of which had to do with appearances.
** "[[Recap/ArchiesWeirdMysteriesTheDayTheEarthMoved The Day the Earth Moved]]" is about the importance of respecting your family traditions. The one year the Andrews men don't perform their tradition, a giant worm emerges and begins destroying Riverdale. The only problem is, no one knew that the tradition was intended to placate it until Archie and his friends did some research. Even Mr. Andrews couldn't offer an explanation other than "it's tradition."
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'':
** The episode "[[Recap/ArthurS4E1DWsLibraryCardArthursBigHit Arthur's Big Hit]]", where Arthur hits D.W. when she breaks his model airplane. She runs crying to their parents, and the rest of the episode is spent rubbing Arthur's nose in it, with the intended message of "violence is never the answer". There are a couple of problems with this:
*** Arthur learns his lesson when Binky hits him, and his parents treat Binky hitting Arthur as suitable punishment for Arthur hitting his sister, so it's apparently okay to hit someone to teach them why hitting is wrong. On top of this, Binky hits Arthur because he is [[PeerPressuredBully peer-pressured]] by his {{Jerkass}} friends into hitting some random kid to prove how tough he is, which ends up being Arthur via complete coincidence (although Binky is aware that Arthur hit D.W. and is distressed about it, so that can be debated), but Arthur hits D.W. as a direct consequence of her behavior. The fact that Binky's intent is to engage in the exact sort of behavior that the episode's Aesop is meant to discourage is never meaningfully acknowledged.
*** D.W. only learns anything because Arthur hit her. Their parents say they'll have a talk with her, but by the end of the episode there is no evidence that that had actually happened, or that, if it did, she learned anything from it -- she still blames Arthur for the model she broke. The only remorse she feels is for driving Arthur to violence, but she only does that because hitting her has convinced her that the model really was important to him. Violence is never the answer, but it's the only language D.W. understands.
** In "[[Recap/ArthurS2E6BusterBaxterCatSaverPlayItAgainDW Buster Baxter, Cat Saver]]" after Buster (allegedly) rescues a cat, he gets hailed as a hero, with the aesop being not letting success go to your head. However, this falls flat as the only reason Buster was acting the way he did in the first place was the townspeople going out of their way to heap praise on him.
** "[[Recap/ArthurS3E13ArthursDummyDisasterFrancineAndTheFeline Francine and the Feline]]" has Arthur and Francine arguing over the idea of whether [[InterspeciesFriendship cats and dogs can get along well]] or not, with Arthur going to great lengths to keep Pal away from Francine's cat, Nemo. The Aesop comes in place at the very end and proves it really is possible, and it does a good job of showing it. The "broken" part of this comes in when the ''entire point of this episode'' is thrown out the window so they can [[CatsAreMean use Nemo as an antagonist]] in the episodes where Pal and Kate can talk. In short, they retroactively [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot wasted a perfectly good moral]]. The fact that Arthur has friends who are [[FurryConfusion cats of the humanoid, sapient variety]] is [[FridgeHorror not brought up]] either.
** "D.W's Very Bad Mood" tries to teach the HardTruthAesop that you shouldn't expect to be invited to every single event or birthday party. A very hard truth that people need to learn. Unfortunately, D.W. receives [[KarmaHoudini no comeuppance for her actions at all]] - and if anything gets ''indulged'' by not only being taken to a movie she already saw in the theatres several times but getting invited to Francine's birthday party. D.W. even looks forward to how she gets to go to an older kid's party... to get back at the girl who didn't invite her.
** "Buster Gets Real" tries to deliver the moral that you can still be friends even if your interests don't align. Unfortunately, it's delivered in a very ''very'' clunky way. Buster, a known CloudCuckoolander, suddenly "grows out of" ''[[ShowWithinAShow Bionic Bunny]]'' and develops an interest in a reality TV show. The reasoning for him getting into a reality TV show? Bionic Bunny isn't grounded in reality. This comes off as... [[OutOfCharacterMoment quite unusual]] considering that again, it's ''Buster'' - and even goes into CluelessAesop territory in that it never discusses [[https://www.thedelite.com/reality-tv-shows-scripted how reality TV can be scripted]] through the use of ManipulativeEditing and ExecutiveMeddling. [[note]] Actually, Arthur does bring this up to Buster, he just doesn't care [[/note]] Further breaking the Aesop is that it still ends on a notion that you have to have most if not everything in common with your best friend. It's also worth mentioning that in later episodes [[SnapBack Buster is seen enjoying Bionic Bunny again without comment]], suggesting him suddenly finding the show unrealistic compared to reality TV [[CompressedVice was a trait invented for this one episode]].
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** In the {{filler}} episode "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheGreatDivide The Great Divide]]", Aang GotVolunteered by Katara to resolve a century-long feud between two groups of Earth Kingdom refugees over their RashomonStyle interpretations of a struggle between their ancestors that was [[RiddleForTheAges lost to time]]. The story {{anvilicious}}ly carries the message that it's best to let go of old grudges and move on, but Aang gets that message across by ''lying to everyone'' about what really happened, [[TheSmartGuy much to Sokka's disappointment]]. This essentially taught the kids watching that it's ok to ignore inconvenient parts of history instead of acknowledging the misdeeds of your ancestors and learning from them [[SinsOfOurFathers without accepting blame for something you didn't personally do]].
** The intended message in "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSouthernRaiders The Southern Raiders]]", as stated by Aang and supported by WordOfGod in the DVD commentary, was that violence isn't the answer to your problems and that forgiving your enemy is the first step towards healing from trauma. However, what led to Katara finding closure was seeing what her mother's killer was really like, and ultimately deciding that [[NotWorthKilling forcing him to live with his own cowardice was better retribution than murdering him.]] Katara herself rebukes Aang, pointing out that she didn't forgive him, and she never will.
** SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has a couple of these as well:
*** Korra TookALevelInJerkass in Season 2, which was supposed to have consequences that would teach her and audiences the importances of reining in your temperament and thinking your actions through. But her most brash and impulsive action, threatening to kill a judge to get him to overturn her fathers sentence, is how the heroes learned of Unalaq's villainy in time to rescue Korra's father and ultimately thwart his EvilPlan. Those Korra are able or unable to convince to help do so for reason unrelated to her temperament. Even after Korra TookALevelInKindness and starts thinking thing through they [[YouCantThwartStageOne still fail to make inroads agains the villains until the very end]] for [[DeusExMachina unrelated reasons]], in fact it inadvertently leads to a moment where Korra [[HostageForMacGuffin is forced to aid the villains]], and her attempt to talk the villains out of it fails or played such a small part in there HeelFaceTurn it likely would have happened regardless.
*** It's noted throughout the franchise that balance is important: the Four Nations need to be in balance, there are allusions to yin and yang, which is the concept that opposite forces compliment each other, and the very concept of the Avatar is to be a balance of the four elements. However, this gets broken by Vaatu and Raava. Vaatu and Raava are depicted as two halves of the same being in conflict (with very obvious yin-yang symbolism in their designs and battle), who were split from each other long ago--creating an obvious imbalance between the two, as Raava became the spirit of the Avatar, while Vaatu was sealed away. One might expect from this, along with the concept of balance being so emphasized, that the series would establish Vaatu has important aspects as well, and end with the two being reunited and the balance between them restored. But instead, Vaatu is depicted as a complete GenericDoomsdayVillain who is MadeOfEvil and has no redeeming qualities, and his destruction is treated as wholly good.
*** In the final season, it's noted that the prior main antagonists--Amon, Unalaq, and Zaheer--were all [[WellIntentionedExtremist motivated by good intentions but were driven into extremism]], which creates imbalance, with the intended statement being that moderation is the true path and an extremist mindset destroys a good purpose. Except that doesn't really work as a reason for why their movements fell apart. Zaheer is a true well-intentioned extremist, but his plan didn't really fall apart because it was too extreme; it fell apart because he didn't really have a plan at all besides "kill the Earth Queen and it'll all work out by itself." Meanwhile, Amon and Unalaq were SecretlySelfish, and their motivations amounted to jealous resentment and naked ambition, respectively--which were, again, the actual reasons their plans fell apart, not their methods.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'' had Hawkeye try to confront the Hulk on his selfish, hoarding, rude behavior. But throughout the episode he's portrayed as a selfish and childish crybaby. In fact, not once does anyone side with Hawkeye despite the fact that his grievances with Hulk are actually quite reasonable. So the moral of the episode is, let Hulk get away with everything, or get smashed.
* The ''WesternAnimation/BabyLooneyTunes'' episode "Mr. [=McStuffles=]" features Daffy having an old toy (the episode's namesake) but despite the fact that Daffy doesn't play with it much anymore, he can't bring himself to let go of it. Granny forces Daffy to play with Mr. [=McStuffles=] against his will just to prove that he still likes it. Is the message supposed to be "Don't hold onto things you don't use?" If so, that would work better if Daffy were hoarding toys, but this was just one. The message comes off more as "If you don't constantly use something, no matter how much sentimental value it holds, you must give it up."
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'':
** The Ghostfreak two-parter tries to do an Aesop about teamwork. Unfortunately, this fails when TheHero is armed with one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe; try as they might, Gwen and Max ''really'' [[WeAreTeamCannonFodder don't compare]]. Also, at the beginning of Part 2 ("Be Afraid of The Dark"), Gwen tells Ben "We don't need your help". Frankly, the story makes it seem like she's jealous of the Omnitrix, and having {{sidekick}} issues. Max has a lesser case, but, not being ten, he knows when to shut up and get on with things. At the end of the second episode, Ben ends up learning his aesop about teamwork after... he uses his Omnitrix to save Gwen and Max's asses as they plummet from space to Earth.
** The first season episode "Lucky Girl" revolves around Gwen becoming a superhero based on a magical charm she finds. After losing it and finding out that the BigBad of the episode possesses many similar charms to augment his magical power, she opts to destroy them rather than use them herself, justifying it as a decision to "just be me". Unfortunately, this Aesop is broken for two reasons. First, Gwen's stance on not relying on such power tends to be overshadowed when her cousin keeps using that Omnitrix thingy, especially since she benefits from it as much as everyone else. Second, what does she do in later episodes? She readopts the persona briefly after finding an even better charm. Then she learns that she is capable of using magic, and (with a few tools stolen from one villain) starts regularly using it herself. In fact, in the future-based episodes, Gwen carries and uses '''the exact same charms that she destroyed in that first episode'''! It seems those powers ''are'' just too cool to pass up after all. The best way to interpret it is they realized how broken the aesop was from the first episode and [[RetCon chose to just pretend the lesson wasn't there]], and from then on, Gwen destroys the charms only to keep them out of the hands of the bad guys, getting them in the future when she's strong enough to protect them.
** Another broken Aesop occurs with the show's handling of [[GirlOfTheWeek Kai Green]]. As she turned out to be quite shallow by the end of her debut, Ben supposedly learns the moral that not every crush is meant to work out and he just needs to move on. As Gwen put it, "the thing about a crush is, sometimes you get crushed." Yet for whatever reason, ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' backpedaled on this moral ''hard'' by not only bringing back Kai, but going as far as to treat her and Ben as [[YouCantFightFate destined to be together]]. It's to the point where time traveler Chrono Spanner ([[spoiler:secretly their future son Kenny in disguise]]) goes back in time specifically to ensure they spend time alone with each other. To make matters worse, the show actually ''[[TookALevelInJerkass worsened]]'' Kai's shallow traits from the original series, making it seem even more ridiculous that she's somehow the one that Ben ''has'' to get together with. Even prior to her return in ''Omniverse'', the original series still breaks this Aesop; while Kai is never shown onscreen, pop-up trivia confirms that the she is the mother of Kenny (Ben's future son), which is further supported by the fact that he shares the same skin tone as her. This is, again, in spite of the moral of Kai's debut being that she and Ben ''aren't'' meant to be together.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'':
** Lampshaded in 'The Claw.' Bandit says he's teaching the girls a valuable lesson about money by making their pretend claw game more realistic by demanding the girls get real coins from doing housework. When he puts in a block that would grant them as much ice cream as they want, his claw machine conveniently breaks down. He attempts to explain to the girls that this is how the world works, only to be interrupted by them tickling him. As the girls chow down on their well-deserved ice cream, Chilli asks if they learned anything today, to which they both say "nope!"
** 'Pass the Parcel' tries to teach lessons about sportsmanship (Especially with games of chance), sometimes not being guaranteed to walk away with something from games of chance makes it more fun, and that your time might eventually come. However, this is somewhat undermined by the fact that every time they played using "Lucky's Dad's Rules"[[labelnote:*]]There is not a small present in every layer with one "big" present at the centre[[/labelnote]] a different kid was shown winning, as well as when Bingo ''finally'' got the big prize. When Bingo finally got to win, the other kids clearly felt it was "her turn" and one of the guests even tried to find a [[LoopholeAbuse loophole]] in the song choice to pass it to her so she would win.
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Bobinogs}}'' episode "Wash, Soap, Rinse, and Dry" pulled off its Aesop about [[DiseasePreventionAesop hand washing]], but its other Aesop, not to be afraid to ask to use the toilet, is broken because Nib ''did'' ask to go to the toilet before riding in the hot air balloon, but her friends [[BathroomControl brushed it off]] with "There's no time for that".
* Several episodes of the satirical African-American cartoon ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' carry the message of "[[StopBeingStereotypical black people shouldn't be acting like foolish caricatures of themselves]]". Some episodes even lambasted the {{Creator/BET}} TV network for perpetuating this. Despite this, most of the comedy in ''The Boondocks'' is reliant upon [[UncleTomfoolery over-the-top stereotypes of ghetto black people]].
* Invoked in ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBabyBackInBusiness''. In order to convince Tim to break into [[BadBoss Mega Fat CEO Baby's]] vault, the Boss Baby points out that the hero in his comic book saves the world and is rewarded for it, despite him [[DestructiveSavior destroying half the city and causing approximately $80 million in damages.]]
--> '''Boss Baby:''' Don't you see? You can do whatever you want so long as it's for the greater good!
** In a more straight example, [[WesternAnimation/TheBossBaby the original film]] according to the rules of its' universe, states that babies either go to families or work for Baby Corp, ([[Series/TheMuppetShow no third alternative]]) and that the crux of the movie is the titular character [[CharacterDevelopment learning]] how much he likes being part of a family and giving up his promotion at Baby Corp to be with them. This series [[HandWave somehow has it]] that he's both part of the family and working for Baby Corp again, meaning all that development was thrown out the window cause now he has both. And yes, one could argue it's an AlternateContinuity / BroadStrokes [[note]] As tends to be the case with pretty much every Creator/DreamWorksAnimation series, can't they do one that's actually canon to one of their movies? [[/note]] but that still doesn't mean the lesson wasn't invalidated.
* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'' does this with the episode "Ding Dongers". In the episode, Remy discovers Cricket is the key to popularity with a [=TikTok=]-like app and pushes him into doing multiple dangerous stunts, only to ultimately stop and realize he was dreadfully harming Cricket for the sake of popularity, so he ends up TakingTheBullet for his sake. However, their friend Benny filmed the whole park stunt, and ''his'' account gets the most followers yet making him a platinum member, thus he sold Cricket and Remy out for fame like Remy almost did.
* Invoked in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/BrandyAndMrWhiskers''. Whiskers had just gotten over his CompressedVice of video game addiction and decides that the lesson is that there's more to life than staring at a screen for hours on end. He and Brandy, remembering they are ratings-dependent cartoon characters, very quickly try to claim that television is exempt from that statement before the viewer switches them off.
* In the ''Franchise/{{Bratz}}'' cartoons, the main characters constantly tell the one-shot characters that they should follow their own unique sense of style... right after they give them a makeover or get done gawking at the villains' untrendy LimitedWardrobe.
* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' had an episode (very loosely) based on ''VideoGame/{{Paperboy}}'' where Mother Brain used a mind control serum mixed in with ink to take over the neighborhood. It's also revealed that the titular paperboy is illiterate, leading to a ReadingIsCoolAesop. However, the mind control serum only works if the victim reads what was written with the ink and the paperboy was unaffected because he couldn't read it.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Captain Planet|AndThePlaneteers}}''
** The moral of the entire series is "if we work together, we can [[GreenAesop save the planet]]", but in every episode, [[HardWorkHardlyWorks working together fails]] and the Planeteers always end up calling Captain Planet to deal with the problem for them. Mitigated somewhat by the [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle ending tag]] of each episode, telling the viewers how they can personally help save the planet (without the Captain's help). Sure, calling Captain Planet is "all their powers combined", but if combining their powers is all it takes, why isn't regular teamwork enough?
** Captain Planet also has a problem with a broken Aesop regarding green technology. We're told that relying on fossil fuels and nuclear power is bad/wrong and we instead should be using such things as solar power. But the only ones who have solar power in the energy densities required are the Planeteers (their craft actually ''flies'' on the power generated by solar panels). So... why aren't they [[ReedRichardsIsUseless giving this technology away]], if it will help? So the Aesop is: "Use green technology, but never actually give it to anyone who would benefit."
* The true star of ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'' is Charlie Brown's [[SoulfulPlantStory sad little Christmas tree]], which serves as a metaphor for the TrueMeaningOfChristmas, in contrast to the glitzy aluminum Christmas trees everyone else buys, which are a metaphor for crazed [[CommercialisedChristmas holiday materialism]]. By the end of the film, Charlie Brown's friends come around to appreciating his perspective — and his tree. Yet the climax of the film nevertheless features everyone happily decorating Charlie Brown's sad tree until it rather magically comes to resemble a more "proper" one, decked out in glitzy decorations. This is presented as a happy ending, though it undermines the anti-materialism message by ultimately presenting Charlie Brown's tree as something that needed to be "fixed" by conforming with materialistic standards.
* The intended moral of obscure 1995 ChristmasSpecial ''WesternAnimation/TheChristmasLight'' seems to be that everyone has the capability to be a good person and [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship can help bring out the best in people]], but it falls flat in a number of ways due to how ineptly the story is written. The biggest way the moral fails is the fact that the story indicates that [[BigBad Burton]] was the one who learned this lesson when the story's circumstances would make it more appropriate for the other characters sans [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Jennifer]] to learn said lesson since [[CreateYourOwnVillain they were the ones who caused Burton to go bad]] in the first place by [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer always bullying him]] [[InformedFlaw for reasons that are never stated]]. On top of that, the heroes don't try even once to get the antagonist of the movie's sequel to learn this lesson, even after he's defeated.
* The ''WesternAnimation/CareBearsWelcomeToCareALot'' episode "Welcome to Grump-A-Lot" has Grumpy Bear lose his temper at his friends, causing a "Grumpy Storm" to break loose and turn everyone except for Grumpy into foul-tempered opposites of their normal selves. The lesson (as spelled out by Tenderheart) is that "While we all get frustrated, we must learn to control our emotions." Which would be fine, except Grumpy only blew up at the others because he was all set to watch TV in peace and everyone showed up at his place without being invited, ate all his food, criticized the way he had laid out the snacks, deliberately stood in front of the TV screen so he couldn't see anything, talked and sang loudly over the announcer, and utterly refused to respect his privacy. So the lesson came across more as "It's wrong to want time for yourself, and if your friends walk all over you and refuse to consider your feelings on the matter, you have no right to get angry at them about it." Bonus points because this was the exact kind of lesson that the Care Bears franchise originally tried to ''avoid'' with Grumpy Bear; the entire point to his character was to teach kids that it's okay to sometimes be grumpy.
* While ''WesternAnimation/CrawfordsCorner'' is usually good at getting its morals straight, in "Crawford Washes His Hands", one of the lessons is not to leave the faucet dripping as that would be [[GreenAesop bad for the environment]]. However, instead of just telling Crawford to turn off the faucet, the offscreen voice has him ''guess'' what he needs to do (e.g. "Do you hear anything?"), which only leaves the faucet dripping for longer.
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'':
** The Aesop of "Splitting Images" is supposedly "Standing up to bullies makes you a bully." By that logic, Danny's a bully for messing with Dash and the rest of the bullies. Pointdexter should, therefore, be just as much of a "bully" as Danny, as he also punishes a kid he thinks is a bully. Danny is portrayed as in the wrong for giving real bullies a taste of their own medicine, but Pointdexter is treated as in the right for giving ''Danny'' a taste of his own medicine. Danny concludes that what Pointdexter put him through "serves me right," even though he and Pointdexter did the exact same thing with the exact same motive. If Danny was wrong, Pointdexter should have been wrong, too; conversely, if Pointdexter's actions were justified, Danny's should have been, too. The double standard is ''very'' stark.
** Vlad is treated as in the wrong for thinking of his imperfect clones of Danny as cannon fodder. However, Vlad is the only one to feel sad when [[spoiler:the unfinished perfect clone is killed]].
** The conflict of the very first episode, "Mystery Meat," is started because Sam attempts to express her individuality as an "Ultra-Recyclo vegetarian" by replacing the cafeteria's lunch menu with what is essentially [[DisgustingVegetarianFood grass on a bun]] and [[{{Main/Hypocrite}} forcing all the other students to go along with it]]. The other students are not happy about this, but Sam [[NeverMyFault refuses to back down]], even when her changing the menu to her tastes results in her getting kidnapped by the Lunch Lady Ghost.
** "The Fright Before Christmas" has Danny accidentally destroy one of Ghost Writer's books due to [[TheGrinch him being in a sour mood about the hoildays]]; in retaliation, Ghost Writer curses Danny and everyone around him to be [[RhymesOnADime stuck rhyming]] until he learns {{An Aesop}} about being in the Christmas spirit. The story falls apart due to the actual reason Danny is always in such a bad mood around Christmas: every year, [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents his parents have dramatic public arguments about the existence of Santa Claus]], complete with laser battles. ''Of course'' Danny would be miserable having to deal with his parents making even bigger spectacles of themselves than usual, but everyone else just treats Danny's feelings as {{Wangst}}. So the lesson ends up coming off as "Don't be a Scrooge around the holidays, [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong even if you have a good reason for doing so]], because everyone around you will just shame you into feeling the Christmas spirit." Merry Christmas?
* The first season finale of ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' had Daria face the consequences of her TheCynic behavior as everyone came to her for advice when mourning a death, annoying her to no end at being labeled. Daria and the episode as a whole ignore the fact that she rightfully earned that label by antagonizing everyone around her with her DeadpanSnarker behavior and disregard for social norms, and in the end she decides that [[NeverMyFault everyone else is the problem]] and makes no attempt to look inward despite the episode intending to challenge her perspective on life.
* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'':
** In a few episodes, Dexter does something that bothers Dee Dee or hurts her feelings, and in turn he has to make up for it after being [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone stricken with guilt for what he'd done]]. That would all be okay if it weren't for one thing: Dee Dee is constantly destroying Dexter's lab, and very rarely shows any respect for her brother, and they want us to blame Dexter. The result is Dex becoming UnintentionallySympathetic while Dee Dee becomes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic the opposite]].
** A specific episode has Dexter finding an old part of his lab; after finding it, the robots inhabiting that part of the lab [[SecondLawMyAss turn against him]]. Dee Dee then comes in to help... that is, she comes in and finds one Dex's first inventions, and when he dismisses it in favor of saving his own butt, she tells him that [[FatalFlaw he cares too much about progress to pay attention to his past creations]]... But science is about ''making progress''; that's why people in [[TechnologyMarchesOn scientific fields invent and discover new things]].
* All three plots we see in ''WesternAnimation/DorbeesMakingDecisions'' have the "Making the right decisions" moral broken in some way.
** Jack and Mary Jane: The right decision was meant to be for them to stay in school, but considering the teacher was giving them bad information(he says the sum of the sides of a triangle is 90 degrees; in reality, the sum of the ''angles'' is ''180'' degrees) and the school flat out tries to ''kill them'' as soon as they step out of the classroom (nothing is done to establish that this system could tell the difference between kids intending to leave school and kids leaving the class for a legitimate reason, like to go to the nurse or the bathroom), staying in that school probably wouldn't be the best decision either.
** Otto and Dig: The right decision was meant for Dig to be honest, which he ultimately does... by telling Otto that he can't possibly make someone as ugly as him look good, despite being the best clothing shop in town, and that Otto would be better off sticking to Scandinavian clothes rather than trying to integrate into the local fashion. There's being honest, and then there's being unnecessarily blunt.
** Mr. Poe and Yogul: Mr. Poe saves Yogul from Dr. Dairy's death trap by pressing a button to free him, ignoring the other two buttons which are labeled "Push for World Peace" and "Push to End World Hunger". Even if there was a reason why Mr. Poe couldn't press all three, pressing either of the other two could have saved millions of lives, making them better decisions than just freeing Yogul.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Double Dragon|1993}}'', this is what the [[OldMaster Oldest Dragon]] tells Billy in the first episode "The Shadow Falls":
-->'''Oldest Dragon:''' Never forget the code of the dragon. Do not battle if you can avoid it. If you must fight, do not injure. Never intentionally harm another.
** This gives the message that one shouldn't [[BloodKnight jump into battles for the sake of fighting]], don't be a bully, etc... yet the Oldest Dragon also tells Billy that he should never injure his opponents ''during battle''. This is absurd, especially in Billy's case, as he is fighting against the Shadow Warriors, the members of an evil syndicate. He can't afford ''not'' to injure these guys. If the Oldest Dragon told him [[ThouShallNotKill not to kill them]], it'd be a different story. It's just an out-of-place message in a MerchandiseDriven action cartoon based on a BeatEmUp video game.\\
If that wasn't enough, while the Oldest Dragon tells Billy this quote, he hands him a sword. Billy Lee is told never to harm his opponents while being handed a sword. ''The Oldest Dragon, who knows exactly how huge a threat the Shadow Warriors are, is telling his pupil, who he just named a Dragon Master, '''not''' to harm them as he [[RuleOfThree hands him a sword]].
** In the ''guns are bad'' episode, the city bans every kind of unlicensed handgun. The Shadow Master increases production of his illegal handguns, since there is now a greater market; resident criminals buy weapons from him illegally and go on a rampage. When regular citizens find that they can't even buy licensed weapons, unless they're in law enforcement, ''they'' start buying them illegally ''to protect themselves''. The police prove unable to stop the wave of crooks or shut down the Shadow Master's operations. The moral comes across less "guns are bad" than it does "crooks are already willing to break the law, and ''will'' get weapons, so you need to be able to defend yourself", which one might recognize as one of the most popular arguments '''in favor''' of letting the general public own guns. It also shows no grey areas between "no legal guns at all" and "no restrictions on guns."
* ''WesternAnimation/DragonBooster'' had a big one in "Pride of the Hero". It starts with Artha's ego yet again getting over-inflated. Then we see Fan-Favorite AntiVillain Moordryd suddenly stopping Wraith Dragons after what looked like a fight with his BigBad father. While we admit it seems a bit abrupt for a HeelFaceTurn, at least Artha's getting called out for the fact that [[WhatTheHellHero jealously is the main reason he doesn't trust Moordryd]]. In order to make a point, and possibly because he sense the good in him, Beau then lets Moordryd get on his back, shocking Artha into admitting that maybe there is good in Moordryd...only for Moordryd to whip out an ArtifactOfDoom and spill his whole evil plan.
* In ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk'', in the episode A Grim Retreat, the way the riders talk, the moral of the episode is "overwork is bad — take a break when you need it and let your friends take a break when they need it." Hiccup deserves major credit for not pointing out that had they not insisted on taking a vacation, or had they not gone swimming when he wanted to gather limestone, the dragons never would have gotten infected by the Grimora. Contrary to what the episode's dialogue claims, the conflict of the episode happened because of the riders' desire to relax, not because of Hiccup's drive to keep working.
* ''WesternAnimation/DragonTales'':
** [[TokenMinority Lorca]] is a magical dragon in a wheelchair, to set up the aesop of "disabled people are just like you and me". Except Lorca can still fly, so...?
** One episode features Cassie showing off her new anthropomorphic crayon that is capable of bringing anything you draw with it to life. She has to learn to share it with everyone else, even if it means she gets no time with it. The problem is that it never once occurs to her to draw more crayons. That's not what makes it this trope though; what does is that the episode very clearly demonstrates this as being a possible solution when the crayon draws clones of himself to help clean a mess.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': In one episode, Scrooge and his on-and-off girlfriend/rival Goldie O'Gilt encounter a FountainOfYouth near a hotel resort in Florida, and they become 20-somethings again. But then they find out the fountain actually transfers youth; someone has to be made older for it to make someone else young, and the resort owner has been stealing the youth of college-age spring breakers to maintain his own life. Scrooge and Goldie ultimately decide they'd rather age gracefully than artificially become young again. This would be admirable except they have both ''already'' used various means to prolong their lives and relative youth, having been alive since the 1800's. One could argue that those previous methods didn't require them to harm others like this one does, but the show never makes this point.
* PlayedForLaughs in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewSchool''. After Kuzco and Kronk attempt to get Mr. Moleguaco to take a vacation because they find the work he's giving them too hard (mostly Kuzco, Kronk [[ItMakesSenseInContext just wants a piñata]]), Mr. Moleguaco decides to indeed go on vacation, resulting in Kuzco, Kronk and the rest of the class having to put up with a [[SadistTeacher Sadist Substitute Teacher]] named Mr. Nadaempa. Eventually it turns out that Mr. Nadaempa is Mr. Moleguaco's cousin, and that Mr. Moleguaco enlisted his help to teach the class that you can't skip work. Then he takes them all to a water park. When Malina points out that they're not learning anything, he blatantly {{Hand Wave}}s it.
* The Creator/NationalFilmBoardOfCanada animated short, [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol ''The Energy Carol'']] has the standard GreenAesop of conserving energy. Unfortunately, the short undermines its own message for the sake of a joke: after our Scrooge analog is visited by the ghosts of energy past, present, and future, he becomes a complete Luddite and urges others to do the same, while the ghosts look on and wonder if they overdid it.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** One commonly-found Broken Aesop is parodied -- that of the strong, empowered woman with an important job who's unfulfilled without a man. It features one such character meeting a man who says "In the next ninety minutes I'll show you that all your problems can be solved by my penis."
** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS7E12Episode420 Episode 420]]" unsuccessfully juggles the "legalizing weed will have no negative consequences on society" aesop with "stoners are morons" jokes. For example, the scene where Brian states that ever since legalizing weed worker productivity is up over 100% doesn't really fare so well since only a scene away Peter was so stoned he couldn't even set up a CutawayGag. And when he mentions that crime is down, it is clear that it is because everyone is too stoned to get off the couch.
** In "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS10E2SeahorseSeashellParty Seahorse Seashell Party]]", Meg openly accepts being the Griffin family ButtMonkey because, after confronting them on what awful people they are, the entire family falls apart. This is supposed to show how strong, mature, and stable she is for being able to endure the abusive hell she lives in for their sake... except the abuse has driven her to become an obsessive, mall-garbage-eating stalker, starved for even the barest minimum of positive attention.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
** "Amazon Women in the Mood" seems to be ''attempting'' some kind of Aesop about the futility of the battle of the sexes... which is slightly deflated by leaning on a lot of sexist humor (the men are [[CompressedVice suddenly played]] as universally StrawMisogynist, while the Amazon society is built entirely on lazy jokes about women) and DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale. There's a bit of mitigation in that [[OnlySaneMan Kif]] is legitimately horrified by the idea of "Death by Snu-Snu", but only because he's effeminate, cementing the idea that AManIsAlwaysEager even when it will ''kill him''.
** "Decision 3012" satirizes [[ConspiracyTheorist the Obama "birthers"]], [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything by showing an esteemed politician being accused of not being a "true" citizen because of a missing birth certificate]], all meant to show how petty and idiotic the "birthers" are. But it falls flat when it turns out [[spoiler:[[TheCuckoolanderWasRight the conspiracy theorists were right all along]], [[RightForTheWrongReasons albeit for the wrong reasons]]]]. Also, [[NotHelpingYourCase the esteemed politician made no effort to disprove the conspiracy theorists]].
** "Proposition Infinity" uses {{Robosexual}}ity as a metaphor for [[GayAesop homosexuality]], as Bender and Amy enter a relationship and fight for their right to get married. At the end of the episode, they succeed in legalizing robosexual marriage, but Bender breaks up with Amy when he learns she wants their relationship to be monogamous. In the episode's attempt to show that same-sex relationships are just as meaningful as traditional ones, the main relationship is depicted as ultimately shallow on Bender's end and Amy returns to her regular boyfriend as [[StatusQuoIsGod the show reverts back to the status quo]]. Additionally, the metaphor is undermined by the previous episode, "I Dated a Robot," which made an argument (which was tongue-in-cheek, but not depicted as ''wrong'') that humans dating robots would be indulging in too much pleasure and thus prevent human population. (However the episode “Law and Oracle” contradicts this revelation by revealing that human police chief O’mannahan was pregnant with a human baby and that the father was strongly implied to be URL who is a robot in the police force).
** The episode “Lrrrenconcilable Ndndifferences” has Lrrr learn that he needs to respect his wife NDND and not be [[LazyBum lazy]] in his duties. However it is shown that he gets kicked out his his castle by Ndnd and placed in a midlife crisis in the process because he actually did do his duties in invading earth for Ndnd, only for the invasion to get overshadowed by the comic con, leading to Lrrr doing an improvised romantic gesture by delivering her a face mask of J.J Abrams, which she refuses to appreciate and repays Lrrr for it by domestically abusing him with a frying pan. Even worse is that Leela instantly takes Ndnd’s side and deems Lrrr in the wrong despite the aforementioned circumstances. Even though Lrrr still listened to both Leela and Ndnd, he is still deemed in the wrong and deserving of being hit with a frying pan again and Ndnd’s domestic abuse is just swept under the rug.
** "Leela and the Genestalk" had the moral that [=GMOs=] are bad, since the character advocating GMO was [[EvilOldFolks Mom]], and Leela refused to use it even when it could cure disease. However, when Leela learns that the GMO could cure the disease ''she'' has, she changes her mind and agrees to let it be used.
* In ''WesternAnimation/GalactikFootball'''s second season, Rocket is banned from playing and leaves the team to play in a one-on-one game called Netherball, becoming a much more aggressive player the longer he plays. The Aesop is rammed down our throats by every "good" character -- playing as a team is good, playing for yourself is selfish. Rocket eventually returns to the team, and in his first match back the opposing captain (Lurr, who was one of the main proponents of the whole "teamwork is good" mantra) plays a game that's like that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs is playing ''all'' the positions in baseball. Then in their next match, their opponents all leave the field save for their ace player, who proceeds to run rings around the protagonist team and score three goals in a row. It's only when Rocket draws upon his experiences playing Netherball and decides to do it all himself that the heroes score a goal.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGalaxyTrio'', a subterranean race is wreaking havoc on the surface world. After the Trio beat them, it turns out that they are actually the original natives of the planet, forced underground by the colonists from space. The solution is to send them to live on ''the sun'' instead with no mention of reparations, which their physiology conveniently favors.
* The ''[[WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends US Acres]]'' cartoon "Gort Goes Good" has a "people can change" moral, completely subverted in that Gort's HeelFaceTurn was just a ruse. Despite this, Orson still proclaims that it's possible for people to change for the better, but his case isn't looking too strong. It's worth noting that Orson was the only character that honestly believed that Gort had gone good in the first place, and Orson's Aesop was just an example of his rampant optimism. At the very end, after Wade causes a problem with his panic, Orson grudgingly admits that some people never change.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGetAlongGang'': In "Zipper's Millions" Zipper's cousin Miss Tabby is supposed to inherit $100,000 if Zipper doesn't arrive in time, and Zipper decides to use the money to buy Miss Tabby a new house. The lesson, as summed up by Montgomery, is "We found a treasure greater than that money: Zipper's heart of gold", which implies "Someone with a good heart is more valuable than things with monetary value", except Zipper's "heart of gold" was unneeded here. The townsfolk did everything they could to stop Zipper and the rest of the gang from getting the money, including trying to crush the Clubhouse Caboose with a boulder (which could have killed them), and then trapping Bingo, Woolma, Dotty and Portia in Miss Tabby's house and barricading the door with a boulder. Those four do end up destroying Miss Tabby's house, but only because they use a battering ram to escape and cause her house to fall off the cliff and be destroyed. Zipper shouldn't be paying for Miss Tabby's new house, the townsfolk should because it's their fault that Miss Tabby's house was destroyed in the first place.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'':
** "The Time Traveler's Pig" teaches Dipper that sometimes, you have to sacrifice your needs for others' happiness, in this case, Mabel. Except that when Mabel loses Waddles to help Dipper impress Wendy, she ended up fighting with Dipper over the {{time machine}} hoping to [[TimeTravel return to the timeline]] where she wins back Waddles and upon failing to do so, ended up having a month long HeroicBSOD where she beats her head on a totem pole. Downplayed when you consider the fact Mabel's happiness was a beloved pet pig (who winds up looking ''quite'' unhappy in the timeline where Mabel never wins him), whereas Dipper's happiness essentially amounted to pining over someone who due to realistic circumstances could only love him back in his dreams.
** "The Love God" attempts to give a moral about not meddling with people's relationships, which is undermined by everything ending up better for all parties involved after Mabel uses a {{love potion}} to force two people together. She learned the aforementioned lesson while trying to ''reverse'' the effects of the potion (or at least force a break up, given that ''Literature/GravityFallsJournal3'' revealed that the potion's effects were temporary), and ultimately decided not to since the results of her tampering were good in the end.
** "Roadside Attraction" has an aesop about not being a pickup artist. On paper, Dipper tries being one to help take his mind off of Wendy, flirts with a number of girls at different tourist attractions, then gets called out for it when they all meet up at the final spot and find out what he's been doing. In practice, however, all Dipper is shown doing is having friendly conversations with them and asking for numbers and e-mails to keep in touch, with the girls not really having any reason to expect hearing from him again. It instead makes the episode come off as implying that so much as interacting with someone of the opposite sex is automatically seen as trying to be in a relationship with them and thus that Dipper shouldn't interact with more than one member of the opposite sex. Plus, in previous episodes, we see Mabel aggressively throwing herself at every boy she sees, often regardless of how comfortable they are with her doing so, and it's played for laughs, resulting in a significant DoubleStandard.
** The lesson of "Soos and The Real Girl" is apparently about going out and meeting real people, rather than playing video games, and that {{dating sim}}s aren't a substitute for real relationships. Fair enough- except that the dating sim in question ''is actually intelligent and sapient''. So the lesson ends up being closer to "A.I. aren't real people, even if they are fully sapient and can think".
* The Italian cartoon ''Grisù'' had a problem with using a reset button powered by FailureIsTheOnlyOption that consistently clashed two contradictory aesops. Being a young dragon, Grisù (whose name is Italian for a firedamp) dreams of being a fireman and stopping fires instead of starting them as his proud father keeps reminding them is his role in life. The aesop here is to ''believe in yourself and anything is possible'', as week after week he gets a different job and gains instant fame as he succeeds at it beyond expectation... only to burn it all away as his happiness makes him lose control of his fire breath and he singes everyone involved, ruining his job and delivering the counter-aesop ''don't try to be something you're not as you will only destroy your life in the process.''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGroovenians'' espouses the morals of not trampling on artistic expression. The problem is that it equates ''any'' form of making self-admitted {{hipster}}s take responsibility and pay their dues with not caring about their artistry. One wonders whether [[AuthorFilibuster the creator of the cartoon being a career artist has anything to do with it]], though no one wonders why the {{pilot}} never got picked up.
* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'' featured a FramingDevice about an entitled, misogynistic fan who hates the show (and Harley) on principal, and has to be goaded into watching it. At the end, he learns that he shouldn't have judged the show and needed to get over his pre-conceived notions. Except the episode he watched didn't feature Harley at all, instead focusing on Batman. It was completely different from the rest of the series. So instead of him learning to give something a chance, the episode is essentially saying that giving him what he wants is the way to go.
* ''WesternAnimation/HighGuardianSpice'': Snapdragon calls Sage out on being sexist when the latter rants that men can't understand the bonds women have and don't talk about their feelings, feeling hurt that Sage thinks they're emotionally shallow due to their gender. This is a fine message. However, when WordOfGod later said that Snapdragon was a trans woman, Sage's TheUnfairSex speech is implicitly reinforced by suggesting Snapdragon was able to understand that kind of bond because she's a trans woman rather than because men are capable of the same breadth of emotional bonding as women.[[note]]Snapdragon is the only AMAB character in the first season given any degree of character focus or emotional depth, with other AMAB characters being background characters and/or vapid [[JerkAss Jerkasses]].[[/note]]
* The 2014 NBC holiday special ''WesternAnimation/HowMurraySavedChristmas'' has some good messages about teamwork and doing your part for the community. These are undercut with jokes about sweatshop labor and kids being brats.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheInspector'' short "London Derierre" was written around the idea that British policemen are a bunch of idiotic fools for not carrying weapons and that '''real''' police officers carry guns at all times and use them whenever the opportunity presents itself. While you can make arguments for and against British police officers being unarmed, the way the cartoon depicts things rather undermines its own argument, because the Inspector opens fire at a ''burglar'' who has done nothing to directly threaten the Inspector himself, and does it in the middle of a crowded building. This has the effect of making the Inspector look like a trigger-happy maniac while the obstructive British police officers come off like they're preventing the Inspector from hurting any innocent bystanders.
* Lampshaded in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'':
-->'''Jackie:''' You see, Jade? Slow and steady wins the race.
-->'''Jade:''' But you're using the rabbit talisman to get super-speed? I'm getting mixed messages here!
* The episode "Like Father Like Son" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaijudo}}'' has the moral that kids don't always end up like their parents, and can make the right choices and become better people. Despite nearly dying multiple times, getting kidnapped and held hostage, and being dragged through the Fire Civilization, [[StatusQuoIsGod Carny still becomes a recurring villain after running back to his]] [[AbusiveParents scumbag of a father]]. Even worse, in a later episode, Ray's father turns out [[spoiler:to be a duel master.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' has "Twin Factor" where Kim describes a mind control chip as "ferociously unethical". Later, she uses it on her brothers while babysitting.
** The morality of mind control goes right out the window when Kim's own father brainwashes her [[note]]Or more specifically "convinces her she likes his favorite show, which she normally dislikes"[[/note]]. Or the previous episode where Shego having her MoralityDial [[HeelFaceBrainwashing switched to good]] is a good thing.
** "Low Budget" includes the discovery that Kim's favorite brand, Club Banana, is an offshoot of (and sells similar wares to) Smarty Mart, the UsefulNotes/{{Walmart}} {{expy}} which she belittled. This doesn't affect her adherence to the latest Club Banana fashions at all. Smarty Mart's boots are black, and Club Banana's are onyx.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingArthurAndTheKnightsOfJustice'' had [[RecycledScript two]] episodes, "To Save a Squire" & "Winter Campaign," which appeared to be attempting to show YouGoGirl by having Guinevere's handmaidens join the Knights on a mission and prove themselves. However, the moral was butchered in both; while Mary in the first episode was closer to ActionGirl or SilkHidingSteel, not only was Tone depicted as a StrawMisogynist (despite [[CompressedVice never having shown behavior like this before]]), but the other Knights treated Mary's inclusion with derision as well, and weren't called out on it. In the second, Elaine was hardly depicted as useful.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': The show often teaches that hard work isn't always glamorous, but it's always the proper and admirable way to get results. In "Business is Picking Up," Bobby job shadows under a man who cleans up animal waste for a living. He enjoys this so much that he thinks about setting up his own sort of business involving vomit clean-ups, but some of the other characters seen are {{squick}}ed at either of the cleanup jobs. The show-wide aesop is broken when Bobby is portrayed as being in the wrong for wanting to do dirty work, even if it's an honest job and said animal waste cleaner is shown to make big cash off of his job[[note]]to the point where he lives in a mansion[[/note]], because other people would hate him for it to the point that they might beat him up. This is conveyed to Bobby by the animal waste-cleaner ''staging a lie'' to him about it. The aesop of the episode is less "Hard work has great payoffs" and more "Having a job involves work... and making sure enough people like you" mixed in with [[GenerationXerox "Kids should follow after their parents."]] Adding to the inconsistency, five episodes later the show goes back to emphasizing the work and ignoring popularity when Bobby and Joseph are more respected by their fellow students for bumming off the streets (which is shown as a cheap and unfair way to get money) than for having an honest job.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:L-Y]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' episode "Checkers", Lilo is sick of her older sister/guardian Nani's constant bitching over her strange, mundane hobbies, and being belittled by [[KidsAreCruel Mertle]] and her GirlPosse. The experiment of the week is #029 (dubbed Checkers), who can be used as a crown that grants its wearer, essentially, a form of mind control over everyone who sees them. Lilo uses this to make everybody treat her with respect. It ends up horribly for everyone involved, concluding with the message that power corrupts. However, the main instances of corruption are performed by Mertle without any instruction from Lilo (or even ''informing'' Lilo until it's too late), making the message instead "don't give your subordinates any autonomy or they'll ruin things", the exact ''opposite'' of the intended message.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'': "[[Recap/TheLionGuardS2E18TheWisdomOfKongwe The Wisdom Of Kongwe]]" has the intended Aesop "Be patient. Take a moment to stop, think, and observe your surroundings" when Fuli and Makini escort the tortoise Kongwe to Pride Rock to discuss recent developments (specifically, the appearance of Scar's ghost) with Simba. We're meant to see Fuli as in the wrong for wanting to get back to Pride Rock as soon as possible, getting frustrated over Kongwe's habit of stopping and examining random things like flowers. Trouble is, Simba specifically said that he wanted to speak with Kongwe as soon as possible - a perfectly reasonable request given the new threat at hand. Which, in turn, makes it perfectly reasonable for Fuli to tell Kongwe to quit screwing around and get a move on.
* The ''WesternAnimation/LittlePrincess'' episode "I Want to Find the Treasure" is meant to have an anti-cheating Aesop, in that the Princess uses a map for the Easter hunt despite not being allowed. It's broken by two things-- first is that the Princess didn't know that using the map wasn't allowed, and second is the question of why there even ''was'' a map if using it wasn't allowed.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleRascals'' episode "Science Fair and Foul", Buckwheat is surprised to have won the science fair award despite the UnroboticReveal. As the judges said to him, "Even though planning and performance are important, equally important is the ability to improvise… to make do with what you have." Isn't that what Buckwheat did when he built his robot from tin cans, cardboard boxes and other found objects?
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'':
** The intended moral of the episode "Linc or Swim" is, "It's better to spend time with your family rather than to spend time on your own." However, when Lincoln was spending time with his family at the town pools, he still didn't have a good time, because three of his sisters got the whole family kicked out. This is slightly diluted by the fact that getting their own pool meant there was no longer anyone to kick the Louds out, but there's still the fact that Lincoln learned his lesson about selfishness while Lori was selfish earlier in the episode (namely, she kicked her siblings out of the pool for a "senior swim" because she's a high school senior) and never learned better.
** "Brawl in the Family": The idea of the episode is to let some conflicts settle by themselves without getting involved, which is technically right as Linc's attempts to settle the fighting prove nothing more than futile. However, given that the sisters' entire protocol results in them not allowing him to do anything simple in the house, such as watching TV or even letting him be in his room, all while going to extreme lengths just to keep the warring sisters apart without actually letting anyone solve anything, the whole point of the Aesop seems completely moot, since Lincoln’s life is being messed with and thus he has every valid reason to want to stop the fighting. Furthermore, the sisters keep telling Lincoln to stay out of it, yet those who aren’t fighting do all manner of things just to stop the angry sisters from seeing each other, plus when Lincoln has Luna and Luan switch rooms with Lori and Leni, the former two go at it as to who had the dress first, meaning they just broke their own rules. In the end, the fighting only stops because Lori managed to trick [[TheDitz Leni]] into wearing the dress on all days of the week that don’t end in Y, as in, not wear it at all. Meaning the whole ordeal was all for nothing and the whole system was a complete failure. The moral also falls flat due to prior continuity; in episodes such as "Heavy Meddle," "Study Muffin," and "Cereal Offender," they served nothing but to make the situation worse or awkward for Lincoln, yet ''he'' ends up learning a lesson at the end.
** "The moral in "Strife of the Party" is that Lola should think about her twin sister Lana while celebrating [[BirthdayEpisode her birthday]] since she ruined Lana's birthday plans. The problem is that Lana's plans include a huge [[EatDirtCheap mud-made cake]], a bull named Roy, and garbage for decorations, and she never thought about if the plans will be enjoyed by the guests (and Lola). The disgustingness of her plans is what forces Lola to undo it by contacting a garbage man, popping the tires on Flip's truck so he can't bring Roy, and tipping a health inspector to prevent the cake from being delivered, eventually ruining Lana's party planning. Still, the episode puts Lola in the wrong since she sabotaged the party for her own desires to run it her way.
** The episode "No Such Luck" has a [[HonestyAesop moral about lying]] that, on the surface, makes sense. Lincoln is told [[TheJinx he is bad luck]] by Lynn, and begins perpetuating this statement by deliberately admitting to being unlucky and spreading it to others. As a result, he is uninvited from attending everyone's sporting events, charity drives, and other miscellaneous things he finds boring. However, the aesop completely fails to land because not only do they start kicking him out of the house for being "bad luck", but his ''parents'' outright refuse to let him come to a movie, go to a park, and even ''re-enter the house'' on the assumption he is bad luck. Lincoln plays this off as "doing it to himself", but the family is overreacting so hard over a superstition started by Lynn that he can't even tell the truth and be let back in the house. At this point, everyone around him is pushing it so far that he is forced to ''actively deceive'' them and go to Lynn's game. His logic is that by being present and Lynn ''winning'' the game, then he's obviously not bad luck. A moral about lying requires a character to then further lie in order to escape the consequences of the first lie that wasn't even his lie to begin with.
** In "Butterfly Effect", Lincoln accidentally breaks Lisa's chemistry set and considers lying about it, but then when he supposedly lies and then a bunch of crazy things happen (Leni's head injury makes her an InsufferableGenius, Lily [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever grows to be a giant]], etc) only for it to turn out to be [[DaydreamSurprise all in his head]], he decides to tell the truth. That's meant to be the lesson, except none of the things Lincoln imagines were the result of his dishonesty -- some of them (such as Leni's head injury) were the result of the accident itself, while others (such as Lana living in a hamster ball) were the result of the ''other'' crazy things that happened.
* ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks'':
** One episode introduces the character of Bob, an AngryGuardDog with the habit of chasing after or barking at everything in sight. Bob attacks Martha and Helen throughout the episode while Bob's owner calls him a "bad dog". Then, at the end of the episode, Bob's owner starts calling him a "good dog" and Bob suddenly starts acting nice. Now, this could've been a good lesson about how calling someone names can make them angry and take out their anger on others. There are two problems: Bob was ''never'' shown being nice throughout the entire episode, even when he wasn't being called names, and in later episodes, he goes back to being mean.
** At the end of "Martha's Steamed!", Helen asks Martha if she learned something from the events of the episode. Martha believes it's you couldn't jump to conclusions and [[SpoofAesop a very hot dog can get very thirsty]]. Helen says the lesson was you shouldn't go eat food everywhere you see because it will lead to trouble (because the whole reason Ruby the dog [[DamselInDistress got stuck in the hot car]] was because she tried to steal Casey's donuts). Martha, of course, misses the point and tries to reach for something in a trash can, only to fall in.
--->'''Martha:''' Trouble? Eating is no trouble at all. ''[falls into the trash can]'' Uh, help!
** PlayedForLaughs in "There Goes the Neighborhood", which has a PrejudiceAesop, yet Martha says that, while it's not okay to hate cats, [[HypocriticalHumour it is okay]] to hate [[DogsHateSquirrels squirrels]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MaryokuYummy'' episode "Flip, Flop, and Float," Maryoku gets sick and is ordered to rest, but continually gets out of bed to help her friends, despite the fact that they keep telling her they'll be fine. Each time, she causes them trouble and just gets more and more sick. It looks like the moral of the story will be "when you're sick, stay in bed," (this is a show for preschoolers, after all) but at the end, Maryoku admonishes her friends for not telling her how much trouble she was causing for them, and the moral becomes "don't be afraid to hurt people's feelings when there's something important to tell them." Because heaven forbid Maryoku should actually be the one to learn a lesson.
* ''WesternAnimation/MichelVaillant'' had an episode in which the eponymous Michel and his family racing team compete in [[GreenAesop a special exhibition race showcasing environmentally-friendly fuels/transportation technologies]]. The resident baddies try to cheat by using higher performing regular gas. It's animated as thick, sooty, jet-black smoke and causes bystanders to notice by making their eyes water, and is essentially the same fuel used by the Vaillants and everybody else in all other episodes.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MikeTysonMysteries'' episode "San Juan Puerto Rico Blows but San Juan Capistrano..." the Mystery Team ends up in the Bermuda Triangle where they meet Creator/LRonHubbard who's framed as a lunatic. The episode ends with the group meeting the nun who hired them who apologizes for them "being preached a made-up religion full of fanciful stories, designed to take advantage of the gullible and get their money" before asking for donations for the church and explaining UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} to them with the same music played when L. Ron Hubbard explained [[ChurchOfHappyology Scientology]]. This attempt at HypocriticalHumor falls flat, however, because earlier in the ''very same episode'' Marquess (who's a ghost) mentioned having ''been'' to Heaven.
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'':
** The {{aesop}} taught in "Kung Food" is "don't be racist and [[InterchangeableAsianCultures treat all Asian cultures as the same thing]]", as shown when Chloé gets reprimanded for saying that a Chinese chef should make (Japanese) sushi. It's a decent lesson in theory, except the writers broke it by fitting no less than two references to popular Japanese media[[note]]specifically ''Franchise/DragonBall'' (his general appearance) and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' (his pizza {{BFS}} resembles the Buster Sword)[[/note]] into said Chinese chef's akumatized form.
** In "Chrismaster", Marinette ends up learning a lesson about being honest with others...except not only is the lie she told a relatively benign one (telling a young child she was one of Santa's helpers so he'd stop rifling through her personal belongings), Alya did something similar back in "Stormy Weather" and it was portrayed as the right thing to do in that situation.
** The special episode "Action" revolves entirely around how [[GreenAesop plastic is bad for the environment and thus shouldn't be used]], but excess plastic ultimately turns out to be the key to defeating the VillainOfTheWeek.
** Adrien/Cat Noir had many instances where he could have discovered the identity of Ladybug/Marinette, but always respected the private life of his beloved, despite he knows learning it would bring them closer.[[note]]The only time when [[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS03E22CatBlanc he learned it accidentally]], Adrien was punished with [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the apocalypse]], no less, and a {{Retcon}}. [[/note]] His attitude was presented as the right thing to do. In the meantime, Alya and Luka were [[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS01E06LadyWifi both]] [[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS04E01Truth akumatized]] on the fact they wanted (for less noble motives) to know Ladybug/Marinette 's secrets, and tried violently to force the issue with their powers. [[spoiler: Since, Alya had been entrusted to Ladybug's identity and the secrets of the Miracle box. And Luka had accidentally witnessed the civilian identities of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Adrien's reward for his honesty? He's still (and more and more) left in the dark, and will very likely be the last one to know.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'':
** In "Native Youth Olympics," Walter emphasizes to Molly that the key to doing well in any of the Native Youth Olympic events is to keep practicing. In the end, Molly wins a gold medal for the Greased Pole Walk, an event that she signed up for at the last minute and didn't practice at all because she was naturally good at it.
** In the episode "Not a Mascot," Walter reveals that the Northern Lights were called the Fighting Athabascans back when he was on the team. He didn't like the original name because he didn't think it represented who his team was, thus sending the message to the audience that misrepresentation hurts even when it's unintentional. So he, an Athabascan, fought to change the name he felt misrepresented him. To be fair, he also opposed the name on the grounds that it excluded his non-Athabascan teammates.
* In the episode "The Fugitive Flowers" in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'', while the ponies do explicitly state that the reason they believed the [[CuteIsEvil Flories]] (mobile sapient invasive weeds) were good and the Crabnasties were bad is because [[BeautyEqualsGoodness the Crabnasties are ugly and the Flories are pretty]], one can't ignore the FridgeLogic that the Crabnasties really didn't make themselves come off as "good guys" even ignoring that they're ugly-looking {{Giant Enemy Crab}}s. The Crabnasties make themselves known to the ponies by ripping a swathe of destruction through Dream Valley; cutting down or tearing up trees, flipping over boulders, ripping up plants and generally making a mess. When the ponies complain, the Crabnasties brush them off and wander away, still tearing the place apart as they go. If they had apologised for the destruction and explained that they are police officers out to stop the Flories, who [[WalkingWasteland drain the life from the earth and create deserts wherever they go]], they could have elicited enough understanding to prevent the ponies from assuming "Flories Good, Crabnasties Bad".
* ''WesternAnimation/NinaNeedsToGo''. The moral is that you shouldn't wait to go to the bathroom. However, children can instead misinterpret the moral as "[[DoNotDoThisCoolThing You should]] wait until the very last second before going because if you do, your [[CoolOldLady Nana]] will swoop in and take you on an exciting journey to the bathroom." It doesn't help that [[AesopAmnesia despite what Nina says about her not waiting to go anymore at the end of each short, she holds it in until the last second again the very next one]]. Unless you take the interpretation that she wasn't holding it in and truly didn't think she needed to go... only that's ''also'' a broken Aesop, since that'd make the "don't wait" part not make sense.
* The ''WesternAnimation/PBAndJOtter'' episode, "Watchbird Alert!" tries to teach the moral that adults only want what's best for children, but it is botched horribly. The plot of the episode is that the Cranes' treehouse falls down, so the Otter family allows them to stay in their home until they can find somewhere else to live. At first, PB&J believe Cap'n Crane living with them will be fun, as he offers to take them on a picnic the next day. However, Cap'n proves himself to be an obnoxious house guest by serving the kids worms for breakfast, canceling their picnic because he saw one cloud in the sky (in addition to thinking Butter had caught a cold because she sneezed ONCE.), and instilling all sorts of insane safety rules in the Otter household. Sure, some of his rules make sense, such as stopping Jelly from skateboarding in the house and not letting Peanut slide down on the banister (though his only concern with that is Peanut could get splinters), but others, like forbidding PB&J to read in the dark, keeping them out of the basement simply because it's "dusty", and forcing them to wear safety equipment even when they're just sitting in their room just comes across as needlessly paranoid. And again, he canceled the picnic because of ONE potential rain cloud. After Cap'n leaves them alone, the otters lament how they wish the Cranes could find a new house so they won't have to deal with Cap'n's overprotectiveness any longer. Of course, Cap'n hears this from outside their door and becomes sad, hinting to the audience that they're supposed to feel bad for him because PB&J don't appreciate his "help." After a noodle dance, however, the otters realize that Cap'n's paranoia was completely justified as he "only wanted to keep them safe," not once considering that maybe he went overboard on some things. PB&J then gather the rest of Lake Hoohaw together to rebuild the Cranes' home as a way of thanking Cap'n for his overbearing nature, and even take some of his advice by wearing helmets. However, Cap'n knocks the tree over before it's finished, forcing him and his wife to stay at the Otters' house for one more night. The kids are happy this time, though, because it means "they'll be safe tonight." It's just a mess of an episode. At the start, it seems like the message is: "Adults have good intentions, but sometimes they can go too far with those intentions," but not once is Cap'n called out for getting carried away with safety nor does he show signs that he's going to tone it back. Instead, PB&J are meant to look like the bad guys for not putting up with him. Therefore, the moral is clearly: "Always listen to and respect an adult's wishes, even if that adult is a paranoid idiot."
* ''WesternAnimation/PegPlusCat'' as a whole is meant to teach kids about the importance of math, and in most episodes, someone will comment on how math did some cool thing. However, in some episodes, the Aesop is broken by the problem not having been solved via math at all:
** In "The Three Friends Problem", the moral is supposedly that graphs are a good/important thing, because they helped Peg keep score with her and her friends' silly games, then later helped her get Cat over his NewFriendEnvy-- however, it was ''Cat'' who was trying to use a graph to express his envy-- Peg was consoling him by telling him that [[PlatonicDeclarationOfLove love]] ''couldn't'' be measured on a graph. So math didn't really help their play date (apart from the scorekeeping); if anything, math got in the way.
** In "The High Noon Problem", the moral is supposedly that making hypotheses and doing calculations based on those is the way to go (the protagonists guess which boots Bad Jack will be wearing, and use that to calculate the length of the feather they'll use to tickle him). However, this is broken by the fact that Bad Jack takes one boot off, and is eventually defeated by being made to tickle ''himself'', which could have happened even if Peg and Cat hadn't even heard of math.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies2010'' episode "The Really Weird Dog", Squirt holds a grudge against Rover [[spoiler:the alligator]] despite his friendliness to the rest of the team. The episode ends with Squirt coming around and helping to save Rover, making it a nice episode on racism -- FantasticRacism, but racism nonetheless -- except that there are two other episodes that season in which the ''entire team'' shows prejudice against cats ("Catcalls") and coyotes ("Rebel Without a Collar").
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016'':
** Overlapping with CluelessAesop, one episode has Bubbles befriend a horse who wants to be a unicorn, the girls try to turn him into a unicorn, he turns into a monster, they get him back to normal, and then they learn he was a unicorn the whole time. It doesn't sound too bad, and it might not have been had the promotional team not tried to turn it into a metaphor for being transgender. Because the episode (again) had him ''turn into a monster'' when they attempted to use the transmogrifier to make him a unicorn, [[UnfortunateImplications it comes off as an anti-transgender message]]. Doesn't help that, supposedly, the writer didn't intend for this to be a metaphor at all. Perhaps a better moral would have been "Sometimes you might already have what you want and not realise it". Breaking this even more is the fact that [[CreepyCrossdresser Him]], who has some ValuesDissonance going on that make him something of a negative gay and/or trans stereotype, is still in the revival.
** The episode "Once Upon a Townsville" tries to teach the moral that a girl can be strong and empowered [[BeYourself while also being a]] GirlyGirl, by having Princess Bluebelle [[PrettyPrincessPowerhouse defeat the dragon]] she's been running from and rebuke the Powerpuff Girls for dismissing her love of being a PrincessClassic. The thing is, in their efforts to get her to stop relying on her {{useless|Boyfriend}} PrinceCharming, the girls never once insinuated that RealWomenDontWearDresses. (The worst they did was [[LampshadeHanging express mild annoyance]] at her SpontaneousChoreography.) What's worse is that this came after Bluebelle constantly threw herself InHarmsWay in hopes that it would rouse her Prince to come to her rescue, [[UnwantedRescue only to get annoyed when the girls saved her instead]]. She wouldn't have much place to talk even if the girls did say something insulting to her.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'' episode "Enter the Bullies" featured Penny's mother advising her to try and "find some common ground" to resolve a conflict with The Gross Sisters, who had a grudge for her reporting their lunch money extortion to school officials. Said common ground ended up being...offering financial management advice for their stolen money.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamilyLouderAndProuder'' tries to continue the original show's trend of tackling serious issues. Unfortunately, in some episodes, the execution of these attempted lessons causes the ball to drop ''hard''.
** In "When You Wish Upon a Roker," Penny makes a wish for her and all her friends to experience college for a week; if Penny decides to stay after the week is up, she'll have to owe Roker for all the expenses she's built up. The lesson Penny is supposed to learn from the experience is "College isn't just about nonstop partying, and you shouldn't be in such a hurry to grow up and ignore what you have in the present." However, this glosses over the fact that the reason Penny took the wish in the first place is because Oscar supervised a date she had with Kareem and [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents made a complete spectacle of himself]], something Oscar himself acknowledges when he comes to rescue Penny. In the end, it's Penny who apologizes for trying to grow up too fast, and Oscar [[KarmaHoudini never has to apologize for his behavior]].
** "The End of Innocence" tries to give a lesson about colorism when a popular black teen star starts dating Zoey, and the other girls find out that he only likes to date white girls. Unfortunately, some details in the episode completely derail the supposed moral. First, the reason the group find out about Noah's dating preferences in the first place is because Maya's cousin told her, but they never actually do anything to confirm the rumor. Second, Dijonay and [=LaCienega=] immediately start ''[[WithFriendsLikeThese blaming Zoey]]'' for the situation, even [[KickTheDog making jabs about her appearance]], making them come off more as butthurt that Noah asked Zoey out instead of them (especially egregious in Dijonay's case, since she already got her own boyfriend in a previous episode). The girls don't stop being mad at Zoey until she herself breaks it off with Noah, and of course, Zoey is the one who has to apologize even though her only crime was [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin getting asked out by a supposed colorist]].
** "[=BeBe=]" is about the family coming to turns with [=BeBe=]'s autism diagnosis, with them learning that even though [=BeBe=] will have some difficulties in his life, he can still thrive if given the right accommodations. By the end of the episode, Trudy and Oscar even enroll [=BeBe=] in a special school with other neurodivergent kids...and the episode's whole message is immediately undermined with the reveal that [=BeBe=] and his new classmates [[InspirationallyDisadvantaged all have superpowers]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'': "Nobody Doesn't Like TJ" tries to deliver the aesop of "You can't please everyone" or "Not everyone will like you". By the end of the episode, Gordo and TJ still decide they don't like each other for no good reason - and it's treated as alright. This is undermined a ''lot'' by the fact that Gordo has plenty of reasons to legitimately ''not'' like TJ, ranging from TJ's obsequious behaviour towards him and giving Gordo something he was allergic to (albeit by accident). It instead comes off as "It's alright to dislike people for no real reason".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Redakai}}'' has several clumsy morals in it, one of which is their mishandled GreenAesop. In one episode, the heroes Team Stax are trying to protect a large tree in the middle of a forest in a slightly arid land. One of them, Maya, does this by hurling a [[KillItWithFire huge fire tornado]] at the bad guys who are standing right next to the tree. She is then congratulated for taking the initiative in saving "nature". It essentially seems like "Save the forest, throw fire everywhere".
** Another one seems to be "Attacking civilians and cheating are okay when you're the "Good Guys" and nobody is looking".
* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' has the episode "Think Positive": if you don't yell at people, then you'll destroy everything around you. This is especially damning since [[HairTriggerTemper Benson]], [[ADayInTheLimelight the character the episode focused on]], refuses to get anger management, and after this episode, continues to be hard on Mordecai and Rigby for a good while.
* ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'':
** In "Power Girl Surfers", Reggie starts an all-female surfing group to show the world that girls can excel at extreme sports. She decides to do this after Otto is unexpectedly offered a cover story in his favorite surfing magazine, and she's unable to convince the {{Jerkass}} magazine editor that she deserves her own story more than her brother does; at the end, she and her friends crash Otto's cover shoot to challenge him to a surf-off, humiliating him in front of the people offering him a shot at fame. Because of the way Reggie is written, the Aesop comes off as, "[[GreenEyedMonster Resenting someone else's good fortune]] is perfectly fine, if you can prove that they're not worthy of it."
* The ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' episode "Stand and Deliver" seems to have been aiming for a light-hearted feminist fable with a moral along the lines of "Men should listen more and not take women for granted". Somehow, what they hit was "Male attention is the most important thing in a woman's life and they will abandon ''everything'' to go off with any man who offers it".
* ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' has the episode "Game Guy", where the heroes meet a strange freedom fighter called Ari. Although Sonic wants to trust him, Sally wants to err on the side of caution. Eventually Ari leads Sonic into one of Robotnik's traps in exchange for the freedom of his own teammates. When it becomes apparent to Ari that Robotnik has no intention of honoring his end of the deal, he proves himself trustworthy by freeing Sonic from the trap, sacrificing himself in the process. At the end of the episode Sonic [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong gently chides Sally for not being trusting enough]], despite the fact that [[ProperlyParanoid what happened in the episode proved that she was right]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** "[[Recap/SouthParkS13E12TheFWord The F-Word]]" is about the attempts of the kids to get the word "fag" to be allowed if it's not used as a hateful slur against gay people. This is heavily undermined by the fact that a few seasons previous, "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" ended with the Aesop that white people can't know what it's like to hear racial slurs even when they aren't used in a deliberately hateful context and should respect that.
** And "[[Recap/SouthParkS11E1WithApologiesToJesseJackson With Apologies to Jesse Jackson]]" itself seems to contradict the Aesops of TheMovie (people overreact over offensive language),"[[Recap/SouthParkS4E2CartmansSillyHateCrime2000 Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000]]" (offenses to racial minorities shouldn't be considered any worse than those done to white people, if they aren't explicitly racist in nature), and "[[Recap/SouthParkS13E12TheFWord The F Word]]" (using offensive language is okay if you don't mean it in a derogatory way). Its Aesop is also broken over the fact that Randy actually was ''not'' being racist; even the black cameraman thought the word on ''Wheel of Fortune'' was the N-word. However, the intentional Aesop that majority groups (read: white people) really ''don't'' [[KnowNothingKnowItAll understand]] such issues as well as they think they do ''is'' intact. Almost like a meta on Stone and Parker's own gradual understanding of race relations, [[AuthorAvatar Stan]] spends most of the episode trying to have Token believe he understands with Token proving he doesn't until the end when Stan says, "I don't get it, but I'm sorry" does he truly understand and is forgiven.
** “[[Recap/SouthParkS5E7ProperCondomUse Proper Condom Use]]” says parents should teach sex ed, and not trust it to schools, because some teachers are ignorant. But the parents in ''South Park'' do dumb shit all the time. Sure, Ms. Choksondik accidentally started a war between boys and girls. But the parents [[WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut deliberately started a war on Canada]]. And later, "[[Recap/SouthParkS16E8Sarcastaball Sarcastaball]]" would feature Butters selling his semen as a sports drink after his father (clearly not comfortable educating his child about sex like a responsible parent) lied to him about what it is. So... parents are smarter than teachers? M’kay.
** "[[Recap/SouthParkS7E13ButtOut Butt Out]]" gives a defense for the reasons people smoke cigarettes. "[[Recap/SouthParkS22E4TegridyFarms Tegridy Farms]]" demonizes everyone who smokes via vaping.
** The moral of "[[Recap/SouthParkS19E5SafeSpace Safe Space]]" is essentially to start taking criticism and that reality is harsh without safe spaces, even though the previous episode portrayed critics as obnoxious people who should just be kicked out. So the previous episode depicted people wanting to have their opinion heard as entitled, and now depicts people who don't want to hear other people's opinions as entitled. Additionally, Butters attempts suicide because he's stressed out and sleep-deprived from having to constantly moderate abusive online comments, which seems to indicate that constantly viewing criticism ''can'' be detrimental to one's mental health, despite the episode treating the issue as FirstWorldProblems. Reality's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech delivering the moral blames people for being too sensitive about these comments, yet also blames them for Butters' attempted suicide after he witnessed those same comments (never mind that Reality was taunting Butters in his pre-suicide delusions).
* ''WesternAnimation/SpacePOP'''s girl power themes and general message is undermined by the fact that the princesses fail to rescue their parents and make little headway against Geela for a majority of the series. Chamberlin also destroys the Fog-O-Nator machine by complete accident when the group was forced to escape without getting a chance to attack it, and suggests a self-destruct button when the girls' ideas to stop Geela's communication center wouldn't work or would take too long.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'':
** "The Abrasive Side" is about [=SpongeBob=] getting the titular side in order to learn to be more assertive. Unfortunately, the abrasive side turns out to be a major {{Jerkass}} that soon starts to [[SplitPersonalityTakeover take over completely]]. [=SpongeBob=] finally goes to Sandy for help, and she tells him that he doesn't need to change his personality, because [[BeYourself who he is is just fine]]. A fairly standard kid's show moral, but some details from the episode completely ruin the message. First of all, the reason [=SpongeBob=] was trying to learn to be assertive in the first place was because people were constantly taking advantage of [[ExtremeDoormat his inability to say no]] to ask him for favors, resulting in him missing a trip to Glove World with Patrick. Secondly, and most importantly, Sandy is [[{{Hypocrite}} just as guilty]] of taking advantage of [=SpongeBob=] (in fact, she's the reason he misses his bus) as nearly everyone else in the episode. With these details in mind, seeing Sandy tell [=SpongeBob=] that he's fine the way he is comes off less like her saying that he shouldn't be a jerk, and more like she's actively telling him to remain the same so she and others can continue to manipulate him. The episode ends with [=SpongeBob=] rid of the abrasive side, but [[EsotericHappyEnding nowhere closer to learning how to stand up for himself]].
** "High Sea Diving": This episode is supposed to be pro-recycling, but it doesn't come off as such. [=SpongeBob=] is unable to complete his dive because of a garbage barge, but he ends up throwing more junk down. The fish all appreciate the junk and find it helpful, and try to get more of it sent down. The moral seems to be that you ''should'' litter just in case people want to recycle it.
** “One Coarse Meal” was meant to teach viewers that it is not okay to bully other people to the point of suicide and that it is also not okay to take advantage of another person’s fears to use against them as shown when Mr. Krabs dresses as his daughter Pearl to take advantage of Plankton’s fear of whales and almost drives Plankton to suicide by bus in the process. [=SpongeBob=] calls Mr. Krabs out for this and reveals the truth to Plankton. However, Plankton decides to get revenge on Mr. Krabs for the bullying by taking advantage of his fear of mimes. The issue here is that Plankton is deemed the one in wrong for this and is depicted as the villain by doing that despite the fact that Mr. Krabs did the same thing and was being given a taste of his own medicine with the mimes. Even worse is that [=SpongeBob=] defeats Plankton by tricking him into thinking a pod of whales is near by using a projection of whales and that moment is depicted as good. This turns the moral into a total mess by implying that it is okay to bully others if you perceive them as evil.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': The third and fourth seasons of this show are notorious for having aesops about FantasticRacism, magic, and genocide that become completely nonsensical by the time of its final episode. First off it teaches that racism, especially against monsters is wrong with Star herself pointing out that some magical beings including the magical high commission look like monsters, but later on she goes into a rant about hating magic and saying that it needs to be gone, making her come across as racist towards magical beings. Mina Loveberry then tries to commit genocide on monsters with the show depicting this as wrong and evil yet when Star destroys magic to defeat Mina, she is strongly implied to have committed mass genocide on magical beings and the show treats this as a positive thing that is no big deal. Then the issues involving the Aesop on magic has the show proclaim that magic is inherently bad no and needs to be eradicated yet Star and her allies use magic to destroy magic. Toffee is also shown to hate magic with Star proclaiming that he is ultimately right about it but Toffee is shown using magic himself to get what he wanted.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
** "Say Uncle" had a lesson about not hating or attacking others simply because they are different or have different views, which is shown by the Gems being in the wrong for attacking WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa as he's explained to be just trying to help Steven activate his shield. The problem is that by "helping," he was firing a number of weapons at Steven and on his debut he also sank a ship that might have killed or endangered at least Lars and Sadie[[note]]The episode is non-canon and [[BizarroEpisode intentionally odd]], so anything could go there[[/note]]. The message is weakened because the other Gems had enough reason to believe Uncle Grandpa ''was'' a genuine threat and not just a weird RealityWarper, especially considering how Steven is a little brother figure to all three of them.
** One of the show's major themes is that HumansAreSpecial, but the Gems are shown to have a very condescending if not outright [[FantasticRacism disrespectful attitude towards humans]] and the way they live their lives, and while they do interact with one or two humans here and there (mainly Greg and Connie), they don't really go out of their way to get better acquainted with the species they've been protecting for millennia, and the show doesn't make any real attempt to make them rethink those opinions at any point. Rose does eventually have this epiphany, but with all the other Gems, their reasons for protecting Earth comes off more like them doing what Rose would have wanted, and liking the freedom that Earth gives them, rather than any real concern or attachments to it's inhabitants. This is somewhat remedied in later seasons, as they show the Crystal Gems making an effort to get to know and coordinate with the people of Beach City, and several of them (mainly Amythest and surprisingly Peridot) mingle with humans extensively.
*** This is also weakened by how the human characters (aside from Greg and Connie) rarely are involved with the overarching StoryArc. The most they accomplish is being captured by Topaz, [[spoiler: which forces Steven to give himself up to the bad guys]]. So, the human characters accomplish very little while the Gems are the ones who actually drive the plot.
** Another major theme of the series is how positive interpersonal relationships can be found in many forms, meant to be illustrated by Steven's diverse family of his father and the Crystal Gems. However, the entire point of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'' is that the Gems raising him to be a KidHero has been extremely detrimental to his mental health and left him with ChronicHeroSyndrome. In addition, he has no formal education and had never even seen a doctor (although the [[BizarreAlienBiology giant diamond where his navel should be somewhat justifies this]]), resulting in him [[CallingTheOldManOut calling out his dad]] for [[HandsOffParenting denying him any sort of structure]].
** "Historical Friction" has two great messages that work on their own, but when combined they produce something unfortunate. The messages appear to be "Always tell history the way it really happened" and "It's okay to root for flawed characters that are meant to be heroes". However, the way it's portrayed is when Pearl tells Jamie and Steven that their play about the history of Beach City is inaccurate because it portrays William Dewey as a flawless character, when he was far from perfect. When they rewrite the play to make it more accurate, the audience still cheers and still sees William Dewey as a hero despite his flaws, feeling he is more relatable. Applied to fiction, seeing yourself in a flawed hero makes sense, but applied to history, it gives off the message that "It's okay to root for a beloved historical figure once you find out what they really did."
* WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBrosDic
** The [[Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow Super Show's]] Christmas special "Koopa Claus" attempts to make a point about giving being better than receiving. Toad cures Santa's HeroicBSOD over his entire workshop being frozen by offering Santa the snowboard that Princess Toadstool gave to him. Santa then comments that he's never seen anybody express the true spirit of Christmas like him. Never mind the fact that Toad was only motivated to do so because it meant more presents for him, or the fact that he was being incredibly selfish, materialistic as well as an [[TheLoad unhelpful]] {{Jerkass}} throughout the entire episode, who cared more about the snowboard being safe than his ''friends'' when Koopa attacked them. Or the fact that Toad didn't really care about Santa's HeroicBSOD until Princess Toadstool [[WhatTheHellHero rightfully called him out]] on being a selfish brat.
** [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3 The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros 3's]] infamous anti-racism episode "True Colors" also runs into this. It tries to teach that treating others as inferiors due to their color is a bad thing by having the Koopas paint the mushroom people (as well as Mario and Luigi) in two different colors and then inciting them against each other so they can take over the Mushroom Kingdom. However unlike in the games, where the Koopa species also features heroic and neutral members, here the race is AlwaysChaoticEvil and the cause of most if not all the episodes' conflicts[[note]]Although this could be chalked up to the show airing before those more heroic or neutral Koopas were introduced[[/note]]. Basically running into the typical "racism is a good thing, just make sure it's aimed at the right people" problem. There's also the matter of the mushroom people reverting back to their original colors at the end, functionally making them all the same race again.
** The ''[[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld1991 Super Mario World]]'' episode "A Little Learning", while ostensibly having a message about anti-bullying, ends up coming full circle and settling on "Bullying is bad, [[AssholeVictim unless the victim deserves it]]" due to the way Iggy and Lemmy are treated by the rest of the episode's cast.
* ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'' falls into this:
** One of the major lessons in the show is TheNeedsOfTheMany. However, there are more than a few instances on the show where this fails to apply.
*** King Frederic making crackdown on crime [[DisproportionateRetribution overly harsh]] [[KnightTemplarParent following Rapunzel's kidnapping]], leading to Lady Caine (who was a minor then) to become fatherless, and she's likely not the only one.
*** Rapunzel not checking on [[spoiler:Varian following the events of Zhan Tiri's snowstorm]], instead wallowing in her own feelings.
*** Rapunzel taking the revelation that Eugene thinks [[spoiler:[[BeyondRedemption Cassandra is not a true friend because of her betrayal]]]] badly.
*** Cassandra [[spoiler:being ''extremely'' and unhesitantly willing to pursue her [[ItsAllAboutMe "destiny"]] at others' expense]].
*** Rapunzel not arriving at [[spoiler:Cassandra's black rock tower with a battalion of soldiers/warriors, or even magical beings, due to the power she now possesses in hopes of being able to incapacitate and capture her]].
** The other major message of the show is about giving people a second chance, with Rapunzel's mission to redeem [[spoiler:Cassandra]] forming the backbone of Season 3. [[spoiler:Whilst Rapunzel DOES succeed (ensuring this Aesop is technically played straight), it took until the climax of the GrandFinale, with Cassandra having several [[IgnoredEpiphany Ignored Epiphanies]], and endangering the lives of Rapunzel and her friends numerous times. This ensured that many fans turned against Cassandra, not believing she was worth saving and feeling that she was a KarmaHoudini because of the fact [[EasilyForgiven Rapunzel and Eugene were so quick to forgive her]].]]
* Parodied in ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)]]''. After Leonardo is told by Splinter that there aren't right or wrong decisions, only choices, Leo learns that he was made the leader of the group [[spoiler:because he ''[[Funny/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 asked]]'']]. Leo then asks if Michelangelo could have been the leader.
-->'''Splinter:''' No, that would have been wrong.
** Another example is when they have to deal with Stockman.
--->'''Splinter:''' The first rule of being a Ninja is to ''do no harm''. Unless you ''mean'' to do harm. Then do ''lots'' of harm!
* ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003 Teen Titans]]'':
** Half of the PrejudiceAesop of "Troq" is that bigotry is not acceptable even if it's coming from [[NobleBigot those otherwise heroic]]. This is undercut by the Titans and aforementioned bigot portrayed heroically for wiping out an AlwaysChaoticEvil race. Worse is all the testament and evidence for their evilness comes from said bigot yet is still taken at face after the Titans realize his bigotry, and the race never antagonize them beyond what can seen as self-defense from their attempted genocide.
** Lampshaded at the end of "Episode 257-494"
--->'''Robin:''' Well, I guess this whole experience proves it really is bad to watch too much TV.\\
'''Starfire:''' But truthfully, we only prevailed because Beast Boy watches too much the television.\\
'''Raven:''' So there really isn't a lesson here.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'':
** "Finally A Lesson" refutes the argument that the Titans should teach more [[AnAesop life lessons]] and does this by having Robin teach the other Titans how to buy and maintain rental property, with the joke being "it's boring". Problem is, the show ''has'' taught lessons in the past, and oftentimes [[SpoofAesop deliberately bad ones]], a trait that still carries over to later episodes. It'd probably make more sense if it was a suggestion like "either teach good lessons or don't teach any at all", but as the suggestion was merely about morals in general, the point of this episode becomes one of these.
** "The Return of Slade" is a giant TakeThatAudience aimed at people who think the show doesn't hold up to the standards of the original series -- and, by extension [[AnimationAgeGhetto that only kids should be watching cartoons]]. Problem is, Raven, who ''delivers the Aesop'', is shown to be an obsessive fan of a ''Franchise/MyLittlePony''-esque cartoon despite being outside of the target demographic-- meaning that even though she calls out Beast Boy and Cyborg for liking childish things, she has no problem doing so herself, making her come across as a massive {{hypocrite}}.
** ''Teen Titans Go'' constantly mocks the fandom's desire for the [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans 2003 original]], based around the overall message that trying to [[NostalgiaFilter recapture the magic of shows of the past]] is [[NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe laughably pathetic, childish and stupid]]. This would hold more water if the show wasn't ReferenceOverdosed for late 20th century pop culture, to the point of basing punchlines and entire episodes around 1980s references.
** Similar to Wrestling/{{WWE}} promoting anti-bullying messages in its programming, ''Teen Titans Go'' likewise suffers from using characters who treat each other rather poorly in-universe to spread anti-bullying rhetoric. Examples include the way Raven treats Beast Boy for trying to be nice to her (besides when he [[AbhorrentAdmirer constantly simps for her when she doesn’t want it]], which is somewhat justified) or Robin's "baby hands" being a constant source of mockery and frustration for him among the other team members. It's mostly PlayedForLaughs but at the same time that gives it a bad place to start from when trying to address the seriousness of treating everyone well and not being a jerk.
* The cartoon verison ''ComicBook/TheMaxx'' has this thanks to the GeckoEnding. The female, Julie Winters, is a social worker, who sucks at her job because she pushes away people and [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming blame them for their problems]] to the point of [[{{Jerkass}} saying rape victims are responsible for them getting raped]]. The series points out this is a shitty attitude to have. However in the final episode, [[spoiler: pushing away the Maxx is what gets him to recover his original identity]], [[UnfortunateImplications thus validating all the horrible things she said]].
* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'': In "Bradford the Brake Van", The Fat Controller lectures Thomas that following the rules was more important than being on time. This doesn't really help the fact that earlier in the story, he scolded Thomas for being late with his stone trucks, when in fact, it was [[PrinciplesZealot Bradford]] who made the delay by telling Thomas to unload some of the stone, believing that following the rules is more important than being on time.
%%** In "The Biggest Present of All", Thomas is given the task of telling the other engines about a welcome party for Hiro at the Big Station, but Thomas thinks finding Hiro a welcome present would be more fun instead. He tells all his friends he's looking for a gift, but never tells them about the party. Later, he finds that Hiro is alone at the station, waiting for guests. Thomas is horrified and runs off to tell the others about the party, but they're all looking for presents too. Thomas ''[[{{Hypocrite}} promptly chews them out for doing the exact same thing he just did]]''.
%%** Another example hailing from the CGI incarnation is depicted in the episode "Play Time," where a new engine keeps goading Thomas into games and races on duty by challenging his fun-loving reputation. This results in the delayed delivery of an opera singer to a theater for a scheduled performance, and when the pair are chastised for their irresponsibility she reassures them that she had a great time nonetheless, cheering them on. So not only is it okay to neglect your duties just to prove yourself worthy to a bad influence who shouldn't be worth your time, but everything will still turn out fine in the end.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriendsAllEnginesGo'': "More Than A Pretty Engine" has the message of "Don't judge someone by their appearance" and "Just because someone looks pretty doesn't mean they don't have physical strength and endurance". The message started when Ashima gave Thomas, Diesel, Carly and Sandy a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about this, but none of the other engines actually believed Ashima couldn't help clear the rocks or push anything. They simply didn't ''want'' her to in fear of scratching her paint job, with Thomas himself having a FreudianExcuse following his own experience with this in "The Paint Problem". While that isn't a bad message, it didn't appear to be what needed to be said to the engines. A better one would have been "If someone wants to do dirty work, you should let them, even if it damages their outer beauty" or, if they wanted to go the "looks aren't everything" or "it's what on the inside that counts" route, Ashima could have mentioned that she would feel bad on the inside if she didn't do anything to help even if it does damage her on the outside.
* In the ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' episode "Atlantic Inferno", Jeff leaves confident son Scott in charge of ''International Rescue'' -- cue 'bad decisions', Jeff's ire, and an apparent Aesop of "being in charge is more difficult than it looks". However, Scott makes sensible decisions based on expert advice. Jeff unreasonably censures Scott without listening to the evidence, leaving Scott unable to function. The Aesop sadly becomes "adults are always right, even when they are wrong".
* Done intentionally with KidHero Lion-O in the ''WesternAnimation/Thundercats2011'' episode "Song of the Petalars" where he ignores his own lecturing of young friend Emrick (for impulsively attacking a large enemy that outmatched him) in favor of pulling a LeeroyJenkins and leading his Thundercats to a confrontation with an entire army that degenerates into a LastStand until a DeusExMachina saves them. Lion-O justifies this course of action in a RousingSpeech by culturally misinterpreting and breaking yet another Aesop: his friend Emrick's assertion that ItsTheJourneyThatCounts, and the good we do is what matters most. However, Lion-O's mangling of the Aesop is presented in a convincingly heroic fashion. He isn't called on his behavior until the next episode, and even then only obliquely.
** It's even worse because at the start of the episode Lion-O has the right idea of fleeing and living to fight another day rather than facing immediate defeat and certain death, while Tygra gives him endless grief about this. Later when Lion-O changes his mind they are (sure enough) almost wiped out.
* The TV special ''Totally Minnie'' has WesternAnimation/MinnieMouse giving a nerdy guy dating advice and an excessive makeover, but ends with a BeYourself aesop.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollz}}'' story arc where the girls turn evil, Ruby worries that her meanness has influenced them into becoming mean. Obsidian tells her that if she sets a bad example, she can change it by setting a good one. It seems okay... until Ruby cleans up her act and it fails because Simon's magic was too strong. A {{Space Whale|Aesop}} Broken Aesop, if you will.
* ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012'' focuses on ComicBook/SpiderMan having to learn sense of responsibility and teamwork, with ComicBook/NickFury as TheMentor. Both very respectable aesops, but it's quite hard to not sympathetize with his tendencies to [[IWorkAlone work alone]] when his teammates are mostly obnoxious {{Jerkass}}es who forcefully insert themselves in his life, constantly mock or insult him (despite the fact he often ends up as the OnlySaneMan) and, in Nova's case, outright insult his best friend Harry Osborn. Then you have those times where Spidey himself dabbles in being a {{Jerkass}} and an idiot that leaves you feeling that the criticisms of his teammates are not unjustified. As the for the responsibility aspect, not only does it feel unnecessary since the whole Spider-Man origin (confirmed to be the same in this version) was supposed to be about Spidey learning responsibility of his own, but Fury, being an AntiHero with several CreateYourOwnVillain in his backstory, leaving no personal space to his recruit (he sets up security cameras in Spidey's house) and willing to break his promises, [[DesignatedHero hardly appears as a suitable authority figure]].
** Demonstrated beautifully in "Not a Toy," when Spidey loses ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's shield:
--->'''Agent Coulson:''' But you've all learned some valuable tactical lessons, right?\\
'''Spidey:''' Let's see: know your fight, our powers are only one tool in the toolbox...\\
'''Agent Coulson:''' No! I mean about touching things that don't belong to you.\\
'''Spidey:''' Oh, yeah. Because you might accidentally stop a madman from taking over the world.\\
''[Agent Coulson's eyebrow visibly twitches]''\\
'''Spidey:''' And... you're welcome?
* ''WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa'' didn't normally have AnAesop, as it was an animated series that relied on SurrealHumor, but there was one episode which ''did'' have AnAesop. The episode "The Fan", Season 2, Episode 7, was meant to deliver the morals of "There's more to life than being obsessed with a television or show or fandom", "Someone spending their whole life inside a house and never outside can dramatically effect how they function, or even live in life without any real kind of development." and "It's better to have multiple passions and not be consumed by a toxic fandom", and also "Your heroes can become a BrokenPedestal", with the super-fan Nubert Nimbo, a socially-awkward OneShotCharacter learning the moral. The episode completely contradicted the moral by having the show's protagonist Uncle Grandpa damaging Nubert's collection (which could have been worth a lot, both emotionally and financially), to melt down into a statue of Nubert's mother. This instead gave the moral of "It's OK to damage people's possessions to snap them out of a passion". In the end, the only [[AnAesop moral learnt]] was "[[BrokenPedestal Your heroes have problems just as much as anyone else]], while the other two morals were completely contradicted. This trope ends up being [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagged]], but on the whole it's mostly played straight.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Veggietales}}'' episode ''Rack, Shack and Benny'' attempts to send a message against [[PeerPressureMakesYouEvil peer pressure]] using a story based on the Literature/BookOfDaniel, in which the protagonists' refusal to give into their BadBoss' demands gets them ''[[DisproportionateRetribution thrown into a fiery furnace]]'', which they are only saved from due to [[DeusExMachina divine intervention]]. This makes the message of the episode sound more like "[[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs Don't be deterred by actual threats to your life]] because God will always protect you as long as you're in the right".
* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'': The show's message is one about the value of teamwork and how nobody achieves anything alone. The problem is that in almost all plots, victory hinges on the Black Lion's pilot, independent of the teammates issues, troubles and skills, leading to one think that the show is trying to say "The leader is the most important part of team, independent of whoever is in it". Furthermore, the show's tendency of making the Black Lion's pilot the actual main character in an otherwise EnsembleCast show, with his decisions being the only ones to actually affect or alter the plot's direction or pace furthers prioritize leadership over teamwork.
** The emphasis on "everyone is important" gets a pretty firm beating from the later idea that there's some kind of "hierarchy" among the smaller lions, with the red being above the other limbs and the blue being below.
** Shiro receiving command of the Atlas is claimed by the creators to be seen as a moment of growth, when he finds a life outside of being a Voltron paladin and where he belongs. But when he was the paladin of the Black Lion, he was remarkably happy, clearly skilled at it, doing a lot of good, and fit the job description to a tee, so the idea that being the Black Paladin was somehow bad for him feels like an InformedFlaw at best, and a sloppy consolation prize for [[DemotedToExtra losing his role]] to Keith at worst. Compounding the problem is that this coincides with Allura becoming the Blue Paladin out of a desire to not be on the back lines anymore; prior to then, she ''also'' had command of a separate vessel that placed her outside the group but in a SupportingLeader role that was treating as important, and now (due to the hierarchy) she is at the bottom of the Paladin totem pole -- as if becoming the lowest rung of the Paladins is better than even the most important job outside of them. Whether becoming a Paladin is good or bad, either way, somebody got demoted.
** There's a strong moral of "[[FamilyOfChoice found family]]" in the series, that the Paladins are TrueCompanions, closer than friends, and [[ThePowerOfFriendship that's where their power comes from]]. But as the series goes on, most of the group lands more into TheFriendsWhoNeverHang, most of them have extant family they seem closer to, and their sniping at each other comes across as less good-natured and more TeethClenchedTeamwork. The heavy implication in the epilogue that [[TheFellowshipHasEnded they went their separate ways]] after the series ended only breaks this further. The show tries to address this by having Keith loudly ask if they have anything holding them together aside from circumstance, but never really provides a good answer (not to mention, this happens in the seventh season of eight). It doesn't help that Lotor, the character who most separated himself from his birth family to find companionship elsewhere ([[AbusiveParents and with very good reason]]) is depicted as a crazed villain [[spoiler:and [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath killed off in brutal fashion]]]].
* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'':
** Parodied and lampshaded in ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder''. Lord Hater has his henchmen make a Aesop-heavy propaganda cartoon for him, but due to being a VanityProject with poor production values and bad writing, the messages end up being contradicted at every turn. For instance, Cartoon-Wander declares that the lesson is [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship can redeem anyone]], only for Cartoon-Sylvia to point out that in the cartoon Lord Hater only ''pretended'' to get redeemed by friendship as part of his evil plan. Eventually a completely unrelated Aesop about bike safety gets sloppily thrown in because that's the only moral the cartoon wouldn't break.
** A real example occurs with several episodes that have a reoccurring Aesop of "You can't befriend everyone, so don't hurt yourself trying." Which is a good lesson, except that Wander himself clearly does not believe this. And is ''constantly'' trying to befriend people who want him dead. In the end, the moral is effectively defanged by showing that [[BigBad Lord Hater]] and [[OmnicidalManiac Lord Dominator]] may indeed become his friends in the future.
* A couple of episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' ended with one of the girls' parents learning an aesop about how they should trust their children, right after the girls pull off a ZanyScheme to [[{{Masquerade}} keep anyone from finding out the truth]].
* ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen2009'' showcased Cyclops grieving over the disappearance of his love interest Jean Grey (who was actually introduced giving him a hard time about sucker-punching Wolverine in a fit of jealousy and then blows a kiss to his rival) and being annoyed at Professor Xavier demoting him while promoting Wolverine to leader. The series seemed to initially pitch the idea that Cyclops had to learn to let go of his resentments and move on with his life, including but not limited to hooking up with his then comic current girlfriend Emma Frost. 26 episodes later... he ended up back together with Jean anyway after waiting for the odds to change in his favor. Great moral for the kids: don't learn to move on from the loss of your loved ones, just [[LoveWillLeadYouBack sit around being depressed in the hopes that they'll eventually come back to you]].
** There's also an episode where he goes out on his own to track down what happened to Jean and, eventually, needs to call for backup, resulting in Logan chewing him out on working as a team...despite the fact that in many episodes of the show, Logan himself strikes out on his own for personal crusades, more than any other character. This is the kind of message you'd normally expect Cyclops to beat into Logan's head, not the other way around, but the show decided to switch their roles around for...reasons.
** Then there's the fact that Cyclops spent the whole series being mentally and emotionally unstable if not outright legally insane and none of the X-Men, his so called friends, his so called family, ever try to help him. At the start of the series they left him to waste and rot away in a run down rat infested motel for no real reason and even after he gets back on the team they still leave him to his own devices despite the fact that he clearly needed professional psychiatric help, even if he was being more anti-social than usual. The only member who did offer him help was Emma Frost and, well, that didn't turn out so well. So the message here seems to be that it's okay to abandon your friends, no matter how much they may be suffering, if they're inconvenient to you, regardless of how long you've known them, regardless of whether or not they're practically family, simply because you can't be bothered to help them.
* The end of ''[[WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010 Young Justice]]'' season three states that secrecy is unforgivable, no excuses, which... falls ''very'' flat when you remember that ''Young Justice'' is a cartoon about '''superheroes''' -- most of which have '''secret identities'''.
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