->"''Sometimes I think you enjoy breaking these little geniuses.''"\\
"''There is an art to it, and I'm very, very good at it. But enjoy? Well, maybe. When they put back the pieces afterward, and it makes them better.''"
-->-- ''[[EndersGame Ender's Game]]'' on {{Deconstruction}} and {{Reconstruction}}.

Wouldn't it be nice if the world were like the TV Shows, Films, Video Games and Comic Books you love? I'm sure it would be! Because then you'd have superheroes battling outside your door! ''Only to crash into your house in the heat of battle, smashing through your television and killing your pet.''

No, it would NOT be cool if our fantasies were real, because our fantasies are usually rarely thought out and as such, if real, would have terrible consequences and/or indefensible preconditions.

Deconstruction occurs when you take a common fantasy, being a trope or a set of genre conventions or a typical plot, and attack it by showing how much it would ''suck'' if it were in fact real.

For instance, the dream of wanting to be a PrincessClassic would be deconstructed by showing all the pressures and problems associated with actually being a Princess. Even more savagely, one could be Princess to a PrinceCharming who lorded over an absolute monarchy where he was a tyrannical oppressor of the people (like most absolute monarchies)! The oppression would generate a revolution and before we know it, Ms. PrincessClassic would have her head in the guillotine.

In essence, Deconstruction is Reductio Ad Absurdum applied to genre conventions/tropes/fantasies. Nothing about the trope (or set thereof) is actually ''changed'', it is played straight. However, it is played straight ''without'' ignoring or hand-waving the negative consequences/preconditions. Indeed, these consequences/preconditions are highlighted in gruesome detail, taking a cherished fantasy and showing it to have indefensible results.

Well-done deconstruction will change a genre forever; every example of it afterward is, to some extent, a response to the deconstruction. It will also inspire a ton of "DarkerAndEdgier" imitators that are considerably weaker than the original.

Please note, that Deconstruction is rarely done with the goal of out and out ''killing'' a genre. The true purpose of deconstruction is to look at a genre from a different angle, to examine it's base elements, to get inside it and see what makes it work. Even the most heavy criticism is usually meant constructively. In short deconstruction is [[TropesAreNotBad necessary]], because without it, a genre may never truely ''grow''.

Deconstruction can also add greater depth. What's more interesting, [[TheQuestion a vigilante fighting crime while spouting Ayn Rand's philosophy]], or [[{{Watchmen}} a deep exploration of his motives, his psychology, and the inherent flaws in his way of viewing the world]]? The later obviously. This is because deconstruction opens up new avenues of character development that would otherwise be nonexistent. Once again returning the PrincessClassic example, her having to survive a revolution has a much greater dramatic potential than if she just "lived happily ever after".

Deconstruction is also usually followed by {{Reconstruction}}. Wheras deconstruction aims to attack our fantasies by showing them to be flawed, absurd, and unworkable and unpleasant in reality, {{reconstruction}} accepts these criticisms and builds a new fantasy that allegedly ''would'' work in reality. Continuing the PrincessClassic example, a reconstruction of this fantasy would make it clear that PrinceCharming is the Prince of a Constitutional Monarchy that strictly limits the powers of the royalty, and that government is handled by a constitutionally restrained representative democracy and thus the threat of any Regicidal Revolution is minimal.

Deconstruction and reconstruction can become [[CyclicTrope cyclic tropes]]. A set of conventions is established (the initial 'construction' of the genre or ideas that are used in the story), this set of conventions is played straight until some author gets bored and decides to show us the dark side of these conventions via a deconstruction of them. Atop the ruins, a more realistic narrative (i.e. one that accepts the criticisms of the earlier deconstruction) is then built via reconstruction (and in the future, this narrative gets deconstructed, etc.).

Note that to be a deconstruction of X (x being a trope or set/s thereof), a work must both ''abide by'' and ''criticize'' X. Merely making things DarkerAndEdgier is not necessarily a deconstruction, unless the author is clearly criticizing that-which-is-being-made-DarkerAndEdgier. For instance, {{Warhammer40000}} cranks all its tropes UpToEleven and [[ShadesOfConflict deliberately makes every piece of lore and all of the factions so GRIMDARK that the setting is an ode to moral nihilsm]]; but in spite of the fact that it clearly paints an unpleasant picture, never once does it seriously compell the player to seriously question whether or not they would [[IJustWantToBeBadass truly want to be a badass]] SpaceMarine fighting [[NaughtyTentacles tentacle-rapey]] [[HornyDevils Slaaneeshi Daemonettes]] [[FreudWasRight by stabbing them repeatedly with phallic]] [[BigFancySword and extremely large sword]]-[[ChainsawGood chainsaw hybrids]]. Thus, 40k ''abides by'' the tropes without ''criticizing'' them.

Note that the examples in this page refer to deconstructions of a whole genre; for deconstructions of individual tropes in works that are not in themselves deconstructions of their genre, please see DeconstructedTrope.

A {{parody}} that deconstructs at the same time as parodying is a DeconstructiveParody. A work that attacks or critiques social phenomenon is a [[{{Satire}} satire]], not a deconstruction (although a deconstruction may feature satire, and vice versa). See also MetaTropeIntro. Compare PostModernism. Contrast AffectionateParody. Not to be confused with the DeconstructorFleet, which engages in [[SatireParodyPastiche parody and pastiche]] as much as it does in actual deconstruction. Subtropes include DeconstructionCrossover, when Deconstruction is done by staging a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover.

See also UnbuiltTrope, when a work can be retroactively seen as a Deconstruction. See IndecisiveDeconstruction for where to draw the line between a genre piece and a deconstruction.

----
!!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:{{Advertising}}]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fA8ad71n94 This Sprite commercial]] gleefully deconstructs the usage of advertising characters appearing in the real world alongside real people.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* TwentiethCenturyBoys goes nuts on every nuance it can find in the SavingTheWorld plot. The {{Badass}} is brought down to the same level as the ActionSurvivor cast. The AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever is torn apart so brutally it's commented on in universe. The only reason the BigBad exists is because he's a PsychopathicManchild CompleteMonster who actually ''believes'' in this crap, and he is much more GenreSavvy than the typical comic book villain who grabs the IdiotBall at the perfect time. At the same time, it is a {{Reconstruction}} in that, no matter how many tropes it subverts, the characters are still SavingTheWorld.
* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' deconstructs the SuperRobot genre, and many typical anime personality types:
**Changed the SuperRobot from an unfeeling mechanoid with unlimited energy that is easily repaired to a biological entity that bleeds, feels pain, needs an extension cord for power, and may even have a personality.
** Most SuperRobot shows have a teenage mecha pilot and a long-absent father who designed the mecha. So ''Evangelion'' shows how traumatizing it would be for a real teen to fight in a giant robot -- and what kind of father would be long-absent to design the robot.
** Half the cast is made up of what seem at first to be stereotypical anime characters. As the series progresses, however, they are revealed to be severely messed-up people with the same sort of problems that would be expected of real-life {{Tsundere}}s, [[BottleFairy bottle fairies]], and {{lovable sex maniac}}s.
*** They even pull a GenderFlip on the three main protagonists. Shinji is a ShrinkingViolet, Asuka is the HotBlooded protagonist, and Rei is TheStoic protagonist.
** Quite a few old super robot shows featured mysterious, alien villains with very lightly defined motivations; cue the relentless attacks of the Angels, alien (or not) assailants with no motive or origin, simply malevolent [[MacGuffin MacGuffins]] to enable [[strike:psychobabble]] the story to play with 'giant robot' tropes.
** Tokyo 3 is all but destroyed by the end of the series, and it's populace either dead or evacuated; a sharp contrast to the likes of {{Power Rangers}}.
** Sunrise dedicated [[GaoGaiGar the last installment of one of its other mecha franchises]] to being the first response. Such was ''NGE'''s influence.
** ''BlissStage'' is the TabletopGames equivalent, and specifically lists ''Evangelion'' (and various [[RahXephon Evangelion]] [[{{Bokurano}} byproducts]]) as an inspiration for its ruthless deconstruction of ThePowerOfLove. If all that's required is [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 intimacy and affection]] rather than actual ''love...''
*** Well that's not Deconstruction, that's just arbitrarily changing the nature of the trope to make it darker. It's like saying that you've created ''Car-Nage'', a ruthless deconstruction of the internal combustion engine -- if all that's required is any kind of dead biomatter rather than ''petroleum...''
*** Which is, by the way, exactly the same thing.
****So you can power cars with carrion then? I don't think you get what the above poster is saying.
** In some ways, ''Eva'' resembles the early days of the RealRobot genre. Shinji Ikari has quite a few similarities with [[MobileSuitGundam Amuro Ray]], the most iconic mecha protagonist in anime history. While Amuro's relationship with his father is not nearly as bad as Shinji's, Amuro's father ''does'' go insane while building the RX-78 and due to his injuries in the first episode. Amuro is just as "whiny" as Shinji, but is forced to accept responsibilities in the military hierarchy and grows to maturity through that. Even his reaction to his accidental [[spoiler: killing of Lalah]] resembles Shinji's after [[spoiler: killing Kaworu]].
* ''MartianSuccessorNadesico,'' on the other hand, does the same thing with its AffectionateParody of RealRobot shows.
** ''Nadesico'' also delves into the SuperRobot side of things as well. Many of the moral actions and choices made in the series don't have clear cut results or justifications, and many of the events are contrasted against the SuperRobot ShowWithinAShow ''Gekiganger''. Plus, the only pilot on ''Nadesico'' that fits the SuperRobot archetype [[spoiler: [[DroppedABridgeOnHim gets shot and killed early in the series]], rather than getting the heroic death in battle he was hoping for]].
* Originally, ''SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' was meant to be a DeconstructiveParody of shows like ''MobileSuitGundam''. While it veered off that course eventually and played a fair number of tropes completely straight (never mind [[MacrossMissileMassacre inventing]] a few along the way), pretty much every major entry into the franchise has featured at least one major, often scathing, deconstruction.
** The early original episodes were fairly blatant in their deconstructive jokes (showing how a rookie would ''actually'' do in an unfamiliar combat robot, showing how, at least, [[SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay Getting To Space Does Not Work That Way]] in terms of the anti-gravity generators, etc.) However, even after the show began to take itself seriously, it still subverted some viewer expectations, especially with the [[WhamEpisode Bodolza Fleet]]. Space aliens take up orbit around Earth... and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the Earth gets reduced to 90%+ toast]], just as would happen if we really ''did'' get invaded by aliens. And then, of course, [[AfterTheEnd what followed]] was a good deal more ''optimistic'' about the post-apocalypse than what was generally shown at that time.
** The largest deconstruction the original presented, though, was dealing with said fleet. Unlike earlier SuperRobot shows where the heroes could [[ConservationOfNinjutsu cleave through legions and win]], the show directly acknowledged that one ship could not possibly hope to defeat an entire fleet. So it fell to ''[[ThePowerOfLove culture]]'' -- convincing the aliens that we deserved to live and that we're NotSoDifferent after all -- to actually save humanity. It sounds pithy now, but in 1983, this was absolutely '''profound''', not just for anime but for television in general, even outside of Japan. Sure, the overlord of the fleet was still destroyed, but many of the aliens remained... and the rest of the original series, and parts of the entire rest of the franchise, have been dedicated to dealing with that fact and that the two races '''must''' live together now. This was a deconstruction in the strictest sense -- in the wake of ''Macross'', nobody could simply take a KillEmAll approach to villains unless they were [[BugWar so alien that they were incomprehensible]]. You had to acknowledge at least some humanity in your foe, or your series would be laughed at as incredibly moronic and childish. The effects of the show are felt to this very day.
*** And it's worth pointing out that ''MacrossFrontier'' managed, in the end, to drive home the point that ''even the combatants in a BugWar'' are not wholly incapable of understanding each other.
*** Perhaps surprisingly, this deconstruction survived just about wholly intact in the {{Robotech}} adaptation of ''Macross'', although its impact compared to Japan was blunted to some degree by the then-still-all-pervasive perception of the AnimationAgeGhetto. It's not surprising how many modern SF and television writers and actors claim ''Robotech'', or specifically the ''Macross'' section, as an inspiration, though.
** Basara Nekki of {{Macross7}} is thought to be something of a deconstruction of both the typical heroic, selfless mecha pilot protagonist and the typical "positive musical band leader" archetype. He's actually quite a self-righteous {{Jerkass}} on a personal quest for self-fulfillment who happens to be a talented pilot and musician anyway; he's driven away tons of prospective accompanying guitarists prior to Mylene Jenius showing up and never really seems to get it through his head to put the needs of others ahead of his own. Unfortunately, [[YourMileageMayVary a fair few people think that this characterization is one of the things that actually hurts the show narratively]], so just how effective it was in the end is up for some debate...
* ''{{Gundam 00}}'' had a few instances of Deconstructing tropes from previous Gundam series, including ''GundamSEEDDestiny'', examples of which would be showing the corpse of [[spoiler: Neil Dylandy]] to show everyone that he is indeed ''very dead'', a ''very'' realistic portrayal of just how hopeless RebelliousPrincess's Marina's situation is (her nation is now gone and her country never gotten better beforehand), and (arguably) [[SmugSnake Wang]] [[{{Ojou}} Liu Mei]] being a deconstruction of [[{{Pollyanna}} Lacus]] [[IdolSinger Clyne]].
** Doesn't [[spoiler: Neil's brother come back as the new, identical Lockon Stratos?]]
*** [[spoiler: It is more on the fact that unlike Mwu La Flanga, they made sure Neil was proven dead, and that Lyle, different from in brother in ways has new problems on his plate, such as dealing witth MachurianAgent Anew]]
* The HumongousMecha genre of anime is always [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructing]], [[{{Reconstruction}} reconstructing]], [[AffectionateParody Parodying]], [[DeconstructiveParody and]] [[IndecisiveParody all]] [[IndecisiveDeconstruction the]] [[UnbuiltTrope various]] [[SatireParodyPastiche different]] ways of [[PlayingWithATrope redefining]] itself. Done so often mainly because the creators desperately want to keep the genre fresh and relevant. The entire Sub-Genre of "RealRobot" Mecha shows grew out of a deconstruction of the "SuperRobot" sub-genre, and each of these are redefined in and of themselves so often, that sometimes the line between them is [[GenreBusting blurred]].
*''RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' deconstructs many, many Shojo tropes to the point of MindScrew. The original hero became a Machiavellian and the newer heroes are just petty school children. Really. See also EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory.
**In particular, it deconstructs the fairy tale archetypes of [[TheWhitePrince the prince]], [[PrincessClassic the Princess]], and the WickedWitch. [[http://etrangere.livejournal.com/318410.html?nc=17 this essay]] goes into more detail on the subject.
* The anime ''ParanoiaAgent'' deconstructs sentimentality and [[{{Kawaisa}} cuteness]] in Japanese pop culture. One of the characters is blatantly (down to the ShoutOut visual design) "what if a character from a teen comedy anime had to grow up and get a job?" And the cute things she encounters -- animal mascots (especially one which she created herself), video games, cartoon merchandise -- serve as an escape for people who are too immature to grow up.
* ''ElfenLied'' deconstructs the MagicalGirlfriend, among other things. Or, it could just be an excuse to combine UnwantedHarem, Gorn, and HumansAreBastards cranked {{up to eleven}}. Take your pick.
** This troper picks the latter, on the grounds that they had to add a defect, the rampang psychosis. A proper MagicalGirlfriend deconstruction would leave the basic character -- to wit, the premise -- alone while showing how she wouldn't be so great to have around after all.
* The anime and manga ''{{Narutaru}}'' (''Shadow Star'') deconstructs the [[{{Mon}} pet monster]] genre in a very disturbing and bloody way. To control their companions, the children have a psychic link with them which can take a heavy toll on both their body and mind, and some become very aware of the power they have and abuse it (some to the point of mass murder), [[YouSuck like most kids in the real world would]]. The manga also looks at how the government and military might actually respond to Mons being involved in all manner of strange and violent circumstances, which leads to [[GovernmentConspiracy a lot of cover-ups and extreme measures]].
* ''{{Bokurano}}'' (written by [[MohiroKitoh the same person]] who made ''{{Narutaru}}'') is a HumongousMecha {{deconstruction}} that showcases only too well the destructive side-effects caused by giant robot battles, not to mention the immense psychological stress caused by having a bunch of kids (who all have [[DysfunctionJunction their own personal tragedies]] on top of it) responsible for the continued existence of planet Earth. [[spoiler:And ''then'' they throw in the fact that the SuperRobot they must use is fueled by the pilot's LifeForce, meaning they're all dead even if they win, and we start crossing into DiabolusExMachina territory.]]
** Furthermore, the show deconstructs the '[[InevitableTournament magical tournament]]/ThereCanBeOnlyOne' type of anime as well: [[spoiler:It's later revealed that the creatures the kids have been fighting are actually human pilots from parallel universes, specifically the battles are contests to determine which of the selected universes would be erased from existence, who is doing and why has yet to be explained. So the pilots have to choose between either winning the battles and dying or losing the battles and dooming their universes]].
*** The author manages to one-up himself by explaining that [[spoiler:even if the characters manages to make it through the requisite 14 battles and earn their universe's right to live (killing all of said characters in the process), It's NotReallyOver: the "system" that picks universes to fight might wrap around and choose the protagonists' again.]]
* ''{{Berserk}}'' takes common fantasy tropes and [[strike: smashes them to little pieces]] has Guts chop them up with his {{BFS}}.
** Griffith, the BigBad, is initially presented as a textbook example of a CanonSue; he's handsome, intelligent, a swordsman exceeding even protagonist Guts, and is admired by all who meet him. [[spoiler:This is an act put on for both his men and himself, as he's really a very flawed person who breaks down after Guts defeats him in a duel, and after having sex with the princess of Midland, he's captured and tortured for a year while his men become outlaws. After his backup plan of living with Casca fails because Casca is falling for Guts, he sells the souls of his men to become a demon god.]]
*** The way his dream is carried out is itself a deconstruction of the age-old "follow your dreams" maxim.
** Rosine, main villain of the Lost Children arc, is a deconstruction of the ChangelingFantasy who firmly believes she is the center of one because of parental abuse. [[spoiler:She sells her parents to the same group of demons that Griffith joined so that she can live out her dream. She spends several years attacking nearby villages and killing the adults out of a delusion that adults cause children to suffer out of selfishness while kidnapping the children and transforming them into demonic fairies so that they can spend their wholes lives "playing", and realizes her delusion after Guts destroys the "paradise" she built and mortally wounds her after a particularly brutal fight.]]
** Isidro is a deconstruction of the KidSamurai who shows how incompetent and delusional a KidSamurai would really be (believing in CallingYourAttacks, choosing swordsmanship over throwing, which is his true forte, etc), with a bit of parody thrown in for good measure.
** The King of Midland deconstructs the "king who believes in merit over birth" archetype by wanting to have [[spoiler: sex with his own ''daughter'']], wants Griffith to become King so that he can be relieved of the loneliness of the throne, and has alienated his wife.
** The whole series is a PerspectiveFlip on TheMessiah and TheAntichrist, and shows us just exactly how the dynamic between the two would work, as well as showing that both are not what they initially appear to be.
*''NowAndThenHereAndThere'' is a deconstruction of the ordinary-boy-meets-mysterious-girl-and-is-whisked-away-to-another-land story. The "another land" is a barren wasteland filled with genuinely troubled crazy people in power, child soldiering and exploitation, no magic to speak of (except for Lala-Ru's power), and almost devoid of ''water''. Granted, [[spoiler: protagonist Shu ''does'' defeat the BigBad against all odds and return home by the end, but the last scene is barely hopeful or uplifting.]]
*''My Two Wings'' is arguably a deconstruction of [[{{Rule36}} futanari]] and how they would function in real life. The main focus is a woman who her grandfather hoped would be a {{Pettanko}} so he could raise her as a boy and without problems, but ended up with GagBoobs, had to ditch the charade, and is in the dark about a lot of things related to sexual relations and her own anatomy. An early chapter averts NoPeriodsPeriod just to show her in discomfort when she has her first period and her various romantic partners have varying reactions when they find out about her "equipment"... ranging from acceptance to crippling discomfort.
* ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'' is another mass Anime Tropes Deconstruction, especially the original series' heroes' use of DefeatmeansFriendship (which the BigBad's {{Cult}} uses in Season 2). And just look at [[DespairEventHorizon what happens]] to its typical IdiotHero-BoringInvincibleHero protagonist.
* ''RumblingHearts'' is as brutal a {{Deconstruction}} of the very concept of {{Nakama}} as you will ever find.
* ''TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' starts out as a light-hearted {{Nakama}} GottaCatchEmAll adventure story with some darkness around the edges and interesting sexual subtext. One-third of the way through, everything you thought you knew turns inside out and the most light-hearted elements become harbingers of the ugliest secrets. From there on out, the series proceeds to do everything it can to make your mind boggle, including introducing major unexpected {{Squick}} into what had once been {{CLAMP}}'s most popular and innocent pairing.
* ''DarkerThanBlack'' has a lot of fun mercilessly destroying most of the standard tropes regarding superpowers in anime. Oh, look at all the people with super powers from a mysterious source that [[{{Masquerade}} the government is hiding from the public]]! Except that whatever gives them powers also [[LackOfEmpathy disconnects them from their feelings]], turning them into sociopaths. And they have to do stupid, weird, and [[BlessedWithSuck occasionally painful]] things in exchange for using their powers. And they're [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman not even considered human]] a lot of the time. And governments tend to [[TheCorpsIsMother snap them up immediately for military purposes]], often {{Unperson}}ing them by inflicting LaserGuidedAmnesia on their friends and family. They're pretty much just treated as walking guns. It also plays with the concept of {{antihero}}s, both pointing out how weird the psychology of a lot of {{stoic}} {{badass}}es would be and demonstrating that a JamesBond-style spy would probably not be viewed as a particularly heroic person by anyone he interacted with. In short, this is the sort of show where, when a character with a TransformationSequence appeared, the fandom started taking bets on how long it'll be before someone attacks her in the middle of it. [[spoiler: come to think of it, this basically ''did happen'' in episode 7- not in a brutal way, but she was stopped before she could transform]]
** There's also some deconstruction with character-types. Ordinarily, a BottleFairy and LovableSexManiac are friends/allies to the hero. In ''DarkerThanBlack'', the characters fitting those tropes (April and Genma respectively) are Hei's enemies.
* Even TengenToppaGurrenlagann, {{Reconstruction}} and AffectionateParody of HumongousMecha manages to deconstruct something - OnlySaneMan. Rossiu, who was this for bunch of HotBlooded ChaoticGood pilots later starts treating them all as an idiots and believing he's the only one who knows how to save the world [[spoiler: right to the point when he commits acts of ShootTheDog]].
** The second half of the series also deconstructs [[spoiler: the result of [[LaResistance The Resistance]] successfully defeating TheEmpire and having to deal with ruling over the land they have liberated. Not everyone wants to be under their command and almost all members of Team Gurren admit they're not cut out for administrative duties. Also, once the Anti-Spiral invasion appears, Rossiu's ascension to power by scapegoating Simon mirrors similar situations in real-life politics where, during crises, people get high office by blaming their predecessors for what's going wrong.]]
* BusouRenkin does a nasty deconstruction of the HardWorkHardlyWorks and BoringInvincibleHero ideas which are so common in shounen. Throughout the first half of the series, it's very frequently remarked how the hero, Kazuki, experiences dramatic improvement in his fighting abilities in a very short period of time and there are comments from Tokiko in episode 14 about how Kazuki seems to bounce back at his lowest point, fed by the energy of others. Well, come the next episode, he dies, and through said heroic will, rips out the "kakugane" (the source of his power and a replacement for his heart) from his chest and it is revealed to be a "black kakugane". Seems that when you have one of those in your chest in place of a heart, you get superhuman powers, but [[BlessedWithSuck with a catch]]. Those with black kakuganes have PowerIncontinence and constantly drain the life energy of anyone around them. Thus, what at first seemed like stock shounen-hero traits were actually a foreshadowing of Kazuki's powers being a curse.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* SuperHero comics had a huge wave of {{deconstruction}} in the '80s and '90s, caused chiefly by two examples:
** Frank Miller's ''[[Comicbook/{{Batman}} Batman: The Dark Knight Returns]]'' takes straightforward superhero action and makes it look absurd by having politics interfere. Batman's work becomes a tool for debates about "toughness on crime," while Superman's idealism makes him an easy dupe for the US government's plans for nuclear war.
*** It's Sequel, TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain deconstructs the AuthorOnBoard Political superheroes by turning GreenArrow into a Marxist, and TheQuestion into a hardcore libertarian who believes that "Ayn Rand didn't go far enough".
*** Actually, GreenArrow had been a radical left winger since the 70's and TheQuestion was an objectivist duing the (pre-Watchmen) Charlton era.
*** That's the point, in TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain, they take this much further. Even though GreenArrow was a leftist, he was never an out and out ''Communist''.
** Alan Moore's graphic novel ''{{Watchmen}}'' is often considered ''the'' genre deconstruction. It examines just why somebody would choose to dress up in fetish gear and beat people up. One "hero" is a sociopathic moral absolutist, one is an egomaniac, one is there simply because her superhero mother made her, and all are portrayed as human characters, with all their flaws. The series was also famous for observing how a superhero would impact our world. Some examples: USA wins in Vietnam thanks to the god-like Dr. Manhattan, Nixon stays in power when the Watergate scandal is covered up by the nefarious Comedian. Appropriately, the character of [[spoiler: Veidt]] is required to "deconstruct" the world in order to save it.
*** Moore's earlier work, ''Marvelman'' (''{{Comicbook/Miracleman}}'' in the United States) deconstructs many aspects of the CaptainMarvel mythos and superheroes in general. In one particularly memorable instance, it deconstructed superhero battles by showing just how bloody and devastating they would be in a more realistic setting.
* Deconstruction in comics is even older than that, dating at least back to the BronzeAge. In TheSeventies, DC came out with ''GreenLantern[=/=]GreenArrow'', in which the title characters do superhero stuff while at the same time, arguing about the morality and political implications.
* Hell! You could even argue that it dates back to the SilverAge! When StanLee first pitched the idea of [[{{Spiderman}} a superhero with real life problems]] his editor replied "Don't you know what a superhero is?"
* While ''KingdomCome'' was part of the mid-90's wave of {{Reconstruction}}ist comics (made in response to the above-mentioned wave of deconstruction), its reconstruction of the SilverAge was accomplished by deconstructing the DarkAge, bringing it to its most extreme conclusion: the {{Nineties Anti Hero}}es, having killed all the villains, have become crazed KnightsTemplar and pretty much taken over the world.
* ''TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' starts out with slightly-darker takes on Victorian heroes, but the second volume shows them sinking really low under pressure (and the ugly sides of Victorian culture that they each represent).
* A story from the comics series ''AnimalMan'' (noted for its PostModernism) deconstructs ''LooneyTunes'' and similar cartoons: in "The Coyote Gospel," a grotesquely anthropomorphic coyote is repeatedly and brutally killed by an Elmer Fudd-style hunter obsessed with his destruction, and continuously reforms/regenerates in a most disturbing manner. Finally, in a scene reminiscent of the classic "Duck Amuck" short, the malevolent animator paints his blood in as he dies for the last time.
**''AnimalMan,'' and moreso ''DoomPatrol,'' are GrantMorrison's Reconstruction of SilverAge comic conventions. He thought they were more fun than the DarkAge.
* Another interesting example by GrantMorrison is ''Fantastic 1234''. At first, it seems like a traditional deconstruction of superheroes by way of the Comicbook/FantasticFour, highlighting their worst aspects as they would be in real life; Ben Grimm is a self pitying misanthrope with a violent temper, Reed Richards is a emotionless autistic who seems to value his inventions more than his friends and family, Johnny Storm is a brooding Greaser whose tastes for fast cars and fast women can't fill the void inside of him, and Sue Storm feels she is trapped in a loveless marriage and is severely tempted to run off with Namor, who is presented as a coldblooded sexfiend willing to do anything to make Sue his own. However, it ends up being a subversion of such a deconstruction; Reed Richards has realised that Dr. Doom has been using a reality altering device to 'deconstruct' the Four and bring out the worst possible aspects of the four's personalities in order to destroy them and gain ultimate revenge on Richards. Richards builds his own variant of the machine to 'reconstruct' the Four and save the day, the point clearly being that the standard portrayal of the Four ''are'' their real personalities. In fact, for his arrogance Doom ends up being the one who's deconstructed, and rather painfully at that, where it is revealed that he is a lonely, pathetic man-child with a ridiculous speech pattern who is not even remotely on Reed Richard's level of genius and whose vendetta against the four is petty and stupid. Also, he seems to be going bald. Ouch.
* Marvel comics ''{{Marvels}}'' and its EvilTwin ''{{Ruins}}'' similarly focus on the impact of superheroes on an "average" person.
* DCComics' ''JonahHex'': Sounds like old fashioned Cowboys and Indians hijinx on the wild frontier, right? Riiight.
* ValiantComics was a whole fictional universe worth of deconstruction. The lack of ComicBookTime, and [[ContinuitySnarl Continuity Snarls]] set them apart from the big two. Strong characterization, focus on how the events effect the average person, and characters that combine elements of GoldenAge and DarkAge heroes also help.
** Valiant's flagship title, Harbinger, featured a groups of super powered teens ''on the run for their lives'' from an evil, seemingly unbeatable business man who, at least at first, seems to be an {{Expy}} of [[XMen Charles Xavier]]. Said villain has an ability only the main character/team leader shares; the ability to ''activate superpowers in others'', which is why he's so dangerous, and so desperate to kill the heroes. It also does a good job showing the mental and emotional toil this kind of thing would have a group of teens, constantly moving from town to town, and being the only thing keeping this guy from becoming dictator of the world.
* ''AstroCity'' is a deconstruction ''and'' a reconstruction. Like Marvels, it focuses on the impact of superheroes on regular people, but also on the inner thoughts of heroes and villains.
* ''{{Planetary}}'', as an archeological survey of comic books, pulp fiction, and B-Movies, deconstructs any sci-fi trope it doesn't reconstruct or parody. The Hulk was captured by the army after his first rampage and took decades to starve to death in a silo. The Narmy B-Movie monsters are the result of horrifying Cold War experiments in American concentration camps. The Comicbook/FantasticFour didn't just come back changed, they came back ''wrong.'' And [[ReedRichardsIsUseless Reed Richards isn't useless]]. He's the American Doctor Mengele.
* WarrenEllis is currently working on a "thematic trilogy" for AvatarPress in which he deconstructs the superhero genre. The first part, ''Black Summer'' shown us what would happen if superheroes were too human. The second part, ''No Hero'' show what would happen if they would find themselves above human laws. The third part, ''Supergod'' will show us what would happen if all superheroes would not be human, but similiar to [[{{Watchmen}} Doctor Manhattan]] in the way of thinking.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Fan Fic}}]]
* FanFic has a tendency to try to deconstruct the series it's based on -- either deliberately or simply by [[PullTheThread pulling the loose threads]] in the story or setting until something breaks.
** For example, Crystal Tokyo, the CrystalSpiresAndTogas {{utopia}}n [[TheFuture Future]] of ''SailorMoon'', is frequently deconstructed into a KnightTemplar {{dystopia}} -- famously, in ''[[FanFic/ImHereToHelp I'm Here To Help]]''. Neo-Queen Serenity, Sailor Moon's future self, is described as "cleansing the Earth's people of evil". That would be enough to plant EpilepticTrees, but then in the second season, the Black Moon Clan showed up, time-travelling antagonists who refused to be "purified" and left Crystal Tokyo forever. That just made removing people's "evil" sound even more like a euphemism for mass [[{{Brainwashed}} brainwashing]].
--->When I dream I have this recurring nightmare that Walt Disney has taken over the world and turned it into a bright and happy place where people burst into song at the drop of a hat. Then I wake up and I'm living in Crystal Tokyo. I can't decide which is worse.\\
-- from ''[[http://web.archive.org/web/20050911192324/http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/1810/bwb.htmhttp://web.archive.org/web/20050911192324/http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/1810/bwb.htm The Babe Wore Blue]]'' by Mark Latus
** Similarly, the Federation from ''StarTrek'', especially after ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', is frequently portrayed as a [[RedScare semi-communist dystopia]], only averting the worst horrors of the stereotype due to their AppliedPhlebotinum. The website [=StarDestroyer.net=] is famous for advocating and supporting this view, as seen in [[http://stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/Trek-Marxism.html this essay]].
*** This [[http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=75690 fanfic(?)]] shows how the Federation could go from the TOS to TNG in a disturbingly realistic way.
**''StarWars'' fan fiction writers like to deconstruct the morality of the good guys, particularly the Jedi, the Republic, and their successors. A lot. After all there has to be a reason why technology never seems to advance.
* ''[[http://maelgrim.tripod.com/rockint.html Rockman: the Robot War]]'', while it does take liberties with the cast, puts a ''dark'' twist on many tropes in the ''MegaMan'' games. In the aftermath of World War 3, Dr. Light develops the [[SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids Robot Masters]] to assist in environmental clean-up and industry. Dr. Wily has a more sympathetic backstory, he feels that over use of robots will destroy humanity, and allies the [[KnightsTemplar Human Supremacy League]], which is like a very well organized terrorist group. The Robot Masters are also mass produced, allowing for armies of Gutsman or Cutman to go on killing sprees, while the the orignals are the bosses in the initial stages. And this is the tip of the iceberg.
* A great deal of ''PowerRangers'' fanfic (especially with the original characters) portrays the characters as if the constant power losses, mind hijackings, and secrecy actually had the profound psychological effects one would expect these sort of things to have on a teenager.
* Some ''KimPossible'' fics have her clear "beat the bad guys, save the world" morality crash against the intractable problems of the world, leading her to crack up or go rogue. Others have her EvilCounterpart Shego explain moral relativism to her.
* In ''FairlyOddparents'' FanFiction if you are writing about Cosmo and Wanda's failing relationship, or about [[GenieInABottle Norm the Genie]] (in sympathetic) light, the tropes involved will be {{Deconstructed}} and the [[MoralityTropes morality]] of the show will be {{Deconstructed}}.
* Writing from a perspective of [[{{Transformers}} "the Decepticons were right"]] can swing between this and DracoInLeatherPants for the entire faction. The most recent ''TransformersAnimated'' starts to lean this way itself, as the high command seems a bit morally suspect and the Decepticons are basically rebellious freedom fights whose leader happens to be Megatron.
* The Jay/Silent Bob slash segment of TheViewAskewniverse fandom tends to explore the dark side of what is generally considered a simple comic relief duo. Themes include tragic back-stories to explain Jay's outlandish behavior and Bob's silence, the realities of drug use/abuse, and the angst of being secretly in love with your best friend.
** And the [[{{Unfortunate Implications}} unfortunate truth]], [[{{Or So I Heard}} according to an article I read]], is that a lot of that stuff is ''actually'' true of Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes in {{Real Life}}.
*** This is true. In fact, in Clerks 2 the reason Jay gives for the duo having been in prison is the ''actual reason'' that Jason Mewes had been in prison a few months before filming. [[spoiler:(He was caught with drugs after being arrested on "suspicion of mischief" which apparently translates into, "Driving around with a deployed airbag." Which, come to think of it, is hilarious rather than angsty.)]]
* {{Redwall}} fic commonly attempts to deconstruct the AlwaysChaoticEvil nature of vermin. Success varies.
* ''Fanfic/ThoseLackingSpines'' starts off as a deconstruction of all the abundant cliches in ''KingdomHearts'' fanfiction, but soon it deconstructs everything in [[FanfictionDotNet fanfiction.net]]...[[spoiler: including the authors themselves.]]
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4602078/1/Challenge_of_the_Super_Friends_The_End Challenge of the Super Friends: The End]]'', everything about the original cartoon is played straight. When the Legion of Doom enters another universe, things have {{Gone Horribly Wrong}}, and end up like victims in the ''{{Event Horizon}}'' and ''{{Hellraiser}}'' films, while the Superfriends become fascistic and attempt to make their world a utopia in the villains' absence. Along the way, every character is deconstructed before being transformed beyond recognition.
* There are a few ''HighSchoolMusical'' fanfictions where after the characters have graduated at the end of the third movie, they go off to their respective colleges with no preparation for [[RealLife the real world]]. Scenarios like Sharpay getting knocked back from a theatre career for her attitude and something horrible happening to Troy are fairly common.
* Many {{Ranma}} Fanfics tend to deconstruct the whole {{gender bender}}/{{shapeshifting}} thing, by playing the mental stress these put on the characters straight and not for fun. Their over the top flaws from the manga (Ryoga and orientation, Ranma and socializing etc.) are used too. [[DownerEnding Usually this ends with a massive downer]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Film}}]]
* ''{{Shrek}}'' uses various fantasy/fairy tale tropes and twists them in a rather funny way. It showed a different perspective in your typical fantasy stories. Deconstruction doesn't have to be sad or angsty now, does it?
* The merciless deconstruction (or AffectionateParody) of various HighSchool character tropes that went down in ''NotAnotherTeenMovie'' may very well be credited to the fall out of teen movies in the early 2000s. Until ''HighSchoolMusical'' came...
** An even more mercilous deconstruction was ''MeanGirls''. The movie sets up the standard formula: The poor heroine has her social life ruined by a group of popular girls, and loses the guy of her dreams, so she sets out to make things right and get her revenge. She accomplishes this about halfway through the movie, at which point you get the watch the lead popular girl's life fall apart, and the heroine take her place in the social ladder, ignoring her original friends and becoming just as mean herself. The clearest turning point is when it's overtly pointed out by one of the friends that the guy has left the bully, but still doesn't want her (or, for that matter, want anything to do with the whole fucked-up mess), but yet she's still trying to ruin the once-popular girl's life.
*** ''{{Heathers}}'' did it earlier, putting some brutal twists on perceptions of teenage society and violence along the way. And with more murder.
* ''LastActionHero'' is somewhere between a parody and a deconstruction of the action movie genre, heading more towards deconstruction after the protagonists go to the real world.
* JidaiGeki films underwent an increasingly cynical Deconstructionist phase during the 1960s that arguably led to the genre going out of vogue for a good deal of the 1970s:
** ''{{Yojimbo}}''
** ''Sanjuro''
** ''Samurai Assassin''
** ''The Sword of Doom''
** ''Hari-kiri''
* Similarly, {{Western}}s in the 1960s went through a Deconstructionist phase:
** ''A Fistful of Dollars'' -- a remake of ''{{Yojimbo}}'', although ''Yojimbo'' was an adaptation of Hammett's ''Red Harvest''
** ''For a Few Dollars More''
** ''[[{{ptitlehluotwyqio1w}} The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly]]''
** ''Hang 'Em High''
** ''The Wild Bunch'' -- John Wayne is said to have complained that this film "killed the Western".
*** Even though it kinda started with ''The Searchers'', in which Wayne's hero is unabashedly racist towards Native Americans.
** ''High Plains Drifter''
** ''ElTopo''
** ''Django''
** Worthwhile deconstructions later on include Robert Altman's ''[=McCabe=] & Mrs. Miller'' and Jim Jarmusch's ''Dead Man''.
** The real deconstruction of the Western is ''{{Unforgiven}}''; '60s Westerns more subvert Western tropes rather than deconstruct them. While a few of the common tropes of the Western Golden Age are treated as if they were serious (such as eliminating the HookerWithAHeartOfGold and replacing TheAce with the {{Jerkass}} to be DarkerAndEdgier), '60s Westerns still use other unrealistic Western tropes: the lightning-fast gun fight, the regrettable ride into sunset denouement, and the white and black hat, although in the the '60s it's usually more of a grey and black hat. ''Unforgiven,'' by contrast, works precisely because it plays against the DarkerAndEdgier expectations of the viewer by going all the way down the rabbit hole: the lightning-fast draw is specifically demonstrated as practically worthless next to coolheadedness in a gunfight, the ride into the sunset leaves behind a populace not so much regretful as traumatized, and the MagnificentBastard isn't put down by a gray hat so much as an even blacker hat whose actions (arguably, as it may well be DisproportionateRetribution at work) fail to cross the MoralEventHorizon only because the villain had it coming.
* ''Battle Without Honor and Humanity'' (Jingi Naki Tatakai) is a brutal, brutal deconstruction of the {{Yakuza}} films popular in Japan around the same time, which tended to portray the Yakuza as a chivalrous, honorable organization of {{blood brothers}}. In the film, besides the main character, they're money-grubbing, backstabbing, treacherous, and vicious. Every vow of brotherhood or loyalty has been violated and the time-honored traditions of the Yakuza seem ludicrous, outmoded, or just plain crazy. The name of the film demonstrates this -- "Jingi" is the term for the Yakuza code of honor.
* To a certain extent, the 2006 JamesBond film ''CasinoRoyale'' deconstructs earlier Bond films through features such as a conversation mocking the DoubleEntendre names of previous Bond girls, LeChiffre's comment about preferring simpler methods of torture to the {{Death Trap}}s endemic to the series, having Bond respond "Do I look like I give a damn?" when asked how he wants his martini, and generally treating his profession as an assassin more literally. At least some of these features were present in the original novels, making the film something of a Reconstruction as well.
* Santa movies [[ParentalBonus aimed at adults as well as children]] usually attempt to deconstruct the Santa mythos -- a recent one being ''Fred Claus'', which implies Santa has a bad sex life due to his weight.
* ''{{Cloverfield}}'' is a giant monster movie where, instead of focusing on the monster and the awesome destruction it causes, or the super soldiers fighting it, we focus on the people caught in the catastrophe, and what a completely tragic, horrifying experience a kaiju attack would be in real life. It also shows how the average person in such a thing would really have ''[[MindScrew NO DAMN CLUE]]'' about the monster's origins, its ultimate fate, or really anything other than "It's here and it's killing everyone!"
** The original ''[[{{Godzilla}} Gojira]]'' did a [[UnbuiltTrope bit of the same thing]] with the tragic consequences, which makes ''Cloverfield'' almost a {{Reconstruction}} at the same time as it deconstructs.
* ''FunnyGames'' is intended as a [[{{Postmodernism}} Postmodern]] deconstruction of [[{{Gorn}} the "torture porn" sub-genre of horror movies]] by presenting it in the most bare-bones and [[{{Squick}} disturbing]] way possible. If you ''enjoyed'' the movie, [[MisaimedFandom you didn't understand it]]. There's also the rather [[MindScrew insane]] bit of [[NoFourthWall fourth wall breaking]], [[spoiler: The mother steals the shot-gun, kills one of the two villains, the other quickly grabs the TV's remote control, presses rewind, to right before she shots him, and grabs the gun,]] saying "you shouldn't have done that, you're not allowed to break the rules". The point being, that protagonist can never win in a horror film, because that's "the rules" of the genre. Most of the Forth wall breaking scenes are basically the killers telling the audience that they're to blame for the [[YouBastard family's suffering, because movies like this are entertainment for them.]] The lack of a fourth wall makes possible to most terrifing line ever uttered: [[spoiler: "We're not up to feature length yet. What you want is a real ending with plausible plot development".]]
* MNightShyamalan presented deconstructions of SuperHero stories with ''{{Unbreakable}}''. The main character [[HowDoIShotWeb has no idea about the nature of his powers or about how he should use them]].
* ''TheWrestler'' is something of a deconstruction of Sports Movies in which the fallen and ailing sporting hero's RedemptionQuest is to triumph against physical adversity and win a big bout against an old rival, which thus solves his current problems and allows him to move on with their lives with renewed success and appreciation from the fans. Here, what would be the subject of such a quest in such movies -- a big reunion bout with his main rival in the past -- in fact isn't; Randy's ''real'' RedemptionQuest is to build a new life for himself outside of the ring by fixing things with his estranged daughter and find love with Cassidy, the stripper with whom he has fallen in love. [[spoiler: He ultimately fails at both, and the fact that he enters the big bout is in fact a symbol of his failure in this; although he wins the bout, it's strongly implied that his heart problems means that the effort killed him in the process.]]
* ''Natural Born Killers'' brutally deconstructs the relationship between violence, the media, sensationalism, the audience's narrative expectations, and a handful of media formats, such as the wacky sitcom style used for Malory's background, complete with a {{laughtrack}} while her father molests her and various people are messily murdered.
* ''EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'' deconstructs Romance movies by having nearly the entire movie take place after the honeymoon period of a new relationship when things start to fall apart. In fact, the thesis of the movie is effectively "romance can be so horrible that you will want to have your memory erased [[spoiler: but when you add it all up, they're probably worth the angst]]".
* ''{{Scanners}}'' sets up a fairly standard [[TheHerosJourney Hero's Journey]], as [[TheHero Cameron Vale]], blessed with PsychicPowers, is sent by wise old [[{{Mentor}} Dr. Paul Ruth]] to defeat Ruth's former pupil, [[BigBad Darryl Revok]], who also has PsychicPowers. Vale befriends a WhiteHairedPrettyGirl, Kim Obrist, who can help him infiltrate Revok's organization. Not unsurprisingly, it is revealed that both Cameron and Darryl are the two sons of Paul. With us so far? And then Darryl [[LampshadeHanging points out]] what kind of father would abandon his sons like that, and weaponize one against the other, and, indeed, would test a potentially dangerous new drug on his pregnant wife, thus making Cameron and Darryl psychic in the first place. "[[CallingTheOldManOut That was Daddy.]]" Also, the psychic stuff is [[BlessedWithSuck disgusting and creepy]]: scanning is presented not as a graceful and mystical power, but as a painful and unpleasant "[[BodyHorror merging of two nervous systems]]". And Ruth's dream of a scanner utopia turn out to be NotSoDifferent from Revok's scanner-supremacy idea, as observed by Vale. Meanwhile, Cam and Kim never fall in love, as would be expected, because they're too scared for their lives.
* The 1991 film ''The Dark Backward'' contains an animated sequence that deconstructs the ''TomAndJerry'' cartoons: Tom's CaptainErsatz gleefuly pursues Jerry's, hatchet in hand, and then cuts him in half with it (guts spill); then Spike's CaptainErsatz appears and blows the cat's brains out (literally) with a shotgun. The main character's mother laughs out loudly at this scene.
* {{Park Chan-Wook}}'s "vengeance" trilogy, which includes ''{{Sympathy for Mr Vengeance}}'', ''{{Oldboy}}'', and ''{{Lady Vengeance}}'' is very much a deconstruction of the revenge film. This is most true in the first film, in which all the violence committed only leads to further despair.
* ''{{Pleasantville}}'' deconstructs the stereotypical 1950s ''Leave It To Beaver'' style sitcom, and through it the whole phenomenon of 1950s nostalgia; it starts off as a typically wholesome, innocent and carefree place (especially when contrasted to the 1990s, a lengthy opening montage reeling out all the social problems seemingly endemic since the 1950s), but the introduction of colour into the black-and-white environment gradually peels things back to reveal the stifling and repressed attitudes towards race, gender and sexuality seething under the surface, and the social problems of the decade that such nostalgia frequently overlooks.
* Both ''TheLongGoodbye'' and ''TheBigLebowski'' are deconstructions of film noir, specifically RaymondChandler/Philip Marlowe stories, although ''Lebowski'' is also played for laughs. In both films, the protagonist is more or less a loser who lives by himself and comes to the wrong conclusion at the end of the case, but it's not a big deal since it never really mattered in the first place.
* The film ''ShinKamenRiderPrologue'' is arguably one for the ''KamenRider'' series, showing a much more realistic and gruesome look at the themes of forced genetic engineering, [[PhlebotinumRebel phlebotinum rebellion]], and giant bug people that were present through the franchise's Showa era.
* Whereas ''{{Unforgiven}}'' was ClintEastwood's deconstruction of westerns, ''GranTorino'', which came out about a decade and a half later, is his deconstruction of his other big genre, the urban vigilante film.
* The film version of ''[[FourteenOhEight 1408]]'' does this with the "Escape from something terrible and become a better person for it" kind of movie. The Protagonist wakes up on a beach, reliving an earlier scene when he's on the beach, showing the whole experience to be "AllJustADream" he reconnects with his estranged father, gets back together with his ex-wife who he still has feelings for, and becomes a successful author, and the audience is lead to believe that this is the third act of the movie. Turns out, [[spoiler: it was all just a sadistic game that the room came up with the torture him more]], and it along with [[spoiler: the apparition of his dead daughter]] prove to be the last straw setting off the real ending of [[spoiler: him burning down the room so that nobody else will ever stay in it.]]
* A scene from TheMirrorHasTwoFaces shows Streisand's character deconstructing {{Cinderella}} saying that she drove the prince nuts with her obsessive cleaning.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]
* ''TheWarlordChronicles'' by by Bernard Cornwell arguably does this in regards to the KingArthur mythos.
* ''EndersGame'' is a deconstruction of the child hero and boring invincible hero. By the time the book ends [[spoiler: Ender abandons Earth forever, has killed all but one of an innocent species that was antagonized by human kind, doesn't hook up with his love interest (because, you know, he doesn't ''get'' one) and had his ass handed to him psychologically.]] Oh, [[spoiler: and he accidently killed two fellow students but was never told about it.]]
* This is OlderThanSteam, dating back to the novel ''DonQuixote'' by Miguel de Cervantes. It deconstructs the KnightInShiningArmor by showing how much trouble the chivalric code can cause in the real world, and the dark, unspoken assumptions behind knight's tales (i.e, true gentlemen do not need to work). After its publication people never really read them in the same way again and the genre promptly died; to this day works containing knights in shining armor are surprisingly rare (though not unheard of; there are plenty of works that are chivalric in all but name, particularly games).
** ''DonQuixote'' inspired a run of eighteenth-century anti-romance novels, including Charlotte Lennox's ''The Female Quixote'' and Tabitha Tenney's ''Female Quixotism.''
** On another level, though, the above summary is only half-true -- a huge amount of ''DonQuixote'' is a ''reconstruction'' of the {{Chivalric Romance}} (bear in mind that the Don quotes ''whole excerpts'' from ''Amadis of Gaul'' and ''Orlando Furioso'' in places), after the genre was ''already'' laughably old-fashioned, and half of the joke is a TakeThat against the contemporary MoralGuardians who believed that such tales were inappropriate and corrupting for proper young ladies... which is why the book is about how chivalric romances lead to the corruption of a fifty-year-old man. ''After'' everyone else had stopped caring. ''DonQuixote'' proceeded to spur a revival of the genre (part 2 was partially Cervantes' rebuttal to an insulting FanFic) and became a tragic romantic figure for the remainder of Western history.
** ''Orlando Furioso'' was, itself, a deconstruction of the KnightInShiningArmour's obsessive love for his lady. After Orlando finds out that Angelica has no interest in him and doesn't hold up to his impossibly high standards (i.e. she had premarital sex with a shepherd, and eventually gets married to an Arab guy), he basically [[LoveMakesYouEvil turns into]] TheIncredibleHulk and runs around killing innocent people.
* Another old example: the novel ''GreatExpectations'' by CharlesDickens is a rare case of a writer deconstructing all of his previous work. All the normal tropes of Dickens novels (the ChangelingFantasy, saintly dying women, mysterious benefactors, long-lost relatives, etc.) happen like clockwork. Then these tropes are revealed to be a malevolent lie created to manipulate the hero -- who has been so morally ruined that he's more like an {{Antihero}}.
* Terry Pratchett's ''{{Discworld}}'' novels started out as a simple parody of fantasy novels, but the series has now grown and evolved to include several novels that deconstruct not only fantasy novels, but fairy tales (''Witches Abroad''), Christmas stories and Victorian children's books (''Hogfather''), police procedurals (the various "City Watch" books), and other genres. They haven't stopped being funny.
* ''SoonIWillBeInvincible'' is a Superhero ''novel'', revolving around Doctor Impossible breaking out of jail to try and take over the world (again)... all the while wondering if he's done the [[CutLexLuthorACheck smartest things he could do with his life and vast intellect]]. Most of the other characters are {{Captain Ersatz}}-es of other popular comic book archetype characters, with realistic human flaws added.
* Arguably, Boris Strugatsky's ''The Powerless Ones of this World'' is a deconstruction of much of his own and his late brother's earlier works. Perhaps most prominently, "the Sensei", who is a [[TheObiWan wise old mentor]] (a fairly typical character for many Strugatsky novels), turns out to have been not only a TricksterMentor, but also [[spoiler:the initiator of the XanatosGambit that dictated much of the plot and was aimed at [[DieOrFly forcing the main character to unlock his full abilities]]]]. It succeeded, but not before making said main character a nervous wreck, inducing quite a BitterSweetEnding and causing much remorse to the mentor himself. Additionally, the topic of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressor the Progressors]] is briefly brought up; one of the characters muses that the Sensei might be acting as one on Earth, and that he had, despite some occasional successes, failed miserably.
* With ''A Companion to Wolves'', Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette do this to all [[BondCreatures bonded companion animal]] stories, especially {{Anne McCaffrey}}'s ''DragonridersOfPern''.
* A lot of John Tynes and/or Greg Stolze works features this. ''Unknown Armies'', for instance, deconstructs the {{Urban Fantasy}} setting, the novel ''A Hunger Like Fire'' deconstructs the trope of the sensual vampire temptress and the [=RPGs=] ''Godlike'' and ''Wild Talents'' deconstructs superheroes stories set during World War 2 and the Cold War respectively.
* ''[[FoucaultsPendulum Foucault's Pendulum]]'' deconstructs its genre by examining the motives people have for believing in conspiracy theories. These include the exertion of control through secrecy, a frustrated creative instinct, and the pathological desire to see every event as a symbol of something deeper instead of as itself. Ultimately, people who devote their lives to these theories are portrayed as fools who are too wrapped up in their own fantasies to realize that it is all utter nonsense.
* ''WutheringHeights'' deconstructs the idea that AllGirlsWantBadBoys, by showing exactly what happens when girls fall in love with troubled, angry men. Heathcliff is a 'bad boy', and Bronte shows exactly what this means; he's unstable, vindictive, violent, selfish and vicious. The relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine is depicted as being intensely passionate, but also intensely unhealthy (not least because they [[IncestIsRelative may]] or [[NotBloodSiblings may not]] actually be [[BrotherSisterIncest brother and sister]]), and Heathcliff's response to being spurned for another man is to embark on a single-minded crusade of vengeance that ultimately results in the ruination of both lovers and their immediate families for absolutely no point whatsoever. As if this wasn't enough to illustrate the point, Edgar Linton's foolish sister Isabella elopes with Heathcliff because she's attracted to his bad-boy image. She gets what she wants, but not in the way she expects; an abusive husband who is openly contemptuous and violent towards her, and makes no secret of the fact that he only married her to get at her brother. This hasn't stopped a MisaimedFandom growing around Heathcliff, however, who even to this day is considered a model of a romantic hero despite the fact that he's pretty much a sociopath and Bronte intended to make this absolutely clear.
** It also shows that what happens when good boys fall in love with troubled, angry women who are in love with said troubled, angry men...
* ''TheIronDream,'' an AlternateHistory {{Mockumentary}} essay about Adolf Hitler's career as a pulp SciFi illustrator turned author, is a deconstruction of the HeroicFantasy genre and the Apocalypse fantasy, intended to show the creepy fascist aspects at its core.
* The DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse novel ''The Crooked World'' by Steve Lyons is a deconstruction of ''LooneyTunes''-esque cartoons as the Doctor lands in a cartoon world and begins to influence its inhabitants' behaviors towards naturalism.
** And ''The Indestructable Man'' by Simon Messingham is a deconstruction of all GerryAnderson's work, asking ''why'' Jeff Tracy founded the {{Thunderbirds}}, what [[{{UFO}} SHADO]] personnel would ''really'' be like (yes ''{{UFO}}'' was DarkerAndEdgier to being with, but Messingham takes it further), and how the ordinary people of the Supermarionation world might feel about so much money being channelled into AwesomeButImpractical vehicles. Most notably, the titular Indestructable Man is a CaptainErsatz CaptainScarlet who feels [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul detached from humanity]] and [[WhoWantsToLiveForever wishes he was able to die]].
* ''WorldWarZ'' could be considered a deconstruction of ZombieApocalypse fiction by looking at how real-world governments and people would react to a zombie threat: Somewhat predictably, the Chinese attempt to suppress the truth, the Americans rely on first strike special forces but have difficulty achieving a general mobilisation, evacuees are more concerned with temporary entertainment (ref. the disposed discs) than survival and don't really, properly prepare for a long-term stay away from urbania...
* ''Banewreaker'' by Jacqueline Carey and its sequel ''Godslayer'' deconstruct {{Heroic Fantasy}} in the most painful manner possible. It's hard to think of a fantasy trope not used, up to and including a more benign version of {{I Have You Now My Pretty}}, but {{Always Chaotic Evil}} is subverted, {{Sympathetic POV}} is averted, and the {{Designated Villain}}s are made to be [[DarkIsNotEvil ultimately on the side of what's right]] ''despite [[IDidWhatIHadtoDo committing horrible deeds out of necessity]]''. It's enough to make your jaw drop, almost qualifying as {{Detournement}}.
* While I'm not sure Stephenie Meyer intended ''TheHost'' as a deconstruction of alien invasions, reading it rendered this troper incapable of lasting through three chapters of ''ThePuppetMasters'', due to the former work's complete aversion of {{Not Even Human}} and the latter work's reliance on it.
** If you want a subversion of Puppet Master motivations, check out ''Animorphs'', book #19 and onward, especially book #19. They make the point that being stuck as a small, deaf blind slug might be somewhat objectionable.
* [[http://www.nicolagriffith.com/troll.html "A Troll Story"]] by Nicola Griffith, in which a Viking warrior faces off against a troll. He wins, all right, but the story abruptly takes a deconstructionist turn: he [[spoiler:[[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes insane]] from the troll's final curse, which renders him able to understand that [[NotSoDifferent there's no essential moral difference]] between the troll's slaughter of Vikings and his own slaughter of innocents in the towns he's raided.]]
* ''A Princess Worth Dying For'' by SergeiLukyanenko presents a fairly standard SpaceOpera world with a few innovative technologies thrown in. The sequel, ''Planet that Doesn't Exist" proceeds to deconstruct the entire setting, revealing that [[spoiler:it was actually a result of a XanatosGambit orchestrated by time-traveling humans from the future, who wanted to create thousands of planets worth of allies in a fight against an alien race that kept the humanity from expanding out into space.]]
* Since as of this writing, all the examples on this page are positively presented, a reminder should be given that TropesAreNotGood. For instance, there's ''Out of this World'' by [[LawrenceWattEvans Lawrence Watt-Evans]], which deconstructs both HighFantasy and SpaceOpera. Our hero is an [[YouSuck ordinary schlub]], so everything--''everything''--he tries [[BoringFailureHero fails miserably]] as the narration remarks that such things [[ThisIsReality only work in fiction]]. DeusAngstMachina rears its ugly head when [[spoiler:the villains rape and murder his wife and daughter]].
* ''LordOfTheFlies'' is a brutal deconstruction of the KidsWildernessEpic, subverting MightyWhitey and NobleSavage and with serious HumansAreBastards themes.
* ''SnowCrash'' is a deconstruction (or possibly a DeconstructorFleet) of the {{Cyberpunk}} genre. Stephenson exaggerates the genre's usual tropes and takes them to their logical conclusion -- most notably Hiro Protagonist's outlandish array of skills and the fact that the Metaverse looks more like Second Life than any serious cyberpunk VR. The critiques inherent in ''Snow Crash'' flew over the heads of a lot of readers, but they informed many later works in the genre including Gibson's ''Bridge Trilogy''.
** Stephenson's next novel ''TheDiamondAge'' further deconstructs cyberpunk: it first introduces Bud, a typical BadassLongcoat cyberpunk protagonist...and then shows him to be an idiotic thug who is [[spoiler:executed in the first chapter]].
* At around the same time as SnowCrash was written,two of CyberPunk's early proponents, William Gibson (Author of, among others, the [[UnbuiltTrope prototypical]] CyberPunk book {{Neuromancer}}) and Bruce Sterling, (author of the CyberPunk anthology Mirrorshades) got together to write TheDifferenceEngine, which was meant to Deconstruct CyberPunk by taking all the CyberPunk storylines and themes and putting them in a Victorian Context, the point being that the themes commonly associated with CyberPunk where nothing ''new'', or even anything entirly ''fictional''. Instead they ended up giving birth to [[SteamPunk a new genre]].
* ''Ring For Jeeves'' could be considered a half-Deconstruction of PGWodehouse's stories. The usual romantic comedy character-relation tropes are there, but the world they live in is remarkably different. All of Wodehouse's stories take place in a world of eternal ChristieTime, but ''Ring For Jeeves'' explores what would happen if time actually ''progressed''. World War II has happened, Britain is in the throes of social upheaval which separates Jeeves and Bertie (Bertie is sent to a school that teaches the aristocracy how to fend for themselves), poverty and suicide and graphic death are acknowledged, and Jeeves even admits to having "dabbled in" World War I. The book's setting, Rowchester Abbey, is falling apart at the seams and the characters who inhabit it start to feel like a pocket of old-fashioned happiness in a darkening world. In case any doubters still exist about 3/4 through the book, there be Constable Wyvyrn's musings ''about just how much the world has changed.''
** These differences are actually somewhat excusable when you find out that the novel was based on a play that Wodehouse co-wrote.
* Bret Easton Ellis's novel ''The Rules of Attraction'' could arguably be described as a deconstruction of WackyFratboyHijinx-style books and films, using the female character Lauren to show the casual sexism and objectification of women commonplace in the genre, the character of Paul to similarly show how homosexuality is so feared by the genre's archetypal characters, the results of massive consumption of alcohol & drugs, the indifference of most of the characters to the feelings of others and the ennui and boredom which leads to the inevitable WildTeenParty.
* Balzac's ''Illusions perdues'' is a particularly depressing deconstruction of the ''[[ComingOfAgeStory Bildungsroman]]''.
* ''Incognita'' is a deconstruction of the courtly romances of the early 18th century, as it exposes just how shallow and stupid all the characters would have to be and how reliant the plot is on ContrivedCoincidence.
* {{Coraline}} arguably deconstructs the "MagicalLand" genre by showing '''just how dangerous''' a trip there can be, but most important by noting that whatever summoned you there can be bad, not good - and that the '''whole''' MagicalLand may be an [[TownWithADarkSecret evil trap]], as opposed to standard setting where evil is just a part which you should vanquish in order to either return home or live HappilyEverAfter in said land. Also deconstructs the ChangelingFantasy trope by showing that such claims may be lies.
* Fandom example: As the author banned all unauthorised fanfiction until a few years ago, the ''DragonridersOfPern'' fandom mostly revolves around RPGs. They're really good at deconstructing the titular dragonriders; while Anne compares them to being horse jockeys, the fans see riders as soldiers due to their combat against Thread, militaristic lifestyle, and the high risk of injury/death during Passes. Sure, you've got a lifelong companion who will always love, support, and transport you, but the minute you Impress, you can't back out of it--and during a Pass, you may REALLY want to. Dragons are ''really big targets'' for Thread, and the telepathic bond means that when they get hurt, you'll feel it too--if ''you're'' physically hurt, you ''still'' need to keep it together unless you want them to panic, die, and leave you a traumatized wreck. And in everyday life, you have to oil and bathe a house-sized creature by hand, keep track of how much cattle they eat (just as {{Squick}}y as it sounds) participate in several-hour-long drills to keep in top form, and make your own riding gear from scratch. While they have good reason to be idealized both in canon and by fans, dragonriders' lives are definitely not carefree.
** Let's not forget that up to 25% of weyrlings (riders-in-training) don't make it to full rider status--largely due to botched attempts at going ''between''. And after ''that'' hurdle's passed, your first Threadfall as a full rider might do you in because no matter how much training you get, you'll never be prepared for the [[NightmareFuel feeling of getting eaten alive by ravenous parasites]] until you actually go through it.
* BrandonSanderson has said that he intended the background of the ''{{Mistborn}}'' trilogy as a deconstruction of HighFantasy, in which TheHero fails his quest, and a thousand years later, the immortal DarkLord rules the crumbling, devastated world as a god. After the first book, it also becomes a deconstruction of [[spoiler:what happens after the unlikely heroes defeat the DarkLord, and the difficulty of introducing freedom and establishing peace]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* ''DoctorWho'' has, at various times both deconstructed tropes at wild abandon. Later, as a side-effect of RunningTheAsylum, deconstructed itself and its {{Fandom}}. The banally-entitled late '70s story "The Robots of Death" explored the real effects of living in a society with robots as a work force. Wouldn't, for example, UncannyValley rear its head? A few years later, writer (later briefly script editor) DouglasAdams had "The Pirate Planet", which explicitly gave the villain some actually specific purpose for his villainry rather than putting it down to some vague "powerlust" or the like. In "The Horns of Nimon", the Doctor's formerly GenreBlind companion notes though word play that the head guys have a "[[FreudWasRight power complex]]".
** The new series episode "Midnight" is especially notable. The entire purpose of the episode, except to scare people half to death, is a deconstruction of how people would ''really'' react to a weirdo genius knows-too-much alien stranger in a crisis. It... doesn't go well, shall we say.
** "The Waters Of Mars" [[spoiler: essentially deconstructs the Doctor himself and the mythology that the series has built around him. It involves the Doctor holding back death, defying the laws of time and space to save innocent lives and rewrite the history books and generally acting up to titles like the 'Lonely God' that the series has often thrown around about him, doing things similar to what he's done before and which would under other circumstances be presented as a CrowningMomentOfAwesome... except here, the people who would normally amazed, dazzled and charmed by him are freaked out by what he's done and who he is, and his very actions are presented as wrong and indicative of his growing arrogance, indifference and alarming tendencies towards AGodAmI Syndrome.]]
* ''MySoCalledLife'' is essentially a deconstruction of teen comedies, although the creators never declared it as such. Tropes like TheCyrano and ASimplePlan are played seriously, showing how unpleasant they would be in real life. And the parents, instead of being [[AdultsAreUseless cartoonishly clueless]], are clueless in a [[ParentsAsPeople more realistic, and more painful, way]].
* Good luck watching another [[CopShow crime drama]], even [[PoliceProcedural a relatively realistic one]], after watching ''TheWire'''s rather brutal deconstruction of the genre.
* ''{{Supernatural}}'' brutally deconstructed {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s with Dean's "Deal With The Devil" storyline. He knows it was selfish and only did it because he should have stayed dead, feels like he's fucked up so much that he deserves eternal torture, he can't be without his brother and because John told him to look after Sam at all costs. For his part, Sam thinks it was self-righteous, hypocritical, suicidal and extremely selfish. As for the others -- Bobby ''finally'' realizes how broken Dean was and how much he hates himself, both the Crossroad Demons call it needy and Azazel knows it was self-destructive, pathetic and self-loathing. So Heroic Sacrifices? Not so noble after all -- more like selfish, pathetic, destructive and so very suicidal.
* ''TheGruenTransfer'' analyzes and deconstructs advertising.
* Albeit ''[[SoapOpera Telenovelas]]'' are rarely prone to deconstruct the genre, a Colombian one named "''La mujer en el espejo''" deconstructed the hell out of the archetypal plot of "Former {{Pollyanna}} is [[WomanScorned betrayed by her love interest]] and gets into a RoaringRampageOfRevenge via [[strike:UnnecessaryMakeover]] [[PaperThinDisguise becoming fashionable]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive ruthless]]". According to this one, the only real way one no one could recognize you is having a DealWithTheDevil to [[TheOtherDarrin literally transform into another woman]]. Pity that you now are SoBeautifulItsACurse; your family obviously doesn't recognize you (which is very inconvenient when you're trying to advise and protect them from the villains), [[GlamourFailure mirrors show your real appearance]], who becomes your detached conscience and berates all your bad decisions, including the aforementioned deal; and your love interest liked you the way you were.
* ''{{Firefly}}'''s primary ''raison d'etre'' is to deconstruct the SpaceOpera genre. For example, the series opens with an epic battle in which [[strike:TheEmpire]] The Alliance soundly defeats the [[strike:RagtagBunchOfMisfits]] Independent Worlds; TheCaptain's epic romance fizzles after his love interest witnesses him with another woman, and the RaygunGothic setting is rendered completely moot by the fact that the protagonists are too broke to afford any of the cool technology.
**It also deconstructs the ActionGirl, WaifFu, and SuperSoldier concepts with River, showing just how utterly and completely insane, emotionally-damaged, and traumatized a girl with those capabilities would be.
**I'd like to contend that there wasn't much of an epic romance in the first place. It was the interaction between their personalities, not his being with another woman, that 'fizzled' it.
* ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'' could be said to be a deconstruction of all the classic family SitCom tropes. Instead of being cute and innocent, the kids are evil little troublemakers. Instead of being a stern authority figure the father is a spineless coward. Instead of being a kind loving Matriarch, the mother is strict, arbitrary, unreasonable, and has a volcanic temper. Oh, and of course the lack of a {{laugh track}}.
** But Malcom was only following in the footsteps of ''TheSimpsons'' and ''MarriedWithChildren''.
*** Maiking this more a case of SeinfeldIsUnfunny, as Malcom definatly took it further.
* A dark deconstruction of a typical DomCom can be found in ''{{Titus}}'' in which it shows how a dysfunctional family can be messed up in the real world.
* The new ''BattleStarGalactica'' massively deconstructed the old one, by showing how it "really" would look like if the last people were fleeing from a genocide. By proxy, the show also deconstructed "light" sci-fi like ''StarWars''.
** Arguments have been made that the show is much less of a deconstruction, than it is simply a {{DarkerAndEdgier}} re-imagining; since it fails to address many of the problems of the original. This may be reinforced by the fact that the Cylons have been changed from an irreconcilable alien ''other'', to an ''Anvilicious'' screed about [[HumansAreBastards mankind being destroyed by their own sins]]; interspersed with plenty of {{Fanservice}} and FetishFuel (two words: "dungeon ship"). Further reinforced by the fact that most of the major characters devote epic amounts of time to their personal dysfunctionalities; and seem to be only tangentially concerned with the fact that their entire race has been almost completely wiped out.
** The show also deconstructs [[TheAce the Ace pilot]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold with a heart of gold]] -- Starbuck, and how messed up such a person would really be.
*** ''Might'' really be, anyway -- there are plenty of brilliant real-world soldiers who don't have a hint of her epic dysfunction.
*** True, but [[AnythingThatMoves most don't go around sleeping with anything that doesn't move quickly enough]].
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodies_(TV_series) Bodies]]'' is basically a deconstruction of hospital dramas.
* ''PrettyGuardianSailorMoon'' ends up deconstructing [[SailorMoon its own source material]] in increasingly surprising ways as it diverges from the original story, until, by the end, [[spoiler: Sailor Moon herself has become the OmnicidalManiac villain; the senshi's power source, the Silver Crystal, turns out to have really been an ArtifactOfDoom; and erstwhile villain Queen Beryl is revealed to have actually been trying to save the world, albeit only so she could rule it.]] The deconstruction arises here as a result of the audience's own [[MagicalGirl genre expectations]] about the senshi's PowerOfFriendship and the motivation of the [[CardCarryingVillain Card Carrying Villains]], and how naive and dangerous it'd actually be for the heroines to make such assumptions.
* ''FoylesWar'' deconstructs the myth of wartime Britain being a place where everyone pulled together to make a stand and fight the common foe; in the early years especially, there's an awful lot of defeatism, cynicism and would-be collaboration afoot, and there's more than a few people who are willing to cynically exploit the confusion, desperation and uncertainty produced by the war to venally line their own pockets. Furthermore, the British government is willing to do whatever it takes and make deals with whomever they need to win the war, resulting in an awful lot of {{Karma Houdini}}s in [=DCS=] Foyle's investigations.
* ChappellesShow did a skit called "Dude's Night Out" which was supposed to be a more realistic beer commercial.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Theater}}]]
* StephenSondheim's ''{{Into the Woods}}'' spends its first act as simply a retelling of the stories of {{Jack and the Beanstalk}}, {{Little Red Riding Hood}}, {{Rapunzel}}, and {{Cinderella}}, all tied together with the story of a baker and his wife who are cursed with infertility unless they can procure certain items from all four. In the end it looks like everyone's gotten what they want and is happy, but suddenly the narrator announces "To be continued!" Act two begins with the idea that the giant was just minding his own business when Jack came up the beanstalk and killed him, and just builds from there into an incredibly brutal AnyoneCanDie deconstruction of fairy tales.
* ''AStreetcarNamedDesire'' did not deconstruct any genre in particular, but it did deconstruct gender roles, physical relationships, and the American system of social classes in a rather harsh way.
* ''{{Hamlet}}'' has been read as a massive deconstruction of Elizabethan revenge dramas (although most of them end in tears for everyone). ''Measure for Measure'' might do the same for comedies. The whole thing is a source of much debate.
** ''RomeoAndJuliet'' can be read as a deconstruction of the idea that "Love at First Sight" can exist, since Romeo and Juliet's attraction is implied to be purely superficial, more to do with lust than love, and brings nothing but tragedy to everyone around them (and, of course, themselves). Again, [[TakeItToTheForums it's debatable]].
* ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' plays much like any of GilbertAndSullivan's other operas, except the DeusExMachina never shows up, so everybody gets married to the wrong person.
* Bertholt Brecht's ''Mother Courage and Her Children'' deconstructs the idea that war can ever be beneficial to a nation, by showing how the children are all killed because of their own best traits.
** Likewise, ''The Threepenny Opera'' deconstructs the idea of the LovableRogue and/or MagnificentBastard with the famous character of Mackie "Mack the Knife"/"Macheath" Messer.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* While the first two ''MetalGear'' games played everything fairly straight, the ''MetalGearSolid'' series is intended as a deconstruction of action movies (and, to a lesser extent, video games), twisting tropes common to them around in extremely horrible ways to establish how damaged everything and everyone would have to be for an action movie scenario to work in the real world. By the second game it's way out into the nastiest parts of the DeconstructorFleet territory, shamelessly attacking fandom, the video game industry, the expectations of fans and even its own prequel and characters. Some would argue it goes a bit too far, to the point where it feels very painful to play a game which clearly hates you so much.
** Similarily, ''MetalGearSolid 4'' raises the question of what exactly happens to {{Action Hero}}es after the action movie ends. The choices that are presented are dying in a blaze of glory, suicide, or fading into obscurity.
*** Adding on to that, MGS4 explores the concept of the {{Badass Grandpa}}. Snake's willingness to fight in spite of his advanced physical age isn't solely depicted as being admirable but also as being foolish and suicidal, people who idolized Snake back in the day patronize him and treat him as a burden, and in general Snake's age is the subject of cruel jokes. In fact, Snake's lifebar is changed to ''Old Snake'' to emphasize this.
* Aside from its take on Ayn Rand's philosophy, ''{{Bioshock}}'' can be seen as a deconstruction of action-oriented FPS games, as the game brings forth a world where people can conjure semi-magical abilities that seem to have no use other than warfare, specifically warfare in a video game, and builds its mythos from there.
** Not to mention its take on seemingly arbitrary objectives from MissionControl.
* ''HalfLife'' is arguably a deconstruction of the ExcusePlot of the original ''{{Doom}}''. Both games have very similar plots; an experiment into teleportation technology [[GoneHorriblyWrong goes horribly wrong]]. However, wheras Doom plays this incident as being a [[IJustWantToBeBadass wonderful way to demonstrate one's masculine virility by filling demons full of lead]], HalfLife shows the player precisely how frightening such an incident would be; you must think, conserve ammunition and ''not'' act like a stereotypical SuperSoldier in order to stay alive. Additionally, wheras Doom had almost no plot exposition whatsoever, HalfLife frustrates the player with its ''lack'' of explicit exposition; demonstrating just how terrifying it would be to be stuck in a life-threatening situation with absolutely no information about it.
* Most of the villainism of ''NoMoreHeroes'''s VillainProtagonist comes from what would happen if a stereotypical videogame/anime geek retained their combat ability in the real world and lived life like they play games.
* ''{{Iji}}'' manages to deconstruct the OneManArmy trope... [[spoiler: By making the protagonist slowly go insane from all of the slaughter, while the few enemies she tries to talk to refuse to listen to her and label her as a mass murderer.]] [[PacifistRun Though it's completely possible to avoid killing anyone at all.]]
** It also deconstructs the typical "save the world" plotline. [[spoiler: Iji first tries to save the world on her own and fails. She can only do it by calling in the Komato, a warmongering race whose arrival seems to have [[NiceJobBreakingItHero made matters even worse]]. Then you reach the end of the game and realise the Komato's arrival on the planet did what Iji could not -- saved humanity after all.]]
* ''PlanescapeTorment'' is a deconstruction of [=RPGs=]. Characters in the gameworld comment on how adventurers are unwelcome in Sigil and how bad the main character looks and smells. It features a dungeon that deconstructs and ridicules the concept of dungeon hacking, the side-quests are... unusual to say the least. (Tired of these "Romeo and Juliet" quests that have you uniting annoying lovers? PlanescapeTorment has a quest where you have to destroy a relationship) ProtagonistWithoutAPast is heavily subverted because [=NPCs=] remember your character while you don't (because he has amnesia). The main quest is mainly about people ''you'' gave quests in the past, rats are powerful enemies, there are none of the typical D&D races, and an [[LightIsNotGood ANGEL is one of the antagonists!]] Oh, and there are only two swords in the whole game. (Your character can only use one.)
* Not a lot of people noticed because of its [[KillerApp extreme popularity]] attracting plenty of people new to RPG tropes, but ''FinalFantasyVII'' is a deconstruction of the previous six ''Final Fantasies''. Gone are all the magical fantasy races and tough, strong main heroes. All the fantasy races have been made near-totally extinct, magic's considered a science, and we don't get a hero. Instead, we get a tough young man who appears at first to be a wish-fulfilment hero character, capable and good with women, and then he does a rapid downwards slide into an ''extreme'' HeroicBSOD leaving him not so much traumatised as in a wheelchair, twitching and dribbling and making nonsense noises. It turns out he had gone insane and started to believe he was a magnanimous and successful soldier he'd once known -- in other words, [[YouBastard he was 'roleplaying' as a 'hero' himself]] to make up for the fact that [[YouSuck he was a socially inept, self-hating fanboy who couldn't handle girls or real-life job responsibilities]]. Of course, he attracted a massive MisaimedFandom which missed the point entirely, but Cloud was never supposed to be a character to model yourself on.
** It might, however, be safe to say that [[IGotBetter he got better.]]
*** Have you actually seen Advent Children? I'm not sure he ever got completely better.
*** Though he was better at the end of FF VII and probably most of the time... before he got Geostigma... then {{it got worse}}.
* The ShinMegamiTensei franchise often plays around with tropes and expectations, but one of the main thrusts of the recent ''DevilSurvivor'' title is an ''unrelentingly vicious'' deconstruction of "{{Mons}}" games in the vein of Pokemon. During the course of the game, many people obtain small handheld devices that allow them to summon various kinds of demons which essentially work like the Mons do in other games. Needless to say, it doesn't take very long before many start using them for power, or "justice", or the like, resulting in chaos and death on the streets of a locked-down Tokyo.
** One event in particular even plays out just like a Pokemon fight - the two combatants face each other, their Mons in between them, verbal orders and all... and then one Mon is beaten, and its "Demon Tamer" is ''graphically murdered'' by the other's demon, by order of that very tamer. [[NightmareFuel Yes, kids, this is how most of the situation Ash finds himself in would ''really'' end.]]
* The ''{{Condemned}}'' series does a good job deconstructing the ViceCity setting of most crime games. By placing it in a SurvivalHorror context, it shows just how terrifying the concept of a rotting, crime-filled metropolis with a demoralized and incompetent police force could be in real life.
* ''YggdraUnion'' deconstructs the tropes surronding TheEmpire by portraying the forces of Bronquia as just soldiers doing their job instead of gleefully evil {{mooks}}.
** It arguably deconstructes {{Tsundere}}s with Kylier by giving a realistic reason to her constant bitchiness towards Yggdra instead of a simple LoveTriangle. [[spoiler:She resents Fantasinia and its royal family as a whole for their FantasticRacism towards her people, displaying a little FantasticRacism herself.]]
*** Not to mention the deconstruction of the resistance, how in spite of Yggdra being not villified, her weapon has caused more pain and suffering to the empire than what the empire does. And the SadisticChoice(s) she must make.
*** ''And'' the game takes a good hard look at would happen if you abuse TheMessiah and make too much of a scapegoat of him with [[spoiler:Nessiah]]. ''YggdraUnion'' has a lot of fun with deconstructionism.
* The ExpandedUniverse of ''EveOnline'' tends to do this for most {{MMORPG}} tropes. It thoroughly explores the consequences of [[AGodAmI law-unto-themselves immortal demigods]] waging perpetual war both between themselves and with the [[NPCs other, less gifted denizens of the universe]]. The mere existence of the player capsuleers ups the average daily death rate in New Eden by many thousands, and contributes in large part to the crapsack world New Eden now is.
* ''ChronoCross'' mercilessly deconstructs TimeTravel, specifically the TimeTravel used in ''ChronoTrigger'', by asking a simple question: "If you make it so a certain event never happened, what happens to the world, and the people in it, that came to being ''because'' of that event?"
* ''KingdomHearts'' deconstructed the CopyCatSue with [[spoiler:Xion]] by showing just how someone [[FreakOut would]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds react]] to the revelation that [[spoiler:they're an inferior clone of someone else and their sole purpose is to act as a placeholder for him.]]
* ''StarWars: KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'' deconstructed many RPG mechanics by having them being actually relevant to story instead of being just for gameplay, and many of them not being in a good way either. Most improtantly, the experiece point and level system: it's revealed that [[spoiler:this is actually a perculair trait of the main character, being able to grow powerful just by killing lots and lots of enemies, which is actually the main character feeding on the death of others]].
**Not to mention the way it subverts the KarmaMeter, by making what seems like the right thing to do end up being exactly the wrong thing to do, as is often the case in real life. For example giving to a begger could be the dark side path, as it makes him a target for armed robery, and thus getting him killed.
* {{UminekoNoNakuKoroNi}} is a deconstruction of literaly the whole [[MysteryFiction Murder Mystery]] genre. [[spoiler:Despite that, it's supposed to be [[FairPlayWhodunnit Fair Play Whodunnit]], though one could argue about the amount of fair.]]
** Its predecessor, [[HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi Higurashi]], was also a deconstruction, this time of MultipleEndings and NewGamePlus. [[spoiler: Rika is pretty much the main character of a game with ''hundreds'' of bad ends, and the only good end is a GuideDangIt. So she starts her life again when she encounters a dead end... and again... and again... By the time we get to see her, she is about to give up on it, after seeing her best friends going insane and killing each other hundreds of times, and herself meeting a gruesome death every time, often because of [[ForWantOfANail the tinest mistakes]]. Fortunately, she finally gets her good end thanks to ThePowerOfFriendship.]]
**Umineko also has a brilliant deconstruction of the {{Tsundere}} Moe in the third arc.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:WebComics]]
* ''{{Megatokyo}}'' is described by its author as a subtle deconstruction of the {{Dating Sim}}s he enjoys, with a mix of {{lampshade hanging}}, playing it dead straight and showing the darker side of each trope, especially {{Unlucky Everydude}}, {{Robot Girl}}, and {{Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends}}. At least one of the characters might well be [[MetaGuy aware of this...]]
* A more blatant deconstruction of the DatingSim genre is ''[[http://www.tsunamichannel.com/archive.php Experimental Comic Kotone]]'' from ''TsunamiChannel'', to the point that the main character is intentionally left anonymous, and the universe ''just won't let'' '''''anyone''''' to know his real identity.
* The PixelArtComic ''[[http://www.kidradd.com/ Kid Radd]]'', while largely light in tone, presents a "video game characters living in videoland" scenario where it's a very real problem that many inhabitants are innately armed and know nothing but killing. They know why they were created, and they don't like it. The player character Radd goes from slacker to {{Determinator}} because he always had the latter's mindset, but started his days in a game under the player's control, so he had to learn initiative completely from the ground up. Upon being freed, Radd needed instructions to walk independently.
* ''AlienDice'' is a deconstruction of {{Mons}} and especially ''{{Pokemon}}''. The eponymous Alien Dice is a DeadlyGame of GottaCatchEmAll. Here, any species, [[HumanAliens humanoid]] or animal-like can be turned into a mon and get captured when defeated by players. Also, the "mons", despite their HealingFactor do suffer badly in battle.
* ''[[{{Walkyverse}} It's Walky]]'' could arguably be seen as a deconstruction of the goofy 1980s cartoons creator David Willis is a fan of (mostly ''{{GI Joe}}'' and ''{{Transformers}}''). Sure it features a unique special forces group, SEMME (who were initially based on GI Joe) with an eccentric line up of operatives, who routinely foil the insane schemes of a {{Harmless Villain}}, but the eccentric operatives are soon revealed to be a bunch of dysfunctional screw-ups, and the Villain is in fact {{Not So Harmless}}.
* ''[[http://www.mighthavebeen.net/ My Name Is Might Have Been]]'' deconstructs ''RockBand''. Yeah, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome the video game]].
* ''VgCats'' deconstructs the cartoon violence of ''TomAndJerry'' in [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=208 this strip]]. This troper doesn't even like cats (due to allergies) and still finds this sad.
* ''{{Erfworld}}'' is a world where Tabletop Strategy rules are literally true, such as citizens popping in fully grown and a defeated team being frozen in time until someone comes to try and kill them. The more the rules become clear, the creepier everything starts to become.
** It also deconstructs the typical Strategist with Parson's reaction to the aftermath of the Battle For Gobwin Knob. [[spoiler:Instead of being proud and/or relieved that he won the battle against impossible odds, he is ''horrified'' by the death and destruction he has caused, so much that he steps down as Chief Warlord in favor of Ansom.]]
* ''{{Goblins}}: Life Through Their Eyes'' takes a good hard look at the UnfortunateImplications of labeling whole races AlwaysChaoticEvil. It portrays the titular goblins not as ''monsters'' but as ''people'' who live and love. It shows us that what {{Player Character}}s see as just an XP haul isn't so fun when ''you're'' the one they're killing to level up.
* ''[[TalesOfTheQuestor Quentin Quinn Space Ranger]]'', an offshoot of ''TalesOfTheQuestor'', is Deconstructing ''StarTrek'' right now. So far the design of the starship Enterprise, the habit of using forcefield airlocks without wearing space suits and the ProudWarriorRaceGuy have already been hit. Hard. Up next is engineering. (May 2009)
** {{Antimatter}} [[MisappliedPhlebotinum powerplants]], [[NightmareFuel transporters]], [[CloudCuckooLand monocultural]] [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny utopia]]
* The entire premise behind DarthsAndDroids is that the StarWars universe is the result of a group of [[TabletopGames Tabletop Gamers]] (including a 7 year old girl) making it up as they go along. It lends a whole new perspective to the storyline of the prequel trilogy. The entire mess on Naboo was the result of the Player Characters epically ruining a delicate, carefully constructed plan by going OffTheRails, and engaging in all the sins of TheRealMan, TheMunchkin, and TheLoonie. Palpatine is actually a good guy overthrowing a corrupt regime, and trying to bring a semblance of stability to the republic. Darth Maul was just a ChaoticNeutral HiredGun who was only trying to work ''with'' the player characters, before they attacked him. To top it all off, some the most bizarre and unrealistic plot points, such as Nabbo being governed by a ''14 year old Queen'' exist because [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap Jar Jar Binks]] is being played by a little girl.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: WebOriginal]]
* ''SailorNothing'' loves showing just how jarringly, horrifically, nightmarishly different the characters' lives are from [[MagicalGirl magical girl anime]]. Several of them even watch an exaggerated, stereotypical version of such shows; the main character actually watches it to escape her life.
* Who could forget [[http://youtube.com/watch?v=JpBGRA6HHtY this]] remarkable deconstruction of ''SuperMarioBros''?
* ''RedVsBlue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles'' takes many first person shooter tropes and twists them. Everything from capture the flag, to why there are two bases in the middle of a box canyon with no strategic value, and {{Respawn}}.
** Interestingly, the new series called ''Reconstruction'' is a deconstruction of the parodic nature of ''The Blood Gulch Chronicles.'' [[spoiler: Caboose is tied up in the brig due to his self destructive tendencies. Grif and Simmons face the firing squad after selling all the ammo to the Blue team. The reason that all the red and blue conflicts were pointless squabbling over an equally pointless flag and base is revealed to be a conspiracy by command.]] However, since that is a deconstruction of a deconstruction, arguably that makes it a {{Reconstruction}} as all the video game tropes are being put back together.
* The SCPFoundation Wiki, although beginning as a creepypasta site, has largely evolved into a deconstruction on the "Modern-Day Fantasy" genre, depicting a shadowy organization entirely devoted to capturing and imprisoning all of those magicians, psychics, and mystic artifacts that populate said settings, to maintain the status quo.
** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-953 SCP 953]] deconstructs the [[FetishFuel Fetish Fuel]] implicit in PettingZooPeople. SCP-953 is an Asian fox-woman described as beautiful, elegant, and [[AxCrazy completely willing to rip your liver out with her bare hands in order to eat it raw.]]
*** Of course, for some people, that might be Fetish Fuel in and of itself...
*** Also the debriefing after her initial capture mentions her engaging in an unspecified activity with one of the agents, and then her "biting it off". Fetish Fuel and High Octane Nightmare Fuel, shaken, not stirred.
** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/incident-239-b-clef-kondraki One story]] deconstructs the concept of people with reality bending powers like [[HaruhiSuzumiya Haruhi]] (though not a direct reference) in respect to how people would actually deal with them in the real world, as well as the inherent danger they pose. SCP-239 is deliberately fooled into thinking she's an actual witch to limit the use of her powers (making her think she can only do "magic" with certain set "spells"). However, the facade was not foolproof and the previously mentioned incident led many casualties, a major character going [[[AxCrazy Ax Crazy]]], and the reality bender herself being put into a medically induced coma. A [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/termination-order related story]] describes the weaknesses of reality benders and the main character has killed over a hundred of them.
*** Original author (one of them) of the two SCP-239 stories here: the stories were meant as a deconstruction, but not of the genres specified, although I'm gratified to see that they can be interpreted differently. At the time, there was a vogue for new articles with reality-bending humans who were so powerful that the only "containment" was to give them what they want and hope that if you appeased them enough, they wouldn't go nuts. The stories were meant as a deconstruction of the concept of appeasement, and basically an illustration of what a soulless organization like the Foundation would ''actually'' do if faced with that kind of blackmail.
** The Foundation themselves seem like an overall deconstruction of the entire concept of the {{Masquerade}}.
* FurryFandom works frequently portray an entire world as furry. [[http://yiffstar.com/?pid=16447 I Wish I Was Furry!]] shows what would happen if we woke up one day and the world actually was furry. The main character is even a human furry fan, like is typical for transformation stories. [[spoiler:[[{{Squick}} And a plushophile.]] (It's exactly what it sounds like.)]] A furryized world, as it happens, is dark and brutal.
* ''[[http://yiffstar.com/?pid=85010 Sonny Gets Mad Scienced]]'' is [[DeconstructiveParody the "humourous" type of deconstruction]]. It revolves around two central ideas; telling a MadScientist story from the perspective of one of the nameless subjects experimented on, and [[spoiler:being GenreSavvy doesn't always help.]]
** There was also a series by another furry writer about strange artifacts that transformed people into furries. He encouraged other people to contribute. Nequ came up with two fairly normal entries, and then [[http://yiffstar.com/?pid=42724 this]]. They also have an openly admitted {{Expy}} of the SCPFoundation, called ACS, that does to transformation fetishism and several associated kinks what SCP does to UrbanFantasy.
** There's a story of theirs called "B-Snakes", which is based on "C-Snakes", a parasitic macrovirus created by another furry authour. The titular "b-snakes" are basically c-snakes but latex, and [[GodModeSue tend to cut through the latter like a hot knife through butter]]. The POV character is a random woman forced into a situation she doesn't understand tagging along with [[DoctorWho a spacefaring, wisecracking do-gooder]] [[GodModeSue who knows everything]]. There's a war between the "bad" Bs and Cs, and hints of a government conspiracy. By the end of the story, [[spoiler:the DoctorWho CaptainErsatz turns out to have serious mental problems. The reason the B-snakes can kill C-snakes effortlessly is that they were engineered to by the government. And "the Doctor"(who happens to be an actual doctor) snaps and decides to take over the galaxy.]]
** [[http://www.yiffstar.com/?pid=97028 Transcript]] takes the furry trope of mysterious pills that turn people into furries by having them be of dubious legality, and the equivalent of Viagra. People who take the pills with more...''overt'' effects are looked down upon by the general public. Much like most furries. [[spoiler:The protagonist accidentally kills his mistress after he takes a pill for a horse's endowment instead of one's stamina.]]
** [[http://www.yiffstar.com/?pid=97027 Lola]] takes the standard "guy gets turned into a woman, likes it" story and shows the difficulties inherent in being someone who never existed, not to mention adjusting to the new gender role.
* The Youtube video [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAeu5Aot8kw Percy]] is a deconstruction of infomercials.
* [[http://www.theonion.com/content/video/ultra_realistic_modern_warfare This video]] from ''TheOnion'' sends up the idea of video games becoming progressively more realistic by taking it to a logically deconstructive extreme with a "ultra realistic ''[[CallOfDuty Modern Warfare 3]]''".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* Robert Smigel's ''SaturdayNightLive'' 1998 animated short "Titey" is a merciless deconstruction of the then-current trend of [[Main/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney]] and DonBluth trying to tell more adult stories yet still subjecting them to {{Disneyfication}} so as not to lose family audiences, even if they were [[Main/{{Pocahontas}} inspired by]] [[Main/{{Anastasia}} actual tragic events]]. It's a mock trailer for an animated version of ''Titanic'' with Napoleon as a villain, Anne Frank as a heroine, and an ending where the ship doesn't sink and is reunited with its mother thanks to the encouragement of TalkingAnimal friends. Incredibly, Gilbert Gottfried, Whoopi Goldberg, and one of Disney's own trailer announcers participated as voices despite all having worked for the company at some point.
** That movie [[TitanicTheLegendGoesOn really happened]].
*** And while it didn't have Napolean as a villain, it ''did'' have a rapping dog. Yes. A rapping dog. In 1912. It simply goes to show that as hard as many people try to mock the entertainment industry with absurdity, they will eventually produce something even more absurd and be ''completely and utterly serious about it.''
* Smigel went on to other parodies like "Bambi II" and "Journey to the Disney Vault", tearing into Disney's CashCowFranchise mentality and/or the company's tendency to be UnderminedByReality. Other companies don't get off lightly though; several times he has parodied {{Anvilicious}} children's entertainment to satirize the prejudice of, and {{Demonization}} used by, various religions. Consider "Religitables", a ''VeggieTales'' parody where the horrors carried out under the banners of various religions (witch hunts, terrorism, the Catholic church child-abuse scandals) are brushed off and even celebrated.
* There can be a very good case made for ''TheVentureBros'' being a deconstruction of ''JohnnyQuest and ''DocSavage''-style stories. Some say spoof, some say deconstruction, some say [[DeconstructiveParody both]].
* ''FamilyGuy'' does a [[CrossesTheLineTwice particularly nasty]] deconstruction of ''Loony Tunes'' and its AmusingInjuries, wherein Elmer Fudd is out "hunting wabbits", shoots Bugs Bunny four times in the stomach, snaps his neck amidst cries of pain, and then drags him off leaving behind a trail of blood.
** That episode where Peter and friends became TheATeam had a scene where the show's "amusing injuries" is discussed as actually life-threatening.
* ''LooneyTunes'' director Chuck Jones often used deconstruction on his cartoons. The best known example is ''DuckAmuck'': First the scenery changes, forcing Daffy to adapt. Then Daffy himself is erased and redrawn. Then the soundtrack fails, then the film frame, and so on until Daffy is psychologically picked clean. Another example is ''What's Opera, Doc?'', which takes the base elements of a typical Bugs Bunny cartoon and reassembles them as a Wagnerian opera. (Conversely, you could also say that it takes the base elements of Wagnerian opera and reassembles them as a Bugs Bunny cartoon.)
* The famous ''[[TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' episode "Homer's Enemy" is a deconstruction of the general weirdness and insanity of its setting, showing Frank Grimes, a man who had to struggle for everything he got in life, still living fairly cheaply ''despite'' having a strong work ethic and comparing him to Homer. Well, you can imagine. The question was "What if a real-life, normal person had to enter Homer's universe and deal with him?". After Frank's (tragic) death, Homer is seen sleeping during his funeral and in a drowsy state, tells Marge to change the TV channel, bringing everyone to laugh. ''All during his funeral''. The episode was disliked by some for carrying a too dark and cynic tone, but liked by critics for the exact same reasons.
** According to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer%27s_Enemy That other wiki]], the episode is a favorite among such people as Ricky Gervais and The Simpsons creator himself, Matt Groening.
** TheMovie argueably decontructed the typical tropes associated with Homer's stupidity by having him screw up in such a colossal manner that not even Marge can take him anymore.
* The ''EdEddNEddy'' episode "1+1=Ed" is a deconstruction of how cartoons work, similar to DuckAmuck.
* "Epilogue" of ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' can be taken as a deconstruction of the superhero genre, by having a woman deliberately make Terry [=McGinnis=] a superhero by killing his parents and replacing his dad's DNA with the DNA of Bruce Wayne, all in response to Batman growing older. It fits both invoked and deconstructed, because it shows the horrible consequences of making a superhero, as well as the kind of monster you would have to be to do it (killing innocent people to do something that might achieve a goal).
** Terry's father being killed was a tragic twist of fate. Waller's original plan was a complete reenactment of the Wayne murders, but she scrapped it and the entire project when her handpicked assassin convinced her that she would ultimately dishonor the very hero she was trying to recreate.
* MoralOrel deconstructs TheMoralSubstitute but presenting a culture where ALL MEDIA are Christian fundamentalist propaganda, and showing just how messed up and [[NightmareFuel disturbing]] said culture would be.
* The episode of ThePowerpuffGirls about them moving to "Citysville" deals with what would happen if their brand of heroics was applied to a real life city..
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Music}}]]
* The works of Gustav Mahler could be viewed as deconstructions of Romantic era music, particularly his later symphonies. His 6th symphony, for example, takes apart the idea of the "Heroic" symphony that Beethoven codified in his 3rd. In Mahler's version, the hero is not quite so successful. He then went on to parody himself and his critics alike in his 7th symphony.
** Not quite so successful? The sixth symphony could be subtitled "Life's a bitch and then you die." Mahler burst into tears whenever he had to compose it, and took out one of the hammerblows because it was autobiographical and he was a bit skittish about having his own death sounded forth at the climax of the work.
* Many of the songs written by Serge Gainsbourg for the 60's French pop star France Gall were deconstructions of common themes in pop music and its role at the time in everyday life. The most well-known example is probably ''Poupée de cire, Poupée de son'', winner of the EurovisionSongContest of 1965, which deconstructs the idea of a star too young to actually understand love singing SillyLoveSongs for cash that younger kids will believe.
* Khanate play crushingly slow music based on super-distorted guitar "riffs" stretched out for ten or twenty minutes, over which lie demented shrieking and arhythmic, cacophonic drumming. Their music is so alien that #182 of ''Terrorizer'' magazine described their fourth album ''Clean Hands Go Foul'' as "musical deconstruction", explaining that it lacked "coherency, rhythm, melody, structure and all aspects of what would typically be associated with the art of songwriting". [[TrueArtSticksItToTheMan They also gave it an 8.5/10.]]
* Da Vinci's Notebook's song "Title of the Song" is a deconstruction of '90s boyband songs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
*''The Pooh Perplex'' (1963) and ''Postmodern Pooh'' (2001) by Frederick Crews are mock literary essays about ''WinnieThePooh'' from different perspectives (Freudian, Post-Colonialist, Marxist, etc.) that deconstuct the sins of literary critics:
** The earlier book deconstructs WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic, where the critics clearly don't care about the book they're reading, and only about using it to prove some point. Nine times out of ten, the point turns out to be using circular logic to prop up their own school of literary criticism (using Marxist theories to prove that Marxism is the best theory, for instance). Seeing critics solemnly dig for deep meanings and ignore the basic meaning is even funnier when the book is ''WinnieThePooh.'' (The parody Freudian essay is written to sound like it was badly translated from German, and suggests that A.A. Milne clearly has issues because Eeyore is so concerned about losing his ''tail,'' IfYouKnowWhatIMean.)
** The second book deconstructs academic SeriousBusiness and its tendency to AccentuateTheNegative. The parody critics think every literary school except their own is ''evil,'' and the fate of the world depends on whether college students read books with a good or evil literary school in mind. It's dumb when it's Shakespeare, and ridiculous when it's Pooh. The {{Subtext}} is that these literary feuds are really about power and personal vendettas, which can only be justified by declaring them to be SeriousBusiness. The Sociobiologist says she is better than all the other writers because she uses ''science,'' the pop theorist thinks his analysis of FanFic makes him more "with it" than the stodgy old writers, the Post-Colonialist uses his personal suffering as a LicenseToWhine...no matter what the theory is, its real purpose is making themselves feel better by putting other people down. The book also deconstructs Deconstructionism, which turns out to be just as petty as the other theories.
** So hang on... how are we supposed to ''reconstruct'' Deconstructionism?
***By making a work so horrible that it asks for it.
*** Seriously though, a good way to reconstruct academic Deconstructionism would be to return to the actual methodology used by Derrida, devoid of the academic pretensions and post-modern cruft that built up around the technique. Go back to pulling the loose threads of ideas and stories, without making it about the nature of reality itself.
**** The problem with this is that Derrida's methodoology is always going to end up at a debate over the nature of reality. Richard Rorty, a Postmodern philosopher, defined 'Deconstruction' as (paraphrasing) undoing the internal oppositions within the work, i.e. if a work is based on good vs. evil, light vs. dark or ham sandwich vs. turkey sandwich, demonstrate that the two 'sides' [[NotSoDifferent aren't so different]] from each other. In order to avoid an endless series of academic wank, I think it is best that TVTropes confines itself to the 'casual' meaning of deconstruction (i.e. Reductio Ad Absurdum applied to tropes).
**** This Troper realizes that no one has ever actualy justified ''why'' something need be "deconstructed". It seems that, really, the book has the right idea: the whole thing is just some petty TakeThat with more words and more pretentiousness. Even on the level of "Reductio Ad Absurdium", it still seems to miss the entire point of the original genre purely just to make some point or another, usually to pump up whatever belief the writer has, even if the text and subtext of the original material can't or won't allow for it. The deconstruction adds nothing to the genre overall, and indeed tends to basically repeat the cliches and tropes of the genre but in a crueler and frankly less relevant far more petty way, as it trivializes any ''actual'' content or purpose the original stories had... Basically, I fail to see why any but the most arbitrary distinction could be made between a {{Deconstruction}} and RonTheDeathEater, DracoInLeatherPants or some bizarro version of a MisaimedFandom. SoYeah...tl;dr version: {{Deconstruction}} is to logical assessment of a plot what RonTheDeathEater is to HP canon.
******Why then do Deconstructions seem to be so much better than the average works? Look at what we have listed here, NeonGenesisEvangelion, Watchmen, MetalGearSolid, the list goes on. If deconstruction's just about pretentiousness, then why do they tend to be so much better?
*******This Male troper theorizes that Sturgeon's Law comes into full effect here, but in a more potent way. He shall liken it to, for example, an attack in a game that does 10x damage, but has 1/10th the accuracy. Any sufficient deconstruction requires the creator to be clever ("what would happen if save states worked in real life as they did in an emulator?"), intelligent (How would this affect wars? Would that change the economy? Technology? If one nation were to discover it first, how would it differ between Uganda, Belgium and the United States?"), and raw skill as a writer ("How can I make my characters sympathetic in this alien world? How can I make people believe that this would be the natural progression of things?"). Watchman was not brilliant simply because it was a deconstruction, it was brilliant because it was masterfully plotted, because it explored it's themes in detail, even the ones it did not fundamentally agree with (Rorscasch, for example. His nihilism doesn't hold out against Dr. Manhatten, who proves that fate does exist in some form), and, much like all deconstructions, it was something that no one had quite seen before. In order to deconstruct, you need a meticulous understanding of what you are taking apart (contrast a watchmaker disassembling a watch piece by piece with a frustrated accountant with a hammer), and this requires you to have all three of the attributes mentioned above. It's not so much that deconstructions are of themselves inherently better, it's simply that the great works are often done by the masters, and this tends to stand out, particularily if a genre is populated with a lot of people that prefer to go by formula, making a genuinely great work harder to come by. It's also worth noting that the greats never intend to sabotage a genre, as noted above. They just want to explore it. It's the same drive as the physicist splitting the atom, as the architect designing a building no one's seen before, as the dirt poor college student hacking into his Xbox. Simply put, they have mastered their craft at face value, and they wish to see more of it, to apply it somewhere where it hasn't been applied before (i.e. RealLife). It's needed for the same reason we need insulin, sculptures, anime, nuclear weapons, guitar solos and fanfiction. In short, we deconstruct because we're human, and the reason the deconstructions tend to be amongst the best is because they are a manifestation of all that is best of humanity (of course, it works in reverse as well; See StarWars, IndianaJones, GaoGaiGar, and the Renaissance).
* A RealLife example: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair The Sokal Affair]], in which physicist Alan Sokal wrote and submitted a paper that was literally nonsense to the PostModern studies journal ''Social Text,'' in order to prove it would get published "if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions." The journal published the piece, and on the same day of publication, the physicist outed the hoax in another publication, causing an uproar in many postmodern and philosophy circles.
* Pet Shop Boys like to do this to individual songs. The most relevant example is their version of the so-often-covered "Always On My Mind", which, by putting it to a dance beat and singing it in a detached sort of way, makes it sound less like a love song and more like a half-hearted apology from a neglectful lover. The subject of the song probably wouldn't stick around if the words were spoken instead of sung.
* ''Reductio Ad Absurdum'' is a style of argument that does this to its opposition. It takes the opponent's argument and logically follows it through to an absurd or indefensible conclusion. It is considered a valid arguing tactic.
* The well-known {{Aesop}} "BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor" operates in this way. Person X makes wish Y. Wish Y is granted to person X. Wish Y then manages to have sufficiently negative unintended consequences on person X's life that wish Y now looks like a ridiculous thing to wish for. Thus, Wish Y is deconstructed.
[[/folder]]

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