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--> I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. [[JesusWasWayCool Your Christians are so unlike your Christ]]. \\
-- ''Mohandas Gandhi''

The writer has a vision. They've created a character who represents [[CompleteMonster everything they loathe]], and have placed him in a world that satirizes [[CrapsackWorld everything they hate about modern society]]. Bring on the MoralGuardians and {{Media Watchdog}}s; he's prepared for controversy!

Only... it doesn't quite work like that. Instead of seeing a loathsome, hateful figure, the audience sees a [[TheWoobie Woobie]] who only is the way he is because of his [[WellDoneSonGuy daddy issues]], and feel sorry for him instead of hating him... or even [[DracoInLeatherPants find him cute]]. They take the author's painstaking satire at face-value. The CrapsackWorld the writer has created is somewhere they think is pretty awesome. They have, in the writer's view, [[CompletelyMissingThePoint completely missed the point]] and avoided the subtext that the writer had thought was obvious, only to see the text-text -- and they like the text-text.

They've become a MisaimedFandom. It's around this point that the writer learns exactly how different they are from their fans... and, often, [[ArtistDisillusionment actively begins to hate them]].

There are many paths leading to a MisaimedFandom, but many of them originate from the 'DeathOfTheAuthor' theory; the idea that the interpretations of the text agreed with and intended by the creator of the text are not the only valid interpretations of that text. No matter how many times WordOfGod states their case, there's always going to be a large portion of the readers who will have their own very different perspective. And they're always going to be able to [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory find something in the text to help]] [[EpilepticTrees their case]], whether the author intended it to be there or not. Of course, while fans are open to their own interpretation, that does not mean they are right. The writer's original intention should always be considered first before all others. This doesn't mean that fans have to worship at the writer's feet, but they should at least show him or her the same respect they would show their fellow man or woman (or critic.)

In some cases, the reader may genuinely be seeing something that isn't there, or might not be looking hard enough; if the text isn't read correctly then the interpretation that follows is naturally going to be flawed. The reader might miss some of the more subtle meanings or interpretations. Alternatively, they might read the text too closely, and find symbolism and meaning that the author never intended -- especially if the symbolism in question is something quite obscure, that the author may not necessarily be aware of.

Often, however, the fans know full well that their interpretation of the text isn't that of the author's, and may acknowledge what the author was trying to do, but [[{{Applicability}} choose their own interpretation anyway]]. They may be aware that the author is satirizing them and their views, but they're good sports and can appreciate a well-done jab in the ribs, especially if it's [[AffectionateParody not without affection]]. Furthermore, even the best authors can at times include subtext in the work that wasn't consciously intended; the subconscious can be a powerful influence.

And sometimes the MisaimedFandom simply comes from the fact that the author's not that good a writer. If a message is poorly communicated to begin with, then of course there's going to be problems when interpreting it. Some authors go for subtlety when [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped when they really should have been a bit more obvious]], or try to set up a StrawmanPolitical only to make the strawman's arguments [[StrawmanHasAPoint more logical and valid than their hero's]]. In these cases, the fandom is misaimed because the author's botched the sights on the rifle.

See also DesignatedMonkey, DracoInLeatherPants, EnsembleDarkhorse, FinaglesLaw, StrawmanHasAPoint, and TruffautWasRight. Compare IsntItIronic for more musical examples. MisaimedFandom is also a frequent cause of CreatorBacklash and result of AlternateCharacterInterpretation. Often, the writer can try and force their interpretation by making the character jump off the MoralEventHorizon. DisContinuity is a weapon frequently used by the Misaimed Fans to keep their preferred interpretation alive and well. Contrast with RootingForTheEmpire, where the fandom ''knows'' that these are bad guys they're rooting for, and still support them anyway.

For tropes with misaimed fandoms, see SquarePegRoundTrope and TropeDecay.
----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]
* In Apple's "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads, many people thought that the Mac came across as an arrogant jerk, whereas the PC was a cute, lovable loser. This was particularly notable in the UK, where the localized advertisements featured comedic duo Mitchell and Webb, who played a lovable loser and an arrogant jerk, respectively, in ''PeepShow''.
** Also, a good number of people dislike the commercial series because it was ''all'' about making the PC look bad. Tell me why you're better, not [[TheWarOnStraw why the other guy's worse.]] It could also have to do with the public perception of Mac users as arrogant jerks, as well.
** Not to mention their choice of quirky celebrity John Hodgman to play the PC.
* A series of anti-pot radio commercials in the 1990s featured a mock game show with people trying to answer simple questions when high. The moral is supposed to be "Only Dopes Smoke Dope", but comes across more as "Pot will TOTALLY fuck you up (in a good way)!", which pot-smokers were already well aware of.
* Currently in some states, there are anti-drunk driving commercials explaining how if you are drinking and driving, you ''will'' be caught and you ''will'' be arrested. In order to represent the drunk drivers, they have their cars/motorcycle helmets ''filled with beer,'' so that opening the window/visor causes the beer to spill out in a waterfall. It quite possibly may be the best anti-anything commercial ever because it is [[HilarityEnsues impossible to]] [[{{Narm}} take seriously]]. Not to say, of course, that drunk driving is something to be taken lightly - but good luck convincing anyone of that with these commercials.
* Be honest, does anyone ''actually'' see the Trix Rabbit as the antagonist in those commercials?
** Wait, he's supposed to be the ''antagonist''!?
*** More importantly, are you telling me we're ''not'' supposed to sympathize with him, then!? Heck, it's easier not to sympathize with freakin' ''Jesus''!
* Recent Barbie commercials have been using a kid safe remake of "Barbie Girl" by Aqua. Can anyone else tell me what's wrong with that picture.
* Meth, ooh meth! One of the best commercial jingles of all time. Yeah, it's supposed to make meth seem awful, but these commercials just make it sound way, way more useful than coffee.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm1xGhJXFf0 Breaking up is haaard toooo doooo~]] Yeah, All State decided it would be amusing to use a decent song, connect it vaguely to their car commercial, and then have a couple ''break up at a school dance'' (probably prom) at the beginning of it. Cue [[strike: black man]] Pedro Cerrano walking through crowd of teenagers, spewing out random numbers while saying how much you can save. But the [[EarWorm song is so catchy!]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK_jDA3qrUU VD is for everybody!]] They never say if that's a good thing or not, though.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime]]
* Rei in ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' was intended as a [[CreepyChild Creepy]] EmotionlessGirl. The fandom reaction? Three words: "[[MemeticMutation ZOMGF TEH REI!!!!11!1]]". Director Hideaki Anno [[CreatorBreakdown took personal issue]] that Rei was fetishized among {{otaku}} for that exact reason. Also, the enigmatic single-episode character Kaworu became [[EnsembleDarkhorse popular]] to the surprise of the writers, who admitted they were writing him to be unsettling. It doesn't help that for all their supposed unsettling qualities, they're still the only characters in the series (with the ''possible'' exception of Misato) to show genuine respect and affection towards [[ButtMonkey Shinji]], or, for that matter towards ''anyone at all'' (which only serves to emphasise how [[DysfunctionJunction utterly warped]] the cast members of ''Evangelion'' are). Also, as shallow as it sounds, the biggest mistake Anno and crew made was that they made Kaworu too [[YaoiGuys "pretty".]] It sounds callous, but if Kaworu looked older and a lot "uglier," Anno would've most likely accomplished his goal of making Kaworu more unsettling.
*** But that would've defeated the purpose. Kaworu and Rei are SUPPOSED to be physically beautiful - they're [[spoiler: Angels - not only that, but the human embodiments of the progenitors of mankind]].
** Multiple subsections of Evangelion fandom fulfill this trope in different ways. On the one hand are the viewers who fap to Rei, attack Shinji for being "emo", and buy loads of [[MisaimedMarketing ridiculous Eva merchandise]]. On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, are fans who pick apart every minute detail and symbol in the series with the intention of uncovering "the true meaning" - despite repeated statements by the creators that [[TheWalrusWasPaul there isn't one]].
* The ending of the ''MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' manga was supposed to insinuate that love wasn't as important as personal fulfillment: Hanon and Rina know they will eventually have to choose to rule their kingdoms instead of staying on the surface. (This is analogous to the original ''TheLittleMermaid'' story, except Lucia gets to keep Kaito.) Fans [[DisContinuity generally ignore this]] and give them future children with Nagisa and Hamasaki (Masahiro).
* ''KujibikiUnbalance'' was a ShowWithinAShow in the anime ''{{Genshiken}}'' made to parody nearly every romance anime by following all of the tropes. ''KujibikiUnbalance'' was ''too'' spot on; it became a highly successful {{spinoff}}, while ''Genshiken'' itself almost didn't get a second season. (It was delayed almost a year.)
* ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' was intended to make fun of the school romance''/''[[BlueBishonenGhetto bishounen harem]] genre. [[IndecisiveParody It includes many common character and plot tropes]]; however, many fans [[CompletelyMissingThePoint don't seem to realize or care]] that the tropes are ''not'' being played straight. Other fangirls are capable of self-deprecation. [[AffectionateParody It's not like Ouran is serious, anyway]].
* With ''SerialExperimentsLain'', producer Yasuyuki Ueda hoped to stir a "cultural war" (seriously) between traditional Japanese and American values, due to the latter's perceived negative influence on post-WWII Japan. His hope with Lain was to create a story that would be interpreted differently in the East and West and spark discussions on their cultural differences and perspectives. American fans interpreted the plot the same way as Japanese fans, which suggests that either Lain wasn't ''enough'' of a MindScrew for his purposes, or Americans and Japanese are not that different at all...
* According to series creator Kazuki Takahashi, the main point of ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}!'' was intended to be friendship. Unfortunately, the [[MerchandiseDriven children's card game]] (that is almost always one-on-one!) element got out of control and is now the dominant aspect of the franchise. Also, Anzu Mazaki is infamous for her "friendship speeches" in the second series of the anime. She is also the most bashed by the fangirls, even when, technically, she's ''not'' the one who makes the most speeches.
** About Anzu's case, DieForOurShip might have something to do with this, though.
** Over the course of the anime/manga, there are fans who still view Seto Kaiba as TheWoobie, even though he's long since become self reliant, and that [[RonTheDeathEater Yugi and his friends are jerks who don't understand what he's been through]], and/or fawn over his {{Badass}} traits to the point where they will [[DracoInLeatherPants overlook if not outright pardon]] his JerkAss moments.
* ''RurouniKenshin'' fans who complain how much it sucks that Kenshin [[TechnicalPacifist doesn't kill anyone]], despite this being a major, plot-critical character trait.
* ''[[WolfsRain Wolf's Rain]]'' fangirls who sympathize too much with the wolves, claiming that "They don't ''really'' want to hurt anyone," even though many killings happen ''on-screen''. The only one who shows any remorse is Toboe. Kiba, the human-intolerant leader, gets {{squee}}d over by fangirls as well--but even if he ''were'' human, he would still be a messed-up, violent, bad-tempered misanthrope. It's not that he's bad--his issues are [[DoomedHometown extremely]] [[WalkingTheEarth understandable]] and he ''does'' grow to genuinely care about the others--it's just unlikely that a fangirl can use ThePowerOfLove alone to cure his issues. Especially if she's human. But as their human-looking forms are all {{Bishounen}}, [[BeautyEqualsGoodness it's completely understandable]].
** You have to keep in mind that they're wolves. Wolf morality is not human morality.
* ''GundamSEED''/''GundamSEEDDestiny'' fans who think either Blue Cosmos/LOGOS or WellIntentionedExtremist Durandal were right. WordOfGod is that Durandal '''thought''' what he was doing was right, which some fans have exaggerated into claiming that it outright ''states'' that Dullindal/Durandal/whatever translation you use was ''right'' in the first place. but [[spoiler:he was going to use a weapon of mass destruction against the countries who were against his Destiny Plan]]! One can't blame the fandom who supports Kira, Lacus and Terminal, when they prove to be the least of the three evils. This is one of those cases where WordOfGod must be taken with a grain of salt.
** Also, in ''Char's Counterattack'', there are quite a few fans who maintain that Char was the hero. Despite, you know, his trying to drop an asteroid on Earth. Char himself considers this act NecessarilyEvil, but evil nonetheless.
* If you want an example of MisaimedFandom for ''{{Gundam}}'', look no further than the Principality of Zeon from the Universal Century. Later series play up the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName space Nazi]] aspect so much that the only difference between Zeon battle flags and Nazi ones is the replacement of the swastika. But Zeon has a truly staggering fan following, both in Japan and in the Western world, who admire Zeon soldiers as the pinnacle of manliness and loyalty.
**To be fair, Zeon [[RuleOfCool gets all the cool mobile suits]] (at least in the original series, where the Federation only develops like, the Gundam-series and the GM for the entire show, against Zeon's several dozen unit types). Also, the ''soldiers'' of Zeon are often quite admirable, even if their ''leaders'' tend to be evil, power-hungry backstabbers, who are willing to kill members of their own family, to say nothing of how they treat their enemies (and one of whom does actually endorse the "pure race" ideas of Nazi Germany, taking a comparison between his methods and Hitler's as a compliment). And even then, Garma Zabi is portrayed as decent enough: he's a young "noble" dedicated to his nation's cause and with a romantic subplot--though he also isn't as high ranking as his more evil siblings. Anyway, Gundam frequently blames war on those who are in charge, while depicting the people who are actually on the front lines as generally good/neutral, if possibly a bit emotionally unbalanced by the stress of their situation, and with a few [[AxeCrazy whackjobs.]] So there are certainly a lot of Zeon soldiers we are ''supposed'' to admire for their positive qualities (Ramba Ral comes to mind).
* Many ''{{Naruto}}'' fans wanted to see Naruto kill [[spoiler:Pain/Nagato]] just for the sake of revenge. The entire point of the arc (and most of the series) is that revenge is a form of cheap satisfaction that never solves anything, which [[CycleOfRevenge just leads to more revenge]], and that some problems are best solved without violence (and if Naruto killed him he would have proved his belief that [[RevengeBeforeReason people are incapable of overcoming their hatred or showing mercy to those that have hurt them]] to be ''[[IResembleThatRemark completely right]]''). Oddly enough, these fans also seem surprised by his tragic backstory, even though it had already been mentioned, and even though Naruto never accepted {{Freudian Excuse}}s as justifications for misdeeds, often criticizing the logic behind them.
**Many Naruto fans see Sasuke as a CompleteMonster (or at least a SmugSnake) who eats babies and enjoys [[KickTheDog kicking puppies]]. Others see him as a BadAss [[DracoInLeatherPants with absolutely no flaws, who is not emotionally unstable in the least and who simply does bad things because he's "cool" and "badass" and "evil"]]. Both sets of fans are wrong, as it's pretty clear that while he's supposed to be sympathetic, most of his life choices are shown in quite a negative light.
* To this day, there are a lot of ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' fans who refuse to accept that Simon is the main character of the series. These people often cast [[TheObiWan Kamina]] as the "real" main character, ignoring that [[spoiler: their "real" main character dies eight episodes into a 27 episode series]]. Perhaps it has something to do with Kamina being more... ''[[LargeHam boisterous]]'' than Simon, or perhaps more [[TheUnfettered impetuous]] (it's worth mentioning that his impetuousness was ''deliberately portrayed as Kamina's fatal flaw'')?
** Considering Kamina's role as the DecoyProtagonist, it's somewhat understandable why fans would consider him the main character after he [[SpotlightStealingSquad stole the first eight episodes]], [[MagneticHero attracted the]] {{Nakama}}, had a [[WellDoneSonGuy poignant motivation]], and [[spoiler: completely averted ForgottenFallenFriend by virtue of his posthumous influence over the other characters, and consistent references to his untimely death up until the end of the series]]. By the same token, they should remember how much of Kamina's screentime was spent [[TheObiWan mentoring Simon on how to be a man]], reminding him that [[TheChosenOne his drill would pierce the heavens]], or [[TooDumbToLive acting like a jackass]].
* ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' in general. The series is a dark murder-mystery about what happens if your {{nakama}} is torn apart. The anime and manga up the female {{fanservice}} in their official arts to [[MemeticMutation over 9000.]] Still, most of the fans are female -- sadistic fans who like to joke about the bloodshed and tragedies, oddly calm shippers, or people who are rather serious, usually sound novel fans.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* The [[TheDCU DC Comics]] character Lobo started as a generic mercenary before being retooled by creator Keith Giffin as a parody of eighties "grim and gritty" heroes in a series of mini-series books. Needless to say, Lobo became a big hit with fans who took the satire at face value.
* Rorschach from ''{{Watchmen}}'' was intended to be a {{deconstruction}} of the objectivist superheroes created by Steve Ditko, most notably The Question and Mr. A: the embodiment of all that is repellent about Ditko's worldview and, at the same time, all that is noble about it. Rorschach is [[KnightTemplar intelligent and uncompromising to evil with absolute moral integrity]], but is a completely AxCrazy [[KickTheDog dog kicker]] insane brand of character as a result. He is delusional and paranoid, but sometimes [[ProperlyParanoid properly so when no one else is]]. He is a loner, unfettered by society's restrictions, but an ugly person with disgusting habits and prejudices who constantly rejects those who try to help him, and so on. Far too many readers and creators overlooked his more unsavory aspects and saw him as unambiguously heroic and unambiguously ''cool'' (or, most strangely, [[DracoInLeatherPants unambiguously ''sexy'']]... which he is not). As a result, Rorschach (along with the Batman of ''DarkKnightReturns'') became the template for the less nuanced (and far more glorified) DarkAge NinetiesAntiHero. AlanMoore is known to deeply regret this; he never intended for Rorschach to be a role model and is reportedly disgusted when he receives fan-mail containing variations of the sentiment "Our society needs people like Rorschach."
** The comic-book Question had a brief story where he read ''{{Watchmen}}'', noted Rorschach's similarity to himself, and decided to give the former's methods a try. It ended with an escaped criminal, a badly bruised Question, and the conclusion that "Rorschach sucks" as a role-model. It's something of a TakeThat to everyone who missed the point.
** On there other hand, many of the people who enjoy ''{{Watchmen}}'' because of it's portrayal of right-wing nutjobs like Rorscharch fail to remember that Moore satirized Progressives just as much as he did Objectivists; for example: [[spoiler:Ozymandias]].
*** In the spirit of this trope: [[spoiler:Ozymandias]] was both awesome and the only truly heroic person in the entire book.
* Similarly, a number of ''2000AD'' readers seemed to miss the satire of ''JudgeDredd'' and thought that this sort of extreme law enforcement sounded like a good thing. So did SylvesterStallone in interviews concerning TheMovie. Clearly, a 6 month -- 2 year sentence for littering will solve America's problems** Even the writers of JudgeDredd don't know how to deal with the undertones of fascism. Some like to work around it, downplaying the fascist undertones by putting Dredd against monstrous villains who are worse than Dredd/The Judges due to their genocidal actions; others play it depressingly straight (most notably the opening stories as part of the over-reaching "Democracy" arc of the late 1980s/90s). Others try and make Dredd the literal lesser evil ''via'' portraying his fellow Judges and supervisors as being worse than him.
* This happened to R. Crumb ''a lot'' -- most notably with his iconic "Keep On Truckin'" character/pose, which was adopted by many rock-loving hippies as their "mascot," as it were. The truth was, Crumb was ''making fun'' of rock music lovers, who in his eyes were doing "The Dance of Cultural Death" (as he put it). He even explained it in a comic in The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book and told his (probably now disillusioned) hippie fans: "KEEP ON TRUCKIN', SCHMUCKS!". (This was followed by Mr. Natural remarking: "Don't forget, Bob, that it was the compassion, the loving forgiveness, that they found so appealing in your cartoons, that made you so popular, that got you laid, that earned you a living. Keep it in mind!")
** Mr. Natural ended his series in an insane asylum as his former followers commented about how he was impossibly out of touch with the world. What does ''that'' tell you about R. Crumb?
** And then there's his satirical race-related comics. (There's a very thin line between ''parodying'' racism and ''being'' racist.) Crumb's over-the-top satires of American prejudice, "When the N***ers Take Over America" and "When the Goddamn Jews Take Over America," which appeared back-to-back in the last issue of his ''Weirdo'' magazine in 1993, subsequently appeared without authorization on hate-group websites.
* Jhonen Vasquez repeatedly takes pages out of his ''JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' and ''Squee'' series to TakeThat to various people he feels are enjoying his comic for the wrong reasons. One extended story in JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac is about a serial-killing fanboy of Johnny's. Since Johnny is a character who goes around murdering the most annoying people in the typical Vasquez CrapsackWorld, it's not hard to see why some people might get the wrong idea.
* In the infamous ''[[JackChick Chick Tracts]]'', readers are ''supposed'' to agree with everything the protagonists say, but there is a significant "fandom" that finds the over-the-top nature [[{{Narm}} unintentionally hilarious]]. In addition, on first reading them, many people assume that they are intended as a parody. [[PoesLaw They are serious.]]
** The sheer number of times he has [[StrawmanPolitical Straw Secularists/Liberals]] (especially in schools), such as the dystopia in "Last Generation" which has the security and language of [[NineteenEightyFour Oceania]], the religious politics of ''LeftBehind'', and the social politics of Straw Liberal states, with a touch of "concentration camps" for parents who discipline their children -- it makes it difficult for one to accept them as serious arguments unless one realizes that [[http://www.godhatesamerica.com/ there are more extreme people out there]].
* Satirical depictions of politicians are almost inevitably popular with their targets (with the notable exception of Steve Bell's take on former British Prime Minister [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,7371,802577,00.html John Major]].) Often, they will contact the cartoonist, or the paper it was published in, to ask for a copy or the original, probably thinking it's better if people are making fun of them than just ignoring them. Ralph Steadman declared he would only depict politician's arses to prevent this.
** This kind of misaimed fandom is ''very'' common with British political satire. ''YesMinister'' and ''SpittingImage'' are two other examples of political comedies which had a lot of fans in Whitehall.
*** Embracing the satirist (or impressionist) is an intelligent tactic that most politicians should at least pretend to embrace. Laugh along with the scorn and you're the fun-loving dude who can laugh at himself. Express distaste, even at an awful, unfunny portrayal, and you're the scowling buzzkill with a stick up your ass.
*** TheThickOfIt's Malcolm Tucker is loved by the very New Labour spin doctors he is based on. The series has so many fans at Number 10 that the cast and crew were even allowed to film scenes for the TheMovie, ''InTheLoop'' there. They arrived to find the "real Malcolm Tuckers" queuing up to be photographed with the fictional one.
* The rapid transformation of ''TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' into the sort of MerchandiseDriven juggernaut it was originally meant to parody had a lot to do with this. The creators and later licensees seem to have decided to run with the misaimed version instead of trying to fight it.
* Apparently, we were supposed to agree with the Pro-Registration side in ''CivilWar''. JoeQuesada stated that the Pro-Regs were right, anyway. Seriously. We were expected to like Cap's side ''at first'' (that's why they showed the Pro-Regs as complete bastards), but eventually side with Iron Man. It didn't work. Most writers in Marvel hate Iron Man these days, making him out to be a fascist crazy instead of a troubled man who thought he was doing what had to be done to keep the SHRA from becoming worse.
** Mark Millar also stated that the pro-regs were right and that he thought every right-thinking person should agree with him. This is ironic because, at the time, everyone was criticizing Millar for [[DesignatedVillain making the "pro" side so ludicrously unsympathetic]]. As one reviewer noted, [[http://www.thexaxis.com/misc/mightyavengers1.htm "If the readers all think Iron Man's a villain, and he wasn't meant to be... well, maybe the writers and editors misunderstood what they were putting out".]]
** CivilWar was written by many authors, each with their own political axe to grind, each feeling free to preach their own political views, left or right, with judicious use of strawmen and puppy kicking. It's why the whole thing was an ugly, undirected mess. In the end, the heavyhanded and inconsistant moral preaching turned many readers away.
** You also shouldn't have Cable tell Ironman (and thus the audience) that a pro-registration future is horrible.
* Some people read ''KingdomCome'' just because they like the [[NinetiesAntiHero Antiheroes]], this is [[CompletelyMissingThePoint missing the fact]] that ''KingdomCome'' was writen as a criticism of that kind of character.
**It also doesn't help that many of the characters created for ''KingdomCome'' have [[CanonImmigrant found their way]] into the main {{DCU}} continuity through the pages of the [[JusticeLeague JSA]]. Even Magog, the character created to showcase everything wrong with the DarkAge was reused in Action Comics and even got his own series recently.
***Although even Mark Waid and Alex Ross have admited they kind of like Magog.
***Well duh. Unlike the other antiheroes, Magog has [[DirtyBusiness no delusion about what he's doing]]. Not to mention that [[spoiler: he has an emotional breakdown when Superman and the other original heroes return and he realizes how far he has fallen from his original ideals.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comedian Characters]]
* Sacha Baron Cohen relies on this phenomenon when performing in the character of ''{{Borat}}'' -- he presents what can only be described as an over-the-top, wholly unbelievable portrayal of a backwards, anti-Semitic Central Asian reporter, expressing opinions that most people would find intolerable, and in so doing, gets people to ''agree'' with those opinions. Perhaps the ultimate example is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb3IMTJjzfo "In My Country There Is Problem"]], which starts off innocently enough before launching into the chorus "Throw the Jew down the well/So my country can be free..." which the audience had no reservations at all about singing along to. The video is both hilarious and very, very disturbing.
** Apparently the audience caught on that he was joking, and apparently some of them were in fact Jewish. It's quite possible to sing along to a very catchy song (with questionable lyrics) with your tongue firmly lodged in your cheek.
** Furthermore, whilst there's certainly some participants who don't come over at all favourably, with at least some of the interviewees there's a sense that they're just otherwise polite people who are a little bit freaked out by this guy and are consequently trying to humour him as best they can so that he'll go away and leave them alone.
* Similarly, Baron Cohen's ''AliG'' character was intended as a satire of [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy white guys trying to be black]] but was ultimately worshiped by the very people it criticized.
* JamieKennedy's character B-Rad. B-Rad was a satire of white kids who want to be black along the same lines as Ali G, but those who only saw him in ''Malibu's Most Wanted'' might not know [[CreatorBacklash how much Jamie Kennedy despised the character]]. He mocks it in his standup act.
* Harry Enfield's sketch character "Loadsamoney" was intended as a biting parody of smug, narcissistic, possessions-obsessed yuppies. Guess who became the character's biggest fans.
* Sarah Silverman, especially when her fans drool over her looks, demonstrating one of the attitudes she mercilessly satirizes.
--> "I don't care if you think I'm racist, I just want you to think I'm thin."
* StephenColbert's character has been mistaken for real more than once. A fan asked him about this before a taping of ''TheColbertReport'':
-->'''Fan''': What do you think of conservatives who watch your show and think you're serious about what you say?
-->'''Stephen''': It just goes to show that we haven't gotten rid of all the lead paint in our houses.
**This extended to the White House, who asked him to address the White House Press Corps dinner. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Hilarity]] [[HilarityEnsues Ensued]]. Of course, the address is meant to be a roast, so odds are they knew what was coming.
***While organziers may have had an idea, video evidence suggests the majority of guests had no idea what was coming, as does media coverage the following day downplaying or savaging Colbert's performance.
**In fact, a recent study has shown that conservative fans think he 'only pretends to be joking', and that it's the ''liberals'' who are being duped. Notably, this line of thought requires you to believe that the fake-liberal Colbert keeps up his act 24/7, backstage and in interviews. WildMassGuessing come to life?
* Dutch comedians Kees van Kooten and Wim de Bie had it happen to them with their characters Jacobse en van Es. Originally, they were supposed to be smalltime crooks, until, in 1980, they decided to start a political party called de Tegenpartij (the Opposing Party) with the motto "geen gezeik, iedereen rijk" which means "no complaining, everybody rich" ("geen gezeik" is Dutch slang for "no pissing" and by extension "no complaining"). It was supposed to be a spoof on all the extreme right-wing political parties. Unfortunately, said political parties had no sense of satire and openly embraced the Tegenpartij. As a result, on May 10th 1981, "Jacobse en van Es" were shot to death while staging a coup d'etat in The Hague. Van Kooten en de Bie were very sorry to have to retire their favourite characters, and had them come back from the dead several times.
** The Centrum Partij, a full on extreme right wing party, had the characters on the cover of their pamphlets and said: "THESE GUYS FINALLY LET PEOPLE HEAR THE TRUTH!"
* Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, who starred on the hit Canadian comedy series ''SCTV'', created the characters of Bob and Doug McKenzie (two beer-drinking, somewhat idiotic brothers that talk about menial subjects) as a way to get back at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who (at the time the show was being produced) tried to force the show's production team to add two minutes of "identifiably Canadian content". When the show premiered, it was a hit with the audience that the two actors were trying to lampoon, and the characters became one of the most famous aspects of the show.
* Dave Chappelle is one of the ultimate cautionary tales of racial comedy -- he stopped doing ''[[ChappellesShow Chappelle's Show]]'' when he realized that most of his white audience was just laughing at the sight of a black entertainer doing clownish, stereotypical things, not paying attention to the messages.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]

* [[TheDarkKnight Why So Serious?]]
* Extreme example: There is a sequence in the movie version of Pink Floyd's ''TheWall'' where Pink hallucinates that he is a fascist leader, leading a vicious army of skinheads. This scene is meant as a look at the relationship between a performer and his fans... but a group of RealLife white supremacists didn't get the joke and based themselves off the scene, adopting the crossed-hammers symbol of Pink's army and dubbing themselves the "Hammerskins".
** Even the album it's based on was influenced by misaimed fandom; Roger Waters (Pink Floyd's bassist and leader) once stated this in an interview. During the tour for ''Animals,'' members of the audience were so crazed that a mesh fence had to be erected between the stage and the seats, creating a literal wall. (It was not lost on Waters.) In one incident, a fan climbed up the fence; Waters insulted and spat on him... and the fan went nuts. Not mad, but happy. Waters decided that a metaphysical wall existed and started working on the album.
* Gordon Gekko from ''Wall Street'' was supposed to represent the worst excesses of the 1980s. Many people took him as a role model, taking his famous "Greed is Good" speech at face value. Michael Douglas did too good a job at making him charming.
** As Scorcese stated in the DVD commentary, Gekko's speech was supposed to be compelling and even correct to a degree. Scorsese was a fan (with qualifications) of American capitalism. There are much more evil things about Gekko than his belief in American 'greed'.
*** Scorsese? The movie was directed by OliverStone.
* ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418763/ Jarhead]]'' includes a scene in which the marines cheer for ''ApocalypseNow'' [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/]]. On the commentary track, it is noted that marines [[TruffautWasRight never see anti-war movies as such]]; the book the movie is based on goes so far as to say that there are ''no'' true anti-war movies precisely because this trope will always kick in.
** Case in point: there are [[OrSoIHeard tales]] of Marines cheering the "soldier mutilates an Iraqi corpse" scene in ''Jarhead.''
* Despite the fact that Paul Verhoeven is anti-war and anti-fascism (likely from having bombs dropped by fascists in his backyard as a child), people will accuse him from now until judgement day that ''StarshipTroopers'' ''glorifies'' war, fascism, and blind, jingoistic patriotism. To think Paul Verhoeven made the mistake of being ''too subtle''.
** And that's not even taking {{Robocop}} into consideration! Textbook example of the audience not even realizing that the movie was making fun of them for taking it at face value.
* People who worship Sarah Connor of ''{{Terminator}} 2 Judgement Day'' as a paragon of feminist virtue tend to be the ones who ignore the fact she is a cruel, violent, emotionally unstable bad-mother who is actually ''deconstructing'' militant feminism rather than celebrating it. Point in fact, according to Audio-Commentary of the 3-DVD ''Definitive Edition Director's Cut'', Linda Hamilton (the actress who portrayed her) '''and''' James Cameron (Hamilton's then husband '''and''' the creator of the franchise) ''repeatedly'' stressed on ''multiple'' occasions that she is a messed up horror-of-a-human being rather than someone who is meant to be admired.
* ''Leaving Las Vegas'' was criticized for glamorizing alcoholism. Apparently, these people missed the bit where the protagonist decides he's going to drink himself to death ''and does.'' Then again, that summary can translate easily to "alcohol is worth dying for".
* Many, many mobster movies, such as ''TheGodfather'', ''{{Goodfellas}}'', ''Casino'' and ''[[http://chud.com/articles/articles/14228/1/YOU-GOT-IT-ALL-WRONG-DAY-FOUR/Page1.html Scarface]]''?. Far too many people see the big houses, beautiful women, expensive cars, and fancy suits and think of the protagonists as "men of honor". They completely forget that the characters are [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking thieves, murderers, and drug dealers]] who lose everything and everybody close to them by the end. Worse still in that some of these movies are based on real events. The horrible things that the lead does in ''{{Goodfellas}}'' have RealLife analogues: ''{{Goodfellas}}'' was [[TheMovieOfTheBook The Movie]] of a nonfiction book. Henry Hill was a real person.
* ''TaxiDriver'' has Robert [=DeNiro=] trying to kill a politician. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hinckley_Jr Some guy]] watched the movie many times, got obsessed with Jodie Foster and, after many attempts to contact her, decided to impress her by shooting President Reagan...
** ''Taxi Driver'' scriptwriter Paul Schrader blames {{Executive Meddling}} for the intentional toning down of Travis Bickle's racism (he was much more susceptible to muttering about the N-words and W-words, in addition to inciting hate crimes), thus making DeNiro's character a complex counterculture icon rather than the paranoid, simpleminded racist the character was intended to be.
* As CliveBarker, creator of the ''{{Hellraiser}}'' series, put it, "You've got Pinhead, who hasn't done a single decent thing in eight movies, and still gets mail from women who want to have his children."
* ''{{Rollerball}}'' found its biggest success among people who were excited only by the rollerball scenes. Rollerball is a [[BloodSport ridiculously violent sport]] that is the centerpiece of the movie's satire of a society increasingly desensitized to violence (another scene features people at a party blowing off steam by taking a flamethrower to some trees.) Some sports people even asked the filmmakers' permission to create a rollerball league. Almost certainly this is due to the deliberate slowness most of the AuthorFilibuster scenes are played: [[YourMileageMayVary The non-sport scenes are either a bit wonderful contrast, or really, ''really'' drag.]]
**The cast of rollerball players in the movie actually had a great deal of fun actually ''playing'' rollerball between takes and before and after shooting using the areas and props depicted in the film.
* Disaffected youth have long put up posters of ''{{Hud}}'' in their rooms as a mark of admiration for this iconic counter-culture hero. The story is about Hud trying to get his father falsely declared mentally incompetent and himself power of attorney so he can sell his father's farm and keep the money. ''And'' he attempts to rape his love interest.
* Harry Lime from ''TheThirdMan'' is a black marketeer who sells his loyal girlfriend to the Russians and runs a "medical charity" that sells watered-down penicillin that results in mass death and illness. The movie even goes so far as to show a hospital room full of dying children. How does the audience respond? By demanding more adventures of Harry Lime. The result was a radio series chronicling his further adventures...
**This is somewhat counteracted by the fact that Harry essentially becomes a stand-in for the protagonist of the film, rather than the evil bastard he actually is. The admiration was more related to the glowing performance of the actor: Leave it to Orson Welles to make a character irresistible.
* ''Romper Stomper'' and ''AmericanHistoryX'' are quite popular among Neo-Nazi skinheads.
* Director Shusuke Kaneko clearly stated that {{Godzilla}} in the film ''Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack'' is pure evil and that no one is supposed to root for him. Guess which monster ends up getting the most praise.
* The Japanese live action/anime hybrid film ''Twilight Of The Cockroaches'' was quite popular with various minorities, especially Jews who identified with the cockroaches' struggle to survive the humans' callous attempts to exterminate them. One can only imagine what their reaction would be on learning that, [[WordOfGod according to the director]], the whole thing is an allegory for the fall of ''the Axis Powers''.
* A particularly creepy example of this trope: reportedly, teens were cheering in theaters during ''SchindlersList'' when Ralph Fiennes' monstrous Nazi officer randomly killed innocent people.
* Debora Kampmeier's film ''Hounddog'' is meant to depict the horrible consequences of child abuse. Many critics (and viewers) see this [[RapeAsRedemption differently.]]
* Howard Beale of ''Network'' has quite a bit of quotable dialogue ("I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" for one), but many of his fans forget that he essentially went insane as a result of working in television news for too long, and treat him as some kind of visionary.
* Many people sympathize with Colonel "You can't handle the truth!" Jessep of ''AFewGoodMen'' and his famous courtroom speech in which he admits he ordered the "Code Red" ("You want me on that wall! You need me on that wall!") is admired by many.
*Going on the gangster glorification theme, "Blow" and "American Gangester" especailly have a strange appreciation for their brutal drug lord "protagonsits." Granted, Depp and Denzel are tough to make unlikable and are legit cash cows anyways, but how the hell do you make a guy who transports heroin with the caskets of dead soliders a hero?
* Boys Don't Cry is about young transman Brandon Teena struggling to find his identity as an adult and as a man, since for the first time in his life he can truly be who he is inside. Most reviewers loved it, but while sympathetic to the character, referred to Teena as female and seemed to think it was a story about [[CompletelyMissingThePoint a lesbian who felt she had to pretend to be a boy because of homophobia or something.]] One reviewer even said something like "in disguising herself, ironically, this young woman helped other girls find themselves." (Yikes.) In real life, Teena was your average somewhat macho straight guy and had the kind of [[JerkAss enlightened]] opinions on feminism and lesbianism you'd expect from a young man born in the Bible Belt in the early seventies.
* ''TheWickerMan'' doesn't exactly portray neopaganism well. In fact, it's quite pro-Christian film, with the devout policeman's sense of duty making him more and more admirable as the film progresses. Naturally, Wiccans and neo-pagans are all over it, probably because of how well-researched it is.
** I can imagine that the idea of a relatively healthy society where everyone shares your beliefs might be appealing. I guess some people also like the idea of an intolerant jerk getting killed. Granted, ThisTroper hasn't actually seen it.
* It can take a few watchings of ''StrawDogs'' before one realizes that the Dustin Hoffman character, rather than being a [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass put-upon man spurred to badassery]] in order to [[TheSoCalledCoward protect what's his]], is a maniac, deliberately provoking people and trying to start a fight. [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim He kills them, and he's just like them.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* FIGHT CLUB. Ask what Tyler Durdan would do, then DON'T DO IT! The point is that we don't need that side of humanity anymore. EVOLVE!
* ''TheIronDream'', an AlternateHistory novel by Norman Spinrad, presents itself as a work of literary criticism about a fantasy novel -- "Lord of the Swastika" -- written by a version of AdolfHitler who left Germany in 1919. Norman Spinrad's intent was to portray the similarities between fantasy tropes (such as AlwaysChaoticEvil) and the beliefs that facilitated many RealLife horrors. Ironically, the American Nazi Party put the book on its recommended reading list despite the satirical intent of the work. In Spinrad's own words:
-->To make damn sure that even the historically naive and entirely unselfaware reader got the point, I appended a phony critical analysis of ''Lord of the Swastika,'' in which the psychopathology of Hitler's saga was spelled out by a tendentious pedant in words of one syllable.\\
Almost everyone got the point...
** The book can be read both as satire and as the opposite of Spinrad's intentions, at the same time. Specifically, the book can be read as an attack on the concept of AuthorTract--"proving" an idea by writing a book about it doesn't look so good when the writer is Hitler. Spinrad, however, meant for the book to ''be'' an AuthorTract (about militaristic fiction being fascist).
* IsaacAsimov's short story ''[[http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/funtheyhad.html The Fun They Had]]'' was intended it to be ironic; he hated school as a child because the classes were paced for less able students and he did not get along with his teachers. Many people, though, miss the intended irony ([[NostalgiaFilter having forgotten just how bad school is]]) and take the story's concluding sentence at face value. It's even appeared in elementary school readers, presumably to get kids to appreciate school...
** Unfortunately, in the minds of the public, ScienceIsBad, thus any setting having [[AIIsACrapshoot robotic teachers]] must be a {{Dystopia}}. Let's just ignore the fact that ScienceIsBad was {{Isaac Asimov}}'s number one PetPeeveTrope.
*** Wait, Asimov did ''not'' intend it as dystopic? This troper ''hated'' that story because its message seemed to be "oh, the good old pre-technology days". Misaimed Hatedom?
** And not everyone found school bad, a teacher configured to every child's personal learning style and speed would be a good thing but then so is a teacher with real enthusiasm for the subject and social interaction with other students, assuming they're nice of course.
* The relationship between Almasy and Katherine in ''TheEnglishPatient'' is a dangerous, destructive obsession that ends up claiming not only both of their lives but also the life of Katherine's husband. Yet it's held up by many as one of the greatest love stories of its time, perhaps due to the film adaptation glorifying the affair more than the book had.
** See also the Misaimed Fandom of ''[[{{Shakespeare}} Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''WutheringHeights'', ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. Romantic relationships seem to possess a strong tendency to fall into this trope.
* Junichiro Tanizaki's ''Naomi'' (written back in the 1920s) was supposed to be a criticism of Western influences against Japanese tradition. Many women who read it began to emulate the main female character (becoming independent, fashionable, and non-traditional, like the Flappers of the era) instead of understanding the author's intent.
* Upton Sinclair's ''The Jungle'' was written as a socialist piece to show the plight of industrial workers. But, due to Sinclair's disturbingly graphic descriptions of [[ImAHumanitarian what was going into the nation's meat,]] the government stepped in and created the FDA and passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, which requires ingredient listings on all foodstuffs. Sinclair commented on this in later years:
--> "I aimed for the public's heart, and by mistake, I hit the public's stomach."
** It goes beyond that; Sinclair actually opposed the Pure Food and Drug Act, as it shifted the cost of food inspection onto the federal government and ''away'' from the meat packing industry.
* ''The Secret History'''s central character, Henry Winter, has had fans gushing about how 'perfect' he is and how he's ideal boyfriend material. We're talking about a man who organises a bacchanal and accidentally kills someone, murders one of his friends, and was planning to kill another of his friends before he decides to commit suicide ... How is this appealing in any way whatsoever? 'Cold blooded psycho' is the description you're looking for.
* Italy's fascist government approved a film version of AynRand's ''We the Living'' (without her permission) on the grounds that it was anti-communist. Several months after the film's release, it was pulled when the government realized the story was just as much anti-fascist.
* In 19th century Northern California, author Bret Harte, who opposed racial discrimination, wrote the narrative poem [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heathen_Chinee "The Heathen Chinee"]] to satirize anti-Chinese sentiment, which was widespread at the time. Readers of the poem and the periodicals that reprinted it widely interpreted it as mocking the Chinese. It was often recited by opponents of Chinese immigration, and Harte was thanked by a Senator who held anti-Chinese sentiment. Harte later heavily disparaged the poem, but it still became one of the most popular among the anti-Chinese movement.
* Reportedly, a British Secretary of State for Education once told Muriel Spark they greatly admired the title character of ''The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie''. Since Miss Brodie was a SadistTeacher who encouraged one of her favourites to fight for the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, Mrs. Spark looked somewhat horrified at the notion.
* A lot of people who are politically on the right cite GeorgeOrwell's ''[[NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'' as an argument against leftist social programs that are creating what they perceive as a "nanny state". This is ignoring that George Orwell was an outspoken socialist and that ''NineteenEightyFour'' was written to criticize totalitarianism (specifically Stalinism), not liberalism, which Orwell viewed as not leftist enough. Orwell may have agreed with them to an extent on politically correct language, though, since he was a strong proponent of clarity of speech. [[WordOfGod Orwell himself]] directly refuted these claims [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Popular_misconceptions in his own writings.]]
* Aldous Huxley's ''BraveNewWorld'', though clearly intended against paradise engineering, has its own following of people advocation Huxley's vision didn't go [[http://www.huxley.net far enough]].
* ''AClockworkOrange''. Lots of teens (and not so teens) tend to ignore the final chapter of the book where Alex [[spoiler:acknowledges his wrongdoings]] and start dressing up like him and even learning nadsat. It doesn't help that the movie made the message look like the exact opposite.
** The final chapter was left out of the book altogether for many years, even before the film adaptation. The publishers claim that the author didn't give them the 21st chapter and that it was an afterthought of his; the author claims that the publishers tossed out the 21st chapter because fables sell well. Some versions of the book now come with a foreword containing his rant about how, without the 21st chapter, ACO is a fable.
** The final chapter was left out in the US, but was always included in UK publications of the book. Take from that what you will.
* "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is widely considered a celebration of independence. But Frost, a diehard misanthrope, intended it as a bitterly ironic satire of people who delusionally fancy themselves individualists. Consider that the two roads are "just as fair[;] the passing... had worn them really about the same". "I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence" does not describe laudable independence: it portrays self-obsessed, melodramatic braggadocio dredged up again and again over the course of a boring life.
** And in order to prove this statement, someone should be putting a link right about here.
* Similarly, "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors." No more need be said.
* ''GulliversTravels'' was written by Swift as a biting satire. Instead of being recognized for its wit and vicious commentary on the state of man and civilization, it instead became a beloved children's classic. To expedite this, many adaptations only cover Lilliput; almost no adaptations contain any hints of parts three and four. Happily, the 1996 TV miniseries with Ted Danson kept the satire intact.
** Really, most of Swift's work has been subject to misaimed fandom. The essay ''A Modest Proposal'' was meant to get the Irish to get off their asses and do something about the state of Ireland, but instead people just laughed at the satire and did nothing.
* A rare example of this trope as a plot element ''within'' a work itself is UmbertoEco's novel ''[[FoucaultsPendulum Foucault's Pendulum]]'', in which three intellectuals, using a computer program and a smorgasbord of occult, esoteric and conspiracy-theory texts, create a "manifesto" for the fictional secret society "The Tres" as a ''satire'' of secret societies and the gullibility and fanaticism surrounding both these societies and their critics. The unintended consequence is [[spoiler:the creation of an ''actual'' Tres, the members of which turn violently against the manifesto's authors.]]
** Eco likely based this scenario off the anonymously-published 17th-century ''Fama Fraternitatis'', which claimed to be the manifesto of a centuries-old mystical Christian brotherhood, the Rosiscrucians. The work eventually inspired a number of rival Rosicrucian societies, even though [[spoiler:many historians consider the work an elaborate hoax; not only is there no evidence for the existence of such a movement prior to the ''18th'' century, but the ''Fama'' was initially published together with an obviously fictional comical story about an absurd, failed utopian "reform."]]
* Hitler's regime enthusiastically endorsed Nietzsche's writings, particularly his concept of the Overman (''übermensch''), as a philosophical buttress for Nazism's ideals of "Aryan" supremacy and anti-Semitism. Nietzsche's Overman concept was an ideal for the ''individual'' to strive towards and had nothing to do with the pseudo-scientific "Aryan race" doctrines of his time. Furthermore, although Nietzsche wasn't ''pro''-Jewish, he hated German anti-Semitic groups with a passion. The MisaimedFandom was caused by Nietzsche's sister, who ''was'' an active anti-Semite, editing her brother's works to conform to her own views after he was too demented to know about it. Sadly, during and for some time after WorldWarTwo, Nietzsche had an undeservedly bad reputation in much of the world as a proto-Nazi -- hence the existence of the NietzscheWannabe trope.
* Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy from ''PrideAndPrejudice'' are often cited as the quintessential SlapSlapKiss couple -- passionate dislike is just a mask for passionate love. Elizabeth herself tells her first suitor Mr. Collins (who she legitimately cannot stand) that this is a ridiculous notion and sometimes, No means '''No'''; not every girl who claims to dislike a man is in denial (otherwise, she may just as well have feelings for Mr. Collins!). A paragraph comparing Elizabeth's changing feelings for Wickham and Darcy "hints" that the initial conflict between the OfficialCouple was just supposed to show how feelings can evolve in the real world as opposed to the FairyTale LoveAtFirstSight. Dislike can evolve into love; nowhere does anyone imply dislike = love... except Mr. Collins.
** A relationship guide, ''Dating Mr. Darcy: A Girl's guide to Sensible Romance'', missed that the whole point of {{Pride and Prejudice}}, (where, if I remember correctly, religion is never mentioned) is that both Elizabeth and Darcy have to re-examine themselves and change in order to be better people, and better for each other. Instead, you get this gem of a book description:
--->Any girl who has seen Pride and Prejudice or read the Jane Austen novel knows that the much misunderstood Mr. Darcy is the ideal gentleman. But is it possible to find your own Mr. Darcy in today's world of geeks and goons?...Best-selling author Sarah Arthur equips young women to gauge a guy's Darcy Potential (DP) according to his relationships with family, friends, and God.
* Among those who criticize KurtVonnegut, it is commonly stated that his novel ''{{Slaughterhouse-Five}}'' wants us to agree with the Tralfamadorians, a completely apathetic race of alien toilet plungers to whom war and death mean nothing. He's ''satirizing'' that pattern of thought in humans; to him, people who think that way are as ridiculous as living plungers.
* ''{{Lolita}}'' has a tendency to attract its own fandom that believes in the righteousness of Humbert Humbert and Dolores Haze's relationship. These fans usually miss out on the overarching idea that all of the characters are screwed up and potentially abusive to one another, as the fandom is likely busy contemplate how their teacher of choice so totally has the hots for them and how they should get together, despite said teacher having a wife, a child, and generations between them. On the flip-side, because of its loud fandom but reticent crowd that enjoyed and understood the novel, those who have never read the book may dismiss it as literary child pornography, which makes two groups of people missing the point.
** Members of the "loud fandom", who think the book is a celebration of older man/teenage girl relationships, apparently miss or ignore the scene in which Humbert plans to ''impregnate'' Lolita -- so that by the time she's aged beyond his interest, he will already have Lolita 2.0 coming up.
* Bumper stickers proclaiming "Eve was framed" and the interpretation of Lilith as a feminist heroine would likely be viewed by the writers of TheBible as MisaimedFandom. Heck, half of the reinterpretations of scripture would probably have the writers crying, "that's not what I meant ''at all!''"
** How about the fact that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith#Lilith_in_the_Bible Lilith, as a person, is not even actually in the Bible]]?
*** Considering that the lilitu which are thought to have been the inspiration for Lilith in Hebrew literature aren't really anything like Lilith at all would probably have caused their creators to scratch their heads in confusion at how the Hebrews could possibly have misunderstood what they were.
* Paolo and Francesca in Dante's ''Inferno'' have been under quite a bit of MisaimedFandom from literary commentators, who often assume that they're being unfairly punished when, in fact, their dialogue indicates that their relationship was based on lust rather than love and that any love Francesca had for Paolo is gone, replaced by bitterness that he caused her to go to hell. The Pilgrim faints out of pity for the two, but it's implied that over time, he learns to stop feeling sorry for the sinners.
* The ''Rise of Scourge'' manga produced a lot of this from the ''WarriorCats'' fandom. Because of Scourge's backstory, a large portion of fans believe that he is ''not'' evil, some even going far enough to blame everything he did on random other characters. Of course, this interpretation completely ignores the author's belief that no one is born evil, and that everyone has a reason for their actions, but that these reasons are in no way an [[FreudianExcuse excuse]]. In fact, in the author's note ''at the beginning of the very same book'', she says his actions were inexcusable, and that she wasn't trying to make excuses, also saying that "If ever a charcter were purely bad, Scourge is it."
** Also on the subject of bad characters who are seen as good: Ashfur. Just... [[DracoInLeatherPants Ashfur]]. He was a minor character who eventually went insane because Squirrelflight didn't want to be his mate, which he interpreted as a mean-spirited rejection. He became very obsessive and eventually tried [[spoiler:to kill as many of Squirrelflight's kin as he could so he could get her to experience pain]]. Fans somehow interpret him as an [[DracoInLeatherPants innocent, lovable cutie who was constantly victimized by the selfish main characters and was completely justified in his actions]].
*** There are also the Ashfur fans who claim that Squirrelflight was using Ashfur to make Brambleclaw jealous. Not only has this be disproved by WordOfGod, but they have ''no actual evidence'' other than the fact that Ashfur became friends with Squirrelflight after she had a fight with Brambleclaw (and of course, it is likely that this was Ashfur seizing an opportunity to get close to Squirrelflight). In fact, the very ''idea'' of Brambleclaw being jealous doesn't even cross Squirrelflight's mind until near the end of ''Twilight'', and her idea of staying JustFriends is somewhat supportive of her not using him. Of course, Asfur fans are willing to accept any idea that can help them [[DracoInLeatherPants portray Ashfur more sympathetically]].
** Most people who hate Sol. Of course, it's not a crime to hate Sol; These people are entitled to their own opinions, but most of them either hate him becaue he's "stupid" (which he clearly [[ManipulativeBastard isn't]].) or because he's trying to get get the Clans to stop following [=StarClan=]. He does take this [[MagnificentBastard too far]], but most people seem to be more against the fact that he doesn't like [=StarClan=] than his methods (Some also claim that he doesn't believe in [=StarClan=] which, though not a very egregious error, is still incorrect). They make it seem like [=StarClan=] is the most important thing ''ever'', and their word should be followed rigidly, which means that most of them are completely forgetting that [=StarClan=] themselves have been telling us for the ''longest time'' that they do not hold all the answers, and that the cats are essentially masters of their own destinies. They essentially only exist to [[TheWatcher watch]] over them and give out warnings.
** Also, the warrior code, though very important, does not represent universal moral standards (You would think that [[spoiler:[[LawfulStupid Hollyleaf]]'s FaceHeelTurn]] would bring this into perspective, but no, no it apparantly hasn't).
** Fans have somehow managed to take the series's message about racial tolerance and acceptance and get "Racism is Good".
*** [[http://www.warriorswish.net/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=10169 It's not racism.]]
**** No, but it ''symbolizes'' racism nonetheless. That thread is an epitome of MisaimedFandom and CompletelyMissingThePoint.
**** Also, racism or not, the books are still ''very'' clearly against discrimination based on blood.
* J.K. Rowling, author of the ''HarryPotter'' series, has frequently bemoaned the vocal fanbases of [[DracoInLeatherPants Draco Malfoy]], Severus Snape, and the Harry/Hermione pairing. Not to mention a certain segment of the fandom that treats being pureblood as better - CompletelyMissingThePoint.
* Descriptions of the Illuminati in ''AngelsAndDemons'' make them sound like they're a MisaimedFandom of ''science'', dogmatically and intolerantly plotting against the Catholic Church for being dogmatic and intolerant. Apparently, believing in Science means you ''never'' subject the antiquated grudges of your own secret society to the same critical scrutiny as you do, the workings of the physical universe. Subverted in that [[spoiler: it's not really scientists who are behind the plot, so the above view only illustrates how the real villain ''thinks'' science's advocates would think.]]
** Just to confuse things further, reviewers' unwillingness to include spoilers when they discuss the plot tends to conceal the subversion from potential audiences, causing many people ''who never even read/saw it'' to assume that DanBrown [[spoiler: is bashing Science this time]]. Can you have a MisaimedFandom of people who never actually read what they've misinterpreted?
*** Given how many people who protest books have clearly never read them, {{This Troper}} submits that yes, yes you can.
* Lewis Carrol's ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky Jabberwocky]]'' was intended as a parody as how not to write a poem, and also to make fun of pretentious poetry. Now, however, it is used for serious study among scholars, the exact people it was making fun of.
* John Milton's ''ParadiseLost'' has Satan as its protagonist, but ''not'' its hero. A lot of people couldn't tell the difference, hence William Blake's famous quote about Milton being "of the devil's party without knowing it." It's also worth mentioning that Philip Pullman, the extremely anti-religious man that he is, loves this book (having missed the iron of the VillainProtagonist), to the point of naming the ''HisDarkMaterials'' series after quotes from it.
** Ever since Stanley Fish's ''Surprised by Sin'' forty years ago, the popular academic argument is that Milton was subverting this trope. Under this theory, the reader is ''supposed'' to sympathize with Satan early on, and then be surprised to find out later in the poem that Satan really is evil and was lying all along. In a way, then, the reader symbolically re-enacts the Fall, and is forced to accept that they, too, have evil in them.
*Bret Easton Ellis's "American Psycho" was written as a satire of the masochistic culture of the '80's, yet was subjected to massive protests by feminist groups due to violent scenes against women. Too many people read the book for what was written and not what it was saying.
** To add to the irony, in the [[AmericanPsycho film version]], the title charcter was played by none other than [[ChristianBale Gloria Steinem's stepson]]!
*Pretty much everything Robert Burns ever wrote. He was trying to impress English gentry, using "quaint" Scots language as a gimmick. The gentry did not care. A whole lot of native Scots speakers, however, were delighted, and Celtic Scots continue to be his main fanbase.
* Go to author Sinclair Lewis' hometown of Sauk Centre, Minnesota sometime. In addition to the Sinclair Lewis Interpretive Center, his grave site, and the Gopher Prairie Motel, the high school's sports teams are called The Main Streeters. Fact is, Sinclair Lewis '''''hated''''' his hometown, and his books ('''''especially''''' ''MainStreet'')are pull-no-punches scathing indictments of the hypocrisy of the "Minnesota Nice" he saw in the allegedly "nice little towns" that dot rural Minnesota.
* [[AgathaChristie Agatha Christie]] unintentionally succeeded in making some of her most despicable murderers in [[Literature/AndThenThereWereNone And Then There Were None]] (such as, oh, the [[spoiler: child-killing]] [[{{Yandere}} Yandere]], or [[{{Darwinist}} the anti-semetic Darwinist]]) the most sympathetic characters in her fandom, if the art work based on said characters (and fanfiction) is any indication. Of course, [[YourMileageMayVary your mileage may vary on just how truly 'sympathetic' they are.]]
** Then again, it's often a trademark of Agatha Christie to give each of her murderers [[SympatheticMurderer varying degrees of sympathy,]] so it's entirely possibly she made said characters morally ambiguous on ''purpose'' to let the reader be the judge for themselves.
* Partially because of the [[AdaptationDisplacement greater popularity and fame]] of the [[TheMovie film adaptation]] of Ken Kesey's ''OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', which [[AdaptationDecay boiled down]] the story into being a battle exclusively between Randle Mc-Murphy and Nurse Ratched, a number of people argued about Ratched and Mc-Murphy as characters. Kesey even [[WordOfGod pointed out]] that having a hatedom for [[BattleaxeNurse Ratched]] herself (and debating a possible backstory to round out the character) was pointless. She is just supposed to be representative of the kind of repressive, conformist society bent on "fixing" people that would create a person like her in the first place and put her in a position of power.
*There is a growing number of slash fanfic based on Ayn Rand's books. Rand was such a homophobe that she's probably spinning in her grave.
*The ''LeftBehind'' books. The main characters are total stuck-up jerks, and pretty much any character you're supposed to hate ends up looking sympathetic. Hattie, the flight attendant who ends up unknowingly working for the Antichrist? You're supposed to look down on her and feel that she deserves her inevitable fate, but it's hard not to feel sorry for her. Buck's boss, who fires him for acting like a jerk after he didn't work on his biggest, most important story? ([[spoiler:Actually, he did, but everyone was brainwashed into not knowing Buck was there.]]) Buck acts like a brat and mocks her, earning laughter from his co-workers. It's hard not to imagine that they're actually laughing -at- him rather than -with- him, but the authors seem to think otherwise. Seriously, you know you've failed as an author if the characters who everyone is supposed to hate end up being the most likable. Plus, the main characters [[HardyBoysInvestigation do nothing to actively affect the plot]]. And we're supposed to like -them-??
** FridgeBrilliance! The books are basically recounting the Apocalypse according to St. John, chapter and verse. It's portrayed as a time when evil is at its greatest height; everyone who's good ([[{{Anvilicious}} being significantly more Protestants than Catholics]]) is lifted body and soul into Heaven by God at the start of the series. Stands to reason only assholes have been [[IncrediblyLamePun left behind]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* Alf Garnett (''Til Death Do Us Part'') and [[AllInTheFamily Archie Bunker]] often got flak for this. The characters' bigotry was used to demonstrate why prejudice is bad; unfortunately, the people who needed to learn this most didn't understand it. The writers, especially on ''All In The Family'', weren't eager to court controversy by making their main characters genuinely ''bigoted'' -- and so Archie came across as stubborn and ignorant instead of vicious and hateful, and the audience's sympathies turned against [[AuthorAvatar annoying author-proxy]] Meathead. And even then, Archie himself became more sympathetic in later seasons, since Mike and Gloria both moved on and the show focused solely on Archie and Edith (and eventually, [[CousinOliver that kid they adopted]]).
** I suppose Carroll O'Connor (a non-prejudiced, Irish Catholic liberal all of his life) was made aware of this in TheSeventies, and filmed this 1979 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3HBR4r9r-g PSA]] for B'Nai Brith to fight this MisaimedFandom and its detrimental effects.
** Though to be fair, we weren't really supposed to sympathize with Meathead, either. It becomes faily obvious after a while that his patronizing brand of liberalism is just as bad, if not worse than Archie's old-fashioned bigotry.
* Essentially the same applies to [[MarriedWithChildren Al Bundy]], with the added bonus of his being a supposedly UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist. A good cause of this is the fact that often, [[TheChewToy the universe would go out of it's way to screw him over]], even when he ''didn't'' deserve it.
* ''Nathan Barley'' was intended as a satire of surrealism-loving internet trendies, but in the end that was the group that most enjoyed the show. Nathan Barley himself made his debut on TVGoHome as the eponymous star of a fictional series entitled "Cunt".
** As the name implies, Nathan Barley's portrayal in ''Cunt'' was much harsher than his portrayal in the later show. Viewers remarked that the character was not particularly hateful, perhaps even a bit loveable, and he ended up too sympathetic to offend the people he was based on.
*** The "idiots" embracing Dan Ashcroft as their preacherman: a bit of misaimed fandom within the show.
* Part of the premise of ''Jimmy [=MacDonald=]'s Canada'' was the within-show application of this trope. Between segments, we'd see clips of either 'ordinary Canadians' or Canadian icons like then-Prime Minister Paul Martin, Don Cherry, Joe Clarke, or Paul Henderson discussing how erudite, politically savvy and influential Jimmy was, in keeping with the {{Mockumentary}} tone. Then we'd return to the actual show, where Jimmy would be spewing hatred against Automatic Teller Machines, TheBeatles, or [[TheNewRockAndRoll whatever it was this time]].
* An unusual example where the fans praised the writer because they read in ''too much'' satiric intent: modern ''DoctorWho'' series had two episodes featuring [[DeadlyGame Deadly Game Show]] versions of ''BigBrother'' and ''TheWeakestLink'' where losing contestants were slaughtered. Many fans lauded these as brilliant parodies that point out the vapidness of such shows. New series producer RussellTDavies likes these shows, and put that in as a ''[[AffectionateParody tribute]]'' to them.
** Played straight with some fans who have latched on to the Master, particularly his John Simm incarnation, especially where the FoeYay was flowing thick and free; plenty of FanFics featuring the Master tend to treat him as a quirky, slightly sarcastic guy who just wants to hook up with the Doctor. Never mind that he's ''also'' a vicious psychopath who conquers the world, wipes out a tenth of the population, destroys Japan, enslaves the survivors of the human race, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking beats his wife]].
*** Some fans who recognise how evil the John Simm version was now tend to write the Roger Delgado or Anthony Ainley versions as [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains]] simply because they weren't so glaringly AxCrazy and sadistic. This, despite, for example, the Delgado version manipulating Earth's two native sentient species into a genocidal war ''just because the Doctor liked one of them,'' and the Ainley version once (possibly by mistake) ''destroying a third of the universe''. (Apart from that, the new Master didn't exactly win, either.)
* ''[[TheTonightShow The Tonight Show with Jay Leno]]'' tried to subvert this, where Jay tried to prove that he was not a "health nut". There was a running gag when he complained about how ridiculously unhealthy certain new specials that many fast food restaurants serve, usually ending with this exchange:
--> '''Kevin Eubanks:''' How was it, Jay?
--> '''Jay Leno:''' [[HypocriticalHumor Oh, it was delicious!]]
* ''MadMen'' seems to be susceptible to this. While the show's intent is to lay bare the pervasive sexism, racism, classism, and other social inequities of its era, some people seem to be so bedazzled by the nifty-looking vintage clothes, cars, furnishings, and music that they actually have a nostalgic longing for those "good old days".
** To say nothing of the women who love Don Draper...
*The extent of the fandom of Vic Mackey, of ''TheShield'', freaked out Shawn Ryan and the rest of the cast. Especially amongst actual police officers, several of whom actually attempted to justify Vic's murder of fellow detective Terry Crowley by claiming that he was a "rat" and as such, deserved his fate. Needless to say, Shawn Ryan's response was to end the series with the TakeThat to end all Take Thats via having Vic become the dreaded "rat" himself, condemning fan favorite supporting cast member Ronnie Gardocki to living hell of prison when he narced on Ronnie in order to gain full immunity for his own crimes.
**On that matter, the misaimed fandom of the character of Ronnie Gardocki. Even though his final scene spells out to fans why Ronnie is a bad person, most fans pretty much take the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism stance that as bad as he was, he was nowhere near as bad as Vic or Shane were and deserved to get away with his crimes.
* People too young to have seen the original movie (where it was sung) often do not realize that ''[[{{MASH}} M*A*S*H]]'s'' cheery theme song is entitled "{{Suicide is Painless}}," and every verse is about the futility and pain of life, and how suicide looks like a better option all the time. This made it an especially disturbing choice as the theme song for the MASH (Make a Smile Happen) toy drive for underprivileged children. Even more disturbing is the fact that such despair-laiden lyrics were written by a 14 year old.
* David Chase, creator of ''TheSopranos'' has spoken out against the many viewers who would cheer Tony on, stating that he was written to be an unlikable, hypocritical character.
* An in-universe example occurs in [[BlackAdder ''Blackadder's]] [[ChristmasCarol Christmas Carol]]''. The main character, Ebenezer Blackadder, is kind and generous (in contrast to the rest of his family) but everyone always takes advantage of his kindness. On the night before Christmas, the Spirit of Christmas visits Ebenezer to congratulate him for his selflessness via showing him visions of his ancestors (Lord and Edmund Blackadder) in an attempt to show that Ebenezer is better than them. This backfires however, for instead of being disgusted by his ancestors' greed and cruelty he admires their cunning and success. Ultimately, Ebenezer decides that "bad guys have all the fun" and reverts back to the cunningly cruel Blackadder that we all know and enjoy (unfortunately he misses out on his KarmicJackpot for his past good deeds shortly after making his FaceHeelTurn).
** This isn't exactly a case of misaimed fandom. He was shown that by continuing to be generous, he was dooming his descendants to a life of servitude, whereas if he became as greedy as his ancestors, then his descendants would eventually become rulers of the universe. Hard to argue with that when you're shown the outcome of your actions.
* A really disturbing amount of people seem to take "Under Your Spell" in the ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' MusicalEpisode as a sweet love song, choosing not to think about the fact Willow [[MindRape mind raped Tara into forgetting their fight]] and just staying happy.
** The double meaning was very deliberate, and becomes clear later in the episode when Tara sings part of the song again after having found out what Willow did.
***Or maybe they just prefer to ignore Joss and company's love of angst and ruining relationships?
* Subtle in-story example; [[http://www.dm85.com/gallery/d/5281-1/bush-vampire.jpg this poster]], which is a critique of the bush administration and sugesting that Bush is evil by compareing him to a vampire sucking the life out of Liberty, was hanging on the wall of Fangtasia, a vampire bar in TruBlood.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]

*Even perfectly intelligent and perceptive people often simply can't ''make out'' very many of the words in the music they listen to. They're lucky if they can get the choruses right. So in the music world, MisaimedFandom is not restricted to [[StealthParody Stealth Parodies]]. It can affect anybody at any time.
**(If you [[SeriousBusiness cue up a song at a wedding]] without looking up the lyrics, [[{{Narm}} that's still on you]].)
* Gangsta Rap- Originally the genre focused on shining the light on the harsh world in the inner city, with the lyrics often condemning social ills such as crime and police brutality. Unfortunately, once it became popular, it morphed into a genre that glorified violence, gang life, crime, and murder with a healthy dose of misogyny and homophobia tossed in as well. It doesn't help that many of the present rappers were ''[[RunningTheAsylum part]]'' of the misaimed fandom.
* On the topic of "love" songs, people dedicate [[CoveredUp Whitney Houston's]] "I Will Always Love You" to their loved ones. Either they realize that the song is about leaving somebody, or they don't. Either way, it makes the annoying wail almost bearable.
** Compare/Contrast Whitney's version with the original sung by Dolly Parton. Dolly sings it as a woman who's resigned to her fate, but will never let the flame die out. Whitney's version comes off a woman desperately trying to keep the man, as if the song will make the man see the error of his ways and come back to her.
* Also on the topic of love songs, "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails (colloquially known as the "fuck-you-like-an-animal song") is considered, by some of its listeners, to be a wonderfully hot and sexy love song. Yet the lyrics are very, very clearly about a psychological wreck of a man using sex as an escape from his own self-loathing. Romantic, huh?
* For an opposite mistake, ''Time To Say Goodbye'' is not a parting song; the two lovers are not saying goodbye to each other, they are leaving together (as indicated by the original Italian title, ''Con te partiro'' - "I will leave with you").
* The Jonas Brothers covered Weezer's "My Name Is Jonas" live because of '''the title''' alone. Considering how different the lyrics are from their usual boy band bilge....
*[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zT3LzXzhJo This song is not about a cult...]]
** It's about drugs... [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible we think.]]
** Only indirectly. WordOfGod is that "Hotel California" is about being famous and living the high life in LosAngeles, which, yes, sometimes includes drugs. Many celebrities do burn out, go crazy, die young, or end up with their lives ruined for any number of other reasons.
* R.E.M.'s "The One I Love" appears to be a straightforward love song ("This one goes out to the one I love") but the idea that the one I love is "a simple prop to occupy my time" and is ultimately replaced by "another prop" is usually lost between the choruses.
** R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People" has suffered a similar fate, though unlike "The One I Love", the band itself acknowledges the utter fail of the song on every conceivable level as far as their song mocking Chinese communist propoganda, which bragged that Communist China was full of "shiny happy people", came off in execution as a happy pop song about... well, shiny happy people holding hands. Hence the band pretty much going above and beyond to pretend that the song never exists.
* Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" is seen by many as a Reagan-era patriotic anthem -- that is, by people who only ever listen to the chorus. As the verses make abundantly clear it is about Vietnam veterans who were perceived as unemployable, and the anthemic chorus is meant to be bitter and satirical. The Reagan administration even approached Springsteen to endorse Ronnie in the 1984 elections -- Springsteen, a staunch liberal, refused.
* Along the same lines as the above, Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" is often thought of as a patriotic celebration of life in the free world. However, the lyrics pointedly critique the socioeconomic state of America circa George H. W. Bush's presidency, addressing topics such as homelessness and drug addiction.
** Another similar example: "Democracy" by Leonard Cohen.
* PearlJam's "Betterman" is a song about a woman rationalizing her place in an abusive relationship. And yet, at any given concert performance, you can see couples lovingly singing it to one another; on at least one occasion, a man proposed to his girlfriend during the song with the lyrics "She lies and says she's in love with him". That is both horrible and hysterical.
* The ''de facto'' Aussie patriotic song, "Down Under" by Men At Work. Apparently, the band sang the song as an attack on the exploitation of the continent. However, people tend to imagine that it's about the world travels of an Australian who is proud of his nationality and attracting the attention of people interested in it.
** The music video clears a few things up, with the last scene being a funeral for the country's natural beauty.
* While we're on misaimed Aussie patriotism, Cold Chisel's "Khe Sanh", about a Vietnam veteran who can't handle returning to civilian life, became a patriotic anthem. The Australian cricket team's adoption of the song may factor into this.
** The Aussie cricket team are indeed known for choosing songs with fairly inappropriate or unrelated lyrics.
** Then again, hating the damn government is considered to be an Australian cultural trait. Therefore, when sung as a song that sympathises with this hard-done-by veteran, it becomes a celebration of Australi'''ans''' (as opposed to Australi'''a''') and in an odd way becomes patriotic. That's my reasoning for it, anyway.
*** As an American, that makes sense to me. Much more sense than our adopting the Bruce Springstein example above.
* And even ''more'' misaimed Aussie patriotism (seems to be common) with the song ''Waltzing Matilda''. It's so famous and well-loved that some people push for it to be Australia's national anthem, and was again adopted by Australian cricket. Except that if one were to glance at the lyrics, they'd discover that the song was about a bushman who stole a sheep and then committed suicide in a lake to escape capture.
** Actually, Aussies usually ''do'' know what that song is about; we just tend to push for it as the new national anthem because our actual national anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", is a horrible faux-British dirge.
* Similarly, even though "Born to Run" is about how badly the main character wants to get out of the New Jersey town he grew up in, lots of rabid Springsteen fans want to make it the official state song... [[TakeThatUs Which could be why it's the perfect choice!]]
* The Beastie Boys song "Fight For Your Right To Party" was loved by the very people the song was making fun of. The band flat-out refuses to play the song live anymore.
* Marylin Manson's "This is the new shit" is very similar in intent. And practically the same in the the foreseeable results.
* DD Smash's "Bliss" was a pub-singalong-sounding savaging of the New Zealand drinking culture: "Sink yourself more bliss/Forget about the last one/Have yourself another". But picked up as an anthem by that very same culture. Its author, Dave Dobbyn, was horrified when the requests for it started coming in at concerts.
** ItGotWorse. ThisTroper's class sang it for an inter-class choir competition at high school.
* Steriogram's "Walkie-Talkie Man" is a favourite among the employees of at least one security firm; probably, however, this is while simultaneously recognising the satire.
* Gwar's ''War Party'' was taken to be supportive of the Republican war effort. Did anybody even ''listen'' to the lyrics? Perhaps thanks to Gwar's typically pro-war kill-everything-that-moves stage theatrics, the song title and chorus was taken to mean the obvious. "Born in the USA" for the new generation.
* A [[NewMediaAreEvil massive smear campaign by news programs and tv-shows]] painted a picture of the punk scene (and especially the hardcore punk scene) in the late 70's-early 80's as being filled with violent delinquents who fight at the shows. This campaign ended up inspiring violent delinquents to attend punk concerts and then fight at the shows.
** One specific band, the Dead Kennedys, suffered badly at first, as they were thought to be a neo-Nazi band for their songs "Kill The Poor" and "California Über Alles" (both highly satirical), which drew crowds of Nazi punks to their gigs. Then they made the rather blunt song "Nazi Punks F**k Off".
* The song "Yankee Doodle" was originally a virulent insult flung at the American rebels by British Redcoats that made implications of stupidity, faux-foppishness ("macaroni" referred to a particularly extravagant style of dress), and, according to some sources, homosexuality about its targets. The American soldiers took it up as an anthem and a great big "Fuck You" to the British, basically telling them, "We revel in your insults." Over time, the song has lost a lot of its bite, and it's now thought of as a genuinely patriotic song.
** Not a musical version but the same thing happened when Rommel's men called the Aussie diggers the "Rats of Tobruk"
** This could cover a fair number of these examples. Someone makes fun of you? Just show them how little you care by living up to their every insult. It can be hard to tell sometimes, however.
* The StoneTemplePilots song "Sex Type Thing" was interpreted as sexy or edgy by some, when it was intended to ironically represent the typical attitude of a rapist.
* {{Madonna}}'s "Material Girl" was a sarcastic jab at consumerism; but it was interpreted by many as a fun, happy-go-lucky celebration of material luxuries. When BritneySpears covered the song in concert, she was criticized for [[IsntItIronic not understanding that the song was intended to be ironic]]. Of course, it's another question how serious you can take a singer who became one of the richest women in the world if she condemns consumerism (Madonna, not Britney).
** The video for "Material Girl" is largely to blame for the song's MisaimedFandom; while the video itself makes a point to stick to the meaning of the song (in terms of showing Madonna's character being in love with a poor slob with a crappy car), the only part most people remember is the "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" homage that makes up the bulk of the video.
** One place that uses it right: ''EliteBeatAgents'', where it plays over a pair of RichBitch sisters flirting their way around and off a deserted island. If the Hawaiian shirt is any indication, Commander Khan doesn't seem to be that concerned about them.
* Tim Robbins only averted this with the soundtrack to ''BobRoberts'' by declining to release it.
*"The Freshmen", from The Verve Pipe, was a popular (and overplayed) song. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLBwCwukQHc Take a listen to the lyrics]] and be baffled. Bonus: In the introduction of this performance, the lead singer ''says'' he wanted to write the most deeply upsetting song possible. Ironically, people loved it ''because'' of how twisted it was.
* Some cricket fans have adopted 10cc's ''Dreadlock Holiday'' as an anthem because it includes the lyrics "I don't like cricket, oh no / I love it!" -- this when, in context, the song's narrator is clearly only saying this in a vain attempt to ingratiate himself with a gang of thugs who are intending to ''beat him up and mug him'' on his holidays in Jamaica. It's used on cricket shows regularly now.
* Third Eye Blind's hit single "Semi-Charmed Life" caught on as an anthem for drug-addicted college-folk due to the quick tempo and catchy lyrics even though the song dealt entirely with the ''negative'' repercussions of the behavior the main fans of the song were engaging in. This may have been because the verse dealing most explicitly with drugs was cut in most radio versions and the word "crystal meth" was often bleeped. One time the MoralGuardians messed up majorly...
* Austrian singer Falco's (RIP) song "Jeanny" is usually mistaken as a love song. Its lyrics depict the insanity of a serial rapist and killer stalking his soon-to-be next victim.
* Tracey Chapman's "Fast Car" often gets played a lot due to ITS chorus, which tells of a couple driving in their car at night as a form of entertainment to distract them from their poor lot in life. Sadly, most people ignore the rest of the lyrics, which tells of a collapsing relationship, which ends with the woman ultimately ending the relationship before it destroys her love for her boyfriend.
* The TomWaits song "Poor Edward" (a song about a a guy with a woman's face on the back of his head that he refers to as his "devil twin"), is usually taken to be an allegory about a marriage falling apart. In reality; it's a song about a guy with a woman's face on the back of his head that he refers to as his "devil twin". I am not making this up, and neither is Tom -- [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Mordrake Edward Mordrake]] was the "Poor Edward" in question.
* Marks&Spencer had a disturbing Christmas commercial with a children's choir singing "Falling In Love Again" from the film ''The Blue Angel.'' Most people don't realize the full implications of the song. The original song is "what ''BlazingSaddles'' was parodying with "I'm Tired" - a song sung from the perspective of a jaded seductress about how so many men destroy themselves out of desire for her. (Come to think of it, that sort of song is appropriate for a corporation...)
* Lou Reed, best known as the frontman of the Velvet Underground, has expressed that he was horrified when people told him that they were shooting up to the song 'Heroin'. Of course, it's mostly ambiguous, but...
** [[OrSoIHeard Allegedly]], while attending an AA meeting in the early 80s, Lou had a man come up to him, asking "How dare you be here? You're the reason I tried smack in the first place."
* Alan Jackson's 1994 hit song ''Gone Country'' provided a satirical commentary on the state of country music, describing three pop/folk musicians who, after finding their careers to be waning, decide to feign being country in order to try their hand in the then-booming country music industry. However, most people don't pick up on this (or only listen to the chorus), and interpret the song to be a fun country pride song, to such a point that it has become a strangely popular choice for radio stations to play as their first song after changing to a country format. Ironically, the song's message is equally relevant today, with pop artists such as Jessica Simpson defecting to country.
** This has led to the kind of country Jackson represents being a tiny minority. Most country these days is pop music with a cowboy hat. Even Jackson is as close to pop as he is to George Jones.
* Death Cab for Cutie's song "I Will Possess Your Heart" also has the LyricalDissonance thing going on; it's got an upbeat, pleasant sound, but it's another StalkerWithACrush song.
** Many of Death Cab's "love songs" have a somewhat stalkerish tone, or at the very least contain examples of things to never, ever tell a significant other.
*** "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" -- suicide pact, or bittersweet musing on the transience of mortal love? (I'm thinking both.)
* Vanessa Carlton's song "[[http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=BsEeV5rb-2I Twilight]]" is not about [[{{Twilight}} Edward or Bella or anything that has to do with Stephenie Meyer's books]], especially since she wrote the song ''before'' those books came out. Don't even bother looking at all the comments. Likewise, neither is anything by {{Music/Muse}}.
* Schools have been known to use the song "Mad World" at the end of segment about drunk drivings. [[ScareEmStraight Inappropriate much]]?
* In a very extreme example, several Neo-Nazi bands have covered the song "Tomorrow Belongs To Me," ostensibly a Nazi anthem about the beauty of their coming master-race run world. The thing is, the song was written by John Kander and Fred Ebb (both of them Jewish) for the musical ''Cabaret'', and it's intended in the show and subsequent film as a chilling example of the rise of Nazism and its terrible pull on the German people. Seems they did their job a little ''too'' well.
* Something weird happened with Colombian singer Juanes' hit "La Camisa Negra", which is a break-up song from the point of view of a very resentful man; after a nasty breakup he wears black to mourn the death of his love feelings, as a symbol of his "black soul". But because the title can be translated literally as "The BlackShirt", it was adopted as an hymn of sorts by neo-fascist groups in Italy and other countries. Juanes was not happy about this appropiation.
* Pink Floyd's "Money" sometimes gets used by the Future Business Leaders of America at club fairs. Seeing a bunch of business majors in suits sitting around while it is loudly declared that "Money/It's a crime" is amusing beyond reckoning.
* Musician Volitaire's song ''So Easy When You're Evil'', an obvious satire of [[CardCarryingVillain Card Carrying Villains]], has actually been taken seriously by some people as a song advocating that EvilIsCool.
* TheThe's song ''This is the Day'', which has an upbeat tune and a chorus that says "This is the day your life will surely change, this is the day when things fall into place" is often used as an anthem of determination to fix one's bad circumstances. This is in complete ignorance to the verses, which describe someone with a wasted existence, who tells himself every day that his life will change but never actualy does anything about it. LyricalDissonance is a common trope of TheThe songs.
* TheResidents' album ''Duck Stab!'' was intended to prove to the public that even if they recorded some shorter, "poppier" sounding songs, it would still be unpopular. People loved it. In fact, it's one of the group's most popular recordings.
** And thus SpringtimeForHitler and Misaimed Fandom are finally connected.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axpuVLQ_m4w Brick]] by Ben Folds' Five is written like a melancholy love ballad, and most people tend to think of it as such. However, on listening to the lyrics you find out it's a melancholy ballad about taking your girlfriend to get an abortion.
* Nobody seems to realize that Woody Guthrie meant for ''This Land Is Your Land'' to be a socialist anthem.
* Many fans in the western side of the world inexplicably fail to realize that HelloProject fandom is meant to include both ninth-grade girls ''and college-age '''guys'''''.
* Clay Aiken's first hit single ''Invisible'', is a creepy stalker song. It seems pretty damn obvious with lyrics like "If I was invisible/Then I could just watch you in your room", but...
** Well, Desmond Child wrote it... And fans don't seem to care.
* Soundgarden's song "Big Dumb Sex" was a StealthParody of the glam metal scene at the time, but many hair bands and their fans took a liking to the song without realizing what it was about. GunsNRoses even did a cover of it.
* Carly Simon doesn't seem to know what her own song is about. She addresses a vain lover saying "I bet you think this song is about you, don't you, don't you." ...that's because it IS about him. What the hell is your point? This could make her a Misaimed Artist.
** Uh, the ''point'' is that the identity of the lover is left ambiguous (it's not like she's only ever had one lover in her life), and that the person she's talking about would be vain enough to think that she wrote a song about him. Carly Simon herself has kept her lips sealed on whom it's supposed to refer to, but given that the most sensible theory is that it's really an amalgamation of several boyfriends she's had, and that several male celebrities have claimed to be the subject of the song, it's not a bad commentary on that type of narcissistic psyche. SoYeah.
* Australian pub rock band The Angels are now reluctant to play their popular song "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again". Fans screaming "No way, get f***ed, f*** off!" during the song probably aren't aware that the song is about a friend with a terminal illness.
* Billy Idol's 'White Wedding' gets played at a number of weddings, despite the fact that it is intended to be a protest against his little sister having a shotgun wedding with her babydaddy.
* Apparently some people think that the ScreechingWeasel song "The Science Of Myth" is a great TakeThat to Christianity. It's actually about taking elements from science and from theology and respecting that both fields of study are valuable and important to humanity. Ironically one of the few ScreechingWeasel songs that ''isn't'' just a TakeThat of extreme sarcasm, then.
* ''The Toadies'' may also have an accidental fandom among Goths & Vamps since several of their songs could be taken to be refer to vampirism. How accidental this is [[http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/36532/ is still a subject of debate]] but the band itself doesn't present itself as a gothic band.
** ''Tyler'' is definitely about a man breaking into a woman's house so he can "be with her tonight", though whether or not he is a blood-drinker or a murderer/rapist may depend upon how you feel about vampires being able to enjoy a beer.
** ''POSSUM Kingdom'', with ITS mention of a "dark secret" is either about a serial killer attacking a woman at a North Texas lake with that name or a vampire revealing himself to a woman violently before offering to make her a vampire as well.
** ''Away'' can be taken as being about a vampire's invitation of hospitality to a mortal friend. ("If I'm out hunting - Come right on in, yeah. - And even when I'm gone, -My doors are always open.")
* GreenDay's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" is very commonly heard at weddings, graduations, and other important ceremonies. But the song was written when Billie Joe Armstrong was breaking up with his girlfriend. So the song is a break-up song, but is used to denote love. This confusion is likely due to the lyrics (which by themselves do not express the intended meaning very well) and the predictable habit of radio stations of calling the song "Time of Your Life," since the "actual" title does not appear in the lyrics. WordOfGod is that the song was meant to be bittersweet, not sarcastic.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyl5DlrsU90 "Frankie says 'Relax'"]].
* {{U2}}'s ''One'' is often played at weddings. Edge apparently gets rather pissed off about this.
** Its quite hard to tell if the fact that it was the first song played at Cyclops and Jean Grey's meant Marvel writers were part of the MisaimedFandom, or were aware enough for a subtle TakeThat against the relationship.
** Also from U2, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is very frequently taken to be a rebel anthem in support of the cause of the IRA. In reality, it's a '[[ShoutOutToShakespeare plague on both your houses]]' song. Perhaps the most famous live performance of it was [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9c4lLnY0rA a 1987 American concert]] that took place mere hours after a bomb had gone off in Enniskillen and slain 11 civilians. Bono stopped midway through to deliver a moving speech declaring "fuck the revolution". He would later go on to enthusiastically campaign for the Good Friday agreement, including hosting the only public meeting of the main Catholic and Protestant leaders, at a concert rally.
* Repeat it with me, "I'm On a Boat" is a parody. Observe: over-the-top cursing, simple reptition of lyrics, catchy hook, pointless inclusion of T-Pain, and the fact that it was created by the comedy troupe TheLonelyIsland and shown on SNL, and the ''words''. "Gonna fly this boat to the moon somehow..." This hasn't stopped people from not realizing that it's not actually another rap song about how glamourous life is when you're a rapper. The fact that it was made by the same writers of "Dick in a Box" and "Jizz in My Pants" should be the first clue.
* Like ''I Will Always Love You'' and ''Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)'', ''Every Breath You Take'' by The Police is often played as a ballad of love, when in fact it's anything but. Sting wrote it after a guy [[StalkerWithACrush was stalking his wife]] to show the fine line between love and obsession.
* Merle Haggard's 1969 song ''Okie from Muskogee'' became something of an anthem for Middle Americans, people, who were opposed to student protest, hippie lifestyle and such. It was intended as a satire of those views.
* Korn's ''Camel Song'' isn't about camels at all.
* Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good" is actually a satire.
* ''Where the Wild Roses Grow'' is apparently a popular choice for slow dancing. *HEADDESK*
* ''Walking on the Sun'' by Smash Mouth is often used in commercials for items like cars. Marketers apparently assume that the band really intended to urge people not to delay, and to act now. Hilarious how it's seen as an upbeat anthem to capitalism, no?
* Lordi, after partaking in the Eurovision Song Contest. ESC-viewers love their freakshow (relative to the usual ESC-fare) contestants.
* The song ''Next Best Superstar'' was actually used in the German edition of ''Pop Idol''.
* The famous 80's anthem "I'm Too Sexy" was meant to be a parody of the vanity found amongst bodybuilders and models. The song subsequently went on to become a very popular song amongst bodybuilders and models, and to this day, is regularly played at gyms and fashion-shows. Whether it's done tongue-in-cheek or seriously is [[YourMileageMayVary for you to decide]].
*The song, "Independence Day" by Martina [=McBride=] is a song about domestic violence. The protagonist/battered woman is abused by her husband. To protect her life as well as the life of her child, she kills the husband by burning the house down. Yet, for some odd reason (e.g. not listening at all to the lyrics), the song is played during Fourth of July/Independence Day festivals/activities. Odd!
** Actually she kills herself as well as her husband. Her pride wouldn't let her walk away from her marriage vows but she gambles that her daughter will have a better life without the both of them.
** Thinking of the lyrics now, the fact that this song serves as the intro for the Sean Hannity radio program suddenly becomes hilarious.
* The song "One Night in Bangkok" has nothing to do with prostitution, It's about a chess game!
** It's about Freddie's lack of interest in prostitution, tourism and other such things. He's only in Bangkok to report on the World Chess Championships.
*The song ''Beautiful Day'' by English folk-punk band The Levellers is sometimes used in commercials to convey a cheerful tone, the producers apparently having looked no further than the first line of the chorus to realise that the song discusses political revolution, is peppered with references to historical revolutionaries or that the "beautiful day" in question being the one on which "Wealth redistribution/Became the new solution".
*In what is either an utterly absurd example of this trope or the most brilliant of subversions, the Marilyn Manson song ''Beautiful People'' was once played over commercials for ''America's Next Top Model'' on British television.
*The Talking Heads song ''Life During Wartime'' was considered an anti-disco song for the lyric "This ain't no disco", despite the fact that the song is quite danceable, and the members of the band were fans of disco music. The song is actually about hypothetical guerilla warfare in the United States.
*Jill Sobule's song Soldiers of Christ is a savage deconstruction of the modern Christian intolerance, and anyone who knows more than one of her songs (she's an open bisexual atheist) would realize this. However, the song has been played in churches without a hint of irony.
*{{Radiohead}}'s song "Nude" is often taken to be some sort of love song or ballad, by people who a) don't actually listen to the lyrics of songs and b) have never heard of LyricalDissonance. In reality, it's almost definitely about ''masturbation'' (or at the very least, adultery). It's still a very elegant song about how the physical pleasure derived from such acts does not equate to emotional pleasure, but it's definitely not a love song.
*I Hate Myself was a Florida emocore band of the mid-90s, playing a style of music that, while having no similarity to today bastardized use of the term Emo or EmoTeens, still relied on angsty and vague lyrics, pretentious build-up and over the top vocals, including rabid screaming and often even crying. The band played deliberately all these cliches to the max, writing super-angsty lyrics about mundane situations, almost parody-level vocals, refusing to give names to their records besides the number of songs on them to sound "deep", and well, just look at their name. Despite all this, ''no one'' got the joke until about five years after they broke up, and they were praised frequently by fans of the music they were parodying for their emotional and deep music. It is worth noting however that there were serious bands at the time with similar styles, and a type of PoesLaw might be at work.
**Another Florida band of the era, Don Martin 3 released a similar record initially record as an inside joke among the band. No song titles, angsty and psuedo-poetic lyrics and extreme over the top vocals. They did not get the opportunity to re-record however, and the record was released in its joke form. It instantly became regarded as a classic among fans of the style and today is frequently referenced as the epitome as emotional hardcore of the mid-90s.
* People enjoy the catchy opening riff of Jethro Tull's ''Aqualung'', and maybe even sing "Sitting on a park bench!...", without actually listening to rest of the song's lyrics about a homeless pedophile dying of hypothermia.
** Another of Tull's songs, "Bungle in the Jungle" is often taken at face value as being about the everyday struggles of jungle creatues, when it is actually an allegory of the Vietnam War.
*** One last Tull: after ''Aqualung'' was praised as a "concept album" (whih Tull never intended it to be), Tull decided to write the 45-minute "epic poem" ''Thick as a Brick'' as a ''parody'' of concept albums. Many took it seriously (it outsold ''Aqualung'', and was the band's first #1 album in the States), so Tull decided to do an actual concept album, ''A Passion Play'', which while successful in the States (another #1 seller), didn't sell as well in the UK (peaking at #12).
*As Kurt Cobain wrote in the liner notes for {{Nirvana}}'s ''Incesticide'': "Last year, a girl was raped by two wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song 'Polly.' I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience."
* Acording to frontman Devin Townsend, the majority of Strapping Young Lad fans don't like the bands music for the reason they're supposed to. To quote Devin: "When we did Ozzfest I remember thinking that Strapping Young Lad started as the giant middle finger, and then suddenly there were people saying ‘Yeah! Tell us we’re assholes!"
* During the 2005 German federal election, future chancellor Angela Merkel's party attempted (and failed) to obtain the rights to use {{the Rolling Stones}} song "Angie" as the official song for her campaign. Considering that the song features lines like "But angie, angie, aint it time we said good-bye?", the Stones probably did them a favour by denying them the rights.
* TheVillagePeople's ''In The Navy'' was for a time [[WaitWhatWhoa under consideration by the U.S. Navy to become its theme song]]. When you compare it to their [[HoYay "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"]] policy about homosexuality... SoYeah. I guess somone actually read the lyrics, or went to a show, or saw a poster, or asked their kids... or something. Either way they came to their senses and opted against it. [[HilarityEnsues Too bad.]]
* T.I.S.M's "Old man river" has fans amounst the drug addled set for its chorus of "I'm on the drug that killed River Phenox". Dispite the song being about socities additive dependence on heros and celebrities.
* Venom, a British speed metal band from the mid-80s who for all intents invented extreme metal as we now know it, had an over-the-top Satanic image and lyrics about death, Hell, Satan and evil. Their sound influenced a great number of musicians from the early Norwegian black metal scene (the name of the genre is in fact derived from Venom's second album), specifically Euronymous of the band Mayhem, who got the name of the band from Venom's song "Mayhem With Mercy". The thing is, Euronymous and the like thought the band were actually ''serious'' about the whole Satanic thing, when of course they were anything but, and after a lot of the people involved in the scene started burning down churches and murdering each other, Cronos, Venom's bassist, started making a concerted effort to distance the band from that particular scene.
* Worst thing that can happen to a music is an international adaptation. Some Brazilian adaptations took the melody and adapted into musics that meant something very different. An [[TVTropesDrinkingGame egregious]] example is when singer Kelly Key made a version for Barbie Girl, talking about the very same lifestyle the song mocked. And I won't even start to mention the Forró and Country adaptations...
* The song "Song 2" by Blur was created as a mocking parody of the flash-in-the-pan "[[PostGrunge post-grunge]]" music (like Candlebox and Seven Mary Three) popular in the United States at the time. Unfortunatly, the song became wildly popular with the fans of the same genre they were mocking and hence, it became their biggest hit in the country. The fact that alternative rock radio - then beginning its split between more "indie rock" leaning stations and the [[PostGrunge post-grunge]]/[[NuMetal nu metal]] stations - picked up the song and played it to death didn't help things much.
** It didn't help that all of the band's other big hits in America sound nothing like the sound they're known for in the rest of the world and instead are either their hardest ("Crazy Beat") or danciest ("There's No Other Way" and "Boys & Girls") songs. The only two songs that sound like the band's actual sound that got any major American rock radio airplay were "Chemical World" and "Coffee & TV" and neither at the level of the other four songs mentioned.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_FGmq-4LQ4 Chipz- Captain hook]]
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Darby Conley's ''GetFuzzy'' has attracted a moderately sized vegan high school and collegiate fanbase due to numerous appearances of {{PeTA}} apparel. The catch? Bucky uses PETA as a shield for misbehaving under the guise of a revolt against whatever stick is up his butt during that installment, while Satchel is too dumb to know what they're really all about. This isn't official support from the organization - just many younger members without enough English courses under their belt to recognize the mockery of their hijinks. (And maybe a few who don't care.) Will usually occur in forums, blogs, journals, or news commentary box debates.
* [[BloomCounty Berke Breathed]] used to complain that, no matter how unsympathetic he made [[TheLeisureSuitLarry Steve Dallas]] seem in ''The Academia Waltz'', many University of Texas students couldn't help but LOVE the character.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Believe it or not, the ''"Wooo!"'' sound that accompanies Knife-Edge Chops in Professional Wrestling were also derogatory in nature (at first, anyway). They were made famous by [[ProfessionalWrestling "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair]], an enemy of "The Franchise" Shane Douglas, {{ECW}} mainstay. He would often imitate Ric Flair's famous ''"Wooo!"'' after landing a chop, and soon the entire ECW crowd would join in; ECW at that time strongly hated the old style of wrestling companies like NWA and WWF were putting on at the time. Soon, though, the ''"Wooo!"''s from the crowd lost their original meaning, and even Flair himself sees it as a term of endearment.
** A big reason why the cry became more popular was that, while originally it was to praise the face Shane Douglas, when Douglas turned heel the Woos were a way of ''mocking'' Douglas. However, since that logically meant fans were cheering for Flair instead, people just started doing it for Flair and anyone else who'd throw a chop.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Anytime anyone at all thinks that one of the factions in ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' is "the good guys" (hint: EvilVersusEvil is one of the foundations of the setting). This is almost always directed at the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Tau]], the [[HumansAreBastards Imperium of Man]] (mostly via the [[RedShirtArmy Imperial Guard]]) and/or the [[ManipulativeBastard Eldar]] (and occasionally [[BloodKnight Da Orks]]), probably because their most common enemies routinely perform actions several orders of magnitude worse than anything the previous factions could possibly achieve.
** To get a little more specific: some neo-Nazis think that the Imperium is some kind of post-neo-fascist paradise. *shudder*
** And don't forget the [[FanDumb Eldar fanboys]] who portrait them as the epitome of creation, they seem to have a guided amnesia about the fact the current so-decent-and-good-guys eldars are basically a really small minority of what at a time was a [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel race who rejoiced in debauchery, rape, torture and mutilation and ended being devoured by the Cosmic Horror they created by their acts?]] Oh well, half of the current eldar, the other half is, just to add the adjective ''dark'' doesn't remove the fact they are eldar too, and didn't change their ways. And of course, don't forget [[OurElvesAreBetter their view of ANY other sentient lifeform in the galaxy]], sure, humans can be evil and you should kill them on sight, but all humans? Even human children?
* The ''WorldOfDarkness'' supplement ''The Book of Nod'' was originally a source of stories and a prop for the setting. Imagine the author's surprise when Noddism became a cult. [[FacePalm Palm meet face.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Bertolt Brecht: inventor of Epic Theater, staunch hater of Capitalism, and victim of terrible MisaimedFandom.
** When ''The Threepenny Opera'' first premiered in Berlin in 1928, it was a satirical indictment of the bourgeoisie, although it was wildly popular with this particular social class.
** Similarly, it seems strange how "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" (from said opera) transformed from an eerie depiction of a serial killer/rapist/arsonist/thief to a happy-go-lucky jazz standard. The badass lyrics and neat meter are probably responsible (not to mention how many jazzy singers are linked with the Mafia).
** Another example is the song "What Keeps A Man Alive?", which is a lyrical FreudianExcuse about how poverty leads to savagery in order to survive. On the surface, this would seem to be an opinion a communist like Brecht would agree with, and it is often interpreted this way. However, Brecht actually condemned this attitude, as in practice, it meant that the poor would prey on one another rather than organizing and bettering their condition.
** Mother Courage from the play ''Mother Courage and Her Children.'' Admired by the audience for her courage, perseverance, and resourcefulness -- but Bertolt Brecht wanted her to be a detestable personification of the evils of capitalism. She doesn't give up her business even after ''her three kids are killed in the war'', after all.
* ''The Threepenny Opera'' is a remake of John Gay's ''The Beggar's Opera'', which was as much a victim of MisaimedFandom as Brecht's version. It was originally meant as a satire of both Italian opera and English society, but was seen by most as just a rollicking good time. Even sixty years later, Boswell and Johnson were debating about what exactly it was supposed to have satirized.
* [[{{TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples}} Of course]], {{William Shakespeare}}'s works have attracted a MisaimedFandom. ''RomeoAndJuliet'' is often thought to be nothing but a bittersweet romance whose major tragedy is bad luck; many readers miss the pointed criticisms of early marriage, arranged marriage, and negligent parenting. In Victorian times, Hamlet was thought of as a noble, TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth victim. Falstaff, a lazy fat drunk whose main purpose in the ''HenryIV'' trilogy was to show how dissipated Prince Hal really was, became so popular that Shakespeare was asked by Elizabeth I to write a comedy around him.
** Speaking of Shakespeare, take a close look at Shylock in ''The Merchant of Venice.'' An anti-Semitic caricature, or a tragic satire thereof?
***Indeed, the characterisation of Shylock is just interestingly complicated enough (unlike the totally monstrous caricature in ''The Jew of Malta'', for example) that it allows modern readers to re-interpret the antisemitism that undoubtedly was originally in the play and recast the whole thing around Shylock. Most modern productions do some editing, for instance omitting Shylock being forced to convert at the end.
** Going back to the ''Romeo and Juliet'' example... in the very beginning of the play, it's outright ''stated'' that Romeo and Juliet are going to ''die'' (or at least that their romance was doomed from the beginning). Why would anyone want to compare their forbidden romance to Romeo and Juliet (who are likely more in lust than in love)? The saddest part is when English teachers are actually part of this MisaimedFandom.
* Arguably, the Phantom in ''The Phantom of the Opera'' has a dreadfully MisaimedFandom. In the book, he was a frightening monster. In the musical, he usually leans toward AntiHero.
** [[{{Ezekiel}} This troper]] figured making the Phantom sympathetic was an attempt to avert the UnfortunateImplications/FamilyUnfriendlyAesop that ugly people are evil.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* ''SilentHill 2'' shows many misogynistic themes, perfectly summed up in the scene where a large, muscular man-monster is shown raping a creature composed of a pair of sexy legs, with another pair of sexy legs in place of an upper body. This was interpreted by many to mean that sexual objectification is cool and edgy, which was met with either approval or disapproval. It was actually intended as psychological symbolism of the main character's masculinity issues.
** Also, the aforementioned muscular man-monster, Pyramid Head, is seen as a DracoInLeatherPants by his fans despite the fact that he does virtually nothing but violently rape and murder the other inhabitants of Silent Hill. A common term used to describe Pyramid Head by his fans is "sex god", so apparently indiscriminant rape and psychological torture is sexy now. Similarly, there are those that consider the Bubble Head Nurses in the same game to be genuinely attractive despite designed to be something that [[FanDisservice really, really wasn't]], and they are only the most obvious examples. ''SilentHill'' fandom is almost as disturbing as the series itself.
*** In a way this simply means the series is extremely successful at what it's doing, bringing out the darker side of ones psyche. And those fans a probably (hopefully) aware of how it was originally meant.
* Sephiroth from ''FinalFantasyVII'' is a megalomaniacal BigBad who spends most of the game on a murderous killing spree (including [[ItWasHisSled famously]] and brutally slaying a [[PlotlineDeath beloved main character]]), pausing only to mock and psychologically manipulate the main character, but he does it with such style and is such a {{Badass}} WhiteHairedPrettyBoy that fans lap it up and have turned him into a DracoInLeatherPants (see that entry for more). Prequel games portraying him as sympathetic before he went sociopathically insane have not helped.
**Some have even started a {{Hatedom}} for said beloved main character, saying that they were glad she got stabbed.
* People who complain about the Squall and Rinoa romance of ''FinalFantasyVIII'', saying that he should have jumped [[HotForStudent Quistis]]'s bones when she offered the opportunity simply because she's MsFanservice. They never seem to pick up on the fact that later in the game its implied that Squall and Quistis engaging in such a relationship would be akin to BrotherSisterIncest.
* The browser game ''[[http://www.mazapan.se/games/BurnTheRope.php You Have To Burn The Rope]]'' is really a mocking parody of the idea that [[{{Portal}} a short game with simple, spoonfed puzzles could become a phenomenon just because it has a quirky song at the end]]. Thing is, ''You Have To Burn The Rope'' ended up becoming a phenomenon because it's short, has a simple, spoonfed puzzle and a quirky song at the end.
** If [[http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2008/04/interview_kian_bashiri_you_hav.html this interview]] is anything to go by, the game actually isn't a direct parody of Portal. It's mostly aimed at games that are either too complex (by giving you an absurdly simple game that explains what you need to do before you've even started) or too easy (again, by giving you a quick, easy task).
* ''TalesOfSymphonia'' is about a battle of ideals between TheHero, who believes that people can learn to grow and change and correct their mistakes if given a chance, and the BigBad, who believes that people cannot change and the only way to make everyone treat each other the same is to make them all identical. Despite the fact that TheHero wins, and examples within the game are overwhelmingly on his side, some fans still insist that the BigBad was right all along, and that the hero's efforts will fail down the line.
** Not to mention the fact that ''it's a prequel.''
* The original LeeroyJenkins video from ''WorldOfWarcraft'' was, despite being a staged over-the-top reconstruction of a real event, more a parody of "nerd guilds" with their excessive and sometimes nonsensical planning than a parody of Leeroy's player archetype.
**Also some quests are clearly meant to be evil but players view these actions as justified. Good examples include the quest "The Broken Front", all Royal Apothecary quests and "It Was The Orcs, Honest!"
* Lezard Valeth from ''ValkyrieProfile'' was written to be as repulsive as possible, a sexually deviant stalker and violator of natural laws; like HarryPotter grown up terribly, terribly wrong. Some fans eat his character up, and pair him with the heroine of the first game. The blame/credit probably on the shoulders of his highly talented (and [[DracoInLeatherPants sexy-sounding]]) English voice actor. In the original Japanese version, he's more of a standard deep-voiced villain.
** Then again, said Japanese voice actor is {{Takehito Koyasu}}.
* In the Orc campaign of ''{{Warcraft}} III: The Frozen Throne'', Admiral Proudmoore, a racist human, attacks the orc lands despite a truce having been made between the humans and orcs previously. He sends away his own daughter when she asks him to even hear out what's happened before he came there and proceeds to start a war which almost unravels the already shaky peace between the races. Some of the fandom think that he was right to do the things he did because they can't accept that the Horde isn't AlwaysChaoticEvil anymore. This has even show up [[TVTropesWiki here]], when an editor claimed that Rexxar, the half-orc who lead the Horde against Proudmoore, was ChaoticEvil for "fighting an invasion that's quite justified".
** To be fair to said misaimed fans, Admiral Proudmoore had no good reason to trust the Orcs given the fact that up till then all his experiences with them had been fighting demon-tainted Orcs who were certainly ChaoticEvil savages. While that doesn't excuse what happened you have to see that Proudmoore (at least in his own mind) had justification and was mostly a victim of misinformation and old hatreds that never quite died.
** Similarily, the Alliance campaign has a racist human marshal named Garithos, who sends his own allies on suicide missions because they happen to be elves. There has been at least one case of a fan claiming that Garithos was right in his treatment because the elves were going to betray him, completely disregarding the fact that they (only later) betrayed him because he tried to have them executed for saving their own lives.
*** More hilarious are the cases where Alliance fans try to explain his actions away as the result of [[EldritchAbomination Old God]] [[{{Fanon}} whispers.]]
** In ''Wrath of the Lich King'', Malygos goes KnightTemplar and is willing to ''destroy the world'' to stop mortals from using arcane magic. And yet, somehow, some people believe he's sympathetic. ''You're not supposed to feel sympathetic for a selfish Omnicidal Maniac, people.''
*** When the Red Dragonflight ''admits straight-up'' that Malygos is perfectly correct about mortal magic use leading to the destruction of Azeroth, that the players murder Malygos' lover and taunt him with her corpse, and that the existing mortal track record of using the arcane is of... questionable... morality, the risks Malygos takes look more and more like a massive, but very justified, moment of IDidWhatIHadToDo.
* Reversed by Hideo Kojima, who thought that people were going to love Raiden in ''MetalGearSolid 2''. [[spoiler:They didn't.]]
* Asking random fan communities about their opinion on the morality of killing [[KingdomHearts Organization XIII]] is [[InternetBackdraft highly discouraged]]. Also, brining up the subject of shipping is nothing short of a death wish. You have been warned.
* ''AnimalCrossing: City Folk'' allows you to purchase and wear the titular [[TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Never mind the fact]] that said mask is an ArtifactOfDoom and the villain of the game.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* According to the {{Word Of God}} of {{Drowtales}} Syphile is "not meant to have much redeeming features, she lost them all over time. I wouldn't portray her as anything else." Guess who's treated as {{The Woobie}} by a good portion of the fandom? Given the GreyAndGrayMorality of the world it's understandable to a point, but now that [[spoiler:Syphile's dead]] it'll probably get worse.
* Misaimed fandom is the point of [[http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp02082008.shtml this]] ''SomethingPositive'' comic. For those who don't get the joke, the author had previously used "{{cat girl}}s" to represent [[StrawFan annoying teenage anime fangirls]] who spout GratuitousJapanese.
* A rare ''positive'' example of this occurred during the fake "ending" in [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2008/12/11/episode-1070-what-were-you-expecting/ this strip]] of ''[[EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]''. As he claimed in the blog post for the following strip, Brian Clevinger made the strip to piss people off and was later astounded to receive several e-mails of people saying how it was a perfect way to end the strip and [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming thanking him for a job well done (even the ones who hated the "ending")]].
* Someone once posted [[http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus37.html this]] ''{{Minus}}'' strip on a board, without any context nor any link to the comic. Immediately people saw it as a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming, an innocent child's dream of saving the world because nobody told her it was impossible, that no one should ever lose hope when faced with a TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, etc. Of course, anybody who has read the comic knows that:
## It's [[RealityWarper Minus]], so there is nothing "impossible" here. She ''will'' make a home-run with the meteor.
## Knowing her, she probably summoned it in the first place.
*Richard, the undead [[HeroicSociopath warlock]] of ''LookingForGroup'', does nothing so much as [[CrossesTheLineTwice play jump rope with the line]]. He has [[RefugeInAudacity an entire summer home in audacity]]. About the only time we ever see him is when he's [[OmnicidalManiac killing stuff for the hell of it]] or [[DeadpanSnarker making kinda Vincenty Price-y jokes]]. And "stuff" in this context means, well, you name it. Women, children, innocent bystanders, orphanages, whatever. It was well into the story before there was even a hint that he had ''any'' purpose or role other than as super-dark comic relief, or any redeeming qualities at all. Go on and guess which character seems to be by far the fandom favorite. Saying things like "I don't like to see evil characters get away with the things Richard gets away with" on the forums isn't ''quite'' going to get anyone flamed, but expect plenty of people to leap to defense of their favorite comic mass murderer.
** To be fair, there are both FoeYay and heroics in the strip revolving around Richard, especially in the more recent installments of the comic, So it's unclear if the character has a geninely misguided fandom, or if he is being evolved in the comic progression, or if one has led to the other or vice-versa.
** And one must remember that given the way the fact that the writer is the same person that gave us [[LeastICouldDo Rayne]] it's not too much of a stretch to assume that we're ''supposed'' to cheer on his acts no matter how destructive or senseless they may be. And then there's the fact that Richard is the designated source of comic relief...
* It's pretty much impossible to claim MisaimedFandom in ''OrderOfTheStick'' without getting hit with massive amounts of InternetBackdraft, though the contradictory positions means that someone must have the wrong end of the ten-foot pole. But WordOfGod eventually stepped in to confirm the "Belkar is ChaoticGood" claim as nonsense. He's ChaoticEvil, and not exactly [[ObviouslyEvil subtle about it]] either.
** And just confirmed [[spoiler: Yes, killing off a quarter of an entire race is evil, even if most of them are also evil. Not that it's stopped people arguing about it]].
*''[[http://www.newrem.com NewRem Comics]]'' entire fanbase is misaimed. According to WordOfGod, the main character is intended to be a deconstruction of an RPG Heroine's life after there's nothing left to save, not a cutesy nerd rage comic.
**It would probably help if the author gave any hint of this at all in the strip.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Reportedly, Cartman of ''SouthPark'' was designed under the idea that you couldn't have an Archie Bunker character on TV now... unless he was a ludicrous little kid cartoon character. Naturally, there's dispute over why Cartman is one of the most popular kids. Just to make matters worse, Stan and Kyle, the characters based on series creators Parker and Stone and supposedly the only normal sensible people in all of South Park, are often percieved as "whiny little bitches" by a fanbase who prefers fat racist anti-Semetic misogynist Cartman.
** Also, the Goth Kids. They're meant to be a parody of teen and pre-teen {{Wangst}}ing, but instead get used by fangirls as outlets for their own misery. Also, the two older guys are apparently gay for each other, though the show gives no indication of that.
** The two-part episode "Go God Go" gets misaimed Fandom in TWO directions, one being Atheist and the other being Creationists.
* Similarly, ''BeavisAndButthead'' and ''KingOfTheHill'' are animated satires of certain subcultures (dimwitted rock and roll loving teenagers and suburban Texans) done by Mike Judge. Both of the groups they target vocally enjoyed the very show that mocked them, and it's hard to claim that all of them are getting the joke. As PatrickStewart once aptly put it: "Both the very smart and very stupid are fans of ''BeavisAndButthead'', for very different reasons."
**Or as ''TheOnion'' put it in their ''Our Dumb Century'' book: "New MTV Show About Idiots Who Watch MTV Big Hit Among Idiots Who Watch MTV".
* In the series ''TheMaxx,'' Mr. Gone is often quoted for saying "Of course I have a problem with women. Everybody has a problem with women. Because women taunt, and tease, and are attractive, and punish you for being attracted," which some fans find to be insightful and accurate. In fact, Mr. Gone is a rapist, and this attitude was intended as a representation of how a rapist thinks.
* The Decepticons might as well be called "{{Transformers}}: [[DracoInLeatherPants Robots In Leather Pants]]". It's not quite clear how one can percieve the Autobots as evil and the Decepticons as noble warriors when they're called "the evil Decepticons" in the theme song, but there's a small but vocal fan group that supports this theory. One fan by the name of [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Raksha Raksha]] (yes, that's her legal name) even became moderately famous within the fandom for it.
** Oddly enough, in ''TransformersAnimated'' Megatron actively promotes himself as a freedom fighter, seeking to rid Cybertron of Autobot oppression. It's not clear whether he means it or is simply using propaganda, but at least some of the Decepticons seem to sincerely believe in that cause.
** Actually, the theory holds a bit of water in ''TransformersAnimated.'' Not so much with Decepticons being noble (clearly, they're opportunistic and evil), but with the Autobots not being so saintly as previously portrayed. Our main five Autobots are great 'bots, no denying, but the further up the chain of command you go, the creepier and more morally gray the Autobots get (the creation of Omega Supreme, anyone?). Since the "good guys" are no longer squeaky clean, it stands to reasons that the Decepticons, at one time, may've had more motive that "gosh, it's good to be evil!"
*** For that matter, [[spoiler: WordOfGod heavily implies that Lockdown was once an Autobot]]
* David Slack, writer/producer of the ''TeenTitans'' animated series, has said of the character Terra, [[http://www.titanstower.com/source/animated/charterra.html "....she's just lost. Something inside her hurts so bad, right and wrong don't matter anymore." ]] However, rather than accept that the character was an AntiVillain of the DarkMagicalGirl variety, most of the fandom divided into two opposing camps: those who saw Terra as a [[TheMessiah blameless martyr who deserved a Titan's funeral]], and those who saw her as a [[PsychoForHire scheming sociopath who deserved to die]]. (Admittedly, the latter was how the original comic-book version was portrayed initially; the animated version is a radically different character.) When the [[BittersweetEnding series finale]] revealed that [[spoiler:Terra was apparently alive and [[IJustWantToBeNormal happily living as a normal schoolgirl with no interest in pursuing her former life,]]]] both sides of the fandom imploded, responding by writing either FixFic in which [[spoiler: Terra chooses to acknowledge her former life and return to the team]], or continuing to write HateFic featuring Terra dying in brutal fashion.
* An episode of ''ThePowerpuffGirls'' called "The City of Clipsville" had one segment which was a TakeThat to ''PPG'' {{fanfiction}} cliches Craig [=McCracken=] hated, including Powerpuff Girls/Rowdyruff Boys shipper fics. The fake {{Flashback}} showed the characters as dumb airheaded teenagers. Fandom embraced that scene and even made fanart of it.
* ''DannyPhantom'' FanFic is sharply divided between the silliness of the later episodes and very serious fan fiction that could rightly belong in novel form. Also, many see PsychoForHire Dark Danny as sympathetic, in spite of having the honor of being a sadistic sociopath who ''killed his human self'' along with [[strike:probably]] [[strike:thousands]] millions of others.
* ''{{Duckman}}''. In some very strange parts of the internet, Duckman gets hailed as "the greatest philosophical mind of this generation." Really? While his rants are sometimes justified, he's generally a spiteful, selfish, arrogant prick.
-->"Don't you see what's it's like living in this deranged, Waring blender of a world? Every day is an agonizing ordeal, like balancing a pot of scalding water on your head while people whip your legs and butt. Ah, you never forget your senior prom. You think I'm sick? Well the only disease I've got is modern life, a shnug-busting gauntlet of inefficiency and misery that's one long parade of letdowns, putdowns, trickle-downs, shutouts, freezeouts, sellouts, numbnuts, nincompoops and nimrods! All making every day as much fun as waxing a flaming Pontiac with your tongue! And even if you do luck into the possibility of some fleeting pleasure, like say if some nymphomaniac telephone operator with the muscle control of Romanian mat slappers agree to a little strip air hockey, it will be over before it starts, 'cause some foul lacking, Feta-reeking cab jockey slams his checker up your hatchback and the cab is owned by some pinata-spanker from a Santaria cult who starts shaking chicken bones at you and gives you a boil on your neck so big that all it needs is Michael Jordan's autograph to make it complete! And even with all this, with all this! I still drag my sorry butt off the Sealy every morning and stick my face in the reaping machine for one more day! Knowing when it's time to flash the cosmic card key at those pearly gates, I won't be in the coffin anyways, because some underhanded undertaker sold my heart, pancreas and other assorted good and plenty to that same Santaria cult! So does anybody really wonder why anybody is hanging onto sanity by the atoms on the tips of their fingernails, while life dirty dances on their digits, and is it really any wonder THAT I SEEM DERANGED?
**In this one particular case, he may have a point...
* Some interpret Syndrome from ''TheIncredibles'' as a sympathetic character, accepting at face value Syndrome's accusation that Mr. Incredible is biased against [[{{Muggles}} non-supers]] and his claim that "... when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can have powers. Everyone can be Super!" Anyone who wants to give everyone in the world rocket boots and x-ray goggles is OK in a lot of people's books. [[StuffBlowingUp Splosions]] and [[NoKillLikeOverKill mayhem]] and [[MoralEventHorizon kidnapping a baby]] don't bother these fans ... Some even go as far as to [[{{Shipping}} ship him]] ... [[HarmfulToMinors with Violet]].
**The line which followed the "Everyone can be a Super!" one was "And if everyone is a Super, then no one is a Super." The whole speech was a big [[TakeThat Take That]] against Egalitarianism.
*** Whether or not you think Syndrome is evil its not a compelling argument against Egalitarianism. Syndrome's plan to give everyone superpowers isn't too different to what's happens in real life: we can talk across the entire planet on a whim with phones or travel at super speed in cars or trains. Rocket boots are just the same but better whether or not it allows people to catch up with biologically superpowered people.
*** Though that's assuming [[VillainsNeverLie Syndrome would actually stay true to his word]], seeing how little he's worried about hurting people in his quest for glory.
* Chuck Jones created Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner as a parody of popular "chase cartoons" like ''{{Tom and Jerry}}'', by picking two unlikely animals in a bizarre setting, making the Coyote his own worst enemy, and making the whole thing as over-the-top as possible. He was surprised when audiences took the first Road Runner short at face value, rather than as a parody, and ''loved it.'' Even though it didn't work out as he'd intended, Jones was happy to have a hit and continued using the two characters for years.
* In the ''FamilyGuy'' episode "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter", there is a scene where Brian, Chris, Peter and Stewie have an ipecac drinking contest. [[VomitIndiscretionShot This is shown to be]] [[VomitChainReaction a terrible, terrible idea]]. And yet, the scene is credited with inspiring a recent upsurge in Ipecac-use among teenage bulimics.
* In Pixar's ''{{Cars}}'', the Deliquent Road Hazards who were responsible for Lightning falling out of his transport truck were meant to be a gang of dislikable street punks, to the point that the animators modeled them after tastelessly modified "ricer" cars. Strangely enough, the fandom completely fell in love with them, making enough fan art and fanfiction centering around them to impress even the most hardened internet warrior.
* Also from Pixar: While no one disgrees that [[WallE AUTO]] is a villain, they frequently seem to see a ''lot'' more to his (lack of) personality then there actually is. Then again, this may just be because EvilIsCool and as noted, no one thinks he's a good guy.
* The Riley Freeman character from ''TheBoondocks'' is sometimes seen as a badass kid rather than the mockery of the gangsta rap style that he actually is.
** Then again, rappers do voice some characters on the show. Even Ghostface killa voiced himself in an episode.
* Many ''InvaderZim'' fans seem perfectly willing to ignore Zim's ridiculous egotism and admitted evil, making him out to be a hero rather than a VillainProtagonist. These same fans often will hate and villify Dib for, wait for it..."trying to stop Zim" from enslaving or destroying humanity.
** Admittedly, it is such a [[CrapsackWorld utopia]] filled with [[HumansAreBastards wonderful]] [[TooDumbToLive intelligent]] people, that maybe [[MercyKill killing]] them all [[DeadpanSnarker is a bad idea.]]
**Well, Dib still doesn't deserve the crap he gets.
** Also [[TooDumbToLive GIR]]. Jhonen Vasquez has commented he gets particularly annoyed by people who think he's "cute," when the point was to make him an idiotic hedonist. The episode "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff," where [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin he goes nuts and tries to destroy Zim]], was actually meant to be a TakeThat to the fandom.
* This troper admits to falling under this for a Russian (not exactly [[WesternAnimation western]], but still) animated short called "The Shooting Range". Watching it I thought it was cool, set in a RetroUniverse Dystopia, where everyone is unemployed, and capitalism has dehumanized the population to the point where human targets at a shooting range are the only job people can come up with, making it kind of neat CyberPunk {{pastiche}}. Plus the animation style is utterly unlike anything I'd seen before. Turns out, it's actually Soviet propaganda, the creators actually thought the United States was like that in real life (AnachronismStew coming from limited understanding american culture), the animation style is actaully quite common for the Soviet "film collectives" of the time, and it was made in 1979, [[UnbuiltTrope predating]] CyberPunk, so it can't possibly be a pastiche. It can be seen on YouTube [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upHdYC6qWJo Here]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gaiumZ1llY&NR=1 Here]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Miscellaneous]]
* As hinted at in the quote at the top of the page, this seems to be almost an inevitability in any kind of organized religion, or really any large, ideological organization for that matter; no matter how much your god, prophet, and/or central doctrine waxes eloquently about peace, love, and turning the other cheek, sooner or later SOMEBODY is going to use their faith as a justification for pretty much anything, from lying through their teeth or giving themselves pay raises to instigating war, torture and genocide.
* The entire field of Eugenics is one big, smelly MisaimedFandom of Darwin's theories, using Darwinism to justify a "master race" (yep, [[GodwinsLaw Hitler]] [[HitlerAteSugar did it, too]]), and, to a lesser extent, thinking "stupid people" deserve to die. Even worse, the creationist opponents of evolution use eugenics as the ultimate argument against evolution. Exhibit A: Ben Stein's ''Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed''. Not to mention, the whole thing is based on the highly disputable idea that intelligence levels in healthy individuals are genetic. Or that it's even objective.
** Eugenics itself is a victim of misaimed fandom, as the pioneer of the field (Galton) was not an advocate of any of the extreme measures now associated with it. Modern screening for hereditary genetic illness is far more in line with the original goal of eugenics than any of the tactics the Nazis employed.
** A related version, Richard Dawkin's book ''The Selfish Gene'' has been used to justify social darwinism, despite it being a largely technical book that views evolution as mainly occurring at a genetic, rather than organism, scale. As Dawkins points out in the 30th anniversary edition's forward it doesn't even make any sense, especially since one of the most successful survival traits is cooperation.
**Interestingly, Hitler didn't do it, at least not with a misapplication of Darwin's theory. His eugenics were based on the idea that there was a divinely granted perfect race that the others had degenerated from and which threatened to erode perfection, and so should be gotten rid of. Origin of Species was also banned during his entire reign.
* In the mid-1800s, the people of Northern Italy (who at the time were under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) came to consider Giuseppe Verdi's opera ''Nabucco'' (specifically the aria ''Va Pensiero'') as a manifesto in favour of Italian unification. It was nothing of the sort.
* Though most of the games reviewed by the AngryVideoGameNerd are [[SoBadItsHorrible just as bad as he says they are]], there are a large number of viewers that didn't realize his first review of ''{{Castlevania}} II: Simon's Quest'' was deliberate AccentuateTheNegative, and thought the guy who played him genuinely hated that much (James Rolfe stated that the first review was done as a joke and he didn't really think the game was that bad).
** It doesn't help that he '''frequently''' brings up Castlevania II when discussing other games' flaws, notably long passwords. His Metal Gear review does a better job of what he was aiming for with Castlevania II.
** Game reviews by [[http://www.youtube.com/user/IGSRJ IGSRJ]], which serve as dual Irate Gamer parodies/[[AngryVideoGameNerd AVGN]] tributes (though [[http://www.youtube.com/user/FFL2and3rocks Third Rate Gamer]] does a better job at the parody part), not only include SoBadItsHorrible games, but also games generally believed to be ''the best of all time'', including ''[[SuperMarioBros Super Mario Bros. 3]]'', ''MortalKombat'' and ''[[DukeNukem Duke Nukem 3D]]''. He does a well enough job at [[AccentuateTheNegative Accentuating The Negative]] that reading the comments reveals that viewers who are CompletelyMissingThePoint consistently either bitch about how wrong IGSRJ is, or more stupidly, agree with his arguments.
* Many modern perception of the Amazons of Greek mythology. So they're {{Action Girl}}s out there to kick guys' asses, and to represent the strength of women? Well, yeah, but the original point of their characters was to be [[AllAmazonsWantHercules beaten by -- and often submit to -- a stronger man]], with the ([[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop warped]]) moral that women are weak no matter no matter how strong they get. [[WonderWoman Fortunately, William M. Marston and DC Comics didn't get the memo...]]
** For those requiring less subtlety, this is an example of how even Misaimed Fandom can be [[TropesAreNotBad not necessarily bad]].
* [[http://www.venganza.org/ Pastafarianism]] originated out of an open letter to the Kansas Board of Education that parodied the idea of teaching Creationism as a science. However, once it gained notoriety, it developed its own MisaimedFandom as atheists came out of the woodwork, praising the open letter's contents as a TakeThat to ''religion in general''--which grew even more prevalent when Richard Dawkins considered the letter a ''valid anti-theological argument''.
** The argument is simply "you can't prove a negative", as in "you can't prove the FSM doesn't exist/didn't create the universe", in response to those who claim that the lack of proof of God's non-existence is evidence for his existence. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot Russell's Teapot]] is a more classic example.
** Ultimately, Pastafarianism's creator subverted this trope: Although he had originally professed that he had nothing against religion, he [[SureWhyNot embraced his atheist fans]] and catered to their desires. Now that Pastafarianism is a [[TheWarOnStraw Straw Religion]] with the message that "BeliefMakesYouStupid," it's attracted its fair share of ''serious'' followers.
* There are many other parody religions such as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_SubGenius Church of the Subgenius]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discordianism Discordianism]] as well.
** Discordianism actually started as a silly but serious religion to parody other parodies of religion, and there are still "serious" Discordian followers out there. Anyone who says otherwise will rot in Thud.
** Now now, don't be a cabbage, you don't rot in Thud, you are simply reincarnated as a precious Mao Button and distributed to the poor in the Region of Thud. Really, don't make us out to be monsters.
* Rastafarianism originally started as somewhere between a joke religion and a sort of political group for mocking those who were deemed oppressors, but over time has become a serious religion. This is even more amusing when you realize that in Rasatarianism: God is the deceased king of Ethiopia, Heaven is Ethiopia, and Satan is Queen Elizabeth II.
** Even though Haile Selassie (a Christian) actively tried to inform his first worshippers that he wasn't a god, said worshippers immediately concluded his humility was ''due'' to him being a god... SoYeah.
*** So apparently, the ''LifeOfBrian'' method of finding a messiah is valid. Who knew?
** "Any religion whose major sacrament is marijuana is going to get very weird very fast." -- description of Rasta on Christian talk radio, circa 1980s.
* KFC attempted a ''BattlestarGalactica'' related promotion, the "Frak Pak". Considering what the word "frak" is a substitute for, this got a bit of attention from the fanbase, albeit not for the intended reasons.
** What's worse is what they did when they realised their mistake: they replaced "Frak" with "Can't-Say-That-Word-On-Television". So it became ''literally'' a "fuck pak". Way to go, KFC.
* This can be a case with Nintendo's "Seal of Quality". After the NES arrived on the video game scene, Nintendo wanted its consumers to be assured that their games would run properly and that the games they make/publish have met their "standards". So came the "Seal Of Quality" which denoted that games baring the seal had met Nintendo's stringent licensing requirements, specifically, that all companies (with several exceptions) were limited to five game releases a year, a direct reaction to the scores of poorly made games that were one of the reasons for {{The Great Video Game Crash Of 1983}}. Certainly, this stopped much of the Shovelware for the system, but also contributed to the system's quotient NoExportForYou. It made no assurances of ''play'' quality, but seemed to satisfy the consumer demand for an assurance that ''someone'' had looked over the game before it went out the door (something that was understandable considering the latter years of the Atari 2600). However, the more stringent aspects of the licensing requirements were ditched at around the time developers began defecting to the SegaGenesis, the seal became nothing more than saying "this game will work on the system", and the "quality" aspect of the seal was ditched in 2003. The funny thing is many people today believe by having Nintendo bring back the "Seal of Quality", it would reduce the amount of shovelware the Wii has. They all seem to ignore that some of the worst games of all time have borne the seal, including ''Superman 64'', ''Deadly Towers'', ''Heroes Of The Lance'', ''Bad Street Brawler'', the occasionally-good-but-always-eye-damaging Virtual Boy catalogue...
** Not to mention the fact that several developers got around the limits by making umbrella companies (most notably, Ultra was a front for Konami, which ended up publishing the first two ''MetalGear'' installments and the first two ''TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' games for the NES.
* There is an article called [[http://www.safamily.org.za/articles_youth?mode=content&id=29433&refto=3589&PHPSESSID=dcd332d97aea4bc7658140e92 Lancelot Lives]] which is about how to set proper boundaries in relationships with women, not give in to lust and up hold the sanctity of marriage. Because, as we all know, Lancelot is a perfect example of those particular virtues.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBVmfIUR1DA This video]] is a parody of incredibly impatient gamers. Then people started believing the kid was one, which led him to stop making videos for about a year.
* [[YouTube The Greatest Freakout Ever]], which has become ridiculously popular among teens and young adults as a humorous video. Any responsible adult who views it can only be horrified at the dysfunction it represents - in both brothers and in their parents.
* Poe's Law: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing."
* This very page that you are reading contains numerous instances of CompletelyMissingThePoint, which is so closely tied to Misaimed Fandom that the resulting metastorm might destroy the universe.
* There is an anthropological theory called "Culture of Poverty," that basically says poor people don't have the skills needed to advance in class. This has frequently been misconstrued as blaming the victim.
* There are a number of historical/pseudo-historical groups that suffer from this to a greater or lesser degree, often to extreme levels of FanDumb. Ninjas and Druids come to mind, with fictional versions all but taking over the little-known reality in the eyes of popular culture, but almost any group probably fits into the spectrum somewhere.
* Mother Teresa. She gave "comfort to the dying" by letting them die indoors so that rich people wouldn't have to look at them, and that's pretty much it. In fact, many of those people wouldn't even have ''been'' dying if she had spent her money on hospitals instead of nunneries. And they didn't get any painkillers, because she thought pain was a blessing!
[[/folder]]
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