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Dethroning Moment / Glee

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Being part of something sucky makes it sucky. And unfortunately for Sue Sylvester, Will Schuester and New Directions, that statement is true, because even a show where every episode is a Musical Episode can make a few shocking and cringe-worthy accidents every now and then.


Keep in mind:

  • Sign your entries
  • One moment to a troper. If multiple entries are signed to the same troper the more recent one will be cut.
  • Moments only, no "just everything he said," "The entire show," or "This entire season," entries.
  • No contesting entries. This is subjective, the entry is their opinion.
  • No natter. As above, anything contesting an entry will be cut, and anything that's just contributing more can be made its own entry.
  • Explain why it's a Dethroning Moment of Suck.
  • No Real Life examples including Executive Meddling and Fan Dumb. That is just asking for trouble.
  • No ALLCAPS, no bold, and no italics unless it's the title of a work. We are not yelling the DMoSs out loud.


  • Mac Phisto: The much anticipated "Rocky Horror Glee Show" in general for many, many reasons. But special mention goes to the Broken Aesop at the end, which came with many Unfortunate Implications (it's okay to be different, just as long as you don't do it in a way where normal people can see you).
    • bobdrantz: I also disliked the "Rocky Horror Glee Show". However, my reason for disliking it is because it's quite possibly the worst "tribute" (inasmuch as it barely has the right to be called one) for one of the biggest cult films of all time. For one thing, the casting is all wrong—among other things, Frank N. Furter is played by a female, with no attempt to make her look androgynous, and her acting was bad. Second, the song lyrics are so heavily edited as to lose anything resembling a point.
  • Elegant Vamp: Finn getting kicked out of the Hummel residence for using the word "faggy", to describe a lamp. Mind you, Finn had been going through a lot of crap, much more than Kurt. Finding out that his girlfriend cheated on him and slept with another guy, getting tricked into supporting Quinn throughout her pregnancy for a kid that wasn't even his (and the entire Glee club was in on it), his mother dating Kurt's father and moving in with them without even being consulted about how he felt, and being borderline sexually harassed by Kurt despite him making it clear that he's straight (the flirting, the serenading in Glee club, etc.). Now he has to share a room with him and is understandably uncomfortable with it. Yeah, he used an offensive word. The word was directed at the lamp, the decoration, NOT Kurt. The kid was stressed out and in a bad place. Finn is the only one who gets any kind of punishment, Kurt gets off scott-free. And he holds a grudge even after Finn tries to apologize to him multiple times. Kurt is never called out on his wrongdoings, at all. Oh, and also, Finn and his mother are homeless. Where are they going to go?
    • Jo Silv: I couldn't agree with this any more. What's even worse is at a convention, a fan addressed the cast and creator Ryan Murphy about this very issue and both Murphy AND Chris Colfer DEFENDED Kurt, saying "We all make mistakes when young and in love". Very true, but the lengths Kurt goes to try and force a relationship is downright disturbing and could very well have gotten a restraining order pulled against him. This troper might have found SOME small solace or found some salvation for this episode if the episode's tone had any hint of a feeling that Finn wasn't completely and entirely in the wrong. Instead, the episode leaves Finn having to be the one having to prove himself to Kurt. It ends up feeling like a hollow "give them what they want" gesture when the next season gives a couple short scenes of Finn and Kurt's father telling him that he went too far in his pursuit, with Kurt STILL insisting Finn was in the wrong.
  • Capretty: "Brittany/Britney". The episode was the first sign of Glee revealing they only cared about commercialism now. The episode only came about because Power of Madonna had been a success the last season. The episode had a successful music video of Sue Sylvester doing Vogue so they decided to do three music videos within the first half hour for hope at another meme, including a recreation of the Iconic "... Baby One More Time" video, this time starring their lead actress. Oh, and did I mention that these three videos had nothing to do with plot and were unbelievably boring. Meanwhile they were also just trying to get more memes by pushing Brittany to the foreground since her dialogue tends to be a Fountain of Memes. However they gave her so many funny lines that after awhile you just don't care anymore. It's a real shame since her actress is very talented and is trying so hard for her character not to be driven into the ground. Meanwhile the subplots revolving around the Finn/Rachel and Will/Emma romances make Rachel and Will so unlikable it equals a huge case of What Does She See in Him? for both Finn and Emma.
  • Archduke Cthulhu: The Superbowl after-show did it for me. The football team are all scrappies. There's no way to change that. You can't polish a turd and call it something nice. They're annoying, one dimensional bullies this side of a Stephen King novel and there's no way they should be given spotlight unless it's for character development, which no way happens here.
  • Largo Quagmire: "I Kissed a Girl" is one of the most offensive things I've ever seen, for a number of reasons. Firstly, Finn went from a massive idiot to a massive idiot with a God complex, thinking that he could erase the damage he did by outing Santana by having a 'Ladies' Music' week in the club. Secondly, this somehow works in the framework of the plot. Santana forgives and accepts Finn, when, it really should be the other way around - Finn apologizing for his actions and accepting Santana. Thirdly, Glee has never been great at characterization, but seeing everyone throw aside their festering problems because Santana - you know, the girl who has caused them more grief than anyone in the show so far besides maybe Sue and Jesse St. James - is a lesbian, (something they all already knew) was bullshit. Yes, teaching kids to accept their LGBT classmates is a noble goal, but the Glee club is supporting a villainous, bitchy character who, in the previous episode beat someone until they bled for fun. It suspends disbelief at best and brings up a host of unfortunate implications at worst. And finally - the title was a complete fucking lie.
    • Kitchen90: I agree with this point. On top of that, considering that Brittany — Santana's best friend, right-hand girl and one of the only characters that shared rather close intimacy with her more than once — is not really in most of the drama, considering she was named by Finn as Santana's crush when he outed her. All Brittany does is defend her when she and the rest of the female side of the glee club catch a homophobic jock telling Santana that she's "confused" and "hasn't found the right guy". I get that she was busy with her class presidency campaign, but it would be nice to see a little moment between them, and all that's shown is Santana kissing her cheek in the background of Jacob's internet video recordings. In addition to this, I found the entire point that Santana was terrified and uncomfortable with everyone knowing her sexual orientation rather overlooked, and I felt like the show treated it like it was no big deal. She spent most of her time after the outing mortified because she feared what everyone would think, including her family — much like many teenagers that find out they aren't heterosexual — then after the song of the episode was sung by the female side of the group, she just simply tells the room that she came out to her parents "last night" and they "were fine" with her lesbianism. Talk about handwave, methinks. She mightn't have told her homophobic grandmother yet, but that felt like a waste of a plot point, considering that her parents would be "fine with it", and was also a middle finger to the viewers because they never saw what the episode was (supposedly) building up to.
  • Me4JustinB: "Saturday Night Glee-ver" did it for me, it's the first episode I've ever hated. Copied from this troper's Tumblr: 1) Will Fucking Schuester. He missed the obvious train station of Appropriateness on his express train to None-Of-His-Business Town. You don't tell your students find a dream or else, you don't tell kids that their goal is not a dream, that's sad, and you don't make creepy wooden models of your students!. 2) Character derailment in general, and Rachel specifically. She goes from little miss Broadway-Or-Bust to Finn's personal satellite, and in the process, lost the one trait (her single-minded determination to achieve her dreams and her detailed plan) that actually made me like her. And for what? So the writers could shoehorn in a few shippy moments between her and Finn? 3) At last, Jesse's back... for one minute. I was so excited for his return, since he's my second favorite character, (not to mention all the hype behind it) and he got all of 60 seconds on screen.
  • Lady In Grey: From the season 3 finale, the fact that Kurt doesn't get into NYADA. Call me a fangirl, but I think he deserved it a lot more than Rachel. He nailed his audition on the first try, while she choked then begged on her knees to try again to the point of creepy harassment. With that said, I'm not unhappy that she got in. Rachel worked hard and it paid off, and that's great for her, but I just think that Kurt really deserved to get more than she did.
    • Tina Banina 96: I agree almost fully with your point there. I felt like it was a great injustice to Kurt, who, not only performed a song that he hadn't originally intended to sing, but freaking hit it out of the park. Kurt took risks and made them fabulous. Rachel chose a safe song (and encouraged Kurt to as well), messed it up, and still got in. I was seriously upset with the outcome of that entire storyline.
  • SMARTALIENQT: I stopped watching regularly as early as "Blame it on the Alcohol", for one reason: Blaine's subplot. Or rather, Kurt's interpretation of Blaine's subplot. The line about how being bi is just an excuse for gay guys to fit in was really, really hurtful to me and other bi people that I know, and Blaine (rightfully) calls him out on it. But at the end, Kurt's proved right. Blaine wasn't bi, the kiss was him being drunk and stupid, and we are again left with no bisexual characters at all except for Brittany.
  • Spiderbreeze: "Big Brother". Because that episode was just a giant middle finger to anyone who cared about Quinn. It's insulting because you would think that with a cliffhanger like one of the main characters getting hit by a truck, the next episode would put a large focus on her recovery right? Wrong! She's fine and she's only fine because we have Matt Bomer and damn it we're going to use him! Blaine matters more than Quinn so her fans will totally not get insulted when we focus on his totally pointless, boring, everyone has this fucking problem brother angst!
    • Motherfickle: It was somewhat of a middle finger to those of us who loved Blaine, too. We had been asking for his backstory ever since he hinted that his dad was not accepting of his sexuality in "Sexy", so we were excited to finally get something when "Big Brother" rolled around. But nope. We got a character who hadn't even been mentioned previously, not single hint about why there was such a big age difference between them, and a generic "sibling rivalry" plot in an episode that was not well timed at all. As much as I enjoyed Cooper as a character and the tiny insight into Blaine's home life that he gave, I honestly wanted better than what I got.
  • Aspie: The beginning of Season 3, when Quinn walks into the school with pink hair and starts completely blowing off all of her friends. I cannot be the only one who asked himself what the hell happened there. I mean, Quinn goes from this occasionally catty, but otherwise nice girl in Season 2 to a pink-haired, cigarette smoking rebel who doesn't give a shit about anyone in Season 3, which I would have been okay with if not for the fact that we were given little to no explanation of why this radical change in appearance/personality has occurred.
  • 3flowersinavase: Their cover of "Gangnam Style." Not only does it sound offensive, but it's the most blatant example of Glee cashing in on a trend.
  • Gone Rampant: If "This entire season", was an option, Season 4 would probably have taken up half the page — but one plot in particular stands out: Marley's eating disorder. She gets it because Kitty says one thing to her, never decides to check weight scales, her own goddamn mother doesn't notice, and during the aforementioned Gangnam Style number, she passes out. As a troper who went through his teens with bulimia, this is just insulting to me and to everyone I know who's had it or is going through — and with this and all the racism and discrimination, the fact that this show hasn't been pulled off the air yet is just a big slap in the face to everyone who's a realist and know this show is a horrible mess full of monsters, with the biggest hypocrite Ryan Murphy leading the charge, who said the show was for everyone, proving how much of a lying, sick bastard he is.
  • Highwaystonowhere: As much as I love Glee, I don't like the mistreatment of Tina Cohen Chang. She's not my favorite character, but in season 2 they pushed her to the sidelines when she had the potential to really evolve as a character and in season 4 she underwent serious character derailment and is suddenly a horrible person for no apparent reason, when just last year she was the sweet, real underdog of Glee. It seems unfair seeing as Jenna Ushkowitz is so talented and has worked just as hard for just as long on set as the rest of the cast, yet her character is constantly getting screwed over.
    • whiteow82: I completely agree, and the episode that shows it the best is Season 3's "Choke". Tina’s fans were really excited about it, as it seemed that she was finally going to be the focus. And if that had been the case, it could have been great. Tina was, after all, one of the founding members of the Glee Club and barely had any focus since season 1. But what was the episode about? About how awesome, fantastic and basically God’s gift to mankind Rachel is. And what a b***h Tina is for questioning that. Now, that could have worked if Tina had challenged that idea and convinced the other Glee Club members that she is worth something too and deserves to be acknowledged. That would have been a powerful message about how the Glee Club is really a team where everyone matters. What did we get instead? Tina has a silly dream sequence where she walks in Rachel’s shoes and realizes that, oh my god, they are right! Rachel is awesome and she (Tina) really should back off and let her be awesome. If you needed proof that Glee was becoming “The Rachel Show”, this episode was it. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the far more interesting B storyline involving Puck, it would have been a complete waste.
  • Arya Adrianiel: Glee has been a huge guilty pleasure for me for a couple of months. I hated most of the characters, I thought the plot lines were kind of stupid, but there was something that kept me coming back every week. I may have seen them as being mindless entertainment, but I never really hated an episode. Until now. It was "I Do" that did it for me. Everything about that episode... it just really rubbed me the wrong way. I think that it was mainly all of the hookups. I mean, sure, it wasn't really cheating or anything for any of them (what's with all the open relationships all of a sudden?), but to me it just felt like an excuse to get as many of the old couples back together and get as many couples in general having sex.
  • Mew Lettuce Rush: Originally, my DMOS was "I Do", but I then realized the show died for me earlier starting in "The New Rachel". I was excited about this season, mainly because Tina, my favorite character, would be getting the spotlight — especially since in "Props", she was promised to be in charge of the glee club by Rachel. I felt like I was watching the wrong show — not only does she not get it, but it goes to Blaine, who I think was getting too much season focus already, so I literally was psyched for nothing. On top of that, not only is she pushed into the sidelines (again) in favor of the "Blaine and Rachel" show, but when she finally gets the spotlight again (ten episodes later), it's to be a cardboard cutout Blaine stand. This was the nail in the coffin for me and I haven't looked back.
  • Hawk Of Coul: The final blow... erasing a character's existence in 'Big Brother', not even mentioning Dave Karofsky after he had an important plotline in the earlier two episodes that was left hanging so we could suffer through... erm, enjoy Blaine's utter murder of Christina Aguilera's 'Fighter' and whine about The One Time his brother stole his Action Man. From then on, it was clear that this show was not going to be Glee anymore. No, it was gonna be 'Blee', where everybody shills on how Blaine is the bestest person who ever lived and is justified even when he cheats on his long-suffering boyfriend because he felt Kurt hadn't paid enough attention to him, and blaming him for it, then starts becoming creepier by the second, culminating in a proposal in order to get his boyfriend back into his clutches... erm, I meant arms forever. Glee is seriously claiming that the worse your boyfriend is, the more he loves you!
    • Number Of The Dalek: Even worse was that the episode culminated in them finally having sex. Don't get me wrong, I'm actually gay myself, but throughout the episode we watch Kurt consider his options (if he had any) about consummating his relationship with Blaine for once and for all, and even the attempted Rape Is OK When It's Male On Male bit he has the decency to shove Blaine off, but finally agreeing to do it for the first time just showed that Kurt is exactly who his detractors are — a helpless Queenie bitch who only exists as a slave to Blaine.
  • Xxistent: "The Spanish Teacher" is among the worst episodes in the series. Mr. Schuester has never been depicted as a bad Spanish teacher until this episode, and it's just cringe-worthy to see someone with a teaching degree taking a class to learn how to teach a class that he should already be teaching competently. It gets even worse by ruining his character even more by having him sing racist Latin music. He's supposed to have been teaching Spanish for years, he should know enough about the culture to not create a racial slur. He later gives his job away because apparently the watching the History Channel is enough to teach hundreds of students History. And that's nothing compared to the subplot, in which Sue Sylvester wants a group of teenagers' sperm donations because she wants to have a baby.
  • SharkToast: My DMoS had to be "The Break-Up". Now I thought this was a good episode, except for the subplot revolving around the Jake/Marley/Kitty love triangle. Not only are the characters clones of Puck, Rachel, and Quinn, but they lack any of the traits that made them interesting. Marley lacks any of Rachel's negative qualities, while Kitty lacks Quinn's positive qualities. Jake is basically Puck in leather pants. I always thought these characters were inspired by fan fiction, and "The Break-Up" proved it.
  • Swim To The Moon: I began watching the show less interested in it as early as "A Very Glee Christmas". In particular, "Baby It's Cold Outside" seemed to have no place in the show and only seemed to serve the purpose of pandering to the shippers. That was the first sign that that was all Ryan Murphy cared about was pandering to the shippers, but as the show went on and up to "The Break-Up", that's when it was clear to me that Ryan Murphy only seems interested in turning the show into "Blee", and trying to justify Blaine's cheating on Kurt was just the nail in the coffin.
  • stupidgeekboy: The resolution of the gay bullying storyline in "Furt". I was on the fence about the story in general as it was an extremely serious story in a show that up until then had been a comedy, but the build up wasn't bad. Thanks in large part to Chris Colfer it wasn't hard to feel Kurt's fear of what may be awaiting him around every corner. So they were acquitting themselves decently of the story, a lot of people were relating to it because it was one of the first shows to do anything with the subject and definitely the biggest show to ever address the issue. The story builds and builds to a conclusion and... Kurt leaves the school and the whole storyline just ends, abruptly and is barely mentioned again, save for one episode when he comes back. It was the first (though sadly not nearly the last) time that Glee would horribly mishandle a very sensitive subject
  • Animeking 1108: The very first episode has one. Will thinks that Finn is perfect for the Glee Club, but he refuses to join. So, how does Will convince him to join? He plants drugs on him and threatens to report him for possession. While Finn points out that he'll take a drug test, Will points out that even just getting accused of having drugs will mess up his chances for a good college. So, basically, Will threatens to ruin Finn's life just to get him to join the Glee club. Why in the four years Finn was alive on this show did he not consider suing Will for such an underhanded tactic? I really hope that one day, the principal finds out about this and fires his ass.
  • ThatIrishReader: Santana's Unfortunate Implications about bisexuals in "Tina in the Sky With Diamonds" was when I fully realized that season 5 was going to be terrible. Having recently fallen head over heels for cute co-worker Dani, Santana expresses nerves towards Rachel at the fact that this is her first real try at a relationship with a full-on lesbian. That hadn't bothered me so much until Santana says that she doesn't have to worry about a girlfriend "straying for penis". I cannot begin to express how inappropriate and ridiculous that statement was. It implies that just because bisexuals like both genders it makes them twice as likely to cheat on them which of course makes absolutely no sense. Another part in that this line completely throws Santana's and Brittany's relationship out the window just to make Dani appeal more to the viewers. And on another note, Santana herself broke up with Brittany, not the other way around. I really do not understand what this show has against bisexuals but it was completely unnecessary.
  • whiteowl82: There has been a lot of missed opportunities on this show, but “Lights Out” takes the cake in a very disturbing way. Ryder confesses his greatest secret to the Glee Club: when he was a kid, he was molested by his seventeen year-old babysitter. The girls and Will treat the revelation with the seriousness it deserves (and Marley comes up with that “his true isn’t your true” crap again), but Artie and Sam say that they don’t understand what the big deal is and that having sex with an older woman is a boy’s dream come true. A disgusting and really stupid assessment, but sadly realistic. This would have been an excellent opportunity to address a very serious issue: the male/female double standard when it comes to abuse. Will, being the teacher, should have really made an effort to explain to his students why abuse is always wrong, whether the victim is male or female. It would have been easy, just ask them “What if he was a girl and the babysitter was a boy?” and then explain that there really is no difference. Instead, what happens? Ryder, wanting to end the conversation, says that they’re right and that he was really lucky. And that’s it. That’s how this ends. Granted, in a later scene Kitty (of all people!) tells him that she understands how he feels because something similar happened to her, but still. The topic wasn’t treated with the depth and seriousness it deserved and that is something I find really, really upsetting.
    • shamblingdead: Agreed, not just with that episode, but with the way Glee handles sexual assault in general and women's sexuality as a sort of fallout. See the Questionable Consent entry for the first season (Quinn getting pregnant because Puck got her drunk), but also Brittany's being "visited by aliens" (clearly someone sneaked into her tent at summer camp). Rachel's being afraid Jesse will be "mad at her" for not sleeping with him in Season One (not one person told her "Rachel, it's YOUR body and YOUR choice, and no one can get mad at you for that!"). Santana's solution of "I just never say no." The tremendous virgin-shaming that happens toward both Bieste and Emma in season 2 (particularly the "Sexy" episode) and 3 ("The First Time")... And finally, both Rachel and Emma giving up their virginity as a prize (in "The First Time" and "Nationals" respectively), either a consolation prize or a reward for doing something good. Jeez. For a show that seems to be trying so hard to be "sex positive," Glee really doesn't seem to know how to handle a woman's sexuality. "The First Time" and "Nationals" were really the Moment of Suck for this troper.
  • kansaiwillow/willowsomething: Finn outing Santana. Yes, Santana was being a giant jerkass, but nothing deserves being dragged out of the closet and then having your sexuality used as a weapon against someone else. And how did the writers solve the issue? Not by having Finn apologize, but by having Finn and the boys in class sing a crappy version of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and poof! Santana magically forgives him. Nope. Just nope.
  • Perfume Preppy: "New New York", full stop. After the move to New York, the show became nothing but an empty shell of what it used to be, and this episode is the primary exhibit of said metamorphosis. The remaining characters became caricatures of themselves, most of the musical numbers come across as completely pointless, and the alledged jokes can come across as obnoxious rather than entertaining.
  • Motherfickle: I could rant about the entirety of Season 6 for days at a time, but I'll stick specifically with "A Wedding". What a shitshow that was. Not only did they get fans' hope that would finally delve into Blaine's backstory up by casting his mother only for her to not have a single line in the episode or any kind of actual formal introduction at all, but they threw the long anticipated Kurt/Blaine wedding in with the Britanny/Santana wedding for no reason. Even worse, they did it after establishing that the reason Kurt and Blaine had originally broken off their engagement was because they had rushed into it and weren't truly ready. The buildup for their reunion had been so good until this episode, but they rushed it and wasted all character development that went with it.

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