History Main / AllElectionsAreSeriousBusiness

* A second-season episode of ''Series/TheWestWing'' deals with the midterm congressional elections which actually ''are'' important, but President Bartlet instead obsesses over a race in his hometown in New Hampshire where the conservative he beat in his very first election to the House of Representatives is running for a school board seat. He goes as far as having polling done and wants to comment about it to the press before CJ talks him down. As with several other issues in the episode that the characters face, it's implied to be an attempt to deflect how he's feeling about the assassination attempt he experienced in previous episodes by over-focussing on something trivial.

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' has the episode where Johnny and Carl run for litter commissioner - Johnny [[CasanovaWannabe trying to pick ladies with it, of course]]. Though the serious business includes wacky hijinks such the inclusion of a pie as a candidate after a man answers an opinion poll with "I like pie!". Johnny wins, however since he doesn't understand or care about his job in the least his first order of business is to have a huge parade in his honour that covers the city in confetti, which he's forced to clean up by those same girls he was trying to win.

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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/SouthPark https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mqxngk01.png]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' has Frankie tired of how Herriman ran the home, so she decides to run for the job. Bloo joins the campaign because -- well, [[AttentionWhore just because.]] Herriman, realizing that he can't win against Frankie on his own, makes a deal with Bloo to give up the race and become his campaign manager, and together launch a vicious smear campaign against Frankie. The election results in [[spoiler:Frankie winning, but then giving the job back to Herriman after seeing him miserable as a supermarket bag boy. The pay being less than her old job and the bonus being carrots helped.]]

* PlayedWith on the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Intro to Political Science". While Jeff and Annie treat it seriously, with Jeff using the style over substance of real politicians while Annie is the only person in the room with ideas, no one else does (and Jeff himself is only trying to prove a point to Annie about politics being shallow). After Annie defeats Jeff by dragging out an embarrassing video of him and dropping out herself as she felt bad about it, the election comes down to Leonard blowing raspberries and Magnitude saying "[[{{Catchphrase}} Pop Pop!]]" to everything. The winner is ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' (yes, the TV Show) with seven out of eleven votes.

* PlayedWith on the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Intro to Political Science". While Jeff and Annie treat it seriously, with Jeff using the style over substance of real politicians while Annie is the only person in the room with ideas, no one else does (and Jeff himself is only trying to prove a point to Annie about politics being shallow). After Annie defeats Jeff by dragging out an embarrassing video of him and dropping out herself as she felt bad about it, the election comes down to Leonard blowing raspberries and Magnitude saying Pop Pop to everything. The winner is ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' (yes, the TV Show) with seven out of eleven votes.

* PlayedWith on the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Intro to Political Science". While Jeff and Annie treat it seriously, with Jeff using the style over substance of real politicians while Annie is the only person in the room with ideas, no one else does. After Annie defeats Jeff by dragging out an embarrassing video of him and dropping out herself as she felt bad about it, the election comes down to Leonard blowing raspberries and Magnitude saying Pop Pop to everything. The winner is ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' (yes, the TV Show) with seven out of eleven votes.

* On 1984, in The Dalles, Oregon, 751 people suffered food poisoning after eating at salad bars; it was later discovered prominent followers of Rajneesh (later known as Osho) contaminated these bars with salmonella to help their candidates. The elections? For the Wasco County Circuit Court.

* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': Leslie runs for city council in her mid-sized town of Pawnee against the heir of the local candy business over the course of an entire season, and it's treated like a presidential debate. She has the services of a powerful campaign manager, makes public appearances, and goes on a bus tour. The election gets considerable coverage on local news programs and even has a televised debate. (Granted, Pawnee is just like that.)

* ''WebVideo/WaywardGuideForTheUntrainedEye'' and its [[Podcast/WaywardGuideForTheUntrainedEye companion podcast]] centers around an investigation into a bitterly divisive election for a single seat on the town council of a tiny, remote mining town. This election triggered a corruption scandal and ''[[spoiler: eight]] murders'' that nearly split the town apart. Justified in that whoever was elected would act as a tie-breaker between those for and those against allowing a MegaCorp mining company to do business there, and [[spoiler: the whole thing was a plot by a murderous werewolf who wanted revenge against the secret colony of werewolves who needed the silver in the mines to avoid [[BalefulPolymorph losing control during the full moon]]. ItMakesSenseInContext.]]

** The first was the office of "Recreation Administrator", which Kevin intended to run for just to ensure that his daughter, a [[KillerRabbit carnivorous rabbit]], could enroll in a predator-oriented youth league. Despite this being a pretty minor position (and the action itself likely not even ''requiring'' Kevin to run for office), the campaign apparently required campaign teams, rallies, campaign donors, and constant attention from the media (including front page updates) centering around the race for the position. The race quickly turns into a fight about racial purity and Kevin is actually brought down by a scandal that his wolf wife ate the wife of his opponent, a tortoise. In a ContrivedCoincidence, Kevin loses the race, but his daughter renders the results meaningless by producing the tortoise's wife, alive and bearing a half-weasel, half-tortoise child...thus forcing the tortoise to make the policy change anyway.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E19LisasSubstitute Lisa's Substitute]]", Bart runs for class president and doesn't care, ("It's just a popularity contest") until Homer talks him into caring ("Just a popularity contest? Excuse me. What's more important than popularity?"). At which point he campaigns like a mother and everybody wants him to win. On election day, he, in hubris, throws his victory party ''[[WhatAnIdiot during the recess of the voting period]], and with all the other kids (including Bart) distracted, nobody bothered to vote - except his opponent and his opponent's campaign manager.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E19LisasSubstitute Lisa's Substitute]]", Bart runs for class president and doesn't care, ("It's just a popularity contest") until Homer talks him into caring ("Just a popularity contest? Excuse me. What's more important than popularity?"). At which point he campaigns like a mother and everybody wants him to win. On election day he throws a victory party, but then we find out that nobody bothered to vote (including Bart) - except his opponent and his opponent's campaign manager.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'', Doug's opponent for school treasurer was the Mayor of Bluffington's son. The Mayor threw the full weight of his influence behind his son's campaign for school treasurer, driving a ridiculous amount of public coverage to a minor election. This proved to be an example of the Mayor having a truly [[WhatAnIdiot idiotic set of priorities]] since he was so focused on helping his son win his student government election that he neglected his own campaign for reelection in the world of grownup city politics. Naturally, this cost him his position as Mayor. As a cartoon character, he could conceivably be counting on NegativeContinuity to save him from a defeat like this--but it did not and for the remainder of the series Tippy Dink was now the Mayor of Bluffington.

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' had Frankie tired of how Herriman ran the home, so she decided to run for the job. Bloo joins the campaign because -- well, [[AttentionWhore just because.]] Herriman, realizing that he couldn't win against Frankie on his own, makes a deal with Bloo to give up the race and become his campaign manager, and together launch a vicious smear campaign against Frankie. The election results with [[spoiler:Frankie winning, but then giving the job back to Herriman after seeing him miserable as a supermarket bag boy. The pay being less than her old job and the bonus being carrots helped.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' has the episode where Johnny and Carl run for litter commissioner - Johnny [[CasanovaWannabe trying to pick ladies with it, of course]]. Though the serious business included wacky hijinks such the inclusion of a pie as a candidate after a man answers an opinion poll with "I like pie!". Johnny wins, however since he doesn't understand or care about his job in the least his first order of business is to have a huge parade in his honour that covers the city in confetti, which he's forced to clean up by those same girls he was trying to win.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' did this ''twice''.

Many minor positions in government go unopposed, and when there actually is an election, it's very small scale. Statistically, election turnouts in countries without mandatory voting are frequently low, and few people take part in elections for anything lower than the highest executive office or legislative body, depending on where the balance of power lies in the Presidential-Parliamentary spectrum [[note]]in Presidential systems, the Head of State (i.e. President) is also the chief executive and the cabinet needs no legislative confidence, so the Presidential Election would be more important that the Legislative Election; in Parliamentary systems, the chief executive - in this case, the Head of Government (i.e. Prime Minister) - is drawn from the Legislature, and the Head of State has no power of their own, so the Legislative Election would be more important than the Presidential Election where one exists, as the Head of State might be elected by the Legislature instead of the voters. In the case of parliamentary monarchies, there are no presidential elections because the head of state is a hereditary position. so the Legislative election is the only one available.[[/note]]. Since real-life student councils aren't worth much more than an extracurricular activity on your college application, real-life students are largely apathetic as to who is on the ballot.

* It will probably not surprise you that a TV show called ''Series/ThePolitician'' plays this trope straight when its main character, Payton Hobart (Creator/BenPlatt), runs for student body president of his high school during the first season. That said, Hobart's goal is to run for the office of President of the United States, and the show is steadily building in that direction, causing this trope to fade over time.

* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' combined student council elections with a parody of ''Film/CitizenKane'', casting Montana Max in the role of a pint-sized Charles Foster Kane and Hamlet as a student reporter trying to learn the meaning behind the cryptic phrase "Acme!" uttered by Max. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Montana Max actually said ''ac'''n'''e'', because he was complaining about his acne outbreak.]]

** In the early episode, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E19LisasSubstitute Lisa's Substitute]]", Bart runs for class president and doesn't care, ("It's just a popularity contest") until Homer talks him into caring ("Just a popularity contest? Excuse me. What's more important than popularity?"). At which point he campaigns like a mother and everybody wants him to win. On election day he throws a victory party, but then we find out that nobody bothered to vote (including Bart) - except his opponent and his opponent's campaign manager.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' did this three times. In "Trash of the Titans", in which Homer ran for Sanitation Commissioner, Homer obsesses with winning the campaign and proposes all kinds of things he can't deliver, leading to him eventually causing the destruction of the town via trash. In the early episode, "Lisa's Substitute", Bart runs for class president and doesn't care, ("It's just a popularity contest") until Homer talks him into caring ("Just a popularity contest? Excuse me. What's more important than popularity?"). At which point he campaigns like a mother and everybody wants him to win. On election day he throws a victory party, but then we find out that nobody bothered to vote (including Bart) - except his opponent and his opponent's campaign manager. In "See Homer Run", Homer runs in the mayoral recall election as the Safety Salamander (along with 200 other candidates), but none achieve the 5% needed to oust the incumbent Mayor Quimby.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' did this twice, once with a public office, and once with a school election. In "Trash of the Titans", in which Homer ran for Sanitation Commissioner, Homer obsesses with winning the campaign and proposes all kinds of things he can't deliver, leading to him eventually causing the destruction of the town via trash. In the early episode, "Lisa's Substitute", Bart runs for class president and doesn't care, ("It's just a popularity contest") until Homer talks him into caring ("Just a popularity contest? Excuse me. What's more important than popularity?"). At which point he campaigns like a mother and everybody wants him to win. On election day he throws a victory party, but then we find out that nobody bothered to vote (including Bart) - except his opponent and his opponent's campaign manager.

* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' combined student council elections with a parody of ''Film/CitizenKane'', casting Montana Max in the role of a pint-sized Charles Foster Kane and Hamlet as a student reporter trying to learn the meaning behind a cryptic phrase uttered by Max.

But not in the world of fiction. No matter how meaningless the post, no matter how minor the job of selecting it, ''any'' job that requires an election will be treated as seriously as the election of a world leader. Even if the person in question is running for the position of garbage collector, expect the news media to hound their every footstep sniffing out scandal as if the person was a major celebrity. Furthermore, every person in town will be talking about their positions in great detail as if the election deeply impacts every facet of their lives. A work in a school setting will show the student body deeply concerned over the position of StudentCouncilPresident. The candidates, all of whom are ''children'', spend what must be exorbitant funds on their campaigns and the school allows them to hold massive rallies in a gym or auditorium, in which the entire student body will attend in their own free time to support their favorite candidates and take part in the leadership of their school. The actual election will even feature fancy voting booths just like those used in ''real'' elections.