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alt title(s): Warped Aesop; Family Unfriendly Moral; Politically Incorrect Aesop
...I leave it to be settled by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.
— the last line of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. So the lesson is - never try.
Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

Everyone knows the Stock Aesops. Be happy with what you have, friendship is more important than money, dream of better things. Sometimes these morals contradict each other, but nobody is surprised to see any of them in a story.

But there are also morals that don't appear in fiction very often. Morals like "No good deed goes unpunished," "Don't automatically share, because some people are moochers," or "Peace is not always the answer". For a certain definition of morality, they aren't wrong, but it still seems...jarring, somehow.

Do this and you have a Family Unfriendly Aesop. If it appeared in a kids' television show, the network would get 32,845 angry e-mails from Moral Guardians in the first day after airing. And if it appeared in a show for adults, it would still seem jarring, even if it was actually very good advice.

A benefit — and problem — of the Family Unfriendly Aesop is that it's so unexpected. It can make for a strong Twist Ending, but it's so surprising that it may dominate the story. Instead of leaving the audience something to think about after the show, they're busy scratching their heads and wondering, "did they really say that? In public?"

A Family Unfriendly Aesop is not necessarily cynical. Shows on the idealistic end of the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism can have them too, if they have morals like "take candy from strangers, because people are nice."

Note that just because something happens in a story, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a Family Unfriendly Aesop. A story about a criminal who gets away with murder is not necessarily teaching the moral that crime does pay. A story with a big Downer Ending does not mean it is trying to teach a lesson that life is pointless. If it's not the point of a story, it's not An Aesop.

Before adding an example to this list, think about whether the example is actually preaching a moral, or if it is simply telling a story to entertain. An unusual moral also doesn't count if it's played for laughs; that's a Spoof Aesop. If it started out as a good moral, but was broken, that doesn't count either; that's a Broken Aesop.

Due to Values Dissonance, a moral that is family unfriendly in one culture may be very family friendly in another, especially morals about race and sex. This list is for morals that were family unfriendly even for the culture that they were written in. A prime target for dropping anvils on.

Compare Clueless Aesop and some cases of Unfortunate Implications. See also The Complainer Is Always Wrong.

Examples:

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