Homework Slave

"You know the rules: A+ or you're off to the pantry".

"It's okay, Marinette. You and I will do all the research and the writing for our project, and then, Chloé can present it! That way it's equal. We've been doing this ever since grade school, when I started doing Chloé's homework, and we've been BFFs ever since!"

— Sabrina Raincomprix, Miraculous Ladybug

Ah, homework. The bane of every student's existence from grade school all the way through high school. Some kids don't mind having mountains of stuff to do, while others groan at the mere thought of solving a few multiplication problems and writing a one-page essay.

Bullies hate doing homework as much as the rest of us (unless they're an Academic Alpha Bitch, Nerdy Bully, or Insufferable Genius), and as they're thinking of quick and easy ways to get the stuff done, their eye falls on the resident nerdy kid. The solution: make the nerd do the bully's homework for them. And if they don't feel like doing it for free on top of their own homework, the bully will do what they do best. A Jerk Jock will probably get the nerd to do his homework by threatening to smash his face in if he doesn't or running a Protection Racket against other bullies, while an Alpha Bitch will get the same result by threatening to socially ruin her victim instead. Cut to a montage of the nerd slaving over a pile of homework while the jock shoots hoops with his buddies or the popular girl paints her nails and/or gossips on the phone.

Of course, this has the potential to backfire in all sorts of ways if their victim scribbles wrong answers all over the worksheet, "accidentally" drops the homework in a mud puddle, just straight-up tells the teacher, etc., or if the bully is noticeably Book Dumb and the teacher notices that they're suddenly turning in way higher quality work than usual.

The student making somebody else do their homework isn't always a bully. Sometimes two students are friends with one being smarter (or more studious) than the other, and the Book Dumb one pressures the smart one into doing their homework for them. May involve some guilt-tripping and/or Puppy-Dog Eyes if the smart friend balks ("You don't want me to fail, do you?"). This version of the trope may be used as An Aesop about personal responsibility or standing up for yourself.

Related to The Bully, With Friends Like These..., False Friend, All Take and No Give, and Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics. The kid being forced to do the homework is usually a Butt-Monkey, Extreme Doormat, Bully Magnet, and/or Stereotypical Nerd with a side order of Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork. Compare The Parent-Produced Project, where instead it's the parents that do the schoolwork for their child.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Assassination Classroom: Kataoka is a hardworking and intelligent student, making it very strange that she wound up in Class 3-E, where failures and delinquents are sent to isolate them from the rest of the student body. The manga reveals the reason is that her 'friend' forces Kataoka to act as her private tutor, to the point that she no longer has any time for her own work, causing her grades to slip and resulting in her being dropped in Class 3-E while the other girl remained on the main campus.
• Food Wars!: The Elite Ten is the Absurdly Powerful Student Council of Tootsuki Academy made up of the best students of the school. However, most of the members only care about the status and privilege that comes with the position and can't be bothered to do the administrative paperwork that comes with it. This leaves Eishi, the "President", to handle all the work that his colleagues neglect.

Comic Strips

• Calvin and Hobbes:
  • When Calvin uses the Duplicator on himself, he tries to make the duplicate do his homework, but thanks to the duplicate also having Calvin's personality, he refuses. Later, he adds an Ethicator to the Duplicator and creates a purely good duplicate, who is perfectly happy to clean Calvin's toys and do his homework without complaint.
  • Zigzagged in a Running Gag throughout the series. Calvin often makes Hobbes do his homework for him, but unlike most examples, Hobbes likes helping because he's a Know-Nothing Know-It-All who sees it as an opportunity to brag about how much smarter tigers are than humans. The Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane nature of Hobbes's existence only complicates things further.

Fan Works

• CONSEQUENCES (Miraculous Ladybug): Subverted in "MAX-IMUM EFFECT" when Lila tries to bully Max into doing the make-up assignments she needs to finish in order to not fail the year, complete with slamming his laptop lid on his fingers. He pretends to agree, but when she hands in the worksheets he gives her, Ms. Bustier asks her why they're written in the unique font that only Max himself uses for his personal computer, exposing her as a cheat.
• The Peace Not Promised: Upon arriving in his younger body, Severus is surprised and somewhat disgusted to learn that he's been involved in completing other students' homework for them. Putting an end to it precipitates an early confrontation with Owen Mulciber, who isn't pleased about Severus stepping out of line — but Severus still has all his adult dueling skill and is more than prepared for him.
• The Rigel Black Chronicles: This is the price that Marcus Flint demands for his silence about "Rigel" not really being Archie. He's smart enough to pass all his exams, but couldn't be bothered writing homework assignments, so he wants Rigel to do them. Harry pulls it off successfully, for three years, until Flint graduates, ensuring that by the time the ruse breaks down and she has to flee from Hogwarts, she has just about a full education.
  Rigel: Can a first year really do a fifth year's work? Won't it make you look bad?
  Flint: You can put my name on whatever drivel you want, as long as it meets their arbitrary requirements for passing the year.
• Vengeance of Dawn: While attending Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, Laurel was bullied by the other students for being ugly and poor. Nopony was ever nice to her unless they needed her to do their homework.

Films — Animation

• In Batman And Superman Battle Of The Super Sons, Melvin complains that the only reason he isn't on the Smallville Junior High baseball team is that his grades aren't high enough to be a "nerd" like Jon. Melvin then suggests Jon do all of his homework for him so Melvin can join the team.

Films — Live-Action

• Back to the Future: When we first see George McFly in 1985, his boss (and Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up) Biff Tannen is ordering him to make Biff's paperwork so Biff can present it to their boss (and look good to get a promotion). When Marty McFly goes back in time to 1955, he encounters George and Biff when they were teenagers and Biff is bullying George to make his homework.
• Death Note (2017): Light Turner, the adapted American version of Light Yagami, is a very bright kid. There are multiple students that take advantage of this, using him to do their stacks of homework.
• 18 Again! (1988): David is forced to write term papers for his upperclassman frat brothers. Later on at a pep rally, he throws the papers he wrote one-by-one into the bonfire.
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: Not so much a direct bullying example as much as a peer pressure example, but jock Fridge convinces his former childhood friend Spencer to write an essay for him so that he can focus on athletics — an act that gets the two thrown in detention.

Literature

• Sweet Valley High: In one book of the Sweet Valley Twins series, the Unicorn clique bullies Nora by making her do their homework.

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory: After Penny gets a B+ on a paper she wrote for community college, it's revealed that it was actually Amy and Bernadette who wrote the paper for her. Penny suggests they shoot for an "A" next time, to which Bernadette says that they wanted to keep it believable, earning her a sharp look from Penny that silences her. After Penny walks away, Bernadette references this trope.
  Bernadette: I never thought I'd still be doing the Prom Queen's homework just to get her to like me.
  Amy: I know. (suddenly giddy) It's finally working!
• Big Time Rush: Subverted in "Green Time Rush". For his "Earth Day" project and vacation-winning competition, Logan gets paired with Ozzie, a bully who aggressively refuses to work on the project and demands Logan do all the work, even as Logan attempts to reason with him. However, after their model gets destroyed, Logan finds Ozzie repairing it for him. They have a heart-to-heart; Ozzie admits to not feeling smart enough to contribute, and Logan refuses to take all the credit. Ultimately, they decide to work on it as a proper team and ask the teacher for an extension, forgoing their chance at winning the contest in favor of better collaboration.
• Blackish: Junior tries asking out a popular girl with help from Zoe. At first, it seems to work and the girl agrees to take him on a date. However, it becomes clear that she only agreed to go out with him so he could edit a video for her. Junior is oblivious to the fact he was used, and when it's pointed out to him, he was more upset that he wasn't able to study for a math test.
• Blue Mountain State takes this to extremes in that the football players, as well as every other team at the college, have nerdy "homework helpers" who do all of their schoolwork for them so they can just focus on their sport. This becomes an issue in "Nerds" when, thanks to a prank by Sammy going wrong, the nerds get fed up with their mistreatment and go on strike.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Played With in "The Witch", where Amy comes home and orders her mother Catherine to write her history report for her but Catherine is actually the real Amy in her mom's body thanks to a spell, so it's technically her own homework to begin with.
  • Zig-Zagged in "Doppelgangland". Principal Snyder wants Willow to tutor a basketball star jock so he won't fail his classes and have to be suspended from the team. The player takes this to mean Snyder ordered between-the-lines Willow to do the basketball player's assignments for him (and it's not out of the question that this is precisely what Snyder meant). Unluckily for the basketball player, this is the episode where evil vampire Willow crosses over from her reality to this one, and when the basketball player gets indignant with vampire Willow over being out and about instead of at home doing his homework, she entertains herself with him. By the end of the episode, he's committed to doing his own assignments and overachieving, fearing the wrath of Willow.
• Charles in Charge: In one episode, Sarah is partnered with a boy she has a crush on for a school project. However, he starts using her feelings for him to try to get her into doing the whole project for her. Then it's revealed that the reason he does this is that he's illiterate and can't do his homework by himself.
• Good Luck Charlie: Both played straight and inverted in "Butt Dialing Duncans"; P.J.'s lab partner is George Van Brundt, who saddles P.J. with doing all of their science project, and giving him his phone number to call him when said project is finished. Emmett's lab partner, a high achiever who's clearly worried that Emmett's involvement might jeopardize his grade, tells Emmett that there's no need for them to get together, and volunteers to do the science project all on his own and put both their names on it. This earns him a hug from Emmett, much to his disdain.
• In Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Nicole is being forced by a bully to do his math homework. Later when Tyler tries to stand up for her (accidentally destroying Nicole's actual homework in the process), he's stuck doing the bully's English homework. This goes on until Geneva finds out and proceeds to rip the kid a new one, threatening to "rain on him like a Georgia thunderstorm" if he tries that stunt again.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch: In the Season 5 episode "House of Pi's", student journalists Sabrina and Roxy uncover that the Mu Pi sorority is forcing all recruits to do the sorority sisters' homework in order to get into the sorority. Once in, the junior sisters are still forced to do the senior sisters' homework.
• Victorious: Ryder Daniels likes to date girls, use them to get good grades, and then dumps them. He tries doing this to Tori, but she finds out and turns the tables on him by writing a song that calls out this behavior.
• Zoey 101: In one episode, Dustin is being bullied by a much bigger and older student as a result of being moved up into a more advanced class. The bully forces Dustin to do his homework, and when Zoey tries to stand up for him, he just decides to make him do assignments for other classes as well.

Video Games

• Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura: The Bully character background mentions that the character used to bully smart kids into doing his homework, giving him lower intelligence.
  You were the class bully, big and dumb. Extortion and intimidation have afforded you a bonus to Strength (+1), but getting people to do your homework for you leaves you with a deficiency in Intelligence (-1).
• Bully: It's been said multiple times in the game that the jocks have been strong-arming the Nerds into doing their homework for them. The Candidate also shows that Juri, a Russian jock, is actually illiterate because he couldn't read "Class President" despite speaking near-perfect English (a few grammar hiccups here and there, as well as not knowing the English phrase for fire alarm)
  Damon West: Keep this up and I won't let you do my homework anymore!
• The Classroom Trilogy: The premise of the game involves you cheating through tests with the help of somebody. In the first and third games, it is a geek that helps you (he is dead in the second). With the third game being a prequel, it is revealed you forced the geek into doing such.
• John Cena's Sexy High School Adventure!!!: Johnny will force Fucco-san to do his wrestling homework for him on the latter's first day of school. Attempting to fight back will get you a bad ending.

Web Original

• Frank James parodied this in his sketch 16 Personalities Getting BULLIED, School Bully Instantly Regrets It. The school bully threatens to beat a nerdy kid (used to represent the ENTP personality) up unless the nerd does his homework...to which the nerd replies that even though the homework is very basic for him, he'd have to deliberately get most of the answers wrong for anyone to believe that the bully actually did the homework.

Western Animation

• Aaahh!!! Real Monsters: In "Cold Hard Toenails", Ickis becomes a rich monster when he discovers a closet full of jars of toenails. One of the things he does with his newfound fortune is pay another monster to do his homework for him.
• Arthur:
  • In "Arthur's Baby", Jane is pregnant with a new baby, and Arthur is unsure of having a younger sibling. Buster tries to help him see the advantages of having a new younger sibling, one of which is having said younger sibling do his homework for him. What follows is an Imagine Spot of Arthur relaxing in his bed while telling his (imaginary) baby brother "And when you're done with the math, don't forget to write my report on Magellan!" as said baby brother is working on Arthur's homework.
  • In "Binky Barnes Art Expert", Arthur and Buster had to do an art project with Binky Barnes. An Imagine Spot shows Arthur and Buster doing Binky's homework for him.
  • It's inverted in "Sue Ellen and the Brainasaurous". Sue Ellen and the Brain are partnered for an archaeology project. Sue Ellen genuinely wants to help, but Brain is extremely paranoid about his grades and refuses to let her do any work, insisting that she'd get everything wrong. The other students encourage Sue Ellen to enjoy not having to do the assignment, but she wants to earn a good grade instead of getting a free ride.
• Danny Phantom: Parodied in "Lucky In Love," which reveals that all the popular kids of Casper High have a nerd assigned to do all their homework for them. Everyone treats this as an obvious fact and perk, even the nerd in question.
• The Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "Boom-Boom! Out Goes the Ed" starts with Eddy reading a magazine and Ed watching TV while Double-D is slaving away doing everyone's homework, the former too lazy and the latter too dumb to try.
• The Fairly OddParents!: In "The Switch Glitch!", one of the chores Vicky makes Timmy do while she relaxes in a chair is her homework. She also threatens to blackmail Timmy with an audio recording of him confessing he cheated on his math test if he refuses.
• Family Guy: In the season 5 episode "Hell Comes to Quahog", Peter tells of how he once failed at the SAT exams. The cutaway shows him pulling out an Asian child instead of a calculator, then demanding for him to "do math".
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In one episode, a one-off imaginary friend, who is a living calculator, is adopted by a stereotypical-looking bully who wants him to do the bully's homework.
• Hey Arnold! has the episode "Phoebe Skips," in which Phoebe is advanced to the sixth grade for her brilliance. Some Alpha Bitch girls "befriend" her and offer invitations to parties, but it quickly becomes clear that they're just using her to do their schoolwork for them.
• The Little Rascals: In "Poached Pooch", Spanky has to do Butch's homework as part of the deal for Pete's collar.
• Miraculous Ladybug: Chloe, the Alpha Bitch of the school, treats her friend/lackey Sabrina like trash. According to Sabrina, their "friendship" started in grade school when she started doing Chloe's homework for her.
• The Owl House: When Gus was younger, his class colleagues took advantage of his intelligence to ask him to do their homework by promising him they would be his friends. That happened so much that he became self-conscious of his naiveness. Willow was the first genuine friend he made on Hexside (it helps that they were enrolled in different spell tracks, so he wouldn't need to worry about her trying to use him even if she was the type of person to do that).
• Recess: "This Brain for Hire" has Gretchen invoking this trope by offering to tutor students to raise money for a new bike. Unfortunately, the other kids pressure her into just doing their homework for them instead of actually studying, and Gretchen reluctantly agrees. The downside is that it takes her twelve hours to do it all, and her own performance in class starts to slump. When the exhaustion finally catches up to her, she misses school on the same day as a major test—which all of the kids bomb because they'd gotten used to Gretchen doing their assignments. Both Gretchen and the kids have a Heel Realization moment (Gretchen for realizing what she was doing was wrong but ignoring her conscience, and the other students for taking advantage of her), and the latter group decides to both take their studies more seriously and buy her the bike as an apology gift.
• Total Drama: In a Season 2 confessional, Beth references an incident in which a fake friend fed her cocoa butter and got Beth hyper enough to do said friend's science homework.

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