This title, taken from an infamous
Catch Phrase of the
Daily Mail, a British tabloid, can refer to one of two things.
In some cases, this might be literally about political correctness taken too far, presented through a
Granola Girl or
Soapbox Sadie who embodies the negative aspects of the PC movement.
On the other hand, the satire may be pointed in the other direction; the characters using the phrase may be the kind of far-right-wing conservative who sees the Iron Maiden as a soft punishment for shoplifting, in the way that
Daily Mail readers are generally seen.
See also
Strawman Political.
Examples of the former:
- On Homestar Runner, resident Granola Girl Marzipan hosts a disturbingly politically correct school program called L.U.R.N. in the Strong Bad Email coloring
. Students are referred to as "life-blossoms", classes are in a variety of environmentally conscious topics such as "eco-algebra" and "talking to animals", and coloring is done with crayons that have "politically correct" names (like "Crimson Suggestion" for "red") and can't actually be used to color, "so that no one life-blossom shines brighter than any other".
- Similar happenings in a latter-day episode of The Simpsons as well. The school is segregated according to gender by a staunch feminist, and Lisa is so disappointed with said feminist's "How do numbers make you feeeeeeeeel?" style of teaching (complete with light show) that she gender-bends herself into the boy school.
- The movie PCU is a Wacky Fratboy Hijinx film set against the backdrop of an I-can't-believe-it's-not-Berkeley college where everybody protests everything. The movie's climax actually had the students protest that they were not going to protest.
- South Park does this one several times a season. In "Death Camp of Tolerance", the kids are sent to the titular camp after they complain about Mr. Garrison being "gay"... when they're trying to say that Mr. Garrison is performing sexual acts in front of the class.
- Additionally, in "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", Randy Marsh (Stan's dad) gets hounded everywhere as "that Nigger Guy" he goes because he accidentally used a racial epithet on national television, even after he literally kisses Jesse Jackson's ass while seeking forgiveness.
- As Token said, Jesse Jackson isn't the emperor of Black people!
- This episode slowly turns into a subversion of the trope by the end, though, when Congress becomes so outraged by the oppression of Randy Marsh and others like him that they ban the epithet "Nigger Guy", stating that while "nigger" and "guy" are perfectly acceptable words on their own, put together they're unspeakably repressive.
- Lee Howard and Greg Gamble's It's Tough to Be Somebody! satirizes this, including a memorable scene where the teacher says, "Good morning, students" and then spends a good ten minutes apologizing for every possible way in which she could have offended some segment of the class with that statement.
- Literary example: Kurt Vonnegut's short story Harrison Bergeron takes place in a future dystopia where everyone has been made equal by handicapping devices which curtail excess intelligence, strength and creativity. There's even a government official (The "Handicapper General") whose job is to oversee this.
- Incompetence by Rob Grant is set in a future United States of Europe where it is illegal to discriminate candidates for employment not only on the grounds of gender, age, race or creed, but on actual ability to do the job, with predictable results.
Examples of the latter:
