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Comic Strips
- One of Lucy's personality-cementing moments in Peanuts is the famous trick of pulling a football away from Charlie Brown optimistically trying to kick it (He managed it once... with hilarious results.
). The actual frequency of this gag has more to do with the sheer length of the strip; Schultz specifically commented he only did these strips once a year at most to make sure the joke stayed fresh and keep Lucy from appearing too nasty. So she did it 48 times in 17,000+ strips. What's even more sad is that Schulz said in an interview that letting Charlie Brown finally kick the football would've been a grave disservice.- Of course, doing it at the worst possible moment and getting away with it in the Animated Adaptation might have helped worsen things...
- Put the previous two together, by the way, and you get X-Nuts◊.
- Fun fact: the very first football pull was actually performed by Violet, not Lucy; she pulls the ball away because she's afraid he'll kick her hand, not out of malice. And in the last one, Rerun replaced Lucy - we never find out whether Charlie Brown kicked it or not.
Jokes
- The following joke is the former Trope Namer for Bestiality Is Depraved, and distills the essence of this trope more than any other joke:A young man is walking through a small village one day and decides to stop by a bar and have a beer. He walks into a bar, and sees a grizzled old man, crying into his beer. Curious, the young man sits down and says, "Hey old timer, why the long face?"
The old man looks at him and points out the window, "See that dock out there? I built that dock with my own two hands, plank by plank, nail by nail, but do they call me McGregor the dockbuilder? No, no."
The old man continued, "And see that boat out there? I've been fishing these waters for my village for 35 years! But do they call me McGregor the fisherman? No, no."
The old man continued, "And see all the crops in the farms out there? I planted and have been farming those crops for my village for nearly 45 years! But do they call me McGregor the farmer? No, no."
The old man starts to cry again, "But you screw one goat..."- The late Spalding Gray, recounting a first (and evidently uncharacteristic) homosexual experience, told the same joke, ending with 'Pierre the Sailor/the Carpenter/the Fireman' exclaiming "I suck one cock…!".
- In a similar note is the line from a stand-up routine of "nobody ever compliments me on the times when I wasn't a cannibal."
Mythology and Religion
- Basically the entire Greek pantheon. Pick a god, any god, and chances are you'll pretty easily find a story of them being a downright asshole and/or massive hypocrite, leading to a modern perception that's much less respectful than how they were actually seen by their worshippers. Heck, it's almost easier to list the gods that weren't subject to this: Hermes (best known for bailing out heroes), Hestia (as goddess of hearth and home, she generally stayed out of trouble), and Hephaestus (who was more likely to screw with other gods than with mortals). But if you want more detail:
- Zeus is the patron of the sky, Greek civilization, justice, and hospitality. He's the king of the gods, their wisest and most powerful member, and is generally the one to take the lead when the gods need to beat back horrible monsters of some description or another. But for people today, he's the God of Horndogs, as we have a lot of stories about how he banged one mortal woman or other, with the woman's consent depending on the author or translator (the Greek word for 'seduction' is a bit ambiguous with regards to consent). There are several potential historical explanations, such as syncretism with other gods who had their own consorts or legitimacy for ruling houses, but thousands of years later, most of that context has disappeared and we're just left with Mr. Horny.
- Hera is the Queen of Olympus, goddess of rulership and marriage, and probably the most powerful and influential goddess, but is mostly known for being constantly cheated on and her violence towards anyone who dared accept Zeus's affections, even if they were rape victims.
- Poseidon was the god of the sea and of horses, but when not depicted as a sort of generic "King of Atlantis" figure, he's famous for his rivalry with Athena and for losing the contest to name Athens to her. Either that or being a jerk to Odysseus.
- Athena is the goddess of wisdom, crafts, strategy, and tactics, and was generally seen as the 'good' war god (At least to the Athenians, who were a bit biased on the subject). And while she has escaped the worst of this trope, she's never going to live down Victim-Blaming Medusa and turning her into a gorgon (which has no actual mythological basis — Ovid made it up for The Metamorphoses, and the guy had a history of anti-authoritarianism and making the gods look bad).
- Artemis, like Athena, is generally seen in a good light, but she is still known for being so 'No Boys Allowed' that she killed a guy for accidentally peeping on her.
- Artemis's brother Apollo was the god of a whole lot of things, including music, sports, and medicine, but he's best known for his Cartwright Curse — he has a lot of lovers winding up dead or turned into plants.
- Ares is in the unique position of having caught the bad end of this trope long before the collapse of Ancient Greece- most of the stories we have involve Ares being mocked for his Dumb Muscle nature and being considered the Black Sheep of the family, and the stories praising him are much more obscure.
- Dionysus wasn't just the god of throwing parties and getting drunk; he was originally worshipped as a god of madness, nature, outcasts, and rebirth, and wine was associated with him because drunkenness was thought to tap in to the primal subconscious mind that Dionysus represented. He was toned down when accepted into the regular pantheon, and worship by a hedonistic ruling class put his 'party dude' side into greater focus.
- Hades is usually seen as one of the 'reasonable deities' (since he was stuck in the Underworld, he didn't participate in many myths), but his best-known exploit is still kidnapping Persephone.
- Demeter is the goddess of agriculture and nature, but she's best known for when she refused to do her job after Persephone was kidnapped, creating winter.
- Aphrodite features in too many myths to recount here, but suffice to say she's more often seen as the Alpha Bitch goddess than the love goddess (especially due to her role in the Psyche myth, where she punishes poor Psyche for other people saying Psyche was more beautiful than Aphrodite).
- Also from Greek myth, Achilles, who was a peerless warrior and in later myths outright Nigh-Invulnerable except for his, his heel, which is now his most remembered trait.
- The Bible:
- Elisha travelled around Israel healing the sick, performing miracles, and challenging pagan religious leaders. But (today at least) he's more famous for sending bears to maul a group of young men.
- The Apostle Thomas is remembered as "Doubting Thomas" for questioning whether Jesus rose from the dead when he first heard it.
- The Shinto storm deity, Susanoo. Though he saved a woman from being sacrificed to the eight-headed serpent Orochi and gave its tailbone to Amaterasu as a sword, he's best known for his behavior that led him to become The Atoner. After losing a god-creating-contest to Amaterasu, a drunken Susanoo rampaged through the High Plain of Heaven, culminating in an incident where he threw a half-flayed horse into Amaterasu's weaving room, scaring her so badly that he almost plunged Heaven into an eternity of darkness.
Podcasts
- In one episode of Jemjammer, Cacophony was almost killed by an enchanted carpet. It's a sore spot for her.
Puppet Shows
- Sesame Street:
- Many characters are best known for singing certain songs. These include "Rubber Duckie" for Ernie, "C is for Cookie" for Cookie Monster, both "A Cookie is a Sometimes Food" and "Put Down the Duckie" for Hoots, and "I Love Trash" for Oscar.
- Mr. Hooper is most known for A.) Being called Mr. "Looper" or "Pooper" by Big Bird, and B.) Dying, in a Very Special Episode meant to educate kids about death.
- The thing most people know about Snuffy is "he used to be a Not-So-Imaginary Friend".
- Thunderbirds: Lady Penelope is best known among fans for her bad driving in "Vault of Death" and her fear of mice in "The Mighty Atom." This is in spite of the fact these "faults" only appeared in one episode and most episodes after "Vault Of Death" show that she's actually improved her driving skills.
Radio
- In one episode of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Jack Dee describes several film sequels scripted by Graeme and Tim. They all involve giant kittens.
Roleplay
- Tends to happen fairly frequently in Survival of the Fittest, as some handlers sometimes make jokes about characters based on something they only did once. This includes Reiko Ishida dropping her bread, Charlene Norris putting an implausible amount of jello shots in a certain area, and Jay Holland and his PANTIESPANTIESPANTIES.
- Five years ago, during an ordinary battle on Neo Pokeforum, one of the arbiters had a player's torchic taken away and given to his opponent. Despite the time that passed since then, the fact that this arbiter left the forum for a long time, and the whole administration is brand new, the player in question still won't forget this and won't let anyone else forget it either.
Stand-Up Comedy
- The Laugh Factory has seen performers doing stand-up throughout the years, but it will forever be remembered for being the place where Michael Richards went on a profoundly racist rant at audience members that heckled him.
Theater
- The title character of Hamlet is well-known for being indecisive and angsty, spending scenes contemplating his navel instead of doing something. It's gotten to the point where "he's a Hamlet" means "he's indecisive." But in the actual play, Hamlet acts stupidly rash just as often as he acts stupidly timid, most notably when he kills Polonius. Which means...
- Götz von Berlichingen will forever be remembered solely as "that play where the guy says 'kiss my ass'". But then again, when Mozart did a proto-Filk Song (No, seriously) consisting entirely of quoting said line, what else can you be remembered for?
- Regardless of its actual merits as a piece of theatre, Tom Taylor's 19th-century screwball farce Our American Cousin is doomed to be forever remembered as the play that Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated.
- In The Ring of the Nibelung, Fasolt is in love with Freia, believes that Wotan will give her to him, and ends up becoming the Abel to his brother’s Cain. Therefore, he is often viewed as a Gentle Giant and a naive fool who thinks of nothing except getting his hands on Freia. His brilliant "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards Wotan and the fact that he quickly realizes just how dangerous Alberich is are glossed over, and it can get forgotten that of the two giants, he has more trouble keeping his temper in check.
Toys
- Barbie: A bad combination of misheard lines from the "Teen Talk" doll, note inbuilt blonde stereotypes, and reactions to her own model-like figure (she started out as a fashion doll) turned common perception of her into the Dumb Blonde doll, with all the vapidness and shallowness it implied — there's a reason Stepford Smiles are called "Barbie Smiles", after all. Even the multiple jobs her dolls have amassed over the years and her portrayals in the direct-to-video movies haven't shaken this stigma off completely. The 2023 theatrical movie seems to have caused a shift away from this perception, but only time will tell.
