Basic Trope: A story has a moral tacked on.
- Straight: At the end of an episode of Timmy's World O' Fun, Timmy learns not to judge people by the color of their skin.
- Exaggerated:
- Timmy learns a lesson every episode.
- Everyone on that episode of Timmy's World O' Fun learns a different lesson.
- Everyone learns a lesson in every episode of Timmy's World O' Fun.
- The moral lesson is made extremely loud and obvious.
- People have been incessantly given lessons, no exceptions. Even when they're resting in their beds.
- Downplayed: Every season of the show includes a lesson learned.
- Justified: Hey, teaching people to not be prejudiced is a very important thing.
- Inverted: The lesson comes at the beginning of the episode, and the show is based on trying to prove that it's a good lesson.
- Subverted:
- It seems like the show is building towards the traditional "don't judge others" Aesop, but the last few minutes of the show trail off into a different direction.
- At the end of the episode, Alice asks if Timmy learned anything today. Timmy responds with a blunt "Nope."
- Double Subverted:
- Only to firmly veer back into Aesop territory.
- Then a horde of Always Chaotic Evil orcs raids the school, and all humans, white, black and green team up, apply the Power of Love, and the trope is justified.
- Parodied: Spoof Aesop
- Zig Zagged: The show can't seem to decide whether it wants to teach a lesson or not.
- Averted: There are no Aesops of any kind. After all, there is more to life than just learning an Aesop.
- Enforced: The FCC mandates a certain amount of educational programming.
- Lampshaded: "Gather round, kids, it's time for Timmy McCarthy's Lesson Of The Day!"
- Invoked: Timmy's parents orchestrate the events of the episode specifically so that Timmy will learn a lesson.
- Exploited: Every time he gets caught doing something bad, Timmy pretends he's learned his lesson to play on the sympathy of his tutors and brings up every time he does something bad.
- Defied:
- Timmy refuses to learn any lessons.
- The lessons Timmy learns are irrelevant, because they will never apply to him.
- Discussed: "Timmy, why do you seem to learn some obvious lesson every week?"
- Conversed: "Shows like that always have some kind of moral at the end."
- Deconstructed:
- At first, it would be your usual moral that people are supposed to know. Then people realized that it's insultingly simple and decided to go with something that's not just a shoehorned moral, but something for people that's genuinely fun and not so painfully obvious. Aesops can't ever help Timmy or others with everything and are no valid substitutes to actual people who passed away or are still living, regardless of species. They also can't conveniently ease up everyone's emotions.
- One specific aesop from one of the more popular episodes of Timmy's World O' Fun ends up starting a trend with television writers, causing many similar shows to tack on the same moral in order to cash in on the success. This causes a drop in ratings for all shows since viewers are tired of being preached the same moral from all ends.
- Life is too complicated to be dumbed down into simple morals and no policy is the best answer to every possible situation.
- The events of the episode get Timmy killed. Moral lessons are moot if you aren't alive to apply them.
- Reconstructed:
- Timmy is a kid, so the Aesop is not obvious, and they make sure there is plenty of fun and actual storyline thrown in and practiced writing methods so the moral was not shoehorned, and was actually a sub-plot to the genuinely fun episode. They also made sure the moral is given in a far more natural and realistic way, rather than treating it like an endorsement or giving them out in a forced manner.
- The ratings drop competing shows received caused their writers to learn their lesson about teaching lessons. They realize they have to have more variety in their aesops if they want their shows to stay on the air, otherwise they could come across as Anvilicious and annoy viewers who would feel like they're being talked down to.
- The story acknowledges that life is complex and uses its morals to instead encourage positive values such as tolerance, protection of the innocent, and critical thinking.
- The lesson can still be applied by the survivors.
Today, we learned that editing a trope page during the wee hours of the morning doesn't make you a bad person. Go back to An Aesop for more lessons.
