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Film (Live-Action)
Nelson Mandela: Someone gave me this note when I was leaving Boipatong, and I want to read it to you. [reads from note] It says, "No peace; do not talk about peace. We have had enough. Please, Mr. Mandela, no peace. Give us weapons, not peace." [puts note aside] Here is my answer. There is only one way forward...and that is peace. I know that is not what you want to hear, but there is no other way. I am your leader, and as long as I am your leader I am going to give you leadership! As long as I am your leader, I am going to tell you, always, when you are wrong. And I tell you now, you are wrong. I have given my life to the struggle, I have been willing to die, I have lost twenty-seven years of my life in prison. But I tell you now, I have forgiven them. If I can forgive them, then you can forgive them. We cannot win a war, but we can win an election. So, my people; stay home, be peaceful, and when Election Day comes...vote!
—Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Live-Action TV
"I know writers who use subtext, and they're all cowards. Okay? What I was asking in that scene is, what if politicians continue to pay doctors peanuts? Could they literally turn into monkeys? And no one's asked that before."
—Garth Marenghi, Garth Marenghis Darkplace
Video Games
"I've found the whole 'fake geek girl' thing alternately interesting and depressing, so there's a quest about it in Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep. It's called 'Fake Geek Guy,' because my writing is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. To the face. Of your grandmother."
— Anthony Burch, regarding Borderlands 2
Web Animation
"Now, there are a number of things a writer can do to make sure this moral really sinks in for the audience. No, not using subtlety by showing the damage caused by seeking vengeance. The superior method is just have a character soapbox about how "revenge is no-good bad" and have the moral of the story be spelled out over and over again in the most blunt stupid way possible until the audience is seeking revenge for having their time wasted by all this heavy-handed preaching."
—JP Beaubien, Terrible Writing Advice, REVENGE PLOTS
Web Original
As for Henry Winkler...it's difficult to watch how far down the ladder he's taken Fonzie (with the "help" of the lazy writers and all the special interest groups that over time turned the once-dangerous, threatening Fonzie character into some kind of walking/talking embodiment of their social concerns—watch Fonzie eat his veggies, and get a library card, and wear glasses, and cry, and pretend to be weak to really be strong).
—Paul Mavis
on Happy Days
on Happy Days"Where someone like Harlan Ellison might use the scalpel or the cleaver, Rall can be counted on to reach for the chainsaw every time."
—Rational Wiki on Ted Rall
David: I’d just like to say this: exactly why does anyone in the world have a gigantic neon sign in their bedroom that says “HELLO THERE” in asymmetrical letterforms? Other than for a totally hacky wreck-the-apartment scene where she can smash the O and T so it can say “HELL HERE.”
Chris: Well how else do you signal a dramatic change in personality? Other than spraypainting your cat shirts, of course.
Chris: Well how else do you signal a dramatic change in personality? Other than spraypainting your cat shirts, of course.
—Chris Sims and David Uzumeri on Batman Returns
Batman Returns"Don’t know what straw dogs are? Well don’t worry, because we will literally have the characters sit down and discuss the symbolism of it for three minutes. I’m almost shocked there weren’t flashing words on the screen going “Important Theme!!!! Pay Attention!!!” We also learn David is writing a screenplay about Stalingrad. Don’t get the parallel? Don’t worry, we will have a long scene where David explains very thoroughly to the rednecks the importance of the story."
"Mr. Shatner shows us the word PARADISE inscribed in the entranceway arch, where someone has painted the word LOST. Wow, that’s really extra-meaningful. It’s almost as if they’re saying that calling something “paradise” doesn’t actually make it so—in fact, it might even become the very opposite of that! What rich irony, indeed."
"The subtlety bus missed this town."
"When a show is going to lay on the symbolism I prefer mine to have the subtlety of Lost rather than the smack-in-the-face bugle blaring of a Dora the Explorer episode. (That's right! There are seven Lex clones! Can you say siete?)"
—Julian Finn on Smallville, "Lazarus"
on Smallville, "Lazarus"BEN arrives at LIFE and walks past the LIFE MOTTO which is:
LIFE MOTTO: To see the world, Things dangerous to come to, To see behind walls, Draw closer, To find each other and to feel. That is the purpose of life.
The MOTTO is inscribed on a GIANT 30,000-TON ANVIL which then TOPPLES OVER and CRUSHES THE AUDIENCE. The FILM continues on, its dim light impassively flickering over the ENORMOUS SMEAR OF GOO that was once dozens of innocent people.
LIFE MOTTO: To see the world, Things dangerous to come to, To see behind walls, Draw closer, To find each other and to feel. That is the purpose of life.
The MOTTO is inscribed on a GIANT 30,000-TON ANVIL which then TOPPLES OVER and CRUSHES THE AUDIENCE. The FILM continues on, its dim light impassively flickering over the ENORMOUS SMEAR OF GOO that was once dozens of innocent people.
LAURA: What was your favorite vacation?
SAM: This one time that I had to spend with my dad trapped on a ship in Greenland for ten days with nothing to do but hang out with him.
LAURA: Hon, I said "favorite," not "suckiest."
SAM: I know.
ANVILS: *fall through the theater ceiling and kill several audience members*
SAM: This one time that I had to spend with my dad trapped on a ship in Greenland for ten days with nothing to do but hang out with him.
LAURA: Hon, I said "favorite," not "suckiest."
SAM: I know.
ANVILS: *fall through the theater ceiling and kill several audience members*
Web Video
Together, they'll learn: "Military = BAD. Trees = GOOD."
Rod: Man, that was a good movie, An Inconvenient Truth.
Rick: That is it! I'm getting myself a car that's environmentally friendly!
Allison Pregler: (watching) I feel like this movie has some sort of message it's trying to tell us.
Rick: That is it! I'm getting myself a car that's environmentally friendly!
Allison Pregler: (watching) I feel like this movie has some sort of message it's trying to tell us.
— Birdemic
Okay guys, I get it. The hyperbole is a good way to get people's attention, but you don't think that just maybe referring to Africa as a famine-ravaged wasteland and consigning an entire continent to 'chimes of doom' might be a bit patronizing?
— The Nostalgia Chick on "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
That's what you're supposed to do, right? Tell the audience what the thesis is?
— hazel, "weird & kinda scary tokusatsu girls"
"GEE, DO YOU THINK THAT SUPERHEROES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE GODS?! I CAN'T TELL! THEY'RE BEING SO SUBTILE ABOUT IT!"
— Linkara on the religious themes of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Western Animation
Buster: Well, I hope the kids got the message.
Plucky: Yeah, drinkin's uncool.
Buster: So, do we get to do a funny episode tomorrow?
Hamton: I hope so!
Plucky: Yeah, drinkin's uncool.
Buster: So, do we get to do a funny episode tomorrow?
Hamton: I hope so!
—One Beer, Tiny Toon Adventures
Mad Scientist: I have combined the DNA of the world's most evil animals to make the most evil creature of them all!
(the cloning machine opens, and out steps...)
Man: It turns out it's Man.
(Scare Chord)
(the cloning machine opens, and out steps...)
Man: It turns out it's Man.
(Scare Chord)
— Futurama, a Scary Door short
Real Life
"This story, alas, seems to have a moral, and, in fact, ends by pounding that moral over the reader's head. That is bad. Straightforward preaching spoils the effectiveness of a story. If you can't resist the impulse to improve your fellow human beings, do it subtly."
"A story forced to carry a message will get heavy and die."
—Shannon Hale
"More of a warning campaign to the nation's youth than an actual plot device for the characters to explore, these episodes speak with old men's voices from teenage mouths, trying to impart the notion on a young audience that kids would turn their backs on someone who smoked a cigarette or offered a beer at a party, because that's just the uncoolest thing ever, dude."
—Stuart Millard, So Excited, So Scared
"If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack."
—Winston Churchill, providing an alternate view
