Unwanted Assistance / Western Animation

Unwanted Assistance in Western Animation.

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• An episode of 101 Dalmatians: The Series, Cadpig sees an argument between the Cows, Duchess and Princess, about room in their stalls. She tries to help, just as the two are apologizing to each other, asking them to express themselves. This help soon causes the entire Dearly Farm to be at each others' throats, to Cadpig's horror, before Spot just suggests Duchess and Princess open their stall up, a bit, which they agree would work, which then causes a Mediation Backfire from the Dalmatians and Animals of the Dearly Farm, on Cadpig.
  Spot: Hey, you were just trying to help a fellow creature. We know your heart was in the right place.
• American Dad!:
  • By the "Hurricane!" episode, Francine now has this attitude toward Stan in a crisis. She points out how, in every previous crisis the family has gone through, Stan's poor judgement and Insane Troll Logic have made situations even worse. No matter how rational Stan's ideas sound, they're all doomed to failure simply because he thought them up. Naturally, Stan doesn't listen to Francine and insists on trying to fix the situation. By the episode's end, he's managed to turn the house upside down, flood it, and let loose both a shark and a bear. Hayley and Steve get mauled by the shark and bear respectively, Stan knocks Jeff out in an effort to calm him down, he electrocutes Roger, and impales Francine to the wall with a javelin through her shoulder. The family is only saved by the arrival of their neighbor Buckle, who uses tranquilizer darts on the shark, the bear, and Stan. He says he wasn't sure who was doing the most damage.
  • Roger has had a couple of these moments, particularly with Steve. "A Ward Show" has him setting Steve getting Principal Lewis fired and setting up Freddie as a replacement best friend, and in "The Full Cognitive Redaction of Avery Bullock by the Coward Stan Smith" Roger tries getting rid of Steve's school bully problem by having him beaten up by Stelio Kontos first. The latter backfires when both bullies tag team on Steve.
• The Angry Beavers episode "Muscular Beaver" had Daggett attempt to help people out as the superhero the Muscular Beaver, but instead he only causes trouble for them. He bothers a bear trying to fish by attracting a giant fish that eats the bear. After that, he sees some baby birds learning to fly and annoys the mother by convincing her children that they can fly just by jumping in the air and shouting "Whoosh". Lastly, he sees a raccoon near a picnic and assumes that the raccoon is hungry, so he steals the family's food in a misguided attempt to help, only for the raccoon to get in trouble when the family catches him with the stolen food.
• Occurs when Aang tries to contact the Spirit World in the Avatar: The Last Airbender first season finale:
  Katara: He's meditating. Trying to cross over into the Spirit World. It takes all his concentration.
  Yue: Is there any way we can help?
  Aang: How about some quiet?! Come on, guys, I can hear every word you're saying!
• In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Clock King", Mayor Hill pleads that he was just trying to help when he is confronted by the Clock King, who had his Start of Darkness thanks to the mayor.
• Beetlejuice: In one episode, Beetlejuice finds himself (thanks to his Literal Genie powers) saddled with a character physically attached to his back, "Pat on the back." At first he's pleased to have someone who seems to appreciate his comedic genius, but soon the guy's constant praise and encouragement cause him to end up in some severe trouble with the law, and he actually resorts to trying to smother him to keep him from talking.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: The episode "The Littlest Planeteer" has an annoying little boy called Jason who is obsessed with becoming a hero and constantly screwing up. When his school bus is caught in smog and everyone panics, he yells, "Turn on the headlights!" and tries to do it himself, but opens the door instead, letting in the smog and choking everyone. When Wheeler gets injured, he steals his ring and charges into battle, despite Wheeler warning him that only a chosen one can properly use the ring. Sure enough, when the kid tries to blast the villain, he can't control the fire and blows up random stuff. Wheeler has to rescue him and take his ring back before coordinating with the others to get rid of the smog. Luckily for Jason, the Planeteers and their superhero backup are all very patient; he even ends up getting inducted as an honorary member of the group.
• In the Codename: Kids Next Door episode "Operation L.U.N.C.H." the villain is a Robin Hood imitator, Robin Food, who takes food from kids at school and gives it to the elderly. The elderly, of course, have difficulty eating the solid food that he brings them and would rather he bring them something easier to chew... which is what he's supposed to be doing in the first place, since he works in a nursing home cafeteria.
• The Danny Phantom episode "Secret Weapons" had Jazz fill this role for Danny, becoming his "sidekick" after finding out his secret identity. She not only refuses to listen to Danny's knowledge on ghosts, but also hacks into his computer to look at his ghost files, gives names to ghosts that Danny already knows, gets in Danny's way when he's trying to fight, repeatedly traps Danny in the Fenton Thermos by mistake and is generally unhelpful, leading to...
  Jazz: I was just trying to help.
  Danny: Nobody asked you to help! You're a lousy ghost hunter, an overbearing sister, and an annoying, obnoxious know-it-all with no respect for her brother's privacy, so STOP! HELPING!
• Disenchantment: On arriving at Elfland, Bean accidentally injures one of the elves at the gate. Her attempts to be helpful just manage to injure him further, and he insists she go away before she helps him to death.
• Family Guy:
  • At the beginning of the episode "The King is Dead", the fire department attempts to "save" a fish under a frozen lake. They get the fish out of the water, then when it starts to suffocate they attempt to defibrillate it.
  • In the episode "The Story on Page One", Peter sneaks into the classroom in the middle of the night to replace the news article Meg wrote on Mayor Adam West with an article alleging Luke Perry is gay, which he thinks everyone will love. Even though Meg gets a standing ovation, she is mortified when she finds out what happened as she sees the ghostwritten article framed in the hall.
• This is the basic premise of "Franklin's Nature Hike" from Franklin. Mr. Owl takes Franklin and his class on a nature walk and Franklin decides to help out Snail, but basically just keeps doing stuff for Snail when Snail is actually capable of doing stuff on his own and only needs help with some things, like traveling on Franklin's shoulder to travel long distances. The episode ends with Snail breaking away from Franklin and climbing up a small cliff to find some crystals. He tells Franklin that he doesn't mind getting help when he actually needs it, but that he'd like to do things on his own too.
• Futurama: In "Bender Gets Made", Leela gets temporary blindness and has to wear a blindfold. Throughout, she is too stubborn to ask for help. This leads to her mistaking a centerpiece for a salad, and for mistaking Nibbler's dish for the ship's steering wheel.
  Leela: I'm back at the wheel, Fry. Everything's under control.
  Fry: Great, great. [to himself] The one time I forgot to buy flight insurance!
• In the House of Mouse short "Donald's Goofy World", Goofy screws up and Donald tells him he doesn't want to see his face again.
• In Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Tony has to tell Pepper to stop helping him so much it's practically his catchphrase.
  Tony: PEPPER! STOP HELPING!
• Justice League:
  • Flash, Batman and the Martian Manhunter are trying to fly a Thannagarian ship, which is currently on the lawn of Wayne Manor. Flash, being his usual self, randomly presses a button on the ship's control panel out of curiosity. The button turns out to be the "fire" button for the ship's armaments, which leads to a rather large hole in Wayne Manor that Alfred happened to be behind.
    Batman: That's. Not. Helping.
  • Lobo strong-arming himself into the Justice League after Superman's death in "Hereafter". It's clear that the others tolerate Lobo only because it's easier than not keeping him under their supervision, and when they finally get the impetus to kick him out in the end:
    Lobo: Next time you lollipops need help, don't bother asking the Main Man!
    Martian Manhunter: We didn't ask you this time!
• In the Kaeloo episode "Let's Play Justice Masters", Mr. Cat gets a doctor's prescription saying he needs to relax since he is stressed. Kaeloo, Stumpy and Quack Quack try to help him, but as usual, they only end up stressing him out further.
• From Krypto the Superdog, ep. 47 "Bat Hound and the Robin" has Robbie the Robin wanting to becomes Ace's sidekick after he saves his life. Unfortunately, his attempts to "help" all end up getting worse and worse for the Bat Hound, to the point the usually Stoic dog flees Gotham City and the persistent Robin to hide into Krypto's spaceship.
• Little Bill: "Monty Joins the Class" features Little Bill's friend Monty joining his kindergarten class. Little Bill decides to be his "super helper" since Monty is new but he gets carried away in helping Monty by doing literally everything for him without listening to Monty, who keeps reassuring Little Bill that he can do it. Little Bill talks for Monty, helps Monty win a fishing game, and takes a dump truck that he's playing with to show him how it works which causes Monty to get mad and storm off. That night, Alice the Great helps Little Bill with his pajama shirt when Little Bill says he can do it. She helps Little Bill understand that Monty can do things for himself and he'll ask if he needs help and Little Bill apologizes to Monty the next day.
• Molly of Denali: In "The Clean Up Mix Up," Travis' attempts to help clean up the wilderness only make things worse, since he is referencing a book about lawns in Florida...while he's in Alaska.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Rarity tends to react this way whenever her little sister tries to help her with things.
  • Also what happens whenever Derpy tries to help with setting up for a party.
  • In the "Winter Wrap Up" episode, Twilight's attempts at using magic to help clear off snow backfire spectacularly. And she wasn't supposed to use magic in the first place!
  • This is the plot of the episode "Spike at your Service". After Applejack saves Spike from a pack of timberwolves (wolf monsters made out of wood that regenerate Dry Bones-style when killed), he feel that he owes his life to her and starts helping her at the farm. After his help causes too much trouble, the ponies decide to fake another timberwolf attack for Spike to stop, in order to make him feel as if he repaid his "debt" and stop helping.
  • In "Daring Don't", Rainbow Dash tries to help her idol A.K. Yearling, much to her chagrin, when she finds out she's really her literary hero Daring Do, but her attempts to help cause her to get captured by the villain Ahuizotl. Unlike most examples, though, Dash immediately comes to regret this, and she refuses to help even when her friends want to help Yearling out of her fix.
    Applejack: We can't go back now. Looks a mite like she needs our help more than ever!
    Rainbow Dash: Trying to help is how I got in this mess in the first place.
• Bat-Mite says he was "Just trying to help!" all the time in The New Adventures of Batman after causing Batman, Robin, and/or Batgirl a major problem that sets them back.
• Ready Jet Go!: Happens many times, usually with Mitchell trying to solve a case. If another character offers to help, Mitchell will usually turn them down, claiming that he works alone. Usually, this is out of shyness or overconfidence.
• ReBoot has several of these. In one episode, the people of Mainframe get dumbed down to the point of utter stupidity, and during a Game session, try to help Enzo but end up only getting in the way. He only manages to save the day by convincing them to "help" the User. In another episode, Bob recounts how two binomes entered a Game and set off an explosion that blew up a planet to beat the User. Unfortunately, they were INSIDE the planet at the time and only escaped by the narrowest of margins. This prompts Bob to give an informational seminar on the nature of Games and why people should stay the hell out.
• In the episode of Sealab 2021 where the guys' evil twins show up, Bizarro Dr. Quinn "helps" out Bizarro Sparks, by shattering the jar that houses his disembodied head which is the only thing keeping him alive, then pouring salt on him while jumping up and down while shouting "I'm helping!"
• The Sheep in the Big City episode "Flock, Up in the Sky" has Sheep get unwanted protection from the X Agent, who goes so far as to attack people unprovoked just for getting within ten feet of Sheep.
• In The Smurfs (1981), Gourdy the genie, who wants to fulfill his master Farmer Smurf's wishes, gets this a lot from his master.
• Sofia the First: When Sofia goes hiking with her fellow Buttercup Scouts, King Roland is afraid she'll get hurt and orders Baileywick to go along. Baileywick insists on doing things for her, which causes her to lose several chances of earning merit badges - and she's just one away from winning a sunflower pin.
• From The Spectacular Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus should really think about kicking Electro out of the Sinister Six: In "Group Therapy" he (accidentally) electrocuted Doc Ock SEVERAL TIMES in his attempt to kill Spider-Man. Not happy with that, he, along with Shocker, knocked out Rhino, thanks to Spidey's Deadly Dodging. Then, in "Reinforcements" Electro tried to free the Vulture from Spidey's web... by, once again, electrocuting him. Oh, but that doesn't end here: In "Shear Strengh", Spider-Man intentionally presses his Berserk Button by calling Electro repeatedly Max (his real name), making him shoot lightning bolts everywhere. The result? The destruction of the Master Planner's base.
• At the end of the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Naughty Nautical Neighbors", SpongeBob and Patrick demolish Squidward's house from burping up so much carbon dioxide from binging on soda. SpongeBob offers to help him clean up, but Squidward angrily kicks them out.
• In the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Michaelangelo is even more prone to this than ever. The most obvious example is when his brothers are arguing about how to pick a lock in a Kraang stronghold, Mikey asks whether any of them had bothered just hitting the nearby button... which actually activates the alarm. Which all of them knew because they had all seen the same buttons used to activate the alarm system in the past... include Mikey. He still presses the button before anyone can stop him.
• Robin's doppelganger Larry, from an episode of Teen Titans, a parody of the aforementioned Bat-Mite.
• Wander of Wander over Yonder, being afflicted with compulsive and indiscriminate Chronic Hero Syndrome, serves this kind of "help" up pretty often. A notable example was when he found himself in a locale where not one person needed his help and drove the residents so batty that they finally enlisted his services to run someone out of town: himself. Which he did, with gusto.

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