History ArsonMurderAndJaywalking / Literature

%%* Creator/StephenColbert in his book ''Literature/AmericaAgain'' ranting about how America is broken.
%%--> "Look around –- we don’t make anything anymore, we’ve mortgaged our future to China, and the Apologist-in-Chief goes on world tours just to bow before foreign leaders. Worse, the L.A. Four Seasons Hotel doesn’t even have a dedicated phone button for the Spa. You have to dial an extension! Where did we lose our way?!"
%%* At the beginning of ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'', where a character reads a newspaper: "In one issue... in ''one'' issue... let's see here... strangled models, babies thrown from tenement rooftops, kids killed in the subway, a Communist rally, Mafia boss wiped out, Nazis, baseball players with AIDS, more Mafia shit, gridlock, the homeless, various maniacs, faggots dropping like flies in the streets, surrogate mothers, the cancellation of a soap opera..."
%%* From the blurb of ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'': 'Arthur Dent has been blown up, reassembled, cruelly imprisoned, horribly released and colourfully insulted more than is strictly necessary.'

%%* A piece of background text in the first ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' book states that Fowl Manor has survived "war, civil unrest and several tax audits".
%%** Speaking of Eoin Colfer, the backcover of his ''hardboiled'' novel "Plugged" announces (only(?) in the German version) "murder, corruption and hair loss."
%%* In Creator/CarlHiaasen's book ''Assume the Worst'', he writes:
%%--> I'd begin with a raw appraisal of the real world: It's pretty fucked up. It was pretty fucked up when I graduated, too, but not this bad. Our vernacular contained no such terms as "active shooter," "ISIS-inspired" or "[[TheInternetIsForCats viral cat video]]."

%%* ''Literature/AudreyWait'' has this (part of a) list for breaking up with Evan:
%%--> 1) He smokes too much pot.\\

%%** The unfortunate people sentenced to PublicExecution in Lisbon after the earthquake: "a Biscayan for marrying his godmother"; "two Portuguese for taking out the bacon of a larded pullet they were eating"; and "Dr. Pangloss, and his pupil Candide, the one for speaking his mind, and the other for seeming to approve what he had said."

%%* In ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'', Clevinger is tried for "breaking ranks while in formation, felonious assault, indiscriminate behavior, high treason, provoking, being a smart guy, listening to classical music, and so on."

%%* Played charmingly straight in Gerald Verner's 1938 mystery novella ''The Clue of the Green Candle'':
%%-->'''Trevor Lowe:''' "You are going to stand your trial, [[spoiler:Sheldon]], for two murders, an attempt to poison me, and falsifying the Council's town planning scheme."
%%* David Simon, in ''The Corner'', spends over 400 pages chronicling the horrific conditions children in West Baltimore have to put up with. He then offers this observation during a playground football game: "Disadvantaged in so many ways, [children of West Baltimore] are at a further loss for having grown up [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Coltless]]."

%%* Aldous Huxley, ''The Devils of Loudun'' (1952). “No man, however highly civilized, can listen for very long to African drumming, or Indian chanting, or Welsh hymn-singing, and retain intact his critical and self-conscious personality. It would be interesting to take a group of the most eminent philosophers from the universities, shut them up in a hot room with Moroccan dervishes or Haitian voodooists, and measure, with a stop watch, the strength of their psychological resistance to the effects of rhythmic sound. Would the Logical Positivists be able to hold out longer than the Subjective Idealists? Would the Marxists prove tougher than the Thomists or the Vedantists? What a fascinating, what a fruitful field for experiment! Meanwhile, all we can safely predict is that, if exposed long enough to the tom-toms and the singing, every one of our philosophers would end up by capering and howling with the savages.” (p. 321) of the Penguin 1975 reprint.

%%* From Creator/ChristopherMoore's ''Literature/ADirtyJob'', as the creatures of the underworld are starting to move:
%%-->"And there were hundreds of singular events experienced by individuals: creatures moving in the shadows, voices and screams from the sewer grates, milk souring, cats scratching owners, dogs howling, and a thousand people woke up to find that they no longer cared for the taste of chocolate."

%%** ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'' has Glenda realizing that the romance novels she voraciously reads are actually rather dull and formulaic: "It's absolutely guaranteed that, for example, an exciting civil war or an invasion by trolls or even a scene with any cooking in it is not going to happen."
%%** ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'' has "Truth! Justice! Freedom! Reasonably-priced love! And a hard boiled egg."
%%** The ''Literature/GoingPostal'' movie tagline: A Tale of Love and Revenge... and Stamps.

%%* From ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
%%-->Black wizards don't just grow up like toadstools, you know. Someone has to teach them complicated things like summoning demons, ritual magic, and clichéd villain dialogue.

%%* Literature/EvenCowgirlsGetTheBlues is described as touching on "various topics, including free love, drug use, birds, political rebellion, animal rights, body odor, religion, and yams."
%%* In Expect Resistance, CrimethInc.'s field manual, on the topic of War or Revolution:
%%--> "Even if we could kill every last rapist, C.E.O., head of state, police officer, and ''' every housemate who won't do the dishes''', that violence would remain in the world..."

%%* ''The Goddamn Bible'', by Shawn Taylor
%%--> ''WARNING: Contains actual content from the Bible, including verses on incest, child murder, rape, bestiality and talking animals.''

%%* The ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' series has this. Drake burns frogs, microwaves a puppy, and draws pictures of weapons.

%%** There's also a mention of how [[RousseauWasRight people aren't inherently evil]], they just get attracted to new ideas, such as dressing up in sheets and lynching people, or dressing up in jackboots and shooting people, or dressing up in tie-dye jeans and playing guitars at people.

** Gulliver gives a LongList of various evil things and people that were absent in the country of the Houyhnhnms. After listing "gibers, censurers, backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers" and "dungeon, axes, gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories" among other things, he ends with "dancing-masters".%%* At the climax of the first ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'' book, the eponymous hero arrests his arch nemesis [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Nefarian Serpine]], placing him under arrest for:
%%-->'''Skulduggery''': 'Murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and, I don't know, possibly littering.'

%%* Creator/RobertAntonWilson, in ''The Historical Literature/{{Illuminatus}}: The Widow's Son'', discusses the reasons why the Creator/MarquisdeSade was sent to the Bastille.
%%--> Imprisoned for blasphemy, profanity, heresy, sedition, atheism, buggery, sodomy, poor usage of controlled substances, and annoying his mother in law. [[note]]This is all historically correct. His mother-in-law just happened to be very well connected.[[/note]]

%%* From ''The Immortals,'' the final [[{{Doorstopper}} novel]] in ''Literature/TheEdgeChronicles'':
%%-->"Arrest?" said [[JerkAss Felftis Brack]] coolly, backing away. "On what charges?"
%%--> "Charges of fraud, embezzlement, blackmail, smuggling, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit murder..."
%%--> ''*Brack tries to flee, but runs into some sports players he hired and never paid, who throw him into a lake*''
%%--> "...And non-payment of the New Lake thousandsticks team," finished the constable.
%%* Judy Jones and William Wilson's ''An Incomplete Education'':
%%-->According to sociobiologists, if a behavior exists, it must be adaptive--a rationale that could be used to excuse racism, sexism, cruelty to animals, aerobic dancing, and other unsavory behaviors.\\

%%* In the Literature/JeevesAndWooster novel ''Literature/RightHoJeeves'', Bertie mentions a girl who criticized his "manners, morals, intellect, general physique, and method of eating asparagus".
%%** Near the end of his life, Creator/PGWodehouse was quoted as saying that now that he had been knighted and there was a waxwork of him in Madame Tussaud's, he had no further ambitions.
%%* In Creator/DannyWallace's ''Literature/JoinMe'', Danny is accused of 'being a cult leader, of trying to get people's credit card details, of being an American.'

%%* In ''Just The Words'' by Creator/MelissaBrayden, Sam is freaking out because [[spoiler:she and Hunter had sex]].
%%-->'''Sam''': That wasn't supposed to happen. As in ever.\\

%%** And then there's this gem from''Literature/{{It}}'':
%%---> "Tell your friends I am the last of a dying race," it said, grinning its sunken grin as it staggered and lurched down the porch steps after her. "The only survivor of a dying planet. I have come to rob all the women... rape all the men... and learn to do the Peppermint Twist!"
%%** Here's another from King's unfinished serial novel ''The Plant'':
%%---> Some of the things [our little "circle"] found out from "OUIJA" that are described in "blood-curdling detail" in ''True Tales of Demon Infestations'': 1. The disappearance of Amelia Earhart was actually the work of ''demons!'' 2. Demonic forces at work on H.M.S. ''Titanic''. 3. The “tulpa” that infested Richard Nixon. 4. There will be a president from ARKANSAS! 5. More.

%%* ''Literature/KittyNorville'': Vampires. Werewolves. Talk Radio.
%%-->"They incited a nebulous fear of purposes I couldn't imagine. [[WitchHunt Witch hunts]], [[TorchesAndPitchforks pogroms]]. RealityTV."
%%** That quote proves to be {{Foreshadowing}}, after she nearly got killed because she took part in a reality TV show...
%%* In ''The Know-It-All'', A.J. Jacobs reflects on the wisdom he's gained from reading the ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' and remarks that humans "have created poverty and war and Daylight Saving Time."

%%* In ''A Look at Organized Crime'', also by Allen, it's stated that "illicit activities engaged in by Cosa Nostra members included gambling, narcotics, prostitution, hijacking, loansharking, and the transportation of a large whitefish across the state line for immoral purposes."

%%* PlayedForLaughs in ''Literature/TheLostFleet: Guardian'', when the admiral inspects a heavily damaged prize ship taken from aliens in battle:
%%-->"All ships systems are nonfunctional," Lagemann explained cheerfully. "There is extensive unrepaired battle damage in most areas. The ship cannot move under her own power, and in fact has no power except for portable emergency systems. Most of the ship is uninhabitable and requires survival suits or combat armor for access. The crew is a tiny fraction of that needed for safety, security, and operation. As you can tell, there's no working gravity. And, um, the brightwork hasn't been shined."
%%"I can understand the rest," Geary said with mock severity, "[[FelonyMisdemeanor but unshined brightwork?]] Where are your priorities?

%%* In the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' novel ''Scourge'', Sash and Waistcoat, [[SmiteMeOMightySmiter shouting their defiance]], threaten the following actions:
%%-->"We'll do terrible things! We'll assassinate kings! Burn towns!"\\

%%* ''Meryll of the Stones'' by Brian Caswell mentions of the new librarian, Ms. Saunders:
%%--> There had even been whispered rumors of a divorce, which among the Bible-study and parish fete fraternity, was almost as serious as murder -- or not attending church on Sunday.
%%* ''Literature/MobyDick'':
%%--> ''"He's killed himself," she cried. "It's unfort'nate Stiggs done over again - there goes another counterpane -- god pity his poor mother! -- it will be the ruin of my house. Has the poor lad a sister? Where's that girl? -- there, Betty, go to Snarles the Painter, and tell him to paint me a sign, with -- "no suicides permitted here, and no smoking in the parlor;" -- might as well kill both birds at once."''

%%* "If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." Thomas de Quincey, ''Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts, an Essay''

%%** In ''The Last Olympian'', Percy describes the effects of Camp Half-Blood's magical borders like this:
%%--->"Our beach is on the North Shore of Long Island, and it's enchanted so most people can't even see it. People don't just appear on the beach unless they're demigods, or gods, or really, really lost pizza delivery guys. (It's happened— [[NoodleIncident but that's another story]])."

%%* Robert Browning's poem "Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin" declares that the rat plague did the following:
%%-->They fought the dogs, and killed the cats,\\

%%* Creator/DanielPinkwater does this a lot. For example, here's a Carl Sandburg-esque glimpse into the pageantry of the greatest festival in the universe, taking place on Spiegel, the Planet of the Fat Men:
%%-->The main street of Porky, renamed Blintzni Spamgorod in honor of its former glory, has turned into an endless colorful midway. Merrymakers walk, crawl, hop, slither, fly, and float back and forth all day and all night, enjoying the many pleasant spectacles. There are roast goose jugglers, meteor swallowers, monsters able to turn themselves inside out, many-mouthed musicians who can play fifteen horns at once, pseudo-octopusian fandango dancers, and whistlers from Glintnil. There are mixed beast races, wrestling matches against giant slothoids from Neptune, six-dimensional chess games, screaming contests, and knocking down three milk bottles with a baseball.

%%* [[http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Cocoa-Puffs-Manifesto/dp/0743236017 Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs]] by Chuck Klosterman.

%%* At the climax of the first ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'' book, the eponymous hero arrests his arch nemesis [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Nefarian Serpine]], placing him under arrest for:
%%-->'''Skulduggery''': 'Murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and, I don't know, possibly littering.'

%%* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] near the end of the fourth ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' book, ''Empire of Ivory''. The titular dragon has received an invitation to a tea party from his EvilCounterpart. This is the exchange that occurs:
%%-->'''Laurence:''' "There is nothing evidently insincere in it; perhaps she means it as a gesture of reconciliation.
%%-->'''Temeraire:''' "No, she does not. I am sure if I go, the tea will be very unpleasant, at least ''my'' tea will be, and I will have to drink it or look ill-mannered. Or she will make remarks which do not seem offensive, until I have gone away and thought them over; or she will try and have you murdered while I am not there: you are not to go anywhere without a guard, and if anyone tries to murder you, you must call for me very loud."

%%* In Christopher Fowler's THE VICTORIA VANISHES: "Whenever the cadaverous Home Office security supervisor became involved in their affairs, babies cried, women cowered, innocence was punished and blame was wrongly apportioned."

%%* In ''Literature/TheWindInTheWillows'', Toad gets the biggest part of a twenty-year jail sentence for [[JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife insulting a policeman]].

%%** Later in that same book, while Kvothe is starting a fire using magic while leading a group of mercenaries, he notes that they become fearful of him.
%%--->''"Then I saw Marten and Hespe wearing the same expression, native Vintish superstition written clearly on their faces. Their eyes went to the flickering fire, then back to me. I was one of those. I meddled with dark powers. I summoned demons. I ate the entire little cheese, including the rind."''

%%* In ''Zen and the Art of Faking It'' San is trying to figure out where mysterious yin-yang posters all around school came from: "Maybe his English teacher had put them up to go along with their reading on Daoism. Maybe somebody in another class had put them up as part of a project. Maybe a race of alien beings had sent them as a message of brother hood to all earthlings."

* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' book ''Visser'' the charges against the former Visser One are read during her trial, followed by the different forms of death penalty associated with each crime. It ends almost incongruously with "... treason by murder of subordinate Yeerks, which carries a sentence of exile to punishment duty."

* In Dan Gutman's novel ''Back in Time with Thomas Edison'', one of the characters, Ashley Quadrel, is arrested in 1879 for trying to pass off counterfeit money. When arguing his case - that he's a time traveler from the future, and that he's carrying real, 21st century cash - he quips, "I know what's going to happen! There's going to be a World War in 1914, and another one in 1939. There are going to be nuclear weapons that can destroy entire cities. There's going to be a new kind of music called rock and roll!"

* Stephen Manes' ''Chicken Trek'':

* In the Creator/FrederickForsyth novel ''Icon'', a man is considered unsuitable to be in line for the Russian throne because he's too old, he has no children (which means no one can come after him), he screws around too much, including with his servants, and *gasp* [[FelonyMisdemeanor he cheats at Backgammon]].

* In ''Just Shy of Harmony'', the goals of the church in 1970 are said to be:

* Subverted in ''Maggody and the Moonbeams'', where Arly Hanks states that she avoids arguing with people armed with shotguns, rifles, handguns, crossbows, or even spatulas. The spatula seems like the trivial entry in the list ... until readers recall that the chief spatula-wielder in Arly's life is her ''mother'', who runs a bar & grill. And is not lightly to be argued with, if Arly wants to live on something besides canned soup that day.
%%** Straight example from ''Mischief in Maggody'', from a teen bluntly told to leave by a (fake) psychic:
%%--->'''Carol Alice:''' Do you think she saw something terrible about me in the sand? Like I was going to die tomorrow or get hit by a chicken truck or flunk out or get thrown off the cheerleading squad?

* In Paul Robinson's ''Marnie'', the title character is playing a rollercoaster building sim, with a mod called ''Crash Test'' where you test scenarios of track sections to see if they will work. One particvularly bad design caused a lot of damage. First, the six riders in the coaster car are killed in graphic fashion, and...

* In ''Notes from the Overfed'', a short story by Creator/WoodyAllen, a character is asked by his uncle if he believes in God. He answers: "I do not believe in God. For if there is a God, then tell me, Uncle, why is there poverty and baldness? Why do some men go through life immune to a thousand mortal enemies of the race, while others get a migraine that lasts for weeks?"

* In ''The Retribution'' by Val [=McDermid=] (the author behind ''Series/WireInTheBlood''), the villain is described as such: "Jacko Vance, killer of seventeen teenage girls, murderer of a serving police officer, and a man once voted the sexiest man on British TV [...]"
* In ''Revenge of the Stainless Steel Rat'', the Hero at one point impersonates an enemy pilot and his "superior" attempts to arrest him on charges of "Looting and consorting with the enemy. And 10 G landing too. Which is not a shooting offense although the other two are."

* ''Literature/{{Suspicion}}'' by Swiss Author ''Friedrich Dürrenmatt'' has a character named Fortschig who loves to complain about everything, especially the Swiss government, the city Bern and him being poor. He also loves to complain about Trolley buses, dogs, the radio, stamp collectors, ballpoints and ''traffic police''.

* Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May mystery, ''The Ten-Second Staircase''. In the memo that begins the novel as Ch. 1, a supervising bureaucrat complains, "My instructions are disobeyed, my reputation has been irreversibly damaged, and my office wallpaper has been ruined."

* In Lawrence Block's ''Two for Tanner'' Evan encounters a one-eyed child in Laos.

%%* David Simon, in ''The Corner'', spends over 400 pages chronicling the horrific conditions children in West Baltimore have to put up with. He then offers this observation during a playground football game: "Disadvantaged in so many ways, [children of West Baltimore] are at a further loss for [[BerserkButton having grown up]] [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Coltless]]."

* ''Literature/HarryPotter''

** In the fifth book of the series Roose Bolton is describing how he came to have a bastard son, and how "all in all it was a dismal day" because ''the girl he raped after executing her husband wasn't that much fun'', the fox he was hunting got away, and his favorite horse came up lame.

* Played straight in a ''Literature/PhoenixForce'' novel when an Indian complains about Phoenix Force barging into their country when there are far worse crimes occurring in the United States, such as serial killers "and something called a jaywalker".

%%--> "Look around – we don’t make anything anymore, we’ve mortgaged our future to China, and the Apologist-in-Chief goes on world tours just to bow before foreign leaders. Worse, the L.A. Four Seasons Hotel doesn’t even have a dedicated phone button for the Spa. You have to dial an extension! Where did we lose our way?!"

%%--> There had even been whispered rumors of a divorce, which among the Bible-study and parish fete fraternity, was almost as serious as murder - or not attending church on Sunday.

%%--> ''"He's killed himself," she cried. "It's unfort'nate Stiggs done over again - there goes another counterpane - god pity his poor mother! - it will be the ruin of my house. Has the poor lad a sister? Where's that girl? - there, Betty, go to Snarles the Painter, and tell him to paint me a sign, with - "no suicides permitted here, and no smoking in the parlor;" - might as well kill both birds at once."''

* ''Literature/WonderWomanWarbringer'': The Dire Warnings about humanity are of: war, torture, genocide, pollution, and bad grammar
* Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May mystery, ''The Ten-Second Staircase''. In the memo that begins the novel as Ch. 1, a supervising bureaucrat complains, "My instructions are disobeyed, my reputation has been irreversibly damaged, and my office wallpaper has been ruined."
* From Grady Hendrix' ''Literature/PaperbacksFromHell''. From the description of the ''The Guardian'' series in the prologue:
-->"The six Guardian books were about [[LanternJawOfJustice square-jawed]], [[SherlockHomage tweed-and-blackbriar-pipe types]] investigating {{Haunted House}}s, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent underwater vampires]], [[HollywoodVoodoo voodoo]] [[{{Cult}} cults]] and UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}ns".
* Simon Braund's ''Literature/TheGreatestMoviesYoullNeverSee'': From the "Not Coming Soon" appendix, about the various failed attempts to film an adaptation of ''Literature/AConfederacyOfDunces'':
-->"Look at the statistics: Creator/JohnBelushi, Creator/JohnCandy, Creator/ChrisFarley (actors attached to the project)- dead; Natasha Lyonne (actress attached to the project)- [[Creator/LindsayLohan Lohan]]-esque career derailment; UsefulNotes/NewOrleans (city attached to the project)- decimated by Hurricane Katrina; Jo Beth Bolton (Louisiana Film Commissioner attached to the project)- murdered; Creator/WillFerrell (actor attached to the project)- made ''Film/BladesOfGlory'' (2007) instead."
* In ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomStrangerInterdimensionalInsuranceAgent'', the Balrog threatens to cast Tom Stranger's rival insurance agent Jeff Conundrum into the 7th circle of his hell dimension, reserved for murders...and the Creator/{{Fox}} executives who cancelled ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' (side note: the author seems to be a big fan of the show and even has a dimension where Creator/AdamBaldwin got elected President because the show was never cancelled in that universe and it became a libertarian utopia; another side note: the audiobook is read by Adam Baldwin).
* In the first ''Literature/FrannyKStein'' book, ''Lunch Walks Among Us'', three children have a different opinion on what is needed when the Pumpkin-Crab Monster is going on a rampage.
-->"We need a fireman", one girl said.\\
"We need a superhero", one boy said.\\
"We need dry pants", said you-know-who.[[note]]The last line refers to a boy at Franny's school who keeps wetting his pants.[[/note]]
* ''Literature/TheMoomins'': In "Comet in Moominland", Moomintroll and Sniff swear to keep a secret, saying "May the ground swallow me up, may old hags rattle my dry bones, and may I never more eat ice cream if I don't guard this secret with my life."
* There's this gem from ''[[Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo 1636: The Ottoman Onslaught]]'':
--> "There was a part of his brain-he thought of it as the part labeled "raised on too many up-time anxieties and touchie-feelie TV talk shows"-that kept shrilling at him: ''"Bad parent! Bad parent! Your children will grow up to be drug addicts, derelicts, serial murderers and hedge fund managers!"''
* In the ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'' book ''Lies Sleeping'', after the police successfully foil the villain's attempt to kidnap and murder one of the river goddesses, "Stephanopoulos gave an after-action report on our attempted godnapping/deicide/behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace."
* In Creator/ColinDexter's ''Last Seen Wearing'', we get this gem from Inspector Morse:
-->In the seventh circle of Dante’s Hell we shall doubtless find the traitors, the mass murderers, the infant torturers, and the stealers of sugar from the supermarkets.

* ''Literature/{{Shiloh}}: In the first book, Judd has made Marty dislike him by poaching deer, treating his dogs badly, spitting tobacco near people, cheating a ScatterBrainedSenior storekeeper, and accidentally blocking Marty's view of a motorcycle show while sitting in front of him.

* In the ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' novel ''Twilight Watch'', Anton is discussing the crimes of the historical figure Gilles de Rais that got him burnt at the stack. They were raping and brutally murdering hundreds of children... and not paying his taxes. In this case, Anton isn't really using the trope for humor- it's more like he's sarcastically noting that the latter was what got the authorities after him; you could get away with a lot as a Medieval aristocrat.

* In the ''[[ComicBook/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl Unbeatable Squirrel Girl]]'' novel ''2 Fuzzy, 2 Furious'', the [[ComicBook/BuckyBarnes Winter Soldier]] says this about ComicBook/{{Hydra}}: "They have toppled governments, murdered millions, and ruined the second seasons of previously promising sitcoms."

** ''Literature/SoulMusic'' describes the influence of [[ThePowerOfRock Music With Rocks In It]] thusly: "It made you wnt to kick down walls and ascend the sky on steps of fire. It made you want to pull all the switches and throw all the levers and stick your fingers in the electric socket of the Universe to see what happened next. It made you want to [[EmoTeen paint your bedroom wall black and cover it with posters]]."

** ''Literature/SoulMusic'' describes the influence of [[ThePowerOfRock Music With Rocks In It]] thusly: "It made you went to kick down walls and ascend the sky on steps of fire. It made you want to pull all the switches and throw all the levers and stick your fingers in the electric socket of the Universe to see what happened next. It made you want to [[EmoTeen paint your bedroom wall black and cover it with posters]]."

* In the ''Literature/NightWatch'' novel ''Twilight Watch'', Anton is discussing the crimes of the historical figure Gilles de Rais that got him burnt at the stack. They were raping and brutally murdering hundreds of children... and not paying his taxes. In this case, Anton isn't really using the trope for humor- it's more like he's sarcastically noting that the latter was what got the authorities after him; you could get away with a lot as a Medieval aristocrat.

** In ''Armageddon'', the crimes that Chloe Steele has been accused of by the Global Community upon her capture is being expelled from her university for making threats against the faculty, aborting two fetuses (and being suspected of killing a third daughter), while naming her son Jesus Savior Williams.

* Literature/SentimentalEducation: In order to deal with his unrequited love, Frederic Moreau writes a novel about a man with a grand love for a woman. “To possess her he murdered several gentlemen, burnt down part of the town and sang under her balcony.”

* SentimentalEducation: In order to deal with his unrequited love, Frederic Moreau writes a novel about a man with a grand love for a woman. “To possess her he murdered several gentlemen, burnt down part of the town and sang under her balcony.”

* ''The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary'' - actually a book about how one of the biggest contributors to the OxfordEnglishDictionary was criminally insane and went to jail for murder.

* In ''Literature/SookieStackhouseMysteries'', Sookie describing [[ClingyJealousGirlDebbie Pelt]] in ''Dead to the World'' "...whom I despised because she had been cruel to Alcide, insulted me grievously, burned a hole in my favorite wrap -oh- and tried to kill me by proxy. Also she had stupid hair.