History BrokenAesop / WesternAnimation

*** Arthur learns his lesson when Binky hits him, and his parents treat Binky hitting Arthur as suitable punishment for Arthur hitting his sister, so it's apparently okay to hit someone to teach them why hitting is wrong. On top of this, Binky hits Arthur because he is [[PeerPressuredBully peer-pressured]] by his {{Jerkass}} friends into hitting some random kid to prove how tough he is, which ends up being Arthur via complete coincidence (although Binky is aware that Arthur hit D.W. and is distressed about it, so that can be debated), but Arthur hits D.W. as a direct consequence of her behavior. The fact that Binky's intent is to engage in the exact sort of behavior that the episode's Aesop is meant to discourage is never meaningfully acknowledged.

** In "[[Recap/ArthurS2E6BusterBaxterCatSaverPlayItAgainDW Buster Baxter, Cat Saver]]" after Buster (allegedly) rescues a cat, he gets hailed as a hero, with the aesop being not letting success go to your head. However, this falls flat as the only reason Buster was acting the way he did in the first place was the townspeople going out of their way to heap praise on him.

** Lampshaded in 'The Claw.' Bandit says he's teaching the girls a valuable lesson about money by making their pretend claw game more realistic by demanding the girls get real coins from doing housework. When he puts in a block that would grant them as much ice cream as they want, his claw machine conveniently breaks down. He attempts to explain to the girls that this is how the world works, only to be interrupted by them tickling him. As the girls chow down on their well-deserved ice cream, Chilli asks if they learned anything today, to which they both say "nope!"
** 'Pass the Parcel' tries to teach lessons about sportsmanship (Especially with games of chance), sometimes not being guaranteed to walk away with something from games of chance makes it more fun, and that your time might eventually come. However, this is somewhat undermined by the fact that every time they played using "Lucky's Dad's Rules"[[labelnote:*]]There is not a small present in every layer with one "big" present at the centre[[/labelnote]] a different kid was shown winning, as well as when Bingo ''finally'' got the big prize. When Bingo finally got to win, the other kids clearly felt it was "her turn" and one of the guests even tried to find a [[LoopholeAbuse loophole]] in the song choice to pass it to her so she would win.

* Invoked in ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBabyBackInBusiness''. In order to convince Tim to break into [[BadBoss Mega Fat CEO Baby's]] vault, the Boss Baby points out that the hero in his comic book saves the world and is rewarded for it, despite him [[DestructiveSavior destroying half the city and causing approximately $80 million in damages.]]
--> '''Boss Baby:''' Don't you see? You can do whatever you want so long as it's for the greater good!
** In a more straight example, [[WesternAnimation/TheBossBaby the original film]] according to the rules of its' universe, states that babies either go to families or work for Baby Corp, ([[Series/TheMuppetShow no third alternative]]) and that the crux of the movie is the titular character [[CharacterDevelopment learning]] how much he likes being part of a family and giving up his promotion at Baby Corp to be with them. This series [[HandWave somehow has it]] that he's both part of the family and working for Baby Corp again, meaning all that development was thrown out the window cause now he has both. And yes, one could argue it's an AlternateContinuity / BroadStrokes [[note]] As tends to be the case with pretty much every Creator/DreamWorksAnimation series, can't they do one that's actually canon to one of their movies? [[/note]] but that still doesn't mean the lesson wasn't invalidated.

* The ''WesternAnimation/CareBearsWelcomeToCareALot'' episode "Welcome to Grump-A-Lot" has Grumpy Bear lose his temper at his friends, causing a "Grumpy Storm" to break loose and turn everyone except for Grumpy into foul-tempered opposites of their normal selves. The lesson (as spelled out by Tenderheart) is that "While we all get frustrated, we must learn to control our emotions." Which would be fine, except Grumpy only blew up at the others because he was all set to watch TV in peace and everyone showed up at his place without being invited, ate all his food, criticized the way he had laid out the snacks, deliberately stood in front of the TV screen so he couldn't see anything, talked and sang loudly over the announcer, and utterly refused to respect his privacy. So the lesson came across more as "It's wrong to want time for yourself, and if your friends walk all over you and refuse to consider your feelings on the matter, you have no right to get angry at them about it." Bonus points because this was the exact kind of lesson that the Care Bears franchise originally tried to ''avoid'' with Grumpy Bear; the entire point to his character was to teach kids that it's okay to sometimes be grumpy.

** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS7E12Episode420 Episode 420]]" unsuccessfully juggles the "legalizing weed will have no negative consequences on society" aesop with "stoners are morons" jokes. For example, the scene where Brian states that ever since legalizing weed worker productivity is up over 100% doesn't really fare so well since only a scene away Peter was so stoned he couldn't even set up a CutawayGag. And when he mentions that crime is down, it is clear that it is because everyone is too stoned to get off the couch.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': The show often teaches that hard work isn't always glamorous, but it's always the proper and admirable way to get results. In "Business is Picking Up," Bobby job shadows under a man who cleans up animal waste for a living. He enjoys this so much that he thinks about setting up his own sort of business involving vomit clean-ups, but some of the other characters seen are {{squick}}ed at either of the cleanup jobs. The show-wide aesop is broken when Bobby is portrayed as being in the wrong for wanting to do dirty work, even if it's an honest job and said animal waste cleaner is shown to make big cash off of his job[[note]]to the point where he lives in a mansion[[/note]], because other people would hate him for it to the point that they might beat him up. This is conveyed to Bobby by the animal waste-cleaner ''staging a lie'' to him about it. The aesop of the episode is less "Hard work has great payoffs" and more "Having a job involves work... and making sure enough people like you" mixed in with [[GenerationXerox "Kids should follow after their parents."]] Adding to the inconsistency, five episodes later the show goes back to emphasizing the work and ignoring popularity when Bobby and Joseph are more respected by their fellow students for bumming off the streets (which is shown as a cheap and unfair way to get money) than for having an honest job.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'': "Nobody Doesn't Like TJ" tries to deliver the aesop of "You can't please everyone" or "Not everyone will like you". By the end of the episode, Gordo and TJ still decide they don't like each other for no good reason - and it's treated as alright. This is undermined a ''lot'' by the fact that Gordo has plenty of reasons to legitimately ''not'' like TJ, ranging from TJ's obsequious behaviour towards him and giving Gordo something he was allergic to (albeit by accident). It instead comes off as "It's alright to dislike people for no real reason".

** "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E7ProperCondomUse Proper Condom Use]]" says parents should teach sex ed, and not trust it to schools, because some teachers are ignorant. But the parents in ''South Park'' do dumb shit all the time. Sure, Ms. Choksondik accidentally started a war between boys and girls. But the parents [[WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut deliberately started a war on Canada]]. And later, "[[Recap/SouthParkS16E8Sarcastaball Sarcastaball]]" would feature Butters selling his semen as a sports drink after his father (clearly not comfortable educating his child about sex like a responsible parent) lied to him about what it is. So... parents are smarter than teachers? M'kay.

* ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'': In "Native Youth Olympics," Walter emphasizes to Molly that the key to doing well in any of the Native Youth Olympic events is to keep practicing. In the end, Molly wins a gold medal for the Greased Pole Walk, an event that she signed up for at the last minute and didn't practice at all because she was naturally good at it.

** In the episode "Stannie Get Your Gun", while waving a gun around and firing (what she thinks are blanks) at random, Hayley accidentally shoots Stan in the neck, paralyzing him. Out of grief, she supports Stan's decision to sing pro-gun songs at rallies. After seeing how depressed Hayley is, Stan realizes that Hayley would never intentionally harm him, and thus the gun must be at fault. He becomes anti-gun until near the end of the episode when he is shot in the spine again, healing him. At no point in the episode is it brought up that Hayley acted incredibly irresponsibly by firing a gun while pointing it at people, even if she thought it was loaded with blanks. Nor is it brought up that Stan was at fault for mistakenly putting an actual bullet in the gun with the blanks, or handing a loaded gun (blanks or no blanks) to someone ''without telling them''. Hayley could've killed the man playing as the robber rather than simply paralyzing Stan and this is never brought up, the blame is either placed on Hayley or the gun. ''[[RuleOfThree Nor]]'' is it brought up that even firing a blank at someone from a real gun is incredibly dangerous and can even be lethal: this infamously led to the death of Brandon Lee on the set of ''Film/TheCrow''[[note]]specifically it was caused by a round being stuck in the firearm's barrel, but the wadding of the blank can be dangerous even at medium range (and outright fatal at close range) and the explosive force of the gas itself will still kill at close ranges[[/note]], is why they make special blank-firing guns, and is something any gun owner with a modicum of knowledge about firearms should know.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdSTlrTDuUM This Sonic Sez]] delivers the lesson "Don't break the law". Trouble is, it's attached to the episode "Momma Robotnik’s Return", where Robotnik's mother legally adopts Sonic as the first step in a plot to get him killed -- in essence, [[LoopholeAbuse taking advantage of the law]] for her evil scheme (evidently, the government of Mobius has never heard of background checks) and delivering the opposite message: that [[HardTruthAesop what's right and what's legal don't always match up]].

** [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3 The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros 3's]] infamous anti-racism episode "True Colors" also runs into this. It tries to teach that treating others as inferiors due to their color is a bad thing by having the Koopas paint the mushroom people (as well as Mario and Luigi) in two different colors and then inciting them against each other so they can take over the Mushroom Kingdom. However unlike in the games, where the Koopa species also features heroic and neutral members, here[[note]]Although this could be chalked up to the show airing before those more heroic or neutral Koopas were introduced[[/note]] the race is AlwaysChaoticEvil and the cause of most if not all the episodes' conflicts. Basically running into the typical "racism is a good thing, just make sure it's aimed at the right people" problem. There's also the matter of the mushroom people reverting back to their original colors at the end, functionally making them all the same race again.

** "The Return of Slade" is a giant TakeThatAudience aimed at people who think the show doesn't hold up to the standards of the original series -- and, by extension [[AnimationAgeGhetto that only kids should be watching cartoons]]. Problem is, Raven, who ''delivers the Aesop'', is shown to be a fan of a ''Franchise/MyLittlePony''-esque cartoon -- meaning that even though she calls out Beast Boy and Cyborg for liking childish things, she has no problem doing so herself, making her come across as a massive {{hypocrite}}.

* The cartoon verison ''ComicBook/TheMaxx'' has this thanks to the GeckoEnding. The female, Julie Winters, is a social worker, who sucks at her job because she pushes away people and [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming blame them for their problems]] to the point of [[Main/{{Jerkass}} saying rape victims are responsible for them getting raped]]. The series points out this is a shitty attitude to have. However in the final episode, [[spoiler: pushing away the Maxx is what gets him to recover his original identity]], [[UnfortunateImplications thus validating all the horrible things she said]].

%% * ''WesternAnimation/MaxAndRuby''

* Many Christmas specials that aim to educate about the true meaning of Christmas make the mistake of somehow giving the main character what they wanted at the end. Unfortunately, by doing so the writers end up reconstructing the "be nice for cool presents and not for unselfish reasons" moral that they intended to discourage in first place.
** Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheTownSantaForgot'', where the SpoiledBrat Jeremy Creek doesn't get all the presents he wants, but does get to ride with SantaClaus, helping to deliver presents to other kids, which he finds he enjoys more than getting the presents he wanted in the first place.

** “One Coarse Meal” was meant to teach viewers that it is not okay to bully other people to the point of suicide and that it is also not okay to take advantage of another person’s fears to use against them as shown when Mr. Krabs dresses as his daughter Pearl to take advantage of Plankton’s fear of whales and almost drives Plankton to suicide by bus in the process. [=SpongeBob=] calls Mr. Krabs out for this and reveals the truth to Plankton. However, Plankton decides to get revenge on Mr. Krabs for the bullying by taking advantage of his fear of mimes. The issue here is that Plankton is deemed the one in wrong for this and is depicted as the villain by doing that despite the fact that Mr. Krabs did the same thing and was being given a taste of his own medicine with the mimes. Even worse is that [=SpongeBob=] defeats Plankton by tricking him into thinking a pod of whales are near by using a projection of whales and that moment is depicted as good. This turns the moral into a total mess by implying that it is okay to bully others if you perceive them as evil.

** The moral of "[[Recap/SouthParkS19E5SafeSpace Safe Space]]" is essentially to start taking criticism and that reality is harsh without safe spaces, even though the previous episode portrayed critics as obnoxious people that should just be kicked out. So the previous episode depicted people wanting to have their opinion heard as entitled, and now depicts people who don't want to hear other people's opinions as entitled. Additionally, Butters attempts suicide because he's stressed out and sleep-deprived from having to constantly moderate abusive online comments, which seems to indicate that constantly viewing criticism ''can'' be detrimental to one's mental health, despite the episode treating the issue as FirstWorldProblems. Reality's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech delivering the moral blames people for being too sensitive about these comments, yet also blames them for Butters' attempted suicide after he witnessed those same comments (never mind that Reality was taunting Butters in his pre-suicide delusions).

* Many Christmas specials that aims to educate about the true meaning of Christmas makes the mistake of somehow giving the main character what they wanted at the end. Unfortunately, by doing so the writers ends up reconstructing the "be nice for cool presents and not for unselfish reasons" moral that they intended to discourage in first place.
** Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheTownSantaForgot'', where the SpoiledBrat Jeremy Creek doesn't get all the presents he wants, but does gets to ride with SantaClaus, helping to deliver presents to other kids, which he finds he enjoys more than getting the presents he wanted in the first place.

** The intended moral of the episode "Linc or Swim" is, "It's better to spend time with your family rather than to spend time on your own." However, when Lincoln was spending time with his family at the town pools, he still didn't have a good time, because three of his sisters got the whole family kicked out. Slightly diluted by the fact that getting their own pool meant there was now no-one to kick the Louds out, but there's still the fact that Lincoln learned his lesson about selfishness while Lori was selfish earlier in the episode (namely, she kicked her siblings out of the pool for a "senior swim" because she's a high school senior) and never learned better.

** "The Return of Slade" is a giant TakeThatAudience aimed at people who think the show doesn't hold up to the standards of the original series -- and, by extension [[AnimationAgeGhetto that only kids should be watching cartoons]]. Problem is, Raven, who ''delivers the Aesop'', is shown to be a fan of a ''Franchise/MyLittlePony''-esque cartoon -- meaning that even though she calls out Beast Boy and Cyborg for liking childish things, she has no problem doing so herself.