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No need to include statutory rape if you're already mentioning rape, as the underage girls were forcibly raped as well (there's no need to make the distinction). Also, he was not punished for taking drugs in milk, that was legal.
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* In ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', the lead character is forced to sit with his eyes peeled open while watching films about [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] and violence to pay for his crimes of murder, rape, torture, statutory rape, and drug-taking via milk. Aversion therapy is used to make him sick at the sight of violence-- and as a side-effect, the doctors administering the punishment used his beloved classical music to enhance the emotional effect, making him unable to enjoy the music either.
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* In ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', the lead character is forced to sit with his eyes peeled open while watching films about [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] and violence to pay for his crimes of murder, rape, torture, statutory rape, and drug-taking via milk.rape. Aversion therapy is used to make him sick at the sight of violence-- and as a side-effect, the doctors administering the punishment used his beloved classical music to enhance the emotional effect, making him unable to enjoy the music either.
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* ''Literature/TheExpanse'' has a unique form of torture for specific people: "Belters" are {{Lightworlder}}s who grew up in an extremely low gravity environment of colonies built into asteroids, making them taller and more slender than Earthlings, as well as more physically fragile, such that they cannot stand Earth's gravity without medical treatments to counteract it, or special flotation tanks. Because of this, one form of "enhanced interrogation" used against Belters is to simply hang them on hooks and let gravity weigh down on them. It is ''extremely'' painful for the Belter.
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* In ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'', the Amazon Radigund makes all the male knights she imprisons wear women's clothes and do women's chores. This is portrayed as a massive humiliation the justifies a few violent rescue attempts.
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* ''Literature/SaintessSummonsSkeletons'': Challenging teachers to grab contest tokens may be fair game, but Sofia is quite displeased that her students were endangered in the process. So after she has subdued the troublemakers, she cuts a slit in each of their hands, uses [Bone Dominus] to pop all 27 bones out, and keeps them as a CreepySouvenir, which she later uses to decorate the door of her quarters.
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* ''Literature/SaintessSummonsSkeletons'': Challenging teachers to grab contest tokens may be fair game, but Sofia is quite displeased that her students were endangered in the process. So after she has subdued the troublemakers, she cuts a slit in each of their hands, uses [Bone Dominus] to pop all 27 bones out, and keeps them as a CreepySouvenir, which she later uses to decorate the door of her quarters. The students are awake, screaming, and soiling themselves, but entirely helpless, throughout the whole process of having their hands deflated like balloons and then healed of the bleeding.
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Crosswicking
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* ''Literature/SaintessSummonsSkeletons'': Challenging teachers to grab contest tokens may be fair game, but Sofia is quite displeased that her students were endangered in the process. So after she has subdued the troublemakers, she cuts a slit in each of their hands, uses [Bone Dominus] to pop all 27 bones out, and keeps them as a CreepySouvenir, which she later uses to decorate the door of her quarters.
--> '''[[spoiler:Saria]]:''' Anyone who sees this and who's heard of what you did to these guys will have to think twice about trying anything.\\
'''Sofia:''' Once for each hand.
--> '''[[spoiler:Saria]]:''' Anyone who sees this and who's heard of what you did to these guys will have to think twice about trying anything.\\
'''Sofia:''' Once for each hand.
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* Abusive administrators and faculty are on the receiving end of psychological warfare in ''Literature/TheSagaOfTuck''.
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* In ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables,'' Anne's punishment for coming in late from recess with the boys that were also coming in late is to sit with them for the afternoon. This is embarrassing enough for her, but her teacher insists she sit next to her mortal enemy, Gilbert Blythe, which she finds AFateWorseThanDeath. When she becomes a schoolteacher later in the series, a friend jokingly asks if she'll use this method of punishment in her own classroom because she doesn't believe in whipping students.
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Fixing indentation.
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* In several of the books, receiving a Howler: a reprimanding letter in a red envelope, which screams the words for everyone to hear, before bursting into flames. Ron receives a humiliating one from his mother in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''; Neville receives one from his grandmother in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''; and Hermione receives several in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' from her ill-wishers after Rita Skeeter's article about her.
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* According to ''Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat'', the Order of the Bath "was an extreme form of torture in the Middle Ages," and the most sickening practice in UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell's Crommonwealth was the Serjeant-Majors' ''viva-voce'' examinations of little boys:
-->"For this purpose the unfortunate children were dressed in their most uncomfortable satins and placed on a stool. The Serjeant-Major would then ask such difficult questions as 'How's your Father?' or 'Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?' and those who could not answer were given a cruel medicine called Pride's Purge."
* ''[[Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo 1634: The Baltic War]]'': during a discussion, Colonel Wood says that he'd rather have a colonoscopy than participate in another argument over machine guns. The down-timer Torstensson asks for an explanation. After he gets one, he ponders using it as a punishment in the army.
* In a ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' tie-in novel by Jack Sharkey, Gomez has a rather interesting punishment for Pugsley and Wednesday's apparent misdeed -- forced attendance of a fifteen-cartoon Kiddie Matinee with ice cream and "golden cake with pink icing" to follow, along with a stack of comic books on their bedside tables. Morticia considers that last part overly cruel punishment.
-->"Oh, Gomez!" Morticia cried, clutching his arm. "Isn't that going a little ''too'' far...? You wouldn't make them --" she gave a shudder of revulsion "-- ''read'' the comic books?"\\
Some of the sternness went out of his face. "Well," he said in a softer tone, "perhaps that ''is'' a bit excessive." Then he stiffened his expression and said, "But if you don't eat every last bite of that cake and ice cream, you will be made to listen to...''the Bonnie Baker recording of 'The Good Ship Lollipop'''!"
* In Creator/NealStephenson's ''Literature/{{Anathem}}'', one of the Avout's nastier punishments is being forced to learn a certain number of chapters of "The Book" and pass a quiz on it prior to being allowed back into society. Each chapter is designed to be steadily less rational - Chapter 1 for instance is a set of {{nursery rhyme}}s and nonsense poetry that ''doesn't quite'' rhyme. Chapter 4 is ''four pages'' of the digits of Pi. Chapter 6 is designed to take several months. There are 12 chapters in total. Only three people have learned the whole thing, and all of them wound up rather insane.
* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl''
** In ''The Opal Deception'', Opal decides to punish Holly and Artemis by handcuffing them and locking them in an exhibit of an abandoned fairy themepark. Which has been overrun by bloodthirsty trolls. Opal being a fan of {{irony}}, she chooses the Temple of Artemis exhibit.
** Again from ''The Opal Deception'':
-->'''Opal:''' Peace be within me, tolerance all around me, forgiveness in my path. Now, Mervall, tell me where [[FantasticRacism the filthy human]] is [[HypocriticalHumor so that I may feed him his organs]].
* ''Literature/AscendanceOfABookworm'': After realizing that the temple's standard "one day in the repentance chamber" punishment doesn't mix well with Myne's DelicateAndSickly constitution, Ferdinand discovers a punishment that is both much more effective and more considerate of her health: Myne is a ''huge'' {{Bookworm}} and doesn't have any books at home, so all he needs to do is forbid her from accessing the temple's book room.
* A ''Series/BabylonFive'' novel reveals that a standard punishment at the Psi Corps academy is for a miscreant to have to stand still in the courtyard all day and remain silent except for giving a detailed description of their infraction if anyone asks.
* In Literature/TheButterflyKid, the protagonist is hooked up to an alien torture machine. The "torture" begins with "a deep perverted urge to refrain from sexual intercourse with three of the most improbable creatures I'd ever been forced to imagine", followed by a Donald Duck marathon, and gets "worse" from there.
* ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'':
** In ''The Wife of Bath's Tale'', a knight is to be executed for raping a woman, but the queen decides to spice things up a little bit. If he wants to live, he has a year and a day to...discover the one thing women really want more than anything else. ... ... OnSecondThought... (In case you're wondering, the answer is [[spoiler:"power over their husbands".]] This ''was'' the Middle Ages.)
** In "The Summoner's Tale", a cruel friar is extracting money from a poor man and his family. As revenge, the poor man promises to give him what he has hidden underneath him to divide among the friars. He ends up farting into the friar's hand...and then, because the deal had been made, he has to fart in the faces of ''all'' the friars, proving that tasteless humor is OlderThanTheyThink.
* The ''[=SERRAted Edge=]'' novel ''Chrome Circle'' by Creator/MercedesLackey and Creator/LarryDixon has racer-mage Tannim captured by unseelie fey, and in order to keep their mind readers from learning anything, he concentrates on the music and lyrics of Music/TheyMightBeGiants. He ''drives several mind readers insane,'' and theorizes he may have started a rash of accordion thefts by convincing them of the magical nature of the instrument. Part of the reason they go insane is because they think Tannim is thinking about alchemical terms (and they can't figure out what the terms mean because he really isn't).
* In ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', the lead character is forced to sit with his eyes peeled open while watching films about [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] and violence to pay for his crimes of murder, rape, torture, statutory rape, and drug-taking via milk. Aversion therapy is used to make him sick at the sight of violence-- and as a side-effect, the doctors administering the punishment used his beloved classical music to enhance the emotional effect, making him unable to enjoy the music either.
* The newspaper columnist Creator/DaveBarry used this trope in a number of columns. Typical example:
-->'''Judge:''' I hereby sentence you to admire four hours of federally subsidized modern dance.\\
'''Defendant:''' No! Not modern dance!\\
'''Judge:''' One more outburst like that and I'm going to order you to also watch the performance artist who protests apartheid using a bathtub full of rigatoni.
** In another column he suggested using some of the "overly affectionate turtles" on them.
** Another has him suggest what would be the most effective punishment of unruly juvenile delinquents: listening to their parents sing. Hey, it worked with Billy Joel's kids.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** At one point in ''Literature/MenAtArms'', Sergeant Colon is afraid to report to Lord Vetinari, fearing that Lord Vetinari will be sarcastic about Colon's performance on the job. He might even be ''satirical''.
*** Elsewhere in the same book, when talking dog Gaspode was reluctant to help Carrot locate Angua, Carrot threatened to "turn the matter over to Corporal Nobbs," a fellow officer with little in the way of moral objections whose own humanity has been repeatedly questioned. Gaspode's bitter reply: "That's what I like--''incentive''."
** Gaspode himself has been known to use his [[TalkingAnimal unique talents]] to get back at annoying humans. Since [[WeirdnessCensor everyone knows dogs can't talk]], when he does so, people assume that since the words they heard could not possibly have come from the dog, they must have thought them. So when he announces, "Captain Quirk, you have an itchy bottom" and periodically adds, "Prickle, prickle, prickle..."
** A strange RunningGag is that Vetinari's mood can be determined by his tone: Friendly, curious, amused, condescending, sarcastic, and if he is ironic...if Vetinari is being ironic then you probably died days ago, you just haven't noticed yet. And woe betide you if he ever gives anyone a choice. Never let him give you a choice!
---> '''Vetinari''': If you don't want to take my offer, you have only to walk through that door and you will never hear from me again.\\
'''Moist''': Excuse me, I'd just like to check something.\\
...There was nothing beyond, and that included a floor.
** In ''[[strike:Faust]]'' ''Literature/{{Eric}}'', we find that under new management, the demons of Hell have switched from their largely unsuccessful physical tortures of the damned to psychological torture...in the form of boring people's souls out of their minds (with vacation pictures and readings from dry, dull textbooks). Under Astfgl's kingship of Hell, a very specific boredom has been perfected--the expensive boredom that goes on during vacations when you ''should'' be having fun. Which turned out to be so tortuous that [[spoiler:the ''demons'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards basically went "Screw This!"]] ''and overthrew him''. Sure, the GoodOldWays weren't really tortuous anymore, but the demons don't care; they are sticklers for ''tradition''.]]
** And then there's [[ConMan Moist von Lipwig's]] cry of cruel and unusual punishment in ''Literature/GoingPostal'': being given a job. Subverted when Vetinari quite reasonably points out to him that while the job offer is certainly unusual, it is not very cruel. On the other hand in the dungeon there are a whole range of punishments which are very unusual and ''extremely'' cruel if Moist would like to try them for purposes of comparison...
** In the ''Literature/RaisingSteam'', Lord Vetinari's latest form of physical persuasion is described graphically. It's called The Kitten Torture. Yes, it involves kittens. And yes, it is the cunning, devious, and wholly persuasive, product of a completely unwarped mind. (And there's a reason why it goes on this trope rather than one involving animal cruelty and unbelievable sadism.) For the curious: [[spoiler:The Kitten Torture is presided over by Cedric; not the smartest, but dutiful and very fond of kittens, with which the streets of Ankh-Morpork were overflowing. The victim is locked in an iron maiden, just large enough to sit in, along with a large number of kittens. Every time one of the kittens was distressed and made its distress known, Cedric would open the maiden and give the victim a good cudgeling, in proportion to the distress of the kitten. It's absurd, but it works; visitors are amazed by the atmosphere of happiness, where purring resonated through the dungeon. ]]
** Mention is made of an EldritchAbomination of the Dungeon Dimensions, known as "Tshup Aklathep, the Infernal Star Toad with a Million Young". It kills its victims by forcing them to look at pictures of its children until their brains implode. "I suppose after you've said 'Yes, he's got your eyes' for the thousandth time you're about ready to commit suicide in any case."
** Witches are good at this, banking on their reputation as TheDreaded. ''Literature/WyrdSisters'' describes how one witch was robbed, and decided to [[ParanoiaGambit do nothing about it but smile in a slightly puzzled manner whenever she saw the thief]]. He eventually fled across the continent. And according to ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'' Granny Weatherwax won't actually [[ForcedTransformation turn you into a frog]], but [[DelusionsOfDoghood she'll make you THINK you are a frog]], which is almost as bad but a lot easier (and more entertaining) for her.
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' -- particularly the ''Inferno,'' but to a lesser extent also the ''Purgatorio'' -- was filled with punishments specially tailored to the sins of the sufferer. In the case of ''Purgatorio'' the repentant sinners are often practicing the virtue opposed to their sin (thus, the Envious have their eyes sewn up so they can't see and covet, while the Gluttons have to starve themselves and run around a lot, in much the same way that repentant gluttons do in RealLife).
* At the end of ''Literature/EmilyTheStrangeTheLostDays'', after Raven successfully completes a physical feat, thus winning a complex card game, Raven calls upon birds to poop on Attikol, Umlaut, and many others of the traveling show employees.
* In Mark Leyner's ''Et Tu, Babe'' the protagonist gets high on Abraham Lincoln's morning breath, and is arrested for 'Theft of a Federally Protected Biospecimen'. Some of the sentences for this crime are execution by underwater speargunning, nasal septumectomy, and punitive confiscation. The protagonist makes a plea to get the latter, and while the sentence is carried out, he is restrained in a van and forced to watch the wooden narrative scenes from porn movies. This last is stated as having later been ruled cruel and unusual.
* In the book that ''Film/FullMetalJacket'' was based off of, the drill sergeant's punishments were much worse. At one point, he had a squad pee in the same toilet, and then shoved Private Pyle's head in there while standing on his back until he passed out. Also he would quiz people privately and if they answered a question "wrong", they got a beating. If they reversed their answer, it would be much worse.
* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'', Crowley the [[NobleDemon demon]] describes a hamster cage as "Like something [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition the Spanish Inquistion]] would use if they had access to plastics and a moulding press."
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'': For being caught out of bed, Harry, Hermione, Neville (Ron in the movie) and Draco are sentenced to searching for a dead unicorn in the Forbidden Forest.
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'': For flying the Weasleys' enchanted car to Hogwarts and breaking the International Statute of Secrecy, Ron and Harry are sentenced to detentions. Ron's is cleaning the trophy room without magic, while Harry's is ''responding to Gilderoy Lockhart's fanmail''. This involves Harry having to listen to Lockhart's self-important advice on being a celebrity, which makes it even more tedious.
*** Ron's wouldn't be SO bad if...1. Filch weren't an evil, evil man, and 2. Ron wasn't recovering from a backfired attempt to curse Draco Malfoy making him vomit up slugs, and having an attack while cleaning. Harry even tells Ron he'd rather trade punishments with him, given the amount of practice cleaning by hand he'd been given by the Dursleys.
* In several of the books, receiving a Howler: a reprimanding letter in a red envelope, which screams the words for everyone to hear, before bursting into flames. Ron receives a humiliating one from his mother in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''; Neville receives one from his grandmother in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''; and Hermione receives several in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' from her ill-wishers after Rita Skeeter's article about her.
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'': Draco Malfoy is caught trying to hex Harry from behind, at which point Moody transfigures him into a white ferret and proceeds to bounce him around the room while lecturing him, [[spoiler:with his anger also being partially directed at [[SinsOfTheFather Draco's father,]] who had the means to avoid Azkaban that Barty Crouch Jr. (who is impersonating Moody for most of the book, including in this scene) did not]]. When Professor [=McGonagall=] catches him, Moody begrudgingly admits that he was told something by Dumbledore about not using Transfiguration as punishment, but he "forgot."
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'': When Hermione finds the Weasley Twins testing out their home-made joke candies on younger students, this exchange follows, with the result that she [[DontTellMama scares the Twins so badly]] that they immediately comply, an action that has never been seen before or since:
--->'''Hermione''': If you don't stop doing it, I'm going to...
--->'''Fred''': ''(in an I'd-like-to-see-you-try-it-voice)'' Put us in detention?
--->'''George''': ''(smirking)'' Make us write lines?
--->'''Hermione''': No, but I will write to your mother.
*** Fred and George themselves use their pranking prowess to make Umbridge ''suffer''.
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'':
*** Fred and George have an unusual punishment for a gnome which invades their garden: petrifying it and using it as the angel on the Christmas tree. They consider a similar punishment for their mother in the following book: at their wedding, telling everyone they can wear what they like, and putting a full body-bind curse on their mother until it's over.
*** The cruel punishment Snape inflicts on Harry, for using the Septumsempra curse on Malfoy: making Harry copy out the crimes and punishments from years ago, which are mostly related to his father, to "add interest to the task".
** And Harry finds out in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' (through PensieveFlashback) that [[spoiler: the teenage Snape]] threatens to sleep outside the Gryffindor common room unless [[spoiler: the teenage Lily]] agrees to talk to him after he calls her a [[FantasticRacism "Mudblood"]] in a moment of severe humiliation. Though she does talk to him as a result, the conversation ends with her telling him "it's over between us", which is NOT what he hoped for at all.
* ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'':
** From Lasaraleen: "Here. All of you. And you, doorkeeper. No one is to be let out of the house today. And anyone I catch talking about this young lady will be first beaten to death and then buried alive and after that be kept on bread and water for six weeks. There."
** Aslan's punishment to Prince Rabadash. First, he's [[ForcedTransformation turned into a donkey]], and then told that he has one chance to become human again, and that's to show up at the Temple of Tash during his country's largest festival, letting the entire country know that their ruler was an [[StealthPun ass.]] Then, if he ever strays too far from the palace ever again, he'll turn into a donkey forever. This prevents him from ever taking military action against other countries, and makes it so that he'll never be able to escape the ridicule that he gets from having been a donkey.
* ''Literature/KeeperOfTheLostCities'': In ''Flashback'', Leto warns Keefe -- who is currently skipping his elvin history session -- that he can become ''very'' creative with his punishments. When Keefe expresses curiosity, Ro shuts him down, since as his bodyguard, she has to be there for them, too. Leto, knowing her dislike of elvin history lectures, agrees and tells her, "And I found an entire room filled with recordings of speeches from the Ancient Councillors that I think you'll find particularly enjoyable." Ro promptly starts dragging Keefe back to his session.
* ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'': [[EccentricMentor The eccentric]] [[BarefootSage magician Coriakin]], who governs over the Duffers (a race of foolish dwarves), transforms them into funny one-legged creatures called Monopods as a PrankPunishment for disobedience. Everyone else agrees that they look better in their new form, and they find advantages in it, but at first they are horrified by their new look, thinking that they have become "ugly".
* In the Literature/InDeath series, Dallas' idea of ultimate torment is... a hair and body treatment from Mavis' friend Trina. This from a woman who regularly works herself to exhaustion, gets shot at, beaten up, blown up, etc.
* For altering the ending of ''Literature/JaneEyre'', Literature/ThursdayNext is sentenced to wear gingham for twenty years and must read the ten most boring books ever written before she dies.
* In Creator/DouglasAdams' ''Literature/TheLongDarkTeaTimeOfTheSoul'', Norse god Odin punishes Thor by making him count all the stones in Wales.
* The short story "Literature/TheManWithoutACountry" by Edward Everett Hale was about an officer who, while on trial for treason, renounced the United States, declaring that he wished to never hear of it again. As his sentence, he is given [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor exactly what he asked for]]: He is effectively exiled to international waters, and his shipmates are ordered to never speak of the United States in his presence.
* ''Literature/{{Matilda}}'' by Creator/RoaldDahl gives us the [[ChildHater Trunchbull]]. One of her punishments for a misbehaving child is to force him to eat a (very large) chocolate cake. In front of the whole school. In both the book ''and'' the film he ''finishes it all'' to immense applause (in the book, the applause is spontaneous; in the film, [[SlowClap Matilda starts it]]). Then [[KickTheDog Trunchbull smashes the platter over his head.]] Which, in the book, is described as having no effect on the boy, as he's too stuffed from the cake to feel it. In the film, he just stands there and belches, making the kids laugh and angering Trunchbull even more.
** Eating a whole cake would make most people sick, so Trunchbull was probably hoping he'd vomit in front of the entire school so she could make him walk around in vomit-covered clothes all day.
** This is practically Trunchbull's M.O., since the more out-there her punishments of students are, [[CassandraTruth the less likely parents are going to believe the children trying to tell them]].
** Matilda herself inflicts cool and unusual punishments on her AbusiveParents and the Trunchbull. Like causing Mr. Wormwood to accidentally bleach his hair, then superglue his hat to his head, or spilling a glass of water with a newt in it onto the Trunchbull's dress. And the punishment on the Trunchbull at the end of the book is to make the "ghost" of her murdered brother write on the blackboard.
* The Institute in ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'' has a room called "The Waiting Room" that children who misbehave are sent to while they wait to talk with Mr. Curtain. Most kids are clueless to what it is, higher ranking students refuse to discuss what it is, and people who were sent to it are usually too shell-shocked to describe what it's like. Not much is known about what it is but [[spoiler:Sticky]] describes it as sitting in a dark, quiet room full of extremely horrid smelling mud and being surrounded by bugs.
* In one of the ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' books, Anton describes how Geser, head of the Night Watch (the "good guys"), punishes members for slacking off by having them do something they would think is enjoyable, but ends up being boring. For instance, one Watch member punished is a teenage girl, and her punishment is having to be a normal teenager and be around other teenagers, which she quickly finds annoying. This punishment has a bit of a darker edge, in that Others are frequently mentioned to no longer identify with {{Muggles}}.
* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' novel "Descent Into the Depths of the Earth" has the relatively benign action of being tied back-to-back with another person... well, benign if that character isn't Polk the Teamster, a loudmouth who is described as not having stopped talking for the entire two hours they were sitting there; most of the speech was admonishing the hero about how badly he mishandled the previous fight: not because they were captured, but because he wasn't fighting awesomely enough.
* In Creator/TomHolt's ''Paint Your Dragon'', one joke mentions that while Hell does have televised snooker, it's used for a certain group of very ''select'' clients.
* In the ''Literature/{{Percy Jackson|and the Olympians}}'' interpretation of the Greek underworld, torments in the Fields of Punishment range from classic forms of torture to being forced to listen to opera music. To be fair, Myth/GreekMythology had some pretty weird punishments, too; see the "Mythology" folder below.
** Also, at one point the Apollo (god of poet) campers curse at least one Ares (god of war) camper to speak in nothing but rhyme.
* ''Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'': How does [[VillainProtagonist Catherine]] punish the ghost of one of her most ruthless and hated foes? [[spoiler: She invites her to a pleasant, friendly get-together with Catherine's other friends. It's much crueler than it sounds, as it forces Akua to confront the fact that genuine companionship was what she truly needed and the only person she ever really cared about was sacrificed by her to attain power she now knows would not have truly made her happy. She now has to live with the knowledge that she could have had all of this years ago and it is entirely her own fault that she didn't.]]
-->“The closest I have to match to last night is a girl I sent to die. You’ve devised a poison so sweet I will crave the taste of it.”
* ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'' features the Total Perspective Vortex, which shows you how large the universe truly is, and how very very small ''you'' are. People's minds cannot handle it, and are generally driven completely insane if not catatonic from even a second's exposure.
** Subverted by Zaphod's [[spoiler:vision that yeah, he really IS the most important and cool guy in the universe]]. And then reverted when [[spoiler:it's revealed that he was in an artificial reality, built just for him, so naturally he was the most important person in it]].
** And, as indicated by the page quote, [[GiftedlyBad Vogons]] use their own poetry as torture. Vogon poetry is sufficiently awful to elicit screams of pain, and could legitimately be regarded as torture. However, Arthur Dent doesn't seem to be particularly bothered by listening to it, which perhaps has to do with the fact that his own planet had the worst poet in the universe (at least until the Vogons demolished it).
** The Bellcelerephons of Kakrafoon were punished for being utterly satisfied with their lot, which was seen as needlessly provocative by everyone else, by having telepathy inflicted on them, forcing them to talk endlessly to block out one another's thoughts (or host a Disaster Area concert, which does the same thing).
* A Russell Baker column suggested what he really considered painful and condign punishments for the Watergate conspirators -- such as sentencing them to ten years of high school. ("You can't do this to me, Sirica!")
* ''Literature/AScannerDarkly'' has Charles Freck's punishment in the afterlife, after his suicide attempt: a creature with a thousand eyes pulls out a ListOfTransgressions, which he will be made to listen to for all eternity. ''In shifts.'' (In the film, this is a BungledSuicide, and he's later seen in rehab; in the book, the suicide attempt is the last time he appears, raising the possibility that this ''is'' his afterlife.)
* In ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', Prufrock Preparatory School revels in this trope. Punishments for breaking the school's rules include removing your rights to forks, spoons, glasses and knives at the cafeteria. And if you miss one of the vice-principal's violin concerts, you are required to buy him a bag of candy and sit in his office watching him eat it all. It's hinted at being more depressing than it sounds, since the vice-principal is such a jerk.
* In Creator/DanielPinkwater's book [[Literature/SnarkoutBoys ''The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death'']], the villain tortures people by forcing them to watch German comedy. Naturally, the character he kidnaps actually ''likes'' German comedy. It is also mentioned that the same villain once tortured another character by suspending them in a vat of egg foo yung.
* ''Literature/StarTrekEnterpriseRelaunch:'' At one point, T'Pol and Hoshi confront an uncooperative Orion criminal. Every time their perp refuses to give an answer, they "donate" large amounts of her money to various charities until she gives in.
* ''Literature/StregaNona'': While Strega Nona goes out, she warns Big Anthony not to touch her magic pasta pot. He disobeys her, having learned the spell to activate it and serves enough for the whole town. When trying to chant the counterspell however, Big Anthony didn't know that he had to blow three kisses to finish the spell, and instead a humongous amount of pasta spews from the pot to flood the entire village. Strega Nona finds out and reverses the spell properly, then forces Big Anthony to eat all the pasta as punishment for disobeying her, leaving him sick and bloated that evening.
* ''The Stories Julian Tells'': One of the stories involves Julian and little brother, Huey, being told by their dad not to eat the pudding he's made until their mom gets home. Naturally, they can't resist, thinking one more bite won't hurt, and it's almost entirely gone before they stop. When their dad finds out, he tells them there's going to be some beating and whipping... [[ExactWords Before he makes them beat the eggs and whip the cream he needs to make more pudding]].
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': In the novella ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'' When Lift initially claims to be a friend of the Prime Aqasix, the local bureaucrats are understandably skeptical, and try to throw her out. When confirmation comes and they are ordered to obey her, she immediately makes them start calling her "Your Pancakefulness".
* ''Literature/TerraIgnota'':
** The Utopians have a special punishment for killing one of their own: ''Modo mundo''. They cut the perpetrator off from any sort of entertainment, from movies to books. The idea is that every Utopian has a thousand stories inside them even if they never publish, and by killing them you killed all those stories. So, you are cut off from stories in turn.
** When the cook at one of J.E.D.D. Mason's safehouses accidentally destroyed a priceless book, J.E.D.D. told her that the protagonist of every work of fiction is Humanity, and the antagonist is God. Since then Chagatai's found herself unable to enjoy any entertainment without agonizing over the struggle between humanity and God, so she placed herself under an unofficial ''modo mundo'', forgoing any entertainment and collecting knowledge of movie trivia instead.
* ''Literature/TrappedOnDraconica'': How Gothon rewards Zarracka for failing twice over. [[spoiler: throwing her, tied up, into a pit with a giant monster. The monster in question was a herbivore and thus harmless. All it did was scare her shitless, make her beg for her life, and ruin her dress with its slobber. It works beautiful because Zarracka's ego is bigger than his empire.]]
-->"For this purpose the unfortunate children were dressed in their most uncomfortable satins and placed on a stool. The Serjeant-Major would then ask such difficult questions as 'How's your Father?' or 'Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?' and those who could not answer were given a cruel medicine called Pride's Purge."
* ''[[Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo 1634: The Baltic War]]'': during a discussion, Colonel Wood says that he'd rather have a colonoscopy than participate in another argument over machine guns. The down-timer Torstensson asks for an explanation. After he gets one, he ponders using it as a punishment in the army.
* In a ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' tie-in novel by Jack Sharkey, Gomez has a rather interesting punishment for Pugsley and Wednesday's apparent misdeed -- forced attendance of a fifteen-cartoon Kiddie Matinee with ice cream and "golden cake with pink icing" to follow, along with a stack of comic books on their bedside tables. Morticia considers that last part overly cruel punishment.
-->"Oh, Gomez!" Morticia cried, clutching his arm. "Isn't that going a little ''too'' far...? You wouldn't make them --" she gave a shudder of revulsion "-- ''read'' the comic books?"\\
Some of the sternness went out of his face. "Well," he said in a softer tone, "perhaps that ''is'' a bit excessive." Then he stiffened his expression and said, "But if you don't eat every last bite of that cake and ice cream, you will be made to listen to...''the Bonnie Baker recording of 'The Good Ship Lollipop'''!"
* In Creator/NealStephenson's ''Literature/{{Anathem}}'', one of the Avout's nastier punishments is being forced to learn a certain number of chapters of "The Book" and pass a quiz on it prior to being allowed back into society. Each chapter is designed to be steadily less rational - Chapter 1 for instance is a set of {{nursery rhyme}}s and nonsense poetry that ''doesn't quite'' rhyme. Chapter 4 is ''four pages'' of the digits of Pi. Chapter 6 is designed to take several months. There are 12 chapters in total. Only three people have learned the whole thing, and all of them wound up rather insane.
* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl''
** In ''The Opal Deception'', Opal decides to punish Holly and Artemis by handcuffing them and locking them in an exhibit of an abandoned fairy themepark. Which has been overrun by bloodthirsty trolls. Opal being a fan of {{irony}}, she chooses the Temple of Artemis exhibit.
** Again from ''The Opal Deception'':
-->'''Opal:''' Peace be within me, tolerance all around me, forgiveness in my path. Now, Mervall, tell me where [[FantasticRacism the filthy human]] is [[HypocriticalHumor so that I may feed him his organs]].
* ''Literature/AscendanceOfABookworm'': After realizing that the temple's standard "one day in the repentance chamber" punishment doesn't mix well with Myne's DelicateAndSickly constitution, Ferdinand discovers a punishment that is both much more effective and more considerate of her health: Myne is a ''huge'' {{Bookworm}} and doesn't have any books at home, so all he needs to do is forbid her from accessing the temple's book room.
* A ''Series/BabylonFive'' novel reveals that a standard punishment at the Psi Corps academy is for a miscreant to have to stand still in the courtyard all day and remain silent except for giving a detailed description of their infraction if anyone asks.
* In Literature/TheButterflyKid, the protagonist is hooked up to an alien torture machine. The "torture" begins with "a deep perverted urge to refrain from sexual intercourse with three of the most improbable creatures I'd ever been forced to imagine", followed by a Donald Duck marathon, and gets "worse" from there.
* ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'':
** In ''The Wife of Bath's Tale'', a knight is to be executed for raping a woman, but the queen decides to spice things up a little bit. If he wants to live, he has a year and a day to...discover the one thing women really want more than anything else. ... ... OnSecondThought... (In case you're wondering, the answer is [[spoiler:"power over their husbands".]] This ''was'' the Middle Ages.)
** In "The Summoner's Tale", a cruel friar is extracting money from a poor man and his family. As revenge, the poor man promises to give him what he has hidden underneath him to divide among the friars. He ends up farting into the friar's hand...and then, because the deal had been made, he has to fart in the faces of ''all'' the friars, proving that tasteless humor is OlderThanTheyThink.
* The ''[=SERRAted Edge=]'' novel ''Chrome Circle'' by Creator/MercedesLackey and Creator/LarryDixon has racer-mage Tannim captured by unseelie fey, and in order to keep their mind readers from learning anything, he concentrates on the music and lyrics of Music/TheyMightBeGiants. He ''drives several mind readers insane,'' and theorizes he may have started a rash of accordion thefts by convincing them of the magical nature of the instrument. Part of the reason they go insane is because they think Tannim is thinking about alchemical terms (and they can't figure out what the terms mean because he really isn't).
* In ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', the lead character is forced to sit with his eyes peeled open while watching films about [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] and violence to pay for his crimes of murder, rape, torture, statutory rape, and drug-taking via milk. Aversion therapy is used to make him sick at the sight of violence-- and as a side-effect, the doctors administering the punishment used his beloved classical music to enhance the emotional effect, making him unable to enjoy the music either.
* The newspaper columnist Creator/DaveBarry used this trope in a number of columns. Typical example:
-->'''Judge:''' I hereby sentence you to admire four hours of federally subsidized modern dance.\\
'''Defendant:''' No! Not modern dance!\\
'''Judge:''' One more outburst like that and I'm going to order you to also watch the performance artist who protests apartheid using a bathtub full of rigatoni.
** In another column he suggested using some of the "overly affectionate turtles" on them.
** Another has him suggest what would be the most effective punishment of unruly juvenile delinquents: listening to their parents sing. Hey, it worked with Billy Joel's kids.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** At one point in ''Literature/MenAtArms'', Sergeant Colon is afraid to report to Lord Vetinari, fearing that Lord Vetinari will be sarcastic about Colon's performance on the job. He might even be ''satirical''.
*** Elsewhere in the same book, when talking dog Gaspode was reluctant to help Carrot locate Angua, Carrot threatened to "turn the matter over to Corporal Nobbs," a fellow officer with little in the way of moral objections whose own humanity has been repeatedly questioned. Gaspode's bitter reply: "That's what I like--''incentive''."
** Gaspode himself has been known to use his [[TalkingAnimal unique talents]] to get back at annoying humans. Since [[WeirdnessCensor everyone knows dogs can't talk]], when he does so, people assume that since the words they heard could not possibly have come from the dog, they must have thought them. So when he announces, "Captain Quirk, you have an itchy bottom" and periodically adds, "Prickle, prickle, prickle..."
** A strange RunningGag is that Vetinari's mood can be determined by his tone: Friendly, curious, amused, condescending, sarcastic, and if he is ironic...if Vetinari is being ironic then you probably died days ago, you just haven't noticed yet. And woe betide you if he ever gives anyone a choice. Never let him give you a choice!
---> '''Vetinari''': If you don't want to take my offer, you have only to walk through that door and you will never hear from me again.\\
'''Moist''': Excuse me, I'd just like to check something.\\
...There was nothing beyond, and that included a floor.
** In ''[[strike:Faust]]'' ''Literature/{{Eric}}'', we find that under new management, the demons of Hell have switched from their largely unsuccessful physical tortures of the damned to psychological torture...in the form of boring people's souls out of their minds (with vacation pictures and readings from dry, dull textbooks). Under Astfgl's kingship of Hell, a very specific boredom has been perfected--the expensive boredom that goes on during vacations when you ''should'' be having fun. Which turned out to be so tortuous that [[spoiler:the ''demons'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards basically went "Screw This!"]] ''and overthrew him''. Sure, the GoodOldWays weren't really tortuous anymore, but the demons don't care; they are sticklers for ''tradition''.]]
** And then there's [[ConMan Moist von Lipwig's]] cry of cruel and unusual punishment in ''Literature/GoingPostal'': being given a job. Subverted when Vetinari quite reasonably points out to him that while the job offer is certainly unusual, it is not very cruel. On the other hand in the dungeon there are a whole range of punishments which are very unusual and ''extremely'' cruel if Moist would like to try them for purposes of comparison...
** In the ''Literature/RaisingSteam'', Lord Vetinari's latest form of physical persuasion is described graphically. It's called The Kitten Torture. Yes, it involves kittens. And yes, it is the cunning, devious, and wholly persuasive, product of a completely unwarped mind. (And there's a reason why it goes on this trope rather than one involving animal cruelty and unbelievable sadism.) For the curious: [[spoiler:The Kitten Torture is presided over by Cedric; not the smartest, but dutiful and very fond of kittens, with which the streets of Ankh-Morpork were overflowing. The victim is locked in an iron maiden, just large enough to sit in, along with a large number of kittens. Every time one of the kittens was distressed and made its distress known, Cedric would open the maiden and give the victim a good cudgeling, in proportion to the distress of the kitten. It's absurd, but it works; visitors are amazed by the atmosphere of happiness, where purring resonated through the dungeon. ]]
** Mention is made of an EldritchAbomination of the Dungeon Dimensions, known as "Tshup Aklathep, the Infernal Star Toad with a Million Young". It kills its victims by forcing them to look at pictures of its children until their brains implode. "I suppose after you've said 'Yes, he's got your eyes' for the thousandth time you're about ready to commit suicide in any case."
** Witches are good at this, banking on their reputation as TheDreaded. ''Literature/WyrdSisters'' describes how one witch was robbed, and decided to [[ParanoiaGambit do nothing about it but smile in a slightly puzzled manner whenever she saw the thief]]. He eventually fled across the continent. And according to ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'' Granny Weatherwax won't actually [[ForcedTransformation turn you into a frog]], but [[DelusionsOfDoghood she'll make you THINK you are a frog]], which is almost as bad but a lot easier (and more entertaining) for her.
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' -- particularly the ''Inferno,'' but to a lesser extent also the ''Purgatorio'' -- was filled with punishments specially tailored to the sins of the sufferer. In the case of ''Purgatorio'' the repentant sinners are often practicing the virtue opposed to their sin (thus, the Envious have their eyes sewn up so they can't see and covet, while the Gluttons have to starve themselves and run around a lot, in much the same way that repentant gluttons do in RealLife).
* At the end of ''Literature/EmilyTheStrangeTheLostDays'', after Raven successfully completes a physical feat, thus winning a complex card game, Raven calls upon birds to poop on Attikol, Umlaut, and many others of the traveling show employees.
* In Mark Leyner's ''Et Tu, Babe'' the protagonist gets high on Abraham Lincoln's morning breath, and is arrested for 'Theft of a Federally Protected Biospecimen'. Some of the sentences for this crime are execution by underwater speargunning, nasal septumectomy, and punitive confiscation. The protagonist makes a plea to get the latter, and while the sentence is carried out, he is restrained in a van and forced to watch the wooden narrative scenes from porn movies. This last is stated as having later been ruled cruel and unusual.
* In the book that ''Film/FullMetalJacket'' was based off of, the drill sergeant's punishments were much worse. At one point, he had a squad pee in the same toilet, and then shoved Private Pyle's head in there while standing on his back until he passed out. Also he would quiz people privately and if they answered a question "wrong", they got a beating. If they reversed their answer, it would be much worse.
* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'', Crowley the [[NobleDemon demon]] describes a hamster cage as "Like something [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition the Spanish Inquistion]] would use if they had access to plastics and a moulding press."
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'': For being caught out of bed, Harry, Hermione, Neville (Ron in the movie) and Draco are sentenced to searching for a dead unicorn in the Forbidden Forest.
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'': For flying the Weasleys' enchanted car to Hogwarts and breaking the International Statute of Secrecy, Ron and Harry are sentenced to detentions. Ron's is cleaning the trophy room without magic, while Harry's is ''responding to Gilderoy Lockhart's fanmail''. This involves Harry having to listen to Lockhart's self-important advice on being a celebrity, which makes it even more tedious.
*** Ron's wouldn't be SO bad if...1. Filch weren't an evil, evil man, and 2. Ron wasn't recovering from a backfired attempt to curse Draco Malfoy making him vomit up slugs, and having an attack while cleaning. Harry even tells Ron he'd rather trade punishments with him, given the amount of practice cleaning by hand he'd been given by the Dursleys.
* In several of the books, receiving a Howler: a reprimanding letter in a red envelope, which screams the words for everyone to hear, before bursting into flames. Ron receives a humiliating one from his mother in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''; Neville receives one from his grandmother in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''; and Hermione receives several in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' from her ill-wishers after Rita Skeeter's article about her.
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'': Draco Malfoy is caught trying to hex Harry from behind, at which point Moody transfigures him into a white ferret and proceeds to bounce him around the room while lecturing him, [[spoiler:with his anger also being partially directed at [[SinsOfTheFather Draco's father,]] who had the means to avoid Azkaban that Barty Crouch Jr. (who is impersonating Moody for most of the book, including in this scene) did not]]. When Professor [=McGonagall=] catches him, Moody begrudgingly admits that he was told something by Dumbledore about not using Transfiguration as punishment, but he "forgot."
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'': When Hermione finds the Weasley Twins testing out their home-made joke candies on younger students, this exchange follows, with the result that she [[DontTellMama scares the Twins so badly]] that they immediately comply, an action that has never been seen before or since:
--->'''Hermione''': If you don't stop doing it, I'm going to...
--->'''Fred''': ''(in an I'd-like-to-see-you-try-it-voice)'' Put us in detention?
--->'''George''': ''(smirking)'' Make us write lines?
--->'''Hermione''': No, but I will write to your mother.
*** Fred and George themselves use their pranking prowess to make Umbridge ''suffer''.
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'':
*** Fred and George have an unusual punishment for a gnome which invades their garden: petrifying it and using it as the angel on the Christmas tree. They consider a similar punishment for their mother in the following book: at their wedding, telling everyone they can wear what they like, and putting a full body-bind curse on their mother until it's over.
*** The cruel punishment Snape inflicts on Harry, for using the Septumsempra curse on Malfoy: making Harry copy out the crimes and punishments from years ago, which are mostly related to his father, to "add interest to the task".
** And Harry finds out in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' (through PensieveFlashback) that [[spoiler: the teenage Snape]] threatens to sleep outside the Gryffindor common room unless [[spoiler: the teenage Lily]] agrees to talk to him after he calls her a [[FantasticRacism "Mudblood"]] in a moment of severe humiliation. Though she does talk to him as a result, the conversation ends with her telling him "it's over between us", which is NOT what he hoped for at all.
* ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'':
** From Lasaraleen: "Here. All of you. And you, doorkeeper. No one is to be let out of the house today. And anyone I catch talking about this young lady will be first beaten to death and then buried alive and after that be kept on bread and water for six weeks. There."
** Aslan's punishment to Prince Rabadash. First, he's [[ForcedTransformation turned into a donkey]], and then told that he has one chance to become human again, and that's to show up at the Temple of Tash during his country's largest festival, letting the entire country know that their ruler was an [[StealthPun ass.]] Then, if he ever strays too far from the palace ever again, he'll turn into a donkey forever. This prevents him from ever taking military action against other countries, and makes it so that he'll never be able to escape the ridicule that he gets from having been a donkey.
* ''Literature/KeeperOfTheLostCities'': In ''Flashback'', Leto warns Keefe -- who is currently skipping his elvin history session -- that he can become ''very'' creative with his punishments. When Keefe expresses curiosity, Ro shuts him down, since as his bodyguard, she has to be there for them, too. Leto, knowing her dislike of elvin history lectures, agrees and tells her, "And I found an entire room filled with recordings of speeches from the Ancient Councillors that I think you'll find particularly enjoyable." Ro promptly starts dragging Keefe back to his session.
* ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'': [[EccentricMentor The eccentric]] [[BarefootSage magician Coriakin]], who governs over the Duffers (a race of foolish dwarves), transforms them into funny one-legged creatures called Monopods as a PrankPunishment for disobedience. Everyone else agrees that they look better in their new form, and they find advantages in it, but at first they are horrified by their new look, thinking that they have become "ugly".
* In the Literature/InDeath series, Dallas' idea of ultimate torment is... a hair and body treatment from Mavis' friend Trina. This from a woman who regularly works herself to exhaustion, gets shot at, beaten up, blown up, etc.
* For altering the ending of ''Literature/JaneEyre'', Literature/ThursdayNext is sentenced to wear gingham for twenty years and must read the ten most boring books ever written before she dies.
* In Creator/DouglasAdams' ''Literature/TheLongDarkTeaTimeOfTheSoul'', Norse god Odin punishes Thor by making him count all the stones in Wales.
* The short story "Literature/TheManWithoutACountry" by Edward Everett Hale was about an officer who, while on trial for treason, renounced the United States, declaring that he wished to never hear of it again. As his sentence, he is given [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor exactly what he asked for]]: He is effectively exiled to international waters, and his shipmates are ordered to never speak of the United States in his presence.
* ''Literature/{{Matilda}}'' by Creator/RoaldDahl gives us the [[ChildHater Trunchbull]]. One of her punishments for a misbehaving child is to force him to eat a (very large) chocolate cake. In front of the whole school. In both the book ''and'' the film he ''finishes it all'' to immense applause (in the book, the applause is spontaneous; in the film, [[SlowClap Matilda starts it]]). Then [[KickTheDog Trunchbull smashes the platter over his head.]] Which, in the book, is described as having no effect on the boy, as he's too stuffed from the cake to feel it. In the film, he just stands there and belches, making the kids laugh and angering Trunchbull even more.
** Eating a whole cake would make most people sick, so Trunchbull was probably hoping he'd vomit in front of the entire school so she could make him walk around in vomit-covered clothes all day.
** This is practically Trunchbull's M.O., since the more out-there her punishments of students are, [[CassandraTruth the less likely parents are going to believe the children trying to tell them]].
** Matilda herself inflicts cool and unusual punishments on her AbusiveParents and the Trunchbull. Like causing Mr. Wormwood to accidentally bleach his hair, then superglue his hat to his head, or spilling a glass of water with a newt in it onto the Trunchbull's dress. And the punishment on the Trunchbull at the end of the book is to make the "ghost" of her murdered brother write on the blackboard.
* The Institute in ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'' has a room called "The Waiting Room" that children who misbehave are sent to while they wait to talk with Mr. Curtain. Most kids are clueless to what it is, higher ranking students refuse to discuss what it is, and people who were sent to it are usually too shell-shocked to describe what it's like. Not much is known about what it is but [[spoiler:Sticky]] describes it as sitting in a dark, quiet room full of extremely horrid smelling mud and being surrounded by bugs.
* In one of the ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' books, Anton describes how Geser, head of the Night Watch (the "good guys"), punishes members for slacking off by having them do something they would think is enjoyable, but ends up being boring. For instance, one Watch member punished is a teenage girl, and her punishment is having to be a normal teenager and be around other teenagers, which she quickly finds annoying. This punishment has a bit of a darker edge, in that Others are frequently mentioned to no longer identify with {{Muggles}}.
* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' novel "Descent Into the Depths of the Earth" has the relatively benign action of being tied back-to-back with another person... well, benign if that character isn't Polk the Teamster, a loudmouth who is described as not having stopped talking for the entire two hours they were sitting there; most of the speech was admonishing the hero about how badly he mishandled the previous fight: not because they were captured, but because he wasn't fighting awesomely enough.
* In Creator/TomHolt's ''Paint Your Dragon'', one joke mentions that while Hell does have televised snooker, it's used for a certain group of very ''select'' clients.
* In the ''Literature/{{Percy Jackson|and the Olympians}}'' interpretation of the Greek underworld, torments in the Fields of Punishment range from classic forms of torture to being forced to listen to opera music. To be fair, Myth/GreekMythology had some pretty weird punishments, too; see the "Mythology" folder below.
** Also, at one point the Apollo (god of poet) campers curse at least one Ares (god of war) camper to speak in nothing but rhyme.
* ''Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'': How does [[VillainProtagonist Catherine]] punish the ghost of one of her most ruthless and hated foes? [[spoiler: She invites her to a pleasant, friendly get-together with Catherine's other friends. It's much crueler than it sounds, as it forces Akua to confront the fact that genuine companionship was what she truly needed and the only person she ever really cared about was sacrificed by her to attain power she now knows would not have truly made her happy. She now has to live with the knowledge that she could have had all of this years ago and it is entirely her own fault that she didn't.]]
-->“The closest I have to match to last night is a girl I sent to die. You’ve devised a poison so sweet I will crave the taste of it.”
* ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'' features the Total Perspective Vortex, which shows you how large the universe truly is, and how very very small ''you'' are. People's minds cannot handle it, and are generally driven completely insane if not catatonic from even a second's exposure.
** Subverted by Zaphod's [[spoiler:vision that yeah, he really IS the most important and cool guy in the universe]]. And then reverted when [[spoiler:it's revealed that he was in an artificial reality, built just for him, so naturally he was the most important person in it]].
** And, as indicated by the page quote, [[GiftedlyBad Vogons]] use their own poetry as torture. Vogon poetry is sufficiently awful to elicit screams of pain, and could legitimately be regarded as torture. However, Arthur Dent doesn't seem to be particularly bothered by listening to it, which perhaps has to do with the fact that his own planet had the worst poet in the universe (at least until the Vogons demolished it).
** The Bellcelerephons of Kakrafoon were punished for being utterly satisfied with their lot, which was seen as needlessly provocative by everyone else, by having telepathy inflicted on them, forcing them to talk endlessly to block out one another's thoughts (or host a Disaster Area concert, which does the same thing).
* A Russell Baker column suggested what he really considered painful and condign punishments for the Watergate conspirators -- such as sentencing them to ten years of high school. ("You can't do this to me, Sirica!")
* ''Literature/AScannerDarkly'' has Charles Freck's punishment in the afterlife, after his suicide attempt: a creature with a thousand eyes pulls out a ListOfTransgressions, which he will be made to listen to for all eternity. ''In shifts.'' (In the film, this is a BungledSuicide, and he's later seen in rehab; in the book, the suicide attempt is the last time he appears, raising the possibility that this ''is'' his afterlife.)
* In ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', Prufrock Preparatory School revels in this trope. Punishments for breaking the school's rules include removing your rights to forks, spoons, glasses and knives at the cafeteria. And if you miss one of the vice-principal's violin concerts, you are required to buy him a bag of candy and sit in his office watching him eat it all. It's hinted at being more depressing than it sounds, since the vice-principal is such a jerk.
* In Creator/DanielPinkwater's book [[Literature/SnarkoutBoys ''The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death'']], the villain tortures people by forcing them to watch German comedy. Naturally, the character he kidnaps actually ''likes'' German comedy. It is also mentioned that the same villain once tortured another character by suspending them in a vat of egg foo yung.
* ''Literature/StarTrekEnterpriseRelaunch:'' At one point, T'Pol and Hoshi confront an uncooperative Orion criminal. Every time their perp refuses to give an answer, they "donate" large amounts of her money to various charities until she gives in.
* ''Literature/StregaNona'': While Strega Nona goes out, she warns Big Anthony not to touch her magic pasta pot. He disobeys her, having learned the spell to activate it and serves enough for the whole town. When trying to chant the counterspell however, Big Anthony didn't know that he had to blow three kisses to finish the spell, and instead a humongous amount of pasta spews from the pot to flood the entire village. Strega Nona finds out and reverses the spell properly, then forces Big Anthony to eat all the pasta as punishment for disobeying her, leaving him sick and bloated that evening.
* ''The Stories Julian Tells'': One of the stories involves Julian and little brother, Huey, being told by their dad not to eat the pudding he's made until their mom gets home. Naturally, they can't resist, thinking one more bite won't hurt, and it's almost entirely gone before they stop. When their dad finds out, he tells them there's going to be some beating and whipping... [[ExactWords Before he makes them beat the eggs and whip the cream he needs to make more pudding]].
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': In the novella ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'' When Lift initially claims to be a friend of the Prime Aqasix, the local bureaucrats are understandably skeptical, and try to throw her out. When confirmation comes and they are ordered to obey her, she immediately makes them start calling her "Your Pancakefulness".
* ''Literature/TerraIgnota'':
** The Utopians have a special punishment for killing one of their own: ''Modo mundo''. They cut the perpetrator off from any sort of entertainment, from movies to books. The idea is that every Utopian has a thousand stories inside them even if they never publish, and by killing them you killed all those stories. So, you are cut off from stories in turn.
** When the cook at one of J.E.D.D. Mason's safehouses accidentally destroyed a priceless book, J.E.D.D. told her that the protagonist of every work of fiction is Humanity, and the antagonist is God. Since then Chagatai's found herself unable to enjoy any entertainment without agonizing over the struggle between humanity and God, so she placed herself under an unofficial ''modo mundo'', forgoing any entertainment and collecting knowledge of movie trivia instead.
* ''Literature/TrappedOnDraconica'': How Gothon rewards Zarracka for failing twice over. [[spoiler: throwing her, tied up, into a pit with a giant monster. The monster in question was a herbivore and thus harmless. All it did was scare her shitless, make her beg for her life, and ruin her dress with its slobber. It works beautiful because Zarracka's ego is bigger than his empire.]]
