History FamilyUnfriendlyAesop / WesternAnimation

* Once done as humor in the Bob'sBurgers episode Recap/SpaghettiWesternAndMeatballs. While Linda is looking forward to a school spaghetti dinner supporting Tina's conflict-resolution club, she is pleased as she and Bob are chosen to be hosts, with her hoping to show up some other moms. As the episode goes, Gene bonds with Bob over a Spaghetti Western DVD boxset and a conflict winds up causing a food fight at school. After Mr. Frond suspends the kids, it also means Linda won't be allowed to host the spaghetti dinner, infuriating her. So, Linda is furious, Bob and Gene aren't happy as Linda is revoking their DVD boxset and Louise is happy with their loss. What happens when Tina suggests they practice her methods of peaceful conflict resolution?

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': PlayedForLaughs at the end of "Stuck In The Wringer". It ends with [=SpongeBob=], after going through an [[TraumaCongaLine incredibly rough day]] while stuck in a wringer, breaking down crying, which gets him out of the wringer. [=SpongeBob=] then turns to the camera and says: "I guess crying can solve your problems after all!". Many didn't get that [[SpoofAesop it very likely wasn't intended to be taken seriously]].

*** There's a bit of DisproportionateRetribution in the negative way Marinette/Ladybug is portrayed. Had she called Lila out on her lies as Marinette rather than feeling a need to do so as Ladybug (admittedly difficult because then she'd have to explain how Marinette knew Lila was lying), she might have been more sympathetic.

** Subverted with the series as a whole, but the finale in particular, as it built up to a very unconventional Aesop: that sometimes ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer. Aang spoke with all of his past lives and was told that breaking his [[ThouShaltNotKill code against killing]] was a sacrifice worth making to save the rest of the world. Only one told him to "actively shape your own destiny." Aang ultimately settles on this much more conventional choice and discovers a way to stop Ozai for good without having to kill him. Unfortunately, this solution also famously veered a bit into FantasticAesop, however, in that his [[TakeAThirdOption third option]] relied on barely-foreshadowed arbitrary rules.

* Maybe subverted with ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'', which parents frequently bash for teaching that whining to get your way is good. However, [[TruthInTelevision as people in business will tell you, especially anyone working in customer service, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease."]] Of course, this still doesn't mean very many of us want our children to start practicing being obnoxious so early in life. Also, unfortunately, while whining is bad behavior, it's natural behavior of kids of Caillou's age. One would be more worried if a kid of his age acts all angelic because it would cross into UncannyValley and StepfordSmiler territory. Usually if a kid that age is that “well behaved”, it’s through abuse and the lack of “bad behavior” is out of fear.
** Played straight with one infamous episode, which had Caillou being afraid of a man just because he doesn't know him. His mother then actually [[WhatAnIdiot leaves him alone with said man to teach him to get over his fears.]] While this is apparently intended to be a subversion of the StrangerDanger specials of the 1980s-1990s, it remains that Caillou's mother leaving him alone with someone who's a complete stranger to ''her'' as well is irresponsible for being a statistically slight but potentially ''very'' terrible risk to take with her child.

* ''WesternAnimation/DanielTigersNeighborhood'' had the episode "Daniel Can't Ride Trolley; Daniel Can't Get What He Wants". Both segments in the episode had a moral of "stomp your feet when you get angry and you will feel better". Unfortunately, this seemed very similar to a temper tantrum in the eyes of most parents. Not helping matters is that [[FleetingDemographicRule the show already did an episode on what to do when you get angry]] that aired a few years prior with a better moral of breathing and counting when you are mad.
** Due to complaints from parents, a {{recut}} version of this episode was made in 2019, with some scenes edited and the line "stomp three times" redubbed with "Take a deep breath".

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Redakai}}'' seems to be showing up on several of these lists. While flinging fire around in a forest is more of a BrokenAesop in context, there are family-unfriendly ones, as well. In one episode, both the good guys and bad guys are betrayed by a Paleontologist who is trying to get his hands on a resurrected Pterodactyl. In the end, the heroes catch up to him, then attach him to a rope tied to the pterodactyl so he is dragged through the air like someone being dragged by a truck while the heroes [[EverybodyLaughsEnding laugh]]. In other words, [[UnfortunateImplications "Lynching is an acceptable form of retribution to someone who betrays you"]].

** "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" came under a lot of fire because of its concept of humbling someone being interpreted as "If your friend is being an obnoxious braggart, rather than talking to them, you should anonymously take them down a peg or twelve". It wasn't helped by the fact that the ponies who were involved proceeded to brag about themselves out of the costume.

* In ''Disney/EducationForDeath'', the Nazi school teacher uses a story of a fox hunting and eating a rabbit to point out an Aesop. When Hans does what a reasonable human being would do and voices sympathy for the "poor rabbit", the teacher is horrified and punishes him, before pointing out the true moral of the story: that the rabbit should be despised for being too weak and stupid to stop the strong, cunning fox from killing him, and that the children should aspire to be like the fox. This is entirely intentional on the part of the film-makers, as Nazi ideology was very big on VirtueIsWeakness and MightMakesRight.

** "Winter Wrap-Up" has Twilight being put in charge of the Wrap-Up for her organizational skills, after proving herself disastrously incapable of everything else. Of course the show puts it in its best possible light (the final lesson is "Anything is possible with teamwork!")...but it's still a story about a privileged employee being [[PointyHairedBoss promoted to supervisor]] because she's completely incompetent at everything else. Good luck finding a harsher truth about adult life in a kid's show.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'' episode "The Enchanted Feast" has the moral "If a new person enters your life and is popular with your family but you have trouble accepting them, it probably means they're evil".

** Subverted in the case where the series as a whole, but the finale in particular, looked for awhile to be building up to a very family unfriendly Aesop: that sometimes ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer. Aang spoke with all of his past lives and was told by Roku, indirectly, about how many lives they could have saved if they had "acted decisively," and by Kyoshi and Yangchen how they were willing to do "anything" to save the lives of millions of people, and that as Avatar his duty was to put the well-being of the people of the world over his own path to enlightenment. Kuruk was the only one who provided a clear opposition to the idea, advising Aang to "actively shape your own destiny." Ultimately Aang chose to go with Kuruk's advice and was given a way to stop Ozai for good without having to kill him.
** Also there's Avatar Yangchen's conversation with Aang which says that while the desire to preserve all life is admirable, trying to spare the Fire Lord with no alternative solution is ultimately a selfish action to make himself feel better at the cost of everyone else. Interestingly, this also outright defies Aang and Yangchen's Air Nomad background: she argues that the duty of the Avatar is above personal spiritual fulfillment.
** "The Great Divide": Lying through your teeth is an acceptable and effective way to resolve deeply ingrained disputes. Doubly so when you don't really know what the real cause behind the issue is, and that fighting over something that happened 20 years ago is foolish when your lives are in jeopardy now. Amusingly, this is a contributing factor to that episode's general dislike both InUniverse and out of it; the characters within the Ember Island Players episode directly talk about skipping the canyon entirely.
** "Zuko Alone:" A few good deeds here and there will not save or protect you from years of damage and abuse caused by your family or nation.

** "One Bad Apple" has Babs Seed getting away with bullying the Cutie Mark Crusaders because [[FreudianExcuse she was also bullied in her hometown of Manehattan]]. When we find out why Babs has been picking on the CMC, we get AnAesop that "standing up to a bully will make ''you'' a bully as well".

** "To Change A Changeling" has the lesson that total passiveness and non-violence doesn't always work, and that sometimes ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer. You can't always be a totally violent jerk like Pharynx, or always be a complete pushover like the rest of the changelings: you need to know when to use words, feelings, and let things go, and when to stand up for yourself and others. It could also be seen as something of an AuthorsSavingThrow to the [[BrokenAesop botched moral]] of "One Bad Apple".

** "One Bad Apple" has Babs Seed [[KarmaHoudini getting away with bullying the Cutie Mark Crusaders]] because [[FreudianExcuse she was also bullied in her hometown of Manehattan]]. When we find out why Babs has been picking on the CMC, we get AnAesop that "standing up to a bully will make ''you'' a bully as well".

* An ''accidental'' case of this due to ValuesDissonance caused the ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' episode "Mister Skinnylegs" to be [[BannedInChina stricken from Australian airwaves]]. The plot of the episode is that spiders shouldn't be considered scary and are okay to have in the house. While that works fine in the show's native Britain, it's unacceptable to teach this to young kids in Australia because the country is ''loaded'' with venomous spiders, and actually includes some of the most dangerous spiders ''in the world''. To put this in perspective, a ''short'' list of "[[UsefulNotes/AustralianWildlife dangerous Australian spiders]]" would include the ubiquitous Red-Back Spider (basically a Black Widow with anger management issues), the White-Tailed Spider (highly poisonous, and suspected of being the infamous "necrotizing spider", a spider whose bite ''[[BodyHorror causes your flesh to start rotting away whilst you're still alive]]'') and the Sydney Funnelweb (a highly aggressive pseudo-tarantula known to have the most powerful venom in the world). Understandably, Australians don't particularly want small children to think it's okay to play with these things.

*** "Prize Fighters" [[DeconstructedTrope brutally deconstructs]] "BeYourself". Daria is vying for a scholarship and will have to be interviewed; however, she dislikes the impression that she needs to act any differently than her typical [[BrutalHonesty blunt]], [[TheSnarkKnight sarcastic]] self. Ultimately, she acts like her normal self and doesn't get the scholarship; Jodie and Upchuck, who were more professional to the point of boring/butt-kissing, respectively, didn't either. None of them are really sure whether or not they did the right thing.

** While sticking to your personal morals and refusing to take part in a corrupt system is admirable, doing so will also usually make things in life much more difficult. This is shown best in "Prize Fighters." Daria is vying for a scholarship and will have to be interviewed; however, she dislikes the impression that she needs to act any differently than her typical [[BrutalHonesty blunt]], [[TheSnarkKnight sarcastic]] self. Ultimately, she acts like her normal self and doesn't get the scholarship; Jodie and Upchuck, who were more professional to the point of boring/butt-kissing, respectively, didn't either. None of them are really sure whether or not they did the right thing.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E9MrPlow Mr. Plow]]" has one. Homer starts a plowing business (removing snow with a snowplow), and he gets a lot of money for it, until Barney comes with a bigger snowplow and stops Homer's success. Homer even claims that Barney stole his idea. Barney is presented as an antagonist, but at the end, Homer and Barney decide to be partners instead, so the moral is "Starting a competing business is being a jerk" or maybe "If you have a friend with a business, you can't be a real friend if you start competing with him" and maybe also "Stealing ideas is wrong", but in real life, competition is a key factor in our free market and it's good for the customers ([[OnlyInItForTheMoney who Homer shows nothing but contempt for, incidentally]]). Also, there are cases of people who are business competitors but still friends, like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Plus the law says you can't own ideas and many people agree. Barney was shown as clearly wrong on shooting out the tires of Homer's plow and making a defaming commercial against Homer, but the aspect of competing with a friend is debatable.
*** Also, Homer, by trying to get Barney to stop, puts Barney's life in danger. Homer saves him and only then does Barney agree to stop the competition and be partners, but Homer conveniently doesn't tell Barney he was responsible for this, furthering the moral that two friends can't have both competing businesses and stating that if you put someone's life in danger and then save them, it's not necessary to tell that you made the problem in the first place.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': "No Such Luck" gives us the moral that it's okay to [[NeverMyFault blame others for your failings]].

** "Tree Trunks": Encouraging people to pursue their dreams, if they don't have a talent for it will lead to disappointment at best and at worst get them killed.

** "It Came From the Nightosphere": If somebody is estranged from their parent, it might be because the parent actually is a dangerous psychopath who you shouldn't well-intentionedly invite over without asking them.

--> '''Nicole:''' Okay, kids. Sometimes when you're an adult, you have to lie. All of the time about absolutely everything and never show your feelings because it's impolite, sit on them when you die and bury them with you like the ancient egyptians did.

* Maybe subverted with ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'', which parents frequently bash for teaching that whining to get your way is good. However, [[TruthInTelevision as people in business will tell you, especially anyone working in customer service, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease."]] Of course, this still doesn't mean very many of us want our children to start practicing being obnoxious so early in life. Also, unfortunately, while whining is bad behavior, it's natural behavior of kids of Caillou's age. One would be more worried if a kid of his age acts all angelic because it would cross into UncannyValley and StepfordSmiler territory.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': The infamous episode "Stuck In The Wringer" ends with [=SpongeBob=], after going through an [[TraumaCongaLine incredibly rough day]] while stuck in a wringer, breaking down crying, which gets him out of the wringer. [=SpongeBob=] then turns to the camera and says: "I guess crying can solve your problems after all!". Considering the delivery of the line, [[SpoofAesop it very likely wasn't intended to be taken seriously]], but considering everything that had just happened...

** TheMovie ''The Beast With a Billion Backs'': [[AllLovingHero "Love" for the whole world]] is impossible, since [[GreenEyedMonster true love is greedy and jealous]].

** Parodied in "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E21YoLeelaLeela Yo Leela Leela]]" where Leela lies about creating a children's show from scratch when in reality she's just writing about the antics of an alien species. Eventually the guilt catches up with her and she confesses... only to be praised for the lie. Wrong or not, her actions improved the lives of everyone involved: the alien species was able to buy medicine and infrastructure with the paychecks they earned while the orphans were inspired by Leela's success story and ended up HappilyAdopted and employed at the TV studio. It ends with everyone standing around Leela in a circle cheering her on as a hero while she begs them to stop and wails about how she deserves to be punished.