History Main / Applicability

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' is a show that runs with nerd stereotypes but does so in such a way that they don't all fall into the exact same character mold. As a result a lot of people are able to find themselves in the characters despite being on the extreme end of "smart people." Sheldon's rampant ScheduleFanatic and ObsessivelyOrganized behavior lead many people to assume he is [[UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome autistic]], and there's much debate about whether he's a positive or negative portrayal of the condition. Leonard is timid and a pushover while trying to stay a NiceGuy. Howard is a CasanovaWannabe who has a hard time understanding why women aren't falling for [[ExtravertedNerd his excitable energy]]. Raj is painfully shy around women to the point [[ShrinkingViolet he can't even speak in their presence]], though he later gets somewhat better. And Penny, the only non-nerd/non-genius of the cast, is easily overwhelmed by the nerd topics and science talk and often ends up the odd one out. It's covering this wide spectrum of personalities that lead many reviewers to speculate this is the reason behind the show's success.

-->'''[[https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/bong-joon-ho-parasite.html Bong:]]''' ''When directing the movie, I tried to express a sentiment specific to the Korean culture and I thought that [[WidgetSeries it was full of Koreanness]] if seen from an outsider's perspective, but upon screening the film after completion, all the responses from different audiences were pretty much the same, which made me realize that the topic was universal, in fact. Essentially, [[NotSoDifferentRemark we all live in the same country called capitalism]].''

* Creator/GeorgeOrwell wrote ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' as a RomanAClef of how [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober the Russian Revolution]] ended up [[FullCircleRevolution reestablishing the very same tyranny it fought to overthrow]] as its leaders grew increasingly self-centered, power-hungry, and hypocritical. However, because it masks that metaphor in a family-friendly story about TalkingAnimals and never ''directly'' comments on communism, it's become popular worldwide in many newly democratic and ex-colonial nations among critics of politicians who use their backgrounds as freedom fighters to shield themselves from criticism. In UsefulNotes/{{Zimbabwe}}, for instance, its serialization in a popular newspaper in 2000 saw it quickly embraced as [[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65947114 a metaphor]] for how their country's liberation from White minority rule turned sour during the subsequent dictatorship of Robert Mugabe, who many Zimbabweans saw as a real-life version of the book's pig dictator Napoleon, such that it eventually got an official Shona-language translation.

-->'''Bradbury:''' ''I wrote this book at a time when I was worried about the way things were going in this country four years ago. Too many people were afraid of their shadows; there was a threat of book burning. Many of the books were being taken off the shelves at that time. And of course, things have changed a lot in four years. Things are going back in a very healthy direction. But at the time I wanted to do some sort of story where I could comment on what would happen to a country if we let ourselves go too far in this direction, where then all thinking stops, and the dragon swallows his tail, and we sort of vanish into a limbo and we destroy ourselves by this sort of action.''

-->'''Bradbury:''' ''It works even better because we have political correctness now. Political correctness is the real enemy these days. The black groups want to control our thinking and you can’t say certain things. The homosexual groups don’t want you to criticize them. It’s thought control and freedom of speech control.''

* Creator/RayBradbury famously felt that many fans of ''Literature/Fahrenheit451'' focused too much on its anti-censorship message, when his main intention was to criticize [[NewMediaAreEvil the growth of mass media (especially television)]] in the postwar years, which he felt was dumbing down the public and creating a culture of AntiIntellectualism where the kind of MoralGuardians and mass censorship portrayed in the story were able to run amok in the first place. However, the use of BookBurning, one of the most notorious and blunt methods of censorship, as a major motif throughout the story means that it often winds up as the first thing everybody notices. It has also been interpreted as a tale about holding onto one's individuality in a conformist society that rejects those who step out of line.

* Music/SheilaOn7: "Lapang Dada" was written by Eross with his late father in mind, but it was purposefully written to be applicable to any kind of acceptance, which led to most interpreting it as IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy, including the official music video.
* Music/HarryChapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" is a song about a [[WhenYouComingHomeDad neglectful father]] whose son grows up to [[IronicEcho abandon him in his old age]] in turn. In UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland, however, the song is most associated with the 1993 anti-terrorism PublicServiceAnnouncement [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x-m2YPcIZg "Don't Suffer It, Change It",]] which puts a ''much'' darker twist on the lyrics. In it, a father in Belfast neglects his family to fight in UsefulNotes/TheTroubles, gets sent to prison, watches his son [[LikeFatherLikeSon follow in his footsteps]], and eventually [[OutlivingOnesOffspring buries his son]] after he gets killed by a terrorist.

* Anti-mutant prejudice in ''ComicBook/XMen'' can stand in for a metaphor for any number of RealLife prejudices. Fans have tended to take this very literally and argue about what the "original meaning" was and how it has changed. WordOfGod has confirmed, upon occasion, that individual writers have used it for a specific metaphorical purpose; Creator/GrantMorrison, for one, has said that he used his run to comment to the {{demonization}} of young people. Not even this squares completely with his comics, but it makes a lot more sense if you [[DracoInLeatherPants sympathize way too much with Quentin Quire]]. But that does not mean that every writer has used it as a metaphor, or has used it for the same one every time. That it has been so readily used as allegory for such diverging issues as racial tensions, LGBT struggles, [=McCarthyism=], the Cold War, and generational conflict is proof enough of this. Interestingly, the movie series takes it at face-value: [[ApocalypseHow normal humans are terrified of going extinct]], and the prospect of actually siring the species that will replace us is unthinkable, thus the fear and hatred. Analogies are also drawn in the film with the debate over UsefulNotes/AmericanGunPolitics, with some mutant powers seen as threats to society by their very nature due to how useful they are for killing people.

* Music/TheKink's "Days" has two different interpretations, both from its writer Ray Davies. The first one is that Davies wrote it as a way of saying goodbye to his sister whom had moved to Australia. The second is that he was aware that the band would eventually break up and for all he knew, the song would be their finale. "Days" is a bittersweet song where the singer is bidding someone farewell and acknowledging that they must move on without them. It is a very common choice for a funeral for this reason.

** This was parodied by Creator/JorgeLuisBorges in "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote." The story is about a man who attempts to write a novel ''identical'' to ''Literature/DonQuixote'', from a modern perspective.

* Bobby Alcid Rubio wrote the WesternAnimation/{{Pixar short|s}} ''Float'' as an {{allegory}} for his struggle to accept his son's autism diagnosis, but the son's ability to fly can be easily symbolic of any sort of difference that would set a child apart from other children and their parents' struggle to accept it.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

** Mirabel can be seen as an allegory for somebody born with a disability, as she doesn't have any magical powers unlike the rest of her family [[note]]Except for her abuela, father and Uncle Felix, the latter two whom married into the family[[/note]] and as a result feels unaccepted by and excluded from her family, even though this is unintentional on the Madrigals' part. Indeed, many disabled viewers found that Mirabel's struggle with self-worth and acceptance resonated strongly with their own experiences.
*** Adding onto this is a few InnocentlyInsensitive comments - such as being given an "Extra special gift basket" for an "Extra special" person (her) because she didn't get any gift. Many people who had disabilities grew up with such InnocentlyInsensitive comments.

** It's either a fighting game which stars as many Creator/{{Nintendo}} characters as possible (and a few 3rd-party guests), or it's one of the most interactive and wacky cartoons of all time.

* ''Series/ManSeekingWoman'' is a surrealist show that initially presents itself as a relationship drama but quickly goes down the path of AncientConspiracy, AlienInvasion, AllMythsAreTrue and other fantastical events which shifts [[GenreMashup multiple times in a single episode]], all treated with at best [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight mild surprise]]. But there is a through-line that anchors all of these things into something relatable and comprehensible, instead of being absurd for its own sake there is an analogy at the heart of it all. Josh's [[MyBelovedSmother mother]] inquiring about his love life is treated as ''actual'' ElectricTorture, after being drugged and shackled to a chair with clamps to his nipples and testicles (in his childhood room, no less).

* ''Series/ManSeekingWoman'' is a surrealist show that initially presents itself as a relationship drama but quickly goes down the path of AncientConspiracy, AlienInvasion, AllMythsAreReal and other fantastical events which shifts [[GenreMashup multiple times in a single episode]], all treated with at best [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight mild surprise]]. But there is a through-line that anchors all of these things into something relatable and comprehensible, instead of being absurd for its own sake there is an analogy at the heart of it all. Josh's [[MyBelovedSmother mother]] inquiring about his love life is treated as ''actual'' ElectricTorture, after being drugged and shackled to a chair with clamps to his nipples and testicles (in his childhood room, no less).

** A more minor example regards Theatre/{{Macbeth}}’s “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” monologue. In context it’s a DespairSpeech in which the eponymous character says that [[StrawNihilist life is meaningless]] and [[CessationOfExistence we’ll all cease to exist anyway]], but since the final line happens to be, “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” in the current age of [[SturgeonsLaw completely justified]] {{Caustic Critic}}ism on the Internet, those in the MSTing community like to quote the line to describe the prose they are making fun of.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' is a show that runs with nerd stereotypes but does so in such a way that they don't all fall into the exact same character mold. As a result a lot of people are able to find themselves in the characters despite being on the extreme end of "smart people." Sheldon's rampant ScheduleFanatic and SuperOCD behavior lead many people to assume he is [[UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome autistic]], and there's much debate about whether he's a positive or negative portrayal of the condition. Leonard is timid and a pushover while trying to stay a NiceGuy. Howard is a CasanovaWannabe who has a hard time understanding why women aren't falling for [[ExtravertedNerd his excitable energy]]. Raj is painfully shy around women to the point [[ShrinkingViolet he can't even speak in their presence]], though he later gets somewhat better. And Penny, the only non-nerd/non-genius of the cast, is easily overwhelmed by the nerd topics and science talk and often ends up the odd one out. It's covering this wide spectrum of personalities that lead many reviewers to speculate this is the reason behind the show's success.