History Main / ExcuseBoomerang

* ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': In a fit of anger during his and Malty's trial, King Aultcray confesses that he conspired against the Shield Hero. This was promptly followed up with Quenn Mirellia convicting both him and Malty then having them both stripped of their authority and nearly sentencing them both to death. Fortunately for them, their former victim Naofumi steps in and asks for them to be spared from decapitation and instead had Aultcray renamed Trash and Malty being renamed Bitch with her adventurer alias being changed to Slut.

* ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': In a fit of anger during his and Malty's trial, King Aultcray confesses that he conspired against the Shield Hero. This was promptly followed up with Quenn Mirellia convicting both him and Malty then having them both stripped of their authorithy and nearly sentencing them both to death. Fortunately for them, their former victim Naofumi steps in and asks for them to be spared from decapitation and instead had Aultcray renamed Trash and Malty being renamed Bitch with her adventurer alias being changed to Slut.

* This Creator/AmbroseBierce poem from ''Epigrams of a Cynic'':

-->"[[CultureJustifiesAnything You say that it is your custom to burn widows]]. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

* This Creator/AmbroseBierce poem:

The culprit has been caught red-handed and is about to receive a well deserved punishment. But, he objects, it wasn't his fault. He had no control over his actions. He ''[[GollumMadeMeDoIt had]]'' to commit the crime.

Related to IronicEcho, CultureJustifiesAnything, JustFollowingOrders, and AppealToInherentNature.

* In ''{{Literature/Jingo}}'':
-->Oh, no doubt the man would suggest there were mitigating circumstances, that he [[FreudianExcuse had an unhappy childhood]] or was driven by Compulsive Well-Poisoning Disorder. But I have a compulsion to behead cowardly murderers.

* In the first tome of ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', when Mulch tries to claim he cannot help himself burgling Mudpeople's houses, Holly retorts that LEP officers can't help arresting thieves.

* There was an early ''Webcomic/{{PvP}}'' strip in which Cole attempted this unsuccessfully. His employees were in the habit of neglecting their jobs to play video games. At one point, he told them that he was too busy playing a certain game to finish the payroll, only to decide a moment later that he actually should get it out of the way.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Apu is fired when his habit of selling spoiled food is publicly revealed. He protests that selling spoiled food is actually the company's policy, and his superior retorts that blaming all PR disasters on someone else is ''also'' company policy.

* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'': When the Arabian fables are being integrated into Fabletown society, they insist on being allowed to maintain their ancient tradition of keeping slaves. Old King Cole agrees but says that the Western fables will maintain its ancient tradition of putting all slave-owners to death wherever they find them. Probably based on the RealLife Charles Napier example below.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': Similar to the Zeno of Citium story, Calvin claims that he can't be held accountable for his actions because he was fated to do them. Hobbes trips him, claiming Calvin was fated to fall.

Related to IronicEcho, CultureJustifiesAnything, JustFollowingOrders and AppealToInherentNature.

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* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'': When the Arabian fables are being integrated into Fabletown society, they insist on being allowed to maintain their ancient tradition of keeping slaves. Old King Cole agrees, but says that the Western fables will maintain its ancient tradition of putting all slave-owners to death wherever they find them. Probably based on the RealLife Charles Napier example below.

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[[folder:{{WesternAnimation}}]]
* Unsuccessfully attempted by Hank in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', in the episode "Junkie Business". A new employee turns out to be a drug addict, and gets his lawyer to invoke the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990 Americans with Disabilities Act]] to keep his job and demand special accommodations. This inspires other employees to claim to suffer from a variety of outlandish disabilities and demand inconvenient and time-consuming accommodations with the help of the same lawyer. Hank tries to get a handle on the situation by claiming he suffers from "Good Worker Syndrome", which allegedly makes him sick to his stomach unless every one around him is giving 110 percent. [[StrawHypocrite The lawyer accuses him of trying to abuse the system.]]

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* Moral relativism (the view that all morals are simply a product of culture or society) is sometimes used to argue that [[CultureJustifiesAnything we cannot judge other cultures for things which seem wrong to us.]] Yet, as critics note, tolerance towards other cultures isn't a universal moral value, and would make moral relativism false if it was.

* Moral relativism (the view that all morals are simply a product of culture or society) is sometimes used to argue that [[CultureJustifiesAnything we cannot judge other cultures for things which seem wrong to us.]] Yet, as critics note, tolerance towards other cultures isn't a universal moral value either, and would make moral relativism false if it was.

Related to IronicEcho, CultureJustifiesAnything, and AppealToInherentNature.

* Moral relativism (the view that all morals are simply a product of culture or society) is sometimes used to argue that everyone must tolerate other cultures too. Thus we cannot judge them for things which seem wrong to us. Yet, as critics note, this doesn't follow. Assuming that moral relativism is true, tolerance isn't a universal moral value. It would only be good if some culture values it. Not all do, obviously. So to argue this, you'd need a universal value, which requires that moral relativism is false.

* ''Series/LawAndOrder'' (and its various spin-offs) will often have something like this happen when an [[AmoralAttorney Amoral]] RulesLawyer has some scheme backfire and get their words thrown in their faces. A particularly satisfying example happened in an episode of SVU, when a SerialKiller facing a bullet-proof capital punishment case for his crimes in the USA was arrested in Canada, whose constitution forbids extradition on capital charges. When a Canadian judge questioned his defense attorney about the risk of Canada becoming a haven for capital offenders if they set this precedent, he smarmily replied "I prefer not to speculate on a hypothetical situation which may or may not result from the high court's ruling". Alex Cabot's response is to amend the extradition charge to possession of stolen property, which is ''not'' a capital charge. When the defense attorney says that his client is obviously going to be charged with the capital crimes the second he's back on American soil (which Cabot doesn't even bother denying), the judge uses his exact words to justify extraditing the murderer on the charges actually brought, barely concealing how much he enjoys it.

Related to IronicEcho.

* Unsuccessfully attempted by Hank in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', in the episode "Junkie Business". A new employee turns out to be a drug addict, and gets his lawyer to invoke the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990 Americans with Disabilities Act]] to keep his job and demand special accommodations. This inspires other employees to claim to suffer from a variety of outlandish disabilities and demand inconvenient and time-consuming accommodations with the help of the same lawyer. Hank tries to get a handle on the situation:
-->'''Hank:''' You see, I recently came to realize that I, too, suffer from a disability: Good Worker Syndrome. I get sick to my stomach unless every one around me is giving 110 percent. The symptoms include pride, responsibility, and a feverish enthusiasm. It used to be a common condition among Americans.
** However, the lawyer accuses him of [[StrawHypocrite trying to abuse the system.]]

* In ''{{Discworld/Jingo}}'':

* Moral relativism (the view that all morals are simply a produce of culture or society) is sometimes used to argue that everyone must tolerate other cultures too. Thus we cannot judge them for things which seem wrong to us. Yet, as critics note, this doesn't follow. Assuming that moral relativism is true, tolerance isn't a universal moral value. It would only be good if some culture values it. Not all do, obviously. So to argue this, you'd need a universal value, which requires that moral relativism is false.