History Main / FamilyUnfriendlyAesop

* ''FanFic/ProfessorArc'': The fic is about Jaune becoming a teacher, rather, then a student as he intended, because [[GoneHorriblyRight his forged transcripts are just that good]]. He manages to become a rather respected teacher, and [[spoiler: even ends up headmaster-with Beacon's staff willing to maintain the lie, if only to protect reputation]]. The message being, "fraud and lies are forgivable as long as you do a lot of good with them]].

* While the original ''Film/DeathWish'' [[{{Deconstruction}} makes it clear that the main character]], [[VigilanteMan Paul Kersey]], [[{{Deconstruction}} has become unbalanced due to his trials and vigilante actions]], [[{{Reconstruction}} the sequels increasingly support vigilantism as a necessary means to clean up the streets]]. Well, ''some'' people think Paul Kersey is unbalanced, apparently on the theory that it's impossible for a sane person to believe that "Sometimes ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer." Others see Kersey as having woken up to reality.

* While the original ''Film/DeathWish'' makes it clear that the main character, Paul Kersey, has become unbalanced due to his trials and vigilante actions, the sequels increasingly support vigilantism as a necessary means to clean up the streets. Well, ''some'' people think Paul Kersey is unbalanced, apparently on the theory that it's impossible for a sane person to believe that "Sometimes ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer." Others see Kersey as having woken up to reality.

* An exhaustingly-common aesop that pops up in all media is that if you're working a 9-5 desk job with a comfortable middle-class income, your life ''must'' be boring and unfulfilling and you're just itching for the chance to ditch it all and be an artist or performer and/or run away with the ManicPixieDreamGirl. It never occurs to writers that plenty of people enjoy "boring" jobs or find fulfillment in other aspects of their lives. Also, the life of an office drone could very well be a dream for someone living in abject poverty. This one can be chalked up to MostWritersAreWriters.

* Dan Savage of the sex advice column Savage Love has been known to suggest that in some circumstances (such as if one partner has unilaterally put an end to the sexual component of the relationship), cheating is an acceptable option to keep a marriage from ending in divorce.

[[caption-width-right:250:Maybe the message is that [[ComicallyMissingthePoint pie is tasty.]]]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

* The message of ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' seems to be this at the end of the game: [[spoiler:you welch on a deal, beat your [[{{Satan}} creditor]] [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu into submission]], and then set all his debtors, who all tried to kill you, free. And everyone loves you. Of course, perhaps it's only okay to welch on a crooked dealer who tricks people into his debt in the first place.]]

* ''How It Was When The Past Went Away'' begins with a fellow giving EasyAmnesia to a city through a drug in the water supply. A religion forms around the mantra "drink and forget," and life becomes Utopian as people can erase their memories of all the bad deeds they've done.

* The New Kingston Trio's "Jug Town" is surprisingly pro-alcohol: The song describes a child whose father is constantly going to a bar to drink cheap jugs of wine; The moral amounts to "if you're a family man with a menial low-paying job, alcohol will provide a release from your miserable life". Creator/NeilHamburger did a CoverVersion, which fit his stage persona as a bitter, alcoholic sad sack.

* The New Kingston Trio's "Jug Town" is surprisingly pro-alcohol: The song describes
a child whose father is constantly going to a bar to drink cheap jugs of wine; The moral amounts to "if you're a family man with a menial low-paying job, alcohol will provide a release from your miserable life". Creator/NeilHamburger did a CoverVersion, which fit his stage persona as a bitter, alcoholic sad sack.

* The New Kingston Trio's "Jug Town" is surprisingly pro-alcohol: The moral amounts to "if you're a family man with a menial low-paying job, alcohol will provide a release from your miserable life".

* ''Film/{{Paparazzi}}'': The {{paparazzi}} are all [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets puppy-kicking monsters]] who get their jollies out of destroying lives, so what's wrong with a little paparazzi murder spree?

* ''WebAnimation/PokemonRusty'': Rusty is the worst pokemon trainer ever, destroying everything before him and turning one of the weakest pokemon in existence into a sociopathic PhysicalGod. But apparently, his sandwiches (which he hates making) are so good that they earn the respect of everyone around him, including said super-pokemon. So apparently the overall aesop is, you can't do anything right if you follow your dreams, but if you obey your masters and know your place, gods will bow before you.

* ''FanFic/ProfessorArc'': The fic is about Jaune becoming a teacher, rather, then a student as he intended, because [[GoneHorriblyRight his forged transcripts are just that good]]. He manages to become a rather respected teacher, and [[spoiler: even ends up headmaster-with Beacon's stuff willing to maintain the lie, if only to protect reputation]]. The message being, "fraud and lies are forgivable as long as you do a lot of good with them]].

** The explorer pigs come to the island, and most of the birds accept them, with the exception of the protagonist Red. It turns out that the pigs just want to steal the bird's eggs. This can easily be interpreted as, if someone who doesn't look like you comes to your country, chances are, they want to take advantage of you.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' shows Hermione creating a society to protest the servitude of the House Elves, as they are slaves to Wizards. However, the end result is that the elves ''like'' to work for human wizards and most view payment as an insult. This was ''meant'' to be a more traditional aesop of "Don't project your own values and morality on cultures that operate quite differently", something Rowling had seen with well-intentioned but misguided activists [[WhiteMansBurden who tried to "rescue" people from things they actually liked]], but it comes off this way due to having a SlaveRace [[HappinessInSlavery who likes it]] (within limits -- they don't like being abused by their masters). Given that many real-life slaves have in the past been portrayed this way, [[CluelessAesop it comes off as very wrong for many]].

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* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLoTakkd5nU Yes & No: A Dyseducational Road Movie]]''. The message is that obediently following rules of the road will screw you over (it's all [[RuleOfFunny comedically exaggerated]]).

* The cyber-legend of Marine Todd. Summary: a Marine comes back from "the war", enrolls in a college course, and sits through a lecture where an atheist professor invites God to knock him down from the speaking platform. Marine Todd gets up and punches the professor, saying that God had sent him to do the task on His behalf (often adding that "[God] was too busy protecting the troops who are dying to protect your right to say stupid shit"). Take your pick of horrible lessons that this implies - that believers are justified in committing the criminal act of assault to justify their beliefs to non-believers; that civilians are a fair target for trained military personnel; that freedom of speech is only for people who agree with you; that might makes right...
** Alternatively, flip perspectives for an equally unfriendly Aesop. Don't mock and belittle the beliefs of others or otherwise intentionally try to piss people off even if you don't care about them; societal expectation isn't always enough to prevent violent retaliation.
*** Another alternate Aesop that could be applied to this story is: if you fight or otherwise work for the freedom of others, you need to realize and accept that there will always be people who exercise that freedom in a way that you won't necessarily like or agree with, but to lash out at them in an abusive way would be the same as denying them their freedom, and that would be just as wrong.
* ''WebAnimation/PokemonRusty'': Rusty is the worst pokemon trainer ever, destroying everything before him and turning one of the weakest pokemon in existence into a sociopathic PhysicalGod. But apparently, his sandwiches (which he hates making) are so good that they earn the respect of everyone around him, including said super-pokemon. So apparently the overall aesop is, you can't do anything right if you follow your dreams, but if you obey your masters and know your place, gods will bow before you.
* In ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'''s rendition of Android 16's pep talk to Gohan before he goes Super Saiyan 2, it goes from an understanding speech about how it's not wrong to fight for what you love, to 16 [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech viciously ripping Gohan apart]] for acting like [[ItsAllAboutMe he's the only one of the cast who suffers]], and for [[ToBeLawfulOrGood rigidly sticking to his pacifist principles instead of doing the right thing.]]
--> '''Android 16''': Cell was right, you think you're better than everyone else. But there you stand, the good man doing nothing. And while evil triumphs, and your rigid pacifism crumbles into bloodstained dust, the only victory afforded to you is that you stuck true to your guns. You were a coward to your last whimper.
[[/folder]]

* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'' teaches that sometimes the lesser of two evils is the right thing to do, and that good deeds done half-assedly can cause serious harm. Three of the Four Heroes go about performing good deeds throughout Melromarc, but because they don't stop to consider or mitigate the resulting consequences, said good deeds snowball into utter disaster as soon as they're gone, leaving Naofumi to clean up the mess by being more thorough and putting more thought into his actions. Naofumi is also a slave owner, but because he treats his demi slaves well and because Melromarc is such a racist hellhole towards demis they're actually safer and better off than they'd be free because they're under Naofumi's physical and legal protection. Contrast with Motoyasu, who wants to free Naofumi's slaves by force even though he'd be putting them at risk, simply for the short-term gratification of feeling like a hero (and because he's creepily obsessed with one of them and wants her for himself.)

* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'' teaches that sometimes the lesser of two evils is the right thing to do, and that good deeds done half-assedly can cause serious harm. Three of the Four Heroes go about performing good deeds throughout Melromarc, but because they don't stop to consider or mitigate the resulting consequences, said good deeds snowball into utter disaster as soon as they're gone, leaving Naofumi to clean up the mess by being more thorough and putting more thought into his actions. Naofumi is also a slave owner, but because he treats his demi slaves well and because Melromarc is such a racist hellhole towards demis they're actually safer and better off than they'd be free because they're under Naofumi's physical and legal protection. Contrast with Motoyasu, who wants to free Naofumi's slaves by force even though he'd be putting them at risk, simply for the short-term gratification of feeling like a hero.

[[caption-width-right:250:Maybe the moral is that [[ComicallyMissingthePoint pie is tasty.]]]]

[[caption-width-right:250:Maybe the moral is that[[ComicallyMissingthePoint pie is tasty.]]]]

[[caption-width-right:250:He has a point, you know.]]