History Main / Glurge

** Plus some added BrokenAesop by way of research failure: [[spoiler:his suicide method was a box jellyfish. Ten minutes on Google will tell you that box jellyfish venom would render many of his organs unusable anyway.]]
* {{The Pursuit of Happyness}}, another arguably disturbing film also starring Will Smith and the same director. His character, Chris Gardner, is about a poverty stricken man who pursues a career as a stock broker. The unfortunate implications in this film are astounding to say the least.

* As mentioned in ''TheBoondocks'': The film ''Soul Food'' which is about a grandmother who shows her love for her family by cooking delicious but unhealthy "soul food." She dies of clogged arteries and her family honors her by eating the same unhealthy food that killed her.

* Creator/WillSmith's OscarBait ''Film/SevenPounds''. [[TheAtoner Atoner]] with God complex [[YouFailYourMedicalBoardsForever decides which patient to receive his saintly organs]]. He thinks that using fake [=IDs=] is a perfectly legit means to contact prospective recipients, and considers a worthy person someone who is rendered barely articulate by a volley of insults. The serious Glurge comes from the fact that [[spoiler:he commits ''suicide'' and this is treated as some sort of beautiful martyrdom just because he donated his organs.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'', especially in early episodes. The Big Bad's minions, the Urpneys, were sympathetic {{Punch Clock Villain}}s and actually had a more dire motive than the heroes (having bad dreams vs getting horribly killed by your BadBoss). It's made even more uneasy by the fact the show still seems to try and convey the feud as being BlackAndWhiteMorality, due to heroes' excessively pious and saccharine depiction and several awkward AndThatsTerrible rants concerning the Urpneys' "maliciousness".

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'', especially in early episodes. The Big Bad's minions, the Urpneys, were the most likable characters in the show by far, largely due to their PunchclockVillain status, being sadistically bullied by both their superiors and the heroes routinely, and actually having more dire stakes than the heroes for most of the series (trying to give them bad dreams so their BadBoss doesn't torture or execute them). It's made even more uneasy by the fact the show still seems to try and convey the feud as being BlackAndWhiteMorality, due to heroes' excessively pious and saccharine depiction and several awkward AndThatsTerrible rants concerning the Urpneys' "maliciousness".

* There was an ad promoting Proposition 8 (a law which banned gay marriage in California) featuring a cute, little blonde girl playing with {{Barbie}} dolls. While the ad seemed sweet on the surface, advocates for gay rights would see this as a way of using children (who don't really understand what it is they're doing) to promote homophobia.

** [[http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthread.php?tid=23241 If this interview is honest]], Autism Speaks seems to have changed its tone. However, the director of the piece, AlfonsoCuaron (yes, [[ChildrenOfMen THAT]] [[HarryPotter Alfonso]] [[YTuMamaTambien Cuaron]]), hasn't apologized or even spoken about it since.

-->-- Taken from the ''[[{{Snopes}} Snopes.com]]'' entry, [[http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/burlap.asp "Sad Sack"]]

* Spam, chain letters and faxlore by the thousands. ''{{Snopes}}'' has an [[http://www.snopes.com/glurge/glurge.asp section dedicated to examples of these]], with well over one hundred entries, and yet even that barely dips into the endless well of schmaltz, {{Narm}} and [[FridgeHorror unexamined assumptions]] that winds up in people's inboxes daily.

** Parodied on CuteOverload!, in which the storyteller gets confused by the sequence of events in the pictures, leading to a very LostAesop.

* Some ''CareBears'' cartoons definitely qualify. Others are undercut by a healthy dose of good old fashioned scares.

* In ''KingOfTheHill'', Hank's mom Tilly collects figurines and Hank utterly despises them because of how much she loves them and how they seem to control her life. Then Hank realizes those figurines were the only things that kept her going while she was trapped in her marriage to Hank's {{Jerkass}} father Cotton.
* ''TheDreamstone'', especially in early episodes. The Big Bad's minions, the Urpneys, were the most likable characters in the show by far, largely due to their PunchclockVillain status, being sadistically bullied by both their superiors and the heroes routinely, and actually having more dire stakes than the heroes for most of the series (trying to give them bad dreams so their BadBoss doesn't torture or execute them). It's made even more uneasy by the fact the show still seems to try and convey the feud as being BlackAndWhiteMorality, due to heroes' excessively pious and saccharine depiction and several awkward AndThatsTerrible rants concerning the Urpneys' "maliciousness".

** Unsurprisingly, the "training" offered by school districts is filled with this exact type of inspirational story glurge. The moral to the story is that everything that goes wrong is the teacher's fault and the overcrowded classrooms, lack of a consistent discipline policy and leadership failings of the administration are never at fault for anything. This is portrayed perfectly in ''UpTheDownStaircase''.

* SaintlyChurch: This is the way any kind of religious organization likes to portray itself. Unfortunately, the reality of all religious organizations is that they're staffed by mostly-normal people who spend most of their time doing mundane things. Worse yet, there are dismally many real life examples in which religious institutions and officials have shown themselves capable of great un-saintly-ness. Accordingly, depiction of a SaintlyChurch can leave an egregious taste in people's mouths.

* ''ATrollInCentralPark''. Aside from the fact that this film [[TastesLikeDiabetes will give you insulin shock]], there's the scene where Stanley the troll shows the kids his vision of a perfect world -- a SugarBowl filled with trolls ''who are exactly like him''. [[UnfortunateImplications Yeah]]]. [[EsotericHappyEnding And then there's the ending...]]

* ''ATrollInCentralPark''. Aside from the fact that this film [[TastesLikeDiabetes will give you insulin shock]], there's the scene where Stanley the troll shows the kids his vision of a perfect world -- a world filled with trolls ''who are exactly like him''. [[UnfortunateImplications Yeah]]]. [[EsotericHappyEnding And then there's the ending...]]

* WhiteMansBurden: A rich 'white'[[note]]Ethnically pan-European, inclusive of people from the Arabia and the Caucasus[[/note]] person helps out a poor 'non-white' person out of the goodness of their heart. This implies that there is an inherent genetic/cultural superiority to 'white' people, apart from their greater wealth and/or education, and that 'non-whites' need 'whites' to solve (all) their problems. Whenever social modernization is brought up, expect UnfortunateImplications that European culture was always inherently modern (and therefore inherently superior), and not just 'made' so in the last century-and-a-half since the Industrial Revolution.[[note]]Take Monarchies and Authoritarian governments versus democracies, for instance. Before 1990 more than half of Europe lived under dictatorships, and one need only go back four centuries to find a Europe with zero democracy whatever.[[/note]]

* The series ''TouchedByAnAngel'' belongs here as well.

* ''Series/BeyondBeliefFactOrFiction'': Where do we ''start''...

* The Self Esteem Movement that permeated much of academia in the 70s, 80s, and 90s could be categorized as an example of real-life Glurge, broadly defined. The theory was that all children naturally want to be good students, well-behaved, etc, but must be taught self-esteem to live up to this. Bad behavior, bad grades, bad sexual choices among adolescents, bullying, etc, were all supposedly symptoms of low self-esteem. It's generally considered that such a view mixes correlation and causality: that it is just as unhealthy for a students with skills and achievements to put themselves down, as it is to artificially build up the self-image of those who have achieved nothing. If you're looking for people with healthy, but realistic self-images, rightly satisfied with their positive qualities, recognizing faults in ways that allows for future improvement, you're probably not going to find them attending high school... or in Glurge for that matter.

* WhiteMansBurden: A rich 'white'[[note]]Ethnically pan-European, inclusive of people from the Arabia and the Caucasus[[/note]] person helps out a poor 'non-white' person out of the goodness of their heart. This implies that there is an inherent genetic/cultural superiority to 'white' people, apart from their greater wealth and/or education, and that 'non-whites' need 'whites' to solve (all) their problems. Whenever social modernization is brought up, expect UnfortunateImplications that European culture was always inherently modern (and therefore inherently superior), and not just 'made' so in the last century-and-a-half since the Industrial Revolution[[note]]Take Monarchies and Authoritarian governments versus democracies, for instance. Before 1990 more than half of Europe lived under dictatorships, and one need only go back four centuries to find a Europe with zero democracy whatever.[[/note]]

* SaintlyChurch: This is the way any kind of religious organization likes to portray itself. Unfortunately, the reality of all religious organizations is that they're staffed by mostly-normal people who spend most of their time doing mundane things. Worse yet, there are dismally many Real Lives in which religious institutions and officials have shown themselves capable of great un-saintly-ness. Accordingly, depiction of a SaintlyChurch can leave an egregious taste in people's mouths.

* SaintlyChurch: This is the way any kind of religious organization likes to portray itself. Unfortunately, the reality of all religious organizations is that they're staffed by mostly-normal people who spend most of their time doing mundane things. Worse yet, there are dismally many Real Life in which religious institutions and officials have shown themselves capable of great un-saintly-ness. Accordingly, depiction of a SaintlyChurch can leave an egregious taste in people's mouths.

* CorruptChurch: Corrupt religious institutions exist. The trouble with this trope is that (cults aside) no (mainstream) religious organisation could possibly be staffed 'solely' by people who are thoroughly corrupt, evil, and possessed of zero redeeming qualities.

* MissingMom: This trope can be considered a double standard. Usually they are treated as less important than the protagonist's father, and they are considered incredibly pure and saintly. Also, if it turns the mother is alive and willingly abandoned the protagonist, then she'll portrayed as a monster, unlike the missing dad.

* SaintlyChurch: This is the way any kind of religious organisation likes to portray itself. Unfortunately, the reality of all religious organisations is that they're staffed by mostly-normal people who spend most of their time doing mundane things. Worse yet, there are dismally many Real Life in which religious institutions and officials have shown themselves capable of great un-saintly-ness. Accordingly, depiction of a SaintlyChurch can leave an egregious taste in people's mouths.

* WhiteMansBurden: A rich 'white'[[note]]Ethnically pan-European, inclusive of people from the Arabia and the Caucasus[[/note]] person helps out a poor 'non-white' person out of the goodness of their heart. This implies that there is an inherent genetic/cultural superiority to 'white' people, apart from their greater wealth and/or education, and that 'non-whites' need 'whites' to solve (all) their problems. Whenever social modernisation is brought up, expect UnfortunateImplications that European culture was always inherently modern (and therefore inherently superior), and not just 'made' so in the last century-and-a-half since the Industrial Revolution[[note]]Take Monarchies and Authoritarian governments versus democracies, for instance. Before 1990 more than half of Europe lived under dictatorships, and one need only go back four centuries to find a Europe with zero democracy whatever.[[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers''.

* WhiteMansBurden: A rich 'white'[[hottip:*: Ethnically pan-European, inclusive of people from the Arabia and the Caucasus]] person helps out a poor 'non-white' person out of the goodness of their heart. This implies that there is an inherent genetic/cultural superiority to 'white' people, apart from their greater wealth and/or education, and that 'non-whites' need 'whites' to solve (all) their problems. Whenever social modernisation is brought up, expect UnfortunateImplications that European culture was always inherently modern (and therefore inherently superior), and not just 'made' so in the last century-and-a-half since the Industrial Revolution[[hottip:*: Take Monarchies and Authoritarian governments versus democracies, for instance. Before 1990 more than half of Europe lived under dictatorships, and one need only go back four centuries to find a Europe with zero democracy whatever.]]

* ''Film/PatchAdams'', which is especially bad because it's BasedOnATrueStory, but deliberately ignored most of the real Patch Adams' philosophy[[hottip:*:which includes that medicine should be available to everyone who needs it, alternative and traditional treatment methods should be integrated, and emotional health is just as important as physical health]] in favor of [[TheThemeParkVersion "funny doctor who shakes up the establishment."]] Said real Dr. Adams hates the movie for exactly that reason.

* Parodied in ''Film/TropicThunder'' with the [[ShowWithinAShow Film Within A Film]] ''Simple Jack'', a movie about a mentally-challenged farmhand meant obviously as an OscarBait role for actor Tugg Speedman. The movie becomes a total bomb since, as Kirk Lazarus puts it, Tugg went "Full Retard", playing the character as severely disabled rather than merely InspirationallyDisadvantaged like [[TheRainman Dustin Hoffman]] in ''{{Film/Rainman}}'', TheFool like ''Film/ForrestGump'' or SeeminglyProfoundFool like PeterSellers in ''BeingThere'' and noting SeanPenn's performance in ''IAmSam'' as an example of why you don't do so.

* WillSmith's OscarBait ''Film/SevenPounds''. [[TheAtoner Atoner]] with God complex [[YouFailYourMedicalBoardsForever decides which patient to receive his saintly organs]]. He thinks that using fake [=IDs=] is a perfectly legit means to contact prospective recipients, and considers a worthy person someone who is rendered barely articulate by a volley of insults. The serious Glurge comes from the fact that [[spoiler:he commits ''suicide'' and this is treated as some sort of beautiful martyrdom just because he donated his organs.]]

* WillSmith's OscarBait ''SevenPounds''. [[TheAtoner Atoner]] with God complex [[YouFailYourMedicalBoardsForever decides which patient to receive his saintly organs]]. He thinks that using fake [=IDs=] is a perfectly legit means to contact prospective recipients, and considers a worthy person someone who is rendered barely articulate by a volley of insults. The serious Glurge comes from the fact that [[spoiler:he commits ''suicide'' and this is treated as some sort of beautiful martyrdom just because he donated his organs.]]

* ''StationeryVoyagers'' is not above this. LittlestCancerPatient? Check: Sylvia. BlackAndWhiteMorality? More like BlackAndGrayMorality, but still. And when the Voyagers [[JoinOrDie refuse to endorse]] the [[{{Gayngster}} Crooked Rainbow]]'s agenda? [[DealWithTheDevil They trade with Drismabons]] for tools and abilities so they can stalk the Voyagers and make attempts on their lives! While the heroes ''try'' to remain rational, the villains [[{{Flanderization}} have no problem devolving into]] SelfParody.