History Main / HelpingGrannyCrossTheStreet

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well": Rainbow Dash feels out-shined by Mare Do Well and, unable to find anyone in need of rescuing, obstinately insists on "helping" Granny Smith cross the street even though she didn't want to cross it at all. Rainbow Dash promptly gets [[HandbagOfHurt clubbed in the face with Granny's purse]].

* It's occasionally mentioned that the girls in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' do this, but it's not usually shown - it's usually listed as another one of their many good deeds.

* ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'': During the song "I'm the the film in my own story", Rebecca questions how she be the villain if she gives annually to UFICEF and "And just last week [she] helped a lady cross the street/Who was super old and deaf"

* Parodied in [[VideoGame/LegoAdaptationGame Lego Marvel Superheroes.]] A side mission has you help a little old lady cross the street by destroying all oncoming cars as she crosses!

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' has an episode where they and the Rubbles end up camping with a group of Boy Scouts. In one scene, a pair of boys "help" (she didn't need it) walk Betty across the camp. When Betty tells the second boy he already walked her, he tells her she only counts half as much as an old lady.

* In the ''Series/TheGoodies'' episode ''Silly Scouting'', Graeme and Bill, playing overage boy scouts, are trying to earn a proficiency badge for Helping Old Ladies Cross the Street. A sequence of madcap visual humour ensues, where Graeme is seen chalking a billiard cue and setting up trick shots involving Old Lady Number One with side-spin off the cushions into old Lady Number Two....

* ''Series/YoureSkittingMe'' had an ongoing sketch about a pair of [GirlScoutsAreEvil evil Girl Guides]] acting [[ShameIfSomethingHappened like a protection racket]]. This includes strong-arming an old man into letting them help him across a road that he didn't want to cross in order to earn their Being Helpful badge.

* ''Series/TheOddCouple'': During the opening credits montage we see an old lady who is being helped across the street by a scout. Felix approaches them and offers to do it instead. He gets quite insistent; so the granny [[HandbagOfHurt hits him with her handbag]] to make him let go, and the scout slugs him too.

** Happens to Mr. Krabs at one point in "[[Recap/SpongebobSquarepantsS3E14TheGreatSnailRaceMidLifeCrustacean Mid-Life Crustacean]]". The gag is brought back near the end of the episode; the scout walking him into his old room at his mother's house, which amusingly, came right after his mother treated him like a child.

Usually, this ends with the old lady complaining that she never wanted to cross the street in the first place, but our "hero" has usually rushed off to do some other heroic deed by then. If the old lady is a [[NeverMessWithGranny particularly crabby one]], she will usually give her helper a biff with her walking stick or [[HandbagOfHurt handbag]].

The straight example of the "helping the old lady across the street" bit has pretty much become a DeadHorseTrope these days, which is why the only examples you'll see in modern media involve the subversion of the old lady never wanting to cross in the first place, or crankily belting the hero with their cane or [[HandbagOfHurt handbag]]. It can also be a stock excuse, especially among villainous types who are late.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' episode, "Say It Isn't Sew", after spending so much time at the Sew N' Sew craft store, Bloo decides to go to the funfair by himself. He disguises himself as a crossing guard and creates a crosswalk to get from the craft store to the fair. Along the way, he helps an elderly lady cross the street, but his progress is soon hindered when he helps Girl Scouts, tourists, children on tricycles, a mother and her baby carriage, and a flock of ducks cross the street, the last of which he helped twice.

* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' episode, "Belch of Destiny"; the episode begins with Rocko driving Heffer and Filburt to a meeting for the Weasel Scouts. When the three come across an elderly lady, Heffer tells Rocko to stop the car. Rocko does so, and Heffer and Filburt get out. They then run up to the elderly lady and push her aside so they can get lunch from a burger stand.

* The first episode of ''Series/TheMonkees'' starts with a [[VoxPops man on the street]] interview about city crime. The interviewee says that it's horrible how [[BystanderEffect nobody helps anyone anymore]], and that if he were to see crime he'd jump in. Then the Monkees come in, with Davy pretending to be assaulted by the other three. "Won't someone help me? You sir!" The man runs away, then helps an old lady across the street in order to justify his cowardice. Apparently she has a side business of being helped since afterwards he gives her a dollar and she gives him change.

* A 1970s issue of ''[[Franchise/ArchieComics Archie's Joke Book]]'' had a one-page joke in which Moose carried Miss Beazley, the high school lunch server, across a busy street, ignoring her protests. After they reach the other side, she tells him that she didn't want to cross the street in the first place.