History Main / HilaritySues

Played straight in a number of places, especially in UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks or against a VillainWithGoodPublicity. Several {{Elseworld}} series are based on this.

Occasionally, villains can get in trouble too, e.g. for [[KickTheDog attacking the president (assassination attempt), playing football with people's most prized possessions (destruction of property),]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking imitating Darth Vader's voice (copyright infringement)]], and HilarityEnsues.

Played straight in a number of places, especially in UsefulNotes/{{the Dark Age|of Comic Books}} or against a VillainWithGoodPublicity. Several {{Elseworld}} series are based on this.

[[HeroInsurance Heroes can get away with everything...]] unless they're in a comedic setting. A lawyer can sooner or later bring the BigDamnHeroes to court for blowing up the [[SupervillainLair villain's fortress]] (destruction of property), killing his [[{{Mooks}} henchmen]] (numerous cases of murder) and stealing the [[MacGuffin Ancient Long-Lost Powerful]] [[BuffySpeak Mysterious Thingie]] of the [[{{Precursors}} Ancients]] (thievery. What? Just because it was stolen in the first place, that doesn't make stealing it again any less illegal.) The heroes will try to explain the heroic nature of those crimes, but such arguments will quickly and inevitably get ignored by the lawyer. No HeroInsurance for them.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Krabs vs. Plankton", Plankton sues Mr. Krabs after Plankton slips on a wet floor without any signs to warn him. The reparation Plankton seeks? Everything Krabs owns, including the secret Krabby Patty formula. In Plankton's defense, instead of Krabs helping him up or offering to call 911, all he does is basically sit there and verbally abuse Plankton for getting injured. In Krabs' defense, Plankton has a history of attempted Krabby Patty theft. Plankton wasn't all that seriously injured anyway, he was just faking it to try to win the lawsuit.

* In the same vein, the boys from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' have quite the rap sheet. Murder, grave desecration, theft, evading the law, breaking out of custody, assault, breaking and entering, etc. etc... All in the course of fighting the supernatural; demons don't mind dirty tricks, after all, making most of them cases of NotWhatItLooksLike. The credit card fraud, grave desecration and impersonating federal agents... OK, those they're actually guilty of. Although the grave desecration is often self-defense or defense of another. Hard to argue that in court, though.

* Probably the best episode of the live action adaptation of ''Series/TheTick2001'' involved the eponymous character having a nuclear weapon excluded as evidence against Destroyo because he took it without a warrant.

* On a less humorous note, at the start of ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Mr. Incredible is sued by a man who was trying to commit suicide and who got whiplash when Mr. Incredible saved him. This catalyzes a chain reaction which results in ''all'' superheroes being seen as a liability and forced into retirement.

''"I'd call it vigilantism at its '''best'''!"''

->''"This is obviously an example of vigilantism at its worst."''
->''"I'd call it vigilantism at its '''best'''!"''

* In the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode featuring ''Film/{{Starcrash}}'', Tom Servo zips in as BB-Servo, an amalgam of himself and [[Film/TheForceAwakens BB-8]]. During a scene shift to Moon 13, Creator/{{Lucasfilm}} crashed the Satellite of Love and forced Tom to stop. When we revisit our heroes, Jonah's comforting Tom as he's putting him back together as we find out that they'd threaten to smash his dome if they didn't.
* The ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "Grail" had a side gag where the great-grandson of a man who was dismissed as crazy for claiming to be an AlienAbduction victim found solid evidence in the historical archives of a race humans had recently entered diplomatic relations with... and then sued the ''abductor's'' great-grandson for damages.

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* The ''VideoGame/RealityOnTheNorm'' game ''Defender of RON'': After Phil Nihilist gains superpowers, he gets sued by DC Comics for copyright infringement, because his powers are the same as {{Superman}}'s. The plot of the game involves trying to change his superpowers to something that's not copyrighted.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not]] a comedic MarySue; for that, see ParodySue.

Played straight in a number of places, especially in UsefulNotes/{{the Dark Age|of Comic Books}} or against a VillainWithGoodPublicity. Several {{Elseworld}} series are based on this; badly written, it comes with the FamilyUnfriendlyAesop that "{{superhero}}es are so valuable that the damages they do are [[WhatMeasureIsANonSuper acceptable losses]], no matter what."

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/TheWeeFreeMen'', the eponymous tiny, blue people ("Pictsies! Feegle wha' hae!", and not tiny little [[BodyPaint woad-covered]] [[ViolentGlaswegian Glaswegians]] ''at all'') are afraid of nothing except for lawyers. They never give anyone their true names, in fear of getting arrested for their pranks and crimes. Near the end of the book, the villain uses lawyers to render them helpless. At this point, [[spoiler:the toad they carry around with them suddenly remembers his past and files a counterargument -- he was a lawyer himself. The Nac Mac Feegle are awed at the concept of defense attorneys: "We got a cheap lawyer, and we're no' afraid to use 'im!"]] Thanks to their new Kelda, whose own original clan DOES have lawyers and reading, they're starting to get their own lawyers as well.

* Lampshaded in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', where Susan retells ''Jack and the Beanstalk'' by listing all the crimes Jack committed, and then adds ''which proves you can get away with anything if you are a hero''.

* [[Comicbook/IronMan Tony Stark]] is renown for suing smaller, independent super teams over the use of the "Avengers" name. His victims include amongst others the ''Comicbook/GreatLakesAvengers'' and the ''Comicbook/MightyAvengers2013''. This bit him in the ass when through some convoluted events he lost the trade mark, which then reverted to the only other person ever applying for it... ''Flatman'' of the GLA, who was only willing to give it up if he and his team of SuperZeroes can be an official Avengers branch '''forever''', which leads to more hilarity suing as the Avengers[[TradeSnark ™]]' long suffering lawyer tried to minimized the embarrassment caused by them.