History Main / HilaritySues

* ''[[KittyNorville Kitty Takes a Holiday]]'' has a dramatic example after Cormac, the resident BadassLongcoat, blows half of an evil [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent skinwalker's]] face off to [[ShootTheDog put it out of its misery]], after it was already mortally wounded. This saves the pretty heroine, her lover, a police officer, and a couple civilians. Traditional end to a werewolf story, right? [[SpoiledByTheFormat We're only two-thirds through the book]]; the {{Badass}} has just been arrested for murder because the final bullet constituted excessive force. (Not so much HollywoodLaw as a combination of DirtyCop, AmoralAttorney, and FantasticRacism, plus TheMasquerade only recently having been broken.)

* 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.

Played straight in a number of places, especially in the DarkAge 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."

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

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.

* The entire Marvel Universe has taken on this attitude recently, what with their apparent anger at all the superheroes for not letting supervillians kill them and steal their stuff (What's up with that? So mean!), and their anger at stopping Norman Osborn from ruling the world and trying to kill everyone...

[[folder: Film]]

* On a ''more'' humorous note, ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}} 2'', they saved the city from the apocalypse and are shut down for it.

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'': Togusa tries and fails to save a woman from being murdered in an alleyway, shooting (and crippling) her killer in the process. He is then brought up on charges of excessive force for shooting her killer in cold blood. He gives a [[TalkingIsAFreeAction lengthy speech]] [[note]]Under the influence of a [[GrandTheftMe brainhack]][[/note]] which motivates the bad guy and his lawyer to drop the charges. [[spoiler: Both the lawyer and the killer end up badly injured in a [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident suspicious car accident after leaving the courthouse.]]

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'': Togusa tries and fails to save a woman from being murdered in an alleyway, shooting (and crippling) her killer in the process. He is then brought up on charges of excessive force for shooting her killer in cold blood. He gives a [[TalkingIsAFreeAction lengthy speech]] [[note]]Under the influence of a [[GrandTheftMe brainhack]] which motivates the bad guy and his lawyer to drop the charges. [[spoiler: Both the lawyer and the killer end up badly injured in a [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident suspicious car accident after leaving the courthouse.]]]][[/note]]

-->'''WesternAnimation/TheTick''' has trouble in court

* ''GhostInTheShell'': Togusa tries and fails to save a woman from being murdered in an alleyway, shooting (and crippling) her killer in the process. He is then brought up on charges of excessive force for shooting her killer in cold blood. He gives a [[TalkingIsAFreeAction lengthy speech]] [[note]]Under the influence of a [[GrandTheftMe brainhack]] which motivates the bad guy and his lawyer to drop the charges. [[spoiler: Both the lawyer and the killer end up badly injured in a [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident suspicious car accident after leaving the courthouse.]]]][[/note]]

* The new ''SheHulk'' series likes to play with this one too, with Jennifer Walters (AKA the She-Hulk) being a lawyer for a firm that specializes in superhero cases.

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

* If ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' is to be believed, Wolvie is partially responsible for the Three Mile Island leak, which [[HistoricalInJoke set back nuclear power]].[[note]]Of course, the real 3 Mile Island emergency didn't involve any cooling towers getting blown apart.[[/note]] Unless the movie takes place after the Three Mile Island incident, in which case the deactivated Unit 2 reactor (where the partial meltdown occurred) was used as the BigBad's secret base.

-->'''TheTick''' has trouble in court

* 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, if Plankton wasn't stopped, he would've stolen a Krabby Patty. In Krabs' defense, Plankton wasn't all that seriously injured anyway, he was just faking it to try to win the lawsuit.

* 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, the floor is wet ''because it is on the bottom of the ocean''. In Plankton's defense, this is ''SpongeBob'', which doesn't follow the normal rules of what water is, and there's water underwater and water is air and... well, it's confusing. In Krabs' defense, Plankton wasn't all that seriously injured anyway, he was just faking it to try to win the lawsuit.

* In ''{{Disgaea 2}}'', characters often get subpoenaed to the Dark Court for such mundane things as having too high a level or overkill on a bad guy (Tink is charged and convicted with the crime of [[TheScrappy existing]]. No, really). With the subversion that, since this is the ''demon'' world, felonies are good, and the court that convicts you of them doesn't hand you a sentence but a ''reward''.

* 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.
** To be fair, the murder, kidnapping and armed robbery are 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.

* ''GhostInTheShell'': Togusa tries and fails to save a woman from being murdered in an alleyway, shooting (and crippling) her killer in the process. He is then brought up on charges of excessive force for shooting her killer in cold blood. He gives a [[TalkingIsAFreeAction lengthy speech]] [[note]]Under the influence of a [[GrandTheftMe brainhack]] which motivates the bad guy and his lawyer to drop the charges. [[spoiler: Both the lawyer and the killer end up badly injured in a [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident suspicious car accident after leaving the courthouse.]][[/note]]

* In ''MonkeyIsland2: [=LeChuck=]'s Revenge'', Guybrush is wanted for numerous crimes, all of which are his heroic deeds or puzzle solutions; the list of crimes on his "Wanted" poster grows as the game progresses.

Will occasionally involve the WeirdTradeUnion.

* ''GhostInTheShell'': Togusa tries and fails to save a woman from being murdered in an alleyway, shooting (and crippling) her killer in the process. He is then brought up on charges of excessive force for shooting her killer in cold blood. He gives a [[TalkingIsAFreeAction lengthy speech]] [[hottip:*: Under the influence of a [[GrandTheftMe brainhack]] which motivates the bad guy and his lawyer to drop the charges. [[spoiler: Both the lawyer and the killer end up badly injured in a [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident suspicious car accident after leaving the courthouse.]]]]

* If ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' is to be believed, Wolvie is partially responsible for the Three Mile Island leak, which [[HistoricalInJoke set back nuclear power]].[[note]]Of course, the real 3 Mile Island emergency didn't involve any cooling towers getting blown apart.[[/note]]

** Of course, since a person rescuing another from danger (including suicide) is never liable for injuries sustained in the rescue, [[FridgeLogic this scenario doesn't]] [[HollywoodLaw really make sense.]]

** Of course, since someone rescuing another attempting suicide is never liable for injuries sustained in the rescue, [[FridgeLogic this scenario doesn't]] [[HollywoodLaw really make sense.]]

** Of course, since suicide is illegal, [[FridgeLogic this scenario doesn't]] [[HollywoodLaw really make sense.]]

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/YinYangYo'', Carl The Evil Cockroach Wizard stages injuries received from Yin and Yang while the two were in the midst of training, which leads to a kangaroo court case. Naturally, [[JokerJury the jury, witnesses and judge are all their past villains]].

Not a comedic MarySue, though [[ParodySue such things]] [[FanFic/MyImmortal do exist]].